Chapter 402

Hearing Kano Shuji's inquiry, Sato Miwako's state of mind immediately calmed down, and she replied with a smile: "I was busy all day today, and finally I can be at leisure and take a breath."

"Hahaha! Is that so? It's a pity that it's already almost twelve o'clock at night! Our restaurant has also closed for the day! Otherwise, I would definitely have to treat you well!"

Kano Shuji's expression was clearly somewhat unnatural.

"Don't be like that; it doesn't matter if you close a bit later. Isn't tomorrow your long-awaited fiftieth birthday? How about you let me have a drink with you?"

Hearing Sato's reply, the unease in Kano Shuji's heart intensified even more. After waving his hand and smiling at Sato, he began to mock himself.

"I'm already fifty, what's there to care about a birthday?"

"Oh? Is that so? I thought you should have been waiting very anxiously! After all, once 12 o'clock passes tonight, the statute of limitations for the eighteen-year-old 'Choushirou' case will expire! How about it? Shall we have a drink together to celebrate? Mr. Kano!"

Sato Miwako smiled until her eyes narrowed.

"Ah? Miwako, what are you talking about? What Kano?"

Kano Shuji's complexion changed in a flash.

"Uncle Kano doesn't know? Those are the three mysterious characters my father wrote in his notebook! If written in Roman letters, these three characters are 'kano', which seems to be the nickname my father gave you back in his high school baseball team days."

Sato Miwako's face carried a strange radiance.

"The reason my father locked onto you was also because he saw the footage of you using a shotgun to kill the guard on the surveillance tape."

"I often heard my father say that although Uncle Kano had a strange batting stance, Kano was indeed the best hitter on the team!"

Kano Shuji let out a few hoarse, dry laughs.

"Hahaha! Miwako! You really are going too far! Just based on these things, you're prepared to treat Uncle Kano as the murderer?"

"And everything you said is hypothetical, there is no evidence! Furthermore, the statute of limitations for that case expired three years ago! It's really terrible for you to come here and say these strange things now!"

"Oh? Is that so?" Sato Miwako smiled like a little fox.

"For others, the statute of limitations has indeed passed for three years! But for Uncle Kano, it hasn't expired yet."

"Uncle Kano should be very clear about this, right? In Japan, the period a suspect spends abroad cannot be included in the calculation of the statute of limitations!"

"You fled to Italy to escape justice and stayed there for three years to avoid the heat, so today it is still within the validity period."

Kano Shuji looked at the clock on the wall, subconsciously swallowed his saliva, and couldn't help but reach his hand toward the wine in the ice bucket.

His mood was extremely tense, and his mouth was somewhat dry.

Sato Miwako grabbed the wine on the table along with the ice bucket into her arms, then playfully smiled at Kano Shuji.

"This won't do! Uncle Kano! I haven't finished speaking yet, you can't get drunk now."

As Sato Miwako said this, she also glanced at the clock.

"You are waiting for the time, aren't you? There are only ten minutes left until twelve o'clock passes!"

"It's just a pity that you won't be able to wait until that time."

"Before coming here, I sent people to your house and found several hundred million yen under the Buddhist altar. Uncle Kano is really rich."

Kano Shuji's face turned pale in an instant.

The thing he feared most had finally happened.

That stolen money was the most crucial piece of evidence.

"You, how could you know so much detail?"

"Who exactly helped you solve the puzzle?"

Sato Miwako's smile suddenly disappeared, and her expression became serious.

She put the ice bucket on the table and took out two things.

In one hand she held an arrest warrant, and in the other, the handcuffs her father had left behind.

"Uncle Kano, do you still recognize these? These are the handcuffs my father left behind."

"If he hadn't been without handcuffs that day, and had trusted so much that you would turn yourself in, he wouldn't have died."

"My father clearly had the chance to shout your name, but because he trusted you, he never said it, and even when you were running away, he was only shouting for you to turn yourself in..."

"As a result, this intermittent sentence was mistaken by the people nearby as 'Choushirou'..."

As Sato Miwako spoke, her teary eyes couldn't help but blur.

Her father's face seemed to appear before her eyes.

Kano Shuji stood up abruptly and grabbed the wine bottle from the ice bucket.

"No, I can't go to jail, there are still a few minutes left, I'll be free!"

He assumed a posture of holding a baseball bat, brandished the wine bottle, and smashed it viciously toward Sato Miwako.

Sato Miwako was somewhat stunned; she hadn't expected that the fifty-year-old man who looked old and weak would suddenly explode into violence.

With no gun in her hand, she could only raise the handcuffs to block him.

Bang.

The wine bottle was blocked by a hand.

Sato Miwako fell into a warm embrace.

Akaso Kaze was holding the policewoman with his left hand and grabbing the large, heavy wine bottle with his right.

A cold, chilling smile appeared on his face.

Resisting to the end, you are seeking your own death!

Kano Shuji pulled the bottle body back with all his might, but couldn't pull it out at all.

"Who, who exactly are you?" he asked in a panic.

"Me? I am the person who helped Miwako solve the puzzle."

Akaso Kaze smiled coldly.

Fog Tengu, come out!

A stream of mist protected his and Miwako's entire bodies.

Water Pillar Technique!

One water pillar after another appeared continuously inside the wine bottle.

They surged in like a rolling torrent.

After a moment's effort, a loud boom was heard.

The entire bottle of wine suddenly exploded into pieces.

The immense impact force knocked Kano Shuji flying against the opposite wall.

Splat, he stuck to the wall just like a pancake.