Chapter 690: Chapter 437: Sugoroku Day
Minamoto Tamako propped her chin with her little hand, pondering before beginning her deduction whether she should get herself some accoutrements, like a pipe or a cigar... Otherwise, every time she started reasoning, she would just prop her chin with her little hand, completely lacking the demeanor of a famous detective and police chief.
Hmm, it’s decided, tomorrow I’ll go out and buy a pipe.
She nodded, looking like she had already deduced the truth, but in reality, she had just started pondering the murder case.
Fushimi Roku had been waiting on the side for a while, almost finishing the rice in his bowl before Minamoto Tamako responded, "I think it’s a third-party perpetrator."
"What’s the basis for your judgement?" Fushimi Roku asked.
"The husband has no motive to kill. If he didn’t love his wife anymore, he could have completely asked for a divorce, there’s no need to go so far as to murder; the same goes for the lover, if he didn’t love the lover anymore, he could also break up, why resort to murder?"
Minamoto Tamako crossed her arms, the more she spoke, the more she felt she had a point: "The wife knows the husband has a lover outside, and the lover definitely knows she’s the third party, there’s really no reason for it to escalate to murder..."
Fushimi Roku made a sound of acknowledgment, not commenting further. He casually remarked, "If only we knew the exact time of their deaths, it would be easier to determine."
Minamoto Tamako’s face turned red, she wanted to say "I know, I know," but saying it out loud would reveal her secret, so she could only twist her legs as if she urgently needed to pee.
Seeing she couldn’t come up with a good excuse, Fushimi Roku simply helped her by saying, "Think about it carefully, maybe someone mentioned the exact time of death back then, you just accidentally forgot."
"Y-yes, I think that’s it."
Minamoto Tamako, feeling very guilty, followed up, "The wife’s time of death is at eleven PM, and the lover’s time of death is also at eleven PM..."
Fushimi Roku put down his utensils, having finished eating, took out a bottle of soda from the fridge, drinking while asking, "Seems a bit too precise, doesn’t it? Isn’t there usually a few hours’ margin in estimating the time of death?"
"Because the wife had dinner before she died, there are receipts and restaurant staff to prove it. The forensic report indicated that based on the undigested food in the stomach, the time of death was deduced to be at eleven o’clock..."
Minamoto Tamako started letting it all out, sharing everything she knew: "As for the lover, there is an eyewitness, there was a street cleaner outside a small alley who saw a sneaky man slip out of the alley entrance, wearing sunglasses and a mask, and that was at eleven o’clock too..."
"Oh! Got it." Fushimi Roku nodded.
Minamoto Tamako hurriedly added a cover-up, "This is also something I heard from others’ casual chats."
Fushimi Roku wanted to ask who chats about things like this casually, but he held back and continued to ask, "Did the cleaner identify the husband?"
"Identified him, he thought the voice and figure were a bit similar but didn’t see the face, so he wasn’t sure if it was him." Minamoto Tamako continued with the disclaimer, "This is also what I heard from others chatting."
Fushimi Roku had a clear direction for investigation now: "If I were a criminal police officer handling the case, I’d definitely first investigate the interpersonal relationships, financial accounts, and call records of the wife and the lover, to rule out the possibility of mutually hiring a hitman."
Minamoto Tamako nodded thoughtfully: "You mean there’s a possibility that the two of them could have hired a hitman to murder each other?"
"You just said it wouldn’t escalate to murder, let me correct that."
Fushimi Roku burped, his mouth filled with the taste of cola: "The wife, being neglected by her husband for a long time, wouldn’t she hold a grudge against the lover? The lover, not having an official status for a long time, wouldn’t she have resentment towards the wife? Of course, the most despicable is the husband, but as a man, cheating can transfer conflicts, being stuck in the middle only means enjoyment, not difficulty."
Minamoto Tamako squinted her eyes, sizing up Fushimi Roku: "What do you mean?"
Fushimi Roku was still pondering the case and didn’t notice her peculiar mood, nor did he realize this was a deadly question: "If the wife gets angry, she blames it on the lover; if the lover seeks a status, he claims he has a fierce wife at home and is helpless... In the end, it’s all about deceiving both sides! They will only try harder to please the man and resent their competitor more while vying for his affection."
As soon as he finished speaking, an unnamed danger was approaching him.
Minamoto Tamako turned her face away, side-glancing at Fushimi Roku with a strange look in her eyes: "How do you know such things? You sound very experienced."
"..."
Fushimi Roku realized something was wrong, gripping the empty cola bottle, he glanced back at Minamoto Tamako, whose eyes were filled with suspicion.
"I used to represent divorce cases."
Fushimi Roku reacted quickly, barely needing to think, he had an answer ready: "As for these cheating men, I have great disdain in my heart. As the saying goes, ’A dishonest husband gains no wealth’, such people do not deserve love."
Minamoto Tamako nodded repeatedly, looking very satisfied, as if nothing had happened, then brought the topic back to the case, sighing, "This is hard to investigate, the wife has a good family background, and her family is foreign as well, there’s no guarantee there aren’t other assets; the lover is the same, most of her savings came from the husband, and occasionally there are some shady incomes..."
Fushimi Roku pondered for a moment, feeling that matters like these are indeed difficult for the police to investigate, but it would be different in the underworld. Later, he’d ask Mizutani Junichiro to check around, ask if anyone in the circles has taken such a job recently or if anyone has fled recently, it would be clear in no time.