The Tokyo Police Journey Begins with the Ability to See Evil Thoughts

4 PM, Fuzhong City Police Department.

"What are you talking about? How could we possibly be cheating? What does this have to do with Hasegawa? We don't have the ability to do this. Besides, if he did it, how come I didn't know anything about it?"

Miwa Shiraishi stared at Gen Kamiya and Yuzu Kihara with disbelief on her face.

She never imagined that these two police officers, who left for a few hours supposedly to investigate a case, would end up pinning the blame on her boyfriend.

"Where are the others?"

When Kamiya Gen returned and learned that Hasegawa had already left, he frowned.

Muheyou leaned closer and said, "The others said they left a long time ago."

She didn't know why Kamiya Gen would suspect that person. After all, even if there was cheating, it shouldn't be something a low-level employee in the horse racing department could do.

If you're going to have doubts, you should look for someone like Tosuke Takatsukasa.

However, in reality, Kamiya Gen had already locked onto the target before considering continuing the investigation.

Just before, when Shiraishi Miwa was determined to investigate, a faint red malice suddenly appeared on the seemingly weak Hasegawa.

However, the time was too short, and the entire evil thought character had not yet fully emerged before it was interrupted by Muheyou, so Kamiya Gen did not see what the other party was trying to do.

"Didn't we say we weren't allowed to leave? What's going on at the Fuchu Police Station?" Kamiya Gen looked at the other police officers around him, such as Sato Ichiro, who was originally in charge of the case.

The latter looked embarrassed and replied helplessly, "Well... that person has nothing to do with this case. According to procedure, we can't keep him here. When you left, he was still arguing with the person who reported the case... that is, Ms. Shiraishi. We weren't paying attention, and he was already gone."

"Go and bring them back. Also, have the people on the list I told you to summon arrived yet?"

Previously, at the horse racing club, Kamiya Gen had drawn up a list, saying that all the people on it would be brought to the police station for questioning. I don't know if Takatsukasa Tosuke has passed it on yet.

Sato Ichiro stepped forward and said hesitantly, "The horse racing department has already contacted us. Inspector Kamiya is looking for the relevant personnel. Only two of them are being summoned and should arrive soon. As for the rest, they are on leave these days and their whereabouts are unknown."

"Then let's interrogate these two first. What are their names?" Kamiya Gen asked.

"One is named Hideki Yoshioka, and the other is named Hiroshi Niigaki. They are each responsible for the live broadcast signal transmission and camera operation."

Upon hearing those two names, Shiraishi Miwa, sitting opposite her, immediately interrupted, glaring angrily and saying:

"I see it! You police are going to help that bastard Takatsukasa. Yoshioka and Aragaki are lower in rank than me and Hasegawa, and their responsibilities are completely unimportant. How could they possibly be involved in cheating? Not only do you not arrest Takatsukasa, but you're also going around arresting other small fry in the horse racing department. Isn't that aiding and abetting evil?"

For a moment, Kamiya Gen forgot about her and said, "Miss Shiraishi, there's no need to get agitated. I even suspect you. If you hadn't come to report this yourself, I might have taken you to the interrogation room first."

"You...you are utterly shameless...this case is far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people like us."

Muheyou leaned closer to Kamiya Gen and whispered, "Kamiya-kun, why would you suspect those low-ranking employees?"

Kamiya Gen thought for a moment and replied:

"Because the cheating can only succeed if they agree to commit a crime."

……

4 PM, Fuzhong City Police Station interrogation room.

The cold white overhead light shone directly on the table, and the air felt somewhat stagnant and oppressive.

The moment the iron gate was pushed open, two police officers escorted two men in; they were Yoshioka Hide and Shinjuku Hiroshi.

Yoshioka Hide was only twenty-four or twenty-five years old. He was wearing a casual suit and still had the naivety of someone who had just started working. As soon as he entered the interrogation room, he felt his shoulders shrink under the oppressive atmosphere.

Walking beside him, Shinjuro Yo was much calmer. In his early thirties, his hair was neatly combed, and he wore a work jacket. His face was expressionless. He only glanced quickly at Kamiya Gen and Kiha Yu when he entered the room, then lowered his eyes and sat down properly in the assigned seat opposite him.

"sit."

Kiha Yu raised her eyes and spoke first, "Yoshioka Hide, Shinjuku Hiro, we are Kiha Yu and Kamiya Gen from the Criminal Investigation Division of Shibuya Police Station. We have summoned you two in accordance with the law regarding the suspected cheating case in the Grand Prix of Horse Racing without a rider. You should know why we have called you here."

"Officer, we really don't know anything."

Hideaki Yoshioka immediately looked up and hurriedly defended himself, "I was just in charge of transmitting the live broadcast signal. I followed the operating manual the whole time. I didn't do anything wrong, let alone participate in any cheating!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Xin Yuanyang beside him slowly nodded: "Officers, I was in charge of controlling the camera positions for the event. The whole thing was done according to the pre-arranged live broadcast script. With multiple cameras broadcasting simultaneously and tens of millions of viewers watching, I had no chance to tamper with anything, nor could I possibly have participated in cheating."

The two of them worked together to absolve themselves of all responsibility, making it seem as if they were just two insignificant, marginal employees who had been dragged into the case for no reason.

Muheyou frowned slightly, about to press for more information, when Kamiya Gen beside her pulled out a notebook, opened the recording of the match from that year, and pressed play:

"Yoshioka, I'm asking you, why were two frames suddenly dropped at this position?"

As he spoke, he pressed the pause button, splitting the entire video into frame-by-frame shots, and pointed out a key point, switching back and forth between the left and right.

It does look disjointed, like a frame drop.

"This is normal. When we were changing camera positions, there was a possibility of frame drops. You may not understand this, but to us insiders, it's not a problem at all."

As Yoshioka Hide spoke, his previously hunched shoulders straightened slightly, as if he had finally found a way to defend himself, and the panic in his voice lessened considerably:

"Officer, what you're watching is likely a compressed video source from a web broadcast. Due to secondary encoding, there will be dropped frames and gaps in the image. Even with the original live broadcast signal, when switching between 4K multi-camera positions simultaneously, there are millisecond-level latency differences in the transmission links between different cameras, resulting in one or two frames of discontinuous image. This is a completely compliant and normal phenomenon in the broadcasting industry. Not to mention this event, all previous JRA national-level event broadcasts have had the same situation."

He paused, then spoke more quickly, his words clear and logical, without a single flaw.

"All the original signal logs, encoding records, and link monitoring data are backed up synchronously in the Fuji TV control room, the JRA technical department, and the sports hall's monitoring backend. They are archived by all three parties. I don't even have the authority to modify them, let alone manually extract frames."

These words were perfectly worded, but Kamiya Gen remained silent. He simply dragged the video progress bar to the final 100 meters of the race, paused it, and looked up at the still silent Shinjuro:

"And what about you? At the most crucial moment of the race, why did you suddenly switch from camera number one, which was directly facing the finish line, to camera number four, which could only capture the side view? Camera number one could capture the entire stride and position of all the horses as they crossed the finish line, but camera number four couldn't even capture the complete leg movements of the horses."

Xin Yuanyang slowly raised his head, his face still showing little expression, even a hint of helplessness at being wrongly accused:

"Officer, I am just the operator of the on-site camera position. I have no authority to switch the live broadcast view on my own. The decision of which camera view is switched to the live stream is made by the director from the control room through the headset. I only have the power to execute, not the authority to make decisions."

As he spoke, he slightly raised his chin, and his additional words silenced all doubts: "The switch to camera number four in the last 100 meters was an instruction given by the director that day. Before the horses crossed the finish line, camera number one was obscured by grass clippings and dust kicked up by the horses' hooves, resulting in a large area of ​​obstruction of the core image. The control room, in accordance with the emergency plan set before the race, issued the instruction to switch to the backup side camera."

A subtle chill crept into Xin Yuanyang's tone.

"As for your claim that the leg movements cannot be captured, that is utter nonsense. The fourth side camera position is the standard backup position for the race, specifically used to verify the horse's position and nose position difference at the finish line. It is synchronized with the infrared timing equipment at the finish line. All race finish line verifications will use the footage from the side camera position as an auxiliary basis."

Moreover, the original footage from the main camera was under technical monitoring throughout the entire process from filming to archiving, and it is still intact in the JRA's archive and Fuji TV's broadcast master tapes. The police can access the lossless original footage at any time for frame-by-frame analysis, so there is absolutely no so-called abnormality in the footage, nor was it deleted.

The two stood on either side, one dissecting the underlying technical logic of signal transmission, and the other providing evidence from the industry standards of the live streaming process.

Every defense was supported by corresponding evidence, complete documentation, and a verifiable chain of evidence, thoroughly refuting the two core doubts raised by Kamiya Gen.

This even made the police's questioning seem like subjective speculation based on a lack of understanding of industry rules.

A brief silence fell over the interrogation room, broken only by the faint hum of the overhead light.

Muheyou flipped through the question outline she had prepared in advance. She had only asked two of the dozen or so questions she had prepared before the other party shut her down with impeccable logic.

She originally thought that these two junior employees were the easiest loophole to crack in the whole case, but she did not expect that their psychological quality and level of preparation far exceeded her expectations.

Kamiya Gen remained leaning back in his chair, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Yoshioka Hide and Shinjuro Yo.

Although young, Yoshioka Hide had a frank look in his eyes when he defended himself, and he could recall all the technical details with ease, without the slightest hint of evasion when lying.

Xin Yuanyang remained calm throughout, ensuring that every word he uttered adhered to procedures and regulations, with a complete logical loop, leaving no room for further exploration.

This is really a difficult situation... We can't exactly use any methods on the two of them right here at the police station in Fuzhong, can we?

"Officer, we are just ordinary employees who follow the rules. We have neither the ability nor the motivation to participate in any cheating in the competition."

Seeing that neither of them spoke, Yoshioka Hide quickly added, "This event is attracting national attention, and the supervision is extremely strict. Let alone two low-level employees like us, even the head of the operations department couldn't possibly control the competition with one hand. You've really come to the wrong person."

"yes."

Shinjuku Yo slowly replied, looking calmly at the two of them, "If the police have no substantial evidence and are only accusing us based on these normal work procedures and technical phenomena, we have the right to refuse to continue questioning and to contact a lawyer to come to the scene."

The oppressive atmosphere in the interrogation room intensified after those words were spoken.

The two made their stance clear: they did not plead guilty, nor did they accept unfounded accusations without concrete evidence, and they were even prepared to use legal means to protect themselves.

Kamiya Gen stopped twirling his pen, leaned forward slightly, looked directly at the two of them, and suddenly asked:

"Did you have any private contact with Akihiro Hasegawa before or after the event?"

Upon asking the question, Hideaki Yoshioka's eyes flashed briefly before he immediately shook his head.

"Hasegawa-senpai works in the operations department. Our technical department only has work-related interactions with him; we have absolutely no contact with him outside of work."

Shinjuku nodded in agreement: "I've only met Mr. Hasegawa a few times at the event preparation meetings, and we haven't even exchanged more than a few words."

Their answers were still perfectly matched, without the slightest flaw. Even the fleeting change in their eyes seemed like an illusion.

"I think he's already in the car leaving?" Kamiya Gen suddenly asked.

Seeing the shock on the faces of the two people opposite him, he slowly spoke again, "In the end, that person's cooperation with you was just for making money. I don't understand what you two have to hide. Do you really think you can get out of the police station?"

"Officer..." Shinjuchi Yo wanted to say something more.

However, Kamiya Gen waved his hand to interrupt him: "I'm quite certain that you two were involved in the cheating incident together. Getting you to confess isn't that difficult. This case is definitely not something the two of you can handle. It will require at least three more people to help."

Kamiya Gen raised a finger. "First of all, there's the control room you mentioned earlier. Someone has to give the order to change the camera position."

Secondly, there's the commentator. You need to find a commentator to cheat with, otherwise if problems arise during the match, there will be no one to cover for you.

Finally... there's the control room.

When the topic turned to the control room, Kamiya Gen noticed that the two people in front of him were visibly taken aback.

He relaxed a bit and continued, "You probably don't have permission to go into the control room, right? The original video recordings are still there, aren't they? This cheating method... I'll make a bold guess, but actually, there's no need to guess."

Kamiya Gen pressed the computer button, and Hasegawa's face immediately appeared on it.

"Is this the plan that this madman came up with?"