Jiang Xia continued, "The murderer hurriedly left the scene carrying the Bass Drum case containing the body, along with that fake hand, and went down to the lounge.
"Since he didn't have the lounge key at the time, he had no choice but to temporarily leave the case and the body inside it in the corridor, pretending it was just a piled-up instrument. Then he hid the fake hand in the Guitar's hollow body, carried it with him, and went upstairs to look for a witness—and unfortunately, Ran was the one he picked."
Vermouth: "..." She had a feeling there was something off about the word "unfortunately" in that sentence...
Jiang Xia glanced at her, then quickly swept his gaze away as if nothing had happened, like a Detective casually surveying the crowd during a deduction.
"After bringing Ran back to the lounge entrance, the murderer had her wait outside while he went into the room.
"Once no one was watching, he arranged the blanket, took the fake hand out of the Guitar, and placed it at the edge of the blanket to make it look as though a corpse lay beneath it. Then he pretended to panic and shouted for help. After drawing Ran in, he deliberately ignored the security booth on the same floor and didn't call the police. Instead, he had the only witness run upstairs to find a Detective.
"After sending Ran away, the murderer could calmly go to the corridor, move the body hidden in the instrument case into the room, and hide the fake hand again."
At that point, Jiang Xia paused slightly and took the opportunity to praise the police, who often helped clean up after cases. "In short, Inspector Megure's earlier deduction was not wrong. The murderer really was the last person