Novel Bin Chapter 24: I Had a Dream
Chapter 24: I Had a Dream
I dream a lot these days.
There is a land of pitch-black darkness where nothing can be seen.
Its a land 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 the comfortable 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 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.nove(l)bi(n.)com
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, theres no place 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 the companys premises, but because of the remote location, the vending machine vendor doesnt come to change the machines every day, so theyre 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, lets see whats 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,
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 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.
[Theyre 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, 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 the company, 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 and common that its almost mind-boggling.
Thats 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 presidents 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 presidents 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 dont have a good reputation. It is true that theyre on MHLWs 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 populaces 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. 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 places dont even have their security equipment running when theyre 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 dont 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 culprits face. However, the murderers odd posture low, wearing a beanie, hunched over, and arms outstretched was well captured.