"I followed Mina Fujiki for a long time in Hayakawa Town today, during which she went to a vegetable store, a butcher store, a bank, and bought a few boxes of cigarettes at a convenience store, and then returned home, and I waited outside for an hour, and saw that she didn't come out again, so I came back to report to you......"

Miki returned to the car and seriously reported to Lin Xiuyi the details of her tracking of Minato Fujiki, but seeing Miki's slightly disappointed expression, she knew that she actually had nothing to gain, and followed a housewife around for a long time in vain, while Lin Xiuyi's behavior of going through the garbage bag seemed to be much luckier.

"Look at this, maybe it will help us a little?"

Lin Xiuyi said as he took out the name of the torn medicine that he had finally spliced together. Mei Ji Tsai carefully identified it for a long time, only to find out that this was originally the label of zopiclone (zopiclone). Miki had previously learned that in two cases in Hokkaido and Meguro Ward, zopiclone (zopiclone) was detected in the victim's stomach solution. So when she finally recognized the word, Miki immediately became a little excited, and the feeling of loss that she had achieved nothing before disappeared in an instant.

"Police, where did you get that?"

Miki asked Lin Xiuyi with surprise and curiosity.

"Garbage bag, I stole the garbage in front of Minato Fujiki's house, and then found this thing from it!"

Lin Xiuyi said to Miki with some embarrassment, no matter what, it's still a bit embarrassing to rummage through the trash can.

"Police, you're really ......"

"Forget about it, let's take a picture of this label and send it back to the Metropolitan Police Department, and ask where I can get this zopiclone......

As soon as Lin Xiu said this, he started the car, and then drove in the direction of Qingyun Pavilion.

……

At about the same time, in the Hokkaido Police Headquarters building in Sapporo City, thousands of miles away, Aizawa and Hanagata, who had traveled all the way from Tokyo, were meeting with Takashi Imai, the head of the Hokkaido Police Headquarters Investigation Division, for the first time before the handover of work. However, until this time, Imai Takashi did not quite understand why the case he had already decided to be a suicide would be treated as a homicide again.

"Excuse me, am I ignoring some crucial evidence, and how did you determine that this case was a homicide?"

Imai Takashi asked Aizawa and the others in confusion.

Aizawa didn't answer the other party's question directly, he picked up the briefcase placed next to the seat with an expressionless face, and then took out a document bag from it and handed it to Imai Takashi, motioning for the other party to open it and take a look.

Imai Takashi took the file bag handed by Aizawa in confusion, and then he poured out everything inside. Only then did I realize that all the photos that were placed inside were photos of Professor Noguchi during his lifetime, and they were all photos of participating in some important activities. Imai Takashi only looked at a few photos, and his expression immediately became solemn.

"This ...... What's going on?"

Imai Takashi asked Aizawa and Hanagata in disbelief.

"It seems that you have already discovered, yes, yes, Professor Noguchi is a linguist who specializes in many Chinese, but he is very fond of wearing traditional tattooed hakama on formal occasions. So according to this logic, it is unlikely that he would have committed suicide in a dress......"

"How...... That's going to happen!"

Imai Takashi had been standing up because of his emotion, but now he was mired in deep self-blame and guilt. There will be a deeper inside story in this case. If it weren't for the bureaucrat from Tokyo who saw through all this, the Hokkaido police would have been deceived by the murderer.

"What about you...... Have you already caught the real culprit?"

Imai Takashi hurriedly asked Aizawa and Hanagata, and looked at the expressions of the two from time to time.

"Not yet, but we need your help with one more important matter this time. Do you remember that Professor Noguchi hired a domestic worker when he was alive, and it seems that you ignored them in your previous investigation because the other party had an alibi......

Hanagata looked at Aizawa, then took out a pen and notebook from his pocket, and habitually asked Takashi Kanai.

"Hi...... But what's the problem?" asked Imai Takashi, a little nervous.

"Actually, we only suspect that this female worker may be related to another case that we are investigating. Truth be told, a similar case occurred in Tokyo not long ago, where the victim had hired a cleaning lady before his death. And at the time of the incident, the female worker also had an alibi. ”

Hanagata then explained to the other party.

"Wait a minute, you're saying there's another case like this, right?"

When Imai Takashi heard the news, he was even more surprised.

"Hey, but we're just suspecting that there might be some connection between the two cases. By the way, the female worker who provided cleaning services for Professor Noguchi during his lifetime was called Echiseki Kishiko? He seems to have been the first discoverer of the professor's death! Is she still in Sapporo? If it's convenient, we'd like to make another detailed transcript with the other party. ”

Hanagata looked at the information he had obtained from Lin Shuichi before, and immediately made his request to Imai Takashi.

"Hey, in fact, we have investigated the first informant before, but according to the calculation, the time of Professor Noguchi's death was a day ago, and the informant seemed to be working somewhere else at that time, so he didn't have the time to commit the crime, besides, at that time, our investigation direction was also in the direction of suicide, so ...... But if you need it, we can get in touch with you!"

"In that case, we're welcome, but please hurry up!

"Ah...... Okay, okay!"

Kanai is now full of things about the serious mistakes he made in handling the case, and he is also a little depressed. After he agreed to Hanagata's request, he immediately found the address left by the informant from the original case file.

"You see, this is it, but I have a request, can I go with you?"

"It's okay, after all, we are not locals, and we are not familiar with the place, so we will cause you trouble!"

"Hey, I'm going to arrange the vehicle, please rest assured!"

Hanagata and Aizawa glanced at each other, and each of them was a little more expectant to the Echishiki starter who was about to appear.