Chapter 12: Tomomi Yano
"Mrs. Yano, these are all my colleagues, and we have a few questions about Tomomi Yano that we would like to ask you!"
"What's the use of you coming now, what did you tell me when I went to the Kichijoji police station to report the crime? What about now! You go, don't want your things, you all leave my house......" The grief-stricken Mrs. Yano snatched the gift from the Kuwajima police department and smashed it on Kuwajima's head. Lin Xiu and the others were all frightened by the situation in front of them, and hurriedly went up to dissuade them!
"Mrs. Yano, please calm down and cooperate with our work, we are really here to help you!"
"You useless things, what's the use of helping me now, my daughter...... Never back!"
Mrs. Yano's heart-rending cry soon attracted the attention of the neighbors, and everyone gathered one after another, and the misfortune of the Yano family spread throughout the community in the past few days. While everyone sympathized with Mrs. Yano's plight, they also had a strong dissatisfaction with the police's attitude at the beginning.
Seeing the embarrassed appearance of the Kuwajima Police Department and the dissatisfied eyes of the surrounding crowd towards the police, Lin Shuichi hurriedly asked Hanagata and Aizawa to send the Kuwajima Police Department back to the car to wait. Then Lin Xiu called Miki aside and whispered a few words in Miki's ear.
Miki was born with an ability to get close to people. She walked up to Mrs. Yano's side, first handed her a tissue, and then whispered to Mrs. Yano:
"Mrs. Yano, I'm Miki Nakayama of the Special Search Department, and this one is my boss Lin Shuichi Police Department. We are deeply sympathetic to what happened to your daughter. But are you going to do that?"
Miki tried to calm Mrs. Yano's emotions, and Mrs. Yano, who had regained her senses, wiped away her tears with her apron, and then returned home without looking back.
Miki and Lin Shuichi saw that Mrs. Yano did not close the door of their house, so they followed in uninvited.
The two took off their shoes at the entrance, and Mrs. Yano saw the movements of the two and did not say anything. Seeing this, Lin Shuichi and Miki also knew Mrs. Yano's attitude towards her tacit permission, and they were finally relieved.
Lin Shuichi and Miki silently followed Mrs. Yano to the living room, Mrs. Yano sat on the sofa without saying a word, wiping her tears from time to time, while Lin Shuichi and Miki sat on the seat opposite Mrs. Yano, not knowing how to speak.
"Well, if I had continued to send money as Tomomi had requested, maybe she wouldn't have been killed!"
"Mrs. Yano, please don't blame yourself, it's not your fault!" Miki comforted Mrs. Yano who felt deeply guilty.
"Mrs. Yano, in fact, we are here today to ask you for something, in the past six months, your daughter Tomomi has sent you a lot of letters asking for money, we want to start with these letters, see if we can investigate any new clues......"
Lin Xiu explained Mrs. Yano's intentions straightforwardly. He could see that Mrs. Yano knew that she could only rely on the police to find the murderer now, so she didn't treat Shuichi Hayashi and Miki like she did with the Kuwashima Police Department.
Facing Mrs. Yano, who had calmed down, Lin Xiuyi asked her about some of the things he cared about. In the end, Lin Xiuyi proposed to Mrs. Yano that he wanted to visit Tomomi's room, and Mrs. Yano agreed without too much hesitation.
Led by Mrs. Yano, Shuichi Hayashi and Miki came to Tomomi's room. Mrs. Yano gently pushed open the door, and Lin Xiuyi walked into the interior of the room, carefully examining the furnishings in the room.
There is a single bed against the wall in the room, and the bedding looks very clean, probably because Mrs. Yano cleans it from time to time. At the foot of the bed is a writing desk and a pink swivel chair. On the other side of the wall, opposite the bed, stands a simple shelf. There are magazines, figurines, photographs, and other items on it.
Mrs. Yano walked to the desk with heavy steps, gently opened the drawer, and took out a delicate box of biscuits from it, and then she opened the box and said to Hayashi Shuichi and Miki:
"This is the letter that Zhimei sent back, I keep each one in my collection, take it out from time to time to take a look, if you don't use it, please be sure to return it to me, this is the only thing Zhimei left me......"
Mrs. Yano, who saw things and thought about people, cried bitterly again, and Lin Xiuyi could now feel some of Mrs. Yano's feelings, because he also had a family. Lin Xiuyi shook his head helplessly, he didn't touch the letters, he just asked Miki to carefully put them away.
Lin Xiuyi walked to the row of shelves and carefully examined the items placed on them. On the top row of shelves is a set of distinctive picture frames. The frames are of the same style but different sizes, and are arranged on the shelves in order from smallest to largest.
The smallest photo frame should be a photo of Jimi when she was a child, and so on, the little girl looked cute when she was a child, with a pair of big eyes. As she grew older, the girl's photos gradually changed. But until elementary school, Jimi's photos looked like a good girl.
The photos of the changes are the last two on the shelves. In one of the photos, Tomomi is wearing a sailor suit, but she lifts her top to expose her navel, a pose that seems to be common in fashion magazines. Although there was nothing particularly excessive about this photo, it gave Lin Xiuyi a strange feeling.
The last one is even more exaggerated, the little girl is wearing ripped denim with a white shirt, and the buttons of the shirt are only two or three buttons. Lin Xiuyi even saw a part of the snow white faintly where his shirt was not buttoned, and it seemed that this was indeed a photo that was very in line with the aesthetic tendencies of adults.
"Was there anything wrong with Zhimei before the accident?" Lin Xiuyi asked curiously.
"At that time, Jimi didn't listen to me at all, and often skipped class to play outside, which was going for several days, and she spent more and more pocket money, just like a different person......"
"Did Zhimei have any special good friends when she was in school?" Lin Xiuyi asked again.
"Alas, in fact, Zhimei was very obedient when she was young, but I don't know what's going on, and then she became more and more disobedient, and her friends in the past gradually alienated her......"