Chapter 53: Chapter 53 The Absurd Truth Nobody Believes_1
Shinjuku Ishida Incident Special Task Force.
This was the special task force established by the tropolitan Police Departnt to handle yesterday’s murder case at the Ishita Financial Company.
In the eyes of the higher-ups, that case was no longer a simple Yakuza retribution killing.
No fingerprints or footprints had been left at the scene, and everyone had been killed by a slit throat.
It was a preditated, planned, and organized cri.
The tropolitan Police Departnt had to strike hard.
Of course, the departnt knew the caliber of its own police elite.
They didn’t trust the officers who specialized in practical casework.
They believed such high-intellect cris couldn’t be solved by those with limited education.
To ensure the case would be solved, the tropolitan Police Departnt invested heavily in hiring a renowned private detective and assigned a police superintendent to assist in the investigation, forming the current trio.
Emily was an internationally renowned detective. To the general public, however, she wasn’t particularly famous. Walking down the street, she would most likely be mistaken for a girl just back from a comic convention.
It was no wonder, as despite being in her twenties, she still possessed the face of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.
Anyone would think she was just a high school girl.
Emily closed her sun parasol and strode forward with firm, military-like steps. Her sky-blue eyes swept over the second floor of Konishi Financial Company.
The internal division of labor was clear, with separate offices for debt collection, debt recovery, and lending.
Emily proceeded down the hallway. In front of the reception room door, she spotted a fruit knife discarded in a corner.
A flicker of surprise crossed her face. "That woman really isn’t very bright," she remarked, "to overlook such an obvious murder weapon."
Okayama Buji shrugged. "You can’t expect too much from ordinary people."
"Even among ordinary people, that woman’s intelligence is substandard."
True to her sharp-tongued nature, Emily continued walking and turned left.
She slled the strong odor of blood. Crouching down, she touched the blood on the ground—it was ice-cold.
Upon inspecting the deceased, she noted most had cyanotic lips, dehydrated cheeks, and skin with a chilling, grayish-white pallor.
None had their eyes closed; all stared fixedly with dilated, vacant pupils.
Emily was accustod to seeing dead bodies.
Despite the increased number of bodies this ti, she wasn’t remotely afraid. Instead, she moved forward and lifted their clothes to inspect the wounds. Without exception, the fatal injury was located below the chest.
The fruit knife had precisely penetrated the heart, slipping between the ribs.
Emily scanned the scene, closed her eyes, and began to reconstruct the scenario in her mind.
Just as a computer can calculate a bullet’s trajectory and determine its origin based on its final position, soone knowledgeable in human kinetics can deduce a person’s posture before falling by observing how they lie on the ground.
Emily was one of the few capable of this. Based on the victims’ positions, she ntally reconstructed their actions before they fell.
They had been fighting each other, then, at a specific mont, they all suddenly collapsed.
The killer had stabbed them all simultaneously, with no signs of resistance from any victim.
The thod of cri was exactly the sa as at Ishita Financial Company.
There was no ti difference.
How on earth did the murderer accomplish this?
A large group of assailants was unlikely; one person could hide easily, but a group would be noticed—the people around weren’t blind and deaf.
Emily’s brow furrowed. The reason they fought each other was easily explained: gas or drugs could have induced neural confusion.
This could make people suddenly go berserk and then enter a rigid state.
But their simultaneous deaths were what puzzled her.
Secondly, stabbing the heart with a fruit knife without obstruction would require knowledge of human anatomy.
Was the killer soone with dical training?
Emily sank into deep thought. While the possibility existed, she couldn’t definitively conclude the killer had dical training.
With enough money, acquiring an anatomical chart wouldn’t be difficult.
However, concocting a gas or drug that could induce both madness and rigidity was a far more difficult task.
More importantly, no traces were left behind. The autopsy results from the Ishita Financial Company victims showed no unusual chemical residues in their bodies.
This indicated that the gas or drug responsible for the frenzy must have dissipated very quickly.
The culprit was either a scientific genius defying common sense or backed by a vast, ticulous criminal organization.
Whichever it was, it was an adversary Emily was determined to unmask.
She stood up and glanced at the office inside.
A shattered computer lay on the desk, bullets were strewn across the floor, and one of the dead n had knife wounds on his inner thigh in addition to the wound on his chest.
Odd. If it was a drug, why were there no signs of a mutual struggle between these two n?
Their expressions suggested they had been staring at soone.
After so thought, she asked, "Does Konishi Financial Company have any rivals?"
"Konishi and his associates have always been aggressive in their dealings. They’ve had conflicts with Hayakawa Finance Company, as both sides have been vying to be Ikebukuro’s largest loan provider," Okayama Buji answered truthfully. He had been dispatched by the tropolitan Police Departnt, and one of his responsibilities was to clarify these relationships.
The tropolitan Police Departnt was well aware of these loan-sharking operations but had never chosen to act. After all, even loan sharks paid taxes.
As long as they paid taxes, their activities were effectively legitimized.
"What a thoughtful explanation."
"I’ve told you before," Okayama Buji shrugged, "that’s just how things are here."
"Is that why you warned that woman?"
"A lack of education makes people foolish, ignorant, and stubborn. That’s an unfortunate reality."
Okayama Buji ca from a police family and had received an elite education. He had also privately read leftist literature and was well aware that a person’s ignorance was often linked to their environnt.
He was certain that Hibino Mio was no more than a high school graduate.
Given Japan’s "pressure-free" education system, Hibino Mio likely didn’t understand how these loan sharks were bleeding her dry. She probably only thought that while their interest rates were high, repaying debts was a natural obligation.
It was a naive worldview.
Those who exploited this naivety for profit deserved contempt.
And the tropolitan Police Departnt and the governnt, who turned a blind eye to it all, were equally despicable.
Though Okayama Buji was aware of all this, he couldn’t change anything. After all, his parents and siblings were all high-ranking officials within the tropolitan Police Departnt.
Emily didn’t respond, murmuring to herself, "The killer is definitely connected to the Ishita Financial Company case. All these people died at the sa ti."
Okayama Buji clapped his hands. "There’s only one truth! The killer stopped ti to murder them!"
"Don’t be ridiculous with your silly movie plots," Emily retorted irritably. "Ti can’t possibly stop!"
Scientifically speaking, ti cannot stop. However, if speed reaches a certain threshold, ti can appear to stop, even though it’s still flowing, albeit very slowly.
Setting aside that absurd possibility, a realization struck Emily. "Of course!" she exclaid. "A drug that causes madness and rigidity, combined with a retractable multi-function chanical arm, could achieve simultaneous deaths! We need to check if Hayakawa Finance Company has collaborated with any companies involved in such technology."
"Alright."
Okayama Buji didn’t object. This theory seed more plausible than his own suggestion.
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