After hearing Eguchi's words, Ritsu asked, "Why do you think you'll be the killer's next target?"
"Over the past few months, clothes hanging on my balcony have occasionally been stolen. The Pikachu T-shirt the corpse was wearing was probably stolen by that underwear thief!"
Eguchi clutched her chest nervously and said, "So please, I'm begging the police to protect me!"
A thief who specialized in stealing women's clothing suddenly turning into a highly cautious murderer with strong counter-surveillance skills?
Ritsu felt that kind of escalation didn't really make sense.
"What exactly has been stolen from you before?" he asked.
"Mostly underwear and bras… intimate clothing like that. And the shirt the victim was wearing."
The preference in stolen items was very obvious. Clearly, this was an underwear thief with a particular fetish.
Ritsu recalled the suspicious behavior of the second suspect. Standing up, he pointed toward the balcony door and asked, "Would you mind if I checked the balcony?"
"Of course not, Inspector. Go right ahead."
Ritsu and Shinichi walked to the balcony together. Their thoughts were obviously aligned, they both believed the underwear thief and the murderer were not the same person, so they intended to investigate this angle to eliminate suspects.
The balcony was fairly spacious, around eight square meters in size.
Shinichi leaned over the railing with both hands and looked down below. From here, they could see the parking lot behind the building.
Seeing Shinichi's dangerous posture, Ritsu frowned.
"Don't do that. What if—"
Shinichi noticed Ritsu suddenly cut himself off mid-sentence and asked curiously, "What if what?"
"Don't move."
Ritsu stared at a few dark brown granular particles sitting on top of the balcony railing. Eguchi didn't keep any flowers or plants, so dirt appearing in a spot like this made no sense.
"This is… soil?"
"Yeah."
Taking out his phone, Ritsu called Hayasaka. After she picked up, he asked, "Hayasaka, look up at the balconies on this apartment building. Are they all facing the same direction?"
Yuna looked up and saw Ritsu waving at her. She nodded. "Yeah. Why?"
"So it really is like that… Looks like we'll have to go meet Fukunaga-san in Room 401."
"Huh?"
Hayasaka had been about to ask whether he needed her to come upstairs and investigate with them, but the call was already disconnected.
She bit her lower lip lightly and let out a long sigh, telling herself not to get angry. After all, she had merely been hung up on by a tactless jerk.
Meanwhile, Ritsu, who habitually ended calls at lightning speed, had already climbed up to the fourth floor. This time, he had even brought the first suspect, Eguchi, along with him.
He reached out and rang the doorbell.
Hurried footsteps came from inside, and soon a disheveled-looking man appeared at the doorway. His belt hadn't even been fastened properly yet, revealing a pair of pink underwear underneath.
What unique taste.
"U-Um… what can I help you with?" Fukunaga adjusted the glasses on the bridge of his nose and asked quietly.
The nervous expression on his face wasn't caused by seeing the police. It was because he saw Eguchi standing behind them.
"Do you want to hand it over yourself," Ritsu asked with a smile, "or should I apply for a search warrant and turn your apartment upside down?"
"I-I…"
Fukunaga stammered for a long while without managing to say anything coherent. He was obviously an introverted man who wasn't good at expressing himself.
Or lying.
Realizing he could no longer escape legal punishment, Fukunaga suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud, pressing his forehead against the tile floor of the entryway as he shouted,
"Eguchi-san, I'm sorry! I-I just had a moment of weakness and…"
He couldn't bring himself to continue. Even he thought what he had done was humiliating.
Eguchi looked utterly confused. She clearly couldn't understand why this skinny, seemingly honest young man was kneeling and apologizing to her.
"Need me to say it for you?" Ritsu asked. Still kneeling on the floor, Fukunaga nodded.
"Eguchi-san, he's the thief who's been stealing your underwear."
"What?!"
Eguchi froze in shock for a second. The next moment, she dropped into a horse stance and grabbed Fukunaga by the collar, roaring,
"Why would you frame me after killing someone?! What did I ever do to you?! Were you planning to kill me too?! Say something!"
Despite being around 180 centimeters tall, Fukunaga probably didn't even weigh sixty kilograms. In Eguchi's grip, he couldn't move at all.
Trembling, he cried out in panic, "I didn't! I didn't kill anyone! I just like… like women's underwear!"
Since his belt hadn't been secured properly, his oversized jeans immediately slid down to his knees, fully exposing the pink strawberry-patterned underwear underneath.
The scene instantly became absurd.
Shinichi covered his face, unable to bear watching anymore.
Ritsu quickly stepped forward to stop the emotional Eguchi. He was genuinely worried that the already scrawny Fukunaga might lose another few pounds from sheer terror.
"Eguchi-san, calm down. He's just a thief. He's not the murderer."
"Huh? Really?"
Eguchi immediately let go, causing Fukunaga to crash onto the floor on his backside. Mortified, he scrambled to pull his pants back up and fasten his belt.
"Really. The killer is someone else."
Eguchi awkwardly laughed.
"Ahahaha… then sorry about that. Wait, no! Why am I apologizing to you?! Why were you stealing my underwear in the first place?!"
Her voice was seriously loud.
Ritsu was fairly certain that by now, every resident in the apartment building knew that Fukunaga of Room 401 liked stealing Eguchi's underwear from Room 301.
Shaking his head, Shinichi muttered quietly, "This is social death."
"I-I'm sorry! I'll return everything I stole!"
"Who wants stolen stuff back?!" Eguchi instinctively covered her chest and frowned. "Who knows what disgusting things you did with them."
Fukunaga didn't dare respond. Kneeling on the floor with a bright red face, he very clearly had done something shameful.
As for exactly how shameful… Nobody present wanted to know.
Looking down at Fukunaga from above, Ritsu raised a brow.
"Need me to help you stand up? You may not be a murderer, but you still committed theft and unlawful trespassing. Combined, those charges are enough to land you in prison for quite a while."
Fukunaga climbed to his feet in despair. How had he ended up becoming an underwear thief?
Now he was going to spend a long stretch of time in prison and probably be looked down upon by the other inmates too.
After handing Fukunaga over to Takagi, Shinichi asked curiously, "So what's the plan now, Inspector? Both suspects have been ruled out. You could say the trail's gone completely cold."
Hearing that, Ritsu turned around calmly and struck a match to light the cigarette in his mouth. Slowly exhaling a ring of smoke, a smile appeared in his eyes.
"And who told you the trail's gone cold?"