Chapter 197
Having a good conference suddenly interrupted by a warning letter and threatened, this group of attendees were all—
Quite calm.
Especially the several recruited ones who had done similar things themselves. Now that the wheel of fortune had turned, they could express understanding and even quietly reported several names for the FBI to investigate whether their enemies had come for revenge.
After they started this, others followed suit, all recalling whether they'd offended anyone.
Only the three from Japan remained like outsiders, not participating in anything.
Judy couldn't help coming over to ask: "What about you? Don't you have anything to say?"
Hagiwara Kenji: "Uh, unlike others who often come to America, this is our second time here. If we're talking about offending someone in America, we really can't think of anyone..."
Judy pondered: "Is it possible that enemies followed you to America?"
Matsuda Jinpei felt the probability of it relating to him was low: "I just stay home researching bombs when I'm free. Who could I provoke?"
Hagiwara Kenji looked at Usuha Izuki: "Those who have grudges against me should all be in prison, and I haven't heard of any jailbreaks... What about you, Little Shinryu?"
Although Samukawa Shinryu was his partner, and theoretically they should handle similar cases, Samukawa Shinryu had always carried an invisible bomb—his connection to illegal organizations. If this was spillover from that organization affecting Samukawa Shinryu, it really couldn't be determined.
Usuha Izuki thought: "Those who offended me are either dead or in prison."
Judy: "..."
The previous one only mentioned prison, but you added "dead"... You're all Japanese police—why is the difference so big?
Judy was FBI herself and very aware of how terrible American police were, so naturally she had no filters for foreign police either. Hearing this subtle statement, she now had some thoughts about Usuha Izuki.
When they last met, he was handling a case the FBI couldn't solve, helping them, so she couldn't suspect anything. But... was this Samukawa Shinryu really an upright and just police officer who, aside from solving cases, had never offended anyone capable of this kind of revenge?
He didn't look like it!
Even that bomb design from last time was his, said to have been stolen by a mole. But who knew if all this was under his control?
And he just happened to be vacationing in Hawaii, just happened to encounter a bomber using his design, just happened to help the FBI...
Judy tried to control her suspicious gaze—it wasn't polite, and even if he had committed crimes, it wasn't in America. What she needed now was to solve this case.
But speaking of which...
"Samukawa-san, I understand a little Japanese. Doesn't your name mean water in Japanese?"
Hagiwara Kenji could help explain: "Right, both 'cold' and 'deep' are descriptive, and the remaining two characters together form 'river flow.'"
"I see..." Judy looked thoughtful.
Blade noticed the situation here and came over to ask: "Why are you suddenly asking about Samukawa's name?"
"...I'm a bit concerned about that glass ball." Judy said with difficulty. "It's very similar to Samukawa-san's eyes, and the scene was doused with a water hose. Though it might be to destroy the scene, it could also be a hint like that glass ball..."
Blade understood: "You think the water and red glass ball both point to Samukawa?"
The Japanese trio: "..........."
Hagiwara Kenji laughed dryly: "Your imagination is so rich."
Judy sighed: "Because there are too many perverts here in America who like this kind of thing. You have to have rich imagination, or it won't work. If BAU wasn't busy with other cases, this would actually be more suitable for them..."
Usuha Izuki expressed understanding: "This is America having its own national conditions."
The bomb expert who often defended America: "..."
He felt America's image was beyond saving. All his efforts were wasted.
"Since I might be the target, can I see the warning letter?" Usuha Izuki didn't beat around the bush and directly reached for intelligence.
There was nothing wrong with sharing this. Blade handed him the copies.
"The English warning is above, the string below is code. Our experts are still decoding..."
Usuha Izuki glanced at it and suddenly fell silent.
Among the skills he'd exchanged for Samukawa Shinryu was code breaking—no matter how difficult the code, he could see through it at a glance.
But this code...
Hagiwara Kenji, worthy of being Usuha Izuki's partner and friend who spent day and night together, immediately sensed Usuha Izuki's emotional change and turned to ask: "What's wrong? Don't tell me you decoded it?"
"Mm." Usuha Izuki was expressionless. "It's [PARDON]."
Everyone: "...???"
After speaking, Usuha Izuki paused, then suddenly sneered: "Looks like someone knows the correct answer but hasn't said anything."
Matsuda Jinpei was already annoyed about the conference interruption. Hearing someone was dragging their feet, he immediately became irritated: "Who?"
"Mr. Blade." Usuha Izuki said flatly. "You actually knew long ago, right? The correct answer to the code is [GUILTY], not [PARDON]."
Usuha Izuki was too lazy to explain the process. Anyway, with these people's abilities, given the answer, they could definitely work backward.
Judy understood Usuha Izuki's implication but didn't know who to believe now: "So you deliberately gave the wrong answer just now?"
"Mm, just a casual test. Didn't expect to actually discover something. Mr. Blade isn't very good at this kind of thing."
After all, though nominally FBI, Blade was just a bomb-related researcher. Those anti-investigation and emotion-hiding techniques weren't necessary for him.
Samukawa Shinryu had too many skills. When using this identity, Usuha Izuki usually liked to zone out and enter power-saving mode, otherwise high-speed brain operation was tiring. But once he started reasoning, no detail could escape his eyes.
Judy immediately looked at her silent colleague: "Blade?!"
Blade looked at Usuha Izuki.
He hadn't said a word, just felt displeased when hearing the wrong answer—he was judging guilty people, but this guy came up with pardon, practically opposing him—and was directly discovered.
No, maybe it wasn't just this time.
For Samukawa Shinryu to choose to test at this moment, he should have already determined the culprit was right in front of him. Deliberately giving the wrong answer might just be final confirmation.
So where did he expose himself? When?
His meeting with Samukawa Shinryu was just chatting a few sentences on the first day. Had his murderous intent already been exposed then?
...Maybe he shouldn't have come today, should have stuck to the plan and just left those guilty people.
But he was somewhat unwilling, worried about missing the criminal Samukawa Shinryu.
On the first day when Joseph explained that bomb, though Joseph didn't say who designed it, he was sitting right behind Samukawa Shinryu and clearly noticed Joseph's glance toward Samukawa Shinryu.
Plus Joseph's admiration for Samukawa Shinryu and love for that "perfect bomb," it was easy to deduce—
Samukawa Shinryu was that bomb designer with all those coincidences.
Coincidences?
If he hadn't connected the dots and only heard Joseph's account, Blade might have been willing to barely believe such a pile of coincidences. But seeing Samukawa Shinryu in person—how could he believe it?!
This person was definitely intentional! And his hands definitely weren't clean of just this one thing!
Samukawa Shinryu wasn't even recruited but was a Japanese detective. According to the other two Japanese police, this Samukawa Shinryu had extremely high case-solving rates in Japan—the Metropolitan Police couldn't do without him...
And the cases he solved—the criminals were all particularly cunning, playing with alibis, locked rooms, and such...
Were Japanese criminals naturally smarter than those from other countries?!
Impossible! Someone must be helping them behind the scenes!
If Samukawa Shinryu could sell designs then handle bomb disposal, why couldn't he design others' crimes then solve them himself?!
Blade stared deeply at Samukawa Shinryu.
This person seemed to absorb all light and heat, leaving only deep darkness—cold and dangerous. Just looking at him, you could imagine how he calculated those with murderous intent, making them follow his arrangements step by step, then at the final moment solving the case himself and crushing their hopes.
What a terrifying, despicable guy... yet he could be such a good police officer that even colleagues hadn't noticed problems!
That's why he specially came today, wanting to see with his own eyes whether this person would loosen up a bit when threatened with death, mentioning a few people that someone of police status shouldn't have offended. After all, being hunted to America definitely wasn't something ordinary people could do...
But this guy didn't expose anything—instead, he nearly exposed himself!
Blade used his lifetime's acting skills to say seriously: "It's not me. I'm puzzled why you'd suspect me. Is it just by observing everyone's expressions? Different countries have different customs—micro-expressions aren't necessarily universal. Could you be mistaken? Do you have any other evidence?"
"You want to kill those people, right?" Usuha Izuki pointed at the several recruited people. "I noticed on the first day. Originally that Frenchman sat in a chair briefly, then quickly got up to chat with others. Later when you sat in that row, you deliberately skipped that seat, unwilling even to touch it."
Blade was silent for a moment: "Just coincidence. I don't like sitting too close to people—leaving an empty seat..."
Judy interrupted him: "Enough! Let's go back first!"
What was the point of arguing here? Wasn't it embarrassing enough for so many countries to see the FBI's joke?!
Blade gritted his teeth: "Judy, you're not believing his words, are you?"
Judy: "I also hope what he said is false. Just cooperate with the investigation to clear suspicion, can't you?"
Each profession had its specialty. Blade wasn't responsible for solving cases—just dealing with bombs. Even if he'd made some elite FBI friends, what he didn't understand, he still didn't understand.
But Judy specialized in this. From when Usuha Izuki named him, she'd been staring at Blade, quickly and despairingly discovering that Blade probably hadn't expected this turn, was unprepared, and his impromptu reactions all pointed to him being the culprit.
Judy had been an adult for a long time. Adult society was very complex.
Even though she knew the FBI didn't necessarily have all good people and colleague crimes weren't uncommon, having it happen around her was still too shocking.
And it was too fast!
If she had followed the case progress bit by bit, slowly reasoning, gradually discovering the truth, suspecting colleagues around her, searching for evidence, finally confirming...
She wouldn't have reacted so strongly, because the gradual process would have helped her accept reality by this stage.
But this Samukawa Shinryu guy directly pointed out the culprit to her! No buffer at all!
That Judy could still think calmly and consider the FBI's face in front of foreign people showed she was already very strong!
"...Just suspicion." Judy was still struggling to save face for the FBI. "Let's go. Explain your schedule yesterday—maybe it's a misunderstanding..."
Usuha Izuki: "I've never misunderstood any criminal."
Judy: "..........."
Stop talking! Leave some face for the FBI! Do you have a grudge against the FBI?!