Chapter 83: Second Diary Analysis (Part 8)
May 17th. Weather: Clear.
The date for the event has been decided: May 22nd.
That day is a Sunday. And by a stroke of incredible, almost preternatural luck, that same colleague who asked Kagehara Kenta to cover his shift before has asked for his help again. Only a man with a personality as weak and accommodating as Kagehara Kenta’s would indulge such a selfish, inconsiderate person.
But then again, thanks to this man’s troublesome nature, Kagehara Kenta will be leaving on the morning of the 22nd and will not be returning until the morning of the 23rd. That gives me a full, uninterrupted day. More than enough time.
And, just to ensure that the colleague doesn’t cancel his plans at the last minute again, I took the opportunity, the day before yesterday, while delivering Kagehara Kenta’s meal, to have a brief, and seemingly casual, chat with the man. It seems that on May 22nd, he and his fiancée are having their wedding photos taken. Such an important and socially binding event… it’s highly unlikely he would cancel it at the last minute.
“Oh, oh, here it is!” Suzuki Koji’s eyes lit up, a new, almost manic energy in his voice. “The man mentioned on April 27th, the one who can indirectly, and with a high degree of certainty, corroborate the diary’s authenticity, he’s here again. He had his wedding photos taken on May 22nd of last year. With that information, investigating his identity should be much, much easier. You should head over to the hospital right away.”
Kishida Masayoshi sighed, a look of profound, almost soul-crushing weariness on his face. “To be honest, Koji, I don’t have much motivation to investigate something like that. If the diary is a forgery, then this detail would have been confirmed beforehand and then written in. It’s a classic forger’s trick, to include a verifiable but ultimately meaningless detail to lend an air of authenticity to the whole fabrication. So even if I do investigate, the result will likely be that it did, in fact, happen. But even if it did, that doesn’t prove, one hundred percent, that this diary is authentic.”
“Eh?”
“Other people could have known about this. And they could have used that detail to forge the diary. It’s not exactly a state secret, is it? Anyone who knew Kagehara Tetsuya, or the other doctor, or any of the other doctors or patients at the hospital… if they were determined enough, if their sole purpose was to forge this diary, they could have found out.”
Suzuki Koji was taken aback for a moment. “But… but… alright. You’re the cop. You call the shots.” He shrugged, then said, “I remember that Tanaka Erika’s body was discovered on May 23rd, right? Was the time of death confirmed as the 22nd?”
“Sometime between the afternoon and evening of the 22nd.”
“Then, looking at the diary, Kagehara Tetsuya’s suspicion level is indeed very, very high,” Suzuki Koji said. “After all, for the Makeup Hunter to know the exact time Kagehara Tetsuya was planning to act, and then to kill her one step ahead of him… that would be incredibly, almost impossibly, difficult. It’s not like that person could read Kagehara’s diary, like we can.”
“You can’t say that for sure. Maybe it was just a coincidence. A terrible, cosmic coincidence. If the Makeup Hunter was the killer, and he also wanted to kill Tanaka Erika, he might not have even known who Kagehara Tetsuya was. It could have just been a terrible coincidence that he acted first. That’s also a plausible explanation.”
Suzuki Koji keenly, and with a growing sense of unease, sensed that Kishida Masayoshi seemed reluctant, almost unwilling, to consider the possibility that Kagehara Tetsuya was the killer. He wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but perhaps Kishida had obtained some other clue, some other piece of information, from another, as yet unknown, source.
So, he just shrugged and continued to read the diary.
As for the timing, it would be best to extend the invitation to meet at 5 PM on the 21st.
That day is a Saturday.
Every Saturday, Tanaka works part-time at a specific convenience store. Her shift is from 12 PM to 6 PM, a total of six hours.
I can pretend to be passing by to buy something, and casually tell her the time and place for our meeting. The meeting time will be set for 4 PM on the 22nd. It will still be a long time before dark then, so Tanaka probably won’t be suspicious.
As for me, I will leave the house at 3 PM on the 22nd. Because I need to avoid roads with surveillance cameras, it will probably take 35-40 minutes to reach the abandoned chemical warehouse.
Then, I will meet with Tanaka around 4 PM. First, I will incapacitate her with the stun gun, then strangle her with the rope.
The flaying of the face and the application of makeup, all of that must be completed in one go at the chemical warehouse. The only regret is that the family car is too small. Otherwise, if I could perform the procedure in the car, the chances of being discovered would be much lower.
The flaying and makeup application will probably take about half an hour. By then, it will be just before 5 PM. I will use the trolley to transport Tanaka’s body to the trunk of the car and hide it. I will turn on the car’s heater, then return to the warehouse to clean up the scene, taking the scalpel, remaining cosmetics, rope, and the removed face with me.
At this point, it will be approximately 5:30 PM. It will be very hot in the car when I return, but I will just have to endure it.
The drive from the abandoned chemical warehouse to the abandoned flood control warehouse will take 40-50 minutes.
Therefore, the approximate time of arrival at the flood control warehouse will be around 6:20 PM.
By this time, Tanaka Erika will have been dead for over two hours. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to pose the body in a kneeling position with hands clasped in prayer, due to the onset of rigor mortis.
Two to three hours after death, rigor mortis only appears in the jaw and neck joints. It takes three to four hours for rigor mortis to appear in most of the body, and five to six hours for it to become fully established throughout the entire body.
Normally, of course, I would not have that much time to wait.
However, temperature is also a factor in the onset of rigor mortis. This is a significant advantage. With the car’s heater running, the process will be accelerated. The higher the ambient temperature, the faster the body will stiffen.
While I have not calculated the precise rate of acceleration per degree Celsius, Tanaka’s body will be in the heated car for at least an hour and a half. Even if that is insufficient to achieve the desired pose, an additional waiting period of thirty to sixty minutes will certainly be enough.
By the most conservative estimate, I can depart from the Mitsuba flood control warehouse by 7:30 PM. The drive home is only half an hour. At 8:00 PM, I will begin sanitizing the car’s interior and disposing of the scalpel, cosmetics, rope, and the removed face. The cleanup should be complete by 8:30 PM.
The evening will still be young. I shall take a shower first, then have something to eat. There will even be time to watch some television before bed.
But what shall I eat? I should give it some thought. After such a busy day, not eating until nearly 9:00 PM… I certainly must not short-change myself.
“All these times, adding this, subtracting that… it’s making my head spin,” Suzuki Koji said, finally finishing the entry. He took off his glasses and rubbed his tired eyes. “And the time of death… it aligns almost perfectly with your department’s official estimate, doesn’t it? Another coincidence? A murder at 4 PM on the 22nd, ‘afternoon to evening’… it couldn’t be more precise.”
Kishida Masayoshi had no energy left to debate this point. He just pointed to the last two paragraphs. “This part here. From your professional perspective, does this seem plausible? To be honest, if a normal person wrote this, I’d say it was completely unbelievable. But what you said earlier, about his ‘urge to kill,’ how for him it’s just… anticipation… that actually made a strange kind of sense. So, can this be explained the same way? Because for him, killing someone is no different from sitting down to a meal?”
Hearing this, Suzuki Koji frowned. “In principle, yes, that’s correct. But these two paragraphs… they do feel strange. There’s something… I can’t quite put my finger on it. Something… redundant. Or perhaps… deliberate?”
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