The View from the Bridge

After rotating one hundred and eighty degrees, left and right had been reversed. The direction Mochida Kinichi had heard the "digging sounds" coming from changed as well.

—It was now the construction site next to the Mian Guan Residence, where Okiya Subaru and the Detective Boys had happened to play baseball during the day.

Okiya Subaru looked at the helpful bystander still standing there and rubbed his temple.

The "script" Uzo had previously described to him had not included anything related to Mochida Kinichi. He did not know whether that was because this was not a necessary clue, or because Uzo had simply not paid attention to a passerby who happened to be there.

—Uzo was, after all, a genius young executive. Someone like that had to be busy with work. When dealing with a company president of Mian Guan Yi Yi's standing, he had neither the time nor the need to keep watch the entire time. Okiya Subaru thought that after Uzo had put together the script for this case and set events in motion, he probably stopped paying attention. Only later, when he discovered that the case was progressing more slowly than expected, had he sent his subordinate over—both to teach him and to manually push the mission forward.

"..." Wait, if Uzo found out about this, he would not take it out on that bystander, would he?

—A month had passed since Koda Sanae was killed and buried. If this witness had remembered the detail about lighting his cigarette that night any earlier, then with Koda Masao's persistence, he would definitely have dug up the body at the construction site long ago.

Even if the witness had said nothing, Koda Masao would not have kept his eyes solely on Mian Guan Yi Yi's yard. So long as