Chapter 20: The Condition of Kagehara Tetsuya
Kishida Masayoshi speculated that Kagehara Tetsuya's investigation into the "Makeup Hunter" was driven by a desire for revenge. The suicide of Kagehara Kenta had left a void, and in Kagehara's mind, someone had to bear the blame. Perhaps, Kishida thought, Kagehara saw both the Makeup Hunter and himself, Kishida Masayoshi, as culprits, but had simply chosen a different order in which to exact his vengeance.
"Well, I'm not really sure. Kagehara-kun never mentioned anything like that to me," the girl replied vaguely.
Hearing her ambiguous response, Kishida Masayoshi pushed aside his wandering thoughts. "In any case, this lead is crucial for me. Thank you very much for your help, Yomikawa-san."
At the same time, he silently considered that the relationship between this girl and Kagehara Tetsuya might be deeper than he had initially imagined. In relationships among minors, concrete interests were rarely involved; the driving forces were usually abstract emotions like affection or hatred. In such cases, they often blindly trusted and relied on each other, even if they knew the other might commit a crime.
Yomikawa Tsuko had a motive to assist Kagehara Tetsuya in his crimes, but Kishida wasn't yet sure what kind of help she could actually provide.
Counter-surveillance, operational support—these were areas where Yomikawa Tsuko likely lacked the ability to be of much use. In fact, Kagehara Tetsuya himself was already highly skilled in these areas. If Kishida hadn't accidentally stumbled upon his suspicions about Kagehara, the police wouldn't even have known about the boy's long history of animal cruelty. The sources of those animals were undoubtedly obtained through illegal means.
The only thing Kishida could think of was that Yomikawa Tsuko might be able to provide financial assistance to Kagehara Tetsuya, and perhaps even a place to hide.
With this in mind, Kishida Masayoshi suddenly glanced around and smiled. "Yomikawa-san, would it be alright if I took a look around your house?"
"A look around my house? Of course, that's fine," Yomikawa replied after a moment's thought. She stood up and began to give a brief tour of the house.
The layout of the rooms made it fairly clear what each space was used for. Yomikawa led Kishida through each room, following a similar order to the one Kagehara Tetsuya had used the night before when he had inspected the house himself. They started with the library on the first floor, moved to the basement storage room, and finally went up to the second floor.
The basement was particularly noteworthy. It was here that Kagehara Tetsuya had disposed of the severed head. To mask the smell, he had placed two bottles of disinfectant in the room, slightly loosening their caps. As soon as the two entered, the sharp scent of the disinfectant hit them.
When Kishida Masayoshi inquired about the basement, Kagehara Tetsuya casually explained that his parents were the ones who managed the space, and he rarely went down there himself, so he wasn’t very familiar with it.
Of course, the bones from the severed head were also stored in the basement, but unless Kishida decided to search every inch of the room meticulously, he would never find them.
As they made their way to the second floor, Kishida suddenly asked, "When Kagehara Tetsuya left the room, were you aware of it, Yomikawa-san? We searched the room thoroughly and found no hidden passages or mechanisms. Logically, he couldn’t have just vanished into thin air, could he?"
"I’m not sure about that," Kagehara Tetsuya replied, feigning innocence. "But don’t many mystery novels have locked-room scenarios? Perhaps you could draw some inspiration from those, Officer Kishida." He thought to himself that as long as this mystery remained unsolved, the police’s chain of evidence would remain incomplete. Of course, for them, determining when the victim, ĹŚshima Masaki, had entered the inn was another puzzle.
The second floor had just as many rooms as the first, but the tour went much quicker. Kishida Masayoshi realized that the girl’s willingness to let him inspect the house so freely likely meant there was nothing to hide. It was clear that Kagehara Tetsuya and Hasebe Koichi’s hiding place wasn’t here.
Back on the first floor, Kishida suddenly received a call from the investigation headquarters. The gist of it was that he needed to return to participate in a media briefing. As he prepared to take his leave, the girl across from him spoke up. "Officer Kishida, weren’t you planning to visit ĹŚshima Masaki’s sister, ĹŚshima Mana? Are you going to postpone that?"
"I’ll have to reschedule with ĹŚshima Mana. Is there something you need?" Kishida Masayoshi was already quite satisfied with the day’s findings, especially the girl’s cooperative attitude, which had exceeded his expectations.
Kagehara Tetsuya took a sip of coffee, pretending to ponder for a moment. "I have a favor to ask. When you visit ĹŚshima Mana, could I come along?"
"What? You want to see ĹŚshima Mana? Why?" Kishida was taken aback. It wasn’t uncommon for a perpetrator’s family to visit the victim’s family to apologize, but by no means could this girl be considered Kagehara Tetsuya’s family. What position would she be in to meet ĹŚshima Mana?
"Call it curiosity or interest, though that might not be the right way to put it. Since this involves Kagehara-kun, I feel compelled to understand the full context of the case," Kagehara Tetsuya explained. He was thinking that Hasebe Koichi, lurking in the shadows, was far from a passive figure. That man now had ĹŚshima Masaki’s face and voice, and there was a high likelihood he would exploit that.
For instance, Hasebe Koichi could fabricate a selfie video of ĹŚshima Masaki taken a few days ago and use it to manipulate ĹŚshima Mana into doing his bidding.
Although Kagehara Tetsuya disliked his senpai, when it came to dealing with the threat posed by Hasebe Koichi, their positions should align.
And to be honest, he didn’t have much faith in his senpai or her unreliable assistant’s abilities.
There might even come a time when he would need to step in and provide some assistance himself.
“This is…” Kishida frowned. This was the first time he’d encountered a situation like this. It was natural for someone connected to a criminal case to be concerned about its progress, but wanting to personally participate in the investigation was just too unusual. “It’s not really appropriate. Investigating cases is our job as detectives.”
“But without the clues I provided, Officer Kishida, you wouldn’t even understand why Kagehara-kun is assisting Hasebe Koichi, would you?” Kagehara Tetsuya tilted his head slightly, suppressing the urge to mock the detective. His own work was a mess, yet he had the audacity to use it as a reason to refuse. With detectives like this, no wonder the Makeup Killer case had gone unsolved for ten years.
“But Yomikawa-san, you’re a student. Getting too involved in the case could have negative consequences for you,” Kishida Masayoshi argued, though he was at a loss for how to handle the situation.
“That’s a fair point, but I still hope you’ll seriously consider my proposal. And please give me an answer before you meet with ĹŚshima Mana,” Tetsuya said, cutting the conversation short and gesturing for Kishida to leave. Of course, if Kishida refused, he would still find a way to contact ĹŚshima Mana privately. It might be harder to gain her trust that way, but it wasn’t impossible.
“Well… I’ll think about it. In any case, thank you for the information. It’s been very helpful,” Kishida Masayoshi said with a bitter smile. He understood the girl’s implication—her request to “seriously consider” her proposal was essentially a veiled threat: if he didn’t let her participate in the investigation, he could forget about getting any more information about Kagehara Tetsuya.
But even if it was for the sake of gathering intelligence and solving the case, bringing a high school girl along on an investigation… wasn’t that just too strange?
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