Chapter 270

"Akiwara-sensei, this is Uchiumi Takuto. There is a very serious matter here that I want to tell you about!"

After picking up the phone, Akiwara Yuto heard the other party's anxious voice.

What matter? Akiwara Yuto was somewhat puzzled.

Could it be that the filming funds for "Memories of Murder" were insufficient and he needed to add investment?

Or did something go wrong with the actors affecting the filming?

He thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead."

Uchiumi Takuto took a deep breath.

"It's like this: today I received a call from the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department. The police station in Kanagawa reported that a murder case occurred again yesterday! The situation of the victim being killed is very similar to the serial murder case from two years ago!"

Hearing this news, Akiwara Yuto was stunned.

When he originally adopted this case as material, he had confirmed it was a cold case before adapting it.

But he didn't expect the killer to pop up again at this time? Is this trying to provoke the police?

No, could someone be imitating the crime on purpose!?

Just as he was deep in thought, Uchiumi Takuto's voice lowered, "Akiwara-sensei, the filming progress of the movie is currently fine, but you see..."

Hearing the hesitation in the other party's voice, Akiwara Yuto immediately understood what he meant.

That is, worrying about whether there would be other variables on his side.

Akiwara Yuto frowned and pondered repeatedly in his heart.

Come to think of it, is it really appropriate to continue filming now?

If the Kanagawa serial murder case is a cold case, filming the related events into a movie for release might even be seen by a group of public intellectuals as an attempt to attract social attention, and he might receive praise from many people.

But if he invests in and brings this movie to the screen while this case is still happening, he might instead be met with verbal abuse very quickly.

Even telling the outside world that this movie was filmed before the killer re-offended would be of no use, and it might even be considered a sophistry!

He might even be labeled as "profiting from human tragedy," and be considered by some to be stepping on the corpses of victims to seek benefits for himself.

At this point, the failure of movie tickets would only count as a small matter; what is more serious is that it would affect his career as a writer!

"Akiwara-sensei, the actors are all a bit worried..."

Uchiumi Takuto's voice had a hint of pleading.

As the producer and director, the importance of this movie to him is beyond doubt, and currently, the filming of the movie is smooth sailing. As long as there are three more months, he is confident in filming the finished product and releasing it.

If he were to have the funding withdrawn for some inexplicable reason, he absolutely could not accept it!

However, he also did not dare to hide this matter from Akiwara Yuto.

Because Akiwara is the main investor of this movie, and there is also a financial officer sent by the other party in the crew. If he hid it, the consequences might be even more serious.

Akiwara Yuto heard his pleading, hesitated for a while, and sighed: "Continue filming first, we'll contact each other about the rest later."

Immediately after, he casually comforted the other party with two sentences and then hung up the phone.

An investment amount of 100 million yen is not much to him, but if this movie causes a huge negative impact on social public opinion, all his current careers will suffer a huge setback.

So, should he withdraw the investment?

Akiwara Yuto thought about it and felt a bit unwilling, so he decided to ask an acquaintance.

He took out a business card, picked up the receiver, and dialed a phone call to the high-ranking police officer he had gotten to know earlier because of the assassination case.

"Assistant Inspector Soma, are you free this afternoon?"

4:00 PM, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, First Investigation Division reception room.

Akiwara Yuto sat on the sofa and handed a gift to Assistant Inspector Soma, who was sitting opposite him.

When the other party pushed his hand to indicate refusal, Akiwara Yuto smiled and said: "This is a small token of my appreciation for the colleagues of the First Investigation Division regarding the previous case of Ohnuki Masakazu."

Hearing this, Assistant Inspector Soma could not refuse.

After all, this gift was not said to be for him, but for all his colleagues.

He thought for a moment and said bluntly: "Akiwara-sensei, you came to find me this time because of that incident in Kanagawa, right?"

Before the previous movie filming, Akiwara Yuto had asked him to act as a bridge and take the initiative to find the local police station to investigate the situation.

So after the related case appeared again, he contacted Akiwara Yuto at the first opportunity.

Akiwara Yuto nodded and then asked seriously: "Assistant Inspector Soma, can you tell me about the related situation? Is this case really committed by the same killer?"

Assistant Inspector Soma hesitated for a moment but still spoke the truth: "From the scene, it is highly likely to be the same person."

"The victim is a woman in her 50s. The death scene was under a bridge near her home. Her lower body was naked, the cause of death was strangulation, and there were traces of the body being mutilated."

"In the serial murder case from two years ago, there were very similar situations."

After hearing this, Akiwara Yuto subconsciously recalled the details he had learned before and found that many places matched up.

He frowned and asked another question: "Then what response measures does the police have here?"

Assistant Inspector Soma replied: "We have already dispatched several specialists to Kanagawa to form a special task force with the local police station, preparing to start a large-scale search."

"Can you catch the killer as soon as possible?"

Akiwara Yuto asked subconsciously, but upon seeing the other party's embarrassed expression, he immediately knew he had said the wrong thing.

This serial murder case had consumed a huge amount of police force and manpower at the beginning and still hadn't been solved.

Now, even if the same manpower is mobilized again, it may not be solved in a short time, and it might even be the same as before.

Just like the Hwaseong case in South Korea and the Bai Yin case in China from his past life, the killers were random murderers with no fixed time or scope for committing crimes, making the difficulty of solving the cases extremely high.

Thinking of this, Akiwara Yuto suddenly asked again: "Has the police collected DNA information from local residents to further match with the samples collected at the scene?"

In his past life, whether it was the Hwaseong case or the Bai Yin case, they were finally solved through DNA.

And Akiwara Yuto had checked a lot of information to write detective fiction, knowing that the development of DNA technology in this world was similar to his past life, having been invented in the 80s and having cases where it was used in practice by European and American countries.

And the time for Japan to introduce this technology was relatively early in the East Asian region.

Assistant Inspector Soma spoke the truth: "We have already investigated many residents in the local area based on the character portrait and collected 300,000 samples. Unfortunately, not a single one matches."

Hearing this, Akiwara Yuto suddenly remembered an interview he had seen in his past life and abruptly made a request.

"Can you let me see the psychological profile of the suspect?"

If his memory was correct, he might be able to help the Metropolitan Police Department here, eliminate an important blind spot! Thereby helping them catch the killer as soon as possible!