Chapter 911

"Eto Miyabi?"

In Uesugi Muneyuki's mind came the image of that woman wearing a horse-face skirt, thick black pantyhose, and red-soled black high heels, her eyes like peach blossoms radiant, and he felt some hesitation.

Eto Miyabi is undoubtedly a woman with great ambition, sufficient learning, and skilled at maneuvering, and it is precisely this special aura she displays that caught Uesugi Muneyuki's eye at first glance.

This is just like the aura on Xiao Yinghua of "Sakura's Aspiration Chronicle," "yearning to rise above others," which is very attractive, and it also perfectly matches the female lead in the first episode of "Hand of God," whose husband died mysteriously, as a widow scheming through her husband's "death in duty" to gain benefits for herself, yearning for revenge and yearning to rise above others in her character arc.

Indeed, following Lao Ren's "maximum beneficiary" theory, the biggest beneficiary of the Souda Sosuke incident is Eto Miyabi—he toiled for years playing ball and earned five hundred million yen, only for Eto Miyabi to cut off three hundred million with one stroke due to his infidelity plus child support, and because of this Eto Miyabi holds absolute moral superiority; now adding that her husband is a murderer and that before marriage she already had affairs with other married women, and later Yamada Reika divorced, then it was Souda's turn as a husband to have an affair, so it can be considered that the maximum beneficiary is Eto Miyabi herself.

But does Eto Miyabi have a motive to kill?

"I have a question, Kashiwagi." Uesugi Muneyuki thought for a moment and said: "First, judging from the current situation, whether the killer disposed of the body or otherwise, they would need considerable medical knowledge and considerable physical strength; Eto Miyabi, regardless of whether she actually had motive to kill her husband and lover, could she herself do these things?"

"The separation agreement requires a large sum of cash. If Souda Sosuke's reputation is ruined due to the affair scandal, she could get more money, more compensation, more sympathy in the divorce lawsuit. She has motive, she has money, she has resources. She doesn't need to do it herself; she can hire a killer." Kashiwagi Jin said very matter-of-factly: "Why not?"

"If she hired a killer……wouldn't she fear being threatened in return by the killer?" Uesugi Muneyuki still felt it strange.

"Enough already, in Japan here, hiring killers from Southeast Asia is commonplace; nowadays domestic gangs rarely hire killers, but Southeast Asians specialize in taking on such jobs, a head ranging from several hundred thousand to up to ten million yen, no deception." Lao Ren said even more firmly: "Anonymous order, anonymous delivery! No middleman profiting from the spread! Everyone uses the new, what do we do with the old? Second-hand heads, just go to Xuanxuan!"

"Well……alright, then let's tentatively say Eto Miyabi also has suspicion." Uesugi Muneyuki thought for a moment and said to Kashiwagi Jin: "In that case, tomorrow morning we'll split into two groups—I'll go re-examine the crime scene at Yamada Reika's apartment; I don't trust the Hyogo Prefectural Police forensic report, I want to see it myself. You investigate the ex-husband."

"Okay. Meisa will follow you. She's more familiar with the Kansai forensic system than I am, and she can act as liaison between you and me." Uesugi Muneyuki turned from the window, looking at Kashiwagi Misa.

Kashiwagi Misa stood in the shadow by the window, her expression half-lit, half-dark in the light and shadow interplay, the corner of her mouth slightly raised in an arc only Uesugi Muneyuki could read.

A world for just two?

Uesugi Muneyuki averted his gaze, thinking "A world for just two? Pfft," people outside, Master Eriringa never leaves my side by more than ten steps.

The hour hand pointed to three a. m.

"Hurry up and rest a bit. We'll move at dawn." Uesugi Muneyuki said in a deep voice.

"Good!" Kashiwagi Jin glanced at Kashiwagi Misa: "Let's get two rooms."

"Mm."

Splitting into two groups, Uesugi Muneyuki's side began action at eight a. m.

Uesugi Muneyuki took Kashiwagi Misa, Ikeda Erena, and Kai Kyo in the car to Yamada Reika's apartment in Nagata Ward.

This area is Kobe's old city, with narrow roads and many slopes; most buildings on both sides are apartment blocks built in the mid-Shōwa era, their ivory exteriors faded to gray-white in the sea wind.

The building where Yamada Reika lives is at the deepest part of this slope; going further up leads to the woodland of the Rokko Mountains.

"How did you come here?" Ikeda Erena had changed into a French autumn paulownia crimson summer coffee-scented Western suit suit, paired with a bodycon skirt, flesh-toned opaque pantyhose, and a pair of black knee-high genuine leather long boots, her long legs dashing, her aura heroic and imposing, having been nurtured and trained by Uesugi Muneyuki for years, the tall beauty now rarely wears plain suit trousers and leather shoes entirely; she will dress up a little, walking with her chest swaying so much it shakes the earth and moves mountains, shaking so much one cannot look away.

Seeing Kashiwagi Misa appear here, Ikeda Erena's lovely face had her eyes wide open and round.

She and Kashiwagi Misa are not very familiar.

Kashiwagi Misa then wore the most standard outdoor winter female Western suit skirt, matched with a heavy coat over it and thick black pantyhose, approximately 120D thickness; hearing Ikeda Erena's question, the iceberg beauty married female policewoman smiled: "One Jin cannot be split between two sides; I'm here to help with live coverage." After saying that, the former face of the Metropolitan Police Department pointed to her own chest phone, indicating she would video call Kashiwagi Jin again.

"Alright, less talk, let's go in and have a look." Uesugi Muneyuki stood at the apartment building's entrance, looked up at the second-floor window. The curtains were drawn, no light leaked through. He had seen many apartments, many crime scenes, but this building gave him a strange feeling, as if part of it had been sucked out, the remaining parts struggling to maintain normal operation like a hollow; Ikeda Erena followed behind him, holding a metal box in her hand, inside which was portable investigation equipment, brought from Tokyo.

Kai Kyo walked last, his gaze sweeping over each window in the corridor, pausing momentarily at the edge of each window's curtain. The caretaker old lady recognized them, especially Uesugi Muneyuki.

She opened the door for them without even needing to flash the police handbook.

Inside, almost nothing had changed. Same as when Yamada Yuji and the Kobe police last saw it: sofa cushions neatly arranged, no water cup on the coffee table, TV remote in its fixed position.

The row of shoes on the entryway shoe cabinet remained—sneakers, little leather shoes, football shoes, pink rain boots, blue little slippers—neatly arranged, the dust on the shoe uppers thicker than last time.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood in the center of the living room, his gaze sweeping from ceiling to floor, from window to wall corner; his eyes were not searching for any specific thing, but feeling and capturing those "things that should not exist."

"Come, Misa, do a 360-degree turn, let me see what the crime scene is like?" Kashiwagi Jin's voice came from the phone; Kashiwagi Misa pulled out her phone and turned 360 degrees on the spot.

Lao Ren's formal case-breaking declaration, activate!!

Her movements were light, with no extra sound; she filmed a panorama of the living room, then the kitchen, then the corridor. Her camera moved slowly, steadily, each frame as clear as a frozen image.

Uesugi Muneyuki was crouched on the floor of the entryway, his line of sight almost parallel to the ground, his gaze starting from the bottom of the shoe cabinet, scanning inch by inch over those corners no one would notice.

Spirit Vision! Activate!

Indeed, Uesugi Muneyuki had made some discoveries.

In the corner of the living room, near the TV cabinet, at the junction of floor and wall, there was a dark, irregular mark, shape unnatural, not like spilled water stains, nor like dust accumulation, like the outline left by some liquid after drying, its color several shades darker than the surrounding floor, the diffusion at the edges showing it had been forcibly wiped, but inside the crevice still remained unseen-to-the-naked-eye fibrous residue not completely cleaned.

"Looks like someone spilled ink and then desperately wiped it off?" Ikeda Erena said curiously: "At home there are brat kids, spilling ink is inevitable."

"Maybe yes, maybe no, but……here! Master!" Uesugi Muneyuki immediately gestured for Ikeda Erena to take a bottle of reagent from the metal box and spray it on that mark.

A few seconds later, the surface of the mark fluoresced blue-green.

It was blood!

Kai Kyo poked his head out from the bedroom, voice kept very low: "Mr. Uesugi, we also found something here."

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up and walked into the bedroom.

Kai Kyo crouched by the bedside, pointing to the inner corner of the nightstand. There was also a mark, more concealed than the living room's. If not specifically going to flip those no-one-would-notice crevices, one would not notice it.

Also blood.

Cleaned but not thoroughly cleaned. Uesugi Muneyuki sprayed reagent again, and blue-green fluorescence lit up on the wooden surface inside the nightstand.

"The Hyogo Prefectural Police Forensic Identification Division did not conduct chemical reagent tests." Uesugi Muneyuki's voice was not loud, but the temperature in his tone was very low: "Their report wrote 'No obvious blood traces found at the scene.' Not found because they just glanced with their eyes, thought 'clean,' and wrote the conclusion."

"Japan's forensic and medical examiner standards are truly terrible. Kansai is bad, Kanto is bad. Nationwide it's all six of one, half a dozen of the other." "No problem, we're here!" Ikeda Erena was a little excited, she put the reagent bottle back into the metal box, then continued spraying reagent in the gaps between the bathroom floor and wall tiles; blue-green fluorescence lit up in the grout at the edge of the drain, those diluted traces, most washed away by water flow but still left in the crevices, in the darkness like a group of silent eyes.

Uesugi Muneyuki stood up, thinking in place.

Actually, having blood traces doesn't prove much.

Having blood traces at home is normal, especially with a bunch of brat kids.

But could this indicate that a fight once occurred in the home?

Just then, Kashiwagi Misa suddenly said: "Huh?"

Uesugi Muneyuki, Ikeda Erena, Kai Kyo: "?"

Only then did Kashiwagi Misa realize she had been a bit abrupt; her face flushed, in front of Uesugi Muneyuki she could not maintain her iceberg beauty married woman aura, so she could only say softly: "Ren has a discovery, I don't know if this counts or not, but……it's this." "This is?" Uesugi Muneyuki narrowed his eyes.

In the corner between the kitchen and living room wall, a pink plastic bowl was placed, its rim showing gnaw marks.

Next to the bowl was a cat litter box, the litter inside already clumped, with a ring of dried urine stains around the rim.

There was still an opened bag of cat food behind the bowl, the bag mouth open, and some cat food had spilled out.

Cat food, cat bowl, cat litter.

"There are cat supplies, but where did the cat go?" Ikeda Erena said curiously.

"Yes, Ren also meant that, where did the cat go?" Kashiwagi Misa said in a low voice.

"Maybe it ran off on its own?" Kai Toru said casually.

Only Uesugi Muneyuki furrowed his brow; the cat running away was normal, possibly the killer let it escape during the crime, or possibly the killer disposed of it along the way.

But... he faintly felt he had missed something.

The cat is missing? No, that's not the point, the point is...

What is it?

Kobe City, Higashinada Ward, a detached villa in a certain upscale residential area.

The living room lights were bright, and the floor-to-ceiling window offered a view of the Rokkō Mountains' outline.

Yanaka Rinka's ex-husband, Kuroda Kenichi, sat on the sofa, holding a glass of whiskey in his hand, the ice cubes at the bottom slowly turning in the amber liquid.

He is a prominent figure in Kobe City and even the entire Kansai region, the president of Kuroda Industries Co., Ltd., and one of the leaders in the Kobe beef wholesale business.

The supply of Kobe beef to most high-end restaurants in Kobe passes through his channels; his annual income is enough that he doesn't need to bow his head in front of the Hyogo Prefectural Police Chief.

He looked at the two people before him, Okada Masayoshi and Maeda Toshihide.

Kuroda Kenichi's face maintained an expression of violent rage; this was already the second time his scar had been exposed, and as a man, he could not tolerate such humiliation—you cops, when will you be done?!

However, this ex-husband brother still had to receive these two police officers.

Because of Okada Masayoshi.

Okada is undoubtedly a national hero, a great hero who bravely rescued kindergarten girls in front of the entire nation; his father is Okada Masahide, Vice Minister of Finance—let alone him being the president of Kuroda Industries in Kobe, even the chairman of Mitsubishi Group would have to give Okada Masahide face.

Moreover, Okada Masayoshi before... the two of them could be said to be fellow sufferers!

"Mr. Kuroda, we're not here to ask you about the case. Hyogo Prefectural Police have already asked. We're here to listen to what you have to say." Maeda Toshihide said in a low voice; Kuroda Kenichi slammed his whiskey glass onto the coffee table, the bottom hitting the glass tabletop with a sound heavier than usual, whiskey splashing out considerably.

"What do you want to know? Do you want to know how I divorced that woman? Do you want to know why I have to pay her alimony every month? Do you want to know why I hate her to the bone but still have to pretend in public that we 'parted peacefully'?"

Maeda Toshihide opened his notebook to prepare notes, and Okada Masayoshi did not stop him.

Kuroda Kenichi's voice was hoarse but strong, like a tiger backed into a corner: "The incident happened several years ago!"

"Several years ago? What incident?" Okada Masayoshi was a bit confused.

"Several years ago, I and that slut were still husband and wife; once, I had something come up temporarily and didn't go on a business trip, so I came back halfway to Kobe, Okada-san, you get it?" Kuroda president said with a sarcastic tone: "Just like you, you get it?"

Okada Masayoshi's face instantly turned green; he understood, completely understood!

Something happened at home just like what happened to Okada Miki!

"When I bumped into them, Souda Sosuke was walking out with his arm around her, their faces pressed together."

"At that moment I rushed over and confronted them about what they were doing; I wanted to punch that slut and that fish, but I couldn't beat him." Kuroda president said hatefully.

"Eh? You guys, you fought?" Maeda Toshihide was startled.

"What's so surprising about that? It's just that this fish is younger than me, stronger than me, faster than me, no way, after all he's a baseball player; he pressed me to the ground in a few moves, put his knee on my back, and told me 'You'd better pretend you saw nothing, otherwise you know the consequences'; I couldn't beat him, so I could only agree, let him run."

Kuroda Kenichi closed his eyes: "After that we divorced."

"I went to do a paternity test, hah hah, the son isn't mine. Those three daughters, I didn't test. I know asking would be pointless. The result doesn't matter; what matters is that, according to the law, children born during marriage are always considered the husband's, no matter what. Even if I proved it wasn't mine, the court wouldn't change it. I can only accept it, only pay alimony, only look at the bill each month and think that's my money, think that woman is using my money to raise her lover and her lover's child. Can you imagine that?"

"You pay money every month to someone who betrayed you!!! Let her use your money to raise the child of the person who hit you. This is Japan's divorce law!!!"

"Japan, this country, is already, dead!!!!!!!!!!!!"

He picked up that whiskey glass and drank it all in one go: "You get it? Okada!! You definitely get it!! TMD when I heard that slut died! I popped champagne! The only thing I thought was how that dog Souda thing didn't die with her, getting dismembered ah ah ah!!!" Okada Masayoshi could understand Kuroda's anger; the anger and humiliation in those eyes were not fake, but from a person who had been repeatedly trampled by life yet not completely crushed, and when mentioning those things, he would still squeeze out every word from between his teeth.

"You've had it tough, Mr. Kuroda." Okada Masayoshi knew Kuroda Kenichi needed not an answer, but an audience.

"Damn, my family's big business, if this gets exposed it's bad for me, you know Japanese courts only believe women, and marriage has basically no binding power, Yanaka Rinka could even mate with wild dogs and it'd be her freedom, but if a scandal breaks out my company will be affected! So I didn't make a fuss!" Kuroda Kenichi cursed again: "Divorce then divorce, that slut, and those few little bastards, I wish they all died! Anyway, who knows which one is my seed? I don't care, I later went to the US and found two surrogate mothers who gave birth to two sons, those are my children; as for Yanaka Rinka and the four kids? None of my business!"

"Besides, I've been in Hawaii all New Year; before New Year, unfortunately, I was always at the company, with surveillance and staff, all kinds of evidence." Kuroda president said casually: "I really did want to kill her, but if there's no evidence, I won't accept your accusations! I already have my own children and my new life; without new evidence, don't come bother me again!"

Okada Masayoshi took the notebook from Maeda Toshihide's hand, drew a circle on it, circling Kuroda Kenichi, then drew a line connecting that circle to the other two names.

Kuroda Kenichi's anger is real, the humiliation of being ashamed is real, the monthly alimony is real.

His motive is real.

But his alibi is also real.

"Mr. Kuroda, thank you for your cooperation. If we need anything later, we'll come back." Okada Masayoshi sympathized and patted Kuroda president's shoulder.

"Good brother, no more words; if you ever come to Kobe, just look me up." Kuroda president stood up, also patted Okada Masayoshi's arm, and the two men clasped hands, looking at each other with tear-filled eyes, speechless, choking up.

And when Okada Masayoshi and Maeda Toshihide et al. came out, Kashiwagi Jin listened and then twitched the corner of his mouth.

"This ex-husband brother is very likely not the killer."

"I think the same way." Okada Masayoshi deeply agreed.