A woman’s corpse was dragged through the snow.

< Do you recognize her face? >

“Where did you even get that thing?!” Tsujiko begged, her hands still in the air. “Please. Please, don’t do this!”

Kaede had no intentions of lowering the shotgun. “I can accept you didn’t kill the others. I’ll give you that much benefit of the doubt. But you can’t try to weasel yourself out of this. You can’t possibly think I’m that stupid.”

“Ms. Hinata, please—”

“I saw you go to the kitchen with him. Two minutes later, you walked out. A minute later, I walked in. And he was dead. No other way in our out. You gonna tell me he stabbed himself? Is that it?”

Tsujiko shook her head. “No! No! I’m—I don’t know what happened, but he was fine when I left! You have to believe me! You have to!”

“Why? Lord knows you had a good motive, too. I saw the way he looked at you. I saw him pester you. I get it. I really do. But—”

“It wasn’t me!” the maid yelled through tears.

“Then who was?!”

“I DON’T KNOW! It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t m—”

“Shut up.”

“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t m—”

“Shut up, or I’ll blow your brains out right now!” She growled. “Damn it! Shit! Why did I ever come here…?!”

“I don’t want to die…” Tsujiko looked pathetic.

“I told you to shut up! What’s wrong with you? You’re a servant! Can’t you handle a simple instruction?! Just shut up for a second and let me th—”

Thonk.

With the blunt metallic ring, the writer fell to the ground. Standing over her was a snow-covered, trembling Shiro.

“A—Are you okay?” he asked Tsujiko.

The maid fell backwards, hastily pushing herself away from him.

“It’s okay! It’s—It’s okay! I—Look, I just got back. I don’t know what the HELL is going on, but I know you didn’t know what she’s just accused you of. Okay? I know you. I know you, Tsujiko.”

She grimaced.

“I know you.” he repeated.

“P—Please don’t. Don’t hurt me.”

“I won’t. I swear.”

He dropped the frying pan.

She crawled over to him.

And he held her.

“It’s okay.” he told her.

“I don’t know what happened.” she whimpered.

“It’s okay.”

“I was so scared without you.”

“It’s okay. Everything’s gonna be okay.” He put on the best smile he could, given everything. “I came a bit too far to leave this place without you, you know.”

< Your mind is missing. Come find it. >

Having tied Kaede up and taken the shotgun, Shiro and Tsujiko made their way to the kitchen.

As promised, Makoto’s body was there, sprawled on the floor. His chest filled with holes, likely made from the icepick lying next to his body.

“I… I didn’t do this.” Tsujiko said. “I—He just wanted me to show him where the food was. That’s it. I didn’t—I had no reason to hurt him. I turned him down. He was fine with it. I… I really didn’t… Shiro…”

He patted her head. “It’s okay. I believe you.”

If Kaede’s testimony was to be believed, however, they definitely had a problem on their hands. The windows were all closed and showed no signs of use. The cupboards were too small for any adult to fit in. The only place of hiding would’ve been the fridge, but it would’ve taken far too long to remove the shelves. And Tsujiko herself agreed that nobody else had been in the kitchen when they’d walked in. In less than a minute, in spite of the door being constantly watched, someone had gone in and stabbed Makoto with an ice pick.

If. Kaede’s testimony was to be believed.

If.

The easiest solution would’ve been that she’d simply lied. She was the mystery writer. It was undeniable She’d had the most experience when dealing with locked rooms. Yet, she’d offered not a single good idea for the problems they’d come across up to that point. Making Tsujiko seem guilty of at least one murder would’ve inevitably forced the authorities to try pin the rest on her. It would’ve been a good cover.

But was that the truth…?

Tsujiko glanced at Shiro.

Shiro glanced at Tsujiko.

She squeezed his arm. “Did you… find the boat?”

He blinked. “Right. The boat. Wow. Completely forgot about that. Um. Yeah. No. The boat’s a no-go. But listen, there’s actually something, uh. Else. I think I know where our stranger came from.”

“Wh—What?”

“It was definitely hard to see. But I’m almost sure of it. There’s a tail end of a plane sticking out about a mile from here. I think it happened again. The Phantom Flight. They just sort of missed the island, I guess.”

Tsujiko stared at him. “That’s… oh, God. D—Are you saying he—swam here?”

“Probably had some kind of a life raft.”

“Even so, I thought he couldn’t walk…? Ms. Hinata said—”

“I don’t think he got here alone. That’s the thing. In fact, I know he didn’t. Because I… I found someone else.” He sighed. “I found her too late. But I found her.”

< She is found. >

She was beautiful. Although likely in her middle age, you would never be able to say for certain. Given her clothing, she was a woman of fashion. Of taste. The drying snow now stuck her clothing to her skin, and whatever glamour there had been was long-gone. Her skin was completely blue. Her blood likely not even liquid at this point.

The cold had preserved her.

The cold had ruined her.

The cold had killed her.

“She was buried in the snow. I basically just tripped over her.” Shiro explained. “I… I couldn’t just leave her out there.”

Tsujiko closed her eyes. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t want to—I don’t want to keep seeing these people dead like this! I just—I just want to go from this horrible fucking place!”

Shiro hugged her. “I know.”

“She died out there in the cold… Just like that… She was there all this time, and we didn’t find her…”

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

“I can’t take this anymore. I can’t. I just want this nightmare to end.”