NABC Page 95
Page 95
Yuki Takada immediately started making phone calls, issuing instructions to the person on the other end of the line with a decisive and swift tone, arranging manpower and retrieving surveillance footage, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
Sato Miwako felt a little relieved as she watched his calm and commanding figure.
Yuki Takada's experience and ability were on full display at this moment.
Miwako Sato didn't sit idle either; she carefully checked every corner of the room again to make sure there were no other safety hazards.
The wait for support seemed to drag on endlessly.
The corridor remained silent, but beneath that silence lurked an unknown danger.
The dazzling night view still unfolds outside the window, but no one is in the mood to appreciate it anymore.
Yuki Takada's instructions were efficient and swift.
By phone, he not only contacted the hotel security department, requesting them to immediately and quietly block all exits and passages on that floor, but also to strictly control the elevators and stairwells to avoid alerting the suspect.
He also directly contacted several of his most trusted subordinates within the Metropolitan Police Department, ordering them to come immediately to provide support and requesting necessary technical assistance to trace the source of the suspicious text message.
The air in the room seemed to freeze.
Miwako Sato and Yuki Takada stood back to back, each watching the door and window warily, even though the curtains had been carefully drawn.
The phone remained on call, tucked into Yuuki Takada's chest pocket, the faint static the only background noise in the deathly silent room.
"Security said their people will be here in two minutes." Yuki Takada lowered his voice, almost whispering, "They have secretly taken control of the stairwell and elevators, and so far there has been no suspicious person forcibly leaving or any unusual activity."
“The other party is very professional.” Sato Miwako responded in a low voice as well, her sharp gaze sweeping across the crack under the door to confirm that there was no shadow flickering. “They were able to accurately mimic your number and choose this time... it’s like it was calculated.”
“Hmm, a test, or… worse.” Yuuki Takada’s eyes were cold. “They’re trying to gauge our vigilance, or perhaps they’re trying to create chaos to launch an attack. Miwako, your reaction just now was crucial.”
Just then, Yuki Takada's cell phone vibrated slightly in his pocket; it was a report from his subordinate.
He carefully took out his phone to answer the call.
"...Okay, go ahead and say it."
Yuuki Takada listened, his expression growing increasingly serious.
Chapter 114 The Murder in the Hotel
"Is there anything unusual in the surveillance footage?"
"The time period matches? ... Okay, continue the investigation, especially the blind spots in the monitoring of fire exits and freight elevators."
"Get back to me from the technical department as soon as possible. I need to know the approximate origin of that text message."
After hanging up the phone, Yuuki Takada looked at Miwako Sato and said normally, "The surveillance footage shows that about fifteen minutes ago, a person wearing a hotel maintenance worker's uniform, a hat and a mask, pushed a tool cart and stayed on our floor for a few minutes, near the fire escape."
"Judging from his physique, he is male, of medium build, very ordinary, with no obvious features."
"After that, he entered the fire escape. The surveillance camera in that section had a brief malfunction, or perhaps it was due to human interference, and after that, no clear image of him was captured."
"Repairmen..." Sato Miwako's heart skipped a beat. "They can actually impersonate insiders?"
“It might not be a disguise; it could be bribery or coercion,” Yuki Takada analyzed. “An internal investigation of the hotel must be conducted immediately. It seems our adversary is more omnipresent than we imagined.”
As Yuki Takada turned his head after speaking, a suppressed gasp suddenly came from the other end of the corridor, which then became noisy.
Yuki Takada and Miwako Sato exchanged a glance, a sense of foreboding flashing across their eyes simultaneously. They took steps almost at the same time, leaving the room and heading towards the source of the sound.
They hurried toward room 1504, which was the place they had just been discussing.
Before even reaching the entrance of room 1504, I saw a young woman dressed as a hotel employee slumped on the ground.
His face was deathly pale, his finger trembling as he pointed at the half-open door of room 1504, his lips quivering, barely able to utter a complete sentence: "Inside...inside...blood...so much blood..."
"We're police officers, you'd better come out right now." Takada Yuuki's face darkened. He glanced at the waiter inside, then shouted at Sato Miwako, who was following closely behind, "Protect the scene! Immediately evacuate all bystanders from this floor and set up a cordon!"
"Miwako, call the forensic team and the forensic pathologist up here immediately!"
Taking a deep breath, Yuuki Takada carefully put on his gloves and cautiously pushed open the slightly ajar door.
A strong, pungent smell of blood mixed with the strange aroma of the hotel's fragrance wafted towards us.
The main light in the room was off, with only the bedside lamp casting a dim, yellowish glow.
On the floor, a shocking dark red trail of blood stretched from the living room area all the way to the bedroom doorway.
Yuuki Takada moved carefully along the wall, trying to avoid leaving any possible traces.
Miwako Sato followed closely behind, her hand on the pistol at her waist, scanning every corner of the room warily.
The scene in the bedroom was even more horrifying.
A middle-aged man lay face up on the carpet between the bed and the wardrobe, his eyes wide open, his face frozen in shock and fear.
A strangely shaped dagger was stuck in his chest, and his dark hotel bathrobe was soaked in blood, making the color even darker.
His right hand hung limply at his side, while his left hand seemed to be reaching towards the bedside table, his fingertips just centimeters from the edge of the table.
On the bedside table, a glass was overturned, spilling water and partially melted ice all over the floor.
"Confirm the other party's vital signs," Yuuki Takada commanded in a low voice, though he already had a clear answer in his mind.
One of the officers who entered first stepped forward and carefully examined the body before shaking his head heavily: "He is dead. The body is still warm, so the time of death must have been recent."
“Fifteen minutes…” Miwako Sato murmured, her sharp gaze sweeping across the entire room. “It coincides perfectly with the time when that repairman appeared earlier.”
Yuki Takada did not respond immediately; his gaze swept over every detail of the room like a radar.
Looking at the terrified expression on the deceased's face, and the precise, fatal stab wound to his chest, I saw...
A water glass overturned on the table, and a bed that was slightly messy but showed no signs of a violent struggle.
The windows were tightly closed.
Yuki Takada noticed a small, unnatural wet stain on the carpet near the wall close to the fire escape. The stain was slightly darker than the surrounding area and did not resemble blood.
"Has the technical department arrived?" Yuki Takada asked without turning his head.
"Going upstairs!"
"Focus on collecting fingerprints and traces from the doorknob, the hilt of the dagger, the water glass, and the area near the wet spot."
"Check the window latches," Takada Yuuki quickly ordered upon seeing this, then looked at Sato Miwako and asked, "The identity of the deceased?"
Miwako Sato had already received information from her colleagues who conducted the initial search: "Akiya Yasuda, 46 years old, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at Tokyo University, was the only one who checked in."
"According to the front desk information, he checked in three days ago to attend an academic seminar held at the hotel."
“The Chemistry Department?” Yuki Takada frowned. “Notify the conference organizers to temporarily block the news, but we need them to provide a list of all participants, especially those who are acquainted with Akira Yasuda or have had any dealings with him.”
"Immediately review all hotel entrance and exit surveillance footage, especially around 15 minutes in advance, and look for anyone resembling a maintenance worker or anyone acting suspiciously."
"Block the roads around the hotel; the killer may not have gone far!"
Orders were issued one after another, and the atmosphere on site was tense yet orderly.
The forensic team quickly entered, flashes of light going off everywhere, and began a careful and thorough examination of the scene.
Yuki Takada retreated to the doorway and examined the bloodstain again.
"The drag marks... started in the bathroom. The primary crime scene was probably the bathroom."
He walked back to the room, his gaze sweeping over the sofa table. On the table sat a laptop, in sleep mode, next to which was an ashtray containing several cigarette butts. There was also a hotel-provided notepad and pen; the notepad contained a few lines of scribbled chemical formulas and some numbers.
“Miwako, look at this.” Yuuki Takada pointed to the notepad.
Miwako Sato leaned closer and examined it carefully: "It looks like some kind of reaction equation and calculation? I can't understand the specifics. We need to have an expert identify it."
"Yes, take it back to headquarters along with the computer and let the technical department handle it." After saying that, Takada Yuuki looked at the still-shaken waiter who had discovered the body. "How's the questioning going?"
A police officer reported to him: "Her name is Haruko Nakamura, and she is in charge of guest room service on this floor."
"She said that about fifteen minutes ago, she received a call from the guest in room 1504, requesting that some ice be sent over."
"She brought it over after preparing it, knocked on the door but no one answered, found the door unlocked, pushed it open a crack to ask, and then saw the bloodstains on the floor..."
"When did the customer request the ice to be delivered?" Yuki Takada pressed.
"According to the service desk records and her own recollection, it was around the time we noticed the abnormality in the surveillance footage and that the repairman appeared nearby."
"A coincidence?" Sato Miwako's eyes sharpened. "Too precise. Did the killer use the ice delivery service to ensure the body was discovered as quickly as possible? Why?"
Yuuki Takada pondered, "Perhaps it's to create temporal chaos, or... for something we must discover."
His gaze fell once again on the overturned glass of ice water in the bedroom.
Just then, Yuki Takada's phone rang. It was a subordinate from the technical department who was in charge of tracing the source of the previous text messages.
"Inspector, regarding that text message you sent asking me to investigate the person impersonating you... we've traced its source."
Chapter 115 Technical Department Call
"The other party used virtual base stations and redirect servers; their methods were very professional."
"The approximate location of the last traceable physical location is... inside this hotel, within a 50-meter radius."
“Inside the hotel…” Yuuki Takada’s heart sank.
"That's right, and it seems that everyone in the hotel's phone was sending a message to the recipient at that moment."
"So, you're saying that everyone who checked into the hotel received a text message at the same time, is that right?"
“Yes, Inspector Takada, we just checked. Almost everyone sent a similar text message.”
"The specific reason is that someone in the hotel stole the entire server here and deliberately set it up. Of course, this is also closely related to this case."
Yuuki Takada nodded and said, "Alright, thank you for your hard work."
The sending time was a few minutes after they started returning to their respective rooms.
According to the previous reports, Yasuda Akiya meant that he was not in trouble at that time, but only after that.
"Inspector Takada!" Another officer ran over from the direction of the fire escape, reporting the current situation. "The malfunction of the fire escape's surveillance system has been confirmed to be caused by human intervention. A small signal jammer was used and stuck to the pipe below the camera. It was very well concealed, and it has been removed for evidence collection."
"Also, this was found in the corner of the stairwell on the two floors below!"
The officer handed over an evidence bag containing a crumpled hotel maintenance worker uniform, a hat, and a plain white face mask.
"Search! He's most likely still hiding in the hotel; there's no way he could have escaped like this!" Yuuki Takada immediately ordered. "Check all maintenance staff in the hotel to see if anyone is missing or being coerced!"
Panic immediately gripped the hotel, and a large-scale investigation was quickly launched.