CH 24

I dream a lot these days.

There is a land of pitch-black darkness where nothing can be seen.

It’s a land of peace where enveloping warmth awaits me.

There’s something deep in the darkness.

Something beckons me…… Deeper and deeper……

I have a strong feeling that something warmer and more peaceful awaits deep within.

Head deeper……

Head deeper……

Even deeper……

Even deeper……

Just as I am about to proceed forward, I wake up.

When I wake up, that feeling of being wrapped in the comfortable warmth always remains.

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Thanks to this, I wake up every day feeling good and in good physical condition.

Last night, however, I had a somewhat noisy dream.

Something was crawling on the floor……

Something was flying around……

Something was creeping about……

Even now, I feel restless and uneasy.

[What kind of dream was that……]

Even when I thought of it though, just like most dreams, the dream that was so clear and impressive when I was asleep was completely forgotten when I woke up, and only a vague impression of that dream remained.

[Oh well.]

Washing my face, I changed my clothes and headed for the bar that had been renovated in my home.

★　★　★　★　★

When Hiroki arrived, even though it was still early in the morning, he found several employees relaxing over coffee.

[Good morning!]

[Morning.]

Greeting them, he brewed coffee from the commercial coffee maker.

The renovated bar has a draft beer server, as well as a commercial coffee maker.

As the company is located in a remote area, there’s no place to get a cup of coffee nearby, and it takes an hour’s drive to go to somebucks or other trendy cafes, so he installed a coffee maker when he renovated the bar.

There are several vending machines on the company’s premises, but because of the remote location, the vending machine vendor doesn’t come to change the machines every day, so they’re often out of stock.

That being the case, the company has opened these machines to the employees as a small employee benefit so that they can at least drink coffee as they want.

Employees and visitors can drink them for free, so many employees come here after a shift change or early in the morning to spend their break time.

[Now then, let’s see what’s in the news today.]

Spreading out the newspaper which is also acquired by the company, Hiroki checked the news.

Even now, newspapers are convenient for reading through news from multiple newspaper companies,

It’s good to keep a connection with not only the national newspaper, but also local newspapers, in the form of socializing with them.

Since Hiroki runs a business that is easily criticized, waste disposal, I need to build a good relationship with the local media.

Well, this is mostly what the sociable Ishida told me.

[The murder of a family of business owners. The murderer is still at large huh. This looks disturbing.]

The front page of the local newspaper reported the gruesome murder of Tanabe Masaru, 54, a local transportation company owner, along with his wife and three children, by a criminal who broke into their home last night.

[They’re apparently calling it “Serial Black Companies Murder Case”.]

[The heck is with that.]

One of the employees, who was having coffee, informed Hiroki, talking about a rumor on the internet.

[There have been a series of murders of executives and their families in the past few months, and all of them have one thing in common: they are all from black companies. The police are investigating the cases as if these were committed by employees with a grudge. Well, that’s how the rumors go.]

[Oi, oi, then I’ll also have to be careful too.]

[No one would attack the President. I mean, you’ll probably turn the tables at them.]

Hiroki tried making a joke, but it seems like the employees didn’t get it.

★　★　★　★　★

[That Prefectural Police Commissioner, he was a bum, wasn’t he?]

[Yes. Well, it was a murder case within their jurisdiction while they were on high alert. The pressure from the top must be intense.]

Detective Manda made fun of Detective Nagai, who was driving the car, for yelling at the government employee to the point of breaking his voice in the morning investigative meeting.

[Well, I can understand why you wanna yell at the higher-ups.]

There were four cases in this prefecture alone. With seven consecutive murders in a row, including those in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures, it’s not hard to imagine the criticism against the police, who are unable to solve the cases, are getting stronger.

[Not only the presidents of the company, his wife and children as well…… That freaking murderer, he’s not human.]

[Even though his modus operandi is quite rough, why is that they still haven’t caught him, Manda-san?]

[It’s exactly because he’s rough. They don’t know his motives, the murder weapon, the tools he use or anything like that. It’s as if whoever’s attacking those families was just a random attacker.]

The modus operandi of the perpetrator is so simple and common that it’s almost mind-boggling.

That’s why the police are investigating this as a series of crimes are committed by the same person.

First, the perpetrator sneaks into a company late at night.

Then, he would threaten a small number of employees working overtime to get information about the president’s home, and he would then either knock them out, tie them up, shove them into lockers or the like.

Then, after robbing the company of its money and valuables, he would break ito the president’s home late at night and murder his family.

[Manda-san, is it true that the murderer only targets black companies?]

[Are you talking about that story from the weekly news? Well, all companies don’t have a good reputation. It is true that they’re on MHLW’s list of black companies.]

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) publishes a monthly list of companies by prefecture that are in violation of labor standards-related laws and regulations in order to improve the populace’s working environment.

The so-called “black company list” refers to this list of violating companies.

[But Nagai, how many companies do you think there are in the world? Including those with past violations, there are hundreds of such companies in this prefecture alone. It’s impossible to be on the lookout for all of them.]

[Moreover, that criminal is frighteningly agile and strong. He broke into an office on the 7th floor of a 20-story building through a window, stole the money in the safe and smashed through the iron grill fence. He moved so fast that the security cameras didn’t even see them.]

[Most places don’t even have their security equipment running when they’re working.]

With the exception of a few financial institutions and infrastructure-related companies, most companies only turn on their alarm systems at night when the last employee leaves the office.

Also, most companies don’t operate security cameras during the day, except for those in industries that require remote monitoring.

[Moreover, none of the victims’ companies had alarm systems or surveillance cameras to save money. Manda-san, do you think this could be a coincidence?]

[I wonder…… Company presidents are often quite stingy.]

Manda stared at the blurry photograph distributed at the investigative meeting, which was described as “the image of a man who looked like the culprit moving around”.

The photo, which was taken by a surveillance camera from a distance, was out of focus, and probably because he was moving at a high speed, the image was too blurry to be useful in identifying the culprit’s face. However, the murderer’s odd posture——— low, wearing a beanie, hunched over, and arms outstretched——— was well captured.