Kaga’s false-witness bluff

Kaga’s false-witness bluff is a deliberate deception aimed at Hiromi Kadokura: he claims that a witness saw her near Yanagibashi Bridge in January, though no witness exists. By turning a pattern he has inferred from a bridge list into apparent eyewitness evidence, Kaga tries to provoke a confession. Hiromi recognizes the claim as a bluff, yet privately considers how a different accusation might have unsettled her, leaving the interrogation poised between his partial insight and the limits of his knowledge.

The Claim and Its Purpose

Kaga’s assertion concerns a specific place and time: a witness supposedly saw Hiromi near Yanagibashi Bridge in January of that year. The claim is not a report of information the police have actually obtained. Kaga has made it up as an interrogation device, hoping that the threat of a witness will trick Hiromi into confessing.

The bluff depends on a pattern Kaga has inferred. He assumes that Hiromi visits a different bridge each month, following the same order as a list. From that sequence he chooses Yanagibashi Bridge and presents the supposed sighting as established fact. The tactic turns a pattern into a piece of invented corroboration: its force comes not from evidence of a witness, but from Hiromi’s potential belief that the police can place her at the bridge.

Hiromi’s Recognition and Response

After Kaga leaves, Hiromi looks at her watch, knowing she needs to go but unable to make herself get up. She looks at her palms, damp with sweat. The narration then makes clear that she understands the central weakness in his accusation: she has not been to Yanagibashi Bridge that year, and there can be no witness to such a visit. Her bodily unease does not mean she accepts the claim as true; the scene holds her outward distress beside her inward recognition of the deception.

Her thoughts also expose the uncertainty that Kaga’s bluff cannot resolve. She wonders whether she could have kept her composure if he had instead claimed that someone saw her at Saemonbashi Bridge in March. That alternative matters because it shows that the named January sighting is not simply a correct reconstruction of her movements. The tactic may threaten to unsettle her, but the exact bridge and month still matter to whether the claim fits what she knows.

What the Bluff Reveals

Hiromi judges Kaga to be on the right track, while also recognizing that he does not yet really understand the whole matter. The episode therefore separates a sound investigative intuition from proof. Kaga has noticed a meaningful bridge pattern and uses it to put pressure on her, but the false witness does not establish that he has correctly reconstructed every detail.

The scene gives the reader access to both sides of the exchange: Kaga’s bluff is exposed as a tactic, and Hiromi’s private reasoning shows that it has nevertheless reached a sensitive point. The resulting tension rests on unequal but changing knowledge. Kaga acts as though the police possess external confirmation; Hiromi knows the claim is false, yet imagines how a different version might have affected her. The bridge list thus becomes more than a clue: it is the basis for an encounter in which the appearance of evidence is used to test a suspect’s response.

Place in the Investigation

The bluff does not produce a confession in the material shown. Instead, its significance lies in what it demonstrates about the investigation’s method and its limits. Kaga is willing to use an unsupported claim to see whether Hiromi will reveal something, and Hiromi can distinguish the invented witness from the inference behind it. His approach suggests that he has identified a meaningful connection, but her judgment that he remains short of full understanding keeps the mystery open.

The episode also clarifies how a recurring bridge sequence can function simultaneously as a line of inquiry and a source of uncertainty. A list supplies Kaga with an order from which to make a prediction; the bluff turns that prediction into pressure; Hiromi’s response reveals that the prediction is not a complete account. The supposed witness is absent, but the exchange still advances the investigation by exposing the distance between what Kaga suspects, what he can substantiate, and what Hiromi knows.