The subtle discrepancy in timing made Kisaki Eri more suspicious of "Miss Shirai's" behavior. Before long, the Queen of Lawyers, who had seen countless cases, keenly identified that faint sense of familiarity.
Refusing to leave the Detective Agency after work, chatting with colleagues nearby every few days, and pushing back appointment times... Taken together, didn't this look remarkably like she was creating an alibi?
"Could it be Miss Shirai..."
A speculation quietly surfaced in Kisaki Eri's mind. Looking at Curacao's back, she carefully considered it. "But the victim's estimated time of death was around 7:30 p.m. At that time, Miss Shirai was indeed still at the law office. After that, she was with me the entire way.
"Unless the murderer used some trick to conceal President Nakamoto's true time of death, Miss Shirai could not possibly have been the one who killed him.
"But the time of death isn't so easy to alter. And if I remember correctly, Miss Shirai had already been at the law office even earlier than 7:30 p.m., and she never left—not even a trick could push the time of death back by such a large margin."
Kisaki Eri took off her glasses and pressed her brow in frustration, continuing to think. "Miss Shirai isn't the murderer, but her behavior really is strange. Does she have an accomplice? Or did she somehow know that the victim would be killed tonight?"
As she pondered, a voice came from beside her. "What's wrong?"
Kisaki Eri came back to herself and found Jiang Xia walking over.
After hesitating, Kisaki Eri shook her head and did not voice her suspicions. She was not Mouri Kogoro—without evidence, she would not casually slap someone with the label of murderer.
But...
When she looked at Lawyer Shirai again, her gaze held a little