Kitajima Satoru never expected the Police to arrive so quickly. He hadn't even disposed of the evidence of his crime when the Police came to investigate his home. In such a situation, there was no point in trying to argue, so Kitajima Satoru simply confessed.
"There's nothing left for me to hide now. I did kill that man!"
Hattori Heiji was somewhat speechless about the culprit so readily admitting his crime. His earlier deduction about the culprit leaving the scene had been preempted by that guy named Akechi Takato. He had wanted to come here first and have a good chat with the suspect to find his flaws and turn the tables, but it seemed there was no chance now.
Officer Otaki entered the culprit's room and found the knife used to slash the victim's wrist. He then instructed the accompanying Police Officer to secure it and notified a team of Police Officers to come over.
"Then why did you kill that man? Is it related to the blackmail case you reported before?"
Hattori Heiji inquired.
"That's right. I thought I would never see that man again, but I didn't expect heaven to have eyes and let me see this guy again!"
The more Kitajima Satoru spoke, the more agitated he became. The people present did not interrupt him, waiting until his emotions had somewhat calmed down before continuing their questioning.
"What exactly happened in that blackmail case back then?"
Hattori Heiji asked.
"The person who was blackmailed back then was my girlfriend."
Kitajima Satoru recalled, telling what he knew from back then.
The story took place during Kitajima Satoru's university years. At that time, he was dating a girl named Keiko, who was one year his junior. Originally, the two were like couples of that age, constantly together, often dreaming about the future, with few upheavals, and their relationship was extremely stable.
The accident occurred in Kitajima Satoru's senior year. At that time, because he had to work on his graduation project and look for a job, the time they spent together decreased. And it was in that year that Keiko had an accident. Kitajima Satoru didn't know what exactly happened to Keiko at the time; he just felt that every time they met, Keiko seemed distracted, but when he asked her, she wouldn't say what she had encountered. At that time, Kitajima Satoru only thought it was because his neglect had made Keiko angry, but the pressure of job hunting and graduation made Kitajima Satoru not in the mood to think about these things at the time, only feeling that everything could be slowly salvaged once everything was good.
Until one day, Keiko suddenly called him and finally told him the truth.
It turned out that, at some point, Keiko had been secretly photographed. Someone had hacked into Keiko's frequently used computer and, through the computer's camera, took many private photos of Keiko. The person who took the photos used them to blackmail Keiko.
The blackmailer never left any physical evidence, only contacting Keiko by email each time. To prevent the photos from being leaked, Keiko had to obey instructions and place cash in designated locations. This went on for a long time. Keiko tried to report it to the Police, but all emails sent by the blackmailer would completely disappear afterward, and the Police's investigation came to nothing. Moreover, after Keiko reported it to the Police, the blackmailer's threats became even more severe.
Under these circumstances, Keiko finally told Kitajima Satoru what had happened.
Knowing the whole story, Kitajima Satoru told Keiko not to be afraid. Since there was no evidence to find the blackmailer threatening Keiko, but the blackmailer would eventually come to collect the cash, Kitajima Satoru devised a plan to make the blackmailer reveal himself.
But the plan failed. At that time, a person suspected of being the blackmailer did appear, and that person was the victim of this incident. But when they took the person to the Police station to report the case, the Police still found no evidence and could only release him.
However, this action angered the blackmailer. Keiko's photos were spread, and Keiko, unable to resist the pressure, committed suicide by slitting her wrists.
"So when you saw that person again, you chose to kill him with your own hands?"
Hattori Heiji said this after listening to Kitajima Satoru's narration.
"That's right. I'm very sure that person was definitely the blackmailer. After Keiko committed suicide, I reviewed the entire incident and realized he must be a computer expert, clearing all online information to prevent the Police from finding evidence. Such a person would definitely not blackmail only Keiko. So from then on, I started to teach myself about computers, hoping to encounter him again someday."
Kitajima Satoru said excitedly, "Then, finally, a few days ago, I finally saw him near an internet cafe. So I pretended to be injured and took leave. I've been following him these past few days and found that he goes to a specific private room in the internet cafe at a fixed time every day. So I tampered with the ventilation duct in that private room beforehand and killed him today! I want him to experience the pain Keiko experienced back then!"
"So for revenge, you specifically used the method of slitting wrists to kill the victim?"
Takato asked at this point. He noticed this detail. Since Keiko committed suicide by slitting her wrists, then for revenge, Kitajima Satoru only needed to kill the victim by slitting his wrists; there was no need to scare the victim to death.
"That's right. I knocked him out and cut his arteries. This is something I specifically learned these past few days. As long as you cut two arteries with two cuts, he will inevitably die if no one comes to his rescue."
Kitajima Satoru replied.
"So you didn't scare him after slitting his wrists?"
Hattori Heiji asked, puzzled.
"After slitting his wrists, I took his things and left. Why would I scare him?"
Kitajima Satoru didn't understand what Hattori Heiji meant.
"Then what did you take from him?"
Takato thought for a moment and asked, "Like a disk or something."
"There was a disk, but when I opened it with my computer, I don't know what program was triggered, and the data on my computer and the data on the disk were destroyed together."
Kitajima Satoru expressed his helplessness.
Soon, the Police Officers dispatched by Officer Otaki arrived at the scene and took Kitajima Satoru away. The rest was up to the Police to investigate.
However, for Takato, this matter was not over yet.
The settlement panel is triggered twice: once after Takato summarizes the incident, and again when Takato believes the case has been resolved.
Currently, Takato does not believe this matter has been resolved, nor has he summarized the incident, so the settlement panel has not been triggered.
Thinking carefully, if Kitajima Satoru's words were true, then regarding the deduction that the victim died due to someone else's revenge, although the result was correct, the process was wrong.
So what is the truth of the case?
Connecting it to the possibility that the victim was related to the Black Organization, the true facts cannot be fully confirmed by himself at present; he can only consider the possibilities of the entire case.
Considering the victim was actually a member of the Black Organization.
Considering that the Organization had extensively collected information on programmers, and knowing that the internet cafe database contained data from the General Headquarter, in order to steal the programmer-related information, the Organization dispatched the victim, who was skilled in hacking, to steal the data.
However, because there was too much data in the internet cafe database, the victim could not distinguish which data was useful and could only steal everything using a Trojan horse. And precisely because there was too much data, the data transfer occupied too much bandwidth, which allowed himself, who was working part-time at the internet cafe, to discover the anomaly.
And today, while stealing data, he was killed by Kitajima Satoru. It might be due to program settings that the victim didn't perform any operations for a long time, the program judged that an accident occurred, and urgently triggered the "Night Baron Virus" to eliminate all traces, thereby causing all data in the internet cafe server to be destroyed.
Yes, thinking this way, it makes sense!
Takato felt that he had clarified the Context, so he continued to consider.
Then, back to the victim being killed. The victim, knocked out and with his wrists slit by Kitajima Satoru, actually woke up before he died, but because he had already lost too much blood and lost the ability to call for help, he scared himself to death in such helplessness and despair?
No, the victim's expression was not just despair; it was definitely true fear! But his fear did not come from the murderer, but from the Organization!
Thinking this way, everything seems to make sense!
"Deduction complete, beginning case closure."
As soon as he thought of this, the settlement panel was triggered.
...
As night fell, on a dark street outside the Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters, a black porsche 356a started its engine and drove away.
In the passenger seat, a burly man in black wearing sunglasses put down his phone after finishing a call and said to the silver-haired man driving the car: "Big Brother, it's been confirmed. That guy was just killed by a friend of someone he blackmailed back then. The motive was just revenge for the person who was blackmailed."
"Is that so? That's good."
The silver-haired man, with his eyes partially hidden by his bangs, said calmly.
"Anyway, 'Night Baron' is perfect; it won't leave any evidence. A person without even a codename, if he dies, he dies."
"But he's dead, so what about that matter?"
"Don't worry, the next matter will be left to Tequila."
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