Chapter 24: I Had a Dream


    I dream a lot these days.


    There is and of pitch-ck darkness where nothing can be seen.


    Its and of peace where enveloping warmth awaits me.


    Theres 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 thefortable warmth always remains.


    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 waspletely 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 rxing over coffee.


    [Good morning!]


    [Morning.]


    Greeting them, he brewed coffee from themercial coffee maker.


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


    As thepany is located in a remote area, theres no ce to get a cup of coffee nearby, and it takes an hours 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 thepanys premises, but because of the remote location, the vending machine vendor doesnte to change the machines every day, so theyre often out of stock.


    That being the case, thepany 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 employeese here after a shift change or early in the morning to spend their break time.


    [Now then, lets see whats in the news today.]


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


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


    Its 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 rtionship 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 atrge huh. This looks disturbing.]


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


    [Theyre apparently calling it Serial ck Companies Murder Case.]


    [The heck is with that.]


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


    [There have been a series of murders of executives and their families in the past few months, and all of them have one thing inmon: they are all from ckpanies. The police are investigating the cases as if these weremitted by employees with a grudge. Well, thats how the rumors go.]


    [Oi, oi, then Ill also have to be careful too.]


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


    Hiroki tried making a joke, but it seems like the employees didnt get it.


    [That Prefectural Police Commissioner, he was a bum, wasnt 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, its not hard to imagine the criticism against the police, who are unable to solve the cases, are getting stronger.


    [Not only the presidents of thepany, his wife and children as well That freaking murderer, hes not human.]


    [Even though his modus operandi is quite rough, why is that they still havent caught him, Manda-san?]


    [Its exactly because hes rough. They dont know his motives, the murder weapon, the tools he use or anything like that. Its as if whoevers attacking those families was just a random attacker.]


    The modus operandi of the perpetrator is so simple andmon that its almost mind-boggling.


    Thats why the police are investigating this as a series of crimes aremitted by the same person.


    First, the perpetrator sneaks into apanyte at night.


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


    Then, after robbing thepany of its money and valuables, he would break ito the presidents homete at night and murder his family.


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


    [Are you talking about that story from the weekly news? Well, allpanies dont have a good reputation. It is true that theyre on MHLWs list of ckpanies.]


    The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) publishes a monthly list ofpanies by prefecture that are in vition ofbor standards-rtedws and regtions in order to improve the popces working environment.


    The so-called ckpany list refers to this list of vitingpanies.


    [But Nagai, how manypanies do you think there are in the world? Including those with past vitions, there are hundreds of suchpanies in this prefecture alone. Its 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 didnt even see them.]


    [Most ces dont even have their security equipment running when theyre working.]


    With the exception of a few financial institutions and infrastructure-rtedpanies, mostpanies only turn on their rm systems at night when thest employee leaves the office.


    Also, mostpanies dont operate security cameras during the day, except for those in industries that require remote monitoring.


    [Moreover, none of the victimspanies had rm systems or surveince 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 surveince 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 culprits face. However, the murderers odd posture low, wearing a beanie, hunched over, and arms outstretched was well captured.