Woman in the Dunes continued: Chapter 1 Pt. 2

Chapter  1 Continued:

The chapter continues regarding the disappearance and in the formal, slightly removed style of a police report of newspaper article, begins to speculate as to the nature of the disappearance and its possible motives:-

「殺人や事故であれば、はっきりとして証拠が残ってくれるし、誘拐のような場合でも、関係者には、一応その動機が明示されるものである。しかし、そのどちらにも属さないとなると、失踪は、ひどく手掛りのつかみにくいものになってしまうのだ」

In the case of a murder or accident, there is a clear remnant of evidence, with kidnappings there is usually an apparent motive concerning those involved. But with a disappearance, which falls into neither one nor the other of these categories, it’s nigh on impossible to grasp hold of any clues.