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While Hikigaya was still in discussions with various film and television companies, the October issue of "All Readings" magazine was officially released. Mr. Hachiman himself announced on Twitter that the serialized stories following "Disintegration of the Causes and Conditions" would focus on real murder cases. This revelation has sparked considerable excitement among readers eager to see the level of orthodox reasoning Mr. Hachiman can achieve.
The family story from last month showcased some elements of orthodox reasoning, and combined with Hikigaya Hachiman's assertive declaration at the award ceremony, countless mystery fans are anticipating his authoritative masterpiece, a lengthy work whose title remains unknown.
For now, everyone can only enjoy the appetizer that Mr. Hachiman has presented before the main course. The title of this serial is "Disintegration and Lifting."
A couple returned to their apartment building on the night of February 29. While waiting for the elevator, they heard the 9 o'clock alarm that rings every night. The elevator descended from the eighth floor without stopping. When it reached the first floor and the doors opened, the couple was shocked to find a female corpse, dismembered and lying in the elevator.
The police arrived at the scene, sealed off the entire building overnight, and commenced an investigation. The following morning, they confirmed the identity of the deceased as Lai Zi, a woman in a discreet profession who was the mistress of a county councilor. The person who recognized her was Ozaki, a college student living next door to Lai Zi. His friend Yokota had visited him the day before and stayed overnight.
Ozaki stated that he not only knew the deceased but also confirmed that at 9 o'clock last night, when the alarm sounded, they took the elevator to the eighth floor and passed by Ms. Lai Zi. His friend Yokota could corroborate this. Although Yokota did not know the deceased, he confirmed that she entered the elevator right after they exited it at 9 o'clock last night.
This led to a bewildering situation: after Ms. Lai Zi entered the elevator, it did not stop but continued straight to the first floor, where her dismembered body was discovered. The elevator effectively created a locked room scenario, making it seemingly impossible for a crime to have been committed within the given timeframe.
However, the forensic examination report deepened the mystery. It stated that Ms. Lai Zi was killed by a blow to the head from a video recorder and then dismembered. The time of death was determined to be more than 24 hours prior to the couple's encounter with her. This means that when Ozaki and Yokota saw Ms. Lai Zi on the eighth floor, she had already been murdered.
The police speculated that the person the two men had encountered might have been Ms. Lai Zi in disguise. Given that the college students had returned home after drinking, they could have been easily confused by the act of disguise. It was theorized that the disguised individual might have been the wife of Ms. Lai Zi's lover, driven to murder out of jealousy.
However, this still did not explain how Ms. Lai Zi's body was moved into the elevator or when the disguised Ms. Lai Zi managed to exit the elevator. When Ozaki and Yokota walked out, the elevator was empty.
Moreover, Ozaki reported to the police that he and Yokota had discovered their apartment had been robbed, with many valuables missing, especially a collection of rare H videotapes belonging to Ozaki. All of them had vanished.
As they prepared to notify the police, they realized that the building had been completely sealed since their return home the previous night. Even if a thief had entered earlier, they would not have been able to leave, nor was there anywhere to hide the videotapes. This suggested that the thief must have been a resident of the apartment complex.
The police, overwhelmed with the investigation, were unable to prioritize the theft case immediately. However, the detective assigned to the case was intrigued. He visited the nearby erotic video store and discovered that Yokota, Ozaki's friend, frequented the establishment and had a known penchant for adult films.
From this information, the detective began to build a theory. The murderer was likely Yokota, the only individual among those involved who did not reside in the apartment. He had long coveted his friend's rare erotic videotapes, which Ozaki never shared, leading Yokota to concoct a plan to secretly copy them at his home.
On February 28, Yokota took the opportunity to drink with his friend Ozaki and managed to get him intoxicated. At 9 o'clock in the evening, when the alarm sounded, the two took the elevator to the eighth floor of the apartment and unexpectedly ran into Laizi, who was heading out for a date.
After returning home, Yokota put Ozaki on the bed, waited for him to fall asleep, and then administered a sufficient amount of sleeping pills to ensure he would sleep for a whole day. He then took out the VCR he had prepared in advance and attempted to copy his friend's adult videotape. However, he discovered that the video recorder he brought could not play his friend's tapes. In desperation, he decided to find a different video recorder.
While searching, he encountered Miss Laizi, who was also drunk, returning to the eighth floor. He pretended to assist her in opening her door but discreetly sneaked into her apartment to find a compatible video recorder. Thankfully, he located one that worked; however, Miss Laizi then woke up.
In a panic, Yokota struck Miss Laizi's head violently with a video camera, resulting in her death. Faced with the grim reality, he dismembered her body but chose not to dispose of the remains, instead keeping them for future use.
Using the recorder he found in Laizi's apartment, Yokota recorded frantically. However, he found that Ozaki's collection was extensive, and he quickly became exhausted from the effort. By the second night, there were still many tapes left unrecorded.
To solve this, he decided to take all the tapes back home and continue recording, while also stealing some items to stage it as a burglary. Upon returning to the apartment building, he discarded Miss Laizi's dismembered body into the elevator. The alarm went off at 9 o'clock in the evening on February 29. He hoped that someone would discover the body and call the police, which would lead to the apartment being sealed off, preventing anyone from entering or leaving.
After executing these plans, he returned to Ozaki's home and lay down next to him. When they awoke, it was already March 1. Ozaki, who had slept for an entire day, would incorrectly believe that it was still February 28. He would think he had seen Miss Laizi the night before and that a thief had entered after 9 o'clock that night. In reality, these events had transpired the previous evening before 9 o'clock.
This confusion meant that Ozaki's testimony could mislead the police. Additionally, the news Ozaki received from the police—that the apartment had been sealed off after 9 o'clock—would convince him that residents of the apartment had robbed his home. Since Ozaki knew that Yokota didn't live there, he assumed that even if Yokota had stolen something, he couldn't have escaped the sealed apartment, making him an unlikely suspect.
However, Yokota did not anticipate that a couple would discover the dismembered body parts in the elevator shortly after it descended. Combined with both his and Ozaki's statements, the coincidences regarding timing successfully transformed the elevator into a closed room crime scene, complicating the police investigation.
At this point, the truth of the case was becoming clearer. The only thing left was for the police to visit Yokota's residence to uncover what he had stolen, especially Miss Laizi's video recorder, which would provide solid evidence against him.
This is the conclusion of "Disintegration and Lifting."
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