Chapter 697: Chapter 439: Bathing Together
"Do you understand?" Minamoto Tamako maintained the pose, "From now on, whenever you need to think, use this pose. When others see it, they won’t dare to disturb you."
Fushimi Rokushin thought this guy sure knows how to posture.
But then he thought about it and realized that detective movies and TV shows these days all seem to have this style.
Whenever the protagonist strikes a ’I’m going to start deducing’ pose, everyone around instantly becomes highly alert and as silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to interrupt. It does have a certain flair.
"Hmm, I’ll give it a try."
Fushimi Roku got interested, took the cane back, imitated Minamoto Tamako, placed both hands on the cane’s handle, leaned forward slightly, and revealed a deep and serious expression, "Like this?"
"Exactly, as long as you strike this pose and show this expression, even if you’re just thinking about what to eat tonight, everyone will just assume you’re seriously deducing."
Minamoto Tamako nodded approvingly, thinking this is the way it should be; how could a detective team not have a signature thinking pose?
Fushimi Roku posed for a while, found it boring, casually put the cane aside, and continued eating with his bowl and chopsticks, "Alright, it’s just the two of us now, let’s not do this."
"You have to make it a habit, so you can naturally strike this pose outside." Minamoto Tamako paused, cupped his hands under the chair, and quickly moved to sit beside Fushimi Roku, "Besides, I’ve already thought it through, we can also strike a combined thinking pose while investigating..."
"What’s a combined thinking pose?" Fushimi Roku began to feel the middle school syndrome vibes.
"I’ll sit at the front with a pipe; you and Sakurako sit behind me, one on each side, it’ll look very impressive." Minamoto Tamako visualized the specific scene in his mind, feeling quite pleased with himself.
"...We’ll talk about it then." Fushimi Roku showed a constipated look, wanting to mock but refraining from knocking down Minamoto Tamako, especially since he just received a ’small gift’ from him.
"Alright."
Minamoto Tamako leaned back on the chair, held an empty pipe, pretended to puff a few times, and his little cherry mouth pouted, making a ’hiss’ suction sound.
Fushimi Roku didn’t say anything, just watched from the side.
Taira Sakurako wanted to express that doing this was silly, planning to show a disdainful expression, but unfortunately, she was expressionless, and such words were not easy to say directly, so she could only hint through blinking.
Minamoto Tamako was deep in thought and didn’t notice Sakurako’s small actions. She puffed in vain for a few minutes, had a flash of inspiration, and said, "Perhaps the alley was not the first crime scene, the killer murdered the two people one after another and dumped the bodies separately..."
"That still doesn’t solve the problem of synchronized death times," Fushimi Roku refuted, "Besides, didn’t the police investigate the bloodstains at the scene? Just a glance at the scene and the volume of bleeding from the wounds would easily determine if the alley was the first crime scene, right?"
"That’s true..." Minamoto Tamako scratched her head.
Fushimi Roku also pondered for a while, then asked, "Isn’t there a possibility that the police’s investigation of the time of death is not accurate."
"How could that be!" Minamoto Tamako had a blind faith in official authoritative information, "Everyone is diligently working, and the forensic experts are professionals, they have to graduate from medical school to get a license!"
"Then how do you explain the simultaneous crimes at both sites?" Fushimi Roku retorted.
"There are many ways to do it, like tricking the wife and mistress into killing each other!" Minamoto Tamako made a sinister face, picked up a chopstick as a dagger, and stuck out her pink tongue to lick it wickedly, "The wife and mistress both get hurt, so to get home quickly, they take a shortcut through the alley, but end up bleeding to death along the way..."
"You just said the alley was the first crime scene," Fushimi Roku interrupted.
Minamoto Tamako’s intelligence decreased significantly when arguing, "Then they both encountered a robber simultaneously..."
"Two eyewitnesses both identified the husband," Fushimi Roku interrupted again, "What, is the robber a triplet of Kujo Hikari, planning to pull off the same heist in two places at once?"
Minamoto Tamako wanted to argue again, thinking to say ’maybe it was just like that’, but then she rethought and realized how stupid it sounded—if Kujo Hikari had two younger brothers, even illegitimate sons, they wouldn’t need to resort to robbery.
The Kujo Family is wealthy, supporting two freeloaders wouldn’t be a problem.
"Then how are you so sure there’s an issue with the time of death?" Minamoto Tamako could only ask back.
"I can’t be sure, it’s just an investigative angle," Fushimi Roku used the same tactic, "If I were a criminal police officer handling the case, I would double-check the specific times of their deaths."
"Ugh, the police have confirmed many times!" Minamoto Tamako said.
"Any corroboration?" Fushimi Roku gave her an out, "You’ve been prying all day, you must have uncovered some key clues, right?"
"There actually is."
Minamoto Tamako was rather proud, she set down the chopsticks, returned to her room, and retrieved a file from under the mattress, taking out two receipts, she returned to the dining table.
"What’s this?"
Fushimi Roku looked down; the two receipts were sealed in plastic bags, he wanted to reach for them, but Minamoto Tamako held him back.
"They’re restaurant receipts."
Minamoto Tamako held the two receipts in her hands, like a crab showing off its pincers; she gestured for Fushimi Roku to look at the receipt on the left, "Look, the wife dined at a Japanese restaurant at six that evening, the setting was very nice, even the flowers for arrangements were real."
"Oh..."
Fushimi Roku cradled the bowl, stretched his neck closer, examined carefully, "Sashimi, mushroom egg roll, cold sea onion salad, kelp braised rice, abalone red miso soup, charcoal-grilled wagyu with matsutake, and red bean ice cream for dessert afterward...damn, ate better than me!"