Behind me, Hiro followed, still radiating that smug amusement.
Chapter thirty-six
Goldilocks and the Three Possible Spies
Nyomi
We entered the hallway and I checked out the three doors in a neat row, each with its own small nameplate in elegant script.
Yuki.
Mami.
Hina.
Time to snoop.
The hallway smelled faintly of jasmine.
The floorboards under my steps creaked in shallow sighs, each one too loud for my liking.
A prickling sensation crawled across the back of my neck. The kind one gets when they know they’re being watched—even if logic insists the area is empty.
I scanned the hallway and looked up.
The lights hummed low overhead, projecting elongated shadows that stretched toward the doors like reaching fingers.
Hiro stepped beside me. “Are you alright?”
“I feel like I’m being watched.”
“You may be.” Hiro pointed to the corners. “There are cameras here and here.”
A faint draft brushed against my ankles—too cool, too directional to be natural. Like air displaced by someone who had just moved.
My breath hitched.
The hallway felt inhabited in a way that made my skin tighten, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath with me.
I stiffened. “Can you do a favor for me?”
“Of course.”
“Ask Reo if the hallway footage was erased too—the same way the mansion footage was when the person took a picture of me.”
Hiro shifted, already pulling out his phone. He typed fast.
The phone buzzed a second later.
Hiro read the message, then looked at me. “Reo wants to know if we’ve found anything.”
My pulse ticked up. “Tell him I’m now thinking Mami might be a stronger suspect than Hina. However, it’s still just intuition. No concrete evidence yet.”
Hiro typed my words exactly, expression unreadable.
Another buzz.
A second message.
