The Truth of the Matter
"I'm calling the police, Mr. Tokitsu! All I did was refuse to pay your fee, and this is how you get back at me? I'm absolutely making sure the police come and set things right!" With that, Mona pulled out her phone and dialed.
At this point, Mr. Tokitsu had given up on explaining. He seemed rather angry himself. "Hmph, then go ahead and call them. I refuse to admit to anything I haven't done. If anything, I'd say *you're* the ones framing me. Did you really think a trick this simple would stump me? Heh. Just you wait — when the police arrive, I'll prove my innocence in front of everyone, and then you'll... heh!"
Conan, listening to the exchange between Mona and the man, gathered that the two of them knew each other — but the details would have to wait until the police arrived.
It wasn't long before they did. Perhaps because no one had actually died, the officer who showed up wasn't the familiar Inspector Megure but his subordinate, the good-natured Takagi Wataru.
Takagi was a little surprised to find Mouri Ran and the others at the scene, but he didn't comment on it — after a quick greeting, he set about taking statements.
"Officer, it's this man! He holds a grudge against me, and I caught him red-handed just now, slashing my books!" Mona pointed at Mr. Tokitsu, her voice rising with indignation.
Conan, taking full advantage of his small size, squeezed in at the edge of the group to listen as Officer Takagi questioned the suspect.
That was how he learned that the man who had so abruptly appeared in the study was named Tokitsu Junya — a high school detective, no less. He had come by that afternoon to collect his fee from Mona, and the housemaid had shown him to the study to wait. But the moment he stepped inside and closed the door, someone had knocked him out. When he came to, the books on the desk had been slashed — and then Mona had walked in.
By then, the forensics team had finished their work. They reported to Officer Takagi that the small knife left at the scene was indeed the one used to cut the books, and that the only fingerprints on it belonged to Tokitsu Junya.
But Tokitsu insisted he had done nothing of the sort — that Mona had deliberately framed him, trying to weasel out of paying his fee with some invented excuse.
Noelle confirmed that he had indeed come to collect his fee, but she flatly denied having told him to wait in the study. "The study is where Miss Mona keeps her important books. They matter a great deal to her, and she never lets strangers in there. I would never have sent Mr. Tokitsu to wait in her study."
Noelle knew more about the fee dispute as well. "Miss Mona didn't refuse to pay because she has no money — Mr. Tokitsu's fee, I mean. Even though Miss Mona lives on mushrooms and vegetable salads day after day, she pays my wages on time, every time. She would never carelessly owe anyone money. She refused to pay because Mr. Tokitsu's investigation produced a *wrong* result."
She then briefly explained what had happened that afternoon. "When Mr. Tokitsu came by for his fee, I let him in and asked him to sit down while I poured him a glass of water. But by the time I came back out with it, he was gone. I saw the front door standing open and assumed he'd already left, so I didn't think anything more of it."
Mushrooms and vegetable salads every single day — and that *isn't* being broke? And if she's that hard up, why hire a housemaid in the first place?
And this high school detective, having his own client declare his investigation results faulty — his skills couldn't be all that impressive, could they?
Still, Conan found himself curious about what this commission had actually involved. He gave Mona's skirt a little tug, hoping to get the story from her before the police thought to question her.
Feeling the pull, Mona looked down and found Conan, of all people. What could he suddenly want with her? Could he have spotted something off about today's little frame-up? No, impossible. That performance had been pulled off entirely on her own innate talent — no ordinary person could ever guess at such a magic-like method, least of all Conan, a boy who firmly believed no such thing as magic existed.
Yes, that was exactly it. Today's whole incident was a trap for Tokitsu Junya, orchestrated by Lisa. In truth, it had been simple: the moment Tokitsu entered the study and shut the door, Mona had used her gift, *Flow of Form and Void*, to slip through the gap of the closed door, knock him out, and slash the books with a knife — she'd searched high and low for those particular volumes, the ones she no longer needed, just for this little play. Then she had coated the knife with Tokitsu's fingerprints and slipped back out the same way.
As it stood, the study was a perfect locked room. It had no windows on any side — only a skylight overhead, through which Mona observed the stars, and that was permanently sealed. The door had stayed shut from the moment Tokitsu entered until it was opened, as the security camera facing the upper half of the doorway could attest — a camera Mona had splurged on specifically for today's scheme, and a major reason her finances had been bleeding red for weeks, leaving her with nothing but vegetables to eat.
So Mona hardly believed Conan could see through any of it. Curious what he wanted to ask, she crouched down to his level.
Conan, watching her crouch, was just about to ask about the commission. He still couldn't bring himself to believe that a detective would irresponsibly deliver a faulty investigation — surely there had been some misunderstanding?
Then his eyes went wide. He barely managed to smooth the shock from his face before Mona's questioning gaze settled on him — for there, on the nape of Mona's neck, was a "glass bead" just like the ones Lisa and Noelle wore! The three of them had to be connected somehow! The settings around their beads were nearly identical; only Mona's orb was blue, and though he'd only glimpsed the pattern inside for an instant, he could just make out something like flowing water — which matched the color perfectly. Could the pattern represent "water"?
And speaking of water — just now, at the study door, Conan had noticed something: for a stretch of the floor leading from a point some distance outside the doorway into the room itself, the surface was faintly damp, as though water had flowed across it and left a trail behind. That was odd, too. Judging by how spotless and tidy the house was, Noelle was clearly a diligent housemaid — she would never have left water sitting on the floor. So had today's incident involved her after all? Or had Mona been part of it as well?
......