Consider becoming a police officer.

As Ji-ichi’s voice faded, Takako burst into heavy sobs.

The secret she had harbored for twenty years was finally crushing her.

“You’re saying Mana killed Father?” Jundo asked, his voice laced with disbelief—or perhaps a refusal to believe. He had spent twenty years firmly convinced that his younger sister had murdered their father to seize the inheritance. Was he now being told that their father would genuinely have preferred to leave everything to Mana rather than spare even a fraction for his eldest son? “Impossible! If Mana killed Father, how did she die? And what about the business with Uncle Masuro?”

“It’s very simple,” Ji-ichi said, lowering his gaze. “Just as Mr. Renzō preferred to conceal the reason for Miss Shino’s suicide rather than speak out while Miss Satsuki suffered a wrongful accusation—and just as he later chose to admit that his daughter was addicted to pharmaceuticals rather than let the truth about Mana come to light when Satsuki’s suicide could no longer be covered up—their father, Mr. Masuro Kabutoya, made the very same choice.

“To prevent Soichirō-san’s true cause of death from being exposed, and to ensure that this uncontrollable girl could never hurt anyone ever again…

“There was no failing brake, nor any other elaborate conspiracy.

“It was simply an elderly man choosing to use his own life to bring an end to it all.”

Tears streamed down Renzō Kabutoya’s face.

He would never forget the words his father had said to him that day before leaving with Mana.

Yet, had he truly protected this family?

“The events of twenty years ago were thus buried by an old man using his own life. However, I imagine Mr. Ogawa and Takako-san must have known the truth quite early on,” Ji-ichi said, looking at the current master of the villa. “It’s just that, perhaps feeling they could not betray Masuro-san, who had protected the secret with his very life, they ultimately chose to bury everything.

“Tomotomo-san, who never returned, likely understood his daughter’s abnormalities long ago as well, which is why he could no longer bear to return to this place of sorrow and chose to go abroad instead.

“Everything seemed truly buried.

“Until, twenty years later, Shino perhaps discovered one of Mana’s paintings—resembling incoherent ramblings left behind after she had finished everything—hidden away in some corner of the villa.

“The shadow of the past had never dispersed. What was truly terrifying was never the truth itself, but rather the truth that was hidden away out of fear of facing it, only to be deeply misunderstood.”

“I didn’t know… I truly didn’t know,” Takako sobbed in reply. “We never knew that Shino had discovered what happened twenty years ago. We… we only thought she was suffering from depression, and we even took her to see doctors, but… but she never said a word…”

“Indeed. How could a teenage girl easily bring herself to question whether her own beloved parents might be murderers with blood on their hands? Aside from Satsuki, who was close to Shino, I imagine no one else had any inkling of the torment this young girl endured. Perhaps it wasn’t until after Shino died that Renzō-san noticed something amiss while sorting through her belongings?”

“Everything is as you say,” Renzō Kabutoya sighed deeply. “It was only after Miss died that I realized what had been plaguing her for so long. But… how could I possibly allow the scandal that my father had covered with his life to be exposed and destroy the family’s reputation?”

“Reputation, reputation!” Ji-ichi snapped angrily. “Is there anything in this world more important than a human life?

“Twenty years ago, for the sake of a so-called reputation, Masuro-san chose to throw away his life. Twenty years later, because of everyone’s tacit concealment, Shino lost her life. And still it was about reputation—keeping it hidden, continuing the cover-up until Satsuki died for your so-called reputation as well!

“It almost sounds like a benevolent act, done to preserve the reputation of Mana, a deceased child. How nobly touching! Is that it?

“It seems as though no one actually committed murder, yet everyone is a killer!”

“It’s true. Whose hands aren’t stained with Satsuki’s blood?” Takako walked tremblingly toward Natsuki Yosui. “I’m sorry, I am truly sorry…”

Natsuki Yosui stared at her with reddened eyes. Was this the reason Satsuki had died?

“Everything… is as you say,” Hisuzō Tsuruta spoke, realizing for the first time that confessing everything wasn’t as difficult as he had imagined. “I suppose Mana must have overheard me mentioning to Soichirō-san while preparing his medication that he must be extremely careful not to accidentally ingest physostigmine, which is how she found out where the poison was kept.

“I imagine Masuro-san discovered the bottle containing the remaining physostigmine was missing as soon as he found Soichirō-san dead, and immediately suspected Mana. So, when I examined the body, he told me the truth and instructed me to guard the secret for the sake of the family…

“I suppose he had already made up his mind by then, hasn’t he?”

“No matter how peculiar she was, Mana was still just a child, and everything she did was not entirely seamless,” Toshiyuki Ogawa finally broke his silence. “However, by the time I realized the truth, Masuro-san had already driven off the cliff with Mana.

“While organizing Mana’s belongings, I found the notebook she always kept with her.

“Everything was clearly recorded inside.

“I will never forget that simple sentence for the rest of my life.

*‘Today, I killed Grandpa because he wouldn’t let me go out to play.’*

“Yet, both Takako and I felt that since it was already over, it was better to let it remain buried forever beneath the cliff behind the villa. Why make everything public?

“The murderer was already dead and could never hurt anyone again. The dead… the dead could finally rest in peace…

“The ones who needed the truth, who needed justice, who needed release, were always the living…

“We never considered any of that…

“Perhaps… perhaps if someone like you, Inspector, had been there twenty years ago to say those words to us, everything today would have been different…”

This was the truth that had been sealed away within Lavender Villa for twenty years, along with the tragic chain reaction triggered by its concealment.

Ji-ichi returned to the inn to pack his belongings.

He had not obtained what he truly wanted; everything that had happened here had nothing to do with the Director behind the curtain.

The unraveled truth also felt utterly meaningless, as though it had only served to inflict deeper pain upon those already caught in the vortex.

However…

Upon returning to the inn, he knocked on Natsuki Yosui’s door.

“Ah, Inspector.” Natsuki Yosui had clearly been crying; un-wiped tear tracks still stained her cheeks as she forced a smile. “I really made a fool of myself this time. I never expected my deduction to be completely off the mark. It seems my training is still far from sufficient.”

“Now that you know everything, Detective Yosui, what are your thoughts?”

“I…” For a moment, Natsuki Yosui didn’t know how to respond.

“Do you still hate them?”

Natsuki Yosui hesitated, then nodded.

“Do you still hate them enough to want to kill?”

Natsuki Yosui froze, staring blankly at Ji-ichi.

Without waiting for an answer, Ji-ichi continued, “Do you suddenly feel that while the hatred is still there, you’ve lost that initial impulse that overrode your reason? Has that urge you felt back at the villa—the urge to pierce the truth open and ruthlessly hurt those people with it, even if the law couldn’t punish them—disappeared?”

Natsuki Yosui nodded.

“Therefore, the truth was never meant to let the dead rest in peace, but to offer solace to the living. Facing the truth and accepting it is the true beginning of walking away from the past.

“Whether as a police officer or a detective, it is always too late for the dead. All we can do is try to salvage the future of the living.

“I hope you will remember this.”

Natsuki Yosui covered her face, tears flowing uncontrollably.

---

The next day, at the entrance of the inn.

Sometimes, a single night’s sleep was all it took for someone to recover from many things.

“Thank you very much for your guidance,” Natsuki Yosui bowed deeply to Ji-ichi. “I have decided to track down that clever-by-half detective and expose the truth of the matter to everyone. I don’t know if he has committed other mistakes similar to this one, but as you said, we expose the truth not for revenge, but simply to allow those who were hurt to walk toward the future with a clear conscience.”

Ji-ichi nodded. “And after you finish doing that?”

“Well…” Natsuki Yosui blinked. “I haven’t thought that far ahead yet. I suppose I’ll continue my training as a detective? This incident has made me realize how much I still have to learn.”

“If you are willing, you might consider taking the police officer examination. You have a great deal of talent.”

“A police officer?” Natsuki Yosui was slightly startled before finally breaking into a genuine smile. “I will seriously consider it.”

He watched as she got into a cab and drove away.

She truly was promising raw material. By the time she passed the police exams, he would likely be up for a promotion himself. With a bit of nurturing then, she could become part of his direct faction of subordinates.

He had to plan ahead. Surely he couldn't rely on the deductions of Takagi, Satou, and Chiba once he got promoted, could he?