Mouri Kogoro had once been a police officer and was now a detective. No matter which identity he took, he was still something of an expert when it came to Murder Cases.
The moment he heard it, he knew the police suspected Sayuri Shimamura—when a Murder Case occurred, checking the victim's acquaintances first was indeed a fairly effective standard procedure.
"Don't worry! Miss Shimamura is innocent." Thinking of this, Mouri Kogoro smacked his chest twice.
He glanced at Sato Miwako, then at Jiang Xia, who was listening quietly from the sidelines. "After I parted ways with Ran and Jiang Xia, I drank with a friend for a while, then took the train back. I checked the time while waiting for the train—it was exactly seven thirty in the evening. The two stations aren't far apart, so I arrived at Beika Station before eight.
"After that, while I was heading home, I ran into Miss Shimamura at the back door of Beika Middle School—that's over there." Mouri Kogoro walked to the balcony and pointed outside. "She said she knew a good spot where you could see Toto Beach Bridge, so we went for a joyride together."
"By the time we got there, it was around eight thirty. We had some drinks and chatted for an hour and a half.
"Then we left after ten to head home. We stopped by Miss Shimamura's company on the way, and by then, it was already ten fifty—the time when we called the police."
Sayuri Shimamura had been listening silently as well.
At that last sentence, she carefully added, "I run an import company over in Asahi Town. I only stopped by to pick up some documents."
As she spoke, although she was looking at Sato Miwako, her peripheral vision kept drifting toward Jiang Xia.