Waiting until Yasuie Itou's emotions had settled slightly, the chubby Detective Chiba resumed his questioning.
"The security guard on the first floor mentioned you came back just before twelve o'clock. Can you tell us about that in detail?"
"I wanted to show my mom the car models today," the blonde-haired man said.
"I arrived a little after eleven, but when I rang the doorbell, no one answered."
"I thought everyone must have gone out, so I took a walk in the nearby park to kill some time, and just came back now."
"If I had known Mom was going to hang herself later, I definitely would have waited at the door! Sob... Mom!"
While everyone was comforting the blonde Yasuie, Yuu Hoshimiya quietly pulled the little maid, Sakurako Yonehara, into a side room.
He had a few questions he wanted to ask her.
Finding herself alone in a room with Yuu, Sakurako immediately grew nervous. Unsure of what to do with her hands, she clutched her somewhat worn apron tightly.
Looking at the adorable little maid, Yuu chuckled softly.
"Sakurako-chan, don't be nervous. I don't bite. I just have a few questions for you."
Sakurako nodded, lifting her head to meet his gaze. When she saw Yuu's eyes, which seemed to spark with electricity, her cheeks flushed red again.
Seeing the little maid's shy demeanor, Yuu decided not to tease her further and got straight to the point. "Miss Yonehara, you mentioned earlier that the moment you opened the front door, you heard the bedroom door slam shut."
"There are so many doors in this apartment, and you can't even see the bedroom from the entrance. How were you so sure the sound came from the bedroom door?"
Sakurako rested her face in her hand, trying to recall.
"Um... because after I came in, I saw that all the other doors were open. Only the bedroom door was closed, so I assumed the sound came from the bedroom where the Madam was."
Listening to Sakurako from up close, Yuu realized her voice was incredibly childlike—a very cute "baby voice."
It was an extremely pleasant sound, one that easily stirred a man's desire to conquer.
He couldn't help but lean forward, his large hand resting on the wall beside Sakurako, unintentionally trapping her in a "kabedon."
The little maid was startled, her back pressing flat against the wall as her heart rate accelerated.
Smelling Yuu's masculine scent, Sakurako's mind began to wander to slightly romantic thoughts.
However, she quickly recalled the scene of Yuu and Yumi Miyamoto being affectionately lovey-dovey earlier, and she immediately forced herself to calm down.
"When you discovered the body, was the bedroom window open?"
Sakurako looked surprised. "Eh? Consultant Hoshimiya, how did you know?"
"Because the open window was blowing cold air directly onto the Madam's body. Mr. Itou said it was too pitiful to let the cold wind blow on her like that, so he asked me to close it."
Yuu nodded. "I see. Sakurako-chan, thank you for cooperating with the investigation."
"As a reward... didn't you want my autograph?"
As he spoke, Yuu picked up a notebook and pen from a nearby table, signed his name with a flourish, and handed the notebook to Sakurako.
"While I'd hope you'd keep my autograph, I won't mind if you decide to sell it for rent money."
Hearing this, Sakurako immediately felt embarrassed.
Yuu couldn't resist reaching out to pat Sakurako's twin-bun hairstyle. The action caused the cute little maid to freeze instantly.
"Sakurako, let's go back out."
It wasn't until Yuu called her that the little maid snapped back to reality, only to find Yuu already gone from in front of her.
Sakurako couldn't help but touch her burning cheeks, then thought of the beautiful traffic cop outside and sighed.
"What are you thinking about, Sakurako?!"
She shook her head, pulled herself together, and trotted back out to the hallway.
This case had already taken up too much time. Seeing Miwako's inquiring gaze, Yuu offered a slight smile and began his deduction.
"Since everyone involved in this case is present, I'll begin."
The chubby Chiba couldn't help but ask, "Consultant Hoshimiya, the Itou family's son has appeared, but we haven't found the guy with the scarf and sunglasses the security guard mentioned. How can you say everyone is here?"
Yuu raised an eyebrow. "Because that guy is right here at the scene. He is the true culprit of this case—the master of this house, Mr. Eishin Itou."
Hearing this, a flash of panic crossed Eishin Itou's eyes.
"Consultant Hoshimiya, you must be joking! I was with the maid the entire time!"
"How could I possibly murder my own wife? Are you suggesting the maid and I colluded?"
His blonde son, Yasuie, also hurriedly shook his head. "Consultant Hoshimiya, could you be mistaken? How could my dad commit murder? The person who died is my mom!"
"I'm sorry, but I haven't made a mistake. And you may not know this, but when one spouse is murdered, the other is naturally the prime suspect. There's official data to back that up."
Yuu turned his gaze to Eishin Itou.
"I recall in your earlier testimony, you said you separated from Sakurako for a while while grocery shopping at the supermarket?"
Eishin Itou quickly defended himself. "That's because I went to the smoking area. Besides, when we got home, Chiyoko was still alive, wasn't she? She even slammed the door."
"I was with the maid the whole time after that. When would I have had the time to commit murder?"
Yuu shook his head. "Incorrect. Who said Chiyoko was still alive at that time? When you first got home, she had actually already been strangled by you and hung from the light fixture."
"You simply used basic air pressure to create the illusion of someone closing the bedroom door."
"The trick is quite simple. You close the windows in all the other rooms, leaving only the bedroom window open as the sole ventilation point."
"The moment the front door is opened, the only exit for the air is the bedroom window. The airflow will rush toward the bedroom, and the wind will slam the door shut for you."
"After that, you just needed to stand with Miss Yonehara outside the bedroom, pretend to call your wife, and then not open the door."
"You couldn't let anyone discover your wife was already dead because you wanted to create a time discrepancy—shifting the estimated time of death from between 11:00 and 11:30 to between 11:30 and 12:00."
"And during that time, you were with Sakurako in the kitchen, giving you a perfect alibi."
The blonde son still looked as if he couldn't believe it.
He seemed to think of something and couldn't help but speak up. "No, Consultant Hoshimiya. The trick you described doesn't work."
"If my dad really was that masked man, how did he leave after killing my mom?"
"This is the 18th floor; you can't climb down from outside the window. But if he opened the front door to leave, as you said, the draft would immediately slam the bedroom door shut. It wouldn't stay open until the moment others opened the front door later."
Yuu chuckled, a glint flashing in his deep, dark red eyes. The little maid Sakurako was so mesmerized she couldn't help but get starry-eyed again.
"That's where the phone scattered on the floor by the bedroom door comes in."
"You just need to wedge that phone into the gap between the door and the frame connecting to the main entrance. When you open the door to leave, the bedroom door naturally won't close on its own."
"Later, you just call that phone—which you've set to vibrate mode—and let it vibrate until it falls out of the gap. Once it does, the mechanism is officially triggered."
"Wouldn't that work perfectly?"
Hearing this, the blonde son still stared at his father in total disbelief.
He shook his head, muttering, "That's impossible... That's impossible!"
Eishin Itou didn't dare meet his son's gaze.
"Consultant Hoshimiya, everything you've said is just your theory. None of it is true. Didn't Chiyoko leave a suicide note? It's clearly a suicide!"
Just then, a police officer handling the search ran in.
"Inspector Sato, according to the analysis results, the suicide note was indeed written by the victim herself."
A glimmer of hope immediately sparked in Eishin Itou's eyes. "Consultant Hoshimiya, listen to that! Listen! It's Chiyoko's own handwriting. She really did commit suicide."
Watching Eishin Itou still stubbornly resisting, Yuu let out a sigh.
"This suicide note is indeed written in Chiyoko's own hand, but it wasn't written today."
"It was written four years ago, on that plane that made the emergency landing."
"Because the plane was shaking violently, Chiyoko's handwriting became very messy."
"And her usual habit is to sign as just 'Chiyoko.' She specifically added her surname, making it 'Chiyoko Itou,' because she was afraid you wouldn't be able to claim it. Adding the surname made it easier for categorization and claiming later."
"And four years ago, your niece was exactly three years old—the perfect age to participate in the Shichi-Go-San festival."
"Your son had just graduated from high school and was preparing for his university entrance exams, not his driving test like he is now. That matches up as well."
"As for the injury mentioned in the note, I recall you saying earlier, Mr. Eishin, that you broke your leg skiing, which is why your wife took that flight alone."
"In other words, before the plane crash, you were injured, which is why it was mentioned in the suicide note."
"Everything matches perfectly. So, Mr. Eishin, do you have any explanation for this?"
Once Yuu finished speaking, both father and son could no longer hold themselves up and collapsed to the floor.
But at that moment, Miwako picked up the phone with the red case and checked the call log.
She couldn't help but say, "Yuu-kun, but this phone hasn't received any calls today!"
Hearing this, a glimmer of hope returned to the blonde Yasuie Itou's eyes.
He looked at Yuu pleadingly. "Consultant Hoshimiya, see? Could you have made a mistake?"
"The inspector just said no one called. How could the phone have vibrated and fallen out of the door gap?"
Yuu turned his head and asked Sakurako Yonehara.
"Miss Yonehara, what did you do after finding the phone by the bedroom door?"
Sakurako tilted her head, trying to remember. "I think I picked it up, took a quick look, and as soon as I confirmed it was the Madam's, Mr. Itou took it from me and put it in his pants pocket."
"Then, Sakurako, aside from touching the victim's phone with the red case, did you touch any other phone belonging to someone in this house?"
Sakurako shook her head with certainty.
"Definitely not. We're trained by our company never to casually touch our clients' personal items. If the phone hadn't been on the floor, I wouldn't have picked it up."
Hearing this, a smile curled on Yuu's lips.
"Then I understand. Mr. Eishin, would you mind taking out your own phone so we can take a look?"
"If my guess is correct, your phone should be the exact same model as your wife's. The only difference is that your wife's phone has a red case."