"Looks like we won't be getting any clues out of her for now."
"Yeah, she seemed completely unaware of anything involving her boyfriend."
"Maybe he wasn't even the one who did it."
"Still, we'll have to wait until that guy wakes up before questioning him."
After returning to the Metropolitan Police Department, the officers began an intensive interrogation of Risa Yoshii—the woman Sato Miwako had just pinned down.
The results were naturally discouraging. They got nothing out of her. As his girlfriend, she knew virtually nothing about him no matter what they asked, aside from a few irrelevant details.
That left the officers handling the case feeling helpless.
Outside an interrogation room at the Metropolitan Police Department, Sato Miwako stared at Fujino with an exasperated expression and complained resentfully, "You really are as heavy-handed as ever. Couldn't you hold back a little and leave him alive?"
"I didn't beat the guy to death, okay?" Fujino was quite dissatisfied with her exaggeration.
He thought he had held back. If he had not, that guy would not have needed to lie in a hospital bed—he could have gone straight to meet Jehovah.
Sato Miwako crossed her arms beneath the slight swell of her white shirt under her black suit and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, yes, you didn't kick him to death. You only broke three of his ribs and caved in his sternum. So gentle."
"Should I praise you too?"
Fujino glanced at her, feeling that she had no room to talk. "Like you've never kicked someone hard enough to break their ribs."
A soft cough sounded.
Juzo Megure looked at the two bickering and felt the helplessness of an old father deep in his heart.
It was bad enough that his subordinates never gave him any peace of mind while solving cases,