The Doorbell Incident
Suddenly, the doorbell cut through Rena Mizunashi's thoughts.
She snapped alert, lifting her head to stare at the front door.
Who on earth would come calling at this hour? She hardly had any friends to speak of, and it wasn't the time Yoko Okino usually dropped by. So who could be ringing her bell?
Moving on quiet feet, she slipped to the door and peered through the peephole — and blinked in surprise at the sight of the very person she'd just been reading about in the newspaper.
After a moment's hesitation, she opened the door, and discovered that Mouri Kogoro hadn't come alone.
"Miss Mizunashi, hello again!" Charlotte popped her head out from behind Mouri Kogoro, greeting Rena Mizunashi with a bright smile.
"Charlotte! It's you. And Detective Mouri, too... What's all this about?" Rena Mizunashi eyed the group with open puzzlement.
......
"So that's what this is about."
Once introductions had been made all around, Mouri Kogoro, speaking as the group's representative, laid out the reason for their visit.
By the time he finished, Rena Mizunashi finally understood.
Outwardly she showed nothing, but when Mouri Kogoro mentioned that he'd spotted someone keeping watch on the building across the street, her heart gave a sudden, involuntary clench.
She had never imagined that anyone besides herself would notice the FBI's movements. She was quietly exasperated.
Were these FBI agents really that sloppy? Could ordinary people actually detect them? Was Mouri Kogoro simply that sharp, or were they just incompetent?
Though, she supposed, the sharper Mouri Kogoro was, the better — leaving Eisuke in his care would mean that much more protection.
"Still, I doubt those people across the street are watching *me*." Rena Mizunashi knew perfectly well that the FBI's target was her, but she had no intention of telling Detective Mouri the truth — it would do her cover no favors. "I *have* been dealing with something troublesome lately, but it has nothing to do with any surveillance. Honestly, if you hadn't come by today, Detective Mouri, I'd never have known there were suspicious people watching this place at all. No — the problem I've been having involves the doorbell..."
With that, Rena Mizunashi told them about the strange thing that had been happening to her recently.
"Ah, so it's the old ring-and-run trick, starting two months ago," Mouri Kogoro said, lifting the coffee Rena Mizunashi had just brewed for him.
"Yes. Ever since then, every Saturday morning at around six thirty, the doorbell rings. But even when I open the door immediately — the very second it goes off — there's never anyone there." Worry clouded her face as she spoke.
"So whoever it is rings the bell and bolts right away?" As a reporter, Charlotte was clearly finding the story interesting. Pen scratching across her notepad, she started pressing Rena Mizunashi for details.
"I can't be sure of that. But the time between hearing the bell and opening the door is really short — I don't think anyone could vanish that quickly." Rena Mizunashi hesitantly shook her head at Charlotte's theory.
"If you're not sure, why don't we test it?" Conan looked up at Rena Mizunashi and offered his suggestion in a childishly innocent tone. "If we try it, we'll know right away whether someone could manage to run off in time!"
With no other leads to go on, everyone mulled it over, decided Conan had a point, and trooped back to the entrance, where Mouri Kogoro rang the bell for the experiment.
Thanks to this hands-on trial — and to the imprint the door left on Mouri Kogoro's face when it slammed shut — the group confirmed that no ordinary person could have escaped in so short a time.
Which was strange. Conan frowned thoughtfully at the corridor outside Rena Mizunashi's door, working through the possibilities. So how *did* they disappear?
His gaze drifted, pensive, toward Xiayu.
Could whoever it be be like Xiayu — fast enough to vanish in the blink of an eye?
Sensing Conan's eyes on her, Xiayu was baffled. Why was he suddenly staring at her again? She hadn't done anything unusual lately — she'd been busy handling Ningguang's second deal with the Black Organization, and had barely appeared in front of him at all.
True, Rena Mizunashi was a member of the Black Organization — codename Kir — but Xiayu could guarantee she had no contact with the woman whatsoever. Aside from Charlotte's single chance encounter with her, none of the other Teyvat people had ever crossed paths with Rena Mizunashi either.
Xiayu *had* initially assumed the people watching from across the street were connected to Charlotte, but once the culprit from the threatening-letter case was caught and she'd laid eyes on Rena Mizunashi herself, it was only natural to conclude that their target was this Black Organization member.
She couldn't quite recall the truth behind the doorbell incident Rena Mizunashi was caught up in, but she did remember that when Rena Mizunashi first appeared in the story, she was under FBI suspicion of ties to the Organization. So the people doing the watching must be FBI agents, then.
How to put it...
Hmm... those FBI agents' skills were, frankly, a little hard to describe. They really didn't seem professionally trained at all. Xiayu had spotted their watcher the instant she arrived with Charlotte, and Charlotte had surely noticed long before that.
After Conan finally looked away from her, Xiayu noticed his faint frown as he turned his attention toward the street across the way — so he'd sensed the observation too, had he?
Honestly. If a mere child — no, even a high schooler — could spot them, then professional or not, there was no denying this FBI agent was simply bad at his job. It was hardly Xiayu's fault that she'd initially written him off as an ordinary stalker after Charlotte.
"Miss Mizunashi, that's an awful lot of locks on your door."
As everyone filed back inside, Mouri Kogoro happened to glance over his shoulder while closing the door — and only then noticed how different Rena Mizunashi's locks were from Charlotte's.
"Wow, you're right. There are four of them!" Ran turned to look as well.
"A single woman living alone has to be careful, you know," Rena Mizunashi said with a resigned smile.
"She's right, Charlotte. You live by yourself too — you should be taking precautions like Miss Mizunashi does." At her words, Takeuchi Koichi couldn't help shooting Charlotte a reproachful look. "Stop floating through life with your head in the clouds, thinking about nothing but your articles."
"The threatening letter was just the other day, so take it easy for a while — write about something a little safer, at least. Or better yet, move. First there's someone keeping watch on this place, and now Miss Mizunashi is being harassed. Something about this neighborhood just doesn't feel safe to me."
Charlotte couldn't believe it. She hadn't said a single word, and somehow the chief editor had managed to circle the conversation right back around to her — dredging up the same old argument all over again.