"Tea break!" Mai announced, placing a glass of iced tea next to my hand. "How's it going?"
"How much does a ticket to England cost at the moment?" I asked weakly.
"Ah."
Yasuhara hadn't been exaggerating. Aside from the initial report, there was no other information about the case. We could look for relatives both families and interview them, but that would take a lot of time. Instead, I'd spent the last few hours trying eke out whatever extra information I could find out about each individual member from the internet. I sipped the tea appreciatively. "It'd be a great help if we could see the actual report." I mused. "No doubt there's information that the police didn't publish. Naru, do you know if there's a way we can get our hands on it?"
"A hefty bribe."
He really knew how to hold a grudge.
The conversation tapered off as Hirota poked his head inside, his eyes serious. "Do you have a moment?" Without waiting for a response, he entered and sat across from the others. "I brought the incident's record."
I choked on tea. "What?" I croaked.
"I made my colleague search for it. She tracked the report down from the public prosecutor's office."
Bou-san swallowed. "Is it okay to take that out?" He asked uncertainly.
"It can't be shown to you. For now, as I look over everything, I'll summarize and explain. Well then, please bear with me."
"What's gotten into you? You didn't believe in things like psychic powers, right? Ow!"
"That was paper, not steel." I snapped, wadding up another paper ball. "Why are you complaining? Be quiet and let him read."
Hirota cleared his throat as he flipped open the report, his expression losing a bit of its frost. "It seems that the incident happened at approximately 2 a.m. of October 11. As expected, the cause is the trouble over land. A year before the incident, the Kawanabe family purchased this land and built a new home. The following summer, the neighbor's house...it's the Sekiguchis who purchased and moved over where the Sasakura family currently is. There, their house was constructed beyond the plot's boundary line. The building is just on the plot, but the eaves are perfectly transgressing the border for the Kawanabe family. For this reason, the Kawanabe family complained to the Sekiguchi family, but it was a troublesome conversation even for Sekiguchi." Hirota turned the page. "Sekiguchi only purchased the brand new house, and he wasn't concerned about the architecture itself. Even if he would say such a thing, they would still complain. They wanted to stop the construction, but the contractor didn't respond to them. In fact, if they made him stop it, they would have to buy the house and they were told they must compensate for the part that would be reconstructed. In addition, he even intimated a relationship with a yakuza lord. The Kawanabe family had no choice but to be silent and watch the house be built."
"No way..." Mai breathed.
"And then there came Sekiguchi. Sekiguchi was said to be a gentle salaryman, and, as a matter of fact, somewhat timid. He couldn't financially afford to fix the construction."
"Is that why he couldn't take responsibility for it?" Bou-san inquired.
"Of course, Sekiguchi was taking the discussion in that direction. Besides, even if they confront him, the contractor would say that he 'didn't know'. It was on October 10th, before the incident, that both families had their last discussion. Conferring during their day off, the Kawanabe family cut off the deadline up to the last day of October. If the construction wouldn't stop, they were claiming they would sue Sekiguchi."
"Even though it would be best not to go that far..." Bou-san muttered.
Hirota nodded in agreement. "The Kawanabe family probably faced Sekiguchi with the grudge from when they were threatened by the contractor. It was on September 30th that the Kawanabe family gave an ultimatum. At this time, Sekiguchi couldn't be certain whether or not he could raise money by the middle of October. Regarding this, it was the Kawanabe family who wanted to speak only on the 10th. The adults didn't want to be seen arguing by their children. Sekiguchi said that the 10th was inconvenient, but later replied that he changed his mind and would cancel his business for the day."
Bou-san's eyebrows rose. "He wasn't cold blooded?"
I shook my head, and at the same time Hirota smiled sadly. "It seems that Sekiguchi had decided to commit a crime at this point."
A gloom fell over the room.
"The Kawanabe family sat down with Toshiko's brother. Since he was a counselor first and foremost, he was concerned. Their discussion with him eventually gave them resolve to face down Sekiguchi's opposition. They didn't comply about fixing the construction, and for the whole month of October the case was about to be decided in the courtroom. With this, Sekiguchi consented and went back home."
"However, Sekiguchi's decision was already set there." Bou-san said grimly.
"Why?" Mai demanded, a little pale.
"At that time, if they had found a common ground, they would still be living in their houses, wouldn't they?"
"In the dead of the night, Sekiguchi and Mitsue carried deadly weapons and broke into the Kawanabe house through the back door. They knew that they didn't need a key to open the back door. From then on, the police investigators judged from the results of their on-site inspections. They came to infer that the Sekiguchis entered the back door and the nearby room—that is to say, they turned up here and struck the sleeping old Yasuhisa with a hammer. But that alone didn't kill him, so they stabbed his chest with a kitchen knife that they brought and left him to die. There was no evidence that they put up a fight." He said grimly. "Next they ascended to the second floor and went in Mr and Mrs. Kawanabe's bedroom. They killed the husband, Yasuhiko, with a hatchet first, and then the wife, Toshiko, who ran past four half-mats. They chased her up to her son's Minoru's, room, hit her with a hatchet, and stabbed her with a kitchen knife. Her cause of death was blood loss, so she didn't die instantly. It's unknown whether or not Toshiko was conscious when it happened, but the Sekiguchis broke and went into Minoru's room in front of her collapsed form."
Please...
Spare that child, at least.
Mai's lips trembled. "I think she was conscious." She whispered.
"After they killed four people, the Sekiguchis went home and washed their hands. Most likely they came to preparer for the disposal of the corpses, but Kazuo and Mitsue had a quarrel there. Probably bloodthirsty, Sekiguchi flew into a rage and he killed Mitsue with a kitchen knife. I think, at that time, Sekiguchi had already completely deviated from the proper course. Sekiguchi left his wife's corpse in the living room and returned to the Kawanabe house."
My screen lit up—Yasuhara had sent me an email. How far have you gotten with your research?
Not far. Hirota was able to procure the official police report and he's reading it out loud to us right now.
Once again, the reply came right away. What a miracle—and a relief. I wasn't having much luck, either. Should I continue, or stop?
That was a good question. Catching Lin's attention, I silently showed him the email. He thought for a moment, then whispered, "Tell him he can stop for today but to remain ready to return to work."
I conveyed the message, adding, You're a great help, Yasuhara. Demand a pay raise when you get the chance.
I find the experience far more rewarding. Besides, I work part-time.
Semantics.
I returned my attention to the conversation in time to hear, "The daughter, Hitomi, arrived at that moment. It was before 10 'o clock in the morning that Hitomi returned from her school trip. She was struck by Sekiguchi from behind when she leaned over the washbasin."
Mai and Masako had paled. "At least she died instantly." I said quietly.
Hirota nodded in agreement and went on. "The weapon is the hatchet. At the time of Yasuhiko's dissection, it's blade broke and nearly crumbled."
"How awful." Mai whispered.
"He sullied the sliding screen with blood. Then he wiped it with a cloth. Halfway through, it was said that he repeatedly stopped to clean around, so the appearance of the crime scene was unusual. He was able to pick up his brand-new shovel in his car two blocks away, and he put the Kawanabes' valuables together in a paper bag. He then carelessly threw it on top of their corpses in the backyard. Perhaps he planned to kill and bury the family somewhere, and even had set to to disappear or flee at night. But Sekiguchi abandoned everything halfway and returned home. Did he leave because it didn't go as planned? Or did he come back to his sense after he got tired and killed his partner whom he struck in a rage?" He flipped to the final page. "Afterwards, Sekiguchi used the bathroom in his house, he changed his clothes, but he washed the soiled ones and threw them in a garbage can. He suspended his belt from a lintel and hanged himself. It was on the night of October 11th."
The room was completely silent as Hirota shut the report and returned it to the manila folder.
Bou-san was the first to speak. "Those five spirits are only roaming about. The problem is what to do with those spirits."
"Yeah." Mai agreed. "It's not like they're doing something bad, but when I think about what Midori-san and her mother feel, it's better to exorcise them, right? To leave those pitiful spirits to wander about..."
"Although it's all right if the five people were interested in being purified." Masako inserted. "The girl definitely doesn't understand that she's dead, and giving her a lift is possible, but I wonder about the four other people. This afternoon, I tried to address them many times, but I didn't feel that my words got through to them even a bit. From the standpoint of those four people, they are desperate to defend the girl against me. It's because they flank her that the other spirits whom I talk to don't feel like replying."
Bou-san glanced at Naru. He'd been silent this entire time, his eyes dark and pondering. He jolted to awareness when the monk spoke. "What's the matter, Naru-chan? What gloomy things are you also thinking?"
"It's a simple thing."
"By any chance, do you know the reason behind the mirror windows? It's the only reason for that which I'm not fully satisfied with yet."
"I thought your explanation that 'it's because someone will peer inside' wasn't bad, but..."
Mai frowned. "It wasn't Kosori who was peering in? Because didn't the person possessed by Minoru-kin see Kosori outside the window or something?"
"Is the first place, there is no monster that it attached to this place and called Kosori, right?" John asked. "One that manipulates people and..."
"Then the criminal is a human being from another house. The motive is known, isn't it?" Masako interjected.
In a second, differing opinions filled the room. "Theorizing isn't getting us anywhere!" I called out over the babble.
"I..." Everyone stopped at Hirota's voice. "I think I saw the guy who's peering in."