Chapter 275
Sato Miwako, who had been targeted by Kazuto Kyosuke, had finished touching up her makeup and was about to leave the restroom.
Just as she stood up from the chair in front of the mirror, Sato Miwako heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw it was Mouri Ran.
"Ah, Ran." She smiled and greeted Mouri Ran, also stopping her steps that were originally heading out. "With police officers everywhere, the atmosphere feels a bit strange, doesn't it?"
Mouri Ran shook her head: "No, that's actually fine, but I heard about some things. Officer Sato, you should be more careful."
Sato Miwako immediately understood that Mouri Ran had heard about the recent successive murders of detectives.
Not wanting children unrelated to this matter to worry about her, she put on a brilliant smile: "Don't worry, I'll be fine... Uh, what are you doing?"
Sato Miwako looked at Mouri Ran's actions in confusion.
Mouri Ran crouched down by the sink, seemingly about to open the cabinet underneath: "Well, I came here because someone asked me to check inside here... Huh?"
She was startled after opening the cabinet door: "There really is something!"
"What's wrong?" Sato Miwako bent down curiously to look inside and was also surprised. "This is... a flashlight? And it's turned on?"
Sato Miwako's police instincts told her something was wrong. She thought for a moment, told Mouri Ran not to move, and closed the cabinet door back to its original state.
Mouri Ran was startled by this treatment, as if dealing with a time bomb, and stepped back two paces after the cabinet door was closed.
After Sato Miwako closed the door and found nothing happened, she sighed in relief, then remembered to ask: "Who told you to check—"
Before she could finish speaking, the restroom lights suddenly went out. No, not just the restroom—even the hallway lights were gone. Very likely the entire floor had lost power. The two of them were suddenly plunged from light into darkness, unable to see anything clearly for a moment.
However, Sato Miwako's mind worked quickly, and she immediately realized: "Could it be that flashlight was for this... Ran! Get in there right now and hide!"
"Huh?" Because Mouri Ran had wanted to stay away from the cabinet earlier, she had unknowingly ended up at the door of a bathroom stall. Hearing Sato Miwako's urgent tone, she quickly fumbled around, found the door, and went inside. "Officer Sato, you come over too..."
But it was already too late.
There were several gunshots, accompanied by Sato Miwako's cries of pain and the sound of her falling. Even though she couldn't see anything, Mouri Ran guessed what had happened in the darkness: "Officer Sato!"
Mouri Ran couldn't care about anything else and rushed out.
Having adapted to the darkness for this period of time, she could now make out the nearby situation by the weak light seeping through the gaps of the cabinet under the sink. She immediately saw the figure lying on the ground. Mouri Ran quickly rushed over, not daring to touch randomly, only testing for breathing first while shouting for help.
While Mouri Ran was worried about Sato Miwako and couldn't pay attention to herself, the perpetrator escaped in the darkness.
Soon after, the backup power started, the floor regained lighting, and Mouri Ran finally saw clearly how Sato Miwako looked after being injured.
Sato Miwako had been shot several times, but the blood loss wasn't severe. Instead, because the water pipes had also been hit, causing water to accumulate on the floor, she had slipped and hit her head on the sink, which caused her to lose consciousness.
Although the wounds weren't fatal, the head was a very dangerous area that required immediate hospital examination.
Fortunately, after the power came back on, Mouri Kogoro and some police officers who heard the commotion ran over. Seeing the scene, their faces all changed color as they provided emergency bandaging while calling an ambulance.
Mouri Kogoro and Kisaki Eri were so frightened they hugged Mouri Ran and wouldn't let go. Just thinking that their daughter had been so close to the perpetrator and could have been hit by a stray bullet made them terrified.
Mouri Ran helplessly comforted them, feeling that Sato Miwako's condition was more worthy of attention than hers.
Inspector Megure had been calling ambulances and making various arrangements, and now finally had some free time. He stood helplessly to the side trying to borrow their daughter from this couple: "I just want to ask Ran what happened here. It'll just be a moment, okay? And let's change locations—this place needs to be investigated... Hey, Conan-kun, don't touch anything!"
As soon as Edogawa Conan entered, after confirming that Sato Miwako was still alive and that Mouri Ran was fine, he started looking around. He discovered the dropped gun, the hit water pipes, shell casings, and such. Now, taking advantage of his short height, he was the first to notice something was wrong with the cabinet under the sink.
He had wanted to open it to look, but after being stopped by Inspector Megure, Edogawa Conan could only touch his head and laugh foolishly: "Um, I feel like something's wrong with this cabinet..."
When he passed by here, something had flashed in his eyes, seeming to leak from the gaps, but now that the restroom had sufficient lighting, it was hard for him to judge.
Hearing this, Mouri Ran immediately remembered something and quickly reported: "Ah, that's right, there's a flashlight inside that's turned on!"
Mouri Kogoro wasn't usually very reliable, but when it concerned his family, his intelligence immediately took the high ground: "The sudden power outage earlier was definitely the perpetrator's doing. That way, you can't tell when the lights are on, but once they're turned off, you'd notice the cabinet is bright inside. If the flashlight was taken out, the perpetrator could easily see your positions in the darkness..."
At this point, he suddenly became confused: "Hmm? If that's the case, why is the flashlight still inside?"
Mouri Ran explained: "Officer Sato said to keep everything as it was, so we closed the door again."
"I see." Inspector Megure sighed in relief. "Good thing the perpetrator didn't attack then and there..."
Mouri Ran shook her head: "That wouldn't happen. With all the lights on, if the perpetrator had come in then, their face would definitely have been seen."
"...Huh?!"
Everyone had been nodding, but suddenly noticed something was wrong.
Edogawa Conan couldn't help but ask directly: "Ran-neechan, when the lights were on, how did you think to look in the cabinet? You shouldn't have been able to tell there was a flashlight inside, right?"
It's not like he was short and would get the light from the flashlight seeping through the gaps flashed in his eyes at a certain angle. This behavior seemed strange when applied to Mouri Ran and Sato Miwako.
"That..." Mouri Ran was also somewhat confused, scratching her cheek with her index finger. "Samukawa-kun asked me to check the restroom cabinets, so..."
Everyone: "Huh???"
Kazuto Kyosuke, who had been called over as a doctor and happened to hear Mouri Ran's explanation: "???"
What did this mean? Samukawa Shinryu had so precisely told someone to check the women's restroom cabinet...
—Just how much did Samukawa Shinryu understand about his plan?! Why was he suddenly trying to sabotage him?!
Chief Odagiri of the Criminal Investigation Department couldn't help but frown upon hearing this: "Samukawa... where is he now?"
Inspector Megure quickly said: "Hagiwara-kun went to check the electrical room. Samukawa-kun should be with him."
"...Have someone call him back."
Inspector Megure's gaze swept to the side, and Takagi Wataru instinctively startled: "Yes!"
Actually, Takagi Wataru was still worried about Sato Miwako in his heart. Seeing Sato Miwako collapsed when he first came in had nearly scared him sick.
Takagi Wataru swore in his heart that he would definitely find the perpetrator, or else if the perpetrator knew Sato Miwako wasn't dead, they might try to finish the job!
Thinking this way, Takagi Wataru ran to the electrical room area and found Hagiwara Kenji and Samukawa Shinryu walking back while chatting.
"Samukawa-senpai! Hagiwara-senpai!" Takagi Wataru quickly ran over. "Inspector Megure and Chief Odagiri want to see Samukawa-senpai."
Hagiwara Kenji didn't think much of it. After all, Investigation Division One often asked Samukawa Shinryu for help. With things having escalated this much, wanting a quick resolution was normal. But he still asked: "What happened during the blackout?"
"Yes." Takagi Wataru's expression darkened. "Miss Sato was attacked."
"What?!" Hagiwara Kenji's face immediately changed. Considering that the two detectives who had been attacked before had both died, he quickly asked, "Sato's okay, right?"
"No vital organs were hit, but she hit her head and has already been taken for emergency treatment." Takagi Wataru answered.
"So a gun was used... We need to test for gunpowder residue quickly." Hagiwara Kenji frowned.
Takagi Wataru answered: "Everything's been arranged. People from the Metropolitan Police will arrive soon. Calling Samukawa-senpai over now is mainly to ask why Samukawa-senpai knew in advance that there was a flashlight in the restroom cabinet."
Hagiwara Kenji: "...?"
He couldn't understand—what was this mess about? How was the flashlight related to Officer Sato being attacked?
Although he still didn't understand, Hagiwara Kenji was already very used to turning to ask Samukawa Shinryu: "What did you find out this time? Why didn't you tell me about it?"
Samukawa Shinryu said calmly: "I wasn't certain, and besides, you can't enter the women's restroom anyway, so telling you would have been useless."
Hagiwara Kenji: "..........."
Ah, this... if that's the reason, then indeed... No wait, I almost got fooled by Shinryu again. What's the logical connection between him not being able to enter the women's restroom and not telling him anything at all?!
Seeing that Hagiwara Kenji was about to speak again, Takagi Wataru smiled bitterly: "Um, everyone's still waiting..."
Hagiwara Kenji sighed: "Fine, let's go quickly."
The group walked to outside the women's restroom. After all, it was still leaking water inside and was the attack scene, so it was better for people to spend less time inside and come out quickly.
Seeing Samukawa Shinryu, Inspector Megure waved to him: "Samukawa-kun, you're finally here! And Hagiwara-kun, how was the electrical room?"
Although Hagiwara Kenji was now with Investigation Division One, he had once been a bomb disposal expert with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. With him there, they could avoid waiting for a specially dispatched expert to reach conclusions.
"It should be a device that detonates via cell phone." Hagiwara Kenji said. "But the phone has already been destroyed by the explosion and can't be recovered. We can't check the call history either... Though I think even if we could check, it would just be a virtual number."
"Mm." Inspector Megure nodded, then asked, "So Samukawa-kun, why did you suddenly think to have Ran check the cabinet in the women's restroom?"
Psychologist Kazuto Kyosuke, who was conducting a psychological assessment on Mouri Ran to see if she had any lasting trauma, couldn't help but prick up his ears.
Yes! Why?! When he placed the flashlight, no one definitely discovered him. How did Samukawa Shinryu think of his plan?! And what was he thinking—was he planning to sabotage his plan?!