It is also known as the "Amanda Case" in the United States.
When Toru Amuro was studying at the police academy, this case, which is still full of doubts, was often used as a typical case in after-school analysis assignments.
Therefore, Toru Amuro also knows a thing or two about the circumstances of this case.
"If I remember correctly, a case occurred in a hotel in Los Angeles, USA, 17 years ago, but two people died."
"The two deceased are American capitalist Amanda Hughes and Japanese shogi player Koji Haneda."
"The two had agreed to meet in a hotel, but when the hotel staff found their bodies, they found them in different rooms."
"The identity of the murderer remains a mystery, but most people suspect it was a political assassination because it was rumored that Amanda Hughes would run for the next U.S. president."
"And Koji Haneda may have happened to see the appearance of the murderer, so he was chased into the room by the murderer and silenced..."
This was the standard answer to the case analysis assignment assigned by the police academy, and Toru Amuro still remembers it to this day.
But Toru Amuro has always been skeptical about this standard answer.
After all, too little of the case has been made public. Without seeing the situation at the scene, no one can say that the truth of the case is like this.
Kuroda Hei nodded slightly, agreeing with Toru Amuro's statement.
"What you said is similar to the rumors accepted by most people outside."
"But what I'm going to talk about next is another perspective that few people know about..."
Next, Kurodabei talked about his experience 17 years ago.
At that time, because Kuroda received a secret order from his superiors, he used vacation as an excuse to go to Los Angeles, USA for vacation. In fact, he went to discuss cooperation matters with Amanda Hughes.
However, since Amanda Hughes is a topical figure in the United States, inviting a Japanese face into the room for no reason will easily lead to suspicion.
Therefore, Amanda Hughes designated a person to serve as a "cover" when the two met.
This person is Haneda Koji.
"Koji Haneda is a good man."
"After hearing my request, I agreed without even thinking..."
"So, we took flights to Los Angeles respectively, and he went to meet Amanda first as Amanda's idol according to the time agreed in advance."
"While my colleagues and I were on vacation, we used Haneda Koji to keep in touch with Amanda."
"Of course, that colleague didn't know that I still had a mission..."
Kuroda Heiwei stood on the bridge with his hands in his pockets, a flash of memory flashing through his one eye under his sunglasses.
"At 5 o'clock that afternoon, Haneda Koji went to Amanda's room to talk with her in detail."
"As for the content of the conversation between the two of them, I don't know...but the content of the conversation between them is not important in the first place."
"According to the original plan, Amanda would meet with Koji Haneda briefly, and then change to meet with me midway, causing the outside world to mistakenly think that she would only meet one Japanese person, Koji Haneda."
"But while I was waiting to be summoned in the public restroom above the floor, two men in black attacked me."
"The two men were well-trained. One grabbed my attention by picking up things, and the other planned to attack me from behind with an electric shock device."
"But their thoughts were discovered by me through the bathroom mirror, and I took action to subdue these two people."
"At this time I realized something might have happened, and Amanda never called me, so I went to the front desk to identify myself as a Japanese police officer, hoping to get Amanda's room number from the front desk."
"However, the Japanese police do not have law enforcement rights in the United States, and the service staff at the front desk did not cooperate. I had to use other methods to obtain Amanda's room location."
"But when I rushed to that room, it was still a step too late..."
"Amanda Hughes was not breathing and this was all that was left in the room."
As he spoke, Kurodabei raised his hand and took out a photo from the pocket of his suit jacket.
Qin Zhibo reached out to take the photo and found that it was not a photo of Amanda Hughes' body, but a photo taken sideways against a chess board.
There is a chess piece "Knight" in the middle of the chess board, and both sides of the white chess piece are stained with bright red fingerprints.
Under the chess piece, there is also a women's diamond-engraved watch, and the mirror of the watch also has red marks.
"Is this...a death message?"
Before Qin Zhibo could speak, Toru Amuro, who was standing next to him, stretched his head and looked over and said seriously.
In addition to seeing the investigation points in the photos, Qin Zhibo also wanted to complain, why were there camera phones 17 years ago?
And it was captured so clearly...
Kuroda Bingwei nodded, "Yes, that's what I guessed at the first time."
"So I took this photo and then went to look for Haneda Koji."
"I knew Haneda Koji's room number, but when I got to that room, I happened to see a group of men in black walking out of Haneda Koji's room."
"After those men in black left, there was still a man in black left to deal with various traces in the room."
"After I brought him down, I found Haneda Koji's body in the room."
"The area around Haneda Koji's body was quite messy. I was interrupted by other things at the time, so I forgot to take photos..."
"And the person who interrupted me is Amanda's personal bodyguard."
"That's a very skilled woman. She got out of the hidden space behind the bookcase on her own."
"She didn't seem to know what happened in the room just now, and she misunderstood that I killed Haneda Koji."
"There is no other way. I can only subdue her first, then put her into the suitcase left behind by the man in black, and think about taking her out of the hotel first."
"But when they were going downstairs, the men in black returned to Haneda Koji's room."
"After I drove out of the hotel, these haunting men in black drove after me again."
"In order to avoid their pursuit, I was hit by a truck approaching at an intersection and had a serious car accident."
"After I regained consciousness, I asked the doctor who came to rescue me, and I learned that the woman named 'Asaka' had long since disappeared..."
"After that, I was in a coma in a hospital in the United States for nearly ten years. It was only recently that I woke up."
"At the beginning, I seemed to be suspected of murder, but it seems that after learning the fact that Amanda and I made an appointment to meet, and the testimony of the hotel doorman, I was eliminated as a suspect."
Kurodabei's memories come to an end for now.
Toru Amuro glanced sideways at Kuroda Hei, finally gaining a better understanding of this mysterious airborne boss today.
When he received the order from above to go to Arkham Asylum in the United States to bring back a Japanese policeman, he couldn't help but feel puzzled.
Why would a Japanese policeman be a mentally ill person in an American lunatic asylum?
Now it seems that this may be a means for the relevant parties to mediate.
After all, Amanda Hughes is an important person in the United States. If you want to completely eliminate the suspicion of murder, it will never be as easy as Kuroda Hei said.
He stayed in the lunatic asylum for 17 years, which was a form of house arrest.
As for the case, Toru Amuro judged from the description of "the man in black" that this was probably the work of an organization.
Although the organization does not have a uniform dress code, most juniors and cadres at the grassroots level will wear black clothing.
And since Kuroda Hei is still assigned by the superiors to investigate cases related to the organization, it means that his mission 17 years ago should also be related to this.
After Qin Zhibo listened to Kuroda Bei's description, he was deeply impressed by the various uniforms in Kuroda Bei.
Two men in black tried to attack him in the bathroom, but he overpowered them...
A man in black was dealing with traces in the room and was subdued by him...
Amanda's bodyguard "Asaka" misunderstood him as the murderer and was subdued by him...
This is not Kuroda Bingwei, this is Kuroda Bingou!
However, from his description, Qin Zhibo also learned a new situation.
That is, as early as 17 years ago, the Japanese police tried to cooperate with the FBI through Nine Angels.
However, after this incident, it is estimated that the cooperation plan has been shelved.
"By the way, Amanda's bodyguards were all knocked unconscious by someone."
"When they woke up, they found themselves in the hotel's warehouse..."
Kurodabei gave some additional explanations.
Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, and then asked: "Except for the woman named 'Qianxiang', right?"
"That's right."
Kuroda Heibei adjusted his stance and asked in a deep voice: "Then what? Can you decipher the pre-death message left by Amanda?"
The message before death that Kuroda Hei said was the photo he gave just now.
In response, Qin Zhibo's mouth showed a somewhat confident smile.
"Well, it's almost done."
"Oh? I would like to hear the details." Kuroda Bingwei replied.
Qin Zhibo held the photo in his hand and stared at the investigation point above.
【Secret Word Survey√】
【Survey……】
After a while, the investigation instructions appeared.
Qin Zhibo took a quick glance and found that the contents were basically consistent with his reasoning.
However, he was not in a hurry to reason, but turned to look at Toru Amuro and asked.
"Touko, what do you think?"
Amuro Toru's expression was startled. He did not expect that Qin Zhibo would turn the question onto himself.
But it just so happened that he had been observing this photo for a long time and already had some ideas in his mind.
"First of all, if you look at the mark on the watch, you can clearly see that it is a lip mark, left by lipstick."
"If it's a lipstick mark, it can be associated with the word lips, or the red color of lipstick..."
"But if you look carefully at the diamond ring around the watch mirror, you can see that there is also red paint inside."
"This shows that Amanda once felt that the mark left was not accurate enough, so she erased it and printed it again."
"If it's lips, as long as people see the lines of the lips, it's easy to think of them, and lipstick is even more so..."
"In other words, what Amanda wants to express is not lips or lipstick, but the mouth that must be composed of upper and lower lips."
"And if you look closely at these two lip prints, you can see that there are no prints on the corners of the mouth on either side."
"This should mean removing both ends, that is, removing the first and last two letters of mouth, it becomes out."
"Adding the word watch, it becomes watch out, meaning 'be careful'."
Toru Amuro's expression became more and more confident as he spoke, with a confident smile on his face, "But even so, I don't know what I want to express 'be careful' about?"
"But judging from the head of this chess piece horse, the 'horse's' eyes also have lipstick printed on them. Is it probably a reminder to pay attention to someone's eyes?"
"Who can you think of in this regard?"
Toru Amuro turned to look at Kuroda Hei.
Kuroda Bingwei's expression was startled, and he suddenly thought of someone.
"Speaking of which, there was indeed a person with abnormally normal eyes passing by..."
"Although he couldn't see clearly through the monocle, he had eyes as sharp as a snake."
Toru Amuro asked in confusion, "Snake's eyes?"
Kuroda Bingwei nodded and added: "But this is just an impression. I don't know who that person is or what the specific meaning is..."
Just when the two of them were thinking in this direction, Qin Zhibo interrupted them in time.
"So far, my reasoning is quite correct..."
Qin Zhibo first nodded in approval, but then changed the subject, "But it's not perfect yet."
"not perfect?"
When Toru Amuro heard this, he immediately suppressed the smile on his lips and asked: "Teacher, what's not perfect about it?"
Qin Zhibo did not answer immediately, but asked Kuroda Hei: "Let me ask Mr. Kuroda something first. Is the female bodyguard named 'Asaka' wearing glasses?"
Kuroda Bingwei was startled for a moment and nodded.
"Yes, she does wear glasses...but what's wrong?"
Qin Zhibo's eyebrows moved slightly, he picked up the photo again and analyzed it.
"Look, both eyes of this chess piece knight are marked with lipstick."
"Judging from the state of Amanda's watch password left behind, her thinking ability at the time had not been affected too much, and she had fully thought about the message before her death."
"That is to say, if Amanda wants to point out the man wearing a monocle that you saw Mr. Kuroda, Amanda should leave a mark on the same side of the eye of the chess piece according to the position of the man's monocle."
"But in fact, Amanda left marks on both eyes, indicating that this person did not have a problem with one eye, but with both eyes..."
"Or it has nothing to do with the eyes themselves, it simply refers to a person who wears bicles."
"Although I don't know exactly who Amanda saw that day, I guess there weren't too many people. Wearing bifocal glasses should be a distinguishing feature."
"Except for the fact that the bespectacled Koji Haneda has been confirmed dead, the only thing I can think of is the female bodyguard 'Asaka' who escaped from the scene of the accident."
"That is to say, I think the true meaning of the message Amanda left before her death is..."