Jiang Xia thoughtfully gave the police a moment to process that before continuing. "Also, the killer cleverly took advantage of the changing color of the lake. Around two or three in the afternoon, the lake reflects the sunlight and turns a brilliant golden yellow.
"Then the water briefly becomes clear, before reflecting the sunset after four o'clock and turning a vivid crimson.
"Under those conditions, even if a rope were moving through the lake, it would have been difficult for us to notice."
Mouri Ran was still somewhat confused, but then she remembered something and asked curiously, "But when we were looking at the scenery from the second floor earlier, that long bridge was right below us. I remember that no one crossed it after three o'clock. How did the killer get to the tea room?"
Jiang Xia said, "The killer did indeed reach the tea room by way of that long bridge. He just didn't walk across the bridge—he went beneath it.
"This bridge is about half a meter above the water. After leaving the second-floor lounge, the killer only needed to crawl through the bushes beneath the wooden bridge, then swim all the way under it to the tea room in the middle of the lake.
"He avoided the areas we could see and climbed onto the corridor near that sliding door. Then he found an excuse to call the victim out into the corridor, slashed his wrist with a knife, strangled him to death, and arranged the scene as we saw it."
"I see..." The maid, who had returned from the ancestral hall after crying, suddenly realized something. She raised a hand and pointed. "The killer must be Mrs. Yamazaki! I remember, she was the one who discovered the body hanging in the small house on the