Parking Surveillance

October 4th, Tuesday.

Under the guise of an official "search warrant," Akasaka managed to obtain Ms. Rin-da's parking surveillance storage device, but...

"Chief, that storage only keeps records for one month... The one from September 3rd was deleted yesterday, and it's currently being recovered by the Forensic Science Section in the division," Akasaka reported helplessly.

"What did the Forensic Science Section say?" Shiraishi pressed.

"Fifty-fifty," Akasaka relayed truthfully.

When it came to the technical capabilities of forensic personnel, local police stations were naturally no match for the Metropolitan Police Department...

The large Beika Police Station didn't even have a dedicated forensic pathologist. Under the Criminal Affairs Division, there was only a "Forensic Science Section," mainly responsible for collecting evidence at crime scenes and the "inspection" of corpses. As for electronic information, it was merely a related field for a university graduate from Beika University who had only been out of school for less than two years and had received some unified training from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Shiraishi recalled their skills were only at level N, and he could only sigh inwardly...

Is Beika University even considered a university?

However, there was no other officer in the entire police station more suitable for this kind of work.

"If there's no result by the end of the day, bring the equipment directly to me," Shiraishi instructed.

Shiraishi himself didn't have these skills, but...

If absolutely necessary, Shiraishi could ask his old colleagues in the First Investigation Division and the Scientific Investigation Bureau to lend a hand as an exception!

The court session was scheduled for Friday again, so both "training subordinates" and "solving cases" were important.

Fortunately, Shiraishi didn't have to resort to calling in favors.

Before the end of the workday, the Criminal Affairs Division reported "breakthrough progress"—the parking surveillance records had been successfully recovered!

So, after work, Shiraishi convened a case briefing.

All participating police officers, including several relevant patrol officers, were summoned.

Aoki then projected the selected surveillance footage for everyone.

"This is the time of the incident, the parking surveillance records... First, when Ms. Rin-da got out of the car. Because the car door had a scratch, there's a segment of the recording..."

This parking surveillance didn't record continuously; it only activated when dynamic objects approached the vicinity!

The first segment showed Ms. Rin-da getting out of the car at 12:32. Everyone diligently took notes.

In the second segment, everyone saw a young girl struggling to squeeze through a gap...

"Ahem, this is an informant for the police station, so you don't need to record it," Shiraishi added—she didn't "take" anything that day, she just "visited" an empty house that had been vacant for years...

The third segment, already at 13:18... Ms. Rin-da passed by the car again and left the apartment.

"This indeed matches Mrs. Rin-da's statement."

"However, it doesn't confirm that Rin-da was still alive at this time."

"That's right, the time of the incident was between 1:00 PM and 2:30 PM."

"The following is the most important part," Aoki said at this point.

The fourth segment...

"Ah!"

"That bastard..."

"It's 1:57 PM!"

"Now we've got him."

That's right, the person recorded in the fourth segment was clearly... Tsubokura, wearing a hat and dressed all in black!

Even with the hat, being captured so clearly by the car camera at such close range was undeniable.

Regardless, his alibi could now be confirmed as fabricated!

But...

Shiraishi, and Fuji standing beside him, suddenly changed their posture. Shiraishi, who had been sitting in the middle facing the projection, shifted from resting his hands naturally on the desktop in front of his abdomen to leaning back with his arms crossed.

Fuji, who had been standing behind the desk, stepped forward, resting his hands slightly on the desktop as if trying to get a clearer look...

"Wait... Police Inspector Aoki, could you play it again?" Fuji interrupted the sound of "popping champagne corks."

His colleagues in the Criminal Affairs Division, who knew Fuji, didn't say anything. Aoki replayed the footage.

Just as a shot passed where the face couldn't be seen, Fuji suddenly said, "Stop..."

"He... was wearing gloves?" Fuji paused before saying.

"That's right, very suspicious!" Yamada chimed in emphatically.

Indeed, it was only September, and wearing both a hat and gloves was quite suspicious, but...

"Suspicious? What's more suspicious is that his fingerprints are on the murder weapon kitchen knife?" Fuji retorted at this moment.

The other Detectives also reacted at this time...

They had just been distracted by the "disproven alibi," but now that they thought about it, there was indeed a problem here!

How could a culprit be careful enough to wear gloves before entering the Crime Scene, but then... specifically take off their gloves when stabbing someone?

As everyone was whispering and discussing the possibilities, Shiraishi continued, "What was filmed next?"

Aoki continued to play the footage...

At 14:05, Tsubokura left in a hurry, his gloves still on his hands!

Fuji remained silent, and Shiraishi directly said, "Next segment."

At 14:43, Ms. Rin-da returned from outside and immediately unlocked the car... The surveillance stopped once the car lock was opened.

At this sight, several voices of confusion arose.

"This greatly contradicts Ms. Rin-da's statement," Aoki had to say.

Ms. Rin-da had previously stated that before the Murder Case occurred, she went to a supermarket with a good selection of spices on the next street. When she returned, the Murder Case had already happened, and she didn't report it out of fear.

Gen and Yamada had checked the supermarket's surveillance, and it did indeed capture Ms. Rin-da paying at the time.

However...

When Ms. Rin-da returned just now, she didn't go upstairs at all; she left directly!

"It's unlikely she just bought something at the supermarket and left. She might have returned to the scene once through the front entrance, confirmed the victim's death, and then gone back to the alley behind to retrieve her car and leave," Aoki said at this time.

"Hmm, and if that's the case, even if the true culprit is Tsubokura, it can't be confirmed that she wasn't at the scene at the time of the incident, or even..." Akagi didn't finish his sentence, but the others understood – it was even possible that Tsubokura was the one who "arrived too late"!

"What time was the supermarket footage of Ms. Rin-da seen?" Shiraishi confirmed with Gen.

"13:49," Gen looked at the police officer's notes.

"That supermarket, I recall, is about 1.2 kilometers from the crime scene. The checkout time does align with walking to the supermarket and shopping there, totaling 31 minutes. However... it took over 50 minutes from checkout completion to her return, which is too slow. During that time, she likely learned of the victim's death," Fuji calculated the time.

In other words, Ms. Rin-da had returned to the crime scene once during this period, but she wasn't captured on camera!

"Could she have had a remote listening device?" Yamada speculated wildly.

"Impossible. The officers who went to the scene wouldn't be so careless. That was a crime scene... How could they not have found any surveillance cameras or listening devices?" Akasaka shot him a glare.

"But... if she returned to the scene without prior knowledge and saw the corpse, why didn't she take the hidden alley on her way back? Wasn't she trying to avoid being seen?" Yamada asked, puzzled, raising a point of doubt.

Squad leader Akasaka glanced at him a few times – our unit is responsible for investigating the direction that "Tsubokura is not the true culprit," right? Why are you still thinking along the lines of "Tsubokura is the killer"?