Masumi Sera arrived at one of the car rental shops in Hakone at seven in the morning to wait.
Although the shop's official website stated that it opened at 9 a.m., Masumi Sera believed the staff would definitely arrive earlier to prepare for the day's operations.
Sera's guess proved correct. She had only waited for about fifteen minutes before she saw someone unlocking the shop's rolling shutter.
She quickly approached and greeted the man, who appeared to be in his fifties:
"Good morning."
The man turned his head toward the sound and glanced at her.
"Sorry, we don't open until nine o'clock."
"I'm not here to rent a car. Are you Mr. Otsu?"
Through the shop's website, Masumi Sera had discovered that the manager's name was Otsu Teppei.
"What can I do for you?"
The man looked at Masumi Sera with confusion, not answering her question but instead asking one of his own.
Realizing she wasn't there to rent a vehicle, the man's expression grew wary.
Observing his reaction, Sera Masumi knew her assumption had been correct: this must be the shop owner, Otsu Teppei.
"My name is Masumi Sera. I'm a detective from Tokyo."
"A detective?"
The suspicion on Otsu Teppei's face did not fade. He clearly didn't believe her entirely.
"What brings a detective to see me?"
"Excuse me, but this motorcycle belongs to your shop, doesn't it?"
Masumi Sera pulled out her phone and showed Otsu Teppei the image of a motorcycle she had saved from the surveillance video provided by Miyamoto Yumi.
She noticed something.
After seeing the photo, Otsu Teppei's eyes widened for a brief moment.
His reaction made Masumi Sera feel far more assured.
This confirmed her suspicion. Now, she wouldn't need to waste time checking other rental shops.
"Please come inside with me."
This time, before Masumi Sera could say anything else, Otsu Teppei invited her into the shop.
Once inside, Otsu Teppei pulled the shutter back down, sealing them inside.
Sera got straight to the point:
"The driver of this motorcycle is a suspect in a murder case. The surveillance camera only captured the body of the motorcycle, but not the license plate.
However, the 'わ' character on the plate indicates that it's a rental bike, and I discovered that you, along with another shop four kilometers away, are the only ones offering motorcycle rentals in Hakone.
So I'd like to confirm whether this motorcycle came from your shop, Mr. Otsu."
Although Otsu Teppei was much older than Masumi Sera, he was, after all, just an ordinary person.
Upon hearing that a motorcycle from his shop might be involved in a murder, he turned pale with fear.
Otsu Teppei quickly said:
"That motorcycle does belong to my shop, but I had no idea about any murder case!
The customer rented the bike last August and then disappeared. We were never able to recover the motorcycle.
I even reported it to the police, but I never heard back from them."
"Excuse me, what day in August specifically?" Sera Masumi asked.
"Let me check."
Otsu Teppei walked behind the counter, put on a pair of glasses, and turned on the computer to search the records.
"It was August 23rd."
"That motorcycle is a Kawasaki Z900RS. I remember it's worth around three million yen, but you don't seem particularly concerned."
Sera Masumi eyed Otsu Teppei as she spoke.
"Well, we do charge a deposit, and all of our shop's bikes are insured. Even if one goes missing, the insurance company covers the cost," Otsu Teppei explained.
Sera Masumi nodded slightly, accepting his explanation.
"Then, could you give me the information of the customer who rented it at the time?"
Under normal circumstances, Otsu Teppei would have flatly refused such a request.
However, since this involved a murder case and the customer had effectively stolen the motorcycle, there was no reason for him to protect the individual's privacy.
"Of course."
Otsu Teppei handed Masumi Sera the original paperwork filled out when the motorcycle was rented.
Sera glanced at it quickly and saw that the renter's name was "Ryan Sakemi," with an address listed in Osaka Prefecture.
The purpose of renting the motorcycle was for traveling around Hakone.
"The information entered here must be fake, right?"
"Yes, that's what the police said. The name, address, and even the phone number are all false," Teppei Otsu replied.
"Did you scan the person's driver's license?" Sera Masumi asked.
A customer would be required to show a license when renting, and rental shops typically scan and keep copies.
"Yes, but the officer in charge of the investigation at the time said even the license was fake."
"That doesn't matter. I just need to know what the person looks like," Sera Masumi said.
She never expected to easily obtain the suspect's personal details.
After all, if this person truly was the one who murdered Ryoko Akikawa, they would have already decided to kill her before renting the bike. There was no way they'd leave real information behind.
The suspect's deliberate efforts to conceal their identity also confirmed that their purpose for renting the motorcycle was sinister.
Masumi Sera was now almost certain that the renter of this motorcycle was the one who killed Akikawa Ryoko.
Even if the information was fake, the photo on the fake license had to be real.
If the photo and the customer's appearance were completely different, Otsu Teppei never would have rented them the bike.
"That customer must have been a rather slender woman, right?"
"Yes, let me pull up the photo from the license she provided."
Otsu Teppei began operating the computer and, as he worked, he added:
"Now that I think about it, I remember the woman who rented the bike quite clearly.
Her makeup was very exaggerated.
And more importantly, she had a very noticeable tattoo on her face."
After clicking a few times, Otsu Teppei turned the monitor toward Masumi Sera.
Sera quickly looked at the screen.
She saw a woman with short, reddish-brown bobbed hair next to the fake name "Rian Sakemi."
As Otsu Teppei had described, the woman's makeup was thick, with dark violet lipstick.
The most striking detail was the swallowtail butterfly tattoo over her left eye.
(End of the Chapter)