Tokyo: Are you even a proper lawyer?

Rio Arimura continued her undercover investigation into the various rumors surrounding the sanatorium.

Masashi Akiyama decided to stay at the agency to sort out the various information he had gathered during this period.

Just then, he received a call from an unknown number.

"Feed?"

"Is this... Attorney Akiyama?"

A middle-aged woman's tense, low voice came from the other end of the phone.

"I...I'm from the pharmacy department at Shiodome Sanatorium. My surname is Nakamura. I...I have something I want to give you. About...about the medicine that went missing that night, and...Dr. Kobayashi."

"Ms. Nakamura, where are you? Are you safe?"

"I'm off work now, on the subway home. I can't go near the hospital, and I can't go to your office... They might be watching me."

The woman's voice was filled with fear, "Tomorrow at three o'clock in the afternoon, on the bench near the swan boat rental point by Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park. I'll be wearing a beige down jacket and a red scarf. I... I'll only wait for you for fifteen minutes."

"Okay, I'll be there on time. Please be careful."

One witness after another came to our door.

Akiyama Masashi's strange feeling grew stronger.

Ueno Park, Shinobazu Pond.

A middle-aged woman wearing a beige down jacket and a red scarf was sitting on the agreed-upon bench, her hands nervously clutching a simple canvas bag.

When she saw Masashi Akiyama approaching alone, her body stiffened noticeably, and she even subconsciously looked around.

"Ms. Nakamura?" Masashi Akiyama sat down one seat away from her.

"Yes, it's me," the woman replied softly, glancing at him quickly before lowering her head again. "You...you're Attorney Akiyama?"

"That's right. Thank you for contacting me."

Ms. Nakamura took a few deep breaths, then took out a palm-sized black notebook wrapped in a plastic bag from her canvas bag and handed it to Masashi Akiyama.

"This...this is the backup logbook in the pharmacy. It's not the one in the electronic system. It's the one we pharmacists use to record the actual consumption of medicines and any abnormalities. Dr. Kobayashi...he often asks us to prescribe more controlled drugs, saying it's for special patients, but those patients' medical records and medication records don't match. Some of the drugs...are used in very large quantities, and their whereabouts are unknown."

"That night... the night before Nurse Nagai's accident, Dr. Kobayashi suddenly came to the pharmacy, looking very agitated. Under the pretext of urgently needing more medicine, he took several kinds of strong sedatives and anesthetics, in dosages far exceeding the norm. He signed the papers, but I kept a close eye on it and wrote down the actual types and approximate quantities he took in my notebook... which overlapped with the drugs that the police later found in the bodies of those dead people."

Masashi Akiyama carefully took the notebook without opening it immediately.

"Why are you only taking it out now? During the police investigation earlier..."

"I'm scared!"

Ms. Nakamura's voice trembled with tears, "Dr. Kobayashi... he's in cahoots with the vice president! There was a caregiver who knew a little about things before, and she was inexplicably fired. Later I heard she broke her leg at home... I'm scared! But... but seeing that kid Nagai, she just arrived, she doesn't know anything, and she's being treated like a murderer... I... my conscience won't allow it. And..."

She bit her lip. "My daughter is taking the medical school entrance exam next year, and I don't want her to know that the hospital where her mother works is like this..."

"Besides this notebook, do you have any other evidence? Or do you know who else, besides Dr. Kobayashi, had contact with those drugs that night?" Masashi Akiyama asked.

Ms. Nakamura hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

"I don't know the specifics... but I heard that Chief Sato of the Security Department went to the dispensary that night, supposedly for an inspection. But the surveillance... you know, it might be broken."

"Are you willing to testify in court regarding Dr. Kobayashi's unusual medication collection, and your views on hospital management?" Masashi Akiyama asked, looking at her.

Ms. Nakamura's face paled, and her body trembled, but in the end, she nodded forcefully.

"I...I'm willing! But I need protection, for me and my family..."

"We will do our best."

Masashi Akiyama took down Ms. Nakamura's contact information and advised her to keep a low profile and be careful in the near future.

After leaving the park, Masashi Akiyama immediately met up with Maki Suzuki and Rio Arimura.

After verification, Ms. Nakamura's identity was confirmed; she is indeed a senior pharmacist at Shiodome Sanatorium.

She has a clean background, and her daughter is preparing for medical school entrance exams.

As for the notebook she provided, preliminary examination revealed it to be a genuine old-style paper work diary, and the handwriting and recording habits on it matched other handwriting samples of her own.

More importantly, the time, name, and approximate quantity of Kobayashi Kosuke's unusual drug collection that she recorded were highly correlated with some of the drug components detected in the bodies of the three deceased, and the time was just before the incident.

This is undoubtedly strong evidence for Miyuki Nagai, directly pointing the finger of suspicion at Kosuke Kobayashi.

"Great! Attorney Akiyama! This will prove that Miss Nagai was framed! Dr. Kobayashi stole the medicine, killed someone, and tried to frame her!" Rio Arimura said excitedly.

Maki Suzuki nodded in agreement. "This evidence is crucial. If it can be combined with other clues to prove Kosuke Kobayashi's motive, such as silencing him or covering up his secrets with the hospital, the success rate of the defense will greatly increase."

However, the strange feeling in Akiyama Masashi's heart grew stronger and stronger.

Everything seems to be progressing...too smoothly.

The appearance of Ms. Nakamura and the direction of the evidence perfectly matched their previous reasoning.

But the more perfect it was, the more uneasy Masashi Akiyama felt.

Why would Kosuke Kobayashi be so careless as to leave such obvious paper evidence?

Ms. Nakamura's fear was real, but her awakening of conscience and determination to appear in court, given such immense fear, seemed somewhat... too coincidental?

However, the court date has been set, and the die is cast.

He must integrate the existing evidence to defend Miyuki Nagai's innocence.

Before the court hearing, Masashi Akiyama met with Miyuki Nagai again.

This time, when Dr. Kobayashi and the issue of medication were brought up, Miyuki Nagai reacted even more strongly.

She held her head in her hands, repeating words like, "I don't know... Don't ask me... Junko-neechan... Medicine..."

Because Miyuki Nagai's condition is extremely unstable.

Masashi Akiyama had no choice but to give up trying to get more information from her.

Tokyo District Court, Criminal Division.

The gallery was packed with people, including Miyuki Nagai's haggard parents and many media reporters.

The prosecution first stated that Miyuki Nagai felt guilty about the attack on her senior, Junko Imai, which led to extreme hatred towards the patients who had assaulted her. She then used her position to steal controlled drugs and poison three patients. The prosecution reiterated that Miyuki Nagai was guilty of intentional homicide, and that the circumstances were extremely serious.