Officer Takagi quickly gathered some clues:
"The victim, Naoko Fujimura, was twenty-seven years old. According to witness testimony, when Jiang Xia and the others arrived in the living room at noon, the coin-operated television had just shut off—this model could only accept one coin at a time and automatically turned off after running for thirty minutes.
"The estimated time of death was within the past hour. It seems the victim was attacked while watching television."
"There aren't many signs of a struggle nearby, and she was killed in the living room. It was probably someone she knew." Sato Miwako looked toward the television and noticed all sorts of nostalgic snacks scattered across the floor beside it. "The only particularly messy area is here—but perhaps the victim simply lived sloppily. She might have deliberately tidied up the room to welcome her classmates, then while waiting, absentmindedly ate snacks and messed up this area."
"That's right. The victim's phone was also lying in this pile of clutter." Officer Takagi put on gloves, carefully picked up the phone, and pulled up the call log.
There had been an outgoing call over twenty minutes ago.
The contact name was "Yamamoto Sakurako."
Sato Miwako paused slightly when she saw the name, then leaned closer to Jiang Xia and asked in a low voice, "That was the young lady who came here with you, wasn't it?"
Jiang Xia nodded and lowered his voice as well. "I do remember her answering a call at the station."
"Hm? Then wouldn't that clear all three of them?" Inspector Megure was extremely alert to Brother Jiang Xia's movements. The instant Officer Sato leaned toward Jiang Xia, he had already perked up his ears.
But Jiang Xia seemed to be pondering something and did not agree with that conclusion.
"Let's first