Another sleepless night.
After washing up, Ritsu walked over to the bed and directly yanked the blanket away. Staring at Shinichi still curled up asleep, his expression darkened.
'I really envy guys who sleep like dead pigs. I deliberately made so much noise earlier, and he still slept through it all…'
'Looks like I'll have to use my ultimate move.'
Leaning down, Ritsu raised his voice and said, "Hey, Kudo. A case happened."
"What?!"
Shinichi instantly launched himself upright from the bed. If Ritsu's reflexes hadn't been quick enough, his chin definitely would've suffered a headbutt.
Speechless, he twitched the corner of his mouth.
'So this really was the only way to wake him up.'
"What's wrong, Sensei?"
"Hurry up and wash up. I made breakfast."
"Oh, okay."
After freshening up in the bathroom, Shinichi headed down to the dining room on the first floor. But the moment he opened the door, he smelled something strange.
'What was that burnt smell?'
When he saw the unidentified black substance sitting on the white plate at the table, Shinichi felt things were heading in a very strange direction.
The breakfast he had looked forward to turned out to be this?
'Was this really food and not poison?'
Carefully pinching one corner of it with his fingers, he poked it with a butter knife.
'Good lord, it was hard.'
"Sensei… this is…?"
"Bread."
"Huh?"
Ritsu calmly ate a perfectly normal slice of toast that had escaped his "special preparation" and answered,
"Can't you tell at a glance that it's toasted bread? Eat it with gratitude."
'Sorry, Sensei, but I'm not ready for my life to permanently end at sixteen.'
Shinichi felt like the toast could probably be used as charcoal for sketching. Quietly putting it down, he laughed awkwardly.
"I-I'll go pour myself some milk."
Ritsu glanced at his own masterpiece and honestly felt speechless himself.
Who would've thought that after not cooking for a year, his culinary skill could devolve from "possibly edible sticky substance" into "absolutely inedible dark matter"?
Originally, they had planned to head to the hospital to pick up Sonoko and the others, but Tetsuji still hadn't passed the critical stage. Worried about her sister, Sonoko chose to stay at the hospital, and Ran stayed to support her best friend.
Standing at the crime scene waiting for the local police to arrive, Ritsu knew he couldn't act on his own since this wasn't his jurisdiction.
About fifteen minutes later, a police officer who didn't look particularly bright strode toward them energetically.
He had thick eyebrows, big eyes, and a hairstyle resembling coral.
What a uniquely awful hairstyle.
"Hello, I'm Assistant Inspector Yokomizo Sango from Shizuoka Prefecture Police. Are you two the ones who reported the incident?"
"Yes. I'm Onizawa Takashi from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. At 11:30 last night, I witnessed the crime scene. The victim is currently still undergoing emergency treatment at the hospital and has not yet passed the critical stage."
'Someone from MPD Headquarters? A fellow officer?!'
Yokomizo sized up Ritsu's appearance.
Handsome face, but why was his hair color so strange?
Albino?
Didn't really look like it.
"My hair color is natural," Ritsu said with a smile.
"Ah, sorry… it's just uncommon, so I stared a bit too long." Yokomizo coughed awkwardly before continuing seriously:
"Could you two please describe what happened last night?"
After Ritsu recounted what they had witnessed, he deliberately chose not to completely clear Yuzo of suspicion.
Instead, he wanted to observe the reactions of the other two suspects who would soon arrive… Especially whether they would try to shift the blame.
At the same time, he privately suggested something to Yokomizo. Do not reveal that the victim was still alive and undergoing surgery.
Instead, announce that he had already died.
"Onizawa-san, I'm here."
The moment Yuzo appeared, Yokomizo, who currently regarded him as the prime suspect, immediately stepped forward. Two officers also closed in from behind, ready to restrain him at any moment.
"Are you Tomizawa Yuzo?"
"Yes, I am."
"You murdered your father, Tomizawa Tetsuji, didn't you?"
Yuzo's eyes widened in shock. He hurriedly looked toward Ritsu beside him and anxiously exclaimed,
"Killed my father? But my father isn't—"
Before he could finish, he noticed Ritsu blinking twice at him. Receiving the signal, Yuzo awkwardly changed his words.
"I-I could never kill my father! That's impossible!"
'What a stiff acting.'
Still, for someone bad at lying and with zero acting talent, it barely passed. The two officers immediately restrained Yuzo. While struggling, he cooperated by shouting,
"Let go of me! I didn't kill my father!"
"What's going on, Yuzo? Did you do something bad?"
Yuzo turned around and saw his second older brother, Tomizawa Tatsuji.
Thinking that his brother might actually be the one who tried to murder their father left his emotions extremely conflicted.
"Brother… you came."
"What happened? Why are there police all over the villa?"
Tatsuji turned toward the man behind him, who looked nearly identical except for a different hairstyle and a mustache.
"Hey, Taichi-Bro, looks like something happened."
"Well, that works out perfectly. I was just worrying about lacking material for my next novel."
Hearing Tomizawa Taichi say that, Ritsu felt utterly speechless.
What an unbelievably "filial" son.
Hearing that something terrible had happened at his family villa actually made him happy. If Tetsuji heard that, he'd probably wake up from the hospital bed out of sheer rage.
Seriously, what a devoted son.
"Alright, Yuzo-san, you'll need to come back to the station with us."
"Wait, Officer Yokomizo!"
"What is it?" Yokomizo asked in confusion.
"What we saw last night was only the culprit's eyes and eyebrows. We had no idea Yuzo-san had two older brothers who looked exactly like him!"
As expected from the son of an actress. Shinichi's acting was honestly impressive. He completely looked like someone who had only just learned this information.
"I see. So the culprit is one of these three?"
Tatsuji snorted coldly. With both hands shoved into his pockets, he looked more like a thug than a wealthy heir.
"Hah! I was still in Okinawa last night on a business trip for the company. I only got back three hours ago on the earliest flight this morning."
"You two, go verify that information."
Yokomizo was quite serious about his work and didn't blindly trust the suspect's claims. He immediately ordered his subordinates to verify the alibi.
"There's no need to verify it. He's lying."
Tatsuji's expression changed slightly. "Hah?! Who the hell are you to say I'm lying?!"
"Because of the weather. Okinawa's been hit by typhoons, so flights have been delayed. The timeline you gave is incorrect."
Using his height advantage, Ritsu looked down at him coldly.
"So? Are you going to tell the truth yourself, or should the police investigate and expose your lie for you?"
Knowing there would be no way to argue once they checked, Tatsuji finally gave up. "Yeah! I lied! But I didn't come back to kill anyone. I came back to see Hiromi!"
"Hiromi?"
"Yeah. She's my fiancée. I heard she was sick, so I got worried and secretly came back."
When mentioning his fiancée, Tatsuji's expression softened noticeably. "Father has always opposed our marriage, so I lied about it."
"So that means you don't actually have an alibi either," Shinichi muttered while rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
Tatsuji definitely had a motive for murder. But somehow… He didn't feel like the culprit.
Which meant there was only one suspect left.
Could it really be him?
"Officer, I have something that may or may not count as an alibi," Taichi suddenly said.
"Hm? What is it?"
"You'll have to come to the villa. Around the estimated time of the attack, I called Father. He didn't answer, so I left a voicemail."
"Alright. Let's go then."
Yuzo deliberately lagged behind instead of walking together with his brothers. Slowing his pace, he approached Ritsu and quietly whispered,
"Onizawa-san, why did you make me lie? And isn't Father still in surgery?"
"It's to lower the real culprit's guard. Besides, right now you're still the prime suspect."
"Huh? But…"
"I know you're not the culprit." Ritsu glanced at him calmly. "But from here on out, I need you to cooperate with us."
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