Chapter Twenty-Nine: Was It Him?

"Mr. Moray?"

A voice pulled Moray from his thoughts. He turned to see Ayako Suzuki, who had just returned from the kitchen, looking somewhat bewildered at the sight of the empty living room.

"Ah, Mr. Ota and Ms. Mouri went out for a walk. Ms. Ikeda went out alone, and Mr. Kadotani followed her out of concern. As for Ms. Sonoko... she went out with Conan. Mr. Takahashi is fixing the roof."

Moray raised his glass slightly in greeting.

"Oh, I see. I was worried I had said something wrong earlier..." Ayako sighed in relief.

"Speaking of which... would you mind telling me the story about Ms. Atsuko?" Moray asked, sipping his black tea with interest.

"Atsuko..." Ayako initially seemed reluctant to bring up the subject again. But after glancing around and noting that the other members of the film club were absent, she let out a long sigh. "Atsuko was a member of our university film club. Two years ago, she was found hanged in her own home."

"What kind of person was she? Did she have any feuds with anyone?" Moray fetched a cup of black tea and placed it on the table in front of Ayako.

Ayako nodded in thanks, recalled the past, and shook her head. "I really can't imagine someone like her getting into a conflict with anyone. She was very gentle, always facing everyone with a smile, and never got angry even when she was offended... But why do you ask?"

"Just idle chatter. So, did she have any hobbies while she was alive?"

"Well... if I had to say, she loved writing novels. She dreamed of becoming an author, though she only ever wrote a few scattered pieces and never published anything."

"Come to think of it, Ms. Ikeda is a famous screenwriter, so she must be quite accomplished in that regard, right? Why didn't she ask Ms. Ikeda for advice?"

Ayako recalled for a moment before saying, "Actually, at the time, Chikako didn't let on that she was writing anything. Later, she said she wasn't confident that her novel would be well-received, so she didn't want to show it to anyone. She was quite surprised herself when it won an award so suddenly."

"Speaking of which..." She seemed to remember something. "She committed suicide the very day after Chikako won that award."

"I see... Thank you very much."

Moray lowered his gaze in thought. A girl with dreams of becoming a writer suddenly commits suicide by hanging. Meanwhile, a fellow club member from the same time suddenly produces a mature novel out of thin air and wins an award...

Following the typical narrative trajectory, it was highly likely that Atsuko had broken down and committed suicide due to Ikeda's plagiarism.

In this incident, Ikeda is likely either the victim or the culprit. If she is the culprit, she was likely being blackmailed after her secret was exposed and is planning to silence the blackmailer. If she is the victim, it is likely that an old flame of Atsuko's is seeking revenge.

The story was coming together. In any case, this woman was at the center of the event. Now, I just need to mark her...

The others gradually returned. Moray found it strange that Ran Mouri did not return with Katsuhito Ota.

"Mr. Ota, where is Ms. Mouri, who went out with you? Why didn't she come back with you?" Moray asked.

"Ah..." Ota looked awkward. He couldn't exactly admit that he had tried to convince Ran to dump her boyfriend, only to scare her off when she refused to cooperate. "We got separated, and I don't know where she went..."

Bang!

The front door was thrown open. Ran Mouri, Sonoko Suzuki, and Conan rushed into the villa, and Sonoko slammed the door shut behind them.

"Sonoko, how could you be so—" Ayako began, wanting to scold her for being rude, but Sonoko interrupted, "Didn't you see it?"

"See what?" the others asked, puzzled.

Sonoko was losing her composure. "That bandage-covered monster! Mr. Moray, do you remember the person in bandages we saw on the suspension bridge when we arrived?"

"Speak slowly, calm down first," Moray said in a cool, steady voice. "You are safe now. Everyone is here, and even if the bandage man broke in, he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone."

Hearing this, the three of them gradually calmed down. However, the others in the villa were confused. "Bandage man? What are you talking about?" asked Kadotani.

"On our way to the villa, we saw a person standing on the suspension bridge in front of the house," Moray explained, looking at Ran and the others. "He was shrouded in a black cloak with bandages wrapped around his face. After seeing us, he quickly ran into the dense woods beside the villa. I don't know what happened just now. Could you explain?"

Ran and Sonoko exchanged glances. "I got separated from Mr. Ota in the woods," Ran said. "Then, a bandage man suddenly lunged out, dressed just as Mr. Moray described. He was holding an axe and rushed straight at me..."

"That was when," Sonoko picked up the thread, "Conan and I saw the bandage man attacking Ran. He must have been afraid because there were more of us, so he disappeared back into the woods." She looked at the others who had been outside. "Did really no one else see him? Mr. Ota, Mr. Kadotani, Ms. Ikeda—you were all in the woods, weren't you?"

"I didn't see anything. I was busy looking for Ran," Ota said, dropping his flippant tone and looking grave. Kadotani and Chikako Ikeda looked at each other and also denied seeing anything.

The group began to discuss the matter.

Moray, however, did not join in. He found it strange: why would Ran Mouri be the target? According to his hypothesis, the culprit was one of the three men. None of them had a grudge against Ran; why would they attack her?

Did she do something in the few hours since arriving at the villa that would cause the killer to choose to silence her?

If so... Moray recalled the minor incident when they had first arrived and were putting away their luggage. What had she seen? Was there a potential weapon in the room?

But items like an axe or bandages—if one were to see them under normal circumstances, it would be one thing. But given that Ran had just seen the bandage monster, if she had stumbled upon these items, it would have left a deep impression. She couldn't have just been acting coy. And if she had truly seen something, she wouldn't have failed to mention it after being attacked.

Ran said the three men were changing clothes. Could it be a physical characteristic?

Assuming the bandage man wanted to silence her because she saw a specific physical trait, the eyewitness account showed that the man's skin, features, and hair color were hidden. Only his height and build were visible.

Therefore, the reason for the attack must be that she saw his true height or build. And since the men were all roughly the same height... could it be his physique?

The culprit had used a disguise that created a clear difference between his true self and the "bandage man" persona, and Ran's accidental intrusion had exposed this.

...Takahashi, the heavy-set man?

Moray glanced at him.