As they walked, Conan processed Genta's confession. He placed a finger to his chin, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. "Genta, why didn't you tell the police that someone was actually trying to kill you?"
Genta's face paled, and he looked down at his feet, his shoulders trembling. "Be—because he called me. He said if I dared to say a word to anyone, he wouldn't just kill me... he'd kill my entire family and all my friends, too!"
"So that's why you've been acting so strange these past few days," Ayumi said, her voice soft with sympathy.
Genta nodded solemnly. The weight of the threat had been crushing him; he was terrified that every word he spoke might be overheard by the monster in the shadows.
"This is a problem," Ai said, her tone clinical yet grave. She reached out and pushed her unfinished bowl of eel rice toward Tsuneo. "If he has your home phone number, he almost certainly has your address. He knows exactly where to find you."
"Exactly," Conan agreed. "If you suddenly ran to the police or if the officers showed up at your house, the culprit would assume you'd remembered a vital detail. It might trigger him to do something desperate."
The Great Detective glanced around the bustling street. A chilling thought struck him: The culprit might be nearby right now, watching our every move. After all, the trap at the department store was calculated. The killer had likely been stalking Genta for days.
Still, Tsuneo's questions from earlier were still echoing in Conan's mind. They were the key.
"Besides the threat, do you remember anything else about the man?" Ai asked, her eyes scanning the restaurant's patrons. No one seemed out of place, but that was the nature of a good hunter.
"I did tell the police one thing," Genta recalled, trying to focus. "The man was a left-handed smoker. Also, he wore a really weird shirt. It was a black T-shirt with a white skull on the front and the number '202' printed on it."
A left-handed smoker in a skull shirt. It was a start, but still too vague.
Once they finished their meal, the group left the restaurant and began walking along the shopping district, dissecting the clues as they went.
"We're still missing the most important piece," Mitsuhiko lamented. "If only Genta could remember where he saw the robber. If we had the location, we could find a lead, and the police could wrap this up before he strikes again."
"Wasn't it a movie theater or a train?" Ayumi asked, still leaning toward her original theories. "Those are the best places to fall asleep."
"No," Conan shook his head. "You can't smoke in either of those places anymore."
"What about a family restaurant?" Mitsuhiko suggested. "Maybe Genta ate too much and started dozing off in a booth?"
"I don't think so," Genta mumbled. "I don't remember eating anything. I just remember looking at him. He was just holding up a newspaper, reading, and occasionally taking a puff of his cigarette."
"How can you remember the cigarette and the newspaper, but not the building you were in?!" Mitsuhiko cried out, his frustration finally boiling over. "Genta, what is wrong with your brain?!"
"I don't know! It's just... blank!" Genta protested.
"You were staring at a serial robber that long and he didn't punch you?" Tsuneo asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.
"It is a bit strange," Ai added with a faint smile. "Especially for a violent criminal."
"He never even looked at me. I don't think he noticed I was there at all," Genta said, scratching his head.
"Actually, the real key to this mystery isn't just where you saw him," Tsuneo said, reaching out to tap Genta lightly on the forehead. "There's one other major discrepancy."
"Exactly," Conan added, stuffing his hands into his pockets and nodding.
"One other?" The three children looked back and forth between Tsuneo and Conan. The two of them clearly had a lead that the others hadn't grasped yet.
"Remember the questions I asked back at the restaurant?" Tsuneo walked over to his pickup truck parked at the curb. He opened the door and began rummaging through the storage compartment.
The children thought back.
"Those 'stupid' questions," Ai reminded them, "were actually pointing to the biggest hole in the story: How did the robber know Genta went to the police?"
The police are professionals; they don't leak the identities of witnesses, especially children. And while many people might have seen a man in a mask, only one person had officially reported seeing the man's face before he put the mask on.
"Wait... you mean the culprit might be someone who lives near me? A neighbor?" Mitsuhiko's eyes widened. Maybe the killer had seen Genta at the station and recognized him.
"No, no one like that lives near my house," Genta insisted.
"Think about it another way," Conan said, a sharp glint reflecting off his glasses. "What if the killer didn't know Genta at all? What if he only noticed Genta because of a specific event—one that convinced him Genta had to die?"
"An event?" Ayumi and Mitsuhiko stared at Genta. Did you do something else we don't know about?
"It's not a stretch at all," Tsuneo said. He finally pulled something from the truck: a heavy, silver-plated wrench about the length of a forearm. He gave it a casual flick of the wrist, testing its weight. "In fact, it's the only thing that makes sense."
Without another word, Tsuneo turned and disappeared into a narrow, dark alleyway adjacent to the street.
"It might seem a bit leap of logic," Conan continued, watching Tsuneo's retreating back but making no move to follow. He knew that once the mechanic had someone in his sights, there was no escape. "The 'blonde older brother' Genta saw five days ago... he claimed he didn't recognize Genta. He claimed he didn't see the robber."
"But once he's caught, the truth will come out."
"Wait!" Genta's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You... you mean the blonde guy is the killer?"
"It's a logical deduction, isn't it?" the boy detective said with a confident smile.
As if on cue, a muffled, blood-curdling scream echoed from deep within the alleyway.
"But wait," Ai said, her voice calm despite the violence happening nearby. "The blonde hair. The police sketch shows a man with black hair. Genta said he saw the robber, then saw the blonde guy later."
She looked at Conan. "How could Genta have seen the same man in two completely different forms, in such a short span of time, while he was 'drifting in and out of sleep'?"
-------------------------------
I've already uploaded 30 chapters of this story on Patreon!
If you enjoy it, come check out the latest chapters in advance.
Here's the link:
[pat*eon*com/DaoistRoeoNQ]
Thank you so much for your support!!!
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"