Jiang Xia said, "The murderer ran this line around the two pillars outside the door, attaching both ends to rubber bands to make a loop.
"Some time before the doorbell rang, Teacher Sugiyama's body was moved to the entrance. He was propped up at an angle in front of the doorbell, his neck caught in the loop, with piled snow around his feet to hold him in place. As long as the angle was controlled properly, even a rope that wasn't very sturdy could keep him standing steadily.
"As time passed, the rubber bands grew increasingly brittle in the cold until they finally snapped at a certain point. The body would then lose its balance, pitch forward, and press down on the doorbell.
"The broken loop should originally have been blown away by the wind, but unfortunately, it got caught on the side door."
As he spoke, Jiang Xia looked at the three teachers before him. "To make Teacher Sugiyama's body stiff enough, the murderer had to leave him ample time for rigor mortis.
"In other words, several hours ago, the murderer had already lured Teacher Sugiyama to this Villa and strangled him to death. That was why, when we arrived, there were icicles beneath the eaves of this Villa, which had been unoccupied for a long time. They proved that the heating had been turned on here not long ago."
The male teacher went pale. "So this is actually a freshly made haunted murder house, and the murderer is one of my colleagues? That's terrifying. When I first arrived, I was relaxing here, listening to music and taking a bath... Huh?"
Mentioning the bath suddenly reminded him of the body search from earlier.
The male teacher's eyes immediately lit up. "Never mind the earlier case for now—after Shimoda was