Chapter Text
The night that the little lady had gone missing was dark as just-brewed coffee, and as cold as a winter's breath. She'd presided like a queen over her house, dead center in Fuuto's upscale neighborhood surrounded by loyal subjects. Surrounded by luxury. She wasn't the kind of gal who would entertain thoughts of leaving, but the intact doors— especially that side gate, gaping like an open mouth— spoke more eloquently than words. Why? Why would she, who had everything to live for, run away, gone like a sigh on the breeze?
Now I, Hidari Shoutaro, hard-boiled detective and protector of this windy city, have been tasked with—
WHAP.
"Ow! What the hell was that for, Akiko?"
Narumi Akiko, my landlord and boss, points her slipper at me threateningly. "Stop daydreaming on the job, Shoutaro! We need to take more cases to pay for utilities this month, and Yuki-chan's owners are rich as hell so you better find her safe and sound, 'kay?"
I roll my eyes. "I know, I know. Jeez, I've been working in this business for much longer than you, you know, I like to think I'm at least pretty good at it—"
"If you're so good then hurry it up," she interrupts, because she's terrible and feels no fear and also owns the deed to the office. "It's been two whole days and we haven't seen her at all. Hey, are you sure that she just ran away?"
"Of course I am!" More importantly, Philip's sure, and I trusts my partner's judgement. "I'll have you know I've returned a hundred— no, three hundred at least!— pets back to their owners without a hair out of place. I spent a week tracking down a turtle on the riverside once!"
"Mhm." Akiko looks at me, unimpressed. "Is that what you're gonna tell the client too? We did promise to update them, you know."
"Well— I mean, that's—" I sputter. Ah, shoot. I'd forgotten all about that. "I'll come up with something."
"…Sure. C'mon, we should probably head to their house before the sun sets." Akiko pats my arm before jogging off in the direction I'd parked my shitty old sedan.
Hey, wait a minute. "Why are you even running ahead of me? I have the keys to the car!"
The house of our client looms in front of me like a beast of the night, and I'm not at all nervous. My nerves are all made of steel and I have a very good explanation for the lack of progress, which I will deliver in a extremely smooth manner to the terrifyingly dignified patriarch.
I just, uh, need another minute or five to compose myself, that's all.
"Okay, listen. Let's go over this one more time." I lean against the fence.
Akiko checks her phone and drags her hands down her face. "Shoutaro we've been here for twenty minutes, oh my god."
I clear my throat and continue regardless. "Good evening, Yoshizawa-san, we're here for the regular report you asked for, I know we, uh, estimated that it would take a day to find your beloved Yuki-chan but really she's proving to be—"
"Hey." Akiko's head is tilted to the side. "Hey, Shoutaro, do you hear that?"
Oh god why are my palms so sweaty— what?
"Police sirens? But why in this neighborhood? Almost no crime happens here."
"…Hey. Hey, Shoutaro. The sound's getting closer, isn't it? It's not just me right?" Akiko grabs my arm. "Hey, Shoutaro, that's a lot of patrol cars down the road, isn't it?"
"They're probably not headed towards us," I say, weakly. "Even if they are, what are the odds they're going to stop at this house?"
"They're slowing down."
"Are not!"
"They're definitely slowing down."
"Okay, maybe they are."
The car in the front pulls over, right behind where I'd parked. The others all keep going to the house next door.
The window of the stopped car slowly rolls down. I gulp.
"Oh no, it's you two. What the hell are you doing here?" Terui Ryu sticks his face out of the window and I breathe a sigh of relief. I know Terui, and if he's here then I'm probably not in any trouble. He might even let me in on the actual situation to boot. If he feels like it. We've got something of a long relationship, Terui and I.
…Okay, fine, it's only been like four months max since Terui transferred over to Fuuto PD, but they've been an eventful four months! Full of murder! Car chases! Dramatic fistfights! Trust me, you don't want to know how much of a leather-clad vigilante little prick he was in the beginning! Either way, I trust Terui, and he knows that he's trusted in return. Right now, though—
"I asked you a question." Terui says, tersely.
"We have every right to be here!" I hold up a slightly crumpled poster. "We're looking for Yuki-chan. Got the job two days ago from Yoshizawa Kyusaku."
Terui blinks. "A pet cat? I suppose that’s about what I expected from the likes of you. Anyways, just go home already. We can't have you poking around the area and contaminating the scene."
I bristle. "What?"
"There's a dead man next door."
"Dead???" Akiko and I yell. Terui gets out of the car and slaps a hand over each of our mouths. "Stop yelling! Do you want to tell the whole neighborhood why we’re here?"
I bat his hand away. "What do you mean he's dead??"
"I literally just got here, I don’t know either. One of his relatives called it in. You," he points accusingly at me. "Don't try to get involved. I know you, you're going to investigate and get into some deep shit and end up getting chased by some maniac with a gun, so I'm just going to cut that off at the pass. No."
Akiko puts her hands on her hips. "If you know it's going to happen then you might as well just let us in so you can keep an eye on us, right?"
I nod in agreement. "Yeah! We're good detectives, you know." And anyways, if I have some gossip tomorrow about what exactly happened next door then maybe my client will be too distracted to lecture me for not finding his beloved cat! Or something.
It's a three-way staredown, and maybe in the end the only reason Akiko and I win it is because we've got more eyes on our side. Terui looks away.
"God, fine. I don't have time for this. Just do what you want, then." He says as he begins walking towards the house, without making any move to block our path. It's as good as giving in, from someone as emotionally constipated as him. Akiko and I share a triumphant smile as we follow him into the Osugi estate.
There's police all over the house, but all the occupants are gathered in the living room. My first thought is that… there's a lot of them. Five family members all in total, and the same number in staff. It's easy enough to tell them apart, though. The household staff are all dressed much more plainly than the rich folk, and they're all staring determinedly at their feet, while Osugi-san's family have eyes that dart every which way.
There's a tense and heavy air in here. I don't like it.
"Sorry about the intrusion," Terui says kindly. Akiko and I whip our heads around to stare at him in shock, but he valiantly ignores us. "We at the Fuuto Police Department will definitely do our best to find the culprit behind this murder, so we ask that you cooperate to the best of your ability. First, I'd like to know some things about the circumstances of this household, so let's start with your names and relation to victim."
"Osugi Mamoru. I'm his eldest son."
"Osugi Sonoko. I'm Mamoru's wife."
"Osugi Ryuusuke. Uh, second oldest son, I guess."
"Matsuoka Naomi, though I'm divorced now. I'm the youngest daughter."
"Osugi Tetsuji. I'm the youngest."
They give their introductions, rapid-fire. I blink and mutter to Akiko out of the side of my mouth. "… Hey, Akiko. You're writing this down, right?"
She hisses back, "What?? I thought you were doing that?"
Ah, shit. I turn to argue with her more but just as I do so, one of the household staff speaks up. "…Osugi Arisa."
Osugi? Wait, what? Terui and Akiko and I all turn to look at her. No matter how we look at it, she doesn't look like part of the family. Actually, now that I take a closer look, aren’t her clothes covered in lightly colored stains?
"I did it." Arisa-san says. "I killed him. I killed my father in law."
What? Wait, what?
The room dissolves into muted chaos. The household staff obviously hadn't heard about this at all, and start whispering to each other and backing away. Some of the younger policemen are doing the same— terrible etiquette, really. Terui's gonna yell at them when they get back to the station, I bet. Speaking of Terui—
"Everybody shut up!" He yells. He turns to Arisa-san. "Ma'am— I'm sure that you're in shock right now, but—"
"I killed him," she repeats, louder. "It's because he only ever made me take care of him but I could never do it like he wanted. Always with the yelling… tonight he just took one bite of the food and wine I'd so carefully prepared at me and dumped it on the floor and I— I just I couldn't take it anymore. I strangled him with that stupid tie of his."
Her fists are clenched into her apron, still covered in food stains. Her eyes, though scared, are clear and dry.
"Interesting," Philip says, a spark of curiosity in his voice. "She confessed just like that?"
As detectives, Akiko and I didn't really have anything to do after the murderer straight up just confessed. We'd been shoved aside pretty quick, and we just ended up just going home to the Narumi Detective Agency.
Philip, my partner, hadn't accompanied us out this morning on our pet hunt. Pretty typical, honestly. He usually only goes out if he's really interested in something, but when that happens there's not much that can stand in his way. Bet he kinda regrets not coming with now, huh. Hell, I kinda regret that now. Even though he's an amnesiac wisp of a probably-teenager he's also one of the smartest people I know. Maybe he would have seen something I'd missed.
"What'd you mean by that, Shoutaro?" Akiko asks. Shit, I gotta break this habit of speaking out loud to myself. I cough.
"Well, y'know… something just felt off about the whole thing. I can't put my finger on why, though."
Akiko nods thoughtfully. "Yeah, I know how you feel. Did you see how the family was acting? I bet the dad wasn't the only person who was mistreating Arisa-san."
"That's… true." I frown. "But it's not what I'm thinking of. I don't think she did it at all."
"You should have taken some pictures for me," Philip says. "Actually, I'd have liked to see the murder weapon, too. I'll come with you next time you get a pet finding case."
"I'd really rather our next lost pet case not end up—"
Akiko stands up, eyes wide. "WAIT. SHOUTARO, WE FORGOT ABOUT YUKI-CHAN."
" Yuki-ch— AAA, WE'RE STILL SUPPOSED TO LOOK FOR THE CAT!"
"C'mon let's go let's go! Where's my other boot?"
"I'm going too. You can at least show me the house where the murder took place."
"That's not— hold on, you two, at least let me put my coat on—"
The next day, I'd almost forgotten the entire thing. We'd finally found that damned cat, and I was completely preoccupied typing up a report for a job well done when Terui walked in. "Are you guys busy?"
I want to say yes, but we honestly both know the truth here. "No."
He used to hang around in his free time to scoff at us and make better coffee than me, but I like to think that our relationship has gotten a bit better than that. Nowadays, if Terui walks into the office in the middle of the day— "You've got a job for us, right?"
"Maybe," he says. "You remember the Osugi case?"
Philip perks up immediately. "The murder of former manufacturing conglomerate CEO Osugi Ainosuke by his slighted daughter-in-law Osugi Arisa nee Namekawa that Shoutaro didn't bring me too."
Okay, that's hardly my fault though!
"Yeah," Terui says, a little uncomfortably. "About that."
I frown. "She confessed to the crime, didn't she? It should be a cut and dry case."
"She did. And it should be as simple as that, because we're overworked as it is, but a mutual friend of ours brought some things to my attention."
I blink. A mutual friend? Our information networks are completely different. Wait, he couldn't mean Kirihiko, could he?
Terui makes eye contact with me. "He told me that Osugi was a former major shareholder for Digal Corporation, and that he had a quiet personal falling out with them this past year. The Sonozaki family may have deliberately kept it out of the news too, because I sure don't remember hearing about this."
Oh, you've got to be kidding.
I take a sharp breath. "You don't think… the Sonozakis…?"
"Threatened the girl into taking the fall for the real murderer? Unlikely, but the possibility is there." he says grimly.
Philip frowns. "This isn't their style. Excessively sloppy for an execution."
"But there is definitely something suspicious about this whole thing," I say. I think back to Arisa's reveal and something snaps into place. "The Osugi family members weren’t shocked at all when she said that she'd killed him, compared to the staff. Like they all already knew she was going to confess. Call it a detective's intuition, but I think that Arisa didn't kill her father-in-law. One of the Osugis did."
"See, this is why I want you guys to investigate." Terui says. " There's too many damn questions in the air, and if there's the slightest chance that the fucking Sonozakis are involved…" He looks over at me. We both know that this isn't a question of chance anymore. Not with the Sonozakis.
Our discussion right now would come as such a surprise to almost any regular citizen of Fuuto. To your regular joe on the street, the Sonozaki patriarch and his two daughters are the darlings of the city. Not many people know that they also completely dominate this city's underworld. They've screwed with quite a few people I care about. Akiko's father— and my mentor— Narumi Sokichi was killed in an investigation into their affairs. I picked up Philip during that ill-fated trip too, and the odds are good he's got some kind of connection to them as well. Terui's family had died to one of their hired guns. And just a few months or so ago, Kirihiko…
Even though he'd married the elder daughter, Sonozaki Saeko, he hadn't known anything about their real plans. Just a pawn, to them. And then he'd helped me solve a case that threw a huge wrench in their plans. They wouldn't have let him get away with that. "Please take care of this city," he'd said, and I'd almost let him go. And if I had, then— It's not worth thinking about.
The good thing is that Kirihiko's still alive. It was close, though. I don't think we could have pulled off the desperate, foolhardy plan I'd cobbled together if Terui hadn't helped, and Terui almost didn't help. This was back when he’d just come to Fuuto, you know. You can't possibly understand through words alone how much he despised (and still despises) the Sonozakis. If Kirihiko hadn't been able to convince him he was more use alive than dead…
Well, he's alive, now. The only one of us who knows exactly where he is is Terui, though, because —in his words— we're a "bunch of loose-lipped soft-hearted fools who couldn't keep a secret to save a life." Which is rude! And also untrue!
"—you'll have maybe a week until her trial, if you take this case." Terui finishes talking. "You in?"
"Yeah," I say. "We'll find out the truth behind this case. And if it turns out that it's the Sonozakis behind it..."
I won't let them have their way in my city.
Even though Terui said this wasn't an official investigation, he must have been throwing his weight around at the office. How else would he have gotten us access to both the evidence taken for the case and the Osugi family so painlessly? I sure hope he didn’t take it without asking.
…Not that it's unwelcome. We've only got a week to investigate until the trial. That sounds like a ridiculously fast processing time to me, but I'm not a cop, so what do I know? Maybe it's just because the girl already confessed.
Or maybe someone's got something to hide.
Akiko and I split up the Osugi household interviews. She'd take care of all the staff, and I'd take the family members. Philip's happily knee deep in the evidence back at the agency. Terui's… doing something, I guess. Work, maybe? Is he slacking off somewhere? …Okay, no, I can't see that happening. Maybe he's grilling Kirihiko again for anything he can remember about the dead Osugi. That'd be a big help.
The first people I interview are Osugi Mamoru and Sonoko. "Sorry to call you out here so soon after the incident. We just need to confirm some information with you, since last night was so hectic." I lie smoothly.
Sonoko-san closes her eyes, and her husband wraps a comforting arm around her shoulders. "As long as it's quick, Detective. None of us want to dwell on what happened."
I'd really prefer if they did dwell on it, actually. If we're going to prove Arisa's innocence, we're going to need as much evidence as we can get. But that's not something I can really say, so I just get straight to the point.
"What was the exact sequence of events that night?"
"My wife and I were in the backyard after dinner," Mamoru-san explains. "We heard a commotion inside and found everyone crowded around the stairs, so we went to join them. Ryuusuke was blocking the way up, and when we got to Father's room… we were the last of the family up there. I covered Sonoko's eyes, so she didn't see exactly what was in the room though— didn't I, dear?"
"What exactly did you see in that room, then?" I press, before Sonoko-san can say anything
Mamoru-san shifts, uncomfortably. “Arisa was standing over the body, crying."
"I just don't understand!" Sonoko-san blurts out. "Surely she could have gone to someone for help— he's just picky about the food, isn't he? Maybe Father wasn't particularly nice to her, but isn't that just how he treats everyone? I've been upset with him before! So has my husband! Yet surely, neither of us have ever considered murder as a solution."
"Sonoko, that's—"
Sonoko-san brushes her husband's hand off her shoulder. "I'll not mince words with you, Mr. Detective. Anyone who could take a human life, even if they didn't plan to, is dangerous. I hope Arisa never gets out of jail. I hope she dies in there!"
"We all hated the old man." Osugi Ryuusuke says as he stabs a huge strawberry parfait with a spoon. "Fuckin' hidebound old cheapskate who couldn't stand not being able to control everything around him. You know what? I think Arisa did good. He had it coming."
Okay, I definitely spoke too soon. "He's your father, though—"
"So??" He slams a fist onto the table. "Just because I'm related to him doesn’t mean I can’t think that he's a piece of shit! You know why he was giving Arisa a hard time these past six years? Her family isn't rich and she doesn't know who her dad is. That's it. Never mind that she's a hell of a smart cookie in her own right, y'know? All he cares about is what kinda money people come from!"
"Well," I say, after a bit of silence. "You didn't help her either."
It's just a guess of mine, but from the way that Ryuusuke winces and looks away, I've hit upon something sensitive. "…Fuck, man. I'm just a shit for brains spare son who can't keep a job to save my life. But he still treated me better than that girl, because I'm his blood or something like that. Something's just not right about that, I know. But I just didn't have the balls to get into an argument over it."
He falls into a sullen silence, focusing more on his parfait than on me.
"When you first entered the room, what did you see?" I try to draw his attention back to the main topic.
He scratches his head sheepishly with the back end of the spoon. "Well, I didn't actually get a real good look at it. Arisa was standing over the body, crying, and then Naomi told me to get out of the room and make sure the staff didn’t see anything weird."
He finishes his parfait and slaps down some money on the table. As he stands up, he leans in close to me and says, in a low voice. "Lemme tell ya, though. If I were even a tenth as brave as Arisa, I woulda ganked the old man myself that day instead of vegetating in front of the TV until I heard a scream. I hope her revenge was worth it."
"Ryuusuke's a fool, but at least he knows it." Matsuoka Naomi says, coolly. "Father's only redeeming feature was the importance he placed on family, and it's the only reason I can think of that he tolerated an unemployed slob like Ryuusuke hanging around all the time. If I'm going to be honest, though, Father was just an enormous control freak. As soon as I got married to a husband that he didn't quite approve of, that old miser removed me from the will!"
"And that's why you got a divorce?"
I must have failed to keep the incredulousness I feel out of my voice, because she looks over at me and smirks. "My husband and I worked out a plan. As soon as I get my share of the inheritance, I'd remarry him. Granted, we thought that our separation would be a manner of years, and not months…"
Rich people, I decide, are insane. Just how much money did she expect to get out of the will??? Wait, also— doesn’t she realize how suspicious she's making herself sound? Out of all the people I've interviewed so far, she's got the strongest motive by far. And on top of that—
"You were the first person on the scene of the crime, right?" Her scream was apparently the one that had alerted everyone else that something had gone wrong. "Why were you there?"
She sniffs. "I just happened to glance inside the room for no reason, and I saw my father dead, with Arisa standing over his body, crying. In that kind of situation, what kind of person wouldn't scream?"
"You don't seem the type, though." I try to flatter her. Maybe she'll let something slip.
"Yeah, well," she looks away, out the window. "Arisa doesn't seem the type to snap and murder someone either. Look where we are now."
One thing's clear to me: It would be impossible for this to be the work of some opportunistic criminal. No burglar in their right mind would have taken the risk, in a crowded house like that. On the other hand, I'm extremely doubtful that this is the work of some hired assassin. He's an old man who needs help getting out of bed in the morning on bad days, they could have easily made it look like a complete accident. No need to get the police involved at all.
No, I'm convinced that it was one of his family members that murdered him. And for Arisa's sake, we'll find out who the real killer is.
I open the file that Terui had handed me this morning. I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. It's full of picture photocopies. It's only been a day or so since the murder happened, but the police had already given the family permission to start cleaning up. The suspect's already confessed, after all, and the food's going to stain the floor like that.
These crime scene pictures are the first and only time I'll be able to see the room where Osugi died. But we know— or at least, I know— that Arisa's not the murderer, so there has to be something here, right?
The victim's room is small, but quietly fancy. There's a bed in the back, next to the closet. The victim, dressed in pajamas, is slumped over a small table closer to the entrance. There's a window right behind him with heavy curtains, the thick velvety looking kind that's tied back with a cord. The family claimed that this is where he regularly takes his meals. His joints have gone bad with age, so he no longer goes downstairs to eat with the family.
Closeups on the body show an evenly patterned mark going all the way around the neck, from being strangled with a silk tie twisted into a rope. There's food scattered on the floor from when he'd thrown it at the defendant, too. From both Arisa’s confession and Sonoko-san's testimony, I think it's likely that it had probably been barely touched. The cutlery is scattered all over the floor— all the plates and nice cloth napkins, and a wine glass with a few drops of red wine still in it as well. He must have practically upended the entire table at the poor girl.
"Are you the detective who called me here?" I snap the file shut and look up. A young, stressed looking businessman is standing at my table. This one must be the last interviewee of the day—Arisa's husband.
"Osugi… Tetsuji?" He nods— hell yes I got it right, I'm amazing. "Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. Please, have a seat."
I get right to business. I've been here for hours . "Where were you when you heard the scream last night?"
"Well," he starts. "I didn't. Hear the scream, I mean. I was away at an important business dinner on the other side of town that night, so I didn't actually get home until just before the police did. Maybe… five or ten minutes before?"
"A business dinner?" I blink in surprise.
"I'm the only one of the family that actually works at Osugi Manufacturing," he explains. "So my father expects me to attend these sort of meetings and report back to him. Even though he's retired in name, everyone knows that he has the final word on all major decisions."
I hum. Interesting. "When you got home, what did you see?"
Tetsuji-san shifts uncomfortably. "I went upstairs to my father's room and saw Arisa standing over his dead body, crying. I… honestly, I can't believe this is happening. It's my fault that she did this," he continues. "If only I'd been able to convince Father to accept a live-in nurse or something… we'll get her the best lawyer possible, of course. But it won't change the fact that she's going to jail ."
He sounds honestly broken up about it. Should I tell him that there's a possibility that she wasn't the murderer?
In the end, I stay silent. After all, how do you tell a man that you suspect that one of his siblings or in-laws killed your father?
When I get back to the agency, it's already dark. I open the door to the basement. Looks like Terui and Philip are having an argument. Or rather, they're playing some bizarre version of keepaway with what looks like one of the evidence bags that I'd brought over.
… You know, maybe I should have taken Philip with me to the interviews.
"—just contaminate evidence like that, at least wear some gloves—"
"You didn't give me any. Where would I get gloves?"
"I don't know, maybe you could ask— "
I cut in before Terui can really blow his top. "Yo. Philip, did you find something?"
He immediately turns away from Terui. "Shoutaro, welcome back. I think I did, but he won't give me the evidence so I can check."
"You having any of the evidence in the first place is illegal! Don't touch it with your bare hands, there's a limit to what I can get away with!"
I blink. "Clue? What clue?"
"The red wine." Philip says.
The wine…? There hadn't been any wine at the scene, right? At least, the wineglass had been emptied— wait a second.
"Why hadn't there been any wine stains on the crime scene or on Arisa's clothes? From testimony, we know that he hadn't eaten much of the food before tossing it aside. And—" he yanks the evidence bag out of Terui's hand while he's distracted— "Shoutaro. Smell this."
"Put on some gloves , you little—"
As soon as Philip opens the bag, the air is filled with the smell of alcohol. Terui wrinkles his nose, and I recoil. What the hell? "Isn't that the murder weapon? Who dunked this thing into an open bottle of wine, jeez."
"There was no wine on the crime scene. And Arisa's shirt was only stained with food." Philip says. "So why does this tie smell like alcohol?"
Terui rubs his nose with the back of his hand. "I see. Basically, this proves that the scene was tampered with. At worst, what we saw wasn't the crime scene at all."
"There's more," Philip says. "I don't think that he was strangled to death with a tie at all."
"Wait, what?? " Akiko pipes up. "That's not the murder weapon?"
Philip walks over to the table where he's got the crime scene photos spread out. "Look at this ligature mark around his neck," he points out a picture of the corpse. "It's faint, but there's a pattern to it. I believe it's too regular to be a tie twisted into an improvised garrote."
"Huh," Akiko says. "Hold on, we can check that right now."
She looks in my direction and I'm suddenly aware that I'm the only person in this room with an actual tie. I cover my neck with both hands and back away.
"Oi," I object.
Philip hums thoughtfully. "The quality of material could make a difference, though. Shoutaro's ties are likely significantly cheaper, and made of thinner material."
" Oi, " I object.
Terui shakes his head. "There's no need to check. I've seen strangulation cases before, and Philip's right. There's something strange about it, though I can't put my finger on exactly what..."
"Was an alternative murder weapon found on the scene?" I ask.
Akiko drags the box of evidence over and starts pawing through it. "Mmmmm… hey, there's nothing else in here that could be the murder weapon. Wait. If we don't have it here, then d'you think the real murderer's already gotten rid of it?"
"Or maybe it's still at the scene of the crime," I counter. "I'll go tomorrow and check it out. What else do we have?"
Akiko raises a hand in the air, nearly upending all the evidence, and waves impatiently. "Oh! Me! That reminds me! I found something interesting!"
She digs out a notebook from a pocket and flips through it rapidly. "Uhh… let's see. Here! Okay, so none of the staff had anything interesting to say. They were all either in the kitchen, the laundry room, when they heard a lady scream, but when they tried to get upstairs one of the Osugis was blocking the way."
That sounds like it fits in with what I found. Akiko continues. "But then! I tracked down Arisa's mom to see if she could tell me about her daughter. Here's the actually interesting part. Apparently, Arisa was talking about a divorce."
"Good for her," I immediately say. And I mean it.
Akiko, however, shakes her head. "No, there's more! Namekawa-san was almost positive that she didn't start talking about it until after she was pregnant."
"Arisa was waiting for the baby to be born, in order to divorce Osuji Testuji but still get alimony." Terui immediately makes a connection.
I scowl. "Oi, Terui, that's going too far. She's a victim, damn it."
Terui looks like he still wants to argue, but I'm not going to listen to him cast doubts on her like this. "It's obvious that she didn't kill the old man. The crime scene we saw had definitely been tampered with, and maybe someone found out about her child and threatened their life unless she confessed."
Philip looks at me. "Shoutaro, did you find anything?"
Ugh. I flop into an armchair and cover my face with one arm. "Don't even remind me. Osugi's kids all seem to care way more about his fortune than about him. Everyone knew he was mistreating Arisa, but they either thought she should have just stayed silent about it or they were too afraid of jeopardizing their own relationship with the old man to help. And whoever the actual murder is, I'm pretty sure that they're all covering for them. They're all at least accomplices."
"What?" Akiko squawks. "I didn't hear about this!"
"The way that every single family member described the scene was the same. 'Arisa was standing over the dead body, crying.' The exact same words."
"…So?" Terui asks.
"I interviewed five people and they all used the exact same phrase to describe Arisa. Don't you think that's strange…. at… all…" I trail off.
Wait.
Wait.
Oh my god, I'm so stupid. If I'm right, then—
"Akiko…" I say. "Akiko. Hey, Akiko. Was anyone from the family that night wearing a tie?"
She blinks at me. "No, none of them."
"How about the staff?"
"Nope. Not part of the uniform. Why?"
Philip leans forwards, eyes sparkling. "Shoutaro, you know who the real killer is."
It's not a question. He knows me well enough to be able to see when I'm onto something.
"Yeah," I say. "I think I do."
"Evidence?" Terui asks, eyes narrowed.
I shake my head. "Nothing that we can use in court. But that's not our only option, right?”
"You mean to scare a confession out of the true criminal, then."
I stand up and walk to the table, shoving crime scene photos aside. "Right. Here's a plan…"