Chapter 288: Detective Agency Hostage Incident 5
"Oh, right!" Ran's eyes widened as she suddenly remembered. She turned to Sera, a flush of apology on her cheeks. "Sera-san, I'm so sorry, you haven't met him before! This is Albedo-san. He's a friend of Natsume's."
"Listening to you, this Mr. Albedo should be at Dr. Agasa's house right now, shouldn't he?" Sera Masumi replied, her gaze sharp and probing as she assessed the calm, blond young man.
"About that..." Hearing their confusion, Natsume decided to interject and clear things up. "I was the one who called him."
This only deepened the bewilderment on Ran and Sera's faces. They had both watched the culprit force Natsume to hand over her phone. Logically, she shouldn't have had any means of contacting the outside world.
"Ta-da! It's all thanks to this little gadget," Natsume said, flourishing her wrist with a grin. She held up the sleek, modern-looking watch she wore. "This is the latest personal terminal developed by the Jade Chamber. It has its own communication functions. I used it to call Albedo for help."
She let out a small, relieved sigh. "It's a good thing I knew Albedo would be visiting Dr. Agasa's place today. Otherwise, I would've had to call Xiangling and the others. If they were too far away, they might not have made it in time."
"So that's how you did it," Ran and Sera murmured in unison, the pieces finally clicking into place.
Sera, however, filed this new piece of information away, her internal assessment of Natsume Natsuki climbing another notch. A woman with extraordinary physical skills and a mind sharp enough to rival a detective, who also possessed advanced, custom-made technology and had close ties to both Conan Edogawa and the Mouri family. The question echoed in her mind with growing insistence: who exactly was Natsume?
Even her friends were shrouded in an aura of mystery. All of it convinced Sera that Natsume was far more than just a simple private investigator.
And speaking of Dr. Agasa... the name felt oddly familiar. Sera was sure she'd heard Ran mention that Conan was spending the day at the professor's house.
Wait a minute. Had she forgotten something crucial?
Sera's eyes shot toward the table. Only then did she remember that the call Conan had made to Ran's phone had never been disconnected. He must have heard everything that just transpired.
With that thought, Sera strode quickly to the table and picked up Ran's phone.
On the other end of the line, chaos had reigned. After hearing the culprit's desperate story about his sister's case, Conan had been anxiously directing the Detective Boys like a field commander, all while asking Haibara to dig up information on the three suspects online.
Then, just as he heard the contents of the victim's final social media post and was trying to decipher who the "elephant," "fox," and "mouse" were, a sudden, violent crash had erupted from the phone's speaker.
Conan had gripped the phone, his knuckles white, unable to stop himself from shouting questions into the receiver. Haibara, Ayumi, and the others had huddled around him, their faces etched with worry as they listened intently to the muffled sounds from the agency.
As the minutes ticked by, the tension in their small bodies slowly eased. When they finally heard Ran's clear voice confirming that the situation was resolved and everyone was safe, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta erupted into cheers.
A long, shaky breath escaped Conan's lips. Relief washed over him, but it was quickly followed by a familiar, frustrating pang of disappointment. He glanced down at the case information he'd frantically scribbled down, feeling like he was staring at a complex puzzle with the final piece snatched away from him.
Just then, a new voice crackled to life from the phone in his hand.
"Hello? Conan-kun, can you still hear me?"
Conan instantly recognized the voice of that strange, androgynous girl, Sera. Though a flicker of annoyance passed through him—she was using Ran's phone, after all—he still gave a curt response.
Knowing Conan was on the line, Sera quickly recounted everything that had happened, from Albedo's sudden appearance to the swift and silent way he had neutralized the hostage-taker.
"It's a real shame, though," she concluded with a sigh. "We still don't know if Sawaguri Mihono actually committed suicide back then."
A beat of silence, then Conan's voice came through the speaker, crisp and analytical. "It was murder. But the culprit isn't confirmed yet. We need more information about the scene."
At the exact same moment, another voice spoke in the quiet office, calm and definitive. "It was murder. The culprit is the fox."
Every head in the Mouri Detective Agency, including Kogoro's as he was wrapping up a call with Inspector Megure, snapped toward Albedo.
Even Sawaguri Kaoru, the culprit who was now securely tied to a chair, stopped his struggling. His eyes widened in astonishment as he stared at the blond artist. He fell silent for a moment before starting to thrash again, muffled "Mmph! Mmph!" sounds escaping the gag as he desperately tried to speak.
In the end, it was Ran who voiced the question burning in his mind, and he stilled once more, listening with rapt attention.
"Um... Albedo-san," Ran began hesitantly, "how did you know it was the fox who killed Sawaguri Mihono-san?"
"First, consider the tone of the victim's social media post," Albedo said, his voice as placid as a calm lake. He picked up the case documents from the table, his gaze sweeping over them. "It's evident from her wording that she was not in a suicidal state of mind."
He continued, his logic unfolding with serene precision. "Second, the message only states her desire to 'drive the fox away,'not that she succeeded. When mentioning the mouse, she wrote,'After I finish signing, I'll chase them out immediately.' This implies the fox was still present at that time, very likely hiding somewhere nearby, perhaps in the bathroom."
"And finally," Albedo concluded, setting the papers down, "throughout the entire incident described, only the fox had a direct conflict with Sawaguri Mihono."
He lifted his gaze, his calm eyes sweeping over the room. "Therefore, the only remaining task is to identify which of the three suspects is the fox."
Upon hearing Albedo's words, Sawaguri Kaoru's head whipped around to face the three terrified women huddled in the corner. His eyes burned with a furious, vengeful glare, as if he could incinerate the true culprit with the sheer force of his hatred.
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