Nanahara Takeshi had taken a good look around the crime scene and had a proper chat with the client who was also the party involved. He formally accepted the commission and began the investigation.
First, he asked Kodaka Hiromi to take him to the resort village to talk to the witness who saw Daiseki Otake enter the villa last Wednesday. Finding no signs that the witness was lying, he asked Kodaka Hiromi to take him to Daiseki Otake's residence for a look—it wasn't enough to guess whether there was a financial conflict of interest with Sugao Makoto; he needed to investigate personally.
Kodaka Hiromi wasn't disappointed that he didn't "instantly" solve the mystery. Their office had long-term cooperative investigators who had been at it for nearly a week with no clue about the case where "the entrances were blocked, and the person in the middle was gone." Nanahara Takeshi was their last straw, and if he couldn't handle it, she could only despair.
