The Detective Agency Hostage Crisis 4
Listening to Sawakuri Kaoru's words, Xia Yu could see that his behavior wasn't exactly rational at the moment, but she had to admit some of his suspicions had merit. There really were a few odd points about the scene, and the police declaring that Sawakuri Miko had killed herself felt far too hasty a conclusion.
Still, that hot spring inn in Gunma...
Chances were nine out of ten that the officer who'd closed the case was that scatterbrained Yamamura Misao.
At that thought, Xia Yu found it entirely understandable that the police had missed the discrepancies. Honestly, she felt the man was unfit to be a police officer at all — she'd be willing to bet most of the cases he'd handled were miscarriages of justice.
But none of that really concerned her. She had no intention of meddling in other people's business.
Just then, Kaoru asked Mouri Kogoro to read his sister's SNS posts aloud, hoping to tease out some clue from them.
"Let's see here." Kogoro picked up the materials as instructed. "The first one to come pestering me for a signature was the Elephant. I'd just gotten out of the bath and hadn't even dried my hair — what an annoying Elephant."
"The second one was the Fox, who came running up with a pile of unreasonable demands. So noisy. I already signed for her — just go home already."
"The last one to find me was the clueless Mouse, quick attack style. Fine, I'll sign, now get out."
"Oh my god, she's still not leaving?! Great, I'm starting to get sleepy... What am I supposed to do?"
The moment Kogoro finished reading Sawakuri Miko's final SNS post and opened his mouth to say something, the window behind him exploded with a deafening CRACK, shattering into countless fragments.
It happened without warning. Facing the spray of glass shards flying straight at him, Kaoru instinctively threw both hands up to shield his face.
Xia Yu, who had already been tipped off by Albedo, seized the opening instantly. She darted in front of Kaoru, clamped down on the hand gripping the remote, and squeezed until his fingers were forced open, catching the device neatly as it fell.
When he recovered and tried to raise the pistol in his other hand, she took that from him the same way.
Seeing that Kaoru still meant to fight, Xia Yu — both hands full — was just winding up for a kick when Albedo came vaulting through the shattered window behind him.
The three suspects, along with Sera Masumi and Mouri Ran, were all standing at the far side of the room. The sudden shattering of the glass had startled them, but aside from a scare, they'd escaped essentially unharmed.
Sera Masumi in particular — though she'd been slow off the mark at first, the moment she saw Xia Yu disarm the remote and the gun and neutralize the biggest threat, she'd immediately readied herself to help.
But she had barely taken a step when a complete stranger came tumbling in through the window, crossed the room in a few soundless strides, and had Kaoru pinned from behind in seconds.
Paying no heed to the man's struggles or his furious cursing, the stranger hauled him over to the chair beside Mouri Kogoro, produced a length of rope from who-knew-where, and lashed him to it. Then he plucked two sheets of paper from the materials Kaoru had brought along, crumpled them into a ball, and stuffed it into his mouth.
"There. I believe the danger has passed." Albedo nodded in satisfaction, then turned to Mouri Kogoro, who had just been shoved unceremoniously aside and was still blinking in a daze, and offered a mildly apologetic look. "Sorry about your window, Detective Mouri. Don't worry — I'll cover the damages. I hear you were caught in a shooting not long ago? How about I take this opportunity to replace it with bulletproof glass?"
"Huh?" With the culprit so abruptly dealt with, Kogoro hadn't caught up with events yet. At Albedo's question, he answered on pure reflex. "No need, ordinary glass is fine. That kind of thing doesn't happen every day, you know."
Albedo gave him a look whose meaning was impossible to read.
He's thinking far too simply. As long as Edogawa Conan lives under his roof, the odds of this happening again are quite real.
Oh, forget it. I'll just replace it anyway. At least it'll be that much safer.
By this point, Xia Yu had already set the gun and the remote down on the table by the window.
"Mr. Albedo!" Seeing the matter resolved with not a single injury, Mouri Ran finally let herself relax.
She picked her way carefully around the glass shards littering the floor, came up to Albedo, greeted him, and then asked, curious, "Weren't you and Klee supposed to be at Professor Agasa's place today? How did you suddenly turn up here?"
Sera Masumi, who had followed in Ran's wake, was sizing up this stranger who'd appeared out of nowhere with a distinctly odd look in her eyes. Unable to hold back her curiosity, she asked Ran, "Ran-chan, who's this guy? You know him?"