Mayuko Togaki's face suddenly twisted with hatred. "But then Anxi suddenly showed up! He said I'd been an accomplice in stealing the equipment back then, and that if I didn't want the others to find out, I had to pay him. But I knew he'd never stop after extorting me just once. I'd have to live under the shadow of his blackmail every day for the rest of my life... We arranged to meet here tonight for the payment, so I had no choice but to bring a Knife. I only meant to threaten him, but who knew..."
Mayuko Togaki dropped to her knees with a thud, raising a hand to cover her face. She looked deeply remorseful.
Beside her, someone else followed suit, dropping to his knees with a bang.
The assistant director held Mayuko Togaki and sighed. "I thought Mayuko was acting strangely tonight, so after she left, I used buying cigarettes as an excuse to follow her. But when I got to the Shrine, I saw Anxi's body—and I saw that he'd written Mayuko's name on the ground.
"The blood that had dried on the stone bricks was hard to wipe away. I remembered seeing him threaten Mr. Nachi in the woods behind the Shrine earlier, so I added a few strokes to make you think someone else was the real killer."
Nachi Shingo was briefly at a loss for words.
After a while, he stared at the corpse on the ground, his expression complicated. "This guy had quite a packed schedule—collecting her money first, then mine." Luckily, he had been second in line, and the person before him had failed to hold back and acted first. Otherwise...
Inspector Otaki's expectations had not been disappointed.
With a Detective around, this bout of overtime did not drag