Chapter 39 The Truth

"How did you know that I met with Dr. Tsuruta that night?" Koji Kansa asked after a long silence.

"That night, I found water stains by the umbrella stand, but the servants in the villa told me they had no need to work outside on a rainy night," Kiichi replied. "So I suspected someone had secretly left the villa. Because I had just spoken with Shuhei a short time before, and also happened to accidentally overhear the argument between Junya and Madam Harumi, it couldn't have been them.

"And the next day when I visited Dr. Tsuruta, the doctor asked me this when he saw me: 'What is the detective looking to find out?' This was actually very strange, because a normal person's first reaction upon seeing a police officer would definitely be to ask if they had gotten into some trouble, rather than so affirmatively and directly asking what the other party wanted to know. To be able to ask that meant someone had told him in advance that I would come to him with questions for my investigation. So when asking questions, I first asked him about things from twenty years ago. Dr. Tsuruta, do you remember how you answered?"

"I told you that Mr. Soichiro died of a sudden heart attack..." Hisashi Tsuruta thought for a moment and replied. "Was there something wrong with my answer?"

"Yes, there was something wrong," Kiichi nodded. "Because even if you were someone who fully cooperated with the police and answered every question asked, after answering me, whether in words or expression, you should have at least expressed some confusion as to 'why a police officer would suddenly be asking about things from twenty years ago.' But you didn't. You just answered me with a slight sense of sentimentality, so the answer was obvious: you must have known before my arrival that I would ask you about things from twenty years ago, rather than a more recent case."

Hisashi Tsuruta sighed.

"Only, at that time, I couldn't confirm whether the person who visited you that night was Butler Kansa, Madam Takako, or Mr. Ogawa," Kiichi paused. "Of course, all of this doesn't really matter. What matters is what actually happened twenty years ago that made Shino believe her parents had murdered her grandfather, and then to eliminate witnesses, murdered Mr. Masao and the eyewitness Mana."

"Of course because of this little picture book!" Natsuki Koshimizu said.

"Yes. Because of this booklet," Kiichi looked at Natsuki Koshimizu. "However, isn't there a lot about this booklet itself that cannot be explained?"

Natsuki Koshimizu was stunned.

"Mr. Tsuruta, I remember you once told me that back then, it was Miss Takako's first time bringing her boyfriend, Mr. Ogawa, home, right?" Kiichi looked at Hisashi Tsuruta.

"Yes..." Hisashi Tsuruta replied.

"Actually, that conversation gave me a lot of ideas. One of them was that you mentioned for Mr. Soichiro, the greatest regret in the inheritance arrangements was not being able to have Mr. Ogawa marry into the Ichijo family. At first glance, perhaps one might interpret this as Mr. Soichiro having other arrangements for Miss Takako's marriage, but I think your true meaning was hinting to me that Mr. Soichiro actually liked Mr. Ogawa very much and would not intervene to stop Miss Takako's marriage, nor would he change the inheritance arrangements because of Miss Takako's marriage. Otherwise, you wouldn't have emphasized at the very end that 'he had a very good impression of Mr. Ogawa'."

"Yes..."

"Then, the first doubt regarding this picture book appears." Kiichi opened the first page of the picture book. "Who is this princess who cannot walk the corridors and is restricted everywhere?"

"Of course it's Mana!" Natsuki Koshimizu replied. "This was originally Mana's perspective, the perspective of her witnessing the murder! This had nothing to do with Madam Takako!"

"Yes, it's Mana." Kiichi's voice seemed a bit low as he flipped back to the second page. "However, if this is Mana's perspective as an 'eyewitness,' how could she see such a bizarre murder scene?"

Natsuki Koshimizu was first puzzled, then thought carefully, and a sudden chill rushed straight to her scalp.

"Did she witness the poisoning process, or did she see Soichiro drinking the poisoned tea?" Kiichi closed his eyes and slowly said. "If it's the former, why is the process depicted as the king drinking tea? If it's the latter, how could she know about the poison bottle? Surely she couldn't have just stood outside the room, watching the complete process from the culprit poisoning the tea to Soichiro drinking it?"

Natsuki Koshimizu stared at the picture book, unable to suppress a shudder.

Kiichi let out a long sigh and looked at Hisashi Tsuruta again: "Actually, when I saw the picture book, I understood everything. In fact, you had already told me long ago, hadn't you?"

Hisashi Tsuruta lowered his head, his already stooped figure from old age seeming to bend even lower.

"Mr. Soichiro keeping Mana at home was not out of affection, nor was it some different idea an old man had about educating a girl. I ask you, how could someone who was unwilling to let a girl go to school possibly be proud of his daughter being admitted to university? And how could he hang only his own and his daughter's portraits in a corridor filled with family portraits?

"I went to ask the owner of the ice cream shop from back then. They still remembered Mana, but Mana wouldn't be happy because of ice cream, wouldn't get excited about getting desserts, and wouldn't even speak to anyone other than Mr. Soichiro or Mr. Masao who took her there.

"Shuhei said this to me: 'Perhaps Mana simply didn't want to play with us,' 'She always wandered around the villa alone like a ghost,' 'Suddenly appearing behind you, staring intently at you, and then writing and drawing in the notebook she always carried.' And only 'Grandpa and Grandpa Masao' could accurately find Mana.

"Dr. Tsuruta just told me that before Mr. Soichiro died, he was gradually replacing traditional glaucoma medications with the more advanced pilocarpine.

"So...

"Sometimes, the truth is right there, within easy reach, yet people turn a blind eye due to preconceived notions.

"Even if there are countless unreasonable flaws in the resulting misunderstandings, they will not question the initial judgment.

"If Mr. Ogawa and Miss Takako had really harmed Mr. Masao, how could Mr. Kansa still be protecting them to this day?

"The truth of twenty years ago is really simple, but it is precisely this simple truth that people refuse to believe no matter what.

"The fact is that Mana was never an ordinary child.

"Mr. Soichiro knew, and Mr. Masao knew as well, so they wove a cage for Mana to prevent this unusual child from harming anyone.

"Yet, everything still happened nonetheless.

"On that night twenty years ago, she used physostigmine, a traditional glaucoma medication, to poison her grandfather to death."