69novels Page 319
Page 319
Botox?
The letter B had already been collected by the killer; it must be another letter.
"The numbers that have been confirmed are B, D, K, N...A, C, E, F..."
List the letters that have been confirmed, followed by the letters that have not yet appeared.
The three of them seemed to be lost in thought.
"There's something wrong with the time... Time of death... Degree of decomposition of the body... Ah!"
Mikoto Misumi was thinking about those letters that hadn't appeared yet when she suddenly widened her eyes and exclaimed in surprise.
Both Aki Tomoya and Kube Rokuro looked at her from inside the room.
"To the dissection room!"
She spoke to the two of them, then eagerly got up and rushed out.
Aki Tomoya and Kube Rokuro exchanged a glance, then immediately followed.
Mikoto Misumi's excited commotion also attracted the attention of people in the nearby office.
Two more people followed closely behind, rushing toward the dissection room.
Once outside the autopsy room, the three of them put on protective suits, pulled the body of the deceased, Tachibana Serina, out of the freezer, and then had Aki Tomoya and Kube Rokuro help carry it onto the autopsy table.
"Nothing has changed... You can feel it, can't you, Aki-kun?"
Mikoto Misumi carefully examined every detail of the corpse.
"Yes, we only treated the organs with formalin, not the body. Even if it's refrigerated, the body should gradually decompose, but it looks exactly the same as when it was sent here!"
Without specialized embalming treatment, a corpse cannot be preserved for a long time, even if it is placed in a cold storage.
They only processed the organs; the body, according to normal procedures, would be cremated afterward, so they didn't intend to keep it in the freezer indefinitely.
"F, formalin!"
Found it, the letters here.
Then everything makes sense: why were there no witnesses for a period of time after the fire, and why was Shishido Riichi waiting in the building across the street more than a month ago...?
The time of death of the deceased must be pushed back at least one month.
Because she has very likely already been "treated" with formaldehyde!
"The timing is right, what do we do next?"
Kube Rokuro couldn't contain his excitement and said, "Now we finally have a breakthrough."
To prove everything they had suspected in that room.
The time of Tachibana Serenai's death was pushed back by a month. Shishido Riichi had rented a room in the residential building opposite the fire building more than a month ago to wait in advance. In addition, with the things this guy gave him, this guy knew too much!
"If that's really the case, then we need to hurry. That person is so confident in giving hints that the alphabet might really be coming to an end!"
Aki Tomoya was still not happy. His suspicions had been established, so he needed to speed things up even more.
"Dr. Misumi, please report to the police the formaldehyde test results you used on the body. It's not just us who were misled; the police were too!"
The body was already in that empty room before the fire, and the incorrect time of death has had a huge impact on the investigation!
This caused the police investigation to deviate from its intended direction.
"Formalin, what are you saying?"
At the entrance to the dissection room, Nakado looked at them with a puzzled expression.
Seeing three people rushing towards the dissection room from his office, driven by curiosity, Nakado Kei arrived there.
"Dr. Nakado, you've come at the right time. We may have found the true cause of the deceased's death."
Mikoto Misumi calmly observed Kei Nakado while subtly nudging Tomoya Aki's arm.
"what?!"
Nakado frowned, then looked at the corpse on the autopsy table.
Without saying a word, he immediately went out, put on his protective suit, and came back in.
"what happened?"
When asked by Nakado Kei, Misumi Mikoto didn't rush to answer. Instead, she turned to Aki Tomoya and Kube Rokuro and said, "I'm counting on you two."
"I understand. We'll go right away. Let's go, Kube-kun."
Aki Tomoya and Misumi Mikoto exchanged a glance, then turned back and gestured for Kube Rokuro to follow.
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Chapter 359 Accomplice (Intermittent Reply Mousepad)
"Kube-kun, do you think we should call the police now, or wait for Dr. Misumi and the others' forensic report to come out?"
After leaving UDI, Aki Tomoya asked Kube Rokuro a question.
A second autopsy is needed, but nobody wants Nakado to find the killer before the police.
"Do you already know who the murderer is?"
"Do you take me for a god? I mean the body was in that empty house before the fire. Because when we first did the autopsy, we misjudged the time of death. Now, not only us, but the police's search direction is also wrong."
How could he possibly know who the murderer is?
But if we push the time of death back to a month ago, then there will be more suspects.
The door lock was damaged by the fire department, so the person who was able to enter that empty house a month ago is naturally a suspect.
The original owner of the empty house, and the real estate agency that managed it on his behalf.
Initially, the time of death was incorrectly determined, with the assumption that the body was put inside after the door lock broke, so no further thought was taken.
"And what about Shishido Riichi? Do you think he simply knows everything, or is he an accomplice?"
Aki Tomoya then asked about Shishido Riichi.
They had inside information and knew in advance where there were corpses.
Then, with complete confidence, he handed over a copy of the pink hippopotamus, or rather, a copy of the victim's belongings that only the murderer would have, to Kube Rokuro, already beginning to guide others in solving the case.
The alphabet is almost complete, but what role does Shishido Riichi play in this serial murder case?
Just a journalist seeking the truth?
It's not that simple.
He looked more like someone who had witnessed several murders.
These people are like vultures; their first rule is to make a profit.
"...But we don't have conclusive evidence."
Kube Rokuro was unsure whether he should consider Shishido Riichi as an accomplice.
However, the things that person did, and the way he is behaving now, suggest that it's not just a matter of knowing the inside story.
"You have Officer Mori's contact information, right? You asked him to investigate the fire scene last time, didn't you?"
Yes, there is. Should we tell him everything?
“At least tell him that the incident occurred before the fire, which could push it back by at least a month. The Musashino Police Station doesn’t know about this yet.”
Police are also focusing their investigation on the deceased's interpersonal relationships.
The autopsy was performed at UDI, and the time of death given there initially influenced their judgment.
If there is any wrongdoing, it can be traced directly to the department that performed the forensic autopsy, which is UDI.
Based on the time of death determined by the forensic autopsy conducted by UDI, their current search direction is not problematic.
The police investigation is still ongoing, but if we're really going to nitpick, the research institute that performed the autopsy bears some responsibility.
"As for Shishido Riichi, he himself is evidence. The murderer committed a series of crimes. If this person was an accomplice, he must have something on the murderer, otherwise he wouldn't still be alive now."
To say that Shishido Riichi was an accomplice does not mean that he helped kill the victim, but that he kept it a secret, which already makes him an accomplice.
Under a relatively sound legal framework, it is not allowed to cover up others' crimes, and everyone has a responsibility to report and expose them.
As for Shishido Riichi, if we underestimate his involvement, there are at least four cases in which he helped the murderer cover up the truth.
He knew all along, but kept it a secret. Now, he's using Kube Rokuro to find the real culprit, as if he's preparing to make a big splash.
With the explosive information Shishido Riichi currently possesses, once this serial murder case, which proceeds from the alphabet A to Z, is completed, he, as the only media person who knows the entire process, is ready to reap both fame and fortune.
"But, Anki-kun, if you tell Officer Mori that the new forensic report hasn't come out yet, will he believe you?"
“You’re from the research institute, so he’ll assume this is a recommendation from the institute’s perspective. What do you think?”
Upon hearing this, Kube Rokuro nodded and immediately contacted Mori Tadashi to tell him about it.
As for the fact that the re-autopsy has not yet been completed and there is no report yet, Kube Rokuro did not say anything.
Now that he has told Mori Tadashi about this, the latter has tacitly assumed that it was the UDI Research Institute that confirmed the body was placed in that empty room before the incident.
"What do you say over there?"