“The young man and woman we see here walking alongside Tomoya Takagaki must be his colleagues from work. The video footage shows them chatting to one another. Do you want to watch it?”
“No need. Have you got any later footage of them?”
“I’ve asked our local precinct colleagues to look. They haven’t found any yet.”
“Okay,” replied Kusanagi, resuming his scrutiny of the image.
Tomoya Takagaki didn’t have a backpack or any other item of baggage. Nor did his male companion, though the girl did have a small shoulder bag.
A few days ago, Utsumi reported that Tomoya Takagaki had no alibi for between three thirty and four in the afternoon. The problem was, what could he actually achieve in such a short period of time?
“And the other avengers?” Kusanagi asked.
Kusanagi had come up with the “avengers” nickname for the group of people he thought likeliest to have killed Hasunuma. That meant all three members of the Namiki family; Saori’s boyfriend, Tomoya Takagaki; and Naoki Niikura, Saori’s manager.
Tapping a few more keys, Utsumi pulled up a different image. It was a different location this time with what looked like the entrance to a post office on the right-hand side.
“This is the Niikuras.”
Utsumi pointed to a man in late middle age wearing a brown bomber jacket and a woman in a violet cardigan. They were standing side by side and looking out toward the road. Neither of them was holding or carrying anything and Kusanagi couldn’t see any baggage at their feet, either. The time stamp said 2:25 P.M.
“This would be exactly when Team Kikuno started marching,” Utsumi said. “That’s probably why the Niikuras start moving soon after. They were probably following Team Kikuno. Since that was bringing up the rear, plenty of other people decided to do the same thing.”
“There should be more security cameras on this stretch of road,” Muto chimed in. “If we examine the footage from them, we should be able to track the Niikuras’ subsequent movements. Let’s get anyone on the team who’s free to trawl through the footage for them.”
“Good idea,” Kusanagi agreed, with the briefest hint of a smile. His expression tensed the moment he returned his eyes to the screen.
The fact that neither Takagaki Tomoya nor the Niikuras were carrying any baggage bugged him. The murder of Hasunuma required at least one tank of helium, and a gas tank that was close to sixteen inches high and twelve inches wide would require a very large bag or backpack.
Of course, the killer could always have stashed the tank somewhere in advance and picked it up later. In that case, though, where could it have been hidden?
Kusanagi called Muto over. “Inspector Muto, I need you to go through this video footage and check for anyone with a large item of luggage. We’re looking for something big enough to hold that helium tank we found.”
“Yes, sir,” said Muto, grasping what his superior wanted. His eyes gleaming with enthusiasm, he left the room.
Kusanagi and Utsumi then started compiling the documentation they needed for the investigation meeting. They were still at it when Kishitani came into the room, having finished interviewing Morimoto.
“We’ll need confirmation but my impression is that Mr. Morimoto is clean. According to Forensics, all of the fingerprints on the helium tank belong to him. That tells us something important.” There was a glint of smugness in Kishitani’s eyes. “The gas tank was stolen.”
“How did you work that out?”
“On the day of the parade, Morimoto was distributing balloons to children in the park where the singing contest was held. He started at three thirty P.M. He had about one hundred balloons and three tanks of helium. As one tank is enough for around forty balloons, he had slightly more gas than he needed. When I showed him the tank we found in the weeds, he confirmed that it was the same type.”
Kishitani looked down at his notes, then went on with his report.
As a director of the neighborhood association, Morimoto had a range of tasks to perform. These tasks often took him away from his post. Since he had no one helping him with the balloons, when he went on an errand, he would take the uninflated balloons with him, but leave the gas tanks behind.
The first time he left his station was at about 4:30 P.M. When he got back around fifteen minutes later, he was about to start distributing more balloons, when he realized something wasn’t quite right. Despite him having only just switched out the gas tanks, there was no helium coming out of the new one. When he took a closer look, he discovered that the tank was the first out of the three, which was already empty. That’s a bit odd, he thought, but he switched to a new tank and went on filling and handing out balloons. In the end, he handed out around sixty balloons in total. He had enough gas and didn’t experience any difficulties.
“Morimoto realized that the second canister had been stolen while he was away from his station. Since he didn’t run out of helium and wasn’t too keen to alert people to his own negligence, he didn’t mention the theft of the tank to anyone else.” Kishitani looked up from his notes. “When I spoke to him, I found him quite credible.”
“That would mean that the gas tank was stolen between four thirty and four forty-five P.M. Remind me, what’s the distance between the park where the singing contest was held and the crime scene?”
“Approximately two miles,” replied Kishitani promptly. He had obviously anticipated Kusanagi’s question. “Hasunuma’s body was discovered at five thirty. A car would be essential to travel between the two locations in that time frame.”
“I see...”
This cleared Tomoya Takagaki of any suspicion. By 4 P.M., Tomoya Takagaki was already in the beer bar with his coworkers.
And then—
It also cleared the Niikuras. They were both judges for the singing contest, which had started at 5 P.M. Even if they had used a car, they couldn’t have committed the murder.
“The first thing we’ve got to do is look for witnesses. Ideally, we want someone who saw the tank being stolen; failing that, someone who saw a person carrying an item of suspicious-looking luggage. Someone lugging around a large piece of baggage would stick out like a sore thumb at a singing contest! Next, we need to check the footage on any security cameras in or around the park. The metered parking lots will all have cameras, so why not start with those? If you find anyone suspicious, try and figure out who they are. Let’s be systematic about this.”
“Yes, sir.” Kishitani picked up his notebook.
“Got any ideas, Utsumi?” Kusanagi asked, turning to his subordinate sitting next to him.
“Traffic restrictions were being enforced on the main roads because of the parade,” said Utsumi calmly. “And there were lots of pedestrians. The number of viable routes from the park to the crime scene was probably limited. It’s possible that a vehicle got picked up on the N-System somewhere along the way.”
“Great idea. Work with the Kikuno Police Station guys. Check every vehicle that was logged on N-System in the vicinity of the crime scene in the half hour between four thirty and five on the day of the incident.” There was a note of excitement in Kusanagi’s voice.
“Yes, sir,” Utsumi said. Her tone was lukewarm and her mind seemed to be elsewhere.
“What’s wrong? Something bothering you?”
“Well... uhm... yes. I still don’t understand why the perpetrator choose such a convoluted method of killing?”