It was a young man.
A young man with elbow-length hair and a knit cap.
He looked sideways at the sound of the voice, revealing somewhat harsh green eyes.
The green eyes are somewhat narrow, in a state of pressed down eyebrows, the eyebrows and the line of the diamond-shaped eyes have a bit of black intensity, and the lower eyelids have a touch of thickening, which makes his eyes more obvious, and also has a more sharp sharpness.
Ichijō Mirai is not a big fan of long hair, as it is supposed to soften the aggressiveness, but the young man's aggressiveness is strong.
There's a scent that comes out.
It's the smell of a police officer mixed with the confidence and conviction of a rookie officer.
It's bad luck.
Ichijō Mirai repeats the exclamation: really, bad luck.
With this strong smell, he could be sure that the young man in the apartment hall was definitely a police officer.
Probably a police officer who had done very well at the academy, who had been the first and second best in his class, and who had a strong belief in the police.
...roughly just over the first month or two of frustration before entering the police force, and in the middle of a three- or four-month settling down period.
So he's both aggressive and calm.
Blonde Inuo was confused, "What's wrong?"
He's not a skilled criminal, and he doesn't pick up the distinctive scent of a police officer.
The one in the apartment hall wasn't wearing a police uniform, and most likely wasn't a police officer, but an FBI agent.
Ichijō Mirai felt more than a little pity for the guy with a poor sense of smell, "It's nothing, lead the way."
He nodded to Mr. FBI Agent without changing his expression, his eyes sweeping over the other man's backside.
Mr. FBI agent was also looking at Ichijō Mirai, his eyes narrowing slightly before he asked coldly as they passed, "Excuse me, are you two residents of the apartment?"
The question was asked by the blonde Inuo, but he was looking at Ichijō Mirai.
Being held hostage, the blonde Inuo was a bit impatient to talk to other people, and didn't really look at Mr. FBI agent seriously, let alone think about it, "Uh-huh-huh-huh!"
He nodded perfunctorily and hurriedly pressed the elevator, turning back with a curt smile, "I live on the third floor."
The elevator opens.
Ichijō Mirai steps in, nodding politely to Mr. FBI agent.
As the elevator doors slowly closed, he saw Mr. FBI Agent slowly nod his head and return with the same politeness.
"What's posted in the lobby?" Ichijō Mirai asked, "I saw a picture on it."
The blonde Inuo reacted, "The lobby?"
He responded, "Ooh, that picture there is of the head of the household."
"I think it's some of the better heads of household, the ones who are caring or dedicated to the apartment, or the ones who are really nice to talk to, and the apartment has a year-end contest to pick the caring heads of household or something, and puts it up."
"Like..." The blonde Inuo was a little unsure, "I think the family that died in our apartment was recognized as a loving head of household this year."
"I'm not sure. Why don't I ask?"
Blonde Inuo doesn't participate in such activities.
He has to work hard at work, and he has to fulfill his hobbies in his free time after work, so he doesn't have the time to participate in events.
Ichijō Mirai: "No."
The FBI is here, so don't ask.
There was a limit to the number of times he could show mercy to a fool who didn't know what he was doing.
Once in the lobby when he didn't recognize the FBI, and once in the elevator when he said he was going to ask for details.
Soon, the third time came: the room.
Blonde Inuo's room is a bit of a mess, with all kinds of worn and unworn clothes lying around on the couch and sofas, and even a pair of pants on the dining room table.
It would be fine if it was just personal clothes, but there are children's clothes amongst the randomly scattered clothes.
There's a palm-sized child's shoe dumped under the couch, and there are children's clothes in the piles of clothing that have been layered on the couch.
The room also smelled of alcohol and tobacco and acid that hadn't been opened for a long time.
"Well, I've been too busy working overtime to clean up the house lately," said the blonde Inuo, looking cautiously at Ichijō Mirai in fear that he would be killed for making the house too dirty, "I'll clean it up right now!"
Ichijō Mirai: "."
He pressed his brow and simply said, "No need."
In an hour or a day, Mr. FBI agent who'd noticed them would be here.
It was better not to pack, but to add a little help to Mr. FBI's promotion.
"Where's the bathroom, I'm going to take a shower," Ichijō Mirai said, "You should know the consequences of running away, search the case before I come out, I want to see it."
There were six serial murders.
Because the police didn't realize it was a serial murder case and didn't protect the information, the first four cases were already leaked.
The first one was three months ago, at night, on the side of the road.
The victim was a middle-aged man in his forties, fatally wounded in the head, shot from behind in the side of the forehead.
There was no CCTV on the road where the murder took place, so the police tried the CCTV of the neighboring roads, but the place was a busy downtown with a large flow of people, so as long as the murderer stayed there until the morning, he could blend in with the crowds and slip away, so no clues were found.
It was drizzling that day.
It wasn't until the next morning, when someone passing by on their way to work noticed gunshot wounds on the window of the car and a stiff person sitting in the driver's seat, that they called the police.
The second case, also three months ago, also occurred at night in a residential neighborhood.
The victim, a young woman in her twenties, was shot in the head with a gun while taking a bath.
There was very little splash on the floor, and police determined that she was killed without even realizing that someone had entered the room.
The police were called by the maintenance man and the apartment manager.
The police were called at noon the next day, and it is said that the victim had made an appointment with the maintenance man the day before to repair the bathroom floor drain, but when he arrived and knocked on the door, he was not answered for a long time, and when he left, he heard someone talking about a gunshot last night, and sensed that something was subtly wrong, and informed the apartment manager, and they opened the door and called the police together.
The third case was also on the side of the road late at night, but was not in the same area as the first case and was handled by two teams of police.
Sensing a huge serial killer, the officers were checking the two cases, realizing that the killer was probably one person, and then realizing that the killer had probably committed more than one case.
The fourth was in a changing room at the mall.
The victim was a young male, also shot in the head.
Unfortunately, the security camera had been damaged a few days earlier, and before the maintenance crew could fix it, the murder occurred.
Because this was the quickest call to the police at the mall, almost a minute or two after the shots were fired.
The fifth case was an apartment.
Again, late at night, and again, it took a couple days for anyone to realize it.
These cases...
Ichijō Mirai flipped through the files, raising an eyebrow, "Interesting."