Chapter 902

January 6th, the first day after the New Year holiday ended.

Yamanaka Yuji returned to Kobe from his hometown.

During these days at his hometown, he sent messages to his sister's phone every day. Each one was like a stone thrown into a deep well, hearing no sound of it landing. His mother asked him, "Any news from Rinka?" He said, "Yes, she said she'd come back after the New Year."

He lied.

He didn't want his mother to worry.

After returning to Kobe, he directly drove to his sister's apartment.

The door was locked. He knocked, but no one answered.

He pressed his ear to the door; inside, there was also no sound.

The row of shoes on the shoe cabinet was still there.

Sneakers, little leather shoes, football shoes, pink rain boots, blue little slippers.

Neatly arranged there, a thin layer of dust had settled on the shoe uppers.

Yamanaka Yuji had an uneasy premonition.

He immediately drove to the children's school.

Today was the first day of school, and several teachers stood at the school gate, holding sign-in sheets, greeting parents dropping off their children. During this special period, not only were the teachers guarding the gate, but also two police officers and two PTA (student parents' self-governing organization) parents were stationed there.

"Today, none of the four children came to school, nor did they take leave. We called, but no one answered." The school said strangely: "I thought you were here to help them take leave, Mr. Yamanaka."

"They didn't take leave? Not even for a day?"

"Not even for a day. Since the last day before the New Year holiday, they haven't come. We thought Ms. Rinka had taken the children back to her hometown for the New Year." The teacher casually said: "Now that the case has blown up like this, we also don't know what to say."

This is impossible!

Yamanaka Yuji roared in his heart: his sister values her children's education above all; she would absolutely never abandon their schooling without taking leave, knowing she had gone to great lengths, pulling favors from regulars at a restaurant, just to secure enrollment spots for the few children!

He immediately rushed to the restaurant!

The rolling shutter door of "Hana-kan" was closed. A note was posted at the door: "Temporarily closed."

He called his partner.

"With this situation, how can we still open the shop? Might as well close for a while!" The partner said on the phone: "Any news from Rinka? No, who knows what's going on with her?"

The ominous premonition grew stronger and stronger. Yamanaka Yuji immediately turned the car and drove to Kobe City Police Department.

"I want to file a report. My sister, Yamada Rinka, and her four children, have gone missing. From before the New Year until now, they haven't returned. Today is the first day of school, and the school said her four children didn't take leave!"

"A missing persons case?" The officer behind the window looked at him: "Yamada Rinka? Why didn't you file a report before the New Year?"

"I did file a report before the New Year!"

"Mr. Yamanaka, there is no record of your report in the system."

Yamanaka Yuji's fingers clenched on the counter, his face full of disbelief: "No record? Are you serious? I personally received the case number from your police. I still have that paper! You bunch of tax-money thieves! What the hell are you even doing!!!"

The clerical officer's face turned slightly pale, he stood up and said, "Please wait a moment," then turned and walked into the inner office.

A few minutes later, a uniformed Assistant Police Inspector came out, took Yamanaka Yuji into a small meeting room.

He looked at the slip of paper Yamanaka Yuji handed over; the corners of the paper were already creased, the handwriting somewhat blurred, but the case number was still legible.

"Mr. Yamanaka, I'm very sorry. This case number exists in our system, but it was never entered into the missing persons database. Before the New Year, the clerical officer responsible for data entry might have... overlooked it. We'll handle it immediately."

Yamanaka Yuji stared into the eyes of that Assistant Police Inspector. Those eyes held guilt, tension, and an admission: "We really messed up on this matter," but they lacked what Yamanaka Yuji wanted.

What he wanted was news about his sister and four children, not an apology!

The Assistant Police Inspector also realized something. After listening to Yamanaka Yuji's description, he walked out of the meeting room to make a phone call.

When he returned, his face had turned completely white, his lips moved a few times before he managed to squeeze out: "Mr. Yamanaka. Could you please describe your sister's physical appearance again?"

Age thirty-nine, height under 1.6 meters, slender build, divorced, living alone with four children in an apartment in Nagata Ward. The Assistant Police Inspector's hand clenched under the desk: "Does your sister have... any physical characteristics? For example... hair... birthmark?"

In the large conference room of Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters.

Ikematsu Toshiaki stood before the whiteboard, his eyes bloodshot.

Four full days!

Absolutely no news!

He and all of Kansai are under immense pressure!

Just then, a police officer finally pushed the door open and rushed in, saying urgently: "Chief, Kobe City Police has news. Someone reported a missing persons case. It was reported before the New Year, but not entered into the system. Today, the family came again to report, and only then did we discover the earlier record had been omitted."

The room erupted in gasps. Ikematsu Toshiaki immediately turned around: "Who is missing?"

"Yamada Rinka, thirty-nine, divorced, living alone with four children in Nagata Ward. She lost contact before the New Year, calls wouldn't go through, the home door was locked, she didn't return for the New Year. Today, on the first day of school, all four children didn't go to school. The family says this is absolutely impossible."

"What about her physical description?"

"Height 1.58 meters, slender build."

The conference room fell silent for a moment.

The Forensic Identification Division Chief stood up from his chair, the Scientific Investigation Research Laboratory Director put down his pen, the Criminal Investigation Division Chief flipped his notebook to a new page: "Where is she?!?!?!" The room erupted in a thunderous roar.

"Her brother is Yamanaka Yuji. He has already been requested to come to headquarters!"

Yamanaka Yuji sat in an office at Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters, before him a cup of tea untouched. A person in a white coat entered, holding a cotton swab for sampling. He swabbed the inside of Yamanaka Yuji's mouth a few times, placed the swab in a test tube, labeled it, and left the room.

This was DNA sampling; sibling DNA can be compared.

Then, a large group of the Western Suit Corps arrived, led by none other than Chief Ikematsu.

"Mr. Yamanaka, I am Ikematsu, Chief of Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters. I have something to tell you. Please prepare yourself mentally."

Yamanaka Yuji stared at his mouth.

His mouth was moving, making sounds, those sounds forming words.

"DNA," "comparison," "murder case," "corpse," "misfortune."

He heard each word, each word like a stone striking his chest.

"Sister... could you let me take a look?"

The morgue is in the basement. The corridor is long, the fluorescent lights are bright white, blindingly white.

Yamanaka Yuji walked behind Ikeda, with the Criminal Investigation Department Chief, the Forensic Identification Division Chief, an Assistant Police Inspector from Kobe City Police Department, and several others whose titles he didn't know following behind him.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor, like some ancient, slow, irreversible funeral march.

The staff of the Forensic Identification Division pulled open the freezer door.

Cold air burst out from inside, carrying a mixed smell of disinfectant and some indescribable, cold, hollow odor. A white cloth covered the upper body of the corpse, the edge of the cloth pressed into the groove of the metal surface. Yamanaka Yuji stood in front of the freezer, looking at that cloth. He reached out, his fingers touching the edge of the cloth, and paused.

Then he lifted the cloth.

It was his sister.

Grayish-white, without any color in the lips, lips tightly closed, eye sockets sunken, cheekbones prominent. Much thinner than when he last saw her. But it was her face. The curve of her eyebrows, the height of her nose bridge, the scar on her left earlobe from when she got her ears pierced as a child.

It was Yamada Rinka.

Yamanaka Yuji's hand still gripped the edge of the cloth, his fingers clenched tightly into the fabric's fibers, the cloth wrinkled deeply from his grip. He laid the cloth back over her.

"It's Rinka." His voice hoarse, he asked with difficulty, as if grasping at the last straw: "It really is Rinka. But, where are the children? Where are the four children?"

No one answered him.

Tears traced Yamanaka Yuji's eye corners, he suppressed his grief, asked again, seeing no one answer, he waved his hand, gesturing for someone to give him a moment alone.

And when everyone came out, all the police at the scene finally couldn't help but erupt in excited low roars and cheers.

Got it!

The case had made a major breakthrough!

The deceased's identity had been found!!!

That morning, in the conference room of Hyogo Prefecture Police Headquarters, the lights were all on.

Ikeda sat at the main seat of the long table, the Criminal Investigation Department Chief stood in front of the whiteboard, the marker pen wrote a new line on the whiteboard: "Yamada Rinka, thirty-nine years old, Nagata Ward apartment, four children missing."

"Identity confirmed!"

"Immediately investigate all personal connections and all financial transactions surrounding Yamada Rinka! Investigate! Investigate hard for me!!!"

"Hi!!!"

"Pull up all surveillance around the Nagata Ward apartment. From one week before Yamada Rinka lost contact until now. Don't miss a single frame." Ikeda's voice was much louder than in the past few days, loud enough that people outside the building could hear it.

"Investigate all her accounts! Externally verify all financial transactions once!"

"Yes!!!"

The technicians' fingers flew across the keyboard.

Four hours later, indeed, there was a discovery!

The surveillance footage scrolled rapidly on the screen, rewinding from January 1st.

December 31st, December 30th, December 29th.

In the footage, people and vehicles walked backward, like a movie being played in reverse.

Stop!

Afternoon.

The parking lot below Yamada Rinka's apartment building.

A black Lexus stopped in the frame, its license plate was from Tokyo.

In the surveillance, a person stepped down from the driver's seat, wearing a dark down jacket, wearing a baseball cap with the brim pulled low. He walked to the apartment building's entrance and pressed the doorbell.

The footage wasn't clear enough to see his face, but his build, gait, and the way he pressed the doorbell were not those of an ordinary person. The technicians enlarged the footage, enlarged it again.

The blurry pixels were stretched into square color blocks, the edges of the blocks flickered on the screen, like some code being deciphered. Everyone stood before the screen, bodies slightly leaning forward, his eyes discerned a human outline from that mosaic-like blur: "Souda Sosuke! Shortstop of the Seibu Lions!"

The air in the conference room ignited at that moment, a slow spread from one end to the other, like the hiss of a burning fuse, the long-suppressed excitement finally finding an outlet.

It ignited!

Someone stood up, someone slapped the table, someone threw their notebook onto the desk.

"What about Yamada Rinka's bank records? Pull them up." Ikeda Headquarters Chief had already recalled recent news.

Another team of technicians pulled up all bank accounts under Yamada Rinka's name.

"She withdrew money! She withdrew money!"

The bank records showed that on this very day, Yamada Rinka made withdrawals and transfers totaling nearly 100 million yen!

The fuse in the conference room reached its end and exploded.

This money was exactly what Souda Sosuke was supposed to pay Eto Miyabi!

"It's him! The killer is him!"

"Go to Tokyo to arrest him! Arrest him!!!!"

"Who said we in Kansai can't solve a case without Uesugi? Get out here!!!!"