The next day.
"Is Mr. Kawakami who called the police here?"
The leading police officer pushed open the glass door of the convenience store, and his somewhat bloated body squeezed in, followed by the police officers filing in.
Ah, the leader, Megure Thirteen; the short-haired policewoman, Sato Miwako; the guy with a long face... his surname is Shiratori, but his name is unknown at the moment.
For Kawakami, who was devastated by the Yoneka Town case, these are all old acquaintances.
Kawakami, who was huddled in a corner and pretending to be a potted plant, silently raised his hand.
As a criminal who had committed murder and arson and managed to get away with it, faced with the dilemma of being surrounded by natural enemies, Kawakami was politely nervous.
So how did things come to this? Kawakami thought sadly.
After successfully completing the double mission with Scotland, they ushered in a rare period of rest. Kawakami used up his inventory of lemon candies and found a convenience store to restock.
The kind of lemon candy that Kawakami prefers is cheap and the packaging is ordinary.
According to the store's promotion method, this cost-effective candy will not be placed next to the checkout counter to attract children's attention, but will be placed on a shelf closer to the inside.
Second row from bottom to top.
Kawakami squatted down and scanned the shelves, and he smelled a trace of old blood.
His hand reaching deep into the shelf touched something. It looked like clothing, cheap clothing, the fabric was rough and tangled.
Kawakamiji didn't react at once and died.
He pulled the wad out.
The cloth fell apart and the contents fell to the floor.
It is a severed hand, the right hand, belonging to an adult woman in her twenties. The fingertips have no calluses and are well maintained. I have done manicure on my nails, and there are some fine white particles in the gaps between my fingers.
The weather is cooler in autumn, but the hand has begun to rot. Brownian motion of molecules spreads the stench unbridled.
...Is it too urgent for him to put this thing back now?
It's definitely too late.
The smell was so strong that anyone with a normal sense of smell could smell it. If he stuffed it back, he would only be in greater trouble, such as being regarded as a murderer or an accomplice.
Kawakami sighed, took out his cell phone, and called the police.
The police dispatch in Miwa Town was very efficient. In about ten minutes, two police cars came at full speed, and that was the beginning of the scene.
Kawakami Tsumugi narrated what happened to Officer Megure in fluent language.
After the latter listened, he looked at him thoughtfully. To be precise, he looked at his gray curly hair and punk style outfit.
"Have we met before?" Officer Megure asked.
"Ah, I was caught by you once in the park murder case about a week ago." Kawakami explained.
Then Kawakami saw the eyes of the three policemen in front of him becoming wary, and the policewoman's hand even touched her waist.
Kawakamiji:......
No, are these cops out of their minds?
Kawakami raised his hands behind his ears very attentively, walked up to Officer Megure and his party, and verbally assisted them in verifying their identities.
In the end, the careful Miwako Sato discovered from the records in her handbook that in the park murder case, Kei Kawakami was just an unlucky passerby who was affected.
Would a normal person say something like "I was caught by you once" when introducing themselves?
The police officers present couldn't help but think so.
The alert was lifted and the atmosphere relaxed. Officer Megure apologized to Kawakami with an awkward smile.
"Sorry, there has been more than one murder in the park you mentioned before. We didn't match up at once."
More than together?
Kawakamiji didn't know what to say, so he could only smile with understanding, sighing in his heart that it was not easy for everyone.
Miwako Sato on the side noticed a sense of dissonance.
The gray-haired young man in front of him was wearing a black punk trench coat and silver-rimmed glasses, but he had an indescribable feeling of weirdness.
More importantly, he was very calm.
Instead of being calm and stern, the gray-haired young man really seemed to think that picking up a severed hand on the shelf was just an unimportant thing.
It’s like picking up a bag or a lost cat or dog on the street.
Miwako couldn't help but look at the other witnesses and compare the differences between them:
At this time, the convenience store was about to close. In addition to Kawakami, there was also a female clerk and two junior high school students, a boy and a girl.
The female clerk was so frightened that she was paralyzed, sitting on a chair covering her face and crying, and the White Bird police officer on the side couldn't help comforting her; the female junior high school student with a strange hairstyle with horns on her head tried to stay calm but her face turned pale; and another junior high school student Health... Hey, why are you missing?
Miwako's heart tightened. She looked around and finally found——
The junior high school student was squatting in front of the severed hand and studying it carefully.
Kawakami Tsumugi's abnormality was forgotten by her. Miwako Sato felt that her scalp was going to explode. She rushed to the junior high school student in one step.
"Please don't come close, this is a crime scene——"
The junior high school student suddenly raised his head, his eyes shining, and he interrupted Officer Sato:
"This was left intentionally by the murderer!"
The junior high school student began to reason endlessly:
"There are white particles between the wound of the severed hand and between the nails, which are salt; the murderer tried to embalm the hand. The fracture is not neat, but it can be seen that the murderer has trimmed it..."
Officer Megure on the side turned his attention and sighed after seeing who the junior high school student was, with a complicated expression.
It has complex meanings such as "Why is it him", "Why is it him again", "Sure enough" and "The case can probably be solved".
"It's you again, brother Shinichi." Officer Megure greeted.
That junior high school student's name is Kudo Shinichi.
That is, the cute kid who helped Kawakami Tsumugi clear his name as a suspect last time. He has good observation skills and strong action ability. If he didn't have an excessive sense of justice, he would be a good candidate for the winery.
The existence of Kudo Shinichi was also one of the reasons why Kawakami Jimamaru called the police.
First of all, it's definitely not possible to just walk away, as the follow-up would be too troublesome; secondly, with a kid who likes to stay at crime scenes to attract firepower, no one should notice him.
No one is paying attention, which means Kawakamiji can quietly wander around.
After all, he couldn't buy lemon candies and had to deal with the enemy camp. Kawakami was really not interested in playing a terrified passerby who forced himself to be calm.
"...Obviously this is not just a simple corpse," Kudo Shinichi held his chin with his hand - Kawakami thought it was the one who had pulled the corpse. "The murderer seemed to treat it as art. Taste......"
Yes, art. Kawakamiji agreed in his heart.
Artworks will not be thrown away casually. This behavior may be a gift?
The cheap cloth packaging proves that the murderer's economic level is not high; using salt, there is no professional antiseptic method, the murderer's cultural level is not high, and he may not have the conditions for special treatment...
Kawakamiji listed five or six possible situations in his mind, and was slowly selecting them based on feasibility...
Kudo Shinichi on the side changed his voice and pointed the finger at Kawakami Tsumugi:
"At the same time, I would like to ask, sir, how did you find this severed hand?"
