Jiang Xia sensed something and glanced toward the door, seeing only the gently swaying door.
The others had not noticed Mouri Ran arriving and leaving. Their attention remained on the so-called "corpse that had walked from the warehouse to the swimming pool."
The high school students who had seen the "strange person" turned pale. "Wait, are you saying that the person we saw, wearing a full set of protective gear and carrying another gear bag, was actually a dead person? Th-That's impossible!"
Jiang Xia fell silent for a moment. "I only said that he would become a dead person later—the person you saw was actually the victim while he was still alive. Kendo gear includes a face mask. Once someone puts it on and covers their face, it's difficult to identify them."
Otaki looked somewhat puzzled. "But before that, three people saw his corpse in the Sports Warehouse."
"They only stood at the entrance and looked from afar. They never went closer to check whether he was dead."
Jiang Xia said, "So the probable sequence was this: the killer first put sleeping pills into Mr. Tarumi's drinks, putting him to sleep. Then they moved him to the Sports Warehouse, splashed him with red fake blood, and stuck a genuinely bloodstained knife into him, staging it as a 'crime scene.'
"After that, the killer searched for the missing Tarumi Atsushi together with two other people and found him in the Sports Warehouse. It was dimly lit there, making it hard to distinguish real blood from fake blood. The other two thought Mr. Tarumi was dead, so the killer sent them away—one went to the Police Station, while the other naturally ran off to report the situation to the captain.
"Then, after calling an Ambulance on their phone, the killer returned, shook