here you go, bonus chap at 260 PS
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The door opened, revealing a woman wearing an oversized dark red sleeveless T-shirt. Her skin was a healthy wheat color, and because of her tall stature, she looked quite imposing overall.
Most importantly… the sleeveless shirt perfectly showcased her developed deltoids and triceps.
Shinichi subconsciously swallowed.
The circumference of those upper arms was practically twice his own. One punch from her probably hurt even more than one from Ran.
Her height matched his deduction, and even her muscular physique fit one of the killer's characteristics, great physical strength.
"Inspector, did you need something from me?" Eguchi looked toward Ritsu and asked.
After hearing her question, Ritsu smiled. "Eguchi-san, there are a few things I'd like to ask you. Would it be alright if we talked for a bit?"
Perhaps it was the smile on Ritsu's face, or maybe the fact that there was a young high school student standing behind him, but Eguchi visibly relaxed.
"Sure. Please come in, Inspector."
Eguchi's apartment was fairly tidy. Beside the television stand in the living room sat several sets of dumbbells of varying sizes and there was also quite a bit of exercise equipment near the balcony. It was obvious she was a woman who loved fitness.
There were even several containers of protein powder on the coffee table.
Ritsu couldn't help but think to himself, 'She's really obsessed with muscles… she's already built like that and still wants to bulk up more?'
Walking into the open kitchen area, Eguchi picked up a blender filled with a drink that resembled tomato smoothie and asked, "Inspector, would you like a glass?"
"Sure, thanks."
When the two glasses of suspicious-looking tomato smoothie were placed in front of them, Ritsu caught a strange smell before even lifting the cup.
'Why did this smoothie smell weird? Was that… chicken?'
Staring at the thick drink in the glass, Shinichi asked curiously, "Is this tomato smoothie?"
"Nope. It's a muscle-building, fat-loss drink made by blending tomatoes and chicken breast together. It actually tastes pretty good."
A drink made from blended chicken breast. The two exchanged looks, neither daring to find out what it tasted like.
Ritsu deliberately changed the subject and asked, "Eguchi-san, why did you lie?"
Eguchi, who had been drinking the chicken breast juice, immediately panicked upon hearing that question from Ritsu. She suddenly burst into coughing, clearly choking on the drink.
"Cough—cough cough!!"
After finally calming down, her face flushed red as her eyes darted around nervously. "I-I… Inspector, what are you talking about? I didn't lie. This drink really does taste pretty good."
Hearing that, Ritsu lowered his head and chuckled softly without saying a word. But when he raised his head again, the smile on his face vanished as though it had never existed.
His emotionless voice left Eguchi utterly speechless.
"How did you know I'm an inspector, Eguchi-san? And…" Ritsu smiled as he patted Shinichi's shoulder. "You also seemed to know he isn't a police officer."
"I…"
"Let me help you come up with a reasonable explanation. After being questioned by the police about your alibi, you became curious about the case in the apartment building, so you stood in the hallway and eavesdropped on our conversation."
"R-Right, I was just curious, so I stood in the hall—" Eguchi's expression instantly stiffened. She hurriedly covered her mouth and lowered her head, realizing she had misspoken.
Fully satisfied with his successful verbal trap, Ritsu looked over the size of the sleeveless shirt she was wearing and calmly voiced a deduction that shocked both Yuki and Shinichi.
"The yellow T-shirt on the victim, Yoshiko Yositaka… belongs to you, doesn't it?"
"…"
A brief silence filled the living room. The only sound was Eguchi's increasingly frantic breathing.
Shinichi unconsciously adopted the pose Sherlock Holmes liked to use while thinking, fingertips pressed together in front of his nose. Though, since they were in someone else's home, he refrained from curling up on the chair with his legs.
Just from her saying "Inspector," he deduced that she had been eavesdropping on them?
What a bold guess.
And he even identified the shirt size with the naked eye. Considering how muscular Eguchi was, even oversized clothing looked relatively small on her frame.
If Ritsu knew what Shinichi was thinking, he would probably shake his head and explain that what he truly relied on was Eguchi's microexpressions.
From the wariness she showed when first opening the door to how quickly she lost composure after he baited her into a trap, it all proved she was hiding something.
But that level of psychological fragility also suggested, indirectly, that she wasn't the killer.
"I know you're hiding something, so stop trying to carefully word lies to deceive the police. Obstructing an investigation or fabricating false testimony is a criminal offense. Under Article 169 of the law, making false statements is punishable by three months to ten years of imprisonment."
Ritsu stared directly at Eguchi's pale face and smiled meaningfully. "So, Eguchi-san, could you stop wasting your effort making up lies? Just tell us what you know."
Realizing that failing to explain herself would make her a prime suspect in the eyes of the police, Eguchi cautiously looked toward Takashi Onizawa and asked softly,
"Inspector… if I tell the truth, will you believe me?"
"If what you say is true, then naturally I'll believe you."
For some reason, the moment she looked into those calm crimson eyes, Eguchi settled down instead.
She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, trying to recall the memory she desperately wished to forget.
"Actually… I was the first person to discover the body. But after I saw that the victim was wearing the T-shirt I had just bought… I was afraid the police would think I was the killer, so I pretended not to know anything and didn't report it."
Unable to stop himself, Shinichi asked, "Do you remember what time that was?"
Yuki glanced at Ritsu, unsure whether she should answer a high school student's question. After receiving silent permission through his gaze, she replied,
"I got home around 1:30 in the morning. That car happened to be parked in my parking spot, so I looked over at it."
"Then where's your car?"
"I don't have a driver's license, so I never bought one. My parking space is usually empty." Yuki lowered her head and continued,
"At the time, the trunk of the sedan was open. I wanted to close it out of courtesy, but the moment I got closer, I smelled rust. When I looked carefully, I saw a woman curled up inside!"
"I was terrified. I checked for breathing and realized she was already dead. Then, to make things worse, she was wearing my clothes!"
Hearing that, Shinichi questioned, "Didn't you think about removing the victim's clothes? That would've eliminated suspicion toward you."
"I did think about it, but I was scared… I can't even kill fish normally. There's no way I'd dare touch a corpse. So I just slammed the trunk shut and ran back home."
Having carefully observed her expressions the entire time, Ritsu finally asked, "Did you know the victim, Yoshiko Yositaka?"
Eguchi shook her head. Agitated, she said, "No, but I think… I think the killer's next target might be me! Please, police officers, protect this weak woman!"
"??"
Both Ritsu and Shinichi wore puzzled expressions. Ritsu was confused about why she thought she would be the killer's next target.
As for Shinichi,
'Were those ridiculously developed triceps really supposed to belong to a "weak woman"?!'