Inugami Family Chapter 7 Mysterious Passenger

Blood-stained boats

　　A fierce storm is being set off on the lake, the low-hanging dark clouds bring a sense of oppression, and the sound of the lake churning is unusual; the black and turbid lake water sometimes stirs up a wave, and sometimes forms countless white foam, just like a storm on the sea.

　　An unknown bird was blown by the fierce wind and plunged into the lake like an arrow...

　　The Inuyasha Mansion, shrouded in storms, is filled with a suffocating atmosphere of tension.

　　The Inuyasha family gathered in front of the photo of Sabei, and everyone tried their best to suppress the excitement in their hearts.

　　Masked Saaki and Matsuko sat side by side, with the scroll in front of them, a piece of white paper, a vermilion stone platform, and a brush.

　　Satake's mother, Takeko Hayashi, cried and blushed, looking very mentally ill, but still had a murderous spirit in her eyes.

　　As for Sachi, his eyes were full of timidity, and he bit his fingernails from time to time.

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda observed the expressions on everyone's faces in order, and what interested him most was Chu's mood.

　　Her face was miserable, but she didn't say a word, full of frost beauty.

　　Zhu Shihui took the initiative to collect Zuoqing's fingerprints, which meant that she was quite suspicious of the man wearing the mask, but Zuoqing was now willing to cover his handprints, and he couldn't help but let her own judgment begin to waver.

　　But despite this, Zhu Shi's expression was still so calm and beautiful.

　　At this time, an appraiser entered the room, nodded and greeted everyone, and then sat down next to Director Tachibana.

　　"Fujisaki, it's time to start."

　　Director Tachibana nodded and whispered to him, and Matsuko immediately announced:

　　"Well, let Zuo Qing cover the handprint now!" But before that, I have something to say to you..."

　　Matsuko coughed softly and continued:

　　"In fact, last night Satake and Sachi wanted to force Sasaki to stamp their mudras in a forced way, and the reason why I refused to let them do so at that time was because they were too rude to treat Sasaki as a prisoner at the beginning, which made it difficult for me as a mother to accept, so I was absolutely unwilling to compromise in this situation." But now things have turned out like this, and something so unfortunate happened to Saowu, and..."

　　When Matsuko said this, her eyes shot viciously at her sister Takeko.

　　"Although everyone didn't say anything, it's not hard to tell from the expressions on your faces that you probably all thought it was me and Saqing who killed him." After I thought about it carefully, I felt that this was also the common sentiment of people, so I didn't blame you, not to mention that I myself had something wrong. Last night, I insisted on not letting ZuoQing stamp his handprint, so that Zuoqing was invisibly more suspicious, so this morning I invited you to participate in the testimony and let Zuoqing stamp his handprint in front of everyone. ”

　　Matsuko's lengthy speech finally came to an end. She looked at everyone and patted Zuoqing's shoulder.

　　"Then, Zoqing..."

　　The masked Saqing trembled and stretched out his right hand, and after Matsuko dipped the pen in vermilion ink, it covered his right palm.

　　"Okay, cover it on paper."

　　Zuo Qing Yiyan opened five fingers and printed the entire palm on the white paper.

　　Matsuko pressed the palm of Sasaki's hand tightly while inspecting everyone viciously.

　　"Guys, see clearly, Sasuke has already sealed his handprints and has not done any fraudulent acts. Commissioner, please be a witness for our mother and son. ”

　　"No problem. Madam, it's done, right? ”

　　After Sasuke withdrew his hand, Director Tachibana immediately stood up and took away the white paper with the handprint on it.

　　"What about the scrolls?"

　　"Ah! The reels are here! ”

　　Lawyer Furukan quickly took out the scroll and handed it to Director Tachibana.

　　"Fujisaki, I'm giving you these two things now, how long will it take to find out?"

　　"It would be time-consuming to make a report, but if you only had to tell if the two handprints were identical, it would take only one hour to get the results."

　　"Well, that's going to bother you. Let me first explain to you that Mr. Fujisaki is the authority on fingerprints, so please rest assured. Well, Fujisaki, please. ”

　　"Yes."

　　Fujisaki took these two handprints and was about to get up—

　　"Ah, wait a minute!"

　　Matsuko suddenly stopped him.

　　"It's only an hour, right?"

　　"Yes, in an hour, I'll come here and report the results to you."

　　"That's it! Then, in an hour, please come back to this room to meet. Director, Mr. Kokan, Mr. Kaneda, the meal is ready, please go to the front hall to use. ”

　　Matsuko said this, and then took the masked Saqing's hand and got up and left.

　　The others also left the room separately, but the expression on each person's face was different.

　　Director Tachibana said as if relieved:

　　"Ah! In this way, this problem is solved. Hey? My stomach is a little hungry! Mr. Furukan and Mr. Kazuchi Kaneda, let's go to dinner together! ”

　　So they went to another room to eat under the guidance of the maid.

　　Just as they were about to eat, the two police officers in charge of finding the boat ran back wet.

　　"Administrator, there is something..."

　　"Ah! The two of you are hard and hungry, right? The host has prepared the meal, and the two of you have sat down to eat it! ”

　　"Yes, thank you. But what the Administrator just asked us to find, there is now news. ”

　　"Ah! Is it? That's great. Mr. Kaneda, let's take a look at it too! ”

　　The wind was still strong outside, mixed with torrential downpours.

　　Led by the criminal police, a group of people walked in the strong wind and rain with an umbrella, and finally came to the mouth of the sluice gate; only to see a small boat covered with large canvas at the mouth of the sluice.

　　"Ah, is it this little boat?"

　　"Yes, we were lucky to find this abandoned ship next to Kannon Cape in Shimonasu, and if we found it any later, this important physical evidence would have been washed away by the heavy rain."

　　As the policeman spoke, he lifted the canvas covering the boat; at this time, Director Tachibana and Kazunosuke Kaneda couldn't help but open their eyes.

　　Because the boat was full of terrible blood stains, the thick black blood was all over the boat, which was daunting.

　　Director Tachibana and Kazuko Kaneda looked at this terrible sight and could not speak for a long time. After a while, Director Tachibana coughed a few times and looked back at Kazusuke Kaneda.

　　"Mr. Kaneda, you guessed wrong this time. Because the murderer really used this small boat to transport the headless body. ”

　　"Yes! It looks like I did lose. But, the Administrator..."

　　Kaneda Kazuko helped clear his voice and asked in a loud voice:

　　"Why did the murderer do more? He swapped the head of the deceased for a chrysanthemum doll, but hid the body; wouldn't that be too unusual and strange to do so? ”

　　"I don't understand that either. But since we know that the murderer used this boat to transport the body, we have to send someone to the lake to retrieve the body in order to know the truth. The two of you went to get ready as soon as you finished eating. ”

　　"Yes, got it. By the way, Director, we heard one more thing. ”

　　"Oh? What's up? ”

　　"Sawai found a witness... yes! They're coming. ”

　　I saw a man of about forty years old, wearing a dark blue kimono and a dark blue apron tied around his waist, following the criminal police.

　　It turned out that the man ran a hotel called Kashiwaya in Shimonasu, and his name was Shima Hisahira.

　　Although Nasu City is called "city", it was divided into Kami-Nasu and Shimonasu ten years ago, with inuyasha's house at the end of kami-nasu, within half a mile of Inuyasha's house, and the lower nasu on the opposite side is crowded with residents.

　　At this time, kashiwaya boss Shima Kuhei began to speak.

　　"Just now I told this criminal police brother that in fact, last night a strange guest came to stay in my shop..."

　　According to the boss, the guest was a disarmed soldier, wearing not only military uniforms, military shoes, but also carrying a cloth bag on his shoulders.

　　However, this kind of attire is not surprising, and what makes the owner of Kashiwa House feel deeply strange is that this man wears a military beanie, and presses the brim of the hat very low, even covering the eyebrows, and there is a scarf around the neck, even above the nose, so the whole face can only see two eyes.

　　The owner and the waitress offer him a room upon request and bring him dinner.

　　Who knows that the waitress came back from dinner but told the boss:

　　"Boss, that guest is so strange! When he entered the house, he was still wearing a scarf, and I wanted to serve him a meal next to him, but he actually asked me to come out. In short, he didn't seem to want others to see his face. ”

　　After the boss listened to the words of the female service, he also felt a little uneasy in his heart, so he took the passenger registration book to find the guest.

　　I saw that the male guest who had just finished eating was still wearing a hat, and his entire face was almost wrapped in a scarf.

　　The boss had to take out the passenger register and tell him:

　　"This guest, please register your name."

　　"What is this?"

　　Although the male customer said so, he still filled in the following information on the passenger registration book that the boss showed him——

　　东 21, Sanbancho, Kyoto-cho-ku, 无业, Yamada Sanpei, Sanju

　　"Sawai, immediately send a note to the Tokyo Police Station to see if the address and name are true... Sorry, boss, please go ahead. ”

　　After being urged by Director Orange, the boss continued:

　　"Alas! One thing I forgot to say was that the guest came to my shop at about eight o'clock, and then at about ten o'clock, the guest said that a friend lived near here and wanted to go out, of course, at this time he still covered his whole face with a hat and a scarf. It wasn't until two hours later, at twelve o'clock, that I was about to close the door when the guest suddenly returned, and he seemed very panicked, but I didn't ask him in particular..."

　　"Ah! Please stop. ”

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda hastened to interrupt the boss's narration.

　　"Was he still covered in the face at that time?"

　　"Of course! I never saw the real face of the guest's Lushan from beginning to end... At about five o'clock this morning, he suddenly said he was going on the road, so he left my hostel. In short, he was a strange guest in every way, and the waitress who cleaned the room also found this thing in his room..."

　　The owner took out a Japanese hand towel for everyone to see.

　　Director Tachibana and Kazunosuke Kaneda couldn't help but widen their eyes when they saw such a thing.

　　Demobilization and assistance (Note: Assistance to demobilized and returned soldiers). Hakata Friendship Association

　　It is not difficult to know from the words printed on the hand towel that this must have been something given to the DDR by the Hakata Demobilization and Support Bureau, but what surprised them was not the hand towel itself, but the sticky, blackened blood stain on the hand towel...

　　It seems that this hand towel will be used to wipe blood-stained hands.

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda and Tachibana glanced at each other, and they couldn't help but think of the disarmament soldier who had only recently returned to Hakata, the masked Sasaki.

　　(But wasn't Sasuke sitting around the Six-Ping-sized room by the Inuyasha family last night from eight to ten o'clock?) ）

Questionable X

　　The testimony of Kashiwaya boss Shima Kuhei is very important. Now, let's regroup his testimony.

　　Last night, a man went to stay at the Shimonasu Kashiwaya Hostel, half a mile away from Inuyasha's house.

　　Let's call this man X for the time being, and the clues he left behind are as follows:

　　First, when X arrived at the Kashiwaya Hostel, it was about eight o'clock in the evening.

　　X didn't want anyone to see what he looked like.

　　3. According to the information X himself filled in, his name is Yamada Mihei, he lives in 21, Sanbancho, Tokyo, and currently has no occupation.

　　At 10:00, he said he wanted to visit friends nearby, so he left the hostel.

　　When X returned to the Kashiwaya Inn around twelve o'clock, he seemed very flustered.

　　At five o'clock this morning, I checked out very early because I suddenly remembered that there was an emergency.

　　In the room where X stayed, the waitress found a blood-stained hand towel with the words "Demobilization Assistance." Hakata Fraternity Society".

　　If you compare all the actions of the X character from last night to this morning with the killings that occurred last night in the Inuyasha family, it is not difficult to find that these two events have many interesting commonalities.

　　The first is the time when Satake was killed. According to Zhu Shi's testimony, Satake should have been killed after eleven o'clock, so X who left Shimosu kashiwaya around ten o'clock could come to inuya's house very calmly and kill Samu.

　　Then there is the problem with the little boat. The boat was found at Kannon Cape Inosu, from where it took only five minutes to reach Kashiwaya, so it was possible that X would carry Sabusa's headless body to the boat at 11:30, paddle from the inuyasha gate to the lake to discard the body, then return to Kannon Cape, and return to Kashiwaya at about 12 o'clock.

　　That is to say, this X's actions coincide very much in time with the murder of last night.

　　"Mr. Kaneda, this man's every move is very strange, is he here to kill Satake?"

　　"Director, it is too early to make an assertion..."

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda stared into the distance and said with a very deep look in his eyes:

　　"Regardless of whether this man came to kill Savu or not, at least one thing is certain, that is, this person carried Saubu's headless body to the boat and rowed it away from here."

　　"You mean..."

　　Director Tachibana looked puzzled at Kazunosuke Kaneda.

　　"Director, I have never wondered why he had to hide the corpse below the head, because since the murderer openly placed the head of the deceased on the chrysanthemum doll, wouldn't it become pointless to hide the dead body?" This is not only meaningless, but even very dangerous. Therefore, I have been thinking about this problem since just now, until I listened to the words of the boss of Kashiwaya, and then I couldn't figure it out. ”

　　"The murderer's reason for doing so is..."

　　"Director, why is the boss of Kashiwa House so suspicious of the X figure?" Was it because X left a blood-stained hand towel? If the hand towel did not appear, no matter how strange the X figure behaved, I am afraid that he would not suspect this person so quickly, because the owner of kashiwa house did not want to have anything to do with this kind of thing. So it seems that this X will deliberately leave this blood-stained hand towel in order to let the boss of Kashiwa House go to the police station to report the crime earlier? Otherwise, with such a significant exhibit, how can there be a reason to forget to take it away? ”

　　"I see. Mr. Kaneda, do you mean that this X is deliberately trying to divert the attention of the police? ”

　　"Yes. Moreover, X specially used a small boat to transport the body, and also abandoned the blood-stained boat at Kannon Point near Kashiwaya..."

　　"Mr. Kaneda, are you saying that this man is trying to cover up for someone, that's why he's making a fool of himself?"

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda nodded silently.

　　"So, who exactly is he covering?"

　　"I don't know this, but the only thing that's certain is that the person he wants to cover must be living in the Inuyasha's house." Because the purpose of this X's action is to divert our attention to the outside, he wants to make people think that the murderer is an outsider, so he does it. It can be seen that the real murderer should be a member of the Inuyasha family. ”

　　In other words, this X is nothing more than an accomplice. And, the real killer was one of the family, right? ”

　　"But who is this suspicious X? What does he have to do with the Inuyasha family? ”

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda scratched his head and said:

　　"Director, this is the problem. If you can know who the suspicious X is, it is not difficult to know who the murderer is. But, Commissioner! ”

　　Kaneda Ichigo said to Director Tachibana with a serious face:

　　"Do you know what I'm thinking right now?"

　　Director Tachibana looked blankly at Kazusuke Kaneda, who smiled sarcastically.

　　"At eight o'clock last night, the Inuyasha family gathered in the back room in order to obtain Sasaki's handprint. As a result, they did not collect Zuo Qing's handprint, and they were still talking about it until ten o'clock. On the other hand, the suspicious X appeared at the Kashiwaya Hostel around eight o'clock and stayed at the hostel until ten o'clock. This is convenient for us to handle the case, otherwise we will have to investigate the alibi of everyone in the Inuyasha family one by one to see if anyone is pretending to be X to go to Kashiwa House. ”

　　"Mr. Kazuchi Kaneda, so you ever suspected that the suspicious X was a member of the Inuyasha family?"

　　"Well, but I've just dismissed that assumption. By the way, Director, when X appeared in Kashiwa House, he had not yet committed a life case, so why did he bother to cover his face? Usually people are reluctant to let others see their faces because their faces are seriously damaged, that is, like Zuoqing, otherwise they are afraid of being recognized. ”

　　"Yes! So that person may also live in the Inuyasha's house, after all, there is no one who does not know the Inuyasha's family! ”

　　Director Tachibana quietly bit his fingernails.

　　It seems that when this administrator is meditating, he will subconsciously bite his nails!

　　"Mr. Kaneda, according to your thoughts, there was someone in this family who conspired with someone, and one of the accomplices appeared last night disguised as X and appeared at the Kashiwaya Hostel in Shimonasu, and came here at about eleven o'clock, transported Saowu's headless body in a small boat, threw it into the lake, docked the boat at Kannon Cape, and then went back to Kashiwaya to sleep. In other words, they make a fool of themselves so that people think that the murderer is a foreigner. At the same time, he also left the blood-stained hand towel in the Kashiwa House, and it was not until this morning that the accomplices left the Kashiwa House and quietly returned to the Inuyasha house, and even pretended that nothing had happened, right? ”

　　"Yes, but there was a family meeting last night, so everyone has an alibi."

　　Director Tachibana's face suddenly became ugly.

　　"Really? Does everyone have an alibi? ”

　　Kaneda Kazuko heard the words and looked at The Tachibana Director's face in amazement.

　　"Director, isn't there an alibi?"

　　"Yes, there is one person who is afraid that it will be difficult to present an alibi."

　　"Who?" Administrator, who is this person? ”

　　"Ape Hiding!"

　　Kazunosuke Kaneda was shocked as if he had been hit in the head by a lead block falling from the sky.

　　He looked at Director Orange for a moment before he said in a voice that was too low to be heard:

　　"Administrator, but according to Zhu Shi's testimony, when Samu wanted to be rude to her last night, Sarutozo appeared at the right time..."

　　On this point, Director Tachibana replied very crisply.

　　"The words of the Pearls may not be reliable."

　　As soon as these words came out, Kaneda Ichigosuke's whole body trembled again. Director Tachibana saw this and said with a deliberate dry cough:

　　"Of course, this is just my hypothesis, and in theory, it is possible to hold. If Chu Shi and Sazo conspired to kill Samu, then what Chu Shi said would not be reliable. However, for the sake of prudence, I would still ask my subordinates to carefully investigate the whereabouts of Ape Zao last night, but I think he probably couldn't prove where he was last night. ”

　　(Ah! Pearls and Apes! ）

　　Kazuyoshi Kaneda's chest felt like someone had been slammed into him.

　　However, it is also common for Director Tachibana to have these doubts in his mind, after all, Zhu Shi originally had a motive to kill Sasatake, and last night was a great opportunity.

　　She deliberately summoned Sasatake to the Liaowangtai, and that was the time when the suspicious X could leave Shimonasu and head to Inuyasha's house. What's more, don't apes know better than anyone how many ships are, and where they moor?

　　Moreover, Zhu Shi herself had the wisdom to plan this plan; plus Ape Zang was so loyal to it; as long as she gave an order, No matter what, Ape Zang would desperately try to complete it.

　　Kaneda Kazukosuke shivered at the thought of that peerless beauty had conspired with its ugly giant to murder people.