Aibou TV Season 7 Episode 3 - A Canary's Silence(沈黙のカナリア)

Subtitle: Aibou TV Season 7 Episode 3 - A Canary's Silence(沈黙のカナリア)

 Representative Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次)'s policy secretary Tadashize Nakamura(中村 忠是) is killed when a binary component bomb explodes inside the representative's office. How did the bomb get past the tight security in the congressional office building? Was Nakamura collateral damage in the bomber's attempt to kill Representative Gotō or was the secretary himself the target, and if so, why?

Characters appearing/mentioned in the story

Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次) - Member of the House of Representatives who took over his father's district after his father suddenly passed away, He was recently appointed the Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. As a result, he received many congratulatory gifts. However, he also received several threatening letters, though he did not know about them because Secretary Nakamura hid the letters from the Representative.  The bomb apparently was disguised as one of those gifts. Though he was hospitalized after the blast, he survived and left the hospital shortly afterwards.

When Secretary Matsuoka picked up the representative from this hospital, he asked Secretary Matsuoka to go back to the office and find compromising photographs that a blackmailer sent him earlier. Though both secretaries recommend that the representative come clean about this to the public, the Representative refuses and burns the incriminating photographs and also decides to pay of the blackmailers.

Shinichi Gotō(後藤 真一) - Representative Shinji's late father. He was the Minister of International Trade and Industry who is famous for protecting Japan's coal-mining industry. In order to change the public image that coal mines were dangerous, he had the coal mines install the latest safety features. In spite of this, five people died in a coal-mining accident.

Tadakore Nakamura(中村 忠是) - 66 year old policy secretary for Representative Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次) and for former Shinichi Gotō(後藤 真一) before that. He died when a binary component bomb exploded in the representative's office. He is actually the one who convinced Representative Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次) to hire Matsuoka as a secretary five years ago.

Kyōsuke Matsuoka(松岡 京介) - Representative Gotō's secretary for five years who was born in a coal-mining town in Hokkaido. Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次) was his senpai in the politics circle when both men attended the same university. When Shinji's father suddenly passed away, he asked Matsuoka if Matsuoka would be interested in becoming his secretary.

He has a habit of spending a lot of time carefully washing his hands.

Yūsaku Kotani(小谷 雄作) - Secretary Matsuoka's father who died in a coal mining accident years ago.

Takeo Kotani(小谷 妙子) - Secretary Matsuoka's mother who committed suicide when Matsuoka was still a child.

Kido(木戸) - Head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency at Keishichō. He is not happy that the Keishichō is taking its sweet time with the investigation and let's Superintendent Uchimura know.

Tadashi Taneda(種田 正) - Part time worker for City Plant(シティプラント) who delivered a pot of phalaenopsis (which contained both the black soil Takamoto added and the nutritional supplement Nakai added) to Representative Gotō's office. He entered the Second Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives at10:50 and left at 11:15.

He gave Nobuyoshi Takamoto(高本 信嘉) and Masato Nakai(中井 雅人) exact instructions for which flower pots to either refill with black dirt or with the nutritional supplement.

He had struggled through life, and as a result, he didn't have a permanent residence. Instead, he stayed at various net cafes. The Sōichi suspect that Taneda bombed Representative Gotō's office because he was jealous of the highly successful representative who was the same age as him. The day after the bombing, the Sōichi discover that Taneda left behind incriminating evidence at one of the net cafes he had stayed in.

Taneda apparently collected a large amount of information about Representative Gotō's office including pictures inside the building, building plans for the representative's office, and security plans for the building. The Sōichi also found a copy of the threatening letters that were sent to the representative. A memory stick was left along with those printouts which contained the original data used to create the fake temporary agency web site and a document containing statements indicating that he was upset with Representative Gotō.

Inspector Ukyō notices that one of the building plans he printed had blurred ink from water damage on one corner. This is odd, since Taneda would have printed these documents at a net cafe which all use commercial laser printers. The ink used on printouts from laser printers don't blur from water damage.

Nobuyoshi Takamoto(高本 信嘉) - Temporary worker for the plant maintenance company Green Shop(グリーンショップ). On the day the bomb went off, he entered the Second Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives at 10:05 and left at 11:00. During that time, he went around to the plants on the third and fourth floors and filled some of those pots with dark black soil. He applied for this job through a very-well-made but fake temporary agency web site.

Masato Nakai(中井 雅人) - Temporary worker for Tokyo Gardening(東京園芸 Tōkyō Engei). On the day the bomb went off, he entered the Second Members' Office Building of the House of Representatives at 10:30 and left at 11:05. During that time, he went around to the plants on the fourth and fifth floors and stuck a plastic vial supposedly filled with nutritional supplements into some of those plants' pots. He applied for this job through a very-well-made but fake temporary agency web site.

Ryōhei Inoue(井上 陵平) - He had been arrested for violating of the cannabis control law. He sold drugs to Shinji Gotō(後藤 新次) when Gotō was younger.