At Ritsu's driving speed, a one-kilometer trip would realistically only take about a minute.
However, to avoid overshooting the location with a single press on the accelerator, he slowed down after turning onto the road. Sitting in the passenger seat, Shinichi pointed toward the white-and-blue villa nearby and slapped his thigh excitedly.
"There it is, there it is! Sensei, stop the car!"
"At least let me find a proper place to park first. I'd rather not get caught by some traffic cop on night duty, especially since I didn't even bring my driver's license."
"Who's going to hand out parking tickets this late? Relax."
The two arrived at the villa entrance. Ritsu was about to ring the doorbell when the door opened on its own.
Yuzo was standing inside, clearly having waited by the entrance the entire time. Pointing toward the prepared slippers, he said:
"Welcome, Onizawa-san… Hm? Kudo-kun, you came too?"
"Yeah, sorry for the intrusion."
There was no smell of blood on him, nor any trace of body wash, which suggested he hadn't taken a bath. His hair was messy, with one part even sticking up awkwardly. The pajamas on his upper body were covered in wrinkles as well.
He completely looked like someone who had just crawled out of bed.
Yuzo pointed toward the stairs. "My studio is on the second floor. Please follow me."
Even though this was supposedly just a vacation property, there was an entire villa dedicated solely to being an art studio.
As expected of the Tomizawa Financial Group. They really were rich.
Ritsu observed the studio's furnishings and noticed two incredibly valuable paintings hanging on the walls. Their market value alone was probably no less than one hundred million yen.
Pointing toward an oil painting that was nearly complete, Yuzo said somewhat embarrassedly, "My painting still isn't finished. I got sleepy earlier, so I took a nap."
'Could that be an excuse?'
After silently considering the possibility, Shinichi asked, "Yuzo-san, have you stayed inside the villa this entire time without going out?"
"Hm?"
Yuzo looked confused, not understanding why Shinichi would ask such a question, but he still answered honestly:
"Yeah, I've been inside the villa the whole time. Did something happen?"
Clearly, he had noticed the abnormal implication hidden within the question. Ritsu had no intention of hiding the truth and bluntly explained,
"Your father is currently undergoing emergency surgery at the hospital. He was attacked by someone on his way back to the villa, so we came to ask whether you left the villa tonight."
'Father is in surgery?!'
Yuzo's mind instantly went blank upon hearing the news. Once he recovered, he hurriedly grabbed Ritsu's shoulders and shouted,
"M-My father… how is he? Onizawa-san, you must know, right?!"
He looked exactly like a drowning man clutching at a lifeline.
It wasn't acting. He was genuinely worried.
"Relax. He was taken to the hospital in time, so there shouldn't be any major problems."
"Th-That's good…" Yuzo released his grip, realizing his behavior had been too impulsive.
"Sorry. I just panicked."
"That's understandable." Ritsu smoothed out the wrinkles on his shoulder and asked,
"At eleven-thirty, were you really inside the villa the entire time?"
"Yes. I had just woken up around eleven-thirty."
"Can anyone verify that?" Shinichi asked.
Yuzo nodded and pulled out his phone, locating a previous call. "I asked an illustrator friend to wake me up. If you don't believe me, you can call him back and ask."
Shinichi took the phone and dialed the number, but nobody answered even after a long wait.
The illustrator was probably already asleep.
Meanwhile, Ritsu walked over to a painting covered by a white cloth. Gently pulling the cloth away, he revealed the portrait of a beautiful young woman.
It wasn't Suzuki Ayako.
"Yuzo-san, this girl is very beautiful."
Yuzo looked toward the painting and smiled. "My illustrator friend drew that. Sketching is what he's best at."
"I see. If you don't mind me asking, what's your illustrator friend's name?"
"Hata Ichiro. I don't know the girl in the picture either. Maybe she's someone he likes."
'Hata Ichiro…'
That name sounded familiar.
Wasn't he the young master of the Hata Financial Group?
After silently covering the painting again, Ritsu turned toward Shinichi. "Still no answer?"
"Nope. I think this guy named Hata Ichiro is already asleep."
"Um…" Yuzo frowned as he looked at the two of them. "Can I ask why you suspect I'm the one who attacked my father?"
"Because the attacker's eyes and eyebrows looked exactly like yours."
'Eyes and eyebrows?'
As though recalling something, Yuzo's expression suddenly turned ugly. Lowering his head, he looked utterly disbelieving.
Could it really have been them? After all, he knew very well that he himself wasn't the attacker.
"Looks like you have some idea who the culprit might be?"
"..."
Yuzo bit his lip hesitantly.
But considering the police would uncover the truth once the investigation officially began tomorrow anyway, he finally confessed honestly,
"Actually… my two older brothers and I look very alike. Especially around the eyes and eyebrows."
'Triplets?'
Ritsu and Shinichi exchanged glances. Looks like there were two more suspects now.
"But I don't think my brothers would ever hurt Father!"
Ritsu reached out and patted Yuzo on the shoulder.
"The human heart is difficult to predict, Yuzo-san. As a police officer, it's my responsibility to thoroughly investigate the truth."
"But…"
"If we hadn't found your father in time, he would've died tonight in that thunderstorm."
Ritsu's gaze sharpened slightly. "Now then… do you still want to stop me from continuing this investigation?"
Although Yuzo held some resentment toward his father, he still deeply respected him. And he also understood his father's struggles.
It was just that, deep down, he didn't want to believe…
That his brothers could harm their own father.
"…I understand. I'll cooperate fully with the investigation."
Seeing that it was already quite late, Ritsu said,
"We won't disturb you from finishing your painting any longer. Let's meet at the villa tomorrow morning at nine. I assume your brothers will appear according to the original plan as well."
"Alright. I'll be there."
After leaving the small villa, Shinichi climbed into the passenger seat and immediately asked:
"Sensei, have you already ruled Yuzo-san out as a suspect?"
"Yeah. Honestly, I ruled him out from the beginning."
"Huh? How?"
Ritsu started the car and calmly explained, "Build. The culprit was slightly sturdier than Yuzo. Also, earlier during the day, I saw Yuzo running from behind, and his posture was different from the person fleeing the crime scene."
'You can remember something like that too?' Shinichi silently made a note to himself.
Sure enough, detectives really did need to remember every little detail from everyday life. All of it could become useful for deduction.
"Then if you already knew that, why did we still come here?"
"To verify whether my deduction was correct, and to see if we could uncover any clues along the way. Since the eyes and eyebrows looked similar, it strongly suggested the culprit was a blood relative."
"And now we have our answer. I see… I really still have a lot to learn."
"Your deduction skills are already pretty good."
"There's still a huge gap between me and you, Sensei. I've only truly solved two cases so far."
"Besides the Valentine's Day case, was there another one?"
Shinichi recalled a ski trip from his middle school days and laughed awkwardly.
"That one barely counts, honestly. I only solved it because Dad gave me a hint. And during that trip, I met a middle schooler who was evenly matched with me. I wonder if I'll ever see him again. I really want another showdown with him!"
"Your father must be pretty good at deduction then?" Ritsu asked curiously.
"Yeah. My dad's name is Kudo Yusaku. He's a mystery novelist, and he's solved some cases too."
Kudo Yusaku.
Kudo Yukiko.
'Heh. The child of a mystery novelist and a famous actress?'
That was pretty interesting.
"I see now... No wonder you like detective work so much."