Chapter 250
Not long after Vodka contacted Tequila, he received an email from Usuha Izuki.
[I remember Tequila is your guy, right? Tequila's transaction partner actually sent him a box of bombs. He's done for. The police have already arrived, and they might trace back to the transaction partner. You guys should clean up and retreat if you need to.]
Vodka looked at this email and slowly typed out a question mark.
Tequila's transaction partner this time was just an ordinary office worker from a game company. Getting a list and taking money—such a good deal, if he wasn't eager to agree to it, that would be one thing, but how could he possibly use bombs to kill people?!
Even reporting to the police would be more like a normal person than directly killing someone!
Moreover, Tequila had just told him he bumped into Botanist, and then he was gone the next moment... No matter how you think about it, it seems connected to Usuha Izuki!
Was this the legendary "not holding grudges because revenge is taken on the spot"?! Even so, wasn't this too fast?!
Did Usuha Izuki have something on his mind today?! Not pretending to be an ordinary person anymore?
Vodka originally wanted to turn around and tell Gin, "Big Brother, this time I have solid evidence that Botanist interfered with someone else's mission, deliberately causing Tequila's mission to fail and even his death," but based on past experience of being framed, he pondered and felt he couldn't jump to conclusions so easily.
What if after he reported it, somehow it became his fault, and then Usuha Izuki would say that he and Gin failed to assassinate him with bombs last time, and this time they were changing the method but not the medicine to continue assassinating him...
So he cautiously replied to the email: [Why suddenly kill Tequila?]
He didn't even dare to directly ask "why did you kill," only using vague pronouns.
Usuha Izuki quickly replied: [The police are solving the case. We should know soon.]
"Hey, Samukawa! Stop playing with your phone!" Matsuda Jinpei called him. "Come take a look!"
"Coming." Usuha Izuki put away his phone, expressionlessly assumed Samukawa Shinryu's standard posture, and walked toward the explosion center.
Bomb expert Matsuda Jinpei picked up a nameplate that had originally been on the briefcase and was now twisted.
"Look at this. Only an explosion from inside to outside would cause this shape."
Usuha Izuki cooperatively continued the deduction: "In other words, the bomb was placed inside the case, not outside. We can basically rule out the possibility of other bombs elsewhere."
"If it was his own bag, how could he not know there was a bomb inside? Or was this bomb unstable and he accidentally bumped it? What was he here to do, install bombs?" Matsuda Jinpei casually listed a bunch of possibilities. "Can't find anything to prove his identity. Troublesome..."
"That! I know something!"
Edogawa Conan raised his hand to speak.
Actually, he was now slightly suspicious that one of Matsuda Jinpei and Samukawa Shinryu might be an organization member, since both seemed somewhat subtle and their appearance at a game announcement event was also strange.
But since both of them had already seen him, and if it came to appearance, they'd seen him before too. As long as he didn't act too obvious and simply provided some intelligence, he could explain it as training he'd gotten from being around Mouri Kogorou.
Moreover, looking at how actively these two were trying to find the truth of this matter, maybe he could discover something too.
If they were from the organization, they definitely wouldn't want to expose the transaction, right?
When Matsuda Jinpei heard that Edogawa Conan knew something, he directly forgot that he'd just said to have Mouri Ran watch this kid, and pulled him over to ask: "What do you know?"
"He was an uncle over two meters tall with a Kansai accent. Mr. Nakajima saw him too—he bumped into us on the road earlier..."
Mr. Nakajima from the game company, who was responsible for receiving the Mouri family, reluctantly responded: "Oh, oh... that person, I did see him..."
Edogawa Conan looked at him puzzledly.
Actually, when he first heard that Tequila had bumped into Botanist, he had suspected Mr. Nakajima, but thinking about Tequila's arrogant attitude then, which was completely different from the subtle fear when mentioning Botanist on the phone, he speculated—
Tequila probably just didn't like watching where he walked, so he often bumped into people!
After all, he was two meters tall. In Japan, a world of average height, he couldn't see short people, so bumping into people occasionally was too normal!
Looking at it this way, Botanist's height probably wouldn't exceed 1.9 meters, otherwise Tequila would definitely be able to see him and wouldn't have bumped into him.
Just then, the sound of police cars came from outside. Matsuda Jinpei told him to wait, to avoid having to say everything twice.
Inspector Megure arrived at the scene with Hagiwara Kenji, Date Wataru, and others.
Hagiwara Kenji looked at Matsuda Jinpei and Samukawa Shinryu and sighed deeply. He said nothing, but everything was understood.
He knew something would happen.
Matsuda Jinpei, understanding his meaning, immediately bristled: "This has nothing to do with us!"
Usuha Izuki also nodded beside him: "I didn't cause trouble today."
"No other meaning, just lamenting your accident-prone constitution..." Hagiwara Kenji shook his head. "Alright, what's the situation now? Fill us in."
Matsuda Jinpei relayed the intelligence he already knew, then indicated that Edogawa Conan could tell the rest of what he knew.
Edogawa Conan continued: "...I heard him say 'won't go in,' 'it's open,' things like that."
Inspector Megure chose to seek help from the on-site expert: "Mm, Samukawa-kun, what do you think?"
"...I found this at the explosion site." Usuha Izuki held up an evidence bag containing keys. "Matsuda discovered this bent nameplate from the game company. The direction of the bend indicates the bomb was installed inside the briefcase. I think we need to confirm his identity."
Inspector Megure immediately asked the game company president: "He was carrying your company's briefcase. Is he one of your employees?"
The president shook his head frantically: "Our company doesn't have anyone two meters tall! And... and actually I received a threatening letter earlier... telling me to cancel this announcement event..."
Inspector Megure: "What?! You should have said this earlier! Didn't you report it to police? Never mind, you thought it was a prank, right?"
Sigh, this kind of thing was quite common. Inspector Megure got angry but then calmed himself down, since this president wasn't the only one who did this...
Hagiwara Kenji pondered: "Not from your company, but used your company's briefcase..."
Date Wataru also deduced: "What he said about 'won't go in' refers to the key, right? 'It's open' means the briefcase wasn't locked...? Then this briefcase wasn't his, but he ignored such obvious markings and carried a briefcase that didn't belong to him..."
"It's a transaction." Usuha Izuki summarized. "We should know if we ask the front desk."
Having observed throughout, Edogawa Conan felt that both Samukawa Shinryu and Matsuda Jinpei seemed to be making very correct deductions, not like they were being perfunctory or diverting attention or covering up anything... But that was normal too. After all, with so many smart people present, making any small moves would be easily discovered.
The front desk had a deep impression of Tequila, not only because of his two-meter height, but also because he was the only person so far who had come to collect stored luggage.
"After all, the event had just started not long ago. Him coming to collect items so quickly was strange," the front desk person said in a tone of lingering fear. "So there was a bomb inside? That was close..."
Usuha Izuki asked: "What number luggage did he take?"
"98."
Hagiwara Kenji immediately turned and said: "Send someone to check who has numbers 96, 97, 99, and 100. Ask them if they have any impression of the person with number 98. That person might be the one who made the transaction with the deceased."
Mouri Ran suddenly raised her hand: "Um... I'm number 100. If I remember correctly, in front of me should be Mr. Nakajima and his two colleagues, because they suddenly cut in line, so I remember quite clearly..."
Inspector Megure gave Date Wataru a look: "Go call those people over."
"Wait."
Under everyone's gaze, Usuha Izuki stopped Date Wataru and whispered something to him. Date Wataru seemed not to understand, but still nodded.
Edogawa Conan's gaze became sharp!
While everyone was waiting for those suspects to arrive, Edogawa Conan quietly sidled up to Hagiwara Kenji and asked curiously: "Hey, did Officer Hagiwara already know that Officer Matsuda and Samukawa-san were coming here today?"
"Hm? Yes." Hagiwara Kenji was quite friendly to this very smart child and was happy to chat a bit when not busy. "I even gave Little Shinryu his ticket. He couldn't get up in time so he didn't manage to get tickets~"
Looking at Hagiwara Kenji teasing Samukawa Shinryu, Edogawa Conan's mouth twitched: "Does Samukawa-san really like playing games? Really can't tell..."
Hagiwara Kenji made a "shh" gesture: "He likes it a lot, but doesn't like being found out. He always says 'I'm just playing with you guys for a while'... People who like playing games aren't bad people. You don't need to be afraid of him."
Hagiwara Kenji, thinking Edogawa Conan was afraid of Samukawa Shinryu, skillfully helped wash his friend's image bit by bit.
Unfortunately, this rhetoric was only for coaxing real children. Edogawa Conan wouldn't so easily consider Samukawa Shinryu a good person just because he "liked playing games."
However, there was now an explanation for his incongruous appearance at the game announcement event. Thinking about how Tequila seemed very shocked to encounter Botanist here, Edogawa Conan frowned, feeling he still couldn't rule out Samukawa Shinryu's suspicion.
...Same with Matsuda Jinpei. Although at first glance he seemed like a delinquent, after spending some time with him, you'd feel he was very reliable.
Edogawa Conan seriously thought about it and felt that if the organization sent someone to infiltrate the Metropolitan Police, someone as conspicuous as Samukawa Shinryu would actually be less suspicious, while Matsuda Jinpei's suspicion had risen!
But while Edogawa Conan's reason said Matsuda Jinpei was more suspicious, his intuition was screaming that Samukawa Shinryu was the most suspicious...
At this time, the people who had cut in line were brought over.
Edogawa Conan saw Samukawa Shinryu, who was usually rather passive and seemed to have poor initiative, rarely step forward actively and say:
"We just encountered a terrorist attack. Your president needs to hold a meeting. Now take your luggage and go find your president."
Edogawa Conan: "...???"
Wait?! Wasn't it already established that it was a transaction gone wrong? How did it become a terrorist attack?!
What kind of approach was Samukawa Shinryu taking to solve the case?! He couldn't understand it!