Tokyo Unnatural Forensics

Chapter 88, The Third Serial Case
When Uesugi Sosetsu proposed that Ikeda Erena participate in the joint investigation, contrary to expectations, Miss Minami flatly refused.

"No!" Watanabe Minami said coldly while holding the steering wheel, "Ikeda Erena is a female criminal police officer in the Otsuka Police Department. She does not belong to Chiba Prefecture, Edogawa District or the Metropolitan Police Department. What reason do we have to transfer her here?"

"Cooperate in the search?" Uesugi Sosetsu, who was wearing a long windbreaker and sitting in the passenger seat, was a little short of breath when he mentioned this matter: "Ikeda has always cooperated with me very well, and she also gave your Metropolitan Police Department chief a face last time, for example, that move of Arashiyama?"

"Uesugi-kun!" Watanabe Minami seemed a little impatient. "Let me ask you, the case originated in Chiba Prefecture, and the third case occurred in Edogawa District. The Metropolitan Police Department finally got permission to intervene in this case. You want to transfer Ikeda here. What is your reason? Why did the Ministry of Police approve it for you?"

It really is.

Uesugi Munen thought about it carefully and it seemed that he really didn't have enough excuses. In this regard, he was quite straightforward and respected the rules. Seeing that Miss Minami refused to give in, he could only change his tone: "But am I not working in the Forensic Department?"

"You were the only one who was transferred here! Ikeda wasn't transferred here too! To be honest, she was a female patrol officer in the non-professional group, and she was promoted to patrol chief after working for four years. We have treated her very well. Do you know how many times she has reported to our Police Inspection Department in the past few years?" Watanabe Minami curled her lips: "If she came to the Joint Special Investigation Headquarters, how can we do our work properly? Everyone is avoiding her."

"Um...then why can you, Inspector Watanabe from the Personnel Section of the Police Department, be present at the scene in person?" Uesugi Sosetsu was left speechless by what Miss Minami said and could only attack from other directions.

"Who told you I'm going to the scene?" Miss Minami raised her head complacently, looking charming and lovely: "I'm responsible for staying in the special investigation headquarters to contact and report the situation and to communicate with the local police stations and the Metropolitan Police Department. Isn't this the job of my personnel department?"

"Then have you received the official transfer order from the Metropolitan Police Department?" Uesugi Sosetsu looked at her sideways.

"Why, Uesugi-kun, you want to see the official document? Then I'll write one for you now." Miss Minami was a little flustered.

"Heh." Uesugi Sosetsu saw that she was also informally transferred and was too lazy to say anything to her.

I'm sorry, Master Ikeda, I'm a lowly person in the Metropolitan Police Department and don't have enough power, so Miss Minami pressed me down and rubbed me.

When I grow up, I will definitely try to transfer you to the Metropolitan Police Department.

You must believe me!

By the time the two men drove to the Kasai Police Station in Edogawa District, the large police force had already arrived.

It was already late at night, with stars twinkling and covering the entire earth. The Kasai Police Station was brightly lit, and there were police cars and policemen everywhere. Patrolmen in police uniforms and carrying batons stood everywhere, monitoring every corner around them. A large group of people in suits from all directions gathered here.

After getting off the car in the parking lot, the figures of Uesugi Sosetsu and Watanabe Minami were stretched out under the street lights.

Uesugi Sosetsu looked up at the starry sky and took a deep breath: "The stars witness everything."

"So beautiful." Watanabe Minami also followed him to watch the stars.

The vast sea of stars can indeed allow everyone to temporarily put aside their worries and immerse themselves in the boundless universe.

"Okay, let's go." Uesugi Sosetsu only stayed in the parking lot for about ten seconds: "It's time to drive at night again."

"Today is considered overtime, so you will get one day off. If you work overnight, you will get three days off. You will get an extra 8,000 yen for meals and accommodation every day." Miss Minami said angrily, "Don't worry, I'll calculate it for you."

"I feel at ease with you, young lady." Uesugi Sosetsu nodded with a smile.

“Hmph, I’ll save you some trouble.” Miss Minami wrinkled her nose and imitated the tone of a gangster lady: “Work hard, and the master will reward you~Kora~”

The result is that the imitation is completely different from the original, and it is full of arrogance and cuteness.

By the time we entered the Kasai Police Station, it was already packed with people. In order to host the Joint Special Investigation Headquarters, the police station had cleared out the entire conference room on the second floor. Now sitting inside were officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, three police stations in Edogawa District, and the Chiba Prefecture Police Headquarters who had temporarily arrived. Below the stage were hundreds of various police captains and deputy police captains.

Since the matter had become so serious that even the Chief Cabinet Secretary was concerned about it, the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Director Mori Takayoshi personally served as the head of the Joint Special Investigation Headquarters. Several counselors and directors of the Criminal Department came, as well as the chiefs of three police stations and representatives from Chiba Prefecture.

Almost all of the elite officers of the Metropolitan Police Department arrived, including the head of the First Investigation Division of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Metropolitan Police Department, Kosaka, who was on vacation and also rushed back temporarily.

The best members of the Investigation Section 1 were present this time, including Section 1 Chief Mikasa Yohei, First Department Chief Kosaka Shinichiro, Second Department Chief Shiratori Sho, Third Department Chief Kashiwagi Hitoshi, Fifth Department Chief Matsuda Jinsuke, and Thirteenth Department Chief Higurashi Souta.

An hour later, the joint special search meeting was formally convened.

There was a large crowd of people sitting below, all of them were men in suits.

Of course, Uesugi Muneyuki and Watanabe Minami also had their own seats. Uesugi Muneyuki sat next to Criminal Minister Mori as the on-site consultant of the Forensic Department, while Watanabe Minami was the communications representative of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Maybe it's just like Miss Minami said, if you want a transfer order, we will write it to you first.

The white incandescent light was a bit dazzling, but the room was as bright as day.

Inspector Sho Shiratori, the head of the Second Division of the First Investigation Division of the Joint Special Investigation Headquarters, was explaining the case to everyone on the stage.

"The victim, Rina Yamato, 11 years old, a fourth-grade elementary school student." "On November 11, this afternoon, the deceased was found in Sendai Horikawa Park in Edogawa Ward. An elderly woman with a child found the victim in the toilet."

"The victim had two wounds, one of which was a knife wound to the abdomen that caused a serious injury and pierced the liver. He was then strangled to death with an electric wire. Unlike the previous two cases, the murderer did not choose to behead the victim immediately. Instead, he simply strangled the victim with an electric wire and then beheaded him, and then threw the head into the trash can."

"Because it was a weekday afternoon, there were not many people in the park and the victim's body was not discovered immediately until an elderly woman with her child passed by the public toilet and wanted to go in to relieve herself and found the deceased."

"Based on the description of the on-site investigation, we tend to believe that the murderer used a sharp weapon to attack from above, first making the victim unable to resist, then strangled the victim with an electric wire, and then used the water outlet in the toilet to simply clean up the scene and hurriedly left."

"After the incident, we retrieved the surveillance footage immediately, but found nothing. The murderer seemed to know the location of the surveillance footage very well. He chose Sendai Horikawa Park, a place where people mainly enjoy cherry blossoms in the spring. There are also skateboarders and bicycle gangs nearby. There are not many people on weekdays during the autumn, and the surveillance footage has a small coverage area. So far, we have not found anything more, and we cannot find the murder weapon, nor do we have enough clues."

After Inspector Shiratori finished speaking, a police officer in the audience immediately raised his hand and asked, "What is the reason for linking these three cases together?"

This policeman is Inspector Yukinoshita Hachiman from the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters. According to Watanabe Minami, he is a male who married into the family of Yukinoshita, a local city councilor in Chiba Prefecture, and married the daughter of this family, Yukinoshita Haruno. After graduation, he was admitted to the Chiba Prefectural Police Headquarters as a semi-professional group.

Inspector Shiratori paused and signaled the real person to come on stage.

Uesugi Sosetsu stood up and slowly walked to the front of the stage: "Next, please allow me to tell you the results of the identification."

"Oh, oh, oh! It's that legendary new forensic doctor! The one who worked on the Fujidai case last time!" Someone in the audience immediately recognized Uesugi Muneyuki: "He really has joined the Metropolitan Police Department!"

"Since he's here, he will surely be able to come up with a different result, right?"

"No hurry, listen to what he says first."

There was a rumbling sound below. Seeing Uesugi Sosetsu appear, especially his very young appearance, many veteran detectives perked up.

"These three cases have a very important commonality." Uesugi Sosetsu held the information in his hand, and he first showed three pictures to everyone.

They are the beheading of Junpei Doien in the first case, Ayaka Kasai in the second case, and Rina Yamato in the third case.

The incisions were specially printed out by Uesugi Sosetsu: "Please look, these are the wounds of the three victims. Can you tell the difference between them?"

There was total silence below; even the local criminal minister Mao Li was watching attentively.

After giving the army of suits below and the uniformed police officers on the stage a minute, Uesugi Sosetsu slowly said, "The answer is, there is no difference."

"This is why I believe the murderer of the three cases is the same person. He didn't specifically target elementary school students, or specifically want to behead them, or he has a strong anti-reconnaissance awareness and is very familiar with the surrounding terrain. Instead, he used the wound hole."

Uesugi Muneyuki pointed at the photo and said, "From the wound, we can infer that the murderer used a very sharp knife, and was very skilled. Generally speaking, the wound when the knife was inserted and the wound when it was pulled out will cause the angle of the knife tip to change due to the violent struggle of the fatal wound. When the murderer pulled out the murder weapon, the muscle memory formed over a long period of time will cause the knife tip to shake in a special arc."

"This makes the wound not triangular, but W-shaped."

"After carefully observing the wounds of the three victims, I found that the arcs of the W-shaped wounds of the three victims were almost exactly the same." Uesugi Munen said in a deep voice: "Once a person's muscle memory is formed, it is very difficult to change. It requires long-term training. The three serial cases occurred in a short time interval, so we can judge that the murderer is always the same person and the murder weapon is the same."

“Ohhhhhhhhhh~”

Uesugi Sosetsu's words are well-reasoned and convincing, with clear logic and smooth expression, which is comfortable to listen to.

The Japanese police elites below were amazed and nodded involuntarily.

"At the same time, we should also pay attention to a strange phenomenon." Uesugi Munen continued: "In addition to the similar beheadings in these three cases, there are also differences in aspects."

"In the first case, the victim was killed in one blow without any warning, and there was no sign of struggle before death."

"In the second case, the victim was obviously knocked unconscious before being killed. Although there were no signs of struggle, the murderer's method of committing the crime was obviously different from that of the first case. He had to knock the victim unconscious before committing the crime."

"In the third case, according to the report, the murderer had apparently pierced the victim's liver with a sharp knife, then strangled him with an electric wire, and finally beheaded him. Compared to the first case, the beheading in the third case can be described as sloppy."

"It can be seen that the murderer's methods seem to be getting more and more urgent, and the victim's defense level is gradually increasing. From the first case, the victim was not on guard at all, to the third case, the victim was clearly conscious of resistance, which shows the murderer's impatience and urgency."

"So there are two questions here. First, how did the murderer escape the patrols in Chiba Prefecture, which was under martial law, and come to Tokyo to commit the crime? Second, what reasons did the murderer have to commit the crime, especially in the current situation where everyone is in danger, and the methods are becoming more and more crude and urgent."

Uesugi Sosetsu bowed and said, "This is all I can analyze at the moment. I am just throwing out some ideas for discussion. Please feel free to speak your mind."

There was thunderous applause from the audience.

See? This is called professionalism.

(End of this chapter)