Japanese

Sawamura Keiji (Sorimachi Takashi) of Kanagawa Prefectural Police’s First Investigative Division, who is confined to office work while he is under treatment for insomnia, is hurriedly summoned by Taniguchi Goro (Hashizume Isao) the head of the First Investigative Division. A third case in a series of bizarre murders which have stoked public fears has occurred at a park in a residential district, and he is roped in to assist. It is believed from the deep line cut into the neck of the dead body that the victim had been strangled by a piano wire. But what is common among the three cases is the strange mark of a protruding tongue carved on the handle of the knife thrust into the neck after death. Although the modus operandi varies, the same criminal is suspected of the crimes. At the same time, Sawamura and Taniguchi are reminded of a serial murder 10 years earlier. It is also ascertained at the investigation meeting that the murders resemble unsolved cases from 10 years ago which share the same change in the modus operandi. The diverging element is that the murder victims back then were four young females, but this time the three are males. Director Nishiura Takashi (Aijima Kazuyuki) points to the possibility of a copycat criminal, but the knife and its carving were neither made public back then nor in the present. Taniguchi instructs the investigators to proceed with the investigation on the assumption that this is the deed of the same criminal. Sawamura is partnered with Nagasawa Hatsumi (Higa Manami), a detective from Rinkai Police Precinct whom he met through another case. Hatsumi is left stunned by Sawamura who refuses to introduce himself. When Sawamura tries to get information out of Ayumi (Takase Akiko), the ex-wife of the murdered man, Nishiura and Section Chief Kikumura Isao (Iida Kisuke) cut him off and repeatedly question her as if she were a suspect. Sawamura calls Nishiura out and tells him not to interfere. In response, Nishiura grabs him by the lapels and retorts that this is not the attitude to show to a superior, but Sawamura pays no heed and slams him into the wall. Thankfully Taniguchi intervenes in time. Taniguchi warns Sawamura to learn the normal way of working or he would end up like Onizuka Shuhei (Kataoka Tsurutaro). Onizuka who lives in the same apartment building as Sawamura, had once been a respected senior detective and Sawamura’s partner. However, he quit the police force because of some incident. That night, Sawamura visits Onizuka’s apartment to seek advice on the case, but is rejected because he has lost his touch as a detective. --Jdramas--