Shimizu Hiroshi tried hard to recall the victim's movements before his death. "He might have gone to the Convenience Store to buy some snacks to go with the drinks. We hadn't specially prepared any snacks for the gathering, and the Convenience Store was nearby, so everyone decided to buy them as we drank. That's why we didn't think much of it when the victim left."
Jiang Xia asked the homeowner, "Are you sure the victim received a call from Mr. Kusaka before he went out?"
The homeowner nodded. "That's right. We always had a rule not to look at our phones while drinking. Kusaka knew about that habit too, so he called the Landline Phone. The call that came in after nine was definitely his voice."
As the first person to discover the body, Kusakabe Masami had already been targeted plenty of times that night. Cold sweat covered his forehead as he looked at Jiang Xia again. "It really wasn't me!"
Hashimoto Maya looked at him skeptically. "..." If he truly had never committed a crime, then clinging to Jiang Xia's thigh really was the best way to escape Uzo's persecution.
But as he recalled, quite a few real culprits had deliberately sought Jiang Xia's help in clearing their names. They had been thinking, If I fool Jiang Xia, I fool everyone. One effort, permanent peace. Human courage was limitless. As long as they had not been caught, everyone believed they were the Child of Destiny. Yet perhaps only those who had stood opposite Jiang Xia and been exposed by him as the true culprit could realize that this easygoing Detective's sense of oppression was terrifyingly strong—at certain moments, it was not even inferior to that Devil Boss of his.
At that thought, Hashimoto Maya's mindset stalled, and he quietly