Scandal

<Shocking! Beika Police Station inspector suspected of violent interrogation!>

<Champion of justice? Or a demon who forced confessions? The secret behind a veteran detective!>

<Who was dancing along the boundary between power and the rule of law?>

<Industry insiders admitted: Witness intimidation and obscured facts—Beika Police Station may be held accountable.>

September 28th, Wednesday. The morning assembly was canceled.

In its place was an emergency meeting of the police station's senior staff!

As soon as the meeting began, Shiraishi tossed a stack of newspapers onto the conference table. The sharp smack echoed through the room, and the deputy chiefs and section chiefs seated along both sides of the long table fell silent as cicadas in winter. They did not need to read the papers to know what they said—their phones had already pushed the news to them that morning...

Early that very morning, these reports had begun appearing in rapid succession.

After a moment of silence, Shiraishi said, "Section Chief Shirai, report on the case."

"Chief, I will take responsibility for this matter. At Friday's retrial, I will..." Shirai looked ashen, clearly deeply shaken by what had happened.

It was not so much the fact that his improper interrogation had been exposed, but rather...

The times had rolled right over him again!

Ten years ago, there never would have been such an uproar. At heart, he could not accept this kind of change with the times. He even felt everyone was making a mountain out of a molehill and stirring up trouble for no reason...

"I told you to report on the case!" Shiraishi cut him off directly.

Shirai's face twitched with lingering defiance—what the hell did a transfer like Shiraishi know about solving cases...? When Shiraishi went to deal with Violent Organizations, did he strictly follow standard dispatch and questioning procedures?

And this time, the case in question was a murder!

The reason Beika Police Station had taken the lead on this case, without any sign of First Investigation Division, was also because Shirai had volunteered for it. Under the customary unwritten rules, when a serious crime occurred in Tokyo, the Metropolitan Police Department would intervene during the first week. But if the local station had its own ideas, then as long as a special task force had not yet been formed, neither side had to unify or coordinate their investigative approach. They could investigate separately.

Normally, though, local police stations would not do that. They would obediently assist First Investigation Division, and no matter how the investigation turned out, they would not be held responsible!

At that moment, the former station chief seated at the head of the left side spoke up voluntarily. "Chief Shiraishi, this matter... is actually the responsibility of us old fellows. If I remember correctly, the investigation concluded on the 19th, and the case was sent to the prosecutors on September 20th. The handover had not been completed yet, and I wanted to avoid leaving behind old cases, so I did not mention it to you. This has nothing to do with Chief Shiraishi. As for facing the public afterward..."

Ebihara was trying to take the blame himself. He could not let Shiraishi take the fall right after arriving—by the time Shiraishi assumed office, the investigation phase had largely concluded. The case was sent to the prosecutors on Shiraishi's third day in office. Shiraishi had learned about it from the news, so it made no sense to make him answer for problems discovered in the investigation!

"Chief Ebihara, since I am the station chief, I will take responsibility for everything at this station. I understand your good intentions, but... there is no need to say any more. Whether it is apologizing or being cursed at, I will not shy away from it.

"Right now, I am dealing with the problems within this station. Section Chief Shirai, state the details of the case... Don't tell me you have already forgotten the details?" Shiraishi said, fixing Shirai with a stare.

Shirai immediately replied, "Of course not!"

That was questioning his professional competence...

Shirai considered himself an expert in solving cases. It was simply that the times had gone bad, leaving him unable to show what he could do.

Perhaps he really should have been crushed by the times a little. Still, he was not an irresponsible officer...

Without even needing notes, Shirai began explaining the case!

(Normally, from the investigation of a murder case to prosecution and then trial, the process would take at least several months. But in a novel, it could not be written in an interwoven fashion, or the pacing would become a mess. So the timelines for investigation, prosecution, and trial had been drastically compressed. Just treat it as a rule of this parallel world!)

"On the night of September 3rd, we received a report that Station Manager Hayashida of the gas station in Beika Town's Third District had been stabbed to death in his home. The first person to discover the body was a neighbor...

"During the investigation, I found that employee Tsubokura was highly suspicious. Before the crime, he had been scolded and verbally fired by the station manager. Colleagues also testified that they heard him say things like, 'I'll kill you.'

"The murder weapon was at the scene. It was a kitchen knife from the victim's home, and Tsubokura's fingerprints were recovered from it." Shirai directly laid out the course of the case.

"So the main basis for concluding the case was motive and fingerprints on the murder weapon, correct? What do you think about the accusation here that you intimidated a witness?" Shiraishi asked directly.

Shirai looked somewhat impatient, but he still said, "That man did raise an alibi. He claimed that on the afternoon of the crime, he had been spacing out in Beika Park...

"But he only said, after being detained for several days, that he had bought coffee at the time of the crime. By then, the employee from the coffee truck's memory was already very vague, and the testimony itself was unclear!"

As Shirai spoke, Shiraishi continued observing his expressions—Micro-expression Mind Reading was also a skill Shiraishi had raised to Lv7...

"If it was a coffee truck, there should have been a record in the ordering machine, right?" Shiraishi decisively questioned the vague point in Shirai's account.

Shirai paused before saying, "That's right... The investigation found that, during the time of the crime... between one and two thirty in the afternoon, there was only one order."

"The coffee type matched the type the suspect claimed to have ordered?" Shiraishi asked directly.

"Yes." Shirai nodded.

"After learning that, did the employee provide supplementary testimony?" Every one of Shiraishi's questions struck at the heart of the matter.

"Yes... but that kind of testimony was completely unreliable! That cunning criminal had obviously deliberately waited several days, until the employee's memory had blurred, before bringing it up, so..." Shirai hurriedly explained.

To Shirai, Tsubokura's trick had been obvious—the employee could not possibly remember someone who had bought coffee once, several days earlier in the afternoon!

But Shiraishi interrupted him. "So you did, to some extent... imply to the witness, leading them to say they had remembered incorrectly and not mention it in their testimony... correct?"

"That's right... That man was definitely the murderer! I could see it in his eyes! How could we let him escape punishment for such a reason...? If even we are this weak, then this country's laws and justice..." As Shirai spoke, he became increasingly agitated.

"Shirai Jo!" Shiraishi stopped him by calling his full name.

"Heh... You wouldn't understand either, Chief..." Shirai said dejectedly.

Indeed, Shirai still had a hurdle he could not get past—after interrogation procedures became standardized, his case-solving rate had become mediocre, and he had been transferred down to Beika Police Station. Even at Beika Police Station, he had accomplished little for a long time. As a key man transferred from First Investigation Division, that placed enormous psychological pressure on him!

By comparison, Shiraishi had also been transferred down to a local police station, but he had put his own ideals into practice, solved a major case, and was then promoted in name while being demoted in substance. Colleagues who knew the inside story all gave him a thumbs-up in their hearts. If Shirai had been like that too, perhaps he would have been much calmer...

Shiraishi tapped the table, then said, "Everyone else, go back to your work for now... Shirai, stay behind. Call Criminal Affairs Division Investigation Unit 4... and people from Units 3 and 2 as well. Have them come to the conference room..."

"Chief Shiraishi..." Ebihara reminded him reluctantly.

It was not that he felt sorry for Shirai, but that he felt sorry for Shiraishi—if Shiraishi insisted on reopening the investigation and even personally took charge, he would undoubtedly be taking responsibility for the matter onto himself.

From a purely professional standpoint, as the new station chief, Shiraishi could have completely washed his hands of a scandal that had happened before he took office, but...

"It's fine. Leave it to me."

Shiraishi was clearly not someone who only cared about official business.

Dongdong: I made one revision to an earlier part. Ran's Lv9 was lowered to Lv8, two levels below Kyogoku Makoto.

Also, this Lv was merely a statistical measure for ease of description, so there was no need to take it too seriously.

For one thing, "Physical Constitution Lv" only referred to strength at average body weight. It could be understood as the physical ability one could display at the same weight. Actual combat strength still had to account for body weight and skills. For another, how effectively combat strength could be used also depended on performance in the moment.

And this was not a cultivation novel. There would be no melodramatic settings where someone made a breakthrough in realm and suddenly became vastly stronger...

Lastly, regarding whether Ran's rank should be lowered further... at heart, This Dong did not think Ran was weaker than Irish or Binga. From a fighting perspective, Ran should have counted as winning both of her one-on-one fights against real liquor in the movies. It was just that after being kicked in the chin or neck, real liquor could still stand back up. That was clearly the Black Organization cheating. Normally, if two people were evenly matched and one took such a blow from the other, they should have been knocked to the ground and unable to rise.

What kind of cheat it was would receive additional setting details later in the story...

The main reason for lowering Ran's rating this time was that Akai Shuichi, Amuro Tōru, and the others should still be one level below Kyogoku Makoto. For example, Asaka, or the explosive-haired girl before she was crippled—Lv9 should be reserved for people like them.

Most importantly, some things that belonged purely to visual spectacle, such as breaking a utility pole with bare hands or smashing a metal table flat, would not be considered realistically. Otherwise, from the physical rules to social culture, the world's rules would all fall apart, and this would have to be written as a fantasy novel.

Only actual combat records would be considered when judging fighting ability, not exaggerated visual spectacle. If a character dodged bullets in battle, this book would acknowledge that the character had the speed, reaction time, or foresight to dodge bullets and counterattack afterward. If they broke a marble pillar in order to jump high, this book would acknowledge that they had some way to indirectly jump that high, but would not acknowledge that they truly possessed the force of tens of thousands of pounds to shatter stone. Otherwise, with that kind of strength, they could simply jump directly. Any visual display far exceeding its actual effect would be ignored.

In short, it was far more exaggerated than reality, but it would not destroy the logic of case deduction or the logic of how society's rules operated.

In other words, there was no need to consider superhuman murderers in cases, nor was there any need to consider modern social rules collapsing because of supernatural beings.