March 8th, winter has gone and spring has arrived. Osaka is relatively cool in early March.
Thursday, which is an ordinary day for ordinary people, is extraordinary for Fujiwara Yu. He has been a little absent-minded since he sat down in the office. From time to time, he would look at his watch or the lower right corner of the computer screen. He is very concerned about time.
Why care?
Of course, tonight he would meet with Scotch Whisky, also known as Morobushi Kagemitsu, who had already arrived in Osaka to carry out a mission. So he was not only sensitive to time, but also to the landline phone on his desk.
If the phone rings, I will most likely have to work overtime tonight, and it will be troublesome if I miss the meeting time.
Time passed by minute by minute, and it was lunch time in the blink of an eye.
But the girl in charge of his luck always liked to joke with him. Just as he stepped into the headquarters cafeteria, a pleasant ringtone came from the flip phone in his pocket. There was no doubt that it was definitely not a good thing.
Fujiwara Yu's already expressionless face was now even more solemn. He pressed the answer button like a soldier ready to die. The content coming from the other end of the phone was indeed what he had worried about.
"Takashi-senpai, this is Sakata. I just received news that a murder has occurred in Morinomiya. The police station in charge there originally planned to close the case as an accident, but the deceased's father doesn't believe his daughter's death was accidental and insists that our headquarters send a detective. Senior, please come with me."
As the inspection chief, Usuke Sakata usually does not solve cases that may be homicides alone. His boss Ikuji Ishibashi is on vacation today, so he has to ask Senior Takashi from the next group who has nothing to do.
Besides, he was happy to work with Senior Takashi, who was two years older than him.
It was because within less than three months after Sosuke Takashi transferred to the Osaka Police Headquarters, he and Inspector Otaki had solved more than 30 cases, 80% of which were homicides, almost catching up with the annual performance of the previous Investigation Division.
This also led to Senior Takashi becoming a hot commodity in the Criminal Division, and his boss, Ikuji Ishibashi, tried to steal Inspector Otaki's position more than once. Of course, the ending was the standard "repeated defeat".
Fujiwara Yuu, who didn't want to be a popular target, had a bitter face. He couldn't understand why Osaka's public security was so bad. Or perhaps, what were people thinking these days? Isn't it better to cherish life in peacetime? Why were they so desperate and eager to get into prison?
"Okay, I'll meet you in the parking lot."
Fujiwara Yu glanced at the cafeteria aunt who was so close to him, and finally sighed and turned away. It was not the first time that he was lucky enough to be selected at the crime scene before he could even take a bite of hot food.
It’s better not to have this kind of luck.
——
Riding in Sakata Usuke's police car, we arrived at the residential area of Morinomiya 2-chome. It was quite a coincidence that this place was less than two kilometers away from the place where he exchanged information with Morobushi Kagemitsu. Even if we walked there, we could get there in less than twenty minutes.
The Morinomiya neighborhood is close to Osaka Castle Park and is an area with relatively high housing prices in Osaka. It can be seen that the deceased's family is well-off, otherwise they would not live here.
Fujiwara Yu pushed open the car door and put on his gloves, then saw a young man in a police uniform coming towards him. He looked like the young detective in charge of this case, and he might still be in his trainee period.
"Hello, Officer Takashi. I'm Kashiwayani from the Osaka Higashi Police Station."
"Well, hello." Fujiwara Yuu took a liking to this energetic young detective. Perhaps he saw himself in him from years ago. As he walked in, he asked, "Tell me about the deceased and the body."
According to Kashitani, the deceased was Shizuka Yamashiro, 42, the daughter of the director of Miyazawa General Hospital. An on-site investigation revealed the cause of death was a skull fracture caused by the impact of her head on the ground. Without prompt medical attention after the brain tissue was damaged, she was naturally beyond help.
After hearing this, Fujiwara Yu also had a basic judgment. He came to the crime scene and looked at the scene trace fixing line on the ground. It can be seen that the position of the deceased is just below the stairs. There are no signs of dragging or struggling. It seems that she fell into a coma immediately after falling down the stairs.
As he walked up the stairs, he noticed that the vase at the corner of the second-floor space was broken on the ground, and the door of the room closest to the stairs was wide open. Seeing this scene, he quickly constructed the deceased's movement route in his mind.
The deceased, Shizuka Yamashiro, must have rushed out of her room, preparing to go downstairs. The open door and the broken vase on the floor are the best evidence. So, there are two questions that need to be answered at this stage: first, why did she rush out of the room, and second, what was her purpose in running down the stairs?
After clearing his mind, Fujiwara Yuu came to the living room on the first floor. Sakata Usuke, who had already finished his questioning, immediately came over with a notepad in hand upon seeing him and quietly began to report the information of the people sitting on the sofa:
"The man wearing glasses is the deceased's husband, Yamashiro Shokusuke. He was only 35 years old and was already the chief surgeon at Miyazawa General Hospital. He was operating on a patient at the hospital when the incident occurred and rushed back as soon as he finished the operation.
The man with medium curly hair sitting on the single sofa is Yamashiro Shosuke's younger brother, Ono Masaya. He is 30 years old this year but is unemployed. According to the deceased's father, he often asked the deceased for money, and his food, clothing, housing and transportation were completely subsidized by the deceased.
The last, older man was the deceased's father, Masahiro Miyazawa, 68, the director of Miyazawa General Hospital. Not only was he the first person to call the police, but he was also the first eyewitness. He never believed his daughter's death was an accident, instead blaming the two ungrateful family members for her death.
Fujiwara Yuu couldn't help but frown when he heard this. From this passage, he could tell that Yamashiro Shosuke became the director of the surgical department at a young age because of his marriage to the deceased Yamashiro Shizuka, and the other unemployed vagrant Ono Masaya was even better, as he directly became a dependent without any shame.
They are indeed brothers, their shamelessness is exactly the same.
"Mr. Miyazawa, can I ask you a question?"
Immersed in the grief of losing his beloved daughter, Miyazawa Masahiro raised his weathered eyes and nodded somewhat dully:
"Yes, Officer, if you have any questions, please ask."
"I'd like to ask if your daughter has any sudden illness, such as high blood pressure or heart disease?"
"No, my daughter has had a good physique since she was young. She had a comprehensive physical examination last month, and all the indicators were normal." Masahiro Miyazawa answered with certainty.
Fujiwara Yuu raised an eyebrow at this. If the deceased hadn't suffered a sudden illness, why would she have stumbled out of the bedroom? Sure enough, this case was consistent with what the old man had thought. It wasn't just an accident.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Yamashiro Shosuke, who was sitting on the sofa with his head down and silent, and Ono Masaya, who was nonchalant and had no sadness on his face. The former was still trying hard to squeeze out his acting skills, while the latter simply gave up acting.
What an interesting pair of brothers.
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