Aibou TV Season 5 Episode 8 - The Red Ribbon and the Detective(赤いリボンと刑事)

Subtitle: The Red Ribbon and the Detective(赤いリボンと刑事)

 A man claiming to be the suspect in an unsolved murder case calls the radio station around 8 AM on 11/6 and declares on-air that he's standing at the site of the murder, reliving the incident. The Tokumegakari pair are on the way back after their stakeout fails to pan out (the drug dealer was apprehended at another location, his girlfriend's house) when they hear the broadcast and race to the site of the murder. By the time they get there, no one is there, but a red ribbon has been tied to the railing near by. A red ribbon was found at the scene of the crime, information that was never released to the public. Will the Tokumeigakari be able to track down the killer before the statute of expiration for Tomoyo's murder expires on the 27th of the month?

Locations

Tachibanachō(橘町) - The city where the murder took place 15 years ago.

Rafune Tachibanachō(ラフネ橘町) - The name of the apartment complex where Tomoyo was murdered.

Trivia

Amazing Grace was playing on the radio station before Mr. Yamada made a call to the station to make a request.

Characters appearing/mentioned in the story

Yamada(山田) - The fake name used by the man who calls the classical music station to make a request. He asks the DJ to play Ave Maria by Bach, a song that supposedly brings him memories. 15 years ago he attacked a young woman he didn't know in the hallway of an apartment and chased her to the rooftop where she tripped and fell down. He caught up with her there, and he the proceeded to strangle her to death, while Ave Maria was sounding through his head. He says that he wants to hear the song so that he can relive the excitement he felt during the murder. When the announcer asks him to stop joking, he says it was a joke and ends the call. The police find a red ribbon tied to a bar of the building's railing when they get there.

Security camera footage from the building:

7:55 - A suspicious looking man enters the apartment carrying a portable radio, wearing a hat, coat, and a red muffler, just like the suspect from 15 years ago.

8:21 - The man appears again, passing by as he exits the building.

Yoshikazu Takaoka(高岡 義一) - The detective who led the three hundred policemen investigating the Tachibana City incident(橘町事件). He thought that the killer had a grudge against Tomoyo because she wasn't sexually assaulted and nothing was taken from her. As the investigation progressed, more and more evidence accumulated suggesting that a stranger probably committed the crime, but the detective decided to continue looking at people who had a grudge against her, his pride getting in the way of making a sound judgement.

As as a result of this case, he neglected his family and lost their trust. His wife died while he was investigating the Tachibana City incident, and his daughter hasn't spoken to him for ten years.

After he lost consciousness during an investigation five days ago, he was hospitalized at the Josai Combined Hospital(城西総合病院Jōsai sōgō byōin). While there, he called The Investigator Trio (トリオ・ザ・捜一 - Trio the Sōichi) to his bedside and asked them to relay his condition to his daughter and Tomoyo's family. When he hears Yamada's confessions on the radio, he immediately calls the Keishichō. A few days later, he takes the last ounce of his strength and somehow struggles out from the hospital to the crime scene. There,he finds a vital clue - some of the residents of the apartment had seen a man get into a taxi shortly after the call was made to the radio station. Inspector Ukyō is also interested in finding out who had taken the taxi to the apartment, and realizes that a man wearing a coat (who just took the taxi to the apartment) entered the apartment elevator just before the man who made the call (who took the stairs or another elevator down) left the apartment and rode that taxi away.

Chihiro Takaoka(高岡 ちひろ) - Yoshikuazu's daughter who works at a boutique. She hasn't seen her father in ten years and says that she doesn't have plans to see him again. Her mother died 14 years ago. Fourteen years ago, her father was on a stakeout observing a potential suspect for the Tachibana City incident and wasn't there when his wife died. Later, it was discovered that the potential suspect had nothing to do with the case. Since her mother died waiting for her father to come, Chihiro plans to do the same now that her father is also dying. Respecting Detective Takaoka's wishes, Sergeant Itami visited and told Chihiro that her father had been hospitalized.

Kikuo Ishiguro(石黒 喜久雄) - The president of Ishiguro Gifts who is around 60 years of age. He took a cab to the apartment where Yamda made the call and arrived shortly afterwards. The company has a famous commercial with the phrase "Connect the hearts with a red ribbon.(赤いリボンで心を繋ぐ akai ribon de kokoro o tsunagu)." His wife had passed away, and his son transferred to and is now studying at an American university according to one neighbor.

Shinya Ishiguro(石黒 信也) - Kikuo's son (175 cm in height). His mother committed suicide when he was a junior high school student, and since then he became a darker person. Fifteen years ago, he was a fourth year Economics Student at Jonan University(城南大学 Jōnan daigaku). However, he transferred to an American university to study business administration in the middle of the semester shortly after Tomoyo was murdered, leaving behind an unfinished thesis paper. He died in 1992 in Seattle in a one-man accident while riding a motorcycle.

Tomoyo Nagasawa(長沢 智世) - She was a second year literature major at Jonan University(城南大学 Jōnan daigaku). Fifteen years ago on November 27, 1991, she was strangled with a red ribbon on the roof of the building where she lived, She was 20 years old at the time. There were no witnesses and the fingerprints on the murder weapon didn't match anything in the database. The police couldn't find any reason someone would want to kill her.

At the beginning of the episode, the statute of limitations for her murder case was fast approaching,

Tomoyo Nagasawa's mother - She explains to the Tokumeigakari pair what a good man Detective Takaoka is. He had sent a letter to the family almost every month, all postmarked on the 27th of the month, the day Tomoyo was murdered. He also made numerous visits to her grave. She was surprised to hear that the detective was hospitalized.

Kōsuke Nishi(西 孝介) - Tomoyo's finacee at the time of her murder. He was first treated as a suspect but the police confirmed his alibi and he was soon cleared from suspicion. He heard that Detective Takaoka was hospitalized from Tomoyo's mother.

Jun-chan(じゅんちゃん) - The name of Kikuo Ishiguro(石黒 喜久雄)'s neighbor's dog.