Chapter 33: A Premonition
Kishida Masayoshi could tell that the comment was meant to mock him. Suppressing his irritation, he reminded himself not to take it personally—after all, she was just a high school girl. He got into the car without another word.
Kagehara Tetsuya followed, buckling his seatbelt before speaking. "Earlier, when you asked if ĹŚshima Masaki knew any high school girls, were you thinking he might have had information about the Makeup Hunter case?"
"Something like that," Kishida replied, not in a hurry to start the car. Instead, he gripped the steering wheel and glanced over. "Now that we’ve met ĹŚshima Mana, have you remembered anything about Kagehara Tetsuya? Like where he might be hiding?"
"If I knew where he was, I wouldn’t need to investigate with you, would I?" Tetsuya deflected, then changed the subject. "Didn’t we agree that after meeting ĹŚshima Mana, we’d go check out the hot spring inn? If you’re not going, I’ll head there myself."
Kishida had no choice but to start the car and drive toward the inn. Along the way, he asked, "Do you think Hasebe Koichi killed ĹŚshima Masaki over money? You seemed very focused on that earlier."
"I think it’s possible," Tetsuya nodded. "A man like that wouldn’t kill for something as trivial as emotions. If he suddenly came into a large sum of money and didn’t want to share it with ĹŚshima Masaki, he might take the risk."
"But if he killed someone, he’d become a suspect, and the money would be useless to him. Wouldn’t that be counterproductive? Even if he killed for profit, I doubt it would be in such an obvious way," Kishida argued.
Booking a room at the inn and then calling ĹŚshima Masaki there to kill him—wasn’t that basically telling the police he was the murderer?
"Then I’m not sure. Maybe there were other reasons besides money," Tetsuya speculated carelessly.
"Like what?"
"For example, to silence someone. Killing ĹŚshima Masaki might have been risky, but not killing him could have been even riskier." Seeing Kishida nod slightly, acknowledging the possibility, Tetsuya added, "And what does it matter if the police suspect him? Even if they find Hasebe now, do they have enough evidence to detain him? At most, they can question him for 24 hours under the pretext of assisting the investigation."
Kishida sighed and fell silent. He wondered why all the cases he handled were so bizarre. Couldn’t he get a normal case for once?
Soon, they arrived at the hot spring inn. As usual, there were few guests. The clerk on duty at the front desk was the same one Tetsuya had spoken to before. When he saw Kishida, his expression soured. "Hey, you cops are really annoying, aren’t you? Weren’t you just here this morning? What do you want now? Instead of catching murderers, you’re here harassing ordinary people like me? Bunch of tax-wasting nuisances!"
Kishida’s face froze in an awkward expression. "Hey, it’s not me. The police have already finished their investigation. This time, it’s her." He pointed to Tetsuya behind him.
Tetsuya watched Kishida’s expression with interest. It seemed that after their phone call that morning, Kishida had immediately sent someone to search the inn. He must have suspected that Tetsuya had some ulterior motive for suggesting they visit the inn.
If the clerk hadn’t called him out, Kishida would probably have kept it to himself.
Feeling uncomfortable under Tetsuya’s gaze, Kishida looked up at the ceiling and then turned his back to review his notes, determined not to meet her eyes.
"Ah... you’re Yomikawa, right? I remember you," the clerk said, his tone shifting to one of enthusiasm when addressing the girl. "You were the one who reminded me that day. Thank you so much. By the way, my name is Takamaya Yahara."
"Takamaya-san, hello," Tetsuya turned around with a smile. "I have a few questions I’d like to ask you. I hope I’m not causing any trouble."
Takamaya scratched his head and laughed. "How could it be trouble? Ask away, Yomikawa-san."
"Is the room Kagehara Tetsuya stayed in on June 9th still empty? I’d like to take a look inside."
"Empty, empty. Let me find the key... here it is. I’ll take you there myself!"
Takamaya seemed to have forgotten about the surveillance cameras as he grabbed the key and led them to the room by the stairs.
The room was exactly as it had been on the night of June 9th. Tetsuya entered and began inspecting it carefully.
"After the incident, no one has stayed in this room. Besides the police search, our boss also organized a search. But we didn’t find any secret passages or hidden doors that could make someone disappear—not even a loose tatami mat."
As Tetsuya examined the room, Takamaya leaned against the door, chattering nonstop.
"Hey, Mr. Detective, you guys suspect Kagehara Tetsuya is the killer, right? I’m telling you, he’s not the murderer. I talked to him, and there’s no way he’s the kind of guy who would kill someone. I suggest you stop investigating him—it’s a waste of effort."
"By the way, that night when you were in the room, did you really not notice anything? A person can’t just vanish into thin air. In my opinion, he probably left through the window. The gaps in the guardrail are small, but maybe he found a way to squeeze through?"
Kishida pursed his lips at the clerk’s analysis. Initially, some within the police had also thought that Kagehara Tetsuya had escaped through the window. Matsushita Makoto, in particular, believed that Yomikawa Tsuko must have helped—perhaps by prying open the guardrail together and then restoring it after Tetsuya left.
However, after conducting experiments, the police found this to be impossible. The guardrail outside the window was quite sturdy, and forcing it open would have made noise, making it impossible to restore it to its original state silently.
Of course, since no other method of escape could be determined, Matsushita Makoto still firmly believed this was the correct answer—it was just that Kagehara Tetsuya and Yomikawa Tsuko had used some special technique.
Tetsuya ignored the clerk’s rambling, thinking to himself: On the night of June 9th, was there something here that exchanged my voice with my senpai’s?
But after inspecting the room, he found nothing unusual. He turned back and asked, "Takamaya-san, that night, did you hear any strange noises from the front desk?"
Takamaya shook his head without hesitation. It seemed Tetsuya wasn’t the first to ask him this.
"What about smells? Did you notice any unusual odors?" The Yomikawa villa was much larger than the inn’s room. If the entity that appeared emitted a sticky, sleep-inducing scent, the clerk at the front desk should have noticed it, just as Tetsuya had detected it in the living room the previous night.
"Smells?" This was a new question. Takamaya thought for a moment, then shook his head again. "No, I didn’t notice any smells."
Tetsuya pressed on, unwilling to let it go. "Maybe you were too tired and didn’t notice?"
His focus on this question made Kishida take notice as well. "Are you suggesting that Kagehara Tetsuya used something to make you fall asleep in the room? But when we searched the room, we didn’t find any traces of such a substance."
"Something like sleeping incense?" Takamaya was startled. "That night, I wasn’t drowsy at all. I was fully awake until the body was discovered. As for whether there was any sleeping incense, I can’t say."
Tetsuya pursed his lips. This was strange. Why hadn’t the bizarre events from last night occurred at the inn? He had a growing feeling that this was a crucial question. Perhaps solving this mystery would unlock the secret of Lord Mask-Taker.
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