"You two can't vouch for each other!" Akasaka said, specifically adding this for Nibe and Ojo.
After all, they were a couple and were even suspected of conspiring to commit murder.
"Ah! Right, I recorded the dolphin show. That should have been around the time of the murder!" Nakagiri suddenly remembered and hurriedly asked Akasaka for his phone.
"Huh? If that counts, I was recording too... Right, my video should have captured the moment the crowd first started getting restless. It was several minutes of continuous footage, so that should be enough for an alibi, right?" Nibe realized as well—although he had been near the scene at the time, his recording was uninterrupted.
There had been no more than two minutes between the victim's death and the crowd's commotion. Two full minutes of continuous footage could indeed count as an "alibi," or rather, proof that they had been present but had not acted.
"I have continuous footage too. It recorded the start of the commotion..." Ojo said, as if she had been prompted.
"Hm?" Akasaka returned their phones to them.
Only then did Shiraishi walk over and ask, "Akasaka, how are the interviews with these three going?"
"Chief, I'm asking about their alibis," Akasaka quickly replied, his attitude immediately improving considerably.
"Mm, there's no need for the three of you to be nervous. This is only a routine inquiry," Shiraishi said kindly.
After all...
Chief Shiraishi was naturally kind. It was just the workhorses below carrying out the orders who had messed things up.
Akasaka, with his many years of workhorse experience, naturally understood this. He deliberately reined in some of his "technical roughness"—the veteran detectives did not particularly resent this kind of performance from the chief, so long as he did not come out to perform too early and