With the speed of hands honed through countless trials, Jiang Xia swiftly signed an autograph for the well-informed passenger.
Jiang Xia mingled with the investigation team and returned to the less crowded area at the back.
Inspector Yassa opened the victim's bag and searched it carefully. Inside were the usual familiar items: a wallet, camera, ticket, passport, and the like.
Besides those, there were only some cigarettes and a few magazines. There was likewise nothing that could have concealed a murder weapon.
As Jiang Xia watched, he casually asked Tachikawa Chizuru beside him, "From what that passenger said, the victim was a rather famous photographer?"
"Famous? Not really. That guy was just lucky enough to capture one particularly stunning scene. After that, he never made much of a name for himself. He could only tail private stories like a paparazzi and make a living blackmailing wealthy people."
Tachikawa Chizuru sighed. "But he really did win a major award once—four years ago, an apartment caught fire. A mother didn't have time to escape, so she could only stand on the balcony, stretch out her arms as far as she could, and hand her baby to a firefighter standing on a fire ladder. That scene was a tangle of despair and hope, birth accompanied by death, and Ootaka happened to capture it..."
As she spoke, she suddenly realized she had gone off-topic. "Oh, who cares what awards he won! When can we go back? Standing around all this time is exhausting. I'm not the murderer, so why am I being treated like a suspect?"
"The murderer..." A string of English suddenly sounded from nearby. The british passenger, who had stayed silent the entire way, dropped shocking news the moment he spoke.
"The murderer should be that gentleman. After all, among the four