The Call from the Hospital
Amuro Toru glanced at Conan, who had spoken up with a question a step ahead of Mouri Kogoro, and pressed his lips together lightly.
Come to think of it, the ones who had first reacted and rushed to the scene were Mouri Kogoro and this kid, weren't they...
"Conan makes a good point. That's exactly why we ran a DNA comparison as a precaution. The results should be coming in about..." Before Inspector Megure could finish, the forensic report arrived.
He looked down and read it carefully, then fixed Banba Raita with a sharp gaze. "The results show that the DNA from the hair we collected on your comb is a near-perfect match to the DNA found under the victim's fingernails."
"What?!" A shock ran through everyone present.
Banba Raita, naturally, was even less willing to believe it, and when Officer Takagi requested a more formal DNA test, his anger boiled over.
Before Mouri Kogoro could talk him into accepting the test, the waiter he had been targeting all along stepped forward to join the group, adjusted his glasses, and pointed out the oddities in Banba's earlier behavior—his every word seeming to hint that Banba was the murderer.
But almost immediately, the detective Banba had hired, who was also present at the scene, shot back with a counterattack of his own: the waiter was Kamon Hatsune's kept man, he argued, which made him the far more likely killer.
Just as the crowd was struggling to keep up with this rapid-fire series of surprises, the waiter's self-introduction left them positively stunned.
He removed his glasses, and a confident smile curled across the corner of his mouth. "The name's Amuro Toru. I'm a private detective."
And with that, the two bride-and-groom-to-be's habit of hiring detectives to investigate each other before their wedding was laid bare before everyone.
Amuro Toru claimed he had been retained by Kamon Hatsune herself, deliberately taking a job as a waiter at this restaurant in order to keep watch on whether Banba Raita had another girlfriend.
"I can't prove I was hired by Miss Kamon at the moment, but according to the officer here, she should be waking up soon enough. When she does, she can confirm my identity for you."
Having said that, Amuro turned the point of his words squarely on Banba. "Compared to me, the victim's own fiancé here—Mr. Banba is the far more suspicious party, wouldn't you say?"
"Inspector Megure, we've finished surveying the burn site." At that moment, a police officer walked in from outside the restaurant—wearing sunglasses and a suit even at this hour of the evening.
He'd had to wait for the fire brigade to put out the flames before he could conduct his investigation, which was why he'd come in a little late.
As he walked, Matsuda Jinpei absentmindedly flicked the water droplets from his clothes and remarked with a wry grin, "That Miss Natsume is seriously strong. She startled the hell out of me while I was doing my inspection—the car door was ripped clean off its frame. By hand."
Saying this, he lifted his head to look at Inspector Megure.
And then, completely without warning, he found himself face to face with a certain long-lost bastard standing beside Megure in a waiter's uniform, wearing an expression that said he didn't know Matsuda from Adam.
His eye twitched. Matsuda Jinpei did his utmost not to betray anything, letting his gaze linger on Amuro Toru for only a beat before smoothly shifting it away to the inspector, and reporting what he'd found: the reason the car fire had grown so large. "Spray-paint cans in the car, plus a mountain of paper and cardboard, fed the flames. That's what made the fire burn this hot."
Then he glanced around at the people gathered nearby. "Oh, right—Miss Natsume went to the hospital, didn't she? Is she okay?"
At Matsuda's question, Amuro Toru couldn't help but steal a glance at him.
The truth was, he'd known ever since he learned Matsuda Jinpei had been transferred to Division 1 that their paths would cross sooner or later. But he had barely begun making his move when he ran into Matsuda like this—it still caught Amuro somewhat off guard.
Fortunately, Matsuda seemed to have guessed something about his current assignment—especially with Cointreau possibly keeping watch over him—and thankfully, Matsuda hadn't let anything slip in front of all these people.
What Amuro had not anticipated, however, was that Matsuda knew Natsume Xiayu at all—and apparently knew her quite well, going straight to Inspector Megure the moment he walked in to ask about her condition.
By all the intelligence he'd gotten from Kazami Yuuya on Natsume Xiayu's recent personal connections, Miss Natsume had only met Matsuda two or three times, and only in connection with cases.
As far as Amuro understood him, a handful of case-related encounters shouldn't be enough to make Matsuda care about someone this much.
While Amuro was quietly turning over what unspoken connection might exist between Matsuda Jinpei and Natsume Xiayu, Inspector Megure had already given Matsuda a brief rundown of the situation at the hospital.
Learning that the fire had been fed by the spray-paint cans, cardboard, and other decorations in the car, Inspector Megure then uncovered something more: a message Kamon Hatsune had sent Banba Raita roughly half an hour before the incident. Banba's suspicion only deepened.
And just as Inspector Megure pressed Banba Raita further with these questions in hand, Mouri Kogoro's phone chimed with an incoming call.