The Logmaster - Chapter 29
After completing his eerie interrogation of Ayumaru Omiichi, Misumi Tadashi intuitively believed that this man was deeply involved in the heart of the case.
But there is no evidence.
The only way to crumble that man’s ironclad poker face is to start by filling in the moat around him.
Sankaku decided to start by thoroughly investigating the people surrounding Saeki Taku, who was the final victim in this string of suspicious deaths, and with whom Omiichi may have had some kind of contact.
“Kakuta, let’s go. First, let’s go to Saeki’s bedroom. There might be some clues left there.”
The two of them headed to the old tent on the riverbank where Saeki was sleeping.
The local police have likely already investigated the scene, but there is no guarantee that something may have been overlooked.
At this point, to Sankaku, Saeki was merely one of the “victims,” and he never dreamed that he was involved in any incident.
Mikaku obtained permission for forensic analysis and began to thoroughly search the inside of the tent once again.
“Senpai, this is…”
Tsunoda pointed to a small piece of metal that had fallen in the corner of the tent.
It was a charred, partially melted padlock.
──Sankaku puts on gloves and picks it up.
Upon closer inspection, they found two zipper pulls pinned together in the tent fabric, tightly locked with the padlock.
“…A padlock? Why would there be something like this…and it’s burnt…”
A flashback of a certain incident occurred in Mikata’s mind.
Aizawa Shingo’s death was due to a fire inside his tent.
At that moment, the tent burst into flames and almost everything inside was reduced to ashes.
(…Wait a second. The way it’s charred, and the shape of the zipper… Could this be a part of Aizawa’s tent? If so, why is it on Saeki’s tent?)
Until then, I had thought of Saeki as just one of the victims in a series of incidents, but the discovery of the charred padlock cast a small but significant doubt on that perception.
–Mitsukata instructs Kakuta to have the padlock re-examined by forensics.
Next, Mikata and Tsunoda conducted thorough interviews with other homeless people.
With Saeki’s murder, even those who had kept quiet up until then began to open up little by little.
And the distorted balance of power that existed between the trio of Igarashi, Aizawa, and Suzuki and Saeki gradually became clear.
“You mean Grandpa Saeki? He had a really hard time. He was bullied every day by those guys from Igarashi and treated like a slave. It was disgusting to watch.”
“When Igarashi and Aizawa died, rumors were circulating among the group that, ‘Oh, maybe Grandpa Saeki did it?’ He was usually such a timid guy, but sometimes his eyes would become glazed, like he was a completely different person… And besides, the person who was most relieved when they died was undoubtedly Grandpa Saeki.”
As Sankaku listened to these testimonies, his image of Saeki as a “victim” gradually began to waver.
They beat him up daily, deprived him of food, and trampled on his human dignity.
The resentment must have been immeasurably deep.
— What if that anger were to explode due to some kind of trigger?
And then, something else strange was found inside Saeki’s tent.
It was a few bottles of sake.
None of them were the cheap liquor that homeless people drink daily, but rather relatively expensive brands that seemed to be local specialities.
High levels of alcohol were detected in Igarashi and Suzuki’s bodies at the time of their deaths, and their intoxication was considered one of the causes of their deaths.
However, no alcohol bottles or containers were left behind at the scene of their deaths, leading to speculation that they had been drinking somewhere else.
(This sake… what if this is the sake Igarashi and Suzuki were drinking? Did Saeki give it to them? If so, how did he get hold of such expensive sake…?)
The questions that arise in Sankaku’s mind gradually transform into suspicions about Saeki.
As more and more questions arose, Kakuta found an old envelope in the corner of the tent.
Inside were several letters and several tens of thousands of yen in cash.
The letter was addressed to “Mr. Kimura Yoshio.”
(…Why was something like this in Saeki’s tent? Did Saeki have some kind of connection with Kimura?)
In Mikata’s head, the scattered information begins to connect in lines.
“Kakuta, please send this liquor and the envelope to forensics immediately. I want them to quickly analyze the fingerprints and the composition of the liquor.”
There was no longer any sympathy for Saeki in Sankaku’s voice, and it now carried the stern tone of a detective looking over the subject of an investigation.
Next, Mikata interviewed the homeless people in the area about Kimura’s death. One homeless man opened up.
“The day Yoshi-san died, I saw Igarashi with Yoshi-san. After that, Igarashi-san’s life became strangely good, and he started bragging about lavish food in front of us.”
Furthermore, another homeless person told us that on the evening of the day Yoshi died, a man in a suit had been sitting alone for a while in front of a small floral tribute for Kimura that some fellow homeless people had made.
Then, the day before, he was spotted having a deep conversation with Kimura.
(…Here comes Ayumaru again…!)
Mitaka’s doubts about Ayumaru had now turned into something close to certainty.
A few days later, the forensic report came in.
The alcohol detected in Igarashi and Suzuki’s bodies matched exactly with the alcohol found in Saeki’s tent.
These were not the sort of things that could easily be purchased at local liquor stores, but included rare brands that could only be obtained through specific channels.
It became highly likely that the two had been drinking with Saeki.
In addition, zipper parts were found in the remains of Aizawa’s tent, and a charred padlock was found in Saeki’s tent.
After contacting the tent manufacturer and comparing the parts, it was determined that they were parts from the same tent.
Furthermore, in a combustion test conducted by forensics using the same type of tent, it was found that if the entrance was locked from the outside, it would be extremely difficult to tear the tent open with bare hands from the inside and escape. It was also found that, combined with the tent’s high level of airtightness, if a fire broke out inside, there was a high probability of carbon monoxide poisoning or death by fire in a short time.
These new and circumstantial evidences completely changed the way Saeki Taku was viewed within the triangle.
He is not just a victim.
He is likely the cold-blooded killer who committed the serial murders of Igarashi, Aizawa, and Suzuki.
As a result of reporting this information to the investigation headquarters, the previous “Homeless Serial Suspicious Deaths Investigation Headquarters” was disbanded and reorganized as the “Homeless Serial Murders Special Investigation Headquarters,” although the suspect had died.
And so, unexpectedly, the lead in investigating this complex and bizarre case fell into the hands of Mitaka Masaru, who got closer to the truth through painstaking questioning and accumulating physical evidence.
When Inspector Kuroishi heard the result of the report, Superintendent Fujita, who likely received the information through him, could not hide their sour looks on their faces.
The case they had taken lightly and left unattended without allocating proper investigative resources had developed into such a major incident, and what’s more, it was Sankaku, who was supposed to have been demoted, who came up with the idea behind it.
It also came to light that their subordinates had been wasting time on completely irrelevant investigations, and the atmosphere within the investigation headquarters changed instantly.
With a new determination in his heart, Mikaku begins writing down the names of the victim, perpetrator, and those involved on the whiteboard at the investigation headquarters.
However, before his eyes, he could see the figure of another man, whose name had not yet been written on the board.
──Ayumaru Shinichi
That mysterious man who looms in the shadows of all these incidents.
Could it be that he is the true director of this series of tragedies…?
The triangular investigation was gradually getting closer to the heart of the matter.