Chapter 72

"Hah... Aren't there way too many people? What are you saying? Are you claiming that basically every suspect in this case is the culprit?"

At my naming, the fox-eyed one looks unconvinced. Fine. I'll slam the truth I found right onto that dissatisfied face.

"No, that's right. In particular, I will accuse Mr. Uchima!"

"Wait. What do you mean saying Uchima's the culprit? Hasegawa was strangled and killed. Don't tell me you're claiming Uchima was alive and murdered her!"

"Don't worry, I won't give such a half-baked deduction. What I'm saying is that Mr. Uchima was the one who caused the first incident."

The fox-eyed detective is dumbfounded. Of course she is. With the way I just explained it, it inevitably sounds as if Uchima murdered himself. The police are long aware of that; the fox-eyed female detective herself is the one who made that conclusion.

"What... You summoned me just to say... that...!"

Veins bulge on the other party's forehead. I tell her anyway. What I'm about to explain is the fact that this isn't the suicide theory she's thinking of.

"No... I did say he caused it. But I never once said he committed suicide."

"Huh!? If it wasn't suicide... There was a suicide note, wasn't there!?"

"It's strange if it was suicide. Right before dying, he took sugar from another shop and wandered around the café."

"People about to commit suicide hesitate, do weird things— that's normal!"

"But it's odd. The reason for suicide was supposedly to inconvenience the café's business by dying there, right? The police concluded that as well, didn't they?"

"Huh? Yeah, but..."

Perhaps surprised that her own thinking was affirmed, she offers no counterargument. I press on, spitting out my point.

"Then it's strange! Even if he poisoned the drink-bar coffee or sugar, the police might think a customer brought in the poison. In that case, wouldn't he have poisoned the takeout meat-sauce pasta instead?"

"Right, that was there... If he'd put it in that..."

"The waitress who brought it and the cooks would be suspected. And that day's waitress, Haruki, is the very person who tormented Uchima's little sister. Wouldn't he choose the method that casts maximum suspicion on her?"

"Maybe Uchima just wasn't thinking..."

"If he wasn't thinking, he'd pick a method with more direct harm. He could've simply attacked that waitress— Haruki— or forced pesticide down her throat... The fact he didn't choose that means Mr. Uchima wanted to torment Haruki while alive as much as possible... or maybe not just Haruki."

Hearing my reasoning, the fox-eyed detective stamps the floor hard.

"You've been shooting down the police investigation since just now... but is that all you've got, denial!? Denial's easy; just nitpick every flaw! Tell us your own theory! What was Uchima trying to do? Why did Uchima die!?"

The loud noise and voice almost blow my thoughts away, but I stay composed. My deduction is safe.

Calmly, I'll recount the actions Uchima likely took.

"Before that, let's look back at Mr. Uchima's behavior. According to my deduction, the note-like thing Uchima first wrote was meant to summon detectives and Ms. Hasegawa."

"...So what?"

"He needed to call them and have them place a watch. What he most wanted people to see was, I think, the moment he carried sugar to another café on the second floor."

"So what does that accomplish!? How was Uchima planning to take revenge other than by suicide...!?"

I steady my heart. The dead tell no tales. He can't argue anymore. So out of consideration, I tried to fight while protecting the deceased's dignity.

Yet I cannot forgive his actions.

In a small voice, I speak.

"I believe Mr. Uchima was planning to cause a food-poisoning scare at the fifth-floor café!"

"A food-poisoning scare!?"

"Yes. Once a food-poisoning outbreak happens, the shop will be shut down. Naturally, the people who suffer will be the ones running the café. That would be perfect revenge against those who tormented his sister."

"Hold on. What are you really saying...? Then why didn't the food poisoning happen!?"

It did happen, after a fashion. I indicate a single detective.

"No. Detective Chikage. One woman who was tailing Mr. Uchima collapsed from food poisoning."

"Is she connected to the café?"

"Yes, I believe so. She insists she ate the same things as her family and others. If a food-poisoning outbreak had occurred at Detective Chikage's home, unrelated to the café, the whole family should've had stomachaches."

"Then what was the cause...!?"

"The only thing she ate that others didn't was the powdered cheese she tasted when the incident occurred. And she noticed something off about that powdered cheese's flavor."

"Something off about the powdered cheese's flavor...? Food poisoning has a taste? Something sour... she sensed that?"

"No. It was sweet."

"Sweet...!?"

After tasting the meat sauce and powdered cheese, Detective Chikage wondered, 'Isn't this a bit too sweet?' Probably sugar had been mixed into the cheese.

I explain that situation.

"The powdered cheese tasted sweet because sugar had been added. And before that, someone else had used the same powdered cheese."

"Huh, then did that person also get food poisoning...?"

"No, I don't think so. Only pesticide was detected in his body, and he died from that."

"So Uchima used that powdered cheese! And the sugar... don't tell me...!"

"Yes. Uchima added it— sugar laced with food-poisoning bacteria— into the powdered cheese. His goal was to mix poison into the shop's supplies and trigger food poisoning!"

"Then wait. Why didn't food poisoning break out after that?"

The fox-eyed detective tilts her head at each question. I answer carefully.

"Simple. Weren't you told? When Mr. Uchima collapsed, the shop staff and Haruki made the incident more complicated. A shop employee who thought it was food poisoning washed the powdered-cheese container to avoid blame!"

"I see, so that's why no food-poisoning bacteria remained in the shop... Wait, hold on."

I pause at her single word.

"What is it?"

"Hold on. In the end, the poison added was food-poisoning bacteria, right? That would mean Uchima knowingly put pesticide in his own coffee. So he planned to cause food poisoning there and die himself— wasn't it suicide after all!?"

"I don't think so."

"What!?"

"After all, you people took the sugar bag laced with pesticide, right? Did it contain any bacteria that cause food poisoning?"

"No, but...! What are you getting at!?"

An even more terrifying truth— the worst. I'm about to say it. I know I'm trampling the deceased's dignity, but I have no choice. To reveal the truth.

"The food-poisoning bacteria were for one person only— probably himself. While others were suffering from a different poison, he had to be suffering too or he'd be suspected."

"Huh?"

"In other words, he prepared the food-poisoning bacteria for himself to drink. He surely planned to drink the sugar laced with food-poisoning bacteria himself and make it look as if it had been in the coffee. If you think that way, you only need one dose of bacteria-laced sugar."

"So you're saying..."

"In the end, what Uchima actually added was only the powdered cheese, but after drinking the food-poisoning bacteria he may have intended to mix pesticide-laced sugar into freely usable Tabasco... A mere food-poisoning scare was lukewarm. Uchima was planning a monstrous massacre that would unleash hell on earth!"