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I turned away from the window, the shadows in my office stretching as if they wanted to hide the truth I was about to speak. But there was no hiding anymore. I knew the truth, and so did she.
“It was you, Erika,” I said softly, my voice barely more than a whisper, but it cut through the silence like a knife. “You killed him. Not because he was unfaithful, but because he humiliated you. Those pictures, those women—they were a joke, a mockery of everything you built in Itsumika. And you couldn’t stand it.”
I could see her in my mind, the way she’d smile, the way her eyes would harden just a little, like steel under silk. She’d deny it, of course, play the role of the grieving widow to the end. But we both knew the truth. She’d killed him, strangled him with the very hands that had once caressed him. And then she’d buried him, not in the ground, but under a pile of lies so thick she thought no one would ever dig him up.
But I did.
I sat down at my desk, the weight of the case finally settling on my shoulders. The rain outside was still falling, washing away the sins of the city, but not hers. Her sin would stain her forever. And in Bantville, stains like that never wash out.
The case was closed, but the taste it left in my mouth was bitter. Erika Itsumi had gotten away with murder, but not without a price. She’d lost everything—her husband, her pride, and whatever shred of decency she had left. And that, in this twisted town, was justice enough.
I lit another cigarette, the flame flickering in the dark, and took a long drag. The smoke curled up, joining the night, as I whispered the last words of a case I’d never forget.
“Rest in peace, Mr. Itsumi. You married the wrong woman.”
