Jiang Xia shook his head and said regretfully, "Unfortunately, this lawyer doesn't seem stupid—proving that these pliers were the murder weapon won't be difficult, but finding fingerprints left on them through an examination probably won't be easy."
Officer Yokomizo's heart skipped a beat. "Then..."
Fortunately, before he could finish panicking, the miraculous detective spoke again. "I heard from Aunt Eri that they went on a business trip to Kyushu not long ago, and this time they flew directly to Izu.
"They'd been traveling the whole way. If they had stuffed a pair of huge pliers into a bag, it would have been easy for someone to notice.
"Also, pliers of this size can't be carried onboard; they have to be checked. Checked luggage is X-rayed first, and the relevant footage is usually kept for two or three days.
"In short, if the murderer brought the murder weapon from elsewhere, we only need to check the relevant footage—but given how cautious he is, he should have tried to avoid that.
"In other words, these pliers were most likely bought after arriving in Izu.
"The lawyers arrived at noon today. They spent the afternoon shopping and attending a gathering, and their range of activities couldn't have been very large, so..."
At the mention of Izu, his own turf, Officer Yokomizo regained his confidence. "So as long as we investigate the limited number of stores and obtain the checkout counter footage, we can prove that he bought this thing!"
Jiang Xia nodded.
With his confirmation, Officer Yokomizo rolled up his sleeves and, brimming with fighting spirit, was about to head back. He planned to detain Lawyer Saku first, then investigate at leisure.
Officer Yokomizo: "..." Treating Jiang Xia as a suspect was simply too stressful. Setting aside his own respect for the detective,