Chapter 3509-3521 [Uzo: Witness Protection Program?] Requesting monthly votes o(〃'▽'〃)o
I was about to open the notebook and take a closer look at the "S" drawn by Ayumi Yoshida.
But just then, Conan noticed something. He stared intently at Genta Kojima's muddy buttocks: "Why...why is there the same mark on your pants?!"
"What!" Officer Sato, who was quickly explaining the cause and effect to Jiang Xia, looked down in shock upon hearing this and saw that on the back of Kojima Genta's left trousers, there was indeed an inverted triangle "S" symbol that was larger at the top and smaller at the bottom.
She quickly looked at Genta Kojima: "Think carefully, who or what did you come into contact with just now?"
"This..." Genta Kojima touched his pants, looking completely bewildered. "When I was chasing that guy in the raincoat, I accidentally bumped into someone's bag and an old lady's bicycle, uh..."
As he was talking, he suddenly remembered that Jiang Xia was right next to him, and he abruptly shut his mouth, sweat pouring down his face.
Officer Sato followed his gaze, understood, and whispered to Jiang Xia, "Quickly praise him and let him finish speaking."
Jiang Xia didn't look at Kojima Genta, but instead looked at her: "You should actually be more familiar with this symbol than Genta."
“Me?” Officer Sato was taken aback. “Now that you mention it, I have indeed felt that this ‘S’ looks somewhat familiar since just now…”
Jiang Xia: "Did you drive your own car today?"
"Yes." Officer Sato nodded subconsciously, but then suddenly clapped her hands, realizing something. "Oh right, my car!"
She turned and rushed back to where she had parked her car.
A group of people quickly followed, and halfway there, Kojima Genta suddenly remembered: "Speaking of which, I was a little tired earlier, so I sat on the hood of Officer Sato's car. Could that sign be...?"
Jiang Xia skipped a step for them: "It's the Fini RX-7 logo."
Genta Kojima's expression changed drastically: "So the person who stabbed him was Sasuke..."
"Of course not!" Conan interrupted him speechlessly. He had already wronged an innocent police officer today, and he didn't want to wrong another one. "That murderer just drives the same car as Officer Sato."
At the same time, he belatedly realized everything: "I was just thinking that the mark on Genta's butt was too big to be imprinted on Ayumi's hand exactly like that—now it seems that this is easy to explain. When Ayumi fell, her palm was pressed against that man's car key, which has a mini car logo on it."
"Ah!" Ayumi Yoshida stopped in front of Officer Sato's car, staring at the logo. "It's the shape! But, but... something seems a little different."
"It's the opposite of the marks on your bodies," Officer Sato explained to the children as he dialed the number.
"The reason the criminals returned was to confirm whether Ayumi had seen his car logo, so that he could decide how to respond based on the situation."
As they were talking, the other end of the line answered the phone.
"Inspector," Officer Sato greeted him, beginning to assign tasks to his superior.
“I met Jiang Xia and found a clue about the thug who stabbed people indiscriminately—please seal off this area immediately and leave the owners of the same model of car as me untouched.”
"In addition, it cannot be ruled out that the perpetrators happen to live nearby, so all the vehicles owned by residents in this area should also be checked one by one."
The communication went very smoothly. After all, to Inspector Megure, the phrase "met Jiang Xia" sounded almost like "found the answer."
He readily agreed and began setting up the encirclement.
Officer Sato hung up the phone and looked at Jiang Xia happily: "Thanks to you, we should be able to find the suspect soon."
Yoshida Ayumi was quite frightened just now, and upon hearing this, she couldn't help but worry and said, "But if there are many cars like this, wouldn't there be many suspects?"
Officer Sato smiled and shook his head: "This car model is actually quite old, and it's been discontinued for a long time. There aren't many of the same model. As long as we find those few owners and check their alibis, the problem will be solved."
"If we are lucky enough to find only one car, the identity of the murderer will be very obvious."
Conan added, "There's one more condition: the person who lost the original car key."
"There was a long bloodstain on Ayumi's cuff, which must have come from the car key."
"In other words, the key must have been stained with the victim's blood. If the murderer had any criminal investigation knowledge, he would not have dared to bring that car key to the police and would have only said that he lost it."
"Of course, if he had just taken the keys with him, things would be even simpler—just check which key had blood on it, and the problem would be solved."
...
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
However, the situation was not bad either – although the culprit could not be found directly through screening, only three cars that met the criteria were eventually identified.
In other words, by thoroughly examining these three suspects, it is highly likely that the real culprit will be identified.
Officer Sato sensed that things had come to a familiar point: "Three suspects?"
“That’s right,” Inspector Megure said. “One of them was discovered during a routine inspection, while the other two were vehicles that had been loitering in the area. None of the drivers of these three vehicles had an alibi or could produce the original car keys.”
"As for the other cars with keys, I had them checked, and none of the keys had any blood on them, so I sent them back first."
“I understand.” Officer Sato nodded. “I’ll go check on the three suspects right away.”
Inspector Megure asked with concern, "Is Jiang Xia still with you?"
"Of course I am." Officer Sato said confidently. "Jiang Xia isn't the kind of person who would abandon a case."
Inspector Megure breathed a sigh of relief: "I always had a feeling that Brother Jiang Xia wasn't interested in cases like this where no one died... It's good that he's here."
...
While the others were eavesdropping on Officer Sato's phone call, Ai Haibara quietly pulled Jiang Xia aside and told him about the witness protection plan.
"Witness protection program?"
Jiang Xia was quite fond of this plan, after all, his two most capable underlings had been handed over to him from the FBI in the same way. So he nodded: "It's your decision. Go if you want to." Just treat it as a trip abroad.
Ai Haibara was taken aback, not expecting such an open answer. She carefully considered Jiang Xia's tone but couldn't detect any sarcasm in it—Jiang Xia seemed to genuinely think the plan was quite good and worth considering.
This left Ai Haibara momentarily bewildered: Could it be that Jiang Xia and the FBI... weren't they, as she thought, adversaries under the influence of the organization?
————
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