What Looking at Cars Turned Up

Monday, October 3. After last Friday's trial, a new week had begun.

There were no longer many reporters lying in wait outside the police station. On one hand, several days had passed, and public interest had waned. In this age of information, the Internet always had a new hot topic; a case of coerced confession was lucky to stay in the spotlight for a few days.

On the other hand, after Shirai admitted to improper interrogation and submitted his resignation, the controversy surrounding the police had gradually died down. Even those still following the case were focused on the prosecution and the verdict.

Especially...

Komikado had emphasized in court that Shiraishi had "only just taken office." Reporters who knew better but pretended not to could hardly keep pestering him for interviews at a time like this.

Of course, Shiraishi was still holding onto Shirai's resignation letter for the time being, telling him not to think of running before the case was over...

Meanwhile, Beika Police Station had not relaxed its investigation into the case.

After Shiraishi relayed the information from court and opened up new lines of thought, they suddenly had several directions to investigate.

Unfortunately...

After two days of investigation over the weekend, the results had been far from satisfactory—nothing had been proven, and nothing had been disproven.

They checked surveillance footage around the park from the day before and the day after the crime, but they saw neither Tsubokura nor Blogger Lady. Surveillance coverage was still far from comprehensive, so it had only been a matter of trying their luck.

However, they found a record at the coffee truck showing that someone had indeed ordered a [Signature Iced Latte] during the same time period on the afternoon of the following day.

This matched Shiraishi's suspicion—the defendant had deliberately imitated Blogger Lady's clothing and ordering habits the day after the crime in order to muddle the vendor's memory.

But without surveillance footage, and with the vendor himself unable to remember clearly, they could not prove that Blogger Lady had placed the order on the day of the crime and that the defendant had done so the following day.

As for the investigation into the blog's viewing records, anonymous visitors were allowed, so they found nothing useful. It only confirmed that during the time of the crime, one anonymous account had repeatedly visited the blog until the blogger posted her entry.

Yet the network trail of that anonymous account led to an unregistered SIM card as well.

Just then, Shiraishi received another piece of bad "intel"...

Ding-dong—

Hearing the notification, Shiraishi glanced at his messaging app and found that Gina had sent him a photo. A young woman with short hair, dressed in business attire and a fitted skirt, was standing outside a hair salon, asking an employee something while taking notes in a little notebook...

Gina had also sent a message—Wasn't she that nine-to-one parting's assistant?

The nine-to-one parting naturally referred to Komikado. His hairstyle was an extremely dramatic side part.

Clearly, Gina had been following the news about this case and had recognized the young female lawyer.

Technically, she was not Komikado's assistant, but Tsubokura's former attorney, from Miki Law Firm. This time, however, she had probably been used as a tool to lure Komikado into the trap.

But...

The sign of the hair salon in the photo was practically "shining." After thinking it over, Shiraishi matched it to one of Blogger Lady's posts—it was a newly opened hair salon in Kamurocho.

Clearly, the other side was already investigating whether the blog's content was real...

That woman posted on her blog every day. Under these circumstances, if they could prove even a few posts were fake, the credibility of her testimony would plummet. After all, she had sworn in court that every post had been written in real time. To preserve her image as someone who "loved life" and whose "every day was wonderful," the witness had indeed lied!

This was the "fatal flaw" Shiraishi had noticed earlier.

[Thanks. What about the matter I asked you to think over and report back on?] Shiraishi replied directly.

It was already Monday!

Gina immediately played dead and did not reply again...

Still, this newly opened hair salon was indeed not far from the market where the orphanage bought supplies. Shiraishi figured she really was helping out at the orphanage, so he did not press her. The orphanage could not support adults, after all, since its funds and resources were limited. But letting her stay there for the final two weeks before she came of age should not have been a problem.

At six in the evening, having confirmed that "the prosecution's trump card had been cracked," Shiraishi finished stamping today's documents and made another trip to the Criminal Affairs Division.

Seeing the Criminal Affairs Division's office still bustling with activity, Shiraishi felt deeply gratified. If he ever started a business and had so many employees willing to work overtime for free, what lifestyle could he possibly fail to achieve?

The widened doorway at least allowed Shiraishi to walk in without lowering his head...

"Chief."

"Good evening, Chief!"

Several officers who had still been discussing something in the office quickly turned around when they saw Shiraishi enter.

"Are any other cases causing trouble lately?" Shiraishi asked directly.

Everyone clearly understood which case this "other" excluded, and they all shook their heads.

"Chief, the others are all minor matters."

Shiraishi nodded. "Akasaka, come here." As he spoke, Shiraishi walked into the small office beside the Criminal Affairs Division's main work area, clearly intending to speak with him alone.

"How is Ms. Rin-da doing?" Shiraishi asked vaguely.

Akasaka understood what he meant and answered directly, "We haven't found anything suspicious."

Ms. Rin-da... was the victim's estranged wife. They had held her for twenty-four hours before, but since there really was no evidence, they had not extended it to forty-eight.

In truth, if they pressed the issue of her "seeing the body but not calling the police," they could apply for a formal Arrest Warrant. Leaving aside whether that was even true... if she had not confirmed that Rin-da was dead, then as his wife, she was suspected of criminal omission. If she had examined the body, then she was suspected of contaminating the scene and obstructing official duties...

But at the time, suspicion against Tsubokura had increased sharply. Considering that the Prosecutor's Office was unwilling to shift its suspect, there had been little point in forcibly keeping her any longer, so they let her go first. They had her signed statement already, anyway; on the grounds of criminal omission, they could bring her back at any time.

After releasing her, Akasaka had also sent Gen and Yamada to tail her, hoping to find some clues. It would be best if she exposed herself.

Tsubokura was indeed highly suspicious, perhaps even strongly suspected of fabricating an alibi, but... Ms. Rin-da was suspicious too!

Not only had she secretly gone to the victim's home and clearly met with him before his death, she had also claimed that "she parked there because she did not want the neighbors gossiping," that "she went to the supermarket at the time of the crime," and that "she saw the body but was too scared to call the police"...

If Shirai had been in charge and they had not discovered Tsubokura, she might very well have been interrogated into becoming a defendant too!

"Actually... I've been looking at cars lately. The police station's cars are really too cramped," Shiraishi suddenly said.

Akasaka still did not understand what he meant—He can't be asking me for a bribe, can he? What a coincidence, I'm broke too!

"So I discovered... the Model S has parking surveillance. In other words, if anyone approaches it while it's parked, it records them—not only from the front, but even from both sides. Given where it was parked, it should have almost completely blocked that narrow alley..." Shiraishi explained something he had recently read in a car magazine.

Since this feature was not yet widespread, even though the police station had obtained her vehicle's GPS records, no one had thought to copy this data as well!

Akasaka's eyes lit up. If that was true, and they could obtain the car's surveillance footage, then everyone who had entered or left that narrow alley that day would be plainly accounted for!