Chapter 1903-1911 [Accomplice]
Jiang Xia picked up the greeting card, unfolded it and found that it was exactly the same as the "death notice" that Officer Sato had shown them before. They must have been sent by the same person.
Last time, the cute Christmas card said "Santa Claus with a red beard" would kill people in this performance.
This time, the message on the card read:
[When the bell of 12 o'clock ends
My shadow will appear in the well.
——Santa Claus with red beard]
"well?"
Jiang Xia walked to the window, looked down and saw a spacious dry well in the yard - this should be the only well nearby and it was also the location marked on the greeting card.
The time now is a little past 11:50, and it will soon be 12 o'clock as stated on the greeting card.
"It's so cold late at night and we have to call people out." Jiang Xia was quite dissatisfied as he looked at the snow-covered yard outside.
But a detective obviously shouldn't bother about such trivial matters. He thought about it, took his coat and went out.
When I reached the stairs, I saw Officer Sato, who was also awake in the middle of the night, staring at two vending machines, lost in thought.
Jiang Xia greeted him: "What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Sato Miwako came back to her senses and pointed at the bento machine. "This A set meal is sold out too quickly. I saw three or four left before I went downstairs. I wanted to buy one to improve the taste when I came back, but now I see it's gone. This restaurant clearly provides meals, so who is buying bento so frequently?"
Jiang Xia thought of the three sneaky temporary workers: "Maybe someone is worried that the chef will poison the food."
Officer Sato held the hot coffee he had just bought and smiled: "There are more and more cases of paranoia these days."
After a pause, she saw Jiang Xia's outfit and felt something was wrong: "Are you going out?"
Jiang Xia nodded.
Officer Sato frowned immediately: "How dare you run around alone at this time? Don't forget that the scriptwriter sneaked out inexplicably in the middle of the night and was killed."
Jiang Xia took out the greeting card: "Someone sent me an invitation."
As soon as Sato Miwako saw the familiar greeting card, her expression changed: "'Santa Claus with a red beard'?! You actually wanted to go on such a dangerous journey alone - luckily I saw you. Next time something like this happens, remember to ask me to come along."
…
There is only one person in the team.
When he walked to the lobby on the first floor, Jiang Xia suddenly realized something.
When I turned around, I saw a single sofa placed at a strange angle, and a burly man in black was sitting on the sofa. His face was as stern as iron, and his sharp eyes were scanning the people coming and going, as if everyone was a potential criminal in his eyes.
"Mr. Zhuzhong?" Jiang Xia walked over, "Why are you sitting here?"
"..." Izuka Saburo, "This play gave me a lot of feelings. I can't sleep, so I'm thinking about life here."
Jiang Xia: “…” It’s quite literary, but your expression doesn’t quite match the lines.
But this was not a problem, he invited enthusiastically: "I'm planning to solve a case, do you want to come with me?"
Izuka Saburo shuddered: "Goodbye, have a safe journey."
Jiang Xia looked at him as if puzzled, nodded, turned and left.
Behind him, Izuka Saburo pushed his sunglasses up: "..." He suddenly went out at this time, could it be that Jiang Xia is the protagonist on the stage tonight?
...Great! Compared to this detective, I am definitely a side dish that can be ignored.
Inozuka Saburo's sense of security increased dramatically.
But soon he remembered something and looked at his phone with complicated eyes: "..." It has been a long time since he replied to Hashimoto Maya's message, why is there still no reply?
Could it be that his two companions were also dragged to perform?
Indeed, if you want to deal with a detective like Jiang Xia, you need to be good enough. Perhaps it won't be long before a police car arrives and takes Hashimoto Maya and Kurosawa Kazuma, the two villains who murdered the detective, to the police station, and then two bullets fly from afar on the way...
Thinking of this, Saburo Izuka suddenly fell into deep thought.
——By then, both of my companions would be eliminated as risk factors. What about me? Would I be eliminated along with them?
…Or he might as well run away before the police come.
...No, there is a surveillance camera above his head, and he has an iron-clad alibi! If he stays here and does not move, he will not be forcibly taken away by the police as long as he insists. On the contrary, if he runs away at this moment, or accepts Jiang Xia's invitation just now and goes with him, he will encounter bad things!
Izuka Saburo: “…” It’s so scary. Ever since encountering that thing, there are traps at every step. Something as simple as “surviving” has become so difficult.
After an extremely intense ideological struggle and considering a number of plans that were either extremely reckless or extremely cautious, Saburo Izuka finally made a decision.
He slowly leaned back in his chair, intending to remain unchanged in the face of ever-changing circumstances.
…
The ghosts watched Izuka Saburo sit up straight, then collapse, then sit up straight again. Although they were quite puzzled by this human's behavior, since he was murderous, the ghosts decided to be magnanimous and not care too much.
Jiang Xia passed by Izuka Saburo, took a few wisps of boiled water with a sweet smell that was neither salty nor bland, and left quite satisfied - this trip out of the cold finally got him some results.
…
After that, they didn't meet anyone else. Jiang Xia and Sato Miwako walked out of the hotel gate, stepped on the crunching snow, and came to the well in the yard.
Miwako Sato shone the flashlight carefully downwards. She thought she would see a body or something related to the case, but there was only a patch of weeds covered with snow, and there didn't seem to be anything unusual.
"We agreed to come to the well to see his shadow at midnight. Now the time has passed, and there is still nothing unusual. Could it be that this guy sent you a greeting card just to lure you away?" Sato Miwako put away the flashlight and looked around suspiciously, "To lure you away and then do something wrong in the hotel?"
"It shouldn't be." Jiang Xia pulled his collar closer. "They were so close. If something happened, they would have run back in less than two minutes."
"That's right..." Sato Miwako was confused, "So the 'Red Bearded Santa Claus' is simply late?"
At this moment, Jiang Xia's cell phone suddenly rang. The caller ID showed an unknown number.
Jiang Xia picked up the phone. He often exchanged contact information with various people, and the pile of business cards he had sent out was probably taller than Conan.
Therefore, the more unknown the call, the faster he answered it: "Hello, I'm Jiang Xia. If you have a commission, you can come directly to my house, or leave a message at the Amuro Detective Agency. I have written the email address on my business card, and you can also search it directly on the Internet."
“…”
There was silence on the phone for a while. After several seconds, a voice changed by a voice changer was heard.
The caller tried to put the atmosphere back on track with a terrifying and twisted laugh: "Sorry for the wait, Detective."
(End of this chapter)
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