Parking Surveillance Footage

October 4, Tuesday.

With a proper "search warrant," Akasaka obtained Ms. Rin-da's parking surveillance storage device, but...

"Chief, the storage records are only kept for one month... The records from September 3 were deleted just yesterday and are currently being restored by the Forensic Science Section." Akasaka reported helplessly.

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

"Fifty-fifty." Akasaka relayed honestly.

In terms of technical capability, a local police station naturally could not compare to the Metropolitan Police Department...

The enormous Beika Police Station did not even have dedicated forensic pathologists. Under the Criminal Affairs Division, there was only a "Forensic Science Section," mainly responsible for collecting traces at crime scenes and examining bodies. As for electronic information, it was merely a related specialty; the staff were college graduates from Beika University who had graduated less than two years ago and received a few rounds of centralized Metropolitan Police Department training.

Shiraishi remembered that their ability was only an N. All he could do was sigh inwardly...

Could Beika University even count as a university?

But throughout the entire station, there were no officers more suitable for this kind of work.

"If there's still no result before the end of the workday, bring the equipment directly to me," Shiraishi instructed.

Shiraishi did not have the relevant skills either, but...

If it came down to it, Shiraishi could ask his old colleagues in the First Investigation Division or the Scientific Investigation Bureau to make an exception and lend a hand!

The trial would resume on Friday. Both "training subordinates" and "solving the case" were important.

Fortunately, Shiraishi did not have to call in any favors.

Before the end of the workday, the Criminal Affairs Division reported a "breakthrough"—the parking surveillance footage had been restored!

So after work, Shiraishi convened a case meeting.

All participating officers, including several relevant patrol officers, were called over.

Aoki was now playing the selected surveillance clips on the projector for everyone.

"This is the record from the time of the crime... First, when Ms. Rin-da got out of the car, there was a recording because the car door scraped against something..."

This parking surveillance system did not record continuously. It only activated when a moving object approached nearby!

In the first clip, Ms. Rin-da got out of the car at 12:32. Everyone quickly took notes.

In the second clip, they saw a little girl struggling to squeeze through a gap...

"Ahem, she's a police informant, so there's no need to write that down," Shiraishi added. That day, she had not "taken" anything; she had merely "visited" an empty house that had been unoccupied for years...

The third clip was already from 13:18... Ms. Rin-da passed by the car again and left the apartment building.

"That does match Ms. Rin-da's statement."

"But it doesn't prove Rin-da was still alive at that point."

"That's right. The estimated time of the crime was between one and two-thirty in the afternoon."

"After that comes the most important part," Aoki said.

The fourth clip...

"Ah!"

"That bastard..."

"Time, 1:57!"

"We've got him now."

That was right. The person recorded in the fourth clip was unmistakably Tsubokura, wearing a hat and dressed all in black!

Even with the hat on, he had been captured from so close by the car's camera that he could be seen perfectly clearly.

No matter what, it could now be confirmed that this guy's alibi had been fabricated!

But...

Shiraishi and Tou, who was standing nearby, suddenly changed posture. Shiraishi, who had been sitting in the middle facing the projector with his hands resting naturally on the table before his abdomen, leaned back and crossed his arms. Tou, who had been standing behind the table, stepped forward and lightly braced both hands on the tabletop, as though trying to see more clearly...

"Wait... Inspector Aoki, could you play that again?" Tou spoke up, interrupting the sounds of celebration around them.

The Criminal Affairs Division colleagues all knew Tou, so no one said anything. Aoki immediately rewound the footage.

At the moment when the man's face could not be seen as he passed by, Tou suddenly said, "Stop..."

"He... was wearing gloves?" Tou asked after a pause.

"That's right. Very suspicious!" Yamada declared confidently from the side.

Indeed, it was only September, yet he wore both a hat and gloves. That was certainly suspicious, but...

"Suspicious? Isn't the more suspicious thing that his fingerprints were on the kitchen knife used as the murder weapon?" Tou retorted.

The other detectives came to their senses as well...

Their attention had just been drawn by the "disproven alibi," but now that they thought about it, there really was a problem!

What kind of murderer would remember to wear gloves before entering the crime scene, yet... deliberately take them off before stabbing someone?

As everyone murmured among themselves and discussed the possibilities, Shiraishi continued, "What was captured next?"

Aoki continued the playback...

At 14:05, Tsubokura hurried away, and his gloves were still on his hands!

Tou fell even more silent, while Shiraishi directly said, "Next clip."

At 14:43, Ms. Rin-da returned from outside, then immediately unlocked her car... Once the car lock was opened, the surveillance stopped recording.

Several puzzled voices rose at the sight.

"This greatly contradicts Ms. Rin-da's account," Aoki had to admit.

Ms. Rin-da had previously stated that before the Murder Case occurred, she went to a supermarket on the next street with a relatively complete selection of spices. When she returned, the Murder Case had already happened, and she had been too afraid to call the police.

Gen and Yamada had checked the small supermarket's surveillance footage. It had indeed captured Ms. Rin-da paying at that time.

But...

When Ms. Rin-da had just returned, she had not gone upstairs at all. She had simply left!

"She went to the supermarket to buy things, then left directly. That seems unlikely. She may have returned to the scene through the front entrance once, confirmed that the victim was dead, then gone back through the front entrance to retrieve her car from the rear alley and leave," Aoki said.

"Mm. And if that was the case, even if Tsubokura really was the killer, it still wouldn't prove that she wasn't at the scene when the crime occurred. It might even..." Akagi did not finish, but everyone else understood—perhaps Tsubokura was the one who had "arrived too late"!

"What time did the supermarket footage show Ms. Rin-da?" Shiraishi asked Gen for confirmation.

"13:49." Gen checked the officer's notes.

"That supermarket is, if I remember correctly, about 1.2 kilometers from the crime scene. The time of payment does fit the time needed to walk there and shop—thirty-one minutes in total. But... from completing payment to returning, she took over fifty minutes. That's far too slow. During that time, she may very well have learned that the victim had died," Tou calculated.

In other words, Ms. Rin-da had returned to the crime scene once during that period; she simply had not been recorded!

"Could she have had some kind of remote listening device?" Yamada let his imagination run wild.

"Impossible. No matter how careless the officers who processed the scene were, that was a Murder Case scene... How could they possibly have failed to find surveillance equipment or bugs?" Akasaka glared at him.

"But... if she returned to the scene without knowing anything beforehand and saw the body, why didn't she take the concealed alley when she went back? Didn't she want to avoid being seen?" Yamada raised the point in confusion.

Squad leader Akasaka shot him several sidelong glances—Wasn't our squad supposed to investigate the possibility that Tsubokura wasn't the real killer? Why the hell were you always thinking from the angle that Tsubokura murdered someone?