The wounds on the victim’s body were confird to have been made by an axe. The incision marks had been compared and verified—basically, the torso was cleaved at the waist.
But even with that conclusion, gure Juzo’s instincts told him that no normal person should possess such strength.
This created a frustrating loop in his thoughts.
The forensic analysis was solid. Seven or eight experts had reviewed the evidence repeatedly before delivering a unanimous conclusion.
As far as the scientific results went, everything had been confird with professional rigor.
But the most troubling part of the case wasn’t just the wounds on the victims—it was the condition of the murderer.
When the murderer was apprehended, he was still gripping the axe with both hands but had collapsed face-down in an unconscious posture.
The strange part was that there were no signs of physical trauma. That is, the murderer hadn’t been knocked out by external force.
This made his unconscious state all the more bizarre.
It was as if soone had instantly switched from combat mode to sleep mode—without any visible cause or injury.
Highly unnatural.
And aside from that, the murderer’s physical state was equally strange.
At the ti of arrest, the man’s muscles had atrophied, and his entire body resembled that of a 60-year-old man. It was shocking.
But after further investigation, it was confird that the suspect was only 25 years old. Security footage from a convenience store even showed him entering the forest in a normal, healthy state.
Yet just a few hours later, his body looked like that of an elderly man.
That alone was bizarre to the extre.
And to make matters more complicated, the four most "normal" people at the scene now seed suspicious by contrast.
Of course, gure Juzo understood this was mostly psychological bias.
"Inspector gure~"
He turned to see a familiar subordinate.
"What’s the situation?"
Chiba Kazunobu imdiately stood at attention and reported.
"Based on the scene, the murderer split both victims in half and then decapitated them in a single strike. The blood patterns and body positions confirm this. Also, based on body temperature, ti of death is within two hours."
"The murder occurred on a forest path. No signs of steel wires in the vicinity. We can basically rule out other murder thods."
"The search team recovered the bag used to store the axe, hidden in the woods. According to the forensic team, the bag is covered with the suspect’s fingerprints. It’s also confird that the axe was prepped in advance by the suspect."
"But aside from clues related to the victims and the suspect, no additional evidence has been found."
"There are so wheel marks—probably from luggage—but no tire tracks."
"Given how remote this place is, few people co here."
Listening to Chiba’s report, gure Juzo’s face darkened. He knew that this essentially ant the case was being finalized.
Unlike unclear or ambiguous incidents, this case’s facts were crystal clear—so much so that there was almost no room to suspect another culprit.
Despite the many oddities, gure also understood the real gravity of the situation.
As a veteran officer of the tropolitan Police Departnt, he knew so cases couldn’t be explained with common sense.
And when that happened, the next step was clear.
"Detective Chiba, you and Takagi stay here."
"Yes, sir."
With that, gure Juzo walked out of the villa.
Unlike Chiba, who seed to understand what was happening, Takagi Wataru still looked confused. He had never encountered a case like this before.
"Chiba, what’s Inspector gure doing?"
Considering Takagi had never dealt with a case like this before, Chiba quietly explained:
"There’s sothing unusual about this case. It’s beyond our jurisdiction to handle. Higher-ups will have to make the call."
"This case has clear irregularities, and it’s not sothing we can judge ourselves. Just keep your head down and be careful when we’re working on cases like this. Don’t say anything unnecessary. Got it?"
Takagi Wataru nodded, sowhat confused, but took the advice seriously and morized it.
"And you rember what I told you last ti, right?"
"Yeah..."
At the ntion of that topic, Takagi looked embarrassed.
Chiba nodded slightly, but just to be safe, he emphasized again:
"There are at least 80 officers in the whole MPD who like Officer Sato. Inspector gure is well aware of the internal competition, but he doesn’t mind it too much."
"But romance is sothing for after work. Don’t let it interfere with your job. That’s what really matters for us detectives."
As a criminal investigator, doing your actual job was the most important thing.
Chiba stressed this because the idiot standing in front of him had already ssed up many tis, mostly due to carelessness and lack of professionalism.
A lot of it, of course, had to do with Officer Sato.
"There are plenty of people openly chasing Officer Sato in the MPD. Guys like Shiratori have both status and background. What do you have? Aside from being sowhat handso?"
"...Nothing."
Takagi sighed, looking helpless. He also felt disheartened about his own diocrity.
He was just a plain old detective—no strong backing, no special qualifications. His only experience ca from being a traffic officer. He had practically no field experience with real cases.
By any tric, his credentials were currently bottom-tier.
Chiba was well aware of Takagi’s situation. He wasn’t trying to hurt his pride—he just wanted him to get real.
"So focus on doing your job. Build up experience. At the very least, try to handle serious cases. Otherwise, you think they’ll let you near high-stakes investigations? You’ll be stuck tailing forever."
"Officer Sato is a known career-minded professional in the MPD. She usually works under Inspector gure. Even though she’s not in the professional track, she’s already a Deputy Inspector. You think the gap between you two won’t grow wider?"
Takagi didn’t need to think hard to know the answer.
Of course, it would.
But in this mont, his expression turned serious.
"Don’t worry, Chiba. I’ll take my job seriously from now on!"
(To be continued.)
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