"When you checked the items in the bag earlier, the phone you took out of the bag was a different model from the phone you took out of your pocket to check after receiving the message. If we conduct a body search now, we should be able to find the corresponding evidence."
Officer Takagi: "..." Now that Jiang Xia had mentioned it, and he thought back carefully, it really did seem that way—but if no one had specifically pointed it out, he never would have noticed the difference between Sugimoto Hideki's two phones.
He instinctively turned to look at Sugimoto Hideki.
The man was covered in cold sweat, his eyes shifting slightly as though he wanted to say something.
Remembering how the suspect had operated the two phones separately, Officer Takagi suddenly realized something and gently reminded him, "Even if you delete the call records from your phone, we have ways of retrieving them."
"!"
The cold sweat on Sugimoto Hideki's forehead visibly increased.
Jiang Xia continued, "The victim was worried that if the backpack was recovered on the spot, his theft of the cash would be exposed. So he refused to let go and got into an argument with you. You were much sturdier than the victim. Though it looked like the two of you were struggling chaotically, in reality, it wouldn't have been difficult for you to control the direction in which you moved.
"After that, all you had to do was keep pushing him toward the construction area, position him with his back toward the gap in the railing, and give him a shove while he was holding onto the bag strap—the strap had been tampered with in advance, and would snap as soon as it was pulled hard."
Hearing this, Sugimoto Hideki instinctively hid the bag