Malice by Keigo Higashino Page B

turned off all the lights in the room and left on the computer monitor. It turns out it’s quite bright. You can see it dimly through the curtains even standing outside the room. If she really wanted to make it look like no one was home, she would’ve turned off the computer.”
    â€œMaybe she couldn’t find the switch. People who aren’t familiar with computers don’t know about those kinds of things.”
    â€œShe could’ve at least turned off the monitor. The switch is right there on the front. And if she didn’t understand that, she could’ve pulled the cord.”
    â€œI guess she forgot.”
    Detective Kaga stared at me for a moment, then nodded. “That’s probably it. She probably forgot.”
    Having nothing else to say to that, I remained silent.
    He stood, thanking me again for my time. “Will you be writing about today in your account as well?”
    â€œI expect I will.”
    â€œThen I’ll be able to read it?”
    â€œFine by me.”
    He headed toward the cash register, then stopped midway. “Did you really think I wasn’t cut out to be a teacher?”
    I remembered writing something along those lines in my account. “That’s just my opinion.”
    He looked down again, gave a brief sigh, and walked out.
    I wondered what Kaga was thinking.
    If he’d already figured out something about the case, I wondered why he didn’t just tell me.

 
    2
    SUSPICION
    KYOICHIRO KAGA’S NOTES
    Â 
    One of the things I took particular note of was the use of a paperweight as the murder weapon. I need hardly mention that the paperweight belonged to the late author and thus was in the office prior to the killing. This suggests that the killer didn’t come to the house with the intent of killing Kunihiko Hidaka.
    Had the murder been planned from the beginning, the murderer would have come prepared with a weapon. It’s possible that such preparations had been made, but then unforeseen circumstances necessitated a change in plans, making a blow to the back of the head with the paperweight the next-best option. However, that seems rather poorly premeditated. It makes most sense that the murder was an impulsive act, done in the heat of the moment, with whatever implement was at hand.
    This makes me wonder about the locked doors. According to the statements of the two who discovered the body, both the front door to the house and Kunihiko Hidaka’s home office door were locked.
    Rie Hidaka had this to say:
    â€œWhen I left the house just after five o’clock, I locked the front door. I was worried that, since he was in his office, my husband might not hear it if somebody walked in. Of course, I never imagined anyone actually would.”
    According to forensics, only the Hidakas’ fingerprints were found on the front doorknob. There were no signs of gloves having been used, or fingerprints being wiped off. I think it’s safe to assume that the door was locked by Rie Hidaka when she left and it remained so until she opened it upon her return.
    However, there’s a high probability that the murderer locked the door to Mr. Hidaka’s home office from the inside. Unlike the front door, the office-door handle showed clear signs of having been wiped clean.
    This leads me to believe that the murderer did, in fact, come in through the office window. However, this would seem to create a contradiction. If the murder wasn’t premeditated, why come in through the window? It’s highly unlikely that the intruder intended to steal anything. Even a thief seeing the house for the first time would soon realize there was nothing left worth stealing.
    However, one line of conjecture resolves this contradiction. What if we assume that the killer visited the Hidaka household twice in the same day? The first time, the killer came in the front door as a guest. Then, after leaving the house (or, rather, pretending to leave),