Curacao hid in the shadows, taking in everything. After a moment of silence, she thought, Being Uzo's subordinate really is exhausting.
Forced to play Detective, Hashimoto Maya said, "The gun was pressed to her forehead, and the victim fell onto the carpet facing the window with her back toward the door—the bed was closest to the door in this room, then came the carpet in the middle of the room, and only beyond that was the window.
"If an ordinary person was asleep on the second floor and suddenly saw someone climbing in through the window, they would instinctively assume a burglar had broken in and run for the door. But the victim not only didn't run, she actually took a few steps toward the window—so it had to have been someone she knew very well. Someone familiar enough that even if they climbed in through the window, the victim would merely find it strange instead of suspecting an intruder."
Jiang Xia nodded approvingly. "You're becoming more and more like a detective."
Hashimoto Maya gave a bitter smile. A moment later, he forcibly raised the corners of his mouth, making it look like a genuine one.
Inspector Megure had a rather average impression of this newly minted detective. Mainly because Hashimoto Maya had always appeared in his sight as a suspect before, and such deeply ingrained notions were not so easily changed.
But now, since Jiang Xia also agreed with that long string of deductions, it seemed Hashimoto Maya was right.
Thinking this, Inspector Megure summoned his equally exhausted subordinates and said to Sato Miwako, "Right, I remember the victim's son, daughter, and maid were all nearby when the crime occurred. They might know some of the inside story. Go question them one by one."
In the downstairs living