Serial homicides?

Originally, Higashinohara only thought that this was an ordinary homicide case, perhaps involving a capable person, but he didn't expect that it would develop into a serial homicide case today.

At this time, hearing the solemn reminder of his apprentice Morita Taku, Satoru Aragaki seemed to be struggling a little on his face.

During this time, the Aragaki Detective Agency was basically helping the neighbors to find cats and dogs, or sending Xia Li, a catwoman, to secretly photograph some extramarital affairs and cheating.... It's like this kind of serious homicide, and it's also a serial homicide investigation commission, I don't know how long I haven't taken it.

Business Capabilities... Well, except for Satoru Aragaki, a retired police person, regular employee Xia Li and temporary worker Higashinohara have no "business ability" statement.

But after a long groan, Satoru Aragaki still gritted his teeth and said with a righteous face, "Serial murders?" I'm sorry! I will not tolerate such extrajudicial fanatics! This commission... Our Aragaki Detective Agency took it! ”

Morita Taku looked at Satoru Aragaki with some discomfort, but fortunately, he knew Satoru Aragaki well enough, and after thinking about it, he relieved himself, and was speechless for a while.

Don't ask!

Asking is that the other party is giving too much.

Morita Taku took a breath and reluctantly said, "Okay, I can't stop you from accepting this commission, but as far as I know, the victim's family should have contacted several detective agencies at the same time, and it's not so easy for you to get ahead of them, and now I will bring you the file you want, tell me, do you have any clue?" ”

Aragaki Satoru's face suddenly turned embarrassed, he had just patronized and entangled, and he had not yet entered the link of case analysis.

But as soon as he turned his head, he saw Xia Li in a "Formmorey" posture, with her hands folded in front of her chest, looking thoughtful at the blood-stained photo.

"Good! Xia Li-chan, tell me about it..."Satoru Aragaki immediately called the name.

Xia Li couldn't help but be slightly stunned when she heard this, scratched her head, the two fluffy ears on her short silver-white hair twitched, and she turned her head sideways with some curiosity, "Ahhh Is the boss calling me? ”

"Yes, you can analyze the case."

Satoru Aragaki said as he turned his head to Taku Morita next to him and said with a smile, "Tuo, don't look at Xia Li-chan's time in the office for a short time, but she has been with her teacher and has a good grasp of the case... I'm afraid not under the rookie elite of your Metropolitan Police Department..."

"The murderer... The murderer is a pervert! ”

Xia Li said suddenly.

"That's right." Satoru Aragaki nodded appreciatively, "The murderer of this Lianchang homicide did not cut off everyone's hands, but very cruelly stripped off the victim's hands, perverted... It's really perverted... Oh, I'm sorry, Charlie-chan, please continue. ”

However, after waiting for a long time, Xia Li didn't make a sound.

"Go on, did I interrupt your train of thought, Charlie-chan." Satoru Aragaki wondered.

Xia Li immediately shook her head, and said with some embarrassment, "It's not... Boss... That's all I have to analyze..."

Ahh

Higashinohara couldn't help but be stunned when he heard this.

Feelings, you pondered for a long time and figured out a pervert?

Taku Morita next to him couldn't help but crooked the corners of his mouth, and quickly recovered as before.

Aragaki Satoru was a little embarrassed, and said angrily, "Then why did you just nod your head and look thoughtful?" Are you thinking about what to eat at night? ”

"Huh? Boss, how do you know? Xia Li was shocked.

"Ahem, ahem..."Taku Morita finally couldn't hold back.

"......" Satoru Aragaki.

Higashinohara also has some egg pain.

Looking at this bloody picture, there is no one else who can eat anything...

I didn't expect it to hurt even more.

Aragaki Satoru turned his gaze to Higashinohara, who was standing at the door, and immediately said to Higashinohara with a kind face, "Fortunately, Higashino-kun is here, and Higashino-kun also read the file just now, what do you think, let's talk!" Let's just talk..."

Taku Morita of the Metropolitan Police Department's Search Division 2 didn't smile when he heard this, and the high school student next to him helped them find the suspicion of the Sakura intersection suicide case last year.

"Shall I analyze..."

Higashinohara pondered for two seconds, and he simply didn't hide it, and said directly, "The perversion that Xia Li just said, I think it can be regarded as a possibility, and it is also the most unfavorable possibility for investigation, that is, the randomness of the perverted homicide, but I don't think another possibility can be ruled out..."

"Vendetta."

Higashinohara paused at this point.

He turned his head to look at the bloody and horrific photos on the projector, and continued, "Anyone has a purpose in everything he does, and if it weren't for the vendetta, it's hard to imagine that a person would go to such great lengths to strip a corpse's hands to the point that only Sensen's hand joints remain. ”

"That's right!"

Xia Li's eyes lit up next to her, and she drew inferences, "When I was in my hometown in Okinawa, there was a pheasant who came to my house to eat grain, and I went up the mountain to find it for a day for revenge, and only caught it when it was almost dark, and then stripped it off its hair to vent my hatred." ”

Higashinohara glanced at Xia Li.

That pheasant should end up in your belly.

"Vendetta?"

Taku Morita pondered for two seconds when he heard this, and slowly analyzed, "I can't rule out this possibility, but the current analysis of my colleagues in the Metropolitan Police Department's Search Division is that vendettas are generally individual cases, and the murderer takes revenge on a single person, and the homicides we are encountering now have five murders in a row from a week ago to now, and the victims have no contact with each other... This is difficult to infer from vendettas. ”

The Metropolitan Police Department's search division was thoughtful, and Taku Morita's rebuttal did point out a very obvious loophole in Higashinohara's inference.

But Higashinohara looked at the horrific photos, and for some reason, he still felt an extremely strong hatred from the victims whose hands were only weird and eerie.

Frowning and thinking for a moment, Higashinohara spoke again, "If that's the case, then I think there's another possibility. ”

"What possibility?" Taku Morita asked.

On the side, Xia Li also looked curious, but Aragaki Satoru's face showed a thoughtful look.

Higashinohara said in a light tone, "Maybe... The target of the murderer's revenge is never one person, but... A certain group. ”

Aragaki Satoru's eyes lit up suddenly, and he continued, "If this hypothesis is true, revenge against a certain group should start from an individual."

"Then the first person to die, the murderer must have chosen him for some special reason, and the scope of our investigation is narrowed down again."

Taku Morita wants to say that your assumption may not be true, but he was inexplicably infected by the calm and indifferent momentum of Higashinohara, and this high school student inexplicably has the aura of a famous detective in film and television anime works, which makes people unconsciously choose to believe his inference.

In fact, he thought too much, Higashinohara was purely a confidence that he had not had in the past brought about by the improvement of strength under normal conditions, and turned into an invisible contagion.

In the end, Taku Morita still took a breath and pressed the remote control button in his hand, and the photo on the projector flashed quickly, returning to the first picture of the slightly bald middle-aged man's corpse.

Nagayoshi Taro, 47 years old, is a convenience store owner.

"Ladies and gentlemen! It looks like we already have a goal. ”

Satoru Aragaki immediately clapped his hands with full of fighting spirit, looked at Higashinohara with satisfaction and said, "Tomorrow morning, we will set off to officially start the investigation, I have a hunch that this case will definitely regain the reputation of our firm!" Tell me out loud, do you have faith?! Oh... Xia Li-chan raised her hand, do you still have any questions? ”

"Boss, do you want me to have a working meal tonight?" Xia Li asked expectantly.

Aragaki Satoru choked suddenly, and said angrily, "Today you applied for a break, where did you get a working meal on your day off." ”

"Okay, there are no other problems, then we will meet at eight o'clock tomorrow morning, is there a problem with Higashino-kun?"

Towards Higashinohara, Satoru Aragaki's attitude was immediately different, although he couldn't figure out how this sullen stupid boy who lived in his apartment building suddenly opened his mind, but opening his mind is opening his mind, and now he naturally looks at it differently.

"I can do it all." Higashinohara smiled and nodded, "If there's nothing left, I'll go back first and see you tomorrow." ”

"See you tomorrow!"

"Well, let's go too." Takudo Morita.

He was pulled over by this unreliable master, and he didn't have Xia Li's mind to rub his face with a shy face, so he naturally wouldn't stay here longer after he was done.

So the two went out together, and when they walked to the corner of the corridor, Morita Taku, who was about to go downstairs, thought about it, and couldn't help but look up and shout to Higashinohara who was going upstairs, "Higashino-kun." ”

"Huh? What's wrong? Mr. Morita? Higashinohara asked, looking down.

"That's... My master, that guy from Aragaki is not very reliable. Morita Taku smiled bitterly helplessly, and then reminded in a serious tone, "This murder may involve the able, I know you also study the Abler Academy, but you still have to be careful during the investigation." ”

Higashinohara was stunned, nodded and said, "Thank you, I'll pay attention." ”

After saying that, the two said goodbye.

......

The next day, Saturday.

Edogawa-ku, Kobayashi convenience store.

The rain outside the window was pouring down, leaving a meandering trail of rain on the glass.

For the two clerks in the convenience store, a man and a woman, the convenience store that is inaccessible on a rainy day is a rare "good weather" for a service-oriented industry like theirs.

Behind the cashier of the Little Forest convenience store, a female clerk named Kaori Mei Koji was bored with her chin in her hands, staring at the falling rain marks on the window in a daze;

Yuki Miura, the male clerk next to him, was holding his phone in both hands, looking as if he was in a game battle.

At this time, three figures wearing black trench coats walked on the rainy street not far away, holding a black umbrella in their hands, and every step of the man walking in front seemed to press the rhythm and rhythm of the raindrops, and forcibly turned the empty rainy street into a fashion week show.

......

"Jingle bells! Welcome to Little Forest Convenience Store and have a great time shopping. ”

The sensor door opened, and when the three figures stepped in, the welcome prompt of the convenience store also sounded.

The three uninvited guests in the rain stepped through the door and put the umbrella in their hands on the drain rack in front of the convenience store, and Satoru Aragaki scratched the strand of hair that was wet in front of his forehead, and said with some annoyance, "Hell! Do all the weather stations in New Tokyo eat S? Every time I say that it won't rain, it will definitely rain, and I'm wasting the 'work clothes' I prepared for you. ”

"Boss, is there a possibility that you have read the weather forecast wrong," Xia Li shook her head as she entered the door, and shook off the rain on her hairy milky ears on her head.

"No way!"

Satoru Aragaki said loudly with a weak heart.

Next to the two of them, Higashinohara put the umbrella on the drain rack and quietly glanced at the convenience store.

Cameras are placed in several key places on the ceiling inside the convenience store, and the TV screen behind the cash register is divided into nine small squares to monitor the situation in the store in real time.

However, there are only eight cameras on the TV screen with pictures, and the one in the lower right corner is estimated to be malfunctioning, and there is no picture in pitch black.

Seeing that there were customers entering the door on a rainy day, the female clerk behind the cash register, Mei Xiaoji Kaori, cheered up and said with a smile, "Welcome, our store's oden has a recent promotion, buy three get one free, and have a cup of oden on a rainy day!" ”

The girl smiled and squinted at the crescent moon, and some of the baby's fat cheeks showed shallow, sweet dimples.

The male clerk next to him, Yuki Miura, seems to have not finished a game yet, and in the past, he actually didn't dare to play with his mobile phone during working hours.

But recently, the situation is special, the owner of the convenience store has just been killed, and the proprietress is busy chasing the murderer, who cares about checking the camera of the convenience store every day.

So Yuki Miura sneakily glanced left and right, coughed dryly, and turned around and walked into the storeroom and locker room of the convenience store.

No one can pit teammates.

The camera in the storage room and dressing room seems to be malfunctioning, and Yuki Miura usually hides here to fish when he is lazy to play games, and the job at the convenience store is very easy, so there is no problem if there is someone outside to take care of it.

......

Hearing the sweet sales pitch of the female clerk Mei Xiaolu Kaori, Aragaki Satoru stepped forward, clenched his fists and coughed dryly, "Thank you, but no need..."

"Boss, buy three get one free!"

Xia Li's eyes lit up.

The female clerk Mei Xiaolu Kaori glanced at Xia Li, the smile on her face became sweeter, and she continued to sell, "Yes, if you buy two copies, you can exchange an additional 50 yen for a bottle of Coke." ”

"Boss! Give it back! ”

The look on Xia Li's face became even more excited.

It seems to say that there is such a big advantage not to take advantage of, and you deserve to be struck by lightning when you go out.

Aragaki Satoru thought about it, and then they had to use these two clerks as a breakthrough strategy, and it seemed a bit unreasonable not to buy something.

So he took out his wallet and said to Mei Xiaolu Kaori very generously, "Then give me two oden, 50 yen and buy a bottle of drink, and the remaining 150 don't need to be found, it's an uncle's tip." ”

Tip?

The corner of Higashinohara's eyes twitched.

Satoru Aragaki went downstairs to buy cigarettes and had to bargain with people for discounts, and one day he would take the initiative to tip, so he could only say that the world was wonderful.

The female clerk Mei Xiaoji Kaori was used to making change, and it seemed that it was the first time to collect tips, so after being stunned, she still bowed politely and said, "Thank you so much." ”

After speaking, she borrowed the money with both hands and put it away, turned around and picked up the cup to serve the oden with a quick movement.

"You're welcome, your smile dispelled the haze of the rainy day for Uncle I, this is what you deserve." Satoru Aragaki, who slapped his swollen face and filled the fat man, said gentlemanly and gracefully.

After a pause, just as the female clerk Mei Xiaoji Kaori bent down to serve oden, Satoru Aragaki was holding the oden counter, and suddenly bent down through the window and asked, "By the way, I heard that the owner of your store had a misfortune last week, do you know anything about it?" Oh... I forgot to introduce myself, but I am a police officer in the Search Division of the Metropolitan Police Department. ”

As he spoke, Aragaki opened the wallet folded in his hand, revealing the Metropolitan Police Department document that he had just forged in the morning, and immediately calmly put it away in his arms, "They are all my colleagues." ”

The female clerk Mei Koji Kaori looked up at Satoru Aragaki, and suddenly looked over Satoru Aragaki to look at Xia Li, who was always staring at the oden in her hand, and Higashinohara, who had her hands in her pockets behind her and looked like a "cold Tokyo handsome fan", her slightly baby fat cheeks suddenly showed a slightly sly smile.

"Uncle, you're actually from a detective agency, right?"