"What?!"
It wasn't just the people behind the screen who were shocked; everyone in the store was as well.
Like Curacao, the store manager looked as though he'd been struck by lightning. After a long pause, he forced an ugly smile. "Me? How could I possibly be the killer? Miss Chizuru died at noon, and I was with all of you at the Highland the whole time! Have you forgotten?"
Officer Sato looked the store manager up and down, then finally couldn't resist asking curiously, "Why is he a man with wings?"
Jiang Xia waved toward the door. Officer Takagi and another officer carried in a long bundle packed in a cylindrical bag, grunting as they hauled it through the entrance. Officer Takagi wiped away his sweat and asked Jiang Xia for confirmation. "This is it, right?"
Inspector Megure had long grown used to these subordinates who ran all over the place without telling him. Numbly but skillfully, he asked, "What is this?"
Wearing gloves, Officer Takagi carefully unpacked it as he reported to his superior, "This is what we found in the rooftop storage room, as Jiang Xia instructed—a Hang Glider."
The other young officer, already in a cheerful mood at the prospect of getting off work, added, "We also found marks on the rooftop wall, directly above the victim's room, left by rope rubbing against it."
"I see!" Inspector Megure vaguely felt that he understood. A scene formed in his mind:
"In other words, at noon, the store manager, who had gone to the Highland with everyone else, secretly put on this Hang Glider and glided all the way back to the hotel from the Highland, landing on the flat roof.
"Then he used a rope to lower himself onto the balcony of the victim's room, killed her