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the police. But there were no reports of Mizuguchi Nanami’s body being found. “So the killer must have concluded that he’d dropped it outside in the rain, I thought. In that case, the notebook would be wet, and it would be unreadable.”
    Morino had said the only person who had gone out in the rain was the shop master.
    It was a tightrope walk based on pure speculation—but when I finished it, the shop master grinned.
    “I did think I’d dropped it in the rain,” he admitted. “Morino’s upstairs.”
    The second and third floors of the shop were the man’s home.
    The shop master carefully placed the notebook back in his pocket. Then he turned his back to me, moved toward the entrance, and opened the door.
    The clouds from earlier had cleared away, and the sun was beating down outside. It looked like pure white light to my eyes, which were now accustomed to the darkness inside the shop.
    The man left the shop and crossed the road, vanishing into the light.
    The regular customer stood up, coming to the register to pay her bill. She looked around the shop and asked me where the shop master had gone, but I merely shook my head.
    †
    The stairs were outside the building, and to get to the second floor, I had to leave the shop.
    Morino was tied up on the third floor. She was still dressed like Mizuguchi Nanami, and she was lying on the floor with a rope tied around her arms and legs. She appeared otherwise unharmed.
    When she saw me, Morino’s eyes narrowed. That was how she smiled. She was gagged with a towel and thus unable to speak.
    When I undid the gag, she sighed.
    “The shop master pretended he was hurt, and he asked me to help carry something. Before I knew it …”
    Getting the ropes off of her looked difficult. I left her there and looked around the room. Judging from the state of the place, the master lived alone.
    There was white paper on the desk, with a number of tiny crosses drawn on it.
    I found a set of knives on the shelf. It was easy to guess that these had been used to kill his victims—he had mentioned them often in the notebook.
    Morino called out, angry with me for not untying her.
    I selected one of the knives, using it to cut the ropes.
    “We’d better run—he’ll find us.”
    “No, he won’t.”
    He would never come back. I was sure of it. Yes, there was a slight possibility that he might come back to kill the two of us—but for some reason, I knew he wouldn’t.
    When we had been talking at the shop counter, I’d felt as if the two of us had a lot in common.
    He’d left the shop quietly precisely because he knew that I would never tell anyone.
    Morino looked surprised that I seemed so sure the killer wasn’t coming back. She stood up, adjusting her clothes.
    “I managed to send you a message, but he noticed.”
    Her phone had been laid on the desk and switched off. Mizuguchi Nanami’s bag was there too; after all, Morino had been carrying it around. Had the killer not noticed that the girl about to become his fourth victim had the same bag as his third victim? Or had he targeted her because it was the same bag?
    Morino had been tied up for a full day, so she staggered a little as she headed for the stairs.
    When I left the room, I took the set of knives and the paper on the desk—as mementos. When the police figured everything out and searched this room, the lack of weapons might cause problems, but I didn’t care.
    I went to the first floor and looked inside. Quiet music was playing in the empty shop.
    I flipped the sign on the door, turning it to CLOSED .
    Morino stood behind me, watching and rubbing her wrists—the rope marks were still there.
    “It was horrible,” she said. “I’m never coming here again.”
    “It wasn’t all bad. You got to meet him.”
    Morino frowned. “Got to meet who? Why did the shop master do this to me, anyway?”
    She had not realized that the shop master was a serial killer.
    I looked down, staring at the tiny crosses on the piece of