"I don't suppose you three have already contaminated the scene, have you?" Inspector Megure asked, his eyes narrowing as he looked at the trio standing in a row by the door.
Conan was a given; Megure was more than familiar with the boy's antics. Even when faced with a gruesome corpse, the child had the nerve to linger right next to it. Then there was Hattori Heiji—the high school detective from Osaka with whom he had shared several cases. And then there was Ms. Jodie, who seemed to possess a level of fearlessness that was... unusual.
Would these three really wait patiently at the threshold?
"Oh, we've already finished our preliminary investigation!" Hattori replied, his grin radiating a bit too much excitement for a crime scene. "We've been waiting for ages."
"I even managed to snap quite a few photographs," Jodie added, brandishing her camera with a flourish.
"Of course you did..."
Megure sighed, the weight of the world seemingly settling on his shoulders. He took the key from Ms. Shimada, inserted it into the lock, and swung the door open.
"This is technically illegal, isn't it?" Tsuneo whispered, glancing sideways at Takagi.
"Probably... yes," Takagi replied, staring down at his gloves, which were now stained with the victim's blood. Wiping blood on a police officer is probably a unique offense in itself, he thought bitterly.
"You've confirmed that this door was locked from the outside, right?" Megure asked, testing the handle.
"Yes, the door was definitely deadbolted from the exterior," Conan piped up, his voice shifting back into that helpful, innocent tone he used to disarm adults.
"Then this is a classic 'locked room' scenario where only the victim was present. Based on the layout, it looks like a straightforward suicide," Megure noted as he stepped into the apartment. He scanned the foyer. No signs of a struggle. Even the shoes in the entryway were lined up with meticulous precision.
He found it strange. When Tsuneo had called him earlier, he had sounded so certain it was murder.
"We thought so too at first," Hattori said, leading the group toward the master bedroom. "But our perspective shifted once we saw the curtains in the room where Mr. Takai fell."
There were two windows in the bedroom. Megure walked toward the one that stood wide open, leaning out to look at the street far below. This was clearly the point of exit. However, the curtains caught his eye.
They were oddly crumpled, fluttering haphazardly in the wind. Could just be the draft, Megure thought.
"The problem lies with those curtains," Hattori said, pointing upward. "Look at the railing."
"The railing?" Megure looked up.
"The fabric has been violently tugged. The track is actually bent and bulging outward, and several of the hooks have been ripped clean off. This likely happened while Mr. Takai was desperately clinging to them before he fell." Hattori turned his gaze toward the repairman.
"Yeah, I saw it," Tsuneo nodded simply.
Though it had been dark, he had caught the distinct silhouette of a figure dangling and swaying against the building's facade.
Conan shot a sharp, sideways glance at Tsuneo. If you saw him about to fall, you could have at least given me a heads-up, he thought irritably.
"Are you certain, Tsuneo-kun? Because if that's the case..." Megure trailed off, examining the damaged curtain track with renewed intensity. If the victim was struggling to stay inside the room...
"Murder," Jodie interjected, a small smile playing on her lips.
The moment she realized everyone was staring at her, she clapped her hands together in mock excitement. "Oh! This is just like those 'locked-room' mysteries you see in movies and novels, isn't it? How thrilling!"
"..."
"I have to ask, Ms. Jodie... why exactly are you here?" Megure asked, his expression flat. Dealing with Tsuneo, Hattori, and Conan was already a headache; adding a foreign language teacher to the mix was pushing him to the limit.
"My apartment is right next door," Jodie explained cheerfully. "I invited Mr. Tsuneo over today to help me repair my bathroom, and then the 'Cool Kid' and his friend showed up to find him."
"I see." Megure glanced at the trio. Poor Ms. Jodie, he thought. She's probably been 'contaminated' by hanging around these three. No wonder a murder happened right next to her.
"Why is he looking at me like that?" Tsuneo muttered to Hattori and Conan.
"He probably thinks you're haunted by some kind of grim reaper," Hattori whispered back.
"You mean this thing?" Tsuneo asked, lightly nudging the "Grim Reaper" elementary student with the toe of his boot.
Conan looked up, his expression one of stubborn defiance.
"All right, enough," Megure interrupted, rubbing his temples. He suddenly found himself missing Mouri Kogoro—at least with Mouri, there was a predictable rhythm to the chaos. "I assume since you've been loitering here, you've already figured out the trick to this locked room?"
"No, I haven't quite cracked it yet," Hattori admitted, though his confident, sun-drenched smile suggested he was close.
"I haven't a clue either," Tsuneo added, sounding remarkably unbothered.
Conan followed suit with a vigorous, innocent nod.
Before Megure could respond, Officer Chiba entered the room holding a stack of glossy prints. "Inspector! We've finished developing the photos from Ms. Shimada's camera."
Most were wide shots of the apartment complex's exterior. However, one specific photo captured a blurred figure. After some quick technical enhancement by the lab, the image was much clearer.
"This... this is Mr. Takai!" Megure exclaimed. The photo showed a man in a red shirt, appearing to grip the exterior wall of the building.
"That was definitely the pose he was in," Tsuneo remarked, leaning over to look.
"That settles it," Hattori said, picking up Conan so the boy could get a better view.
"What is that glowing object? Did he throw it?" Jodie asked, pointing to a streak of light in the frame.
"That should be his mobile phone," Conan answered. "I picked it up myself."
"In my opinion, he was holding the phone in one hand while trying to toss it back into the room," Tsuneo analyzed. "He missed, and the phone fell just before he did."
Looking at the photo, the point of light was clearly positioned above the silhouette clinging to the curtains.
"Could someone have been standing inside the room and thrown it out?" Jodie wondered aloud.
"That doesn't seem likely," Conan said, shaking his head.
"ENOUGH!"
The room went silent as Megure finally snapped. "This is police work! Everyone except Tsuneo-kun, get out of here right now!"
"My, he certainly has a short fuse," Jodie remarked, shrugging as she walked toward the door with exaggerated helplessness.
"Hey, we were just trying to help with the analysis," Hattori grumbled. He and Conan followed the English teacher out into the hallway.
"Honestly, Tsuneo-kun," Megure sighed, "you really should keep a tighter leash on those two."
A high schooler carrying a primary schooler around a death scene was not a sight Megure ever wanted to get used to. And that Ms. Jodie... she acted like the whole thing was a film set. There wasn't a shred of tension in the air.
"Just think of it as a field trip into the real world," Tsuneo said, peering out the window again. "No harm done."
Twenty-one stories... falling from that height and not ending up in pieces is what I'd call lucky.
"What kind of school requires this for a field trip?" Takagi muttered under his breath.
Suddenly, Tsuneo crouched down, his eyes fixed intensely on a specific patch of the hardwood.
"Did you find something?" Megure and Takagi immediately dropped down beside him, their curiosity piqued.
Tsuneo ran a finger over the surface and looked up solemnly. "The flooring needs to be replaced."
"..."
(End of Chapter)
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