In the restaurant, as Senichi's words fell, Masahiko Arima's face turned an iron-blue color.
He, who originally thought his plan was flawless, couldn't help but reveal a hint of panic in his pupils upon hearing Senichi's words.
However, shortly after, he took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and looked at Senichi with a sneer, saying, "Do you think these verbal tricks will work on me? I haven't done anything. If you want to accuse me, show me some actual evidence!"
"Before that, I'd like to ask Mr. Arima a question."
Senichi looked up at him and asked, "You said earlier that President Ootsu forgot his reading glasses at your restaurant, right? Then may I ask why he needed reading glasses during dinner?"
"If he doesn't wear glasses, he can't read the menu," Masahiko Arima replied impatiently. "What's wrong with wearing glasses while eating?"
"No, it just seems a bit off," Senichi said playfully. "I read the case file, and according to your statement, only President Ootsu knew the safe's password. So how did the safe get opened?"
"At that time, it was night, the room had only a faint glow from the neon lights outside the window, and without his reading glasses, how did President Ootsu manage to open the safe?"
"Perhaps Takashi Inoue only knocked out President Ootsu. Later, you found President Ootsu lying on the ground, woke him up, and then he, fearing the safe was robbed, hastily opened it. Maybe something happened between you two, or the sight of the safe filled with money tempted you, ultimately leading to murderous intentions!"
Sato Miwako, watching the visibly shaken Masahiko Arima, said sternly, "So the answer is already clear: President Ootsu was still alive when you arrived! The eyeglass screw that fell at the scene is evidence of his murder after your arrival! After all, only when the victim is attacked by the perpetrator can such a screw possibly fall at the crime scene!"
After saying all this, Masahiko Arima's face had turned almost pale, and he staggered back two steps, appearing unstable.
Nevertheless, Masahiko Arima stubbornly said, "Screws can loosen and fall at any time! Maybe it had already fallen there long before! That's definitely it! That's how it is!"
"Heh... You will shed tears only after seeing the coffin, huh..."
Senichi leaned back in the restaurant chair, slowly rolled up the remaining spaghetti on his plate, and lifted it up. "So, faced with this decisive evidence, do you still want to argue?"
"Spaghetti!?"
Seeing the fork raised by Senichi, Masahiko Arima burst into laughter, somewhat intimidating. "Are you crazy!? Isn't this just freshly made spaghetti! What kind of evidence is this?"
"The olive oil in this spaghetti has a strong flavor," Senichi said with a hint of meaning. "I wonder what you think? This is the decisive evidence that catches you."
"Huh? This is a specialty of our restaurant, pure imported fresh olive oil. What decisive evidence..."
Masahiko Arima, disturbed by Senichi's words, yelled as if releasing inner turmoil, as if doing so could alleviate his inner unease.
But as he looked at the shaking fork in front of him and remembered what Senichi had said earlier, Masahiko Arima seemed to suddenly recall something, and his face instantly turned pale.
The words he was about to say, like a duck with its neck pinched, no matter how he opened his mouth, no sound came out.
"It seems you've realized."
Senichi put the fork on the plate, dipped it in the oil on top, and held it in front of Masahiko Arima. "After killing President Ootsu, you wiped your fingerprints with the apron you wore while working. The forensic team found traces of wiping with an oil-soaked fabric.
In other words, by conducting a more detailed analysis and comparison of the olive oil in your kitchen and the oil on the evidence, we can find decisive evidence!"
"Darn it!! Darn it!!"
Masahiko Arima, as if the final blow had broken his spine, seemed to lose all support, directly displaying the classic pose of a guilty person on the ground recalling everything, "It's his fault! He's just too greedy!"
At first, Masahiko Arima indeed delivered the forgotten reading glasses to his father-in-law in the restaurant.
However, when he reached the second floor, he found the president's office door open, and his father-in-law lying in front of the safe.
Seeing this scene, Masahiko Arima hurriedly approached to check his father-in-law's condition. Although the latter had a head injury, it didn't seem too severe. Under his shout, the father-in-law quickly regained consciousness.
However, after waking up, the father-in-law's attitude was very bad. Without even saying a word of thanks, he took the reading glasses and quickly opened the safe to inspect the contents.
Upon seeing that the money in the safe hadn't been stolen, Masahiko Arima felt a moment of joy for his father-in-law. However, to his surprise, instead of showing gratitude, Toshiyuki Ootsu sarcastically asked if he wanted the money.
He bluntly stated that even if Masahiko Arima was his son-in-law, if he didn't repay the borrowed money by next week, he would still be kicked out of the restaurant.
Enraged by his father-in-law's attitude and tone, Masahiko Arima, in a fit of anger, grabbed an ashtray from the ground and threw it at Toshiyuki Ootsu's head.
Unexpectedly, this blow directly resulted in his father-in-law's death. In panic, Masahiko Arima remembered the person who had previously attacked his father-in-law, and decided to shift the blame onto him.
Subsequently, he orchestrated the series of events mentioned above, creating a scene where his father-in-law was murdered before his eyes, intending to frame the unsuspecting person for the crime. Meanwhile, he emptied the opened safe, taking away 12 million yen.
If he hadn't taken the large sum of money, Takashi Inoue might have genuinely believed he had killed Toshiyuki Ootsu. In fact, Inoue had already admitted to the murder, albeit disputing the missing 12 million yen.
It was his greed that exposed the biggest flaw in his scheme, leading to Senichi's investigation.
However, it was too late to reveal all this now. The awaiting fate for Masahiko Arima would be a long imprisonment.
Arresting the boss after a meal left the surrounding staff utterly bewildered. When they delivered the suspect to the police department, they were met with confusion from the crowd.
What's going on? Wasn't the suspect the one caught in prison? How did it suddenly become someone else?
Despite the confusion, once the truth was uncovered, the police immediately contacted the prosecutor's office, which, in turn, informed the court and adjusted the trial schedule. The charges were modified from murder to attempted robbery.
This outcome turned the anticipated exciting confrontation into a mundane courtroom proceeding.
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