Sato Miwako didn't know why Fuwa Narumi had suddenly brought this up, but since the officer questioning her outranked her by far, she answered truthfully. "It should have been just after midnight. The greeting card sent by that 'Red-Bearded Santa Claus' said he would appear at midnight, but he was a little late."
Fuwa Narumi exhaled a puff of smoke. "Did you forget? This hotel has very high security. The door lock data is updated every day—after midnight, all the previous day's key cards become invalid. You have to replace them with new cards to open or close the doors."
Jiang Xia thought for a moment. "Are you saying that only someone holding a new card had a chance to commit the crime?"
Inozuka Saburo, who had been eavesdropping from afar: "?!"
His gaze suddenly froze. Two seconds later, it slowly lowered toward his pocket. "..." The new card... the new card was on him right now!
After replacing his card, he had run into "that thing" while heading back to his room. He had immediately found a surveillance camera, sat down beneath it, and never moved again.
...Looking back, it was fortunate that he had been sitting under the camera around midnight. Otherwise, if he had taken even one step away, he would be the one suspected of murder now, and the Inozuka Family really would have died out!
A cold sweat of lingering fear ran down his face, and Inozuka Saburo felt nothing but relief.
However, before he could celebrate for long, Fuwa Narumi seemed to have taken up Jiang Xia's question.
She turned to the hotel manager. "The new cards should still be with you, right?"
The hotel manager had an excellent memory. After thinking for a moment, he shook his head. "I remember that room very