(*)
Thinking this, while the two had their backs turned, Curacao quietly stretched out a leg toward the heavy backpack.
Just then, with a click, the restroom door opened, and the photographer and Officer Sato emerged.
"!" Before the two hunters could turn around, Curacao's lashes trembled as she swiftly withdrew her leg and casually began fiddling with the phone in her hand, which had no signal.
Though there had been a small flaw in her disguise, fortunately, no one noticed her movement.
Officer Sato held a stack of photos the photographer had just developed and said to everyone, "We can more or less determine the victim's time of death now—look at this photo."
She addressed everyone, but handed the photo to Jiang Xia.
Officer Shiratori: "..."
...Fine. The sooner they solved the case, the sooner they could start their sweet Valentine's Day.
Thinking this, he moved closer to the two of them. With the hope that he might have a flash of insight and figure it out before the Detective, he silently studied the photo in Jiang Xia's hand.
The photo showed a towering tree. The Camera had been angled upward, capturing both the canopy and the sky—but compared with the dead tree itself, what drew more attention were the three conspicuous shadows in the photo.
The shadows were round and blurry around the edges. Suzuki Sonoko leaned over to look beside Jiang Xia and jumped in fright. "C-could that be blood splattered on the lens?"
The photographer nodded sadly. "This was taken when Futagaki was attacked—you see, none of the other photos have it. Only this one has blood on the lens.
"He must have pressed the shutter as he fell, which is why this precious photo of the scene was left behind!"
Officer Sato added, "To make