Chapter 50: Ōgami Yōsuke and The Ten Possibilities
The body had just been discovered, and with much still to be investigated, Kishida Masayoshi listened to his colleagues’ unfounded speculations, keeping his own counsel.
As time passed, the crime scene investigation team gradually arrived. Due to the limited space, Kishida left the room and leaned against his car, lighting a cigarette.
Matsushita Makoto arrived shortly after. She surveyed the scene and approached Kishida. “Senpai, what’s on your mind?”
“Nothing much. I’m just considering why Kagehara Tetsuya led me to the body,” Kishida extinguished his cigarette, careful not to reveal his thoughts. He looked up. “You’re here for the door-to-door inquiries, I presume?”
Matsushita nodded. “Yes. I knocked on the doors of the neighboring houses to ask if anyone had witnessed anything, but I was met with a barrage of insults.”
As she spoke, another round of shouting echoed from a nearby house.
“Just because you’re cops doesn’t give you the right to bang on doors at this hour! Get lost!”
This was followed by the sharp slam of a door.
Kishida sighed at the display, while Matsushita stuck out her tongue. “In short, that’s how it went.”
“Since you’re free, why don’t you drive for me? I want to revisit Hasebe Koichi’s parents and ask them a few more questions,” Kishida hadn’t slept since the previous night and didn’t trust himself to drive. He enlisted Matsushita as his chauffeur.
“Yay! Another chance to work with Senpai!” Matsushita cheered, quickly sliding into the driver’s seat. They set off for Takao Nichōme.
On the way, she remembered to ask about their destination. “Senpai, didn’t we already question Hasebe’s parents? I don’t recall them providing any significant leads. Why are we going back?”
“You’ll find out when we get there.” Kishida scribbled down some questions in his investigation notebook. Noticing Matsushita’s frequent glances, her curiosity evident, he shot her a warning look. “Focus on driving!”
Matsushita pouted. “Okay,” she mumbled, ceasing her surreptitious peeks.
They soon arrived at the Hasebe residence. Matsushita went to knock on the door while Kishida leaned against the car, eating a snack and mentally rehearsing his questions.
Just then, a voice called out from across the street. “Are you… Officer Kishida?”
Kishida looked up. A high school boy carrying a school bag was staring at him.
“It really is Officer Kishida! Good morning. Are you investigating a case?” The boy approached with an easygoing smile. “I’m Ōgami Yōsuke. You remember me, right? I saw you at the onsen inn on June 9th.”
The encounter had left a strong impression on Ōgami. Seeing Kishida’s distinctive prematurely white hair from afar, he recognized him instantly.
“I remember you,” Kishida recalled the high school student who had been peering into room 216 while he was examining the crime scene on June 9th. “What can I do for you?”
“Nothing much, really. I was just wondering if there’s been any progress in the case.” Ōgami scratched his head, realizing he might be overstepping. Still, he couldn’t suppress his curiosity. “By the way, did you find the head?”
Kishida had learned his lesson and wasn’t about to divulge any details of the investigation. He gave a vague reply. “The investigation is still ongoing. Rest assured, we’re doing everything we can to solve the case.”
“Have you figured out why the body was decapitated?” Ōgami picked up on Kishida’s reluctance but pressed on.
Just clearing things up would be enough, Kishida thought, ready to dismiss Ōgami. Just then, Matsushita returned from the house. She had overheard Ōgami’s question. “Not yet,” she said. “Do you have any information you can provide?”
After replying to Ōgami, she shrugged at Kishida, indicating that Hasebe’s parents were likely still asleep; no one had answered the door.
“You’re Officer Matsushita, the one who took my statement that day,” Ōgami recognized her. Perhaps sensing she was more approachable, he perked up. “I don’t have any concrete information, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot these past few days. I even did some research online.”
“And what did you conclude?” Matsushita asked.
Ōgami said, “I’ve summarized all the possible scenarios for why a body might be decapitated. I came up with ten possibilities. Unfortunately, I don’t know the specifics of the case, so I can’t determine which category the inn’s headless corpse falls into.”
“Tell us then. What are the ten possibilities?” Matsushita asked with genuine interest.
“The first is related to rituals, folklore, curses, or superstitions. Take curses, for example. The killer might believe in mystical forces that require the victim’s head to perform some kind of spell, like sealing the victim’s soul. In short, it’s a decapitation based on the killer’s worldview.”
Matsushita pondered this. “There are certainly people like that in the world, but I doubt this case involves someone like that.”
“The second is when the head is needed as proof of the killing. Like how heads were used to calculate war merits in ancient times. In modern terms, it might be done to show the head to someone. I also think ‘someone’ could include the killer themselves. They might view the victim’s head as a trophy. And if the killer has a habit of collecting trophies, it could very well be a serial killing.”
Kishida, though silent, was listening intently. He thought that if the second scenario were true, then the theory of a “third killer” in the Ōshima Masaki case held water. Hasebe Koichi and Kagehara Tetsuya might have decapitated Ōshima to show the head to this “third killer.”
Or perhaps the third killer has a habit of collecting trophies.
Matsushita was becoming increasingly intrigued. “What’s the third possibility?”
“The third is to publicly display an execution, as a warning to others. The head is used to intimidate a specific target, but this is less common in modern times.”
Matsushita nodded. “Go on. What’s the fourth?”
“The fourth is driven by emotion—love or hate. Decapitation as an act of venting rage isn’t uncommon; it’s similar to deliberately mutilating a body. There are also cases of decapitation driven by a twisted form of love, perhaps due to an extreme sense of possessiveness. This is similar to the ‘collecting trophies’ theory. I remember a case in Tokyo where a woman killed her married lover and cut off his head. In modern terms, it might be classified as… yandere? The difference from ‘collecting trophies’ is that yandere types rarely commit multiple murders.”
“The fifth is to facilitate the transport or concealment of the body. For example, if the killer prepared a box before the murder, but after killing the victim, they realize the body won’t fit without removing the head.”
Kishida shook his head. Neither Hasebe Koichi nor Ōshima Masaki seemed to fit this scenario.
“The sixth is when the killer intends to use the head to carry out some kind of trick. But this seems more common in detective novels and doesn’t quite fit the inn case.”
“The seventh is when the killer wants to temporarily conceal the victim’s identity by removing the head. With modern DNA testing and fingerprint technology, perfectly hiding a victim’s identity is impossible, but this could buy time if the police can’t arrive immediately.”
Matsushita shrugged. “Like on an isolated island during a typhoon or a mountain lodge during a blizzard.”
“The eighth is to hide certain marks on the victim’s head, such as injuries inflicted by the killer or crucial evidence that could incriminate them, like bite marks from the victim’s struggle. In that case, the killer would have no choice but to take the head.”
Kishida silently disagreed. This couldn’t be the case either. Now there was Hasebe Koichi as well. His head had also been removed. It was unlikely the killer would leave behind striking marks or be bitten twice in a row.
“The ninth possibility is when not taking the head would put the killer in a difficult situation.”
Matsushita frowned. “That sounds similar to the eighth.”
Ōgami explained, “No, they’re different. Let’s say you suddenly had a toothache and went to the dentist. If the dentist accidentally killed you, they might decapitate you. If the police don’t know about your dental problem, they wouldn’t suspect you’d visited a dentist before your death, reducing the likelihood of the dentist being a suspect.”
The example wasn’t perfect, but Matsushita, as the “victim” in the scenario, understood.
Kishida's interest was piqued. If Hasebe Koichi and Oshima Masaki were decapitated for this reason, their heads must share a common trait known to few and closely linked to the killer.
"The tenth and final scenario is decapitation to obtain a specific part, most commonly the cornea. Internationally, such crimes aren't rare, and corneas fetch high prices on the black market."
After finishing, Yosuke scratched his head. "Well, those are all the possibilities I've thought of for headless corpses. I just don't know which one applies to the inn case."
Kishida thought that among these ten, scenarios 1, 2, 9, and 10 could fit the current case. Could the truth lie within these four?
He looked at Yosuke, impressed by the boy's insight, and subtly steered the conversation. "Yosuke, did you come up with these ten possibilities with your club president, Yomikawa Tsuko?"
Comments (1)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.