Tokyo: I'm really not a killer

"How cheesy," Yuan Zhensheng commented.

"Go to hell!" Shinomiya Rin roared. "I wasn't protecting you! I was just doing my duty! You irresponsible bastard, I should have beaten you up if I'd known you were like this—"

"I already dodged it, you were the one who brought your head over here," Yuan Zhensheng said.

Shinomiya Rin thought to herself, "Don't get angry, don't get angry. It's a waste of life to get angry with this kind of person. I have more important things to do now—if I can find clues at the scene, I might still have a chance to catch the murderer!"

She tossed out a "grateful nobody" and eagerly ran to the scene, wanting to investigate the case with the criminal investigation team.

Logically speaking, patrol officers are not involved in criminal case investigations; at most, they do odd jobs on the periphery, and no one cares about their opinions.

However, after Shinomiya Rin entered the scene, no police officers drove her away.

The head of the First Investigation Division, Yamamoto Koji, was quite polite, asking her if the injury on her head was serious and if she needed to take a few days of sick leave.

Yuan Zhensheng squinted, thinking to himself that something was wrong, something was very, very wrong.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing serious." Shinomiya Rin looked around and asked, "Did you find any clues?"

Section Chief Yamamoto, wearing white plastic gloves, unfolded a letter: "A suicide note was found in the body's pocket. It was Miki Akiyama's last letter, in which she claimed that she could not accept her husband's sudden death and, in despair, committed suicide by shooting herself..."

Before Shinomiya Rin could examine it closely, Section Chief Yamamoto folded the envelope, put it into the evidence bag, and continued, "The angle of the shot is the same as the angle of suicide by swallowing the gun. The gunpowder residue is completely concentrated inside the mouth. The pistol was in the deceased's dominant hand. There are no suspicious points... It can basically be classified as suicide."

"That's too hasty!" Shinomiya Rin said, her eyes wide.

"Where is it careless? The doors and windows are tightly closed, it's a completely sealed room. Besides you, has anyone else been coming in and out of the villa?" Section Chief Yamamoto retorted.

"The butler is suspicious." Shinomiya Rin rested her chin on her hand, striking a pose of deep thought like a master detective. "Maybe he seduced Akiyama Miki, caused Shino Yamato's death, and then, due to a dispute over the spoils, he sought revenge..."

"No! I didn't! Don't talk nonsense!" the butler shouted from the side.

"Shut up! Who told you to speak!" The criminal investigation team member snapped, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him out of the Japanese-style room.

Section Chief Yamamoto sighed and said, "There was no gunpowder residue on the butler's hands, and there's a maid in the barbarian's quarters who can testify that he rested there after entertaining the guests."

"Oh, this..."

Shinomiya Rin scratched the back of her head awkwardly and said, "There's another point of doubt. I just heard the butler say while he was taking his statement that he didn't hear any gunshots at all... I... I didn't hear any either... No silencer was found at the scene, which means there was a third party involved, and that person took the silencer."

This is indeed strange. The Browning pistol is extremely loud, practically deafening. If it were fired without a silencer, the whole street could hear it.

Section Chief Yamamoto knew more about firearms than she did, and upon hearing this, he realized she had been misled by the TV drama. He explained helplessly:

"Suppressors cannot completely eliminate gunshots. The best military suppressors currently available only reduce the noise from 150 decibels to 125 decibels, which is similar to the sound of a car backfire and is still very loud in residential areas."

"Suppose, and I mean suppose, there really is a killer who uses a nearly inaudible suppressor, it means the suppressor was homemade by the killer, and the technology is so advanced that it simply doesn't exist—because such suppressor technology doesn't exist now, understand?"

The above explains why Yuanzhensheng had to recycle the mufflers.

In addition, the materials for making the silencer are really expensive. He has to be very careful with every penny he spends, and he tries to recycle as much as possible.

Rin Shinomiya was a little confused: "If that's the case, there should be a gunshot if a shot is fired... so why didn't anyone hear it?"

"Because it was suicide by swallowing a gun," Section Chief Yamamoto said, pointing to his cheek. "The gun muzzle is completely covered by the human mouth, so the gunpowder gas is all trapped inside the body and rarely explodes outward, which is why people outside can't hear the gunshot."

Yuan Zhensheng curled his lip in disdain.

This is pure speculation. Section Chief Yamamoto hasn't killed enough people; he probably doesn't know what it sounds like to fire a gun through one's mouth.

The sound of someone shooting themselves would still be around 120 decibels, slightly less effective than a modern silencer, but still very piercing, equivalent to the sound of a heavy object falling from the third floor. The butler and servants would definitely hear it.

He used a Belgian FN, commonly known as a baby Browning, with a caliber of only 6 mm and a very small primer. Paired with a homemade extra-thick silencer, he would put it in his mouth and fire it, and the sound was only the same as a toy gun BB firing.

As for why he didn't use a knife or hammer, one reason was that dealing with bloodstains was troublesome, and another reason was that it was difficult to fake a suicide wound... Yuan Zhensheng also considered poisoning again, but his bank account balance no longer allowed him to buy chemical poisons.

This single order cost 4.2 million yen; he earned all of it through hard work!

Sigh, let me reiterate, people who don't pay their debts deserve to die.

However, Shinomiya Rin was not intimidated. She said with a blank expression, "I do not know much about silencers, but I have seen people commit suicide by shooting themselves... The gunshot was still very loud."

Section Chief Yamamoto, too lazy to argue any further, looked at Shinomiya Rin and asked seriously, "Have you ever thought about what would happen to you if this were a murder case?"

"What do you mean?" Shinomiya Rin asked.

"Miki Akiyama died under your supervision, right? If it was suicide, there's nothing to say; but if it was murder, you might be prosecuted by the prosecutor," Section Chief Yamamoto warned.

"Huh? Are you threatening me?" Shinomiya Rin started breathing again.

"No, I was just reminding you..."

"I don't need this kind of reminder. I know exactly what I'm doing! As a police officer, I should put the truth above my personal career! If there are doubts, then we must get to the bottom of it!"

"...Well, don't get agitated." Section Chief Yamamoto immediately called the parents: "Let me make a call first, please wait a moment."

Five minutes later, the head of the communication station used a walkie-talkie to tell Shinomiya Rin and Hara Masaki to hurry back to report.

I'm going to get criticized again.

Rin Shinomiya was furious. She felt that Section Chief Yamamoto was deliberately ignoring the suspicious points and showing no respect for the deceased. If it really was a murder, she would rather resign and go to jail than let the killer go unpunished—that's the kind of resolve a police officer should have!

Yuan Zhensheng couldn't wait to get off work, as he had to pay rent tomorrow. He hoped the telephone club would get new orders so he could officially open for business and earn his first pot of gold.

If all else fails, he could always sneak into the morgue, retrieve the "face of the fickle one," quit his job, become a gigolo, and live off his looks...

Making money isn't about being shameless!