Chapter 2 - Prologue 2
After driving for a while past National Route 242 and through a side forest road, a sign reading "Beware of Bears" immediately caught their eye. While not a particularly rare "sight" in the mountains of Hokkaido, it wasn't something that put one in a good mood.
Especially since they would have to walk a bit from here... After driving for about ten minutes on the unpaved, bumpy forest road, they came out into a small clearing in the woods. A light truck, a sedan-type passenger car, and a mini patrol car were already parked there.
The light truck had the letters "JR" on it, so it likely belonged to the maintenance district, but the passenger car might belong to the victim. The mini patrol car, needless to say, belonged to Sergeant Maruyama of the residential police box.
"Kurosu, take down the plate number, radio the station, and run a check!"
Takeshita gave the instruction immediately, before Nishida even had to speak. It might belong to another JR employee who received the call from the maintenance district, but it was better to identify the owner before going to the scene to avoid wasting time. Leaving Kurosu to handle the communication, Nishida hurried to the scene with Takeshita.
He had braced himself for the walk to take some time, but other than a few ups and downs and the footing being poor, it took less than five minutes before the view opened up and he saw several people who looked like maintenance workers gathered with Maruyama in uniform.
"Sorry we're late, we're from Engaru Station!"
Nishida raised his voice while holding up his police badge while they were still a hundred meters away.
"We've been waiting for you."
Maruyama noticed them and saluted.
"Well, well, thanks for your hard work so early in the morning."
A maintenance worker who looked like a veteran replied.
"Hello, I'm Nishida from Engaru Station, and this is my subordinate, Takeshita."
Once in front of them, he introduced himself and greeted them again.
"This is the maintenance district chief, Murata. These are Yoshida, Ootani, Satomi, Inoue..."
The veteran chief introduced his seven subordinates one by one, but Nishida's eyes were already fixed on the body visible to the side.
As soon as the greetings between Nishida's group and the maintenance workers were over, Maruyama immediately spoke.
"A driver's license was found in a wallet the body was carrying. It seems to be a Mr. Yoshimi Tadayuki from Kitami City. He was born in May of Showa 25... so he would be 45 now. The face in the photo matches the face of the body, so there's likely no mistake."
He said this while showing the license to Nishida and Takeshita. Then he continued his explanation.
"I've taken a brief statement, but since the Criminal Investigation Division would be coming later, I didn't ask for too many details to avoid bothering the JR people with repeating themselves. Kakarichou Nishida, Takeshita-san, please ask the fine points directly. I'll answer if necessary. Also, I haven't done anything except a simple inspection so as not to disturb the scene."
District Chief Murata took over and began explaining the circumstances before Nishida could even ask.
"It was around 3:30 (AM), I think... We drove up in the truck to do some maintenance work, and when we walked over here, something like a mannequin was lying near the tracks. I thought, 'Ah, someone got hit...' and when I got closer with my flashlight, there were no signs of being hit on the body, just a corpse lying face down... When I turned it over, there was a large wound on the forehead..."
"I see. So, the fact that he's lying face up now means he was originally face down?"
Nishida questioned Murata, but Maruyama cut in.
"Kakarichou! It seems Mr. Murata turned him face down again once, but I turned him face up for confirmation."
"Understood. And did you move the body's location itself?"
Nishida confirmed.
"We didn't move it. We just flipped it over on the spot."
"Maruyama, you didn't move it either?"
"Of course not, Kakarichou!"
Maruyama answered briskly.
Takeshita, who had already begun examining the body and the surroundings, pointed to a large stone embedded in the ground nearby with a red stain on it.
"This is it... From the look of this, it was either instant death or he went to the other world without much time passing..."
"Yes, it seems so," Maruyama said.
"Even an amateur like me could tell right away," Murata added without missing a beat.
"Then I wish you'd said so from the start. This is an accident," Nishida thought to himself, but his thought was immediately overturned by Takeshita's remark.
"Kakarichou! There are quite a few footprints (gesokon) around here that likely belong to someone other than the victim (marugai). They look like a different type of shoe than the boots the maintenance workers are wearing. They're different from Maruyama's too, right? They must have been made very recently. The size is around 27 (cm)... Probably a man, considering the size."
"I noticed them as soon as I arrived, so I've already checked that they're different from the maintenance workers' boots."
Maruyama, as expected, hadn't missed a thing. Whether he hadn't said it earlier out of deference or to test the detectives was unclear, but Nishida didn't think he was such a spiteful young man and concluded he had simply deferred to the detectives.
Then, Nishida immediately put his face close to the ground to investigate, and he indeed saw one type of footprint that was different from the boots, Maruyama's, or the victim's shoes.
"What could this mean... Looking at how it's embedded in the ground, it's more reasonable to think he hit his head himself rather than being hit with the stone," Takeshita whispered to Nishida, looking troubled.
"It's certainly possible it was an accident, but if someone else was here besides the victim, there's a possibility the victim had his head slammed into the ground by someone. We won't know for sure until we clarify what the person with these footprints was doing at the time," Nishida said, tilting his head.
Just then,
"Kakarichou, Shunin! We found the owner of the car!"
Kurosu came running from beyond the forest, shouting at the top of his lungs.
"It's a guy named Yoshimi Tadayuki!"
Nishida exchanged a look with Takeshita and immediately shouted back.
"Kurosu, we just confirmed that with his license! Sorry, but request forensics from the station. I want to investigate this in detail!"
They were nearly a hundred meters apart, but Kurosu's slightly disappointed expression was visible. Needless to say, it was because he now had to make another hurried round trip across "that" distance. However, since it had been unknown whether the license could be confirmed at that point, this outcome was unavoidable.