Seeing that Shiromoto Hidehiko was neither concealing anything nor putting on a pretense of a perfectly harmonious marriage, Inspector Megure's suspicions toward the husband actually lessened somewhat.
He turned to the next person and asked the manager, "What about you? I remember your conflict with the victim was over removing her from the leading role in a drama?"
"It wasn't my decision to remove her!" the manager immediately corrected him tearfully. "It was the production side's demand! I was doing my best to stop it!"
"All right, all right." Inspector Megure did not press further. The manager truly had little motive. If they insisted on looking at it that way, Bizen Chizuru had more reason to kill him instead.
He made a few notes, then moved on to the next point. "From one-thirty to two-thirty this afternoon, where were each of you, and what were you doing?"
"One-thirty to two-thirty?" The manager immediately realized that was the precise time of death and let out a huge sigh of relief. "At that time, I was out fishing with Mr. Shiromoto! We left after ten in the morning and didn't come back until after seven at night. I absolutely had no time to kill anyone. But..."
As he spoke, he narrowed his eyes at his fishing companion, Shiromoto Hidehiko, looking as though he wanted to say something but held back.
Inspector Megure immediately caught the strong implication and asked Shiromoto Hidehiko, "What about you?"
Shiromoto Hidehiko said, "Like the manager, I was fishing outdoors the whole time."
After a pause, he glanced at the manager, then at Haga Kyosuke, whom he had encountered upon returning. Clearing his throat, he took the initiative to confess. "However, because I forgot to bring my bento at noon, I came back once. It was probably around