Chapter 811

Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture, the Special Investigation Headquarters is currently being organized.

Hundreds of police have gathered here, large groups of suited men and rear police in uniform are taking their respective posts, everyone is busy exchanging opinions and understanding the situation, the large LCD screen is starting up, and technical staff are pulling cables.

Pulling cables! Haha~

With such a vicious case having erupted, the Saitama Prefectural Police naturally dare not be lax; they swiftly drafted over a hundred elite officers from various precincts to form the Special Investigation Headquarters, preparing to strike hard at the perpetrators.

At this moment, the phone rang.

The phone rang three times on the other end before someone picked up.

"Moshi moshi, this is Kinoshita from the First Investigation Section, Criminal Investigation Department, Saitama Prefectural Police. May I ask who is speaking?"

"Moshi moshi, this is the Special Mission Division of the Metropolitan Police Department, I am Uesugi Muneyuki. I would like to inquire about the situation regarding the Kawaguchi City case." "Chief Medical Examiner Uesugi Muneyuki???" The officer answering the phone instantly sprang up, he clutched his buttocks and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. The entire Special Investigation Headquarters heard the name Uesugi Muneyuki, fell silent, everyone put down what they were holding, stopped their steps, and ceased talking.

Case mistaken, Uesugi Gu?!

"May I ask if you are the Uesugi from Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, of the Yonezawa Uesugi family?" The officer answering the phone swallowed his saliva, with difficulty confirming. "Yes, that's the Uesugi." Uesugi Muneyuki's voice was very calm.

The other party obviously paused for a moment.

Uesugi Muneyuki could hear the sound of paper being flipped on the other end of the phone, as well as the low murmurs of someone speaking nearby.

Uesugi Muneyuki could faintly hear the other party asking about the person in charge at the scene, the headquarters chief of the Special Investigation Headquarters seriously said: "Tell him" and the people below responded loudly, then the surroundings erupted in chaos.

About four or five seconds later, Kinoshita's voice sounded again, this time carrying a few degrees of formality, the tone used when reporting to a superior: "Chief Uesugi, thank you for your concern. I will briefly report the current situation we have grasped."

"The victims are three. The head of household is a forty-one-year-old housewife, Matsumoto Yumi. Eldest daughter Matsumoto Ayano, seventeen years old, second-year student at Saitama Prefectural Kawaguchi North High School. Second daughter Matsumoto Yuka, fourteen years old, second-year student at Kawaguchi City Third Junior High School. Husband of the head of household Matsumoto Kenichi, forty-three years old, works as a department manager in the sales division of a logistics company in Tokyo, he stayed at a hotel in Shimbashi last night due to company entertainment, and only returned after receiving a notification from neighbors this morning—when he saw the scene, he immediately collapsed and fainted, and is currently hanging on sedatives in our medical room, still not awake."

Poor husband, Uesugi Muneyuki held the phone, lightly hummed once, indicating for the other party to continue.

Kinoshita's voice sank.

"The scene…… I have been in this line of work for eighteen years, Mr. Uesugi, I have seen car accidents, jumps from buildings, dismemberments, but I have never seen anything like this. Can you imagine? A forty-one-year-old woman, two underage girls."

He paused, as if organizing his words, or as if suppressing some emotion.

"Yumi collapsed in the living room on the first floor. Face up, eyes open. There are two stab wounds on the neck, two on the chest, three on the abdomen—one of which pierced the liver. Blood loss was enormous, the entire living room's tatami mats were soaked through with blood, spreading from the living room all the way to the hallway." "Her body shows signs of being beaten, the right eye socket is fractured, three teeth were knocked out. The forensic pathologist said she should have been pressed to the ground before death and repeatedly struck in the face with fists. Besides this, there are obvious lacerations and antigenic reactions in the lower body—she is forty-one years old, Mr. Uesugi, mother of two children, and was assaulted in her own living room..."

He did not finish.

"The eldest daughter Ayano was in the bedroom on the second floor. She should have heard the commotion and tried to escape, or wanted to call the police. The attacker assaulted her from behind. She was stabbed five times in the back, one of which pierced the left lung. She was found on her own bed, the bed sheets were completely stained red with blood. Her pants were pulled down to knee level, with scratches and other marks on the inner thigh. She is only seventeen years old."

"The second daughter Yuka was in the bathroom. Possibly the first victim. The attacker assaulted her in the bathroom, then slit her throat. The water in the bathtub turned completely red, she pulled down the shower curtain and clutched it in her hand. The forensic pathologist said that after her throat was slit, she might have remained alive for several tens of seconds, during which she kept clutching the shower curtain, trying to wrap herself up."

Uesugi Muneyuki remained silent for a moment.

Friends who often kill people know that the manga version of Detective Conan, serialized by Aoyama Gosho, updates at a speed far behind the anime adaptation, so when the Conan anime reached a certain point, the manga content had nothing left to adapt, and since Aoyama himself has limited energy, he transferred the adaptation rights to the anime team, but proposed several requirements.

For example, solving the case cannot be accompanied by the criminal's suicide or being killed; he must definitely face legal sanctions.

For example, there cannot be unsolvable criminal methods, nor can there be accidental evidence similar to breaking the case due to footprints left by a criminal because of sudden rain.

Again, for example, sexual crimes are not allowed; it can be love-hate grudge killings, or attempts to assault that result in the victim being killed or the attacker being counter-killed, but direct sexual crimes cannot appear.

And many other such things, which I won't elaborate on here, due to various limitations and the fact that criminal tropes are limited to just a few types, orthodox mystery also only has those few things, such as locked rooms, alibis, time tricks, high-tech production of errors, etc. TV dramas soon after started to go wild, ending up with all sorts of abstract nonsense and incoherent things, really can't be explained clearly, so just resort to various black technologies to force explanations.

But in actual reality, sexual crimes are not only a major category of criminal offenses, but also occupy an extremely high proportion in criminal offenses, and are one of the several main types of crime.

This is human nature, Uesugi Muneyuki can only continue to signal the other party to go on: "What about the property?"

"The scene is in utter disarray. The entire house has been turned upside down—closet drawers all pulled out, clothes thrown everywhere, bookshelf toppled, books scattered everywhere, the television in the living room had its screen smashed, the knife rack in the kitchen is missing one chef's knife, we suspect that is the murder weapon, but it was not found at the scene. Cash amounting to roughly several hundred thousand yen was taken away, the bankbook and credit cards were untouched, but several handbags and jewelry boxes were rummaged through, a large amount of jewelry is missing."

"Regarding the sexual assault part, we are still waiting for detailed DNA testing, but preliminary judgment shows that the DNA remaining on the three victims does not come from the same person, which means it is highly likely that more than one perpetrator continuously assaulted and killed the three individuals."

Uesugi Muneyuki listened silently until the other party finished speaking, then he spoke.

"What about the entry route?" he asked.

"This is precisely what puzzles us—there are no signs of violent entry. The lock on the front door shows no signs of being pried, all windows are locked from the inside, and the front door on the first floor is also securely locked."

"The forensics division conducted reagent tests, and no abnormalities were detected on the front door handle or near the genkan. The attacker should have entered normally through the front door, either because the victim actively opened the door to let him in, or because he himself possessed a key."

"So it is an acquaintance committing the crime?"

"Very certain. Chief Uesugi, such a degree of brutal behavior, combined with no signs of forced entry, the perpetrator must be someone very familiar with this household—knowing their routine, knowing the husband was not home last night, knowing there were only three women in the house. It could also be someone the victim knew, who knocked on the door during a time when no male was present in the household, and the victim opened the door without suspicion."

"Was any physical evidence collected at the scene?"

"Yes. Peripheral evidence includes a few items—on the window of the second-floor hallway, a cigarette butt was picked up, brand Seven Stars, not a brand commonly found in the victim's home. On the shoe cabinet in the genkan, there is an incomplete shoe print, size approximately twenty-six to twenty-seven centimeters, preliminarily judged to be from sneakers. Additionally, skin tissue not belonging to herself was detected under the fingernails of the eldest daughter Ayano; she may have scratched the attacker while resisting. These have all been sent for DNA analysis."

Uesugi Muneyuki put down the cigarette, his body leaning forward slightly: "I want to go see the scene, and also examine the bodies."

However, the other end of the phone fell silent for a while.

"Chief Uesugi……" Kinoshita's voice became very subtle, carrying a kind of careful, word-organizing rhythm: "Thank you very much for your good intentions. But currently our investigation headquarters already has a clear direction, the task force has already been established, and manpower is sufficient. Moreover, one" he paused again.

"Moreover, you also know, this case has already attracted media attention. If at this time we request personnel from the Metropolitan Police Department to come over, especially someone like you……" he pondered his wording: ……such a high-profile expert, outsiders might think our Saitama Prefectural Police are incapable, unable to even solve our own case. Please understand our difficulties."

Uesugi Muneyuki closed his eyes, lightly exhaled a breath.

He was not angry.

He was all too clear about the Japanese police system—prefectural police headquarters in principle operate independently, unless a cross-regional major case occurs or the locality actively requests, otherwise the Metropolitan Police Department has no authority to directly intervene.

This is the rule, and also a delicate face-saving issue between local police forces. Moreover, Kinoshita did not misspeak—once the name Uesugi Muneyuki appears in a case, the media's spotlight will immediately turn toward it—anything like "Junior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade, Inspectorate of Censors," "University of Tokyo Doctorate," "Japanese Police Final Weapon," "The Dragon Emerges at Sakuradamon"—all reports will become focused on him personally, rather than on the case.

For the Saitama Prefectural Police, that would be tantamount to publicly admitting they cannot solve the case.

The Kantou police are now caught in a strange vicious circle.

Responsibility for cases occurring in localities falls on local police, while the credit for solving cases goes to the Metropolitan Police Department!

Watanabe Eiji's current power is already considerable, he bears the title of Kantou Joint Director General.

You bastard, everyone sees your Special Mission Division has many soldiers and broad strength, and together they pushed you to become regent, you doing things this way—are you trying to become everyone's royal father?

Acquaintance perpetrator + abundant evidence + DNA left at the scene, everyone is quite certain it will be solved quickly.

This credit should not be given to Uesugi, anyway he doesn't lack this one.

"I understand." Uesugi Muneyuki's voice returned to its usual indifferent and calm tone: "If there is any need, you can contact me anytime, you know where I am."

"Okay, certainly. Thank you very much, Chief Uesugi."

The phone was hung up.

Uesugi Muneyuki put the receiver back, Nango Yui walked over from the window, leaned against the desk edge, and looked at him: "Not letting you go?"

"Hmm."

"I knew it would turn out like this." Nango Yui said: "Local police fear nothing more than someone like you. Young, capable, and still a big name—just standing there makes them look like useless good-for-nothings."

The phone on the desk rang again.

"I'll come~" Maeda Toshihide is always this energetic.

He picked it up, listened for a few seconds, his expression turned subtle, then he sighed with a grimace, covered the microphone, turned his head toward Uesugi Muneyuki: "It's the Chiba Prefecture Police. They found a floating corpse in Tokyo, soaked for at least a week, face completely unrecognizable, identity unknown. They want you to come take a look."

"Then Muneyuki, you and Eirina and Maeda should go check it out—you can go straight home tonight, no need to return to Sakuradamon." Minami Ojou-sama remarked casually.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up, picked up the suit jacket draped over the chair back.

"Let's go."

When he reached the doorway, he paused for a moment, turned back and glanced at the TV set.

The screen had switched to another news item—one after another—a rear-end collision on the Tōkaidō Expressway, three vehicles piled up, two people lightly injured. Fortunately, no one died.

Uesugi Muneyuki thought.

Otherwise, it'd be me doing the autopsy again.

These past few months, examining traffic accident corpses has made me want to vomit, and I haven't gained anything substantial in terms of spiritual essence.

Ah, really exhausting—I don't want to do this anymore!

My annual income now is only 8 million yen from Tokyo University + 7 million yen from the Metropolitan Police Department + 4 million yen from various insurance companies + 12 million yen from Fuji's God's Hand flashlight TV dramas and variety shows, totaling just 30 million yen. After taxes, pension, and social security, my take-home annual income is still under 21 million!

I'm earning less than Shiratori Sho's ex-girlfriend Okada Sayaka!

Maybe I should quit and become a celebrity instead.

Uesugi Muneyuki sighed, pressed the elevator button.

No way—this is almost the only legal identity I have that lets me get close to corpses in large numbers without suspicion, and also obtain spiritual essence.

I like sour and sweet—this is truly me.

Every day for me feels incredibly fresh.

My picky taste buds~have the most unique distinction~~