Chapter 293: The Sherlock Holmes of Sakigawa Nen

Late at night, facing interrogation by the Chiba Police, Kitano Yukari, who had returned to Japan from South Africa three years ago, quickly confessed to the crime.

She recounted the entire process of committing the crime.

As it turned out, Uesugi Muneyuki's judgment was correct, though not entirely so; Nikaido Kei had indeed discovered that the company was secretly smuggling narcotics in its foreign trade and had gone to confront Mitamura Ken.

Unfortunately, Mitamura Ken knew about this and was the primary beneficiary. At first, Mitamura offered to share a small portion of the profits, but Nikaido was a man of integrity; he stated that while he could overlook other matters—he himself had taken small kickbacks, accepted gifts from domestic suppliers, and received Walmart gift cards—when it came to narcotics, there was no room for negotiation!

This ultimately brought a fatal disaster upon him.

The method of murder was a steamed bun laced with "Aconite."

Nikaido Kei loved steamed buns, so when he was lured out to eat that evening, he consumed the bun laced with Aconite, which had been provided by Kitano.

"Why did you assist Mitamura in committing the crime?" the Chiba Prefecture police asked. "This was clearly murder!"

"Because there are many things I wanted," Kitano Yukari said with a miserable smile. "Hermès, Dior, YSL, Balenciaga. Mitamura was very rich; those who were willing to submit could obtain his favor. Like me, there were three women by his side."

"As for me, I was originally just a female college student who came to the capital. I met him while working as a hostess at a bar. Ever since I experienced that kind of life, I could never go back to the past. Otherwise, he would have demanded back all the money he had invested in me... You police know that a hostess's status... even if I made a false accusation, the police wouldn't believe it."

"............" After all, it was drug trafficking; the Chiba Prefecture police had nothing to say. "Then, since you were so wealthy, why did you return to Japan?"

"Because he got bored of me," Kitano Yukari said with a miserable laugh, then suddenly asked the police with a neurotic tone: "Is it true that yellow men just love white mares? There are many white-skinned people in South Africa, and quite a few black-skinned ones too. After he arrived in South Africa, he took his money and went everywhere looking for women, completely ignoring me and stopping my allowance. The little savings I had were soon exhausted, and friends here told me nothing had happened, so I decided to return home to live. After all, this is a place I'm familiar with, and at least I don't have to accompany black men."

"It's a pity that after returning home, I felt everything was insipid. There was no help for it; a woman who has been protected by a lion, how could she care about wild dogs? The days of earning money were so painful; the feeling of spending my own money wasn't happy at all..." the woman said sincerely, smiling as if she were reminiscing about the good old days.

That neurotic appearance made the Chiba police suspect she was on crystal meth, but unfortunately, she was not.

Thirty minutes after eating the bun, Nikaido Kei's poisoning took effect. Mitamura Ken and Kitano held him down, one pressing his body while the other covered his face with a quilt. After continuous convulsions, Nikaido Kei went limp. The two worked together to dump him into the river, then, as previously agreed, fled on a flight from Haneda International Airport.

At first, the two were a bit panicked, living a reclusive life in South Africa. However, they soon learned that the Kanagawa Police had not even opened a case. But since they were only lovers, Mitamura gradually grew tired of Kitano within a year or two, and Kitano could never adapt to the social environment in South Africa nor speak English, so she decided to return to Japan to live.

It must be said that the existence of Uesugi Muneyuki posed a great deterrent to criminals. Kitano Yukari certainly knew that the family had reported the case many times, but she had bet that the Kanagawa Police would absolutely not look for trouble and reopen a case just to cause themselves headaches.

She had seen the news about the disturbance on NHK television and responded with a sneer of contempt.

Sorry, but I have my own local conditions here in Kanagawa. Reinvestigate? You might as well tell me that Oda Nobunaga didn't die at Honnō-ji!

But the moment she saw Uesugi Muneyuki of the Metropolitan Police Department's Special Mission Unit mobilize on TV and successfully reopen the case, she knew it was over and immediately booked the next flight to Madrid, Spain, wanting to leave.

That man is no pushover! Don't forget, the Chiba Case was solved by him through inexplicable judgment and precise character profiling!

It was also fortunate that Japanese passports are visa-free for 190 countries worldwide; otherwise, applying for a visa to other countries would have been quite troublesome.

And when Kitano Yukari was blocked on the shuttle bus, she knew she was finished.

"After all, he is the Sherlock Holmes of Sakigawa Nen, that man from the Metropolitan Police Department. Once noticed by him, I definitely couldn't escape." Kitano Yukari had an expression of bad luck. "This is probably fate, right?"

With this, the five-year cold case in Kanagawa was solved.

By the time Uesugi Muneyuki arrived, the only remaining question was whether the deceased died first from Aconitine or from suffocation?

After all, five years had passed; all clues and evidence were gone. To secure a conviction, one could only rely on the few existing clues at hand.

In the end, Ishihara Mikoto handled everything. At her request, Uesugi Muneyuki and she spent an entire night reading through medical books and various clinical dissection files, finally finding evidence of Aconitine poisoning.

"The victim ingested Aconite root containing a lethal dose of Aconitine. Ten-plus minutes after ingesting the Aconite, he began to experience chest pain, nausea, and vomiting, followed immediately by tonic convulsions."

"According to the confession of one of the perpetrators, the deceased's face was congested with blood, swollen, and his lips were blue and distended."

"That's right, these are the symptoms of Aconitine poisoning."

"Furthermore, although the body was severely decomposed when discovered, there were still a few points mentioned in the appraisal report. First, there were burns in the esophagus and interior. Because the deceased liked to eat hot food, this content was ignored. Looking back at it now, this is undoubtedly proof of Aconite poisoning. Also, the overall shape of the deceased's heart was relatively swollen. The appraisal report believed this was caused by drowning and decomposition, but Aconite poisoning causes depolarization of the myocardial cell membrane, which may leave behind myocardial fiber rupture, focal necrosis, or inflammation, consistent with the dissection result of the heart being overall relatively swollen."

With this, the chain of evidence was barely integrated, and Kitano Yukari was formally arrested on charges of "conspiracy to commit murder."

After working for an entire night, by the time the next day dawned, everything had finally settled.

That morning, NHK news reported the major good news that the five-year Kanagawa cold case had been solved in a single day, and simultaneously officially referred to Uesugi Muneyuki as the "Sherlock Holmes of Sakigawa Nen."

"Five-Year Cold Case Solved in One Day, the Sherlock Holmes of Sakigawa Nen, Uesugi Muneyuki, Performs a Miracle Again!"

"Five Years of Uninterrupted Police Reports and Appeals, Nikaido Wrongful Case Finally Exonerated, Police System May Need Reflection!"

"We Need the Special Mission Unit but Cannot Rely Solely on the Special Mission Unit; What Other Comprehensive Reforms Does the Japanese Police Need?"

"Interview with Nikaido's Family: It Was Forensic Examiner Uesugi Who Gave Us a Second Chance."

"One of the Murder Accomplices Still at Large."

Early in the morning, as the news of the case being solved spread, the entire Tokyo was stirred. Many Kanagawa office workers even shouted when they saw the news on the street: "Forensic Examiner Uesugi, Banzai!"

"Banzai~!"

However, it is worth mentioning that Kitano Yukari actually only assisted in the murder, but all reports wrote that she was an accomplice.

Because the real criminal, Mitamura, was still at large, the police tacitly agreed to exchange a reduced prison sentence for Kitano Yukari's confession that she was an "accomplice."

And this was the first case where Uesugi Muneyuki did not catch all the criminals at the scene.

Was this case solved? It was solved.

Was it really solved? It was as good as solved.

Was the five-year cold case solved or not? It was as good as solved~

But this was already glorious enough, and the name of Uesugi Muneyuki once again resounded throughout the Kanto region.

That morning, in a simple Chinese breakfast shop.

Division Chief Sugishita Ukyo and Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda sat together.

"Regarding that fugitive criminal..." Sugishita Ukyo said with a smile.

"Oh, you mean that guy who needs to be arrested through an ICPO request!" Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda seemed completely uninterested. He glanced at Sugishita Ukyo and shook his head: "It really was you, otherwise how could Uesugi Muneyuki have read the case files and appraisal reports so quickly."

"Chief Cabinet Secretary, could you intervene from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?"

"Impossible. Even if the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were willing to help, the South African government wouldn't agree. We in Japan are not the United States." Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda glanced sideways at Sugishita Ukyo and took the wonton noodles: "Besides, pay more attention to yourselves!"

"Hai?"

"Once this precedent is set, your Investigation Division 1 and the Special Mission Unit will have plenty to keep you busy!"

(End of chapter)