So… the thing with 素生 is suspicious AF… I think we’re all thinking the same thing? That maybe he wasn’t in the house at all? Maybe he’s been dead for a couple of years?
Yep, my thoughts as well Also, I still want to know what happened between him and his step-step-sister… (at least this time it can’t be incest as they are not blood relatives for all we know)
Regarding the main plot, at the start of the chapter I wondered whether the old man in the mountain hut was the one behind all of this… later with the talk about the father being a politician and how he benefits from the publicity, I wondered whether the father was the actual initiator… but two bodies are not really good publicity no matter what, I guess
Also, it was mentioned that the father and the old man were the only ones in the hall when the two shots were fired, so I figured they could have pulled this off, but it seems the two women joined them right after they heard the shots, so maybe not…
It looked to me like she was afraid of some secret being discovered. Like 素生 having died in some possibly incriminating circumstances. But again, maybe it’s something else.
That’s an interesting theory. Curious to learn more about this whole mystery!
Hehe
I don’t mind, as it’s a nice read so far, we don’t get to learn about Moe’s horrible taste regarding fashion, and even the detective holds back on smoking Nothing can go wrong
I went back to check, when she’s crying she says 「いつか……きっと、きかれるわ」To me it sounds like she’s afraid of cops asking them where the hell their son in/what happened to him.
So I got behind in 女王蜂 because of 幻惑の死と使途, and then put this on the backburner to get caught up on 女王蜂 and Fatal Twelve, and then tried to get caught up on this, and just like in 女王蜂 when I thought I caught up it turns out I’m still a week behind
Anyway
What is up with Mori and romantic relationships where the guy is significantly older/in a mentorship position to the female? Moe/Saikawa is the obvious one, but now we have Tomoe as well, Hamanaka developed one in the previous book, in that other book by Mori that someone else read where was apparently a couple like that as well, heck, if we really stretch it you could even say Shiki and her uncle… Speaking of which, Motoki’s confinement reminds me of Shiki’s. (My theory is that Motoki sexually assaulted Tomoe or something like that, even though it feels like the “obvious” answer)
The thing that sticks out to me the most, that apparently hasn’t been mentioned at all, is the shot Akamatsu fired in the dining room. When Akamatsu first showed up, he specifically said that he didn’t want to leave any bullets. They never mention him retrieving the bullet he fired in the dining room (and they don’t mention any bullet hole in the dining room, or… anything about that shot at all). So could his gun actually have been loaded with blanks? They also mention that they didn’t find a bullet from the second shot, that Akamatsu fired in the air before fleeing. (My understanding of guns and blanks is that they still leave bullet casings, and they have a chunk of paper or cotton or something like that that replaces the metal slug, so blanks still do leave physical traces… but putting that aside.)
There’s two other things about the incident that I find weird that haven’t been mentioned. First, the way Akamatsu got into the house. Were they just banking on Tomoe leaving the doors unlocked? That seems pretty sloppy for a plan of this scope. Second, why did Akamatsu need the mask? If his role was to detain Tomoe without her seeing his face, shouldn’t he have had a face covering prepared (like Torri and Shimizu did)?
And of course, the other weird thing (which we know but most of the characters don’t) is the mask in Akamatsu’s bag, since he left the one he took from the Minosawa house. Why have a second mask? This could be the answer to my last question–There could have been something wrong with it, which prevented him from using it and forced him to improvise with the mask he got from the house.
I’m pretty sure the guy who kidnapped Tomoe came from her brother’s room - in fact, he might even be the brother himself. Problems: 1) You would expect her to recognize his voice. She hasn’t seen him in a few years though, so maybe his voice changed somehow? 2) He supposedly can’t see. I haven’t reread the first chapter to check, but I don’t think he did many things that would strictly require vision (other than driving away, but the mysterious 4th criminal could have been driving). It’s also possible that his vision improved, or that Mori will make him an echolocation genius or something.
Anyway, I don’t think anything so far has definitively confirmed that Akamatsu was the one who kidnapped Tomoe. We also have two unexplained gunshots (one at the main house, and one when Tomoe + kidnapper arrived at the mountain villa), and two dead criminals, so those are probably connected somehow…
Also, I still want to know 
Nothing can go wrong 
