Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 46, Invitation to the Investigation Section

Inspector Higurashi of the First Investigation Division did not expect that a fall from a building would end so simply.

Uesugi Sosetsu performed the autopsy in five minutes and the police station conducted the investigation in half an hour. The case was easily and happily closed. The falling case in the port area that was originally expected to take a whole afternoon was declared closed. All that was left was the identification and finishing work.

The uncles in the Investigation Section will certainly not do these things, and the rest of the matters will definitely be followed up by the police station.

I originally thought that this guy only got 30 yen for examining a corpse. Every month, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department alone has to pay Uesugi Sosetsu more than yen for autopsy fees. Inspector Higurashi originally thought that this money was too easy to make, right?
Now it seems that there is no false reputation below the name, and he is certainly qualified to earn this money!
If the forensic scientists in the Identification Department can all reach this level, then there will be no need for us in the Metropolitan Police Department to worry about not being able to solve the case!

While Inspector Higurashi was still thinking, the president of the housing construction company, House Daiken, ran over crying and bowed deeply to Uesugi Sosetsu: "Thank you, Mr. Forensic Doctor!"

"Nothing, I just want to make things clear." Uesugi Munen looked a little strange at this time. His emotions flickered, and there was a hint of anger and helplessness between his eyebrows. He shook his head and patted the president's arm: "Next time, don't delay wages!"

This is not the wish that the guy who jumped off the building wanted to fulfill. What he wanted was "I want to try again", but Uesugi Sosetsu didn't listen to him.

"I'll definitely do it next time!" The president of Housing Construction thanked him again and handed him a business card: "If you need any renovations, please come and I'll give you a discount!"

That's the end of the matter.

"Team up!" The suit-suited team of the First Investigation Section had watched the entire performance of Uesugi Sosetsu. Now they didn't have to search or deal with the aftermath, so they all got in the cars and prepared to pack up.

"Mr. Uesugi, what are your plans next?" Inspector Higurashi wanted to communicate more with Uesugi Sosetsu. It would be best to have a good relationship with such an awesome guy. After thinking about it, he took the initiative to ask.

"What should I do? You should ask the Metropolitan Police Department." Uesugi Munen blinked and said, "I have to be questioned by the local prosecutor today, so the hospital will consider me as a business trip. There should be nothing to do next."

Is everything okay?
Ikeda Erina, who was standing next to Uesugi Sosetsu, suddenly realized that except for Uesugi Sosetsu, she was also fine!

It's only three o'clock in the afternoon. Isn't this...

Humph~ This guy’s time from now on is all his.

Ikeda Erena is already thinking about what to do next with Uesugi Sosetsu. It would be best to find a small shop to sit down and let him review the case again. There are some things she still doesn't understand, such as why accidental deaths always have the upper body sticking out? Wouldn't it be less likely to fall if the lower body sticks out?

She didn't like the search session because no one answered her questions and everyone treated her as if she didn't exist, especially the local police station.

They just need him and are ignoring me!

Ikeda Erina felt upset, she thought these people had no idea how important she was to them.

Do not know at all!

"That's perfect. We're going to Fuji TV to investigate an incident. Would you like to go with us?" Inspector Higurashi looked left and right, leaned over and whispered, "That Sudo guy mentioned before that Uesugi really likes the actress Shirakawa Mai, right? She's also at the TV station today!"

"Oh? What do you mean?" As expected, Uesugi Sosetsu became interested.

“???” Ikeda Erena widened her eyes.

"The female anchor of Fuji TV, Ms. Hironaka Mariko, who graduated from Keio University, has gone missing." Inspector Higurashi whispered, "This matter is not originally our department's responsibility, but Fuji TV is an important partner of the Metropolitan Police Department. Section Chief Mikasa asked us to stop by and take a look. Do you want to come with us? If you want to go with us, we can count you as an assisting investigator. With your ID card, Uesugi-kun, you can walk around the station and meet Shirakawa Mai-san!"

“This…” Uesugi Sosetsu’s eyes lit up: “Then I’ll trouble you guys for a lesson.”

"Ha, no trouble, no trouble." Seeing that Uesugi Sosetsu had really taken the bait, Inspector Higurashi patted Uesugi Sosetsu's shoulder proudly and said, "We should thank you."

Uesugi Sosetsu followed him into the car of the First Investigation Division, leaving Ikeda Erena standing there in a daze.

The tall beauty stared blankly at how Uesugi Souji was so easily persuaded by Inspector Higurashi to get in the car using the reason of being his senior sister Mai. She couldn't tell how she felt in her heart that all her beautiful plans had gone wrong.

A heart-wrenching sourness that seems to seep out from the bones and blood.

After all, having been a police officer for several years and having been isolated for several years, Reina would not easily show her disappointment. But when she saw that Uesugi Soyuki decisively gave up the possibility of spending more time with her and chose his senior sister Mai, Reina still felt very angry and aggrieved.

This guy begged me to teach him karate, and he would secretly look at her breasts, legs and feet from time to time. I had never refused him. During training, we occasionally had close contact and whispered to each other, and she acquiesced.

No man would dare to take advantage of her like this, except him.

But the cruelty of reality mercilessly tore her fantasy apart. Perhaps she was not the only one for Uesugi Sosetsu.

Yes, it is very normal for him to meet other women in Tokyo. I have seen it more than once.

Ikeda Erina felt like she was suffocating.

What was even more suffocating was that no one paid any attention to her.

From beginning to end, no one from the Investigation Division 1 spoke a word to her, and the local police station treated her like air. Inspector Hayata told his subordinates to withdraw, and when he came to apologize to Inspector Uesugi Sosetsu Higurashi, he even went around her in a circle.

The search team got on the bus one after another and no one called her. She seemed to have been forgotten.

An inexplicable heaviness weighed on her shoulders, making it difficult to breathe.

Again, is this the case?

Erina has a strong personality, and the more she encounters this kind of situation, the more unwilling she is to humble herself.

Amid the endless stream of people, she stood stubbornly in the center of the venue.

Until a voice sounded.

"Ikeda? What are you doing there?" Uesugi Sosetsu poked his head out from the back seat: "Come on, let's go to Fuji TV, this is a rare opportunity!"

"I..." Ikeda Erina lowered her brows and clenched her hands.

"Hurry up, hurry up." Uesugi Sosetsu opened the car door and half-pulled and half-dragged the tall beauty into the car: "I know you'll be fine next, so let's go together, we're partners."

Just like that, Ikeda Erena was half-pushed and half-pushed by Uesugi Sosetsu to the back seat, and the guy from the Investigation Section 1 who was originally planning to get on this car immediately gave up and squeezed into another one. I don't want you to help me!
Erina tried hard to calm herself down, but she couldn't suppress her expression. The sourness and strong sense of satisfaction that had just subsided surged out from her heart like crazy.

This guy, why does he always appear when I need help the most!

But, I actually hope you don’t go to see that Mai-senpai. I hope...

Damn it, why did I feel so happy and satisfied just because he called me?
asshole!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Erina cursed Uesugi Sosetsu for his slowness in her heart, and then sat happily next to Uesugi Sosetsu.

There's nothing I can do but accompany you for a walk.

In the car, Inspector Higurashi saw Erina squeezing in through the rearview mirror and was speechless.

Why did you ask her to come? I only invited you, not her?

This woman is a trouble. I still want to continue working in the search class!
But he had to give face to Uesugi Sosetsu, so Inspector Higurashi could only acquiesce to this situation.

"Mariko Hironaka from Fuji TV is missing?" Uesugi Sosetsu was still interested in the disappearance of the female anchor.

"Well, her family reported to the police that Ms. Hironaka Mariko had not contacted her family since last Friday, and did not reply to messages over the weekend." Inspector Higurashi said from the front seat, "So our class will stop by the TV station to investigate."

"Is there no one home?"

"She lives in a rented house outside."

After listening to it briefly, Uesugi Muneyuki was not very interested in the case.

It is very normal for an adult who lives alone to lose contact for a few days occasionally. And there is no body to examine. According to Inspector Higurashi, he doesn't take it seriously and is just conducting a routine investigation.

It's not a big deal, Inspector Higurashi, Uesugi Sosetsu, and Ikeda Erena all think so.

"Speaking of which, Inspector Higurashi, can you describe to me what you in the Investigation Section usually do when you encounter a case?" Uesugi Sosetsu took the opportunity to ask.

"of course."

Inspector Higurashi described the investigation methods of the First Investigation Division to Uesugi Sosetsu.

If a murder occurs in a certain place, what will the investigation department do?

According to the usual routine, the search class will be divided into three groups.

The first group visited the surrounding area, questioned every passerby and nearby resident, and tracked down surveillance cameras to look for possible clues.

The second group checked the deceased's interpersonal relationships, starting with all possible contacts.

The third group is to gather people together, starting from the location of the deceased, and then radially searching for possible traces and evidence of the crime step by step in all directions. Of course, the autopsy forensics department is also included, and the body and other physical evidence will be sent for inspection.

After hearing this, Uesugi Sosetsu thought that this was similar in all countries, and the criminal investigation techniques were basically the same.

It must be admitted that Japan's social security is relatively good, but the Japanese police's ability to solve cases is actually not strong.

"Let's not talk about other places. Here in Tokyo, the Metropolitan Police Department has a clearance rate of less than 40% of all cases filed, and most of them are disappearances, thefts, frauds, disputes, etc." Inspector Higurashi said casually, "The most incompetent among them is Kanagawa."

The peak of Japanese police waste is in Kanagawa Prefecture. Basically every year, there are scandals and crimes that make national news being exposed, including police officers wearing police uniforms to commit telecommunications fraud, sleeping with high school students (Japanese law requires adults to be 18 years old, and it is illegal for adults to have sex with minors, but the age of marriage is 16, and it is not illegal for couples to have sex), groping JKs on the way to work, secretly taking pictures under the skirts of female customers in the supermarket, smearing sex liquid on the bags of female passengers on the tram, being caught stealing tempura and bread in the supermarket, not sending seriously injured patients to the police station for treatment until the patients died, driving a police car into a tram, embezzlement and taking kickbacks, etc.

It can be said that it has transcended the realm of incompetence and entered the realm of abstraction.

Moreover, Kanagawa Prefecture once had a record - there were four incidents of police officers losing their guns in one year. The most outrageous one was that a policeman had lost his gun and didn't even know about it. A convenience store clerk picked up the revolver and played with it for the whole morning before remembering to return it to the policeman.

If we put aside the abstract Kanagawa, the Japanese police's crime-solving rate is actually not high. Cases such as fraud and theft have always had an extremely low solving rate. In many cases, the police either report the case as missing and nothing happens, or simply conclude that it is suicide and close the case.

If that’s the case, why hasn’t Tokyo become the Gotham of East Asia?
It's very simple. First of all, the Japanese attach great importance to the "public morality" of their national character. They have always had the habit of not causing trouble for others. Due to multiple factors such as respect for the law and authority, relatively homogeneous ethnic culture, and a society based on human relationships, the crime rate is relatively low.

Secondly, the quality of the police is relatively high.

Yes, although the police officers in local branches and local bureaus have always been very abstract, when they really encounter important cases such as homicides, the Metropolitan Police Department will handle them personally, and the elite police officers of the Metropolitan Police Department have a high execution ability. For example, murder cases, robbery cases, gambling, drugs and trafficking cases are handled personally by the Metropolitan Police Department, and the case clearance rate is over 80%.

However, it may not be possible to maintain social peace and stability for a long time by relying solely on a small number of elite police and bureaucrats at this headquarters, and it is a great test of the level of renewal and replacement.

Uesugi Sosetsu understood what Inspector Higurashi meant.

In short, 90% of the police officers in local police stations are useless, while the Metropolitan Police Department is much better, with only 40%-50% of the police officers being useless.

"There are several other reasons." Inspector Higurashi smiled bitterly and shook his head. "In the past, the level of technology was not good enough. We didn't have surveillance or DNA technology, but the scope of our Metropolitan Police Department's authority was much larger. Now that surveillance and DNA technology and criminal investigation technology have improved, our search authority has become smaller and smaller. Now there are many things we can't do, let alone torture. Many times, we know that he is the murderer, but in the end we can only let him go."

"Also, the status of the police is getting lower and lower. In the 1960s and 1970s, being a police officer was considered a legitimate career path, prestigious and prestigious, and only the real elites could enter the Metropolitan Police Department. But later, when the economy improved and there were more choices, fewer and fewer people worked in this field. The social elites also preferred to become lawyers, doctors, politicians and businessmen. The quality of new police officers became worse and worse, and only places like the Metropolitan Police Department or Osaka Prefecture were willing to work there. In the political arena, being a police officer also went from being prestigious and prestigious to being looked down upon."

The team began to become a mixed bag and the police capability declined significantly.

"In the end, society is different." Inspector Higurashi also expressed his concerns.

Since the bursting of the bubble economy, society has become increasingly indifferent and isolated. With the development of commercialization, it has become increasingly difficult to trace the production and regionality of items left at crime scenes. The difficulty of collecting and testing evidence at crime scenes has continued to increase. On the other hand, the demise of the traditional lifetime employment system has also made people less and less willing to cooperate and testify.

Japanese police are best at solving murders through interpersonal relationships and tracing evidence, but they are often at a loss when faced with other types of crimes.

"Uesugi-kun, our Metropolitan Police Department needs talents like you!"

　China inspected Japan's police system many times in the 10s and s and generally expressed appreciation for the Japanese police system. However, from the late s, the quality of the Japanese police began to decline rapidly, and it was not until years later that it began to recover.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)