Chapter 816

Uesugi Muneyuki was performing the autopsy inside, while Okada Masayoshi and the others waited outside.

Okada Masayoshi is also 31 years old this year, and he is currently in the prime of his career as a police officer; at just 31, as a Special Mission Division Supervisor, he is undoubtedly a star police officer worthy of the Metropolitan Police Department and even the nation, but unlike Kashiwagi Jin who prefers to act flamboyantly, Okada Masayoshi is relatively low-key, clearly having had enough of the trouble from that previous time he showed off.

And behind Okada Masayoshi, Date Nagamune and Maeda Toshihide were again arguing.

The two were chatting using the kind of honorifics only used among the old nobility, but the topic was what to eat for lunch.

"Date-sama, do you think they'll prepare lunch for us at the Kawaguchi Police Station?" Maeda Toshihide's tone carried a youthful lightness, but the way he used honorifics made it sound like he was performing in a period drama.

Addressing someone as "so-and-so-sama" in Japanese is a term of respect, but without a doubt, coming from their mouths it carried a strong flavor of sarcasm and mock politeness.

"Maeda-sama, based on my understanding of local police, they at most prepare convenience store rice balls and bottled tea." Date Nagamune replied expressionlessly, using the same exaggerated honorifics.

These two guys had argued in the car earlier about what exactly was going on with this case, they had major disagreements, Maeda Toshihide believed without doubt that this case was motivated by hatred, while Date Nagamune thought it should be about money and beauty, or even possibly driven by a deranged criminal, they argued endlessly, and in the end, sure enough, they started insulting each other's mothers.

"I just can't figure it out—Matsumoto Yumi and her two daughters don't possess any peerless beauty of national significance, and even the younger daughter looks very much like her father; if they wanted to satisfy that kind of need, why wouldn't the killer do something else? Going to Ōkubo Park for a night stay would only cost seven or eight thousand and the quality isn't bad either, so why personally break in, steal, and violate? Therefore, I believe this case is very likely motivated by hatred, because only then would such a bloody and brutal scene occur." Maeda Toshihide said very firmly.

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible! If it were a grudge, why would the Kawaguchi police have investigated over four hundred people and still not find a single suspicious person? And do you think it's you? If you have needs, you can go to Ōkubo, Shibuya, Umeda, the exclave of Kabukicho, Akihabara hostess clubs, bubble baths, paid dating, and even take it out on your precious TakaraZuka Hikari-chan? You're joking, right? This is absolutely a premeditated robbery and lust crime with no pattern!" Date Nagamune said angrily: "Or perhaps it's similar to an antisocial personality! That's the only way they wouldn't be found!"

"Damn it! I won't let you talk nonsense, Hikari-chan is a good girl! On the contrary, it's your Akane-chan, humph~ little idol type stuff, TMD send it to me to sleep with, I'd still have to weigh whether I'd get sick!"

"Ritual phrase! You damn fool! Akane-chan is a good girl! Her family background is good, she's from a moderately well-off family, she has her own countryside holiday villa in Shinan, wants for nothing in food and clothing, self-respecting and self-loving, that's what makes a good girl!"

"Huh? This is called a good girl? I'd rather believe Hikari-chan's type, who sleeps only five hours a day, spends eighteen hours daily on performance training, rehearsals, studying, and attending classes, and one hour eating—that's what a good girl is, because she has no time at all to go out and play! Only this kind cultivated from TakaraZuka can be a pure courtesan!"

"Good girl!" "Slut!" "Good girl!" "Slut!" "Slutty girl!" "Good slut!" "Navy idiot!" "Army idiot!"

"Enough!!!" Okada Masayoshi said, and the two immediately shut up.

Okada Masayoshi is not someone who enjoys idle chatter.

His role in the Special Mission Division is "the Brain" one by one—responsible for analyzing information, integrating clues, proposing hypotheses; his thinking style is the typical result of elite training: structured, logical, leaving no blind spots.

It was then that Maeda and Date finally shut up.

Your father is a Ministry of Finance Official, you are a Star Police Officer National Hero, you speak.

These two people still obey Okada.

There's no way, the Special Mission Division now consists entirely of second-generation elites and connection hires, and to keep this group of second-generation elites and connection hires in line, either it takes someone like Uesugi Muneyuki, this kind of maniac who gets things done, or someone like Minami, who has even stronger connections, and since Okada Masayoshi has both, there's naturally nothing to say. "If you keep arguing, I'll bring over Higashiyama Takeshi from the Metropolitan Police Department's Forensic Identification Division and give each of you a deep kiss with a round face and beard, and I'll even make you stick your tongue out and circle it around your teeth." Okada Masayoshi said coldly.

These two guys shivered, exchanged a glance, and immediately said, "Don't do that kind of thing!"

After a while, Uesugi Muneyuki came out.

"Uesugi, any findings?" "Uesugi-san!" "Uesugi Chief, this must be a revenge killing, right? Right?" However, unlike usual when Uesugi Muneyuki would have answers immediately after an autopsy, this time he just frowned.

"For now, we can't find enough traces, and according to the investigation of the victim's interpersonal relationships, it's also impossible for an acquaintance to have committed the crime, so I lean toward a viewpoint: namely, that there is such a possibility—that the perpetrator likely knows Matsumoto Yumi, but Matsumoto Yumi does not know them."

Uesugi Muneyuki's view is that the perpetrator should know Matsumoto Yumi, and according to the current situation, the perpetrator understands Matsumoto Yumi quite well, but Matsumoto Yumi completely does not know them.

This means, this is a familiar stranger.

Therefore, Uesugi Muneyuki believes that in this situation, it would cause Matsumoto Yumi, when her husband is not home and facing a stranger, to actively choose to open the door, and there are only two possibilities.

Either the person knocking is a woman, or the person knocking is a child.

However, the Kawaguchi police have already dragged a net to investigate all the friends and school connections of the Matsumoto family's two children, so the daughter's friends can be ruled out (of course, he has already heard Matsumoto Yumi say this herself).

So in summary, Uesugi Muneyuki believes there is only one possibility.

The person knocking is a woman, and she has a man following behind her.

The perpetrator is a familiar stranger, and this kind of one-sided understanding situation only occurs online!

That is to say, it's a northern netizen pretending to be Japanese!

"Hiss!!!"

Everyone at the scene sucked in a breath of cold air, instantly making the world feel much warmer, even the Arctic ice cap melted a little! Matsumoto Yumi, forty-one years old, housewife, has accounts on INS and Twitter. The content on her INS is mostly food and family life photos—today she made curry rice, her daughter ranked third in class, the whole family went to Disney on the weekend. Every photo has been carefully edited, the color tone warm, the captions accompanied by emojis, making her look like a typical, happy, middle-class family's daily life.

The content on her Twitter is more personal, sometimes forwarding parenting tips and articles about housewives' survival status, occasionally complaining that her husband socializes too much, her daughter is rebellious in adolescence, but the overall mood is positive and upward.

And because she is a housewife, Matsumoto Yumi is constantly working hard on Twitter every day! She has several thousand followers, and one of life's great joys for her is sharing, sharing her own life.

"But the Kawaguchi police had already investigated Matsumoto Yumi's own social networks around her, and yet they found nothing!" Maeda Toshihide couldn't help but say.

"Fool! Because if Uesugi's inference is true, then the perpetrator doesn't even need to show up!" Kai Toru finally couldn't hold back: "Because the perpetrator doesn't need to leave a message, doesn't need to reply, doesn't need to chat with Matsumoto Yumi in the online world!"

"The perpetrator only needs to observe, click in to look, and that's enough!" Ikeda Erena also suddenly realized: "In other words, the killer we're facing is actually a ghost that fundamentally doesn't exist!"

"Exactly, this killer fundamentally doesn't exist in Matsumoto Yumi's acquaintance network or neighborhood, but she is indeed a familiar stranger!" "Understood, I'll immediately contact the Kawaguchi Police Headquarters!" Okada Masayoshi said sternly: "Special Mission Division, move out!"

"GIG!"

And when Uesugi Muneyuki told his inference to the Kawaguchi police, the officer in charge of this case, Inspector Yokoyama, was first stunned, but then suddenly realized!

Indeed, it can, and only can, have this explanation!

As expected of the Japanese police's ultimate weapon!

"Immediately fully support Chief Uesugi's judgment, everyone, come over!" The entire Kawaguchi Prefecture Special Investigation Headquarters became excited again. All previous relationship networks were overturned, all suspects re-evaluated, previously collected information re-reviewed!

Of course, there's also the most important thing: re-investigating Matsumoto Yumi's INS and Twitter.

Okada Masayoshi began to notice a detail.

In Yumi's INS following list, there is an interest group, roughly the "Kantou Mama Ryōri Kōryūkai" or similar. She is very active in this group, posting almost every day to share her cooking, and also commenting on others' posts.

The content of the comments is mostly praise and encouragement, but occasionally—about every ten or so—there appears some clearly emotionally charged argument. For example, two months ago, someone in the group posted a photo of high-quality wagyu beef, with the caption "My husband bought it, saying it's to reward me."

Matsumoto Yumi's comment was: "How nice, my husband never buys me things like this." The tone sounded like she was joking, but then came replies from several people, one of whom said "Some people are just never satisfied," "With that much money, they should give it to those who need help instead of showing off wealth," and Matsumoto Yumi replied to that person's comment, her tone turning sharp: "What did I say? I'm just a little envious, do you really need to talk like that?" Another example: three weeks ago, a wealthy housewife in the group posted saying her daughter got into a private prestigious school, accompanied by a photo of the acceptance letter.

Matsumoto Yumi's comment was "Congratulations," but then someone replied to her comment: "How did your daughter do?" Matsumoto Yumi replied with "So-so," and then this topic ended.

It looks completely normal, but if combined with the hypothesis Uesugi Muneyuki is building—that the killer might have locked onto the Matsumoto family through some means, then these seemingly ordinary online social behaviors become worth scrutinizing.

"I believe this invisible person probably gradually locked onto Matsumoto Yumi through this method." Uesugi Muneyuki said to everyone: "Very likely, on INS and Twitter, countless people share their lives every day—where they live, how many people are in the family, which school the children attend, when the husband gets off work, where they go on weekends—these pieces of information, if you have the heart, can be pieced together into a complete life trajectory." Okada Masayoshi's voice was very calm, but his speech speed was slightly faster than usual, a sign his mind had entered high-speed operation: "Matsumoto Yumi is someone who particularly enjoys sharing. Her INS has over 1,300 posts, most of which lack location information. As long as someone with intent spends an afternoon going through her account, they can know which district she lives in, what her house looks like, the nature of her husband's work, and her daughter's school commute times."

"Looks like we have the answer." After scrolling to the last post, Date Nagamune said dazedly.

The last tweet was posted at 5:13 PM on the day of the incident: "Today my husband isn't home at night, I made curry for dinner, my eldest daughter said it's too spicy, my youngest said it's not spicy enough, I'm stuck in the middle having a hard time being a person (laughing/crying/laughing/crying) #Housewife's Daily Life"

The accompanying image is a pot of curry, with large chunks of carrot and potato visible in the golden-yellow broth. The photo is well-shot, composition careful, lighting soft, as if a filter was used.

Okada Masayoshi then clicked into her following list, and then into her followers list.

Several thousand followings and several thousand followers, most are ordinary users—housewives, food bloggers, parenting accounts, celebrity official accounts, em……Shirakawa Mai and Uesugi Shiro super topics, "Hand of God" TV drama super topic, White Knight Knight fan group, forever supporting the Uesugi-Shiro official couple CP! He didn't have time to go through them one by one, but he noticed a detail: Matsumoto Yumi's INS account and Twitter account are linked, with the content posted on both platforms highly overlapping.

And on INS, the "Kantou Mama Ryōri Kōryūkai" group she joined is a public group, anyone can view the posts and comments in the group.

Seeing this, everyone already understood something.

The killer, or rather the instigator of this matter, that nonexistent killer, came over feeling the Ethernet cable!!

"Contact Gunma immediately!" Uesugi Muneyuki immediately shouted at everyone: "I need to know whether that case also has a similar situation!"

"Okayama Prefecture!!!"