Fuwa Narumi broke out in a cold sweat.
But she was an experienced police officer, after all, and quickly calmed down—the videotape and the script had long since been destroyed. Everything Jiang Xia had said was ultimately just deduction.
Although Jiang Xia had been present during the rehearsal and had probably seen that page of the script, what human eyes saw could not count as solid physical evidence.
Instead, the murder targeting the Room 315 guest reminded Fuwa Narumi of something. She sneered. "Have you forgotten? After midnight, Room 315 becomes a completely sealed room. The only Secret Passage opens into Fumizuki Karen's room. Other than her and Hashimoto Maya, no one else could be the murderer."
Jiang Xia glanced at her. "That assumes it was truly a sealed room. Last night, I received your greeting card, went out into the courtyard, and after midnight received your prompt to 'look toward the third floor.' At the time, every room was pitch-black. Only one room glowed red, and 'Red-Bearded Santa Claus' stood by the window of that red room.
"The entire inn had only one room lit in red. In our haste, we mistook it for Room 315 and assumed 'Red-Bearded Santa Claus' was inside, so we worried about the guests staying there and rushed back."
Hearing this, Sato Miwako suddenly noticed something and blurted out, "'Mistook him for being in Room 315'... Does that mean he actually wasn't in that room? But I definitely saw a figure by Room 315's window. And I could make out details in that shadow—it wasn't some fake image made from paper or something pasted up there."
Jiang Xia sighed. "Room 315 happened to be near the middle of the corridor, and this floor was very long. Every room around us was dark at the