[Has the body still not been discovered?]
In his car, Officer Sakata frowned. He hadn't received a word from Heiji yet and was wondering if he should call to "check in." If the body was discovered too late, it would throw a serious wrench in his plans.
"Officer Sakata, where are you?"
Heiji's voice came through the phone. Sakata let out a secret sigh of relief—it was finally found.
"I'm almost there! Did you find Ms. Okazaki?"
"She's dead."
"What?! I'll be right there."
Heiji hung up and looked indifferently at the corpse on the ground. A small knife was still driven deep into her chest.
The sound of screeching brakes echoed outside, and Sakata came rushing in. Seeing the body, his face twisted: "How could this happen?"
Heiji shook his head. "It looks like the killer has been watching us from nearby."
Sakata nodded seriously. "But how did he manage to lure Ms. Okazaki here?"
"Are you suggesting this is the primary crime scene, Officer?"
At Heiji's question, Sakata's heart skipped a beat, but he kept his expression neutral. "Didn't you just come from her home? Since she wasn't there, and given the short time frame, it's impossible for the killer to have moved the body. This is the most likely location."
Heiji nodded. "From the state of the scene, there are no drag marks. This should indeed be the primary crime scene."
Sakata felt a weight lift off his chest.
"There won't be any clues left here. Let the other officers guard the scene; we should go check her room," Heiji suggested.
"Mhm, I'll notify the others to come over immediately."
The Hidden Message
Once the area was secured by other officers, the two arrived at Okazaki Sumie's home.
"Looking at the kitchenware, she lived alone," Sakata noted, moving around the room as if searching for any trace of evidence.
Beep—!!!
Heiji walked straight to the telephone and pressed the play button. "Officer Sakata, come listen to this."
"Three o'clock in the afternoon, go to Shinsaibashi. You can meet your group of friends there." Message time: 2:03 PM.
Sakata's eyes widened.
"Keep listening," Heiji said, a cold sneer flashing in his eyes. Your acting is a bit over the top, Sakata.
"Why haven't you left yet? What are you doing?" Message time: 2:05 PM.
"How is it? Are you very scared? Don't worry, you're next." Message time: 3:05 PM.
Sakata suddenly sucked in a breath of cold air. "Were these all left by the killer for Ms. Okazaki?"
Heiji didn't speak, his eyes still fixed on the answering machine. Sakata gradually calmed down beside him, thinking: I only left three messages. Anything after this shouldn't have any value.
"If you don't want the events of 20 years ago exposed, bring the items." Message time: 4:08 PM.
Suddenly, the machine played that final sentence.
A look of pure horror flashed in Sakata's eyes. He stared at the machine in disbelief. Impossible... Who was that on the phone? How could she know about what happened 20 years ago?
Three minutes passed in silence.
Heiji finally seemed to snap out of it. "It looks like those are all the messages."
"However, these messages have left us a clue," Sakata said seriously. He had recovered his composure, but he buried the terror of that last message deep in his heart for now.
Heiji nodded. "From the first and second messages, the killer was intimately aware of Ms. Okazaki's movements. The third message confirms that. But the problem is the fourth—why did it change to a woman's voice, and what does her message mean?"
Heiji kept his hands in his pockets, lowering his head in "thought." Sakata's grim expression wasn't faked this time. An unexpected variable had crashed into his plan, and he was more alarmed than anyone.
The Driver's License Motif
"Four consecutive cases... what is the connection?" Heiji murmured.
[I have to give him a nudge,] Sakata thought, starting to feel panicked. I can't let this drag on too long.
"Indeed. Whether it's Nagao Hidetoshi from the Toyonaka incident, Nishiguchi Tayo from the Hirakata incident, Noan Kazuto from Shinsaibashi, or Okazaki Sumie from the Seito Apartments... even though they all grew up in Osaka, they lived in different areas. There's no apparent commonality," Sakata said.
Heiji suddenly looked up. "Officer Sakata, how did you even know their names?"
"Names?" Sakata froze, then smiled. "Because all of them had their driver's licenses in their wallets."
"Driver's licenses? Right... the licenses." A confident smile hooked onto Heiji's lips. "Let's go. To the Osaka Transportation Bureau."
Osaka Transportation Bureau!
"How is this possible? None of them have any accident records," Sakata said, frowning.
"I thought the motive might be a traffic accident, but it seems not." Heiji put down the records, his brow furrowed tightly. "But why did every victim have a driver's license in their wallet, and why were they stabbed through them with a knife?"
"What is the mystery behind this gesture?"
The room fell silent. Sakata stopped talking—Heiji's deduction skills were too sharp. If he provided too many leads, the plan might fall apart prematurely.
"Driver's licenses..." Heiji muttered, slowly standing up. "Officer Sakata, let's go."
"Go?" Sakata blinked. "Where?"
"Back. It's too late today."
Outside, the sky had already turned pitch black. The time was 8:25 PM. Sakata was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
Heiji walked ahead, a predatory smirk playing on his lips. Thinking of killing tonight? Not until I've finished setting the stage.
According to the plot, Sakata was supposed to kill Goshi Sotaro tonight. However, he needed the guidance of the son of the Osaka Police Superintendent to gain entry. Without Heiji, he couldn't get in alone.
"Officer Sakata, you've worked hard tonight. I'm going back to string all these clues together and see what I find."
Heiji stepped out of the car.
"Alright. Hard work for you, Heiji."
As the police car drove off, the veins on Sakata's hands bulged against the steering wheel. Just endure a little longer. Tomorrow, I'll give him more clues, and then I can finally avenge my father.
He thought for a moment and suddenly jerked the wheel. Numabuchi Kiichiro couldn't die yet.
However, he had no idea that a figure was silently following him through the night.
Just Glide!
Heiji began to run, using the wind to leap and glide. While he couldn't match the top speed of a car, he could easily keep pace from a distance. Fortunately, the place Sakata was heading was quite remote, and no one saw the strange figure leaping and gliding through the shadows.