Chapter 171
With understanding for his colleagues from the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division, Hagiwara Kenji stepped onto the soil of Tsukikage Island.
Someone from the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division came to meet them, his attitude somewhat restrained.
"Welcome, Samukawa-kun, Hagiwara-kun. We've been waiting for a long time... Um, my partner is still investigating, so only I came to meet you both. Please don't misunderstand..."
Hagiwara Kenji was embarrassed: "We're all police officers—we know how busy you are. Don't worry."
How afraid was he of being misunderstood by Shinryu for not valuing him enough? Good thing Inspector Megure had him come along too, otherwise he couldn't imagine what kind of... self-inflicted turmoil the Organized Crime Countermeasures colleagues would be living in today due to their own overthinking.
Over these years, Hagiwara Kenji had actually discovered a problem—he felt that when facing Samukawa Shinryu, most people's troubles were self-inflicted.
The remaining small portion was when Samukawa Shinryu's own mischievous streak flared up and he caused trouble, with the victims being completely innocent.
But considering that constantly suppressing Samukawa Shinryu's hobbies wasn't good either—afraid of a backlash—if the target was criminals, colleagues basically turned a blind eye.
Better than having Samukawa Shinryu get bored and toy with their own people, right?
And Hagiwara Kenji's powerful affinity and emotional intelligence served as a stabilizer, providing timely explanations or handling communication so the other party wouldn't lose their rationality because of Samukawa Shinryu, avoiding unnecessary troubles. They could be called a golden duo—everyone in Criminal Investigation Division One praised Section Chief Odagiri's arrangement as perfect. As for how many spoke from the heart versus how many were relieved they weren't assigned to partner with Samukawa Shinryu, that was unknown.
In any case, with Hagiwara Kenji there, this Organized Crime Countermeasures colleague relaxed a bit, led them to the car, then drove them to the death scene while explaining the situation—after all, not everything could be explained in emails.
"The deceased is the village chief here, Kameyama Isamu, who we discovered might be the suspected informant for the doctor."
Hearing this uncertain wording, Hagiwara Kenji asked: "Is there evidence?"
The Organized Crime Countermeasures officer laughed dryly: "This kind of business uses coded records for transactions. The decoded cipher pointed to Tsukikage Island, then drew a turtle. As soon as we arrived, we discovered Kameyama Isamu had died... so we guessed it might be him."
Simply put, there was no direct evidence. Just based on some coincidences, they'd asked Samukawa Shinryu to make this trip—feeling guilty was inevitable.
But this was police intuition! Not confirming it would be really frustrating!
He nervously tried to secretly observe the expression of Samukawa Shinryu sitting in the back seat through the rearview mirror. When their eyes met those dark red pupils, he was startled and quickly looked away, focusing on driving with more concentration than when taking his driving test.
"Anyway, the current situation is that we found this place and discovered Village Chief Kameyama had already died last night. They closed it as an accident case directly, even moved the body and planned to hold a funeral service and burial... If you need to examine the body, we don't have much time left. The scene hasn't been cleaned yet, so there might still be clues..."
The more he spoke, the more embarrassed he felt, like he was pushing people into a pit.
"If the coroner has confirmed cardiac paralysis and the body is already in a coffin, any clues from the body have probably been destroyed... Is the person who did the autopsy still here?" Samukawa Shinryu asked.
The Organized Crime Countermeasures officer quickly said: "Still here. It's a doctor who just came to Tsukikage Island, named Asai Narimi. Since there weren't enough people to do autopsies in Tokyo, she temporarily took responsibility."
"Mm, then call her and the person who discovered the body to the mansion." Samukawa Shinryu said casually.
The colleague immediately nodded: "Of course! I'll contact them right away."
One understood the body, one understood the first scene—naturally they should be called to ask about the situation in more detail.
Taking advantage of waiting at the traffic light, the colleague quickly used his phone to contact these two people, asking them to gather at the mansion.
After he hung up, Hagiwara Kenji continued asking: "Do you have any suspects?"
"Well... it was cardiac paralysis, right..." The colleague coughed dryly. "I wanted to ask if he'd offended anyone, but his family insists he was friendly to everyone, beloved by the island villagers, which is why he was elected village chief. It's impossible he offended anyone..."
As he spoke, he secretly glanced at the rearview mirror again.
Samukawa Shinryu was staring out the window with a bored expression, seemingly uninterested in the case.
Sigh, it really felt like he'd pushed a very troublesome matter onto Samukawa-kun... It would be normal for Samukawa-kun to be unhappy. He just felt bad for Jinma-san—if this time he and his partner really were overthinking, Samukawa-kun might even cool off toward Jinma-san.
Tsukikage Island wasn't large. With his worries, the colleague soon drove to the mansion entrance, then led them to the room with the piano.
"This is the place. This is the island's new doctor, also responsible for the autopsy, Miss Asai Narimi. This is Mr. Hirata Kazuaki, who first discovered the crime scene."
After introducing them, the colleague introduced the newcomers to these two: "These are detectives from the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Division One, Officer Samukawa Shinryu and Officer Hagiwara Kenji. Please cooperate with them."
"Ah... oh, okay."
Both responded with somewhat stiff expressions.
Although the officer hadn't matched names to faces when introducing them, and the two new officers weren't wearing name tags, both Asai Narimi and Hirata Kazuaki instinctively matched them up.
—That guy with dark blue hair, dark red eyes, looking dangerous like an Italian mafioso from "The Godfather"—that had to be Samukawa Shinryu!
Cold winter glacier, slowly flowing stream beneath the ice... even hearing the name felt freezing.
"What was the scene like when you discovered it? Why did you suddenly come here in the middle of the night?" Samukawa Shinryu didn't warm up the atmosphere and got straight to the point.
Hirata Kazuaki was stunned before realizing he was being asked, then quickly answered: "I was just passing by when I heard piano playing. I thought it was strange—who was playing piano here at night? I wanted to look, but just as I reached the window, the music inside stopped. Since there were no lights, I couldn't see the situation inside clearly, so I had to enter the mansion to check. After entering, I found Village Chief Kameyama collapsed over the piano, already dead..."
The Organized Crime Countermeasures people had arrived a bit late—the body had been moved, and since the death was from cardiac paralysis, there wasn't even blood in this room. Hagiwara Kenji felt it was tricky, not knowing where to start investigating.
Samukawa Shinryu asked: "What position was he in when he collapsed?"
Hirata Kazuaki hesitantly glanced at the piano—probably still a bit disgusted that a dead person had been lying on it—and demonstrated with his own posture: "About like this, head on the keyboard, hands hanging down..."
Samukawa Shinryu walked to the piano and made as if to touch the keyboard.
He habitually wore black leather gloves and hadn't put on white gloves for crime scene investigation, but it wasn't his police colleague who stopped him—it was Hirata Kazuaki.
"Um, maybe don't touch that piano." Hirata Kazuaki's voice trembled, looking very frightened. "This piano must be cursed by Aso-san! Look, Aso-san died playing 'Moonlight Sonata,' and now the village chief too..."
"Hmph..."
The originally cold and indifferent expression of the dark-haired, red-eyed young man suddenly became lively. He looked at him with interest: "You really don't want anyone touching this piano?"
Hirata Kazuaki's expression stiffened: "...After all, it's not very auspicious, like it's cursed... No one has touched it for years. The village chief came last night for some reason and died..."
"Finding this kind of excuse to keep people away from the piano." The young man sighed.
Hirata Kazuaki felt cold sweat starting on his back, his fingertips numb with tension, his brain racing to think how to defend himself.
But Samukawa Shinryu seemed to mention it casually, not caring about his explanation or his feelings after saying those words. After speaking, he directly sat at the piano and began playing "Moonlight Sonata."
No one stopped him this time—after all, this piano didn't really have any evidence that needed strict preservation.
However, what he played wasn't the slow, tranquil first movement that the public more commonly heard when "Moonlight Sonata" was mentioned, but the very passionate third movement right from the start. With the storm-like continuous striking of keys, brilliant melody instantly filled the entire room.
Samukawa Shinryu only played for about ten seconds before stopping, standing up to open the grand piano's lid and beginning to tap around lightly.
Hagiwara Kenji came over: "Is there a problem?"
"He said no one had touched it for years, but this piano sounds like it was just tuned—very accurate." Samukawa Shinryu said. "And that guy didn't want people touching it."
Hagiwara Kenji couldn't help glancing at Hirata Kazuaki.
After all, he was Samukawa Shinryu's partner. Based on his understanding of Samukawa Shinryu, this wasn't just pointing out the piano had problems—it was also clearly indicating Hirata Kazuaki himself was problematic.
As Samukawa Shinryu examined the piano, Hirata Kazuaki's breathing became increasingly unsteady. Even Asai Narimi noticed something wrong and looked at him several times.
Finally, Samukawa Shinryu seemed to discover something. He bent down and opened a hidden door from the corresponding position below the piano.
"Hm? Why would there be a hidden door designed in this kind of place?" Hagiwara Kenji crouched down directly, shining a flashlight to examine inside. "There's white powder."
Now the Organized Crime Countermeasures colleague finally couldn't hold back, running over and pushing Hagiwara Kenji aside.
When Samukawa Shinryu discovered the hidden door, their expressions had already changed. Now seeing this white powder, the person close enough reached out to rub some, carefully identifying it, and instantly became ecstatic.
"It's heroin! Sure enough, someone on this island was involved!!!"
Their big achievement had come!!!
Though the doctor's side involved illegal drugs too, the nature wasn't very serious—just somewhat addictive, and still legal abroad. But this was serious business—illegal in most countries!
Samukawa Shinryu stood by the piano, supporting himself on the keyboard. Though still expressionless, people could clearly sense his good mood.
Hirata Kazuaki fearfully discovered those dark red eyes were once again focused on him.
"So this is why you didn't want people near the piano."
Hirata Kazuaki felt like he was falling into an abyss.
He suddenly realized something—before discovering that hidden door, this dangerous and terrifying young man seemed to already know what he'd done. Everything after was just to verify his own thoughts.
How could there be such a terrifying person? He'd only said a couple sentences, and even though he indeed wanted people to stay away from the piano and not discover the secret, his excuse was reasonable!
Why was he suspected?!
Without needing Samukawa Shinryu to present more evidence to convince them, the Organized Crime Countermeasures officer had already walked up to Hirata Kazuaki with handcuffs: "Mr. Hirata, do you have anything to explain?"
Hirata Kazuaki was pale: "Ev-evidence?"
Hagiwara Kenji smiled: "If you were wrongly accused, you'd already be angrily shouting."
"Though we don't have evidence yet, our investigation has led to you. Continuing to investigate deeply will surely find evidence." The Organized Crime Countermeasures person was joyful. "Please cooperate with the investigation."
Asai Narimi on the side couldn't help asking: "Samukawa-san, how did you discover this?"
The dangerous-looking young man glanced at him, answering somewhat meaningfully: "Could tell at a glance."
Asai Narimi: "..........."
He... why did he somewhat suspect that his true gender had actually been exposed?
Surely what happened last night wouldn't also be seen through? That shouldn't be possible...