Chapter 215
Inspector Megure was about to ask what exactly happened when Usuha Izuki suddenly said he had something to do and hung up first.
Wait, don't hang up!! Explain clearly! Are you bringing the person directly to the Metropolitan Police, or should I send people to cooperate?!
And who was killed, crime scene evidence preservation and such... this head-without-tail approach is too much!
Is this what Samukawa Shinryu is like after resigning? Really so casual...
Only after losing something do you understand its value. Inspector Megure finally realized that Samukawa Shinryu's previous tardiness, early departures, and passive work attitude were nothing—this was what truly casual looked like.
Just as Inspector Megure was rapidly calling back but couldn't get through, Administrative Officer Matsumoto Kiyonaga sent someone to call him.
Inspector Megure hesitated, thinking that with Samukawa Shinryu's capabilities, he probably wouldn't be like in movies where he gets killed by the murderer before finishing crucial information. He might as well wait and see if the call would come back.
He should go to the administrative officer first.
Administrative Officer Matsumoto Kiyonaga was a fierce-looking big man.
This danger reflected in his appearance didn't really affect his life much, because once you communicated and understood him, you could roughly grasp his inner sense of justice.
But Samukawa Shinryu was different. Samukawa Shinryu's danger wasn't mainly due to appearance—rather, few people even noticed his looks. His danger was more that people intuitively felt his inner world was also dangerous, the type who might cause big news at any time.
This impression was very hard to reverse. Chatting didn't work either—there was no way to deeply understand his heart and achieve mutual understanding. Samukawa Shinryu said weird things every day, and it would be good if it didn't worsen this impression!
It took Criminal Investigation Division One colleagues several months to realize Samukawa Shinryu's malicious humor...
They thought Hagiwara Kenji was talking nonsense to save face for him, never expecting it was actually true!
Anyway, Samukawa Shinryu's strange aura basically meant farewell to classified units and high-ranking positions. Without long-term interaction, it was hard to trust him, and those old-fashioned higher-ups didn't have the patience to understand, naturally making a clean cut.
Looking at Matsumoto Kiyonaga, Inspector Megure felt very sorry for Samukawa Shinryu, thinking that if Samukawa Shinryu hadn't resigned and took the professional exam, working another ten-plus years, he could at least become an administrative officer.
Although he felt that purely in terms of achievements, Samukawa Shinryu could do it now, but who told Japanese police promotion to basically ignore achievements? People without background could only rely on seniority ranking and had to wait for those above to leave and create vacancies.
Samukawa Shinryu caught Plamia and the higher-ups didn't even consider promoting him!
Thinking about it this way, Samukawa Shinryu being too lazy to play along and directly leaving, now becoming a Special Advisor, was actually a pretty good result.
Matsumoto Kiyonaga said with an ugly expression: "Megure, I have a mission for you."
"Yes?"
"Kumano Yasunori's subordinate died yesterday. Scene investigation showed it was suicide—whether gunpowder residue or bloodstains, everything matched up. But... the deceased was planning to expose Kumano's dirt recently, so suddenly committing suicide doesn't make sense. It's suspicious. The higher-ups suspect Kumano killed him but have no evidence. Look into recommending a few people suitable for breaking this case to investigate."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga couldn't help pressing his temples.
Someone above was worried about the leverage Kumano Yasunori held, so they hoped to use this opportunity to send him to prison—once on their turf, everything would be easy to handle.
Otherwise, under normal circumstances, cases that could be considered suicide mostly wouldn't be overturned, to avoid lowering the case clearance rate and increasing workload.
This current situation... although if they could solve the case and catch the murderer, the result would be good, the purpose really wasn't pure enough. He was too embarrassed to say it outright.
Inspector Megure: "..........."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga absent-mindedly thought around the situation, secretly cursing those high-ranking officials who somehow let Kumano get leverage on them. Coming back to his senses, he found Inspector Megure still hadn't given him a list.
"Is it so hard to select people?"
Matsumoto Kiyonaga couldn't help asking: "Don't tell me that after Samukawa Shinryu left, you have no one useful under you?"
Everyone he'd called before was very confident, immediately giving several names. How come when it got to Megure, who had the best performance record, he was hesitating like he had nothing to offer?
"That's not it." Inspector Megure instinctively denied. His subordinates were all excellent—it was just that Samukawa Shinryu was somewhat exceptional.
Matsumoto Kiyonaga frowned deeply: "Then why aren't you saying anything?"
"...Sorry, sir. I'm just thinking about how to explain."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga: "...???"
Just giving a name required such careful consideration?! It couldn't be that he was tongue-tied facing his face, right? He met with Samukawa Shinryu every day and still hadn't built up tolerance?!
Inspector Megure said with a very subtle expression: "Actually, I received a call from Samukawa-kun just a few minutes ago. He told me he thinks Kumano committed murder."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga: "..........."
The two stared at each other silently for several seconds before Matsumoto Kiyonaga asked with confusion and difficulty: "How did he get involved with Kumano?"
Inspector Megure: "Kumano wanted Samukawa-kun to work at his investigation company."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga was greatly shocked: "What nerve!"
And apparently not only did he dare to think it, he dared to commit murder right under Samukawa Shinryu's nose. How desperate was he? A resigned detective couldn't possibly cover up such things!
But Kumano Yasunori probably had no choice. If he acted later, his dirt would be exposed. It was a forced decision to silence someone at this time... When recruiting Samukawa Shinryu, he probably didn't expect to encounter such a situation.
But since it fell into Samukawa Shinryu's hands, even though Samukawa Shinryu was technically still in resignation status, Matsumoto Kiyonaga breathed a sigh of relief: "Then there's no problem. Quickly contact Samukawa and ask what the current situation is."
Inspector Megure was even more helpless: "He suddenly hung up, and when I called back, it didn't connect. I was originally going to ask..."
As he was speaking, Inspector Megure's phone suddenly rang again.
With Administrative Officer Matsumoto's hint, Inspector Megure quickly took it out to check, then answered delightedly: "Samukawa-kun! Are you done? What's the situation? Do you need me to send people to help?"
Samukawa Shinryu's voice, seeming to care about nothing, came through coldly: "Inspector, Kumano will come turn himself in shortly. The evidence is with the Mobile Investigation Unit—they'll bring it together."
Inspector Megure: "...O-okay..."
So during the time he hung up, did Samukawa Shinryu go play with the criminal again?
It seemed Kumano's mental state had been completely broken...
Administrative Officer Matsumoto listened to this speakerphone call with a subtle expression. After Inspector Megure hung up, he couldn't help saying: "Samukawa... isn't it possible that just him looking for part-time work could send a batch of criminals to prison?"
These past two years, there really were quite a few criminals who actively approached due to misunderstanding Samukawa Shinryu's true nature. Most realized after learning Samukawa Shinryu was actually police, but the remaining ones were stubborn, firmly believing Samukawa Shinryu had some sophisticated taste for being police.
Now it was good—Samukawa Shinryu had resigned, and it felt like there would be more such people in the future...
Thinking of this, Administrative Officer Matsumoto couldn't help sighing: "Can we discuss with Samukawa about not publicizing the Special Advisor thing widely? Just let the outside world think he resigned and didn't come back. Maybe we could use it for fishing!"
Inspector Megure: "...You can discuss it with him personally when he comes."
Although he had many complaints, Inspector Megure somehow felt there was some feasibility to it.
Think about those Sumiyoshi Group members who still hadn't been released from prison. Even knowing it was a misunderstanding, some still yearned to follow Samukawa Shinryu after getting out.
Because the troublesome mission assigned from above was solved so quickly beyond expectations, Matsumoto Kiyonaga was in a particularly good mood. He even went with Inspector Megure to welcome the surrendering Kumano Yasunori and the Mobile Investigation Unit following behind.
When Kumano Yasunori drove to the Metropolitan Police, what he saw were two former colleagues with smiling faces.
Kumano Yasunori: "..........."
When he was still a detective in Criminal Investigation Division One, he rarely saw Matsumoto Kiyonaga this happy... After he resigned and opened the investigation company, when he came to build relationships with former colleagues for business intelligence, he saw such scenes even less.
If he didn't remember he was here to surrender, he would have thought these two were about to present him with flowers. But Matsumoto Kiyonaga's face really looked awful when smiling.
His original unwillingness somewhat faded. He got out of the car speechlessly: "You two, good afternoon."
Both Matsumoto Kiyonaga and Inspector Megure looked behind him.
Kumano Yasunori: "...Don't look. Samukawa-kun didn't come."
The smiles on both men's faces instantly disappeared.
Inspector Megure coughed and began the procedure: "I heard you came to surrender?"
"Yes, I surrender." Kumano Yasunori admitted. "I killed Kozou."
As a former elite detective, he was skilled at solving cases, so naturally he was also skilled at committing crimes.
After the murder, he checked all possible exposure points based on his case-solving experience—he held the gun to the victim's head, specifically waiting for an angle that could perfectly disguise it as suicide before firing. He even calculated gunpowder residue, letting the victim's hand placed on the gun to stop him also get gunpowder residue.
Then he cleaned fingerprints from the gun, re-pressed Kozou's hand on it, deleted his dirt from the computer, added a suicide note, locked the door from inside... and so on. He had tried to make it as perfect as possible.
But when police found him because of Kozou's death, Samukawa Shinryu happened to be at his place and was acquainted with those two Mobile Investigation Unit guys. He easily obtained scene materials and immediately raised a series of questions on the spot.
Directly breaking his mental defense.
He even vaguely suspected whether he had ever really been an elite detective. How had he left so many suspicious points! He even kept evidence with gunpowder residue on his person! He hadn't even realized it!
Only after Samukawa Shinryu pointed it out did he realize he had made such a huge mistake...
He felt that when Samukawa Shinryu said the evidence was on his person, that look was full of speechlessness toward him, as if asking "This is an elite detective?" His already broken mental state was adding insult to injury.
Thinking that he had actually had the nerve to recruit Samukawa Shinryu made him want to bury himself in the ground from embarrassment.
If only he hadn't recruited Samukawa Shinryu—then he wouldn't have so coincidentally encountered Mobile Investigation Unit police coming for inquiries, wouldn't have been solved at light speed, making him look like an idiot.
Happily thinking he had used his detective experience to create a perfect crime, he turned out to be a complete clown.
If Samukawa Shinryu committed a crime, he definitely wouldn't leave such mistakes like him...
Kumano Yasunori sighed and raised both hands, receiving a matching pair of silver bracelets.
As Inspector Megure led him inside, he asked curiously: "How did Samukawa-kun convince you to surrender?"
He drove himself here, wasn't cuffed by Mobile Investigation Unit people—it felt like surrender.
Mentioning this made Kumano Yasunori even more ashamed, plus complete unwillingness at not being taken seriously and grief and indignation. He refused to answer this question.
It was Ibuki Ai from the Mobile Investigation Unit following behind who helped answer the question.
"Not really surrender. Samukawa said he had already resigned, this wasn't his job content, so he let Mr. Kumano come by himself, saying cooperation might count as surrender..."
Inspector Megure: "..........."
Matsumoto Kiyonaga: "..........."
Too casual! After resigning, he completely let himself go, Samukawa Shinryu!!!
Sure enough, compared to being a Special Advisor, with his personality, he was more suitable for entrapment operations...