After returning to the room, Officer Sato set a cardboard box on the table. Inside, disks were neatly stacked one after another.
She wiped away some sweat. "These are all of them. These old companies really are traditional—something a USB flash drive could solve, yet they had to use a whole box of disks. Fortunately, they're easy to sort through. The names are arranged in Japanese syllabary order. There are fifty disks in total, each containing names corresponding to one syllable.
Jiang Xia leaned over the box and looked inside. "A few spots are empty."
Sato Miwako nodded. "The disks for names beginning with 'i' and 'to' were stolen. 'To' was the first target, Torimaru Naoko. Although the murderer failed, 'i' was the second target—the vice president, Inukai Yosuke."
"But there's another empty slot here." Jiang Xia shifted the remaining disks around and spotted the issue. "The one for 'ki' is missing too." He looked at the company executives who had gathered after hearing the commotion. "Does anyone at your company have a name beginning with that syllable?"
Inozuka Jiro impatiently checked his watch. "There are plenty."
He had originally intended to brush the question off and have one of his subordinates answer this troublesome Detective.
But the Detective's gaze stopped right on him. "Why did you suddenly check your watch? Do you have something urgent to do?"
"..."
Inozuka Jiro had just sent Jiang Xia an email in Qiaoben Maya's name, pretending that he was in trouble and asking Jiang Xia to quietly go to the small woods behind the hotel in two hours to discuss a solution.
Then, according to Inozuka Jiro's plan, Funeral Silver Coin would send Jiang Xia off as well.
The entire sequence had been smooth and natural, but Jiang Xia had unexpectedly brought up