"The color of blood isn't this vivid," Hayashi Shuichi said, touching the red substance and sniffing it. "…This is paint."
"Paint?" Ootomo Hiroki asked, puzzled. "Where would paint come from in the inn…?"
His gaze shifted to Akita Keito, who was still retching.
"Why are you looking at me?" Akita Keito said, bewildered.
"When I asked you if Kaho-san disliked being photographed, you told me," Ootomo Hiroki said gravely, "that when we first arrived at the inn, you saw a woman's silhouette enter Room 201, but only Togo Ryu came out."
"Yeah, I said that. So what?" Akita Keito nodded, wiping his mouth with a tissue.
"After Togo Ryu went to the cliff to look for someone, the rest of us were on the first floor of the inn. Only you…" Ootomo Hiroki continued, "only you were upstairs bathing for so long. You had plenty of time to go to the cliff."
"Why would I go to the cliff for no reason?" Akita Keito said, confused. "I took so long because the paint was hard to wash off."
Togo's wife, her eyes red with fury, glared at Akita Keito.
"Ryu grew up in this inn, he knew the area like the back of his hand. There's no way he'd fall off a cliff!"
"It was you! You found out his secret and killed him in a rage!"
"What are you talking about?" Akita Keito flinched. "What secret? I didn't kill anyone!"
"I'll make you pay for Ryu's life!" Togo's wife screamed, lunging at Akita Keito.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Akita Keito, caught off guard, was tackled to the ground.
The innkeeper's wife, like a woman possessed, strangled Akita Keito's neck, ignoring his struggles and kicks.
Akita Keito's face quickly turned red.
Moriyama Kenta rushed to pull her off.
Ootomo Hiroki pleaded, "Mrs. Togo, let go, or Akita-san will die!"
"I want him dead!" she shrieked, her expression crazed. "He killed Ryu! He'll pay with his life!"
The three girls stood frozen, terrified.
At the critical moment, Hayashi Shuichi struck the back of Mrs. Togo's neck with a hand chop, knocking her out.
Akita Keito shoved her off, scrambling back in panic. "What's going on? When did I kill anyone?"
"I checked the wound on Togo Ryu's head," Hayashi Shuichi said. "It's shallow, not from a ten-meter fall off a cliff."
"So someone knocked Togo-san out with a rock on the cliff and pushed him off?" Hime Eri mused. "And the paint on his head came from a struggle with the killer…"
"The only one here with paint on them and the time to do it is you, Akita-san," Ootomo Hiroki said coldly. "Looks like you killed Togo Ryu!"
"That's nonsense! I'd never kill anyone!" Akita Keito's voice trembled. "You're all crazy. I'm leaving!"
He bolted toward the inn.
Ootomo Hiroki chased and grabbed him, with Moriyama Kenta helping to restrain him.
…
At the inn,
Akita Keito, still protesting his innocence, was now tightly bound.
The unconscious Mrs. Togo had been carried back and lay on the sofa.
Though Moriyama Kenta had already called the police about a missing person, Hayashi Shuichi, skeptical of the Japanese police's efficiency, called the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's First Investigation Division again.
Hanging up, he returned to the living room just as Fujimine Yukiko asked, puzzled, "Mrs. Togo said Akita-san killed him because he discovered Togo-san's secret. What secret?"
"How should I know?" Akita Keito, lying on the floor, roared through gritted teeth. "I didn't kill anyone!"
"Maybe you didn't," Hayashi Shuichi shook his head. "But can you honestly say you didn't know the secret?"
"I…" Akita Keito froze, his face paling as he gagged.
"Onii-chan," Reiko blinked curiously. "What's the secret?"
Hayashi Shuichi glanced at the clueless Moriyama Kenta and the stern Ootomo Hiroki.
"The secret is that Mio-san, Kaho-san, and Ono-san… they're all Togo Ryu."
"What?"
The three girls froze.
"You're saying he…" Moriyama Kenta's jaw dropped, something clicking. Moments later, he muttered, "No wonder he seemed familiar. No wonder Yukiko only kissed but never stayed the night…"
He shuddered, revolted.
"Did you get it wrong?" Hime Eri rubbed her arms in disgust. "A man posing as a woman, deceiving three men? That's insane."
"Hayashi-kun is right," Akita Keito said with a bitter laugh. "I only realized it was Togo Ryu after seeing his purple underwear."
"That sexy lingerie was a gift from me, meant to coax Kaho into wearing it in bed, but he refused to stay the night…"
Seeing the girls' disbelief, Hayashi Shuichi explained, "At the inn's entrance, Ootomo-san and I saw a woman at the second-floor window, but she vanished when we entered."
"That woman was Togo Ryu. He must've been startled seeing Ootomo-san."
"To avoid being caught, Togo Ryu, still in women's clothing, left Room 206, locked it, and slipped into Room 201 across the hall."
"Akita-san saw a woman enter Room 201 then. We were blocking the second-floor hallway, so Togo Ryu couldn't escape."
"When Mrs. Togo went downstairs for the key, she took five or six minutes for a simple task because she was also tossing her son's men's clothes into Room 201 from outside."
"Once Togo Ryu got the clothes, he changed out of the women's outfit, washed off his makeup, and walked out openly."
"The men's underwear that fell from the eaves onto the umbrella is proof—it must've slipped out when Mrs. Togo threw the clothes."
(Chapter End)
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