Chapter 230: Kanagawa Sends Good News

On September 20th, the Metropolitan Police Department team, having had a good night's rest, rushed to the Igarashi Residence in Yokohama.

Upon arriving at the scene, Uesugi Muneyuki discovered that the Igarashi Residence was a detached house that was not particularly large; although it was a standalone building, the living area was only about 100 square meters. There was a backyard, and the front door had a heavy-duty security door and an alarm system, with no signs of forced entry.

"Excuse us!" the Metropolitan Police Department team stepped into the house.

"Because Igarashi Aiko lived alone, she had basic safety awareness. Before the incident, she had sought help from Executive Director Sato and the company, stating that she felt someone was following her. Mitsui Real Estate therefore installed a security door and an alarm bell for her home."

Uesugi Muneyuki said to Ikeda Erena and Ishihara Mikoto behind him, as well as Kosaka and Kashiwagi from the First and Third Divisions of the Metropolitan Police Department: "This is why the Kanagawa Police believe it was an inside job; because Igarashi Aiko had already been alerted, it would have been difficult for a stranger to get her to open the door."

"I see." Both Ikeda Erena and Ishihara Mikoto had somewhat unnatural expressions on their faces.

Last night, they had both been scolded severely by Miss Minami. Among them, Ikeda Erena had been warned by the young lady that if she stole another bite, she would be sent on a one-month business trip to Hokkaido for violating the Asukayama Contract with Miss Minami.

Ishihara Mikoto's unnaturalness was of a different kind; Miss Minami had not expected to encounter her in Uesugi Muneyuki's room, and thus grew suspicious of the relationship between her and Uesugi Muneyuki, further questioning whether her position as a Forensic Assistant had been obtained legitimately.

Could this Forensic Beauty have obtained her job opportunity by serving Uesugi with some "Pillow Business"?

Minami_Suspicious. JPG

Ishihara Mikoto could only defend herself by saying she had professional matters to discuss with Uesugi Muneyuki and hadn't expected anyone to come over, so she had ducked into the bathroom to avoid a misunderstanding.

Miss Minami was half-doubting this explanation, but at the critical moment, Erena actually supported Mikoto's story, saying that Mikoto had indeed come to talk to Uesugi Muneyuki about work.

This caused Miss Minami's suspicion to fade by a layer, and she subsequently gave Ishihara Mikoto a warning.

"Miss Mikoto, Uesugi-kun's Forensic Assistant, you wouldn't want to lose this hard-won position, would you?"

"Then do your job well. Work is work, and life is life. In the future, don't do things that are easily misunderstood, especially at a time like this."

In Miss Minami's design, there was only room for three women in the house—herself, Erena, and Asuka; there was no fourth person. She could turn a blind eye to Uesugi Muneyuki occasionally having a fling outside, but bringing one home was not allowed.

After sending Mikoto away, Minami scolded Erena again, saying, "I entrusted Uesugi to you, and this is how you watch him? Didn't I tell you to exhaust his energy so he wouldn't have any spare thoughts to go philandering outside?"

Erena felt extremely aggrieved, thinking to herself, "You're the one who criticized me for stealing a bite, and you're the one who blamed me for not watching him well. What exactly am I supposed to do?"

That was why, at the scene today, both Erena and Mikoto looked somewhat unnatural.

But Uesugi Muneyuki did not know what had happened after last night; he focused all his attention on the scene at the Igarashi Residence.

Frankly speaking, the scene preservation at the Igarashi Residence was done extremely poorly, because after the incident, Executive Director Sato had brought people to search for Aiko's tracks, and a large group of employees had already completely destroyed the crime scene.

Footprints, fingerprints, and hair were all in a mess; it was already very difficult to find clues through these methods.

However, after conducting interviews with the neighbors, Uesugi Muneyuki discovered a blind spot.

"It was here, right?"

Police Inspector Kosaka and Uesugi Muneyuki stood at a certain spot outside the detached house and asked the nearby neighbor.

"That's right. Before the incident, someone used to linger here in the middle of the night," the nearby neighbor nodded repeatedly. "They would observe for a long time each time, about an hour or two, before driving away. However, it was always very late, and I couldn't see the license plate number clearly."

"Observe for a long time, is it?" Uesugi Muneyuki and Kosaka exchanged a glance, and the two of them asked the neighbor what the person's build was like.

"About the same height as you, I suppose," the neighbor gestured toward Uesugi Muneyuki.

"Good."

Uesugi Muneyuki and Police Inspector Kosaka stood at that spot and looked toward the Igarashi Residence.

Uesugi Muneyuki straightened his back. His gaze passed over the Igarashi Residence, just slightly higher than the wall, and he saw the small window of the Igarashi Residence's bathroom and the air conditioning unit outside the window.

An outdoor air conditioning unit?

The wall of this detached house was quite high. If they could only see the air conditioning unit, what were they observing?

Uesugi Muneyuki pondered.

First, there were only two ways to enter the Igarashi Residence: the front door and the back door.

The concept of a detached house was different; the front and back doors only led into the yard. To enter the house itself, one still needed to go through the security door at the front or the sliding door in the backyard.

Both of these places were equipped with external alarms, and the employees of the Mitsui Sumitomo Group had gone in while the alarms were blaring.

This was also the strangest part of this case.

Then, climb through a window?

That was also impossible. The windows were all equipped with security grilles and showed no signs of being broken. The only issue was that the window on the second-floor balcony had signs of being broken from the inside, but Aiko couldn't have broken the window from the inside to let someone in, could she?

Then, enter through the small bathroom window?

Could someone of my size really climb in through such a narrow little window?

Uesugi Muneyuki observed it and shook his head repeatedly.

Maybe Miss Minami could.

But how could Miss Minami possibly carry someone of Igarashi Aiko's build? The person I saw was also a burly man!

Besides, the weight-bearing capacity of an outdoor air conditioning unit is limited; it would collapse!

Hmm?

Wait!

Uesugi Muneyuki suddenly thought of Hironaka Mariko and his own Cursed Grudge.

The neighbor said, they were observing?

They?

Small bathroom window? Bypassing the front door? Without triggering the alarm? Attacked while at home? Feeling like someone was following her?

A terrifying thought flashed through Uesugi Muneyuki's mind like lightning.

That's right, the person who could climb in didn't need to be a burly man; the burly man didn't need to climb in!

Just because I saw one person doesn't mean only one person committed the crime! The Kanagawa Police must have thought the same; the scene was so messy, there were so many footprints, and everyone ignored this blind spot.

The culprit wasn't necessarily one person; it could be two! Just like me and Hironaka Mariko—one responsible for tracking, and one responsible for triggering a Contract Flashback!

"Got it!" Uesugi Muneyuki shouted, "I understand!"

"I know how the culprit bypassed the front door and entered the Igarashi Residence!"

He immediately called the Metropolitan Police Department team to come under the outdoor air conditioning unit in the backyard of the Igarashi Residence, brought a ladder, and sure enough, found a shoeprint on top of the air conditioning unit!

The culprit entered the Igarashi Residence via the top of the air conditioning unit, through the small bathroom window above it!

After entering the Igarashi Residence, the killer would then go to the front or back door to unlock it and let another accomplice in.

In other words, this case was committed by two people!

Uesugi Muneyuki immediately cleared up the sequence of the entire case.

The two killers collaborated on the crime; they first followed Igarashi Aiko home, then selected a vantage point nearby to observe for a long time. Based on a height match with Uesugi Muneyuki, the killer observed that it was possible to enter Igarashi Aiko's home via the air conditioning unit through the small bathroom window.

According to field tests by the Metropolitan Police Department, the tall and sturdy male Detectives could barely replicate it, but Ishihara Mikoto and another particularly short and thin Patrol Sergeant at the scene succeeded by grabbing the water pipe to move upward a few steps and then using the air conditioning unit to enter the Igarashi home.

After entering the home, the killer opened the back door to let the accomplice in, after which the tall accomplice entered the home to lie in ambush. Since the operation took place in the middle of the night, the killer definitely had to lurk in the home for a period of time and had to monitor Igarashi Aiko's return home through some means.

This is why Igarashi Aiko felt very uneasy when she returned home in her Death Flashback, because she was indeed being watched; the killer was in the home observing her return.

It is also normal for there to be abnormal traces in the bathroom, because the short killer snuck in through there.

As for why there were signs of breakage on the second-floor balcony glass, it is very likely that during the carrying process—Igarashi Aiko was relatively heavy—the killer did not maintain balance during her struggle and thus bumped into the glass, which is why it was discovered that the second-floor balcony glass had been shattered from the inside!

Understood, it is all understood!

Uesugi Muneyuki immediately shared the conclusion he had reached with everyone at the Metropolitan Police Department, and at the same time, the Metropolitan Police Department collected evidence of this very critical shoeprint on the air conditioning unit.

With this, the Yokohama Case achieved a breakthrough!

Just by coming to the scene for a forensic examination once, Uesugi Muneyuki achieved a huge success; he not only deduced that there were two killers, one tall and one short, one sturdy and one thin, but also found the critical shoeprint!

Moreover, according to Uesugi Muneyuki's deduction, the two killers must have stayed in the home for a period of time. During this time, it was impossible for them to do nothing, so they must have left something behind, most likely leaving DNA in hair, saliva, and food scraps!

Then, one only needs to have the Mitsui employees who came here that day collectively provide DNA and then use the elimination method to determine the DNA of the two killers!

This result made everyone at the Metropolitan Police Department feel incredibly encouraged.

As expected of Forensic Examiner Uesugi!

Now, we have it!

The front line immediately reported this matter to the Metropolitan Police Department headquarters, and the Metropolitan Police Department then immediately began to prepare for DNA Testing and evidence tracing matters.

Among them, the tracing of the origin of the shoeprint in the evidence tracing proceeded very quickly.

The Japan police soon found out that no such style of sneakers was produced within Japan; the shoes came from an OEM factory in a certain place in Fujian of a certain country and belonged to smuggled imports. Because they were inexpensive and of good quality, although they could not compare to the original product, they were not far off and were very popular among young people with insufficient funds.

The tracing work became very difficult.

This path did not work, so the Metropolitan Police Department shifted its attention to DNA Testing.

This matter received the full cooperation of Mitsui Real Estate, and all employees who had ever visited the Igarashi Residence that day voluntarily provided their DNA to the Metropolitan Police Department.

The Forensics Division of the Metropolitan Police Department immediately began DNA comparison.

Testing DNA is a very troublesome matter, which is divided into five steps: DNA Extraction, PCR Amplification, Capillary Electrophoresis, Data Analysis and Composition, and finally Report Generation.

Testing one person's DNA under overtime conditions requires at least one day; 20-plus people divided into three batches to be tested separately would take at least 3 working days, and because of the large number of people, it would take at least a week under normal circumstances.

The Forensics Division of the Metropolitan Police Department worked overtime and around the clock for this, working in shifts 24 hours a day without rest, and finally successfully tested all sample DNA on September 24.

Finally, it is possible to find useful clues!

Uesugi Muneyuki was full of confidence about this.

However, the results that came out made everyone show expressions of confusion.

The DNA of the 15 employees of Mitsui Real Estate plus the DNA of Executive Director Sato and the DNA of the hair and skin debris evidence left at the scene provided by the Kanagawa Prefectural Police did not match at all!

And what was most strange was that even Igarashi Aiko's own DNA and the hair and skin debris DNA of Aiko herself provided by the Kanagawa Prefectural Police did not match, with 3 STR loci not matching, and multiple peaks appearing.

Generally, it is believed that 1 locus could possibly be a gene mutation, but more than 1 locus can directly determine that it is not the person themselves.

Ah???

And the most experienced Ishihara Mikoto only took one look.

"Oh no! The sample has been contaminated!"

(End of this chapter)