I can’t forget the sound of the ring/intercom that a neighbor heard. Does anyone remember the timing?
I was thinking, mysterious Japanese people are humans like everyone else. And assuming that the killer is one of their own, which I think he is, what would some young person, not an addict, not a psychopath, not a SK, kill the whole family for?
For knowing his secret, or a family secret, maybe? An adult man would, for example, kill for the knowledge about his shameful relationship. An older teenager…maybe, because his big secret (girlfriend’s pregnancy, or falling in love with a much younger girl) got known?
So I remember the timing: the New Year, the time of nengajo.
All You Need To Know About Japan's 'Nengajo' New Year's Cards - Savvy Tokyo
Yes, usually they are supposed to arrive by January 1, but is it still possible that with the high card volume being sent in 2000, one arrived on the morning of December 30? Or could it be so that a student in Yasuko’s school accidentally left a written nengajo (meant for someone else) in their house? Or did a young mailman accidentally deliver something not meant for them? I read that young kids, of 15-16, get temp holiday work delivering postcards.
So this is a scenario in my head: the killer rings. The Miyazawas open the door. For whatever reason, they invite him in, maybe indeed he is a local, and he, as a polite guest, puts on the slippers. Hence, DNA on them. Then they start a discussion in the lobby/entrance area, and this is when people in the Irie’s house hear two voices, the woman’s one (Yasuko) and the male one (the guest.)
I think the argument is about possession, he wants his stuff back, and Yasuko says, no (will let the girlfriend’s mother know? Or was the card meant for Niina, a child, totally inappropriate?)
An argument leads to nothing, and the man leaves. Through the front door. No blood yet, there is only his DNA in the slippers at that moment. However, he is angry. Then, he waits in the darkness till everyone is asleep, walks from the back, gets into the bathroom window and the mayhem begins.
This scenario could explain why he knew the family (a local!) enough to plan but the planning was done rapidly. He clearly is “Japanese enough”; “comfort food” in his stomach somehow rules out a US army brat, sorry. He actually, doesn’t need to travel far. Maybe he does use a bike, but more likely, in the evening he comes on foot.
I mean, with good luck, he could get back home, wash himself and even ride a bike to deliver the cards. Or ask his brother to do it.
I remember the havoc related to that lost postcard from the Miyazawas’ house. Then, the police said that one of their policemen took it. I remember asking myself, how did the police know about that card in general? It could have been An or Haruko who walked into the house in the morning and saw the card lying on the table. Later, they noticed its absence from the house. And maybe, it is still absent but is one of the secrets the police doesn’t want to disclose.
So, could the young man be a BF of Yasuko’s female cram school student? Maybe waiting for her in the park, maybe skateboarding, even, but not a part of that “main group”? He probably was local enough to not stand out and he was less smart and more impulsive in general.
Or maybe, he, indeed, moonlighted as a mailman but “sent own” nengajo to Niina and it was figured out by Yasuko? I wonder if it was someone very local, very casually known in the neighborhood but never paid attention to?
Why wasn’t he found? Maybe killed himself soon enough, or was sent by parents to grandparents (another island) and eventually, did the same later?
To me, he doesn’t come across as a psychopath but maybe, he is a tad delayed and shooting from the hip?
Yasuko’s purse being searched gave me this idea. Also, I would like to know if a box of matches disappeared from the Miyazawas’ house? I think he found his “item” and burned it, maybe next to the pond.
