-WARNING! DISTURBING SITUATION IN THIS CHAPTER-
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Seeing Takagi completely out of breath, Ritsu stood up, grabbed a bottle of mineral water, and handed it to him while soothingly saying, "Take a drink and catch your breath first."
"Thank you, Inspector." Takagi gulped down several mouthfuls before sitting in the chair Yuna Hayasaka had brought over.
Only then did his pounding heart finally calm down enough for him to report, "Inspector, the first victim was named Natsumi Hoshino. Just like you suspected, she gave birth to a baby girl this March."
"A child born this March?"
"Yes. Hoshino was twenty-seven this year. Last December, there was a car accident in Chiba Prefecture, and her husband's family all died in that accident."
Miwako sighed sympathetically after hearing that. "That's really tragic… Her family was already shattered, and now this happened too."
Takagi was about to respond when he noticed that Ritsu, who had been sprawled in his chair watching the surveillance footage, suddenly looked grim.
"Inspector? Are you not feeling well?"
"Takagi, did you find out Hoshino's address?" Ritsu asked with a tight frown, speaking rapidly.
"Huh? Yes. Room 205, 32 Beika 4-Chome."
"Hayasaka, stay here and keep reviewing the surveillance footage with Sato." Ritsu yanked Takagi up from his chair and ordered, "Takagi, come with me to Hoshino's apartment."
"Understood!" Sensing that something bad had happened, Takagi immediately switched into work mode as well.
After driving to the destination, Ritsu hurried out of the car the moment it was parked and sprinted toward the run-down apartment building in front of them.
Takagi had no idea why Ritsu was in such a rush. He quickly locked the car and followed behind. But the moment he reached the second floor, he smelled an awful odor. Even though he hadn't been a detective for very long, he could immediately tell what it was.
The smell of a rotting corpse.
A terrible premonition welled up in his chest.
At that moment, the door to Room 206 next door opened after hearing the commotion. Standing there was a middle-aged drunk man, probably around forty years old. He was obviously intoxicated and, without even seeing who they were, loudly complained,
"Hoshino-san, you finally decided to come home! Your garbage smells so bad the whole hallway reeks of it! Hic!"
As he finished speaking, he let out a loud drunken belch, causing Takagi to take two steps back from the stench.
"Sir, we're not residents of Room 205." Takagi pulled out his police ID and explained, "We're police officers here to investigate a case."
Investigate? Police?
The drunk man sobered up considerably upon hearing those two words. Slurring his speech, he stammered, "P-Police officers? Um… Hoshino-san's a good person. She just hasn't been home in a long time, I guess. Probably forgot to throw out her trash, so it started smelling."
Hearing the man speak so positively about Natsumi Hoshino, Takagi realized they likely had a good relationship as neighbors. He asked, "Sir, you seem pretty familiar with Hoshino-san. Do you know who she was close to? Or whether any suspicious people have been hanging around the apartment lately?"
Even in his half-drunk state, the man's mind worked quickly. He immediately sensed that something was wrong and anxiously asked, "Officer, what do you mean by that? Did something happen to Hoshino-san?"
While the two spoke, Ritsu had already picked the lock open. Pulling a mask from his pocket and putting it on, he pushed open the door. Even though he had mentally prepared himself, the thick stench of decay burst out like a child who had been locked away for ages and could finally escape.
"Ugh—!"
Sure enough, after smelling it, the drunken neighbor, whose stomach had been full of food and alcohol, immediately bent over against the wall and vomited violently.
The odor of vomit mixing with the smell of decomposition truly was the worst possible combination.
"Inspector… don't tell me…?"
"The moment I heard she was a single mother, I already suspected this possibility."
Ritsu walked into the apartment. In the living room, lying in the baby crib, was a heavily decomposed corpse so badly decayed that its features were completely unrecognizable. All he could determine from the body size was that it had belonged to an infant only a few months old.
Just as he had feared.
After Hoshino was murdered, her daughter had been left alone in the apartment and slowly starved to death.
Clenching his fists tightly, he stepped back out of the room filled with the stench of death and slowly closed the door behind him. Looking at Takagi, who was helping support the drunken neighbor, he said in a low voice,
"Takagi, contact the local station and have them recover the body."
"The body? Inspector, is it…"
"Yeah. Hoshino-san's daughter is dead."
The drunken neighbor, who had looked so weak he could barely stand moments ago, suddenly found strength from somewhere. Staggering toward Ritsu, he cried out emotionally,
"Inspector! Hoshino-san was really a good person. She… she can't die without justice being served!"
"I understand." Ritsu struggled to suppress the dark emotions surging inside him. He feared that if he caught the killer now, he might do something extreme. Forcing a reassuring smile, he said,
"I promise I'll catch the murderer."
"Good… that's good enough."
With heavy footsteps, they descended the stairs. Once inside the car, Ritsu pulled out a cigarette pack and asked, "Takagi, mind if I smoke?"
"Not at all." Takagi looked at Ritsu through the drifting smoke. After hesitating for a moment, he finally asked, "Um, Inspector… do you have any leads on the case now?"
"Afraid I won't catch the killer?"
"No, sir. I believe you'll definitely catch them."
Ritsu smiled faintly without answering right away. Only after extinguishing the cigarette did he reply,
"I have a general direction, but no concrete target yet. I think the surveillance footage from that Roppongi nightclub will give me the answer."
The death of Hoshino's daughter had dragged both of their moods to rock bottom. Fortunately, after returning to the Metropolitan Police Department, they finally received some good news.
While reviewing the surveillance footage, Hayasaka discovered a young man whose behavior between July 1st and July 6th was especially suspicious. Every night, he would order only a single drink, sit quietly in a corner for about an hour, and then leave.
Ritsu braced both hands against the desk as he carefully studied the young man's appearance on-screen. Unfortunately, the footage was blurry, and all they could make out was that the suspect was an adult man with short brown hair.
"Contact Shingo Tsurumi. Tell him to gather every employee who worked at the club in July and find out who interacted with the man in the footage."
"But, Inspector… it's been so long. Will they still remember him?"
"Normally, people who want to drink go to bars. Going to a nightclub without ordering a hostess is already strange enough. On top of that, he came six days in a row. That kind of odd behavior definitely leaves an impression."
Ritsu clipped together several video segments and analyzed them side by side.
"And pay attention to the timing. He arrived at different times each of those six days, and whenever he drank, he constantly looked around. He was obviously scouting for prey."
"Inspector, do you think the man in the footage is the killer? Isn't that a little hasty?" Takagi asked.
Ritsu pulled a grape-flavored soda candy from his drawer, unwrapped one, and popped it into his mouth before explaining,
"At the beginning, the killer's counter-surveillance abilities were weak. The first two victims' heads were repeatedly cut, and the cross-sections were extremely uneven. That shows he was inexperienced with dismemberment."
"A person like that would definitely observe his victims' routines carefully to make sure nothing went wrong during the attack… The place where Akimoto Risa was abducted definitely wasn't her home, but somewhere along her route back.
When we went to 4-Chome earlier, I noticed there's an alley between Block 24 and Block 25 with no surveillance cameras. That's most likely where the killer kidnapped her before taking her to the outskirts."
After hearing Ritsu's analysis, both Hayasaka and Takagi nodded in agreement. Takagi's admiration practically overflowed from his eyes.
He remembered mentioning Inspector Onizawa when he had dinner with Date-senpai before, and his senior had also spoken highly of him.
Takagi clenched his fists excitedly.
By following Ritsu, he was sure he could learn a great deal. Maybe one day, he too could become a dependable detective capable of standing on his own.
"Hayasaka, hurry and make the call. We don't have much time."
"We need to rip out the killer's fangs before he hunts his next target."