After thinking it over carefully, the young nurse belatedly shook her head. "No. Dr. Heishan's office is a suite, with his desk outside and a bed for resting in the inner room. When I brought him coffee, the door between the two rooms was half-open. He was inside, and I was outside, so..."
At that point, the young nurse paused, suddenly feeling that the conversation was heading in a rather strange direction.
She hurriedly added, "But, but Dr. Heishan really did speak to me through the door at the time—I recognized his voice. It was definitely him!"
Jiang Xia said, "When I went out earlier, I happened to visit Dr. Heishan's office. Aside from the bed, there was also a bedside table in the inner room. On it was a Landline Phone capable of playing sound aloud."
"A Landline Phone..." Inspector Megure and his detective brother immediately understood each other. "Could it be that, when the crime took place, while he was speaking with the nurse, Mr. Heishan wasn't actually in his office? He was somewhere else, speaking to the person in the room through the Landline Phone?"
Jiang Xia nodded. "For today's murder, Dr. Heishan cultivated the habit of drinking coffee at 11:30 every night, and had the nurse deliver it to his room."
"Shortly after eleven tonight, Dr. Heishan used a Phone Card and a cellphone he had prepared in advance to call his own Landline Phone. Once it connected, he pressed the speakerphone button.
"Then he went to the room across from Mr. Yamada's Ward and killed Dr. Shirai, whom he had lured there, at the right moment.
"After confirming that the person opposite had witnessed it, Dr. Heishan turned off the room's lights and lowered the Projector in the darkness.
"Soon afterward, the nurse delivered coffee