Chapter 37: Riddled with Doubts

Yamada raised a point of doubt: assuming Ms. Hayashida is telling the truth... when she returned to the scene for the first time, why did she go out of her way to avoid the back alley?

Makigai seemed to have a sudden realization. He quickly checked his notes and said, "Ah! That's right. Tsubokura left at 14:05, which is fifteen minutes after Ms. Hayashida finished paying and left. Could it be that she saw Tsubokura leaving from the alley, and that's why she went back to the front entrance?"

"In terms of timing, that’s possible, but... that assumes Tsubokura is truly the culprit and that he and Hayashida are not accomplices," Akasaka emphasized.

"And if that were the case, that woman stayed at the crime scene for far too long... She saw Tsubokura downstairs at 14:05, avoided him to return to the scene through the front door, and didn't leave until 14:43. That’s at least half an hour spent at the crime scene!" Fuji questioned her behavior.

Half an hour. That certainly contradicts her claim that she left out of "fear" after discovering the body.

Fear? You stay for half an hour when you're afraid?

Yamada speculated from the side, "Could it be... that it wasn't Tsubokura who killed the victim, but Hayashida, who arrived later..."

"Impossible. While Ms. Hayashida's actions are strange, it’s clear she didn't prepare for this crime in advance. Her car was parked in an inconspicuous spot, but if she had truly intended to commit murder, she wouldn't have driven a red car so conspicuous, let alone have it repeatedly caught on surveillance, only to leave the scene halfway through to go to a supermarket," Aoki directly dismissed Yamada’s theory.

"Then... is it still Tsubokura?" Yamada changed his tune.

The others fell silent. Who knows? That requires an interrogation!

The problem is that Tsubokura is in the detention center. Theoretically, the Beika Precinct has no way to apply for further questioning unless the Public Prosecutors Office is willing to cooperate—the prosecution is the only one who can question him now.

"Bring Ms. Hayashida in for interrogation first," Shiraishi said directly.

Shiraishi didn't even mention an "arrest warrant." The trial resumes on Friday; they need results within 48 hours!

Previously, they had used the justification of "supplementary investigation" for the search warrant. Applying for an arrest warrant for "another suspect" in a case already under trial would likely raise objections from the court.

"Chief, it's already past eight," Gen reminded him.

According to regulations, interrogations cannot be conducted after 10 p.m. to prevent "sleep deprivation" tactics.

"Go now... lock her up for the night first!" If Shiraishi's "gentleness" were quantified, it would probably be around forty or fifty.

This person definitely has something to hide. Even if she didn't kill the victim, she certainly committed illegal acts during the case and directly interfered with the investigation. Under these circumstances, Shiraishi was inclined to turn up the pressure, which was not against the rules.

Since the Chief had made the final call, no one else objected.

That night, Ms. Hayashida was detained—it was now basically certain that at the very least, she was guilty of "obstruction of justice," which gave them the leverage to be firm.

The next morning, Akasaka personally went in to start the interrogation.

Compared to the gentle Gen, Akasaka, who kept his hair in a pompadour and looked every bit the delinquent, had an interrogation style that perfectly matched his appearance—you could absolutely judge a book by its cover!

Although he wouldn't lay a hand on the suspect, he slammed the table repeatedly and spent the first two hours just shouting at her.

Because the parking surveillance had been restored and a large amount of incriminating evidence had been found, Ms. Hayashida was quite flustered this time and could no longer remain as composed as before.

By the time Akasaka was tired of shouting, Gen, who had been waiting, pretended to have just arrived, "coaxed" Akasaka out, and took over the interrogation.

Under this "whip and sugar" tactic, when Shiraishi came to check on the situation, he found Hayashida in the interrogation room, wailing to Gen.

...

"How is the confession going?" Shiraishi asked Akasaka, who was standing nearby.

"She claims she saw someone coming out of the alley, which is why she entered the apartment through the front door. After confirming the victim was dead, she took the recording the victim had been using to blackmail her and wiped away the traces of her presence, which is why it took her some time. As for the so-called recording, I’ve already sent Makigai and Suzuki to her house to retrieve it, and Makigai will verify it later." Akasaka smoothed back his pompadour, clearly suffering from a headache.

Hayashida's story fit the police's previous "presumption of innocence," but...

It was merely plausible. There was no evidence to prove she hadn't killed the person; in fact, there was a mountain of incriminating evidence.

In reality, having investigated to this point, they were only one step away from the "truth."

They just needed to interrogate Tsubokura and Hayashida separately. With so much evidence, Tsubokura would eventually have to honestly explain what he did at the crime scene. Even if neither confessed to the murder, through cross-referencing, the truth would eventually emerge, and one of them would be caught in a lie.

However, the biggest obstacle now was that Tsubokura was already sitting in the detention center as the defendant. They had no room to intervene there; they could only interrogate Ms. Hayashida.

Her words were plausible, but not necessarily true, and even less likely to be without concealment.

Shirai, who had been feeling invisible in the case, was also present. Not only did he feel guilty, but he could also sense the subtle resentment from his colleagues—if it weren't for his arbitrary "increase in interrogation intensity" and his impatient rush to send the case to the prosecutor, they wouldn't be in this predicament.

"Did you ask about the kitchen knife?" Shiraishi pressed.

"Yes, she admitted to using a kitchen knife, but it was another one from the set. She wiped the fingerprints to avoid suspicion... and she said that before using the knife, she had cleaned the entire set, and when she left, she took all the semi-prepared ingredients with her." Akasaka replied.

This indeed explained why the murder weapon only had Tsubokura's fingerprints!

However...

"Currently, both Tsubokura and Hayashida have a motive and the opportunity to kill... Looking at the logic alone, Tsubokura is more suspicious because he clearly came prepared and forged an alibi; it’s basically certain he came to see the victim with murderous intent. Meanwhile, Ms. Hayashida's behavior during the crime looks like a hasty reaction..." Aoki said, adjusting his glasses.

"However... it's not without doubts. If Tsubokura really was the killer, he wore gloves and even covered his hair with a hat, yet he left fingerprints on the handle of the most important murder weapon. That’s very strange," Akasaka said, rubbing his temples.

Shiraishi suddenly noticed something and immediately confirmed, "Wait, she said she cleaned all the kitchen knives and used a different one, but also wiped the fingerprints?"

"That's right..." Akasaka nodded hurriedly.

"But the murder weapon had fingerprints from both the victim and Tsubokura on it, right?" Shiraishi recalled the previous evidence records.

Akasaka, Aoki... and Shirai were stunned. Indeed, if that were the case, why would the victim's fingerprints be there?

"Damn it! If only we could interrogate Tsubokura..." Akasaka blurted out in his frustration, but immediately realized his mistake and added, "Ah! Section Chief Shirai, I was just talking about those guys at the Public Prosecutors Office..."