Chapter 114: Aggrieved Noda, the Sudden Car Accident

“You didn’t kill anyone? Then why were you near the scene of the murder that day? If you didn’t kill anyone, why do your footprints and those of your lackey match the footprints found at the scene? Stop holding out and confess!”

It was after ten that night. Shinichi Nakamura, who had just brought Noda back, was working overtime to interrogate him.

Hearing that, Noda was ready to die.

Damn it! Baka yarou!

Why the hell was he always so unlucky?

He had tried to rob a bank, only to have someone beat him to it. Then, after catching the person who had beaten him to it, the police had beaten him to the punch. In the end, he had made not a penny, lost one of his men, and spent an entire month in detention.

Now, immediately after getting out, he had taken on a murder job. But before he could even lay a hand on anyone, he had been arrested as the murderer simply because he had left two footprints at the scene.

Why was Amaterasu treating him like this?

Noda had seen Nakamura before, and knew he was one of that bastard Hidenobu Aoyama’s subordinates. Familiar with Aoyama’s style of handling cases, he decided to confess everything rather than let Aoyama use him as a scapegoat.

“I’ve been framed, officer!” Noda cried indignantly before saying, “Yes, we were at the scene, but the victim was already dead when we arrived. We absolutely did not kill him! And we didn’t even take anything from inside!”

Having previously made his living robbing people, Noda was still rather clumsy when it came to the delicate work of murder. He made a mental note that, next time, he would have to wear shoe covers.

“You didn’t kill him? You didn’t take anything?” Nakamura sneered, his eyes filled with contempt. “The victim’s jewelry, cash, even his mobile phone were all taken. Heh. If you didn’t take them, then where did you four fellows, who had just gotten out of detention, get the money to wine and dine?”

“We did take a job to kill someone, but by the time we got there, he was already dead. The client thought I had killed him, so he paid us,” Noda said honestly.

But Nakamura did not believe him in the slightest. What kind of idiot would the client have to be for something so absurd to happen? Instead, he assumed Noda was resisting interrogation.

“So you’re still going to play tough? Let’s see how tough you really are. Go undo his trousers!”

The officer assisting with the interrogation immediately rose and undid Noda’s belt. Since Noda was handcuffed to the interrogation chair, he could not move no matter how much he struggled.

“I’ll show you what happens when you play tough!”

Nakamura picked up a bucket of ice that he had prepared beforehand, dumped the entire thing down Noda’s trousers, and stamped it firmly into place with his foot.

“Ah! Ahh—s!” Noda nearly froze into a popsicle. His face twisted, his body instantly going rigid as he gasped repeatedly. “Everything I said is true!”

“Smack!”

Nakamura raised his hand and slapped him across the face.

“I’d like to see how tough that mouth of yours is. I don’t believe there’s anything I can’t pry out of it!”

“Waaah! What I said is true! It really is true! Please, please get the ice out of there!” Noda was on the verge of tears.

He was frantic with panic.

Nakamura lifted his foot and began stomping wildly on Noda’s groin, making him experience the searing collision of ice and flesh. Noda writhed between life and death, howling without pause.

“Ah! You bastard! I’m telling the truth! I want to see Hidenobu Aoyama! I want to see Hidenobu Aoyama! There’s no way to talk to an idiot like you!”

Noda roared hysterically, his eyes red.

“Detective Nakamura, I think he really is telling the truth,” the assisting officer reminded him.

When Noda heard that, tears immediately filled his eyes. He looked at the officer and nodded repeatedly, so moved that he was almost crying.

Nakamura also grew suspicious. After all, if Noda were truly that good at resisting interrogation, he would not have been so cooperative when he was in Deputy Chief Aoyama’s hands.

“Take the ice out.”

“Yes, sir!”

Once every piece of ice had been removed from his trousers, Noda finally let out a long breath. He went limp and slumped in the chair, gulping down huge breaths of air.

“Who hired you?” Nakamura asked.

Noda hesitated. Kobayashi had been a good roommate of his, after all. But in this day and age, what did loyalty among criminals really mean? Compared with going back inside himself and becoming someone else’s roommate, he would rather send Kobayashi in.

“It was… it was Kobayashi. He hired me to kill someone, but he wasn’t the mastermind. He seemed to say that he was only doing a job for his boss.”

Nakamura raised an eyebrow. “Who is Kobayashi?”

“He’s a roommate I met back when I was in prison. I can call him and help you lure him out.”

Since he had already betrayed him, Noda figured he might as well sell him out completely.

Besides, Kobayashi had not gone back to visit since getting out. Drinking every day had already ruined his complexion. It would do him good to go inside and recuperate for a while.

The food and lodging were free in prison, and the daily schedule was regular. After spending some time there, almost any illness could be nursed back to health.

…………………………

The next morning, Thursday.

“Good morning, Sis-in-law,” Hidenobu Aoyama called.

“Good morning, Hidenobu,” Haruko Aoyama replied with a gentle smile. She arranged the tableware, then clapped her hands in satisfaction. “All right, time to eat.”

As usual, Hidenobu sat across from her.

Then he suddenly noticed that his sister-in-law was not wearing a bra.

Freed from its restraints, her heavy bosom rested directly on the dining table. Now and then, crumbs fell onto it, but Haruko did not seem to notice.

“Sis-in-law, don’t move,” Hidenobu said.

Haruko looked at him blankly. “Hm?”

Hidenobu reached out and brushed the crumbs from her breast. It trembled beneath his hand, full of springy elasticity.

The sensation was strangely addictive.

Haruko’s pretty face immediately flushed with embarrassment. Lowering her head, she said, “Thank you, Hidenobu.”

She had gotten up too late that morning. In her haste to make breakfast, she had hurried downstairs wearing nothing but a short-sleeved shirt.

“We’re family. It was nothing. No need to thank me,” Hidenobu said openly.

Haruko pressed her red lips together and said nothing more.

The atmosphere in the dining room grew somewhat ambiguous and awkward.

“Ring-ring! Ring-ring!”

The telephone ringing shattered the silence between them.

“Hello?” Hidenobu answered.

“Deputy Chief, it’s Shinichi…” Nakamura reported everything Noda had said the previous night.

After listening, Hidenobu instructed him, “Don’t arrest this Kobayashi yet. Just keep him under surveillance and investigate his background. I’ll decide what to do after I’ve reviewed it.”

“Yes, sir!”

Hidenobu hung up and gave his sister-in-law an apologetic smile. “Things have been a little busy lately.”

“You work so hard, Hidenobu. You must eat more,” Haruko said.

The awkwardness she had felt moments earlier instantly vanished. She stood and placed more food in his bowl, her heavy breasts swaying right in front of him.

So pale and full. That shirt was awfully loose, and she was awfully round.

Hidenobu swallowed, hurriedly shoveled down two mouthfuls of rice, and left for work. His sister-in-law was simply too tempting. Staying any longer would have been torture.

As he drove along the road, a panel truck suddenly ran a red light at an intersection and came barreling toward him.

Thanks to his extraordinary agility and perception, Hidenobu reacted before the truck could hit him. He slammed on the accelerator and wrenched the steering wheel to the side.

“Crash!”

Even so, the truck still struck the rear of his car with a tremendous bang. The force spun the vehicle around in place, sent it skidding several yards, and finally drove it into a roadside utility pole. A thin stream of white smoke began to seep from the gap in the hood as screams erupted all around him.

Inside the car, Hidenobu felt his ears ringing after the violent impact. His head spun, his vision blurred and doubled, and then everything went black.

He completely passed out and lost consciousness.

His final thought was:

Damn it!