Confusing and Misleading

After Shiraishi attended the trial, he returned to the Police Station for work in the afternoon.

After changing into his uniform, Shiraishi ignored other documents and went directly to the Interrogation Room…

"Chief, how did the trial go?" Akasaka asked quickly when he saw Shiraishi arrive.

"Further investigation is needed, the next court session is in a week," Shiraishi said concisely, while looking inside through the one-way glass.

"I see… I understand, that must have been unbearable!"

"Madam, you've truly been through a lot."

"Regardless, a new life is finally beginning, congratulations."

"But… Madam, my colleagues have already checked your travel history. You did go to Mr. Hayashida's apartment that day, didn't you?"

Gen finally managed to open up Ms. Rin-da a bit by constantly agreeing with her complaints. At this moment, Yamada came in and whispered to him about "confirming the GPS records," so Gen began to ask questions!

Meanwhile, outside, Akasaka and Aoki were silent, the atmosphere a bit awkward—checking someone's in-car GPS without a Search Warrant was, strictly speaking, against regulations.

Checking traffic surveillance was one thing; directly accessing data within someone's car was another!

However, Shiraishi remained silent at this moment as well—while Shiraishi's Principles weren't quantifiable, if he had to self-assess, they were probably around sixty-something. He didn't reject some irregular but effective investigative methods.

Shiraishi's standard was simple: "If I can take responsibility for it."

If there was a possibility of causing a major miscarriage of justice, that would be an uncommitted crime; if a mistake was made, it would only result in a complaint. As long as he could write a self-criticism and reflect in private, he could "take responsibility."

In the Interrogation Room, Ms. Rin-da, seeing that the evidence was conclusive, had no choice but to admit: "That's right, I did go to his place that day. I originally wanted to discuss divorce, but he kept pestering me, so we argued a bit… But his death has nothing to do with me!"

In Shiraishi's Mind, the previous case records replayed—at a little past one o'clock, a neighbor heard arguing and things being smashed in Ms. Rin-da's room. When they knocked to check on her, Ms. Rin-da claimed she was on the phone and accidentally knocked something over…

This also became evidence that "by one o'clock, Ms. Rin-da was alive and there was no one else in the house."

Now it seemed, there wasn't no one, but rather… Ms. Rin-da felt that family matters shouldn't be aired publicly, so she gave a perfunctory reply to the neighbor?

However, Ms. Rin-da still insisted that she did not kill him!

After carefully observing her expression, Shiraishi frowned slightly but remained silent…

"Sister, it's understandable that you don't want to be involved with the incident, but… you left after three o'clock, didn't you? So you saw Mr. Hayashida being murdered?" Gen pressed on the biggest point of doubt.

The time the car left was already after the time of the incident…

"No, the car left after three o'clock, but I left before two to go to the supermarket to buy some rare seasonings." Ms. Rin-da had previously stated that the deceased had promised her he would eat her cooking one last time before agreeing to a divorce.

"I see, so on the way back…" Gen asked tentatively.

"That's right, I saw his corpse. Because I was… too scared, I left," Ms. Rin-da said impatiently.

However…

This "impatience" was a self-protective emotion stemming from guilt.

"Sister, you don't need to be nervous. Did Mr. Hayashida mention anything about meeting someone before?"

"No," Ms. Rin-da shook her head after a moment's thought.

Akasaka looked at Ms. Rin-da and couldn't help but say, "This woman… is very suspicious…"

He could also tell that Ms. Rin-da was still speaking half-truths even now—but this was just a feeling, not evidence.

"Chief, how did the trial go? Tsubokura's Alibi…" Aoki asked Shiraishi for advice.

"The proof is real… but also fake," Shiraishi said cryptically.

Everyone outside the Soundproof Room looked over.

After briefly explaining the trial, Shiraishi mentioned that he had questioned the store clerk after the trial. Then he took out the small tablet he was holding—to Shiraishi, the tablet was just a larger mobile phone.

"Here, this is the Blogger Lady's blog from that day. Comparing the exposed sleeve and the hat visible in her selfie, she should have been wearing this outfit that day…" Shiraishi said, flipping to another full-body photo.

In this photo, she was wearing a white jacket, a light yellow lining underneath, and a white hat…

"Huh? He couldn't have mistaken the person, could he?" Yamada showed a "speechless" expression—this was similar to what the store clerk had said about Tsubokura's attire.

"Mistaken? I think… he probably does have such an outfit," Shiraishi said gravely.

Aoki then understood Shiraishi's meaning: "Chief, are you saying… he deliberately misled us?"

"Although expressions can't be used as evidence, … Tsubokura's expression when the Blogger Lady appeared, hmm." Shiraishi acknowledged this speculation, but didn't say it out loud.

"So, you're saying… Tsubokura knew that the female blogger posted on her blog that day, and knew the contents. Then… the next day, before he was arrested, he wore similar clothes, bought the same coffee during the same time period, and after being arrested for over half a month, after the store clerk's memory became fuzzy, he revealed this information?"

Yamada finally understood.

"Damn it! This guy… But that store clerk and the blogger both…" Akasaka said angrily, but he was helpless.

Asking again would be useless; the store clerk couldn't remember clearly, and the female blogger, if questioned about the date of her post, would likely not provide a definitive testimony.

In other words…

The Alibi was real, but it was extremely likely to be fake, utilizing the inaccuracy of Human memory!

At this point, unilaterally denying the witness carries the suspicion of "coercion," and procedurally, the alibi is established, meaning the witness is not lying.

"Wait! If that's the case, let's think about it the other way around... Assuming this blogger was truly used by Tsubokura, then Tsubokura would first need to know about this blogger and know that she would go to Beika Park on September 3rd and order a Signature Iced Latte!" Yamada suddenly thought of this.

Then, Yamada proactively said, "I'll check the blogger's followers and then contact the operator to confirm the information of users who frequently browsed her blog on the day of the incident!"

Prompted by Shiraishi, Yamada also thought of "thinking about it the other way around"—if the speculation was true, Tsubokura should have confirmed the blog before acting, and then on the next day, wearing similar clothes and ordering the same coffee, to confuse the staff's memory.

In that case, "the records of browsing the blog" might be where traces could be found.

Similarly...

"I'll go look for surveillance footage from the day after the incident... and the day before!" Makita Miwa also proactively said at this point.

(Adding a picture of Makita here, it wasn't included earlier)

"Mm, pay attention to your eye drops... buy some good ones, they're reimbursable," Shiraishi said humanely—because he noticed her "dry eyes" were only temporarily relieved and hadn't disappeared.

However, with a lack of manpower at this moment, Shiraishi could only maintain limited humanity.

The two young people went out, but the faces of the two veteran detectives, Akasaka and Aoki, remained grim.

"But... Ms. Rin-da also seems to be..." Akasaka was a bit confused at this point—how could a new suspect appear while the previous suspect's suspiciousness was rapidly increasing?