(Thud)
Section Chief Yasui anxiously explained, "Mr. Tachibana has a habit—every time he finishes playing golf, he drinks a cup of coffee personally brewed by the owner's wife here."
The golf course attendant silently pricked up his gossip-hungry ears. "..." Hm?
Section Chief Yasui said, "So I would time it and go to the counter ten minutes before Mr. Tachibana finished to ask her to prepare it."
Inspector Megure looked at the attendant. "Is that so?"
The golf course attendant came back to his senses and hurriedly replied, "I didn't notice when this gentleman ordered his coffee. But all our coffee is brewed from beans, so it does indeed need to be ordered a few minutes in advance."
It sounded barely reasonable, but Inspector Megure still looked deeply suspicious. "You were the only one who had originally been closest to him and yet escaped the explosion. That's far too coincidental..."
"What do you mean, only me?!" Section Chief Yasui suddenly remembered something. Inspiration struck, and he raised a hand to point beside him.
"Among us members, I really was the only one who wasn't injured, but I wasn't the only one who left at the time—the two teachers, that man, and that foreign woman all left around the same time as me! I went to order coffee, but what about them?"
Section Chief Yasui had decided to go all out. If he could drag even one person down with him, so be it. "Maybe they have side jobs besides teaching, and one of those jobs brought them into conflict with Mr. Tachibana—for example... maybe Mr. Tachibana was lecherous, and perhaps there was some hidden romantic dispute between him and that female foreign teacher that we don't know about!"
"???" Jodie hadn't expected to get hit despite keeping such a low