The Media That Respects Privacy
"Strange... something odd, huh. A while back... at the venue of that... announcement event... I saw a... girl who looked... a lot like... you. Does that... count?" Tequila mused aloud as he fished out a key and moved to unlock the case. "Weird... the key... won't go in... Looks like... there's no lock."
Without waiting for the voice on the other end of the line to respond, he flipped the case open.
Cointreau had been listening to the choppy, halting voice coming through the receiver, and had been just about to warn him that there might be a wiretap nearby — but at Tequila's reply, something deep in his eyes stilled, and he swallowed the words he'd been about to say.
Then came Tequila's complaint that the key wouldn't fit the case, and Cointreau knew at once that something was wrong with it. He had no intention of warning him, though.
BOOM!Beep... beep... beep...
After a short wait, the ferocious roar of an explosion came through the phone, followed by the dead click of a disconnected call. Cointreau set the receiver down. It seemed there would be no need for him to intervene after all.
Still — poor Tequila. What rotten luck.
At the venue of Mantendo's game announcement event, Conan stared at the devastated bombing site, shock and frustration warring on his face as he drove a fist into the ground.
Damn it! He'd finally gotten his hands on a lead to those people, and then — of all things — this had to happen.
The police were quick to arrive at the scene after the report came in. Xia Xi saw that the officer leading them was that old familiar face, Inspector Megure — but this time, trailing at his side was a new addition: an officer with slightly wavy hair and a pair of dark sunglasses.
So she hadn't been seeing things on the bullet train after all. That man really did look just like Matsuda Jinpei.
Before long — perhaps because Xia Xi had been staring at him this whole time — he seemed to sense it and turned his head toward her, then began walking in her direction.
"Matsuda! Where do you think you're going? We're about to examine the scene," Inspector Megure called out from behind him. The man paused, shot Xia Xi one last glance, then turned back and followed the inspector toward the site.
At the sound of Megure's shout, Xia Xi went momentarily blank. It really is Matsuda Jinpei! But how is that possible?! Wasn't Matsuda supposed to die before the story even began? Even the butterfly effect couldn't change something that happened in the past. And judging from his reaction just now, he seemed to recognize her. What on earth was going on? Her head was starting to ache.
She turned the problem over for a while, and when no answer came, she reluctantly set it aside and resolved to deal with today's case first. If Matsuda Jinpei was alive and it had something to do with her — and he really did know her — then he was bound to come find her sooner or later. All she had to do was wait.
By the time Xia Xi saw that Megure and the others had finished combing through the evidence, her own memory of events plus a few subtle hints Conan had dropped earlier fell neatly into place, and she soon had the killer and the method worked out. She didn't wait long before going straight to Inspector Megure and laying out the truth of the case.
Only then did everyone learn that today's bomber was no indiscriminate attacker, but a man who had set out to kill one specific person.
The culprit was Takeshita Hironobu, an employee in Mantendo's development department, driven to it by a desire for revenge: his former girlfriend had been hounded to suicide by Nakajima Hideaki.
Takeshita had rigged a bomb inside his own suitcase, checked it in alongside Nakajima's bag, and then secretly swapped their claim tickets. What he hadn't counted on was that Nakajima was in the middle of a deal of his own — and that the two of them would exchange tickets as well. The stranger who retrieved the suitcase carried it into the restroom to check its contents, and died in the blast the moment he opened it.
The instant Conan heard Xia Xi's deduction, it clicked: no one had been targeting Tequila. He had simply been killed by mistake — which meant the trail to those men in black was not yet severed. Nakajima, the one who had been dealing with Tequila, still knew something.
So even though Xia Xi had already cracked the case, Conan used his watch-type tranquilizer dart to put Mouri Kogoro to sleep, and just as Inspector Megure was about to escort both the culprit and Nakajima back to the station for their statements, he stepped in to stop them. "Hold on just a moment — I have a few questions for Mr. Nakajima. That tall man in black you were dealing with... who exactly is he?..."
When it became clear that Nakajima didn't know much either — all he could offer was that every meeting had taken place at a bar called Cocktail, on the top floor of the Daikoku Building in Beika City — Conan's desperation to learn more about those men in black could no longer be contained. He bolted from the announcement event and raced off toward the Cocktail bar.
Xia Xi watched Conan's receding back with a helpless sigh. It took no imagination at all to figure out that once those people learned Tequila was dead, they'd guess the meeting place was compromised. All this time was more than enough for them to scrub the scene clean. By now, there'd be nothing left to find.
But she couldn't very well stop him. Explaining why was one problem — and besides, Conan was at the peak of his impatience for a lead. Unless he saw it with his own eyes, he'd never give up.
Conan came puffing up to the Daikoku Building, his heart pounding. Finally — I've found them. After all this, we're here.
He rushed into the elevator and watched the floor numbers climb, one by one.
But before he could reach the top floor, a violent explosion thundered down from above.
No —! A terrible premonition seized him at once.
When the elevator doors slid open, he lunged desperately toward the site, desperate to find even a single scrap of evidence — but fortunately, the adults around him caught and held him back before he got far.
According to the police investigation that followed, the amount of explosives these men had used was staggering. The bar had been erased without a trace — it was impossible even to determine whether anyone had been inside. All anyone knew for certain was that the men had been dealing with Mr. Nakajima over a list of world-famous computer engineers.
Xia Xi later read about the Cocktail bar bombing in the newspaper herself. Having long expected it, she paid it no particular mind.
What did strike her as odd, though, was that despite the fact that she had solved the bombing case in public at Mantendo's announcement event, there was almost nothing about her online. At most, a handful of newspapers mentioned that the case had been cracked by a rising young female detective — without ever printing her name, let alone a photograph.
Xia Xi had no great desire for fame, but for an incident as sensational as a bombing, the complete absence of any information about her felt off. Had the media suddenly grown a conscience and decided that personal privacy shouldn't be splashed around without consent?
Ah, well. She had no leads, and there was no point in overthinking it.
The boat would straighten itself out when it reached the bridge. The truth always came to light in the end.