"If you want to disguise yourself, you have to hide in the crowd. Standing out like you were just now won't work." Tsuneo noticed the three kids running over and took the opportunity to set Haibara back on the ground.
"Haibara, are you okay?"
Genta and the others thought she was just traumatized by the hijacking.
"I'm fine." Haibara held out her hand, hesitated for a moment, and finally took off her hood.
After hearing what Tsuneo said, she felt a bit more grounded, regardless of the circumstances.
"Um, Mr. Tsuneo, I'll have to trouble everyone to come back with me to provide a statement." Takagi saw that Tsuneo had finished his call and hurried over to remind him.
The other passengers had already left in police vehicles. There were still many questions for the repairman—after all, one of the hijackers had been used as a shield and was shot so many times he looked like a sieve.
Thus, the skiing plans were cut short.
"Conan-kun, what are you thinking about?" Once they were in Officer Takagi's car, Ayumi asked curiously. Conan's face had been incredibly serious since they left.
"Hm... oh, nothing!" The Great Detective snapped back to reality, caught Takagi's eye in the rearview mirror, and immediately shook his head with a smile.
As I thought, she's very suspicious. That Ms. Jodie.
On the bus, she had clearly tripped the hijacker on purpose, then nervously rushed up to grab his hand and apologize, using the distraction to engage the safety on his handgun. And then there was Dr. Araide... everything seemed normal, but Tsuneo's attitude was strange.
Conan's mind replayed every detail of the scene like a film, searching for a crack in the facade.
"If you can't figure it out, just stop thinking about it," Haibara said casually, having fully recovered her composure.
We currently have the APTX4869 in our possession. The antidote has a clear development path; it's best not to do anything foolish.
"Um, were you kids okay when the hijackers opened fire?" Officer Takagi asked. Physically they were unhurt, but witnessing a shooting and a death up close could leave psychological scars.
"When Brother Tsuneo stood up, it gave me a huge shock!" Genta nodded from the front seat. He was so fast you couldn't even see the movement.
"Exactly! I think the Junior Detective League needs to start training too!" Mitsuhiko added from the same row, clearly inspired.
Takagi: "..." He didn't know what to say. These kids certainly had nerves of steel.
They spent half the day at the Metropolitan Police Department. The other passengers were questioned in batches; their stories were clear and simple. After leaving their contact information, they all went home.
Only Tsuneo, the repairman who used a criminal as a human shield, was interrogated for a long time.
"Inspector Megure, can I go home yet?" Tsuneo glanced out the window; the sun was already setting. His "Police Statement Body" was truly terrifying.
"Yes, there are no more questions. However, Tsuneo-kun, I must remind you again: be careful. Don't do something so dangerous unless it's absolutely necessary." Megure tidied the documents on his desk and issued the warning for the umpteenth time that day.
Aside from the two handguns, the hijackers' ski bags contained homemade bombs—it had been a life-threatening situation. Even if Tsuneo was skilled, there was a high probability of innocent passengers getting caught in the crossfire.
"I'm afraid there was no other choice," Tsuneo said, shaking his head as Sato and Takagi walked into the office.
There was a key question: Were the handguns not enough to intimidate the passengers and the police? Bringing bombs onto the bus suggested that they never intended to let anyone go from the start.
"Inspector, the interrogations are mostly finished," Officer Sato said, placing a folder on the desk.
In fact, there were three hijackers in total. A woman had disguised herself as an ordinary passenger in the back row to monitor the hostages and relay information via signals. Perhaps because she witnessed her accomplices' brutal end, she cracked and confessed everything quickly.
The trio had planned to force the driver to stop in a secluded tunnel after Kunio Yajima was released. They intended to swap clothes with the passengers and then detonate the bombs to fake their own deaths.
"I see." Megure fell silent for a moment, then looked at Tsuneo. The final plan was almost exactly what the repairman had guessed.
"Mr. Tsuneo, here is the information you asked me to look for," Takagi said, handing over a file. He had specifically called the police on Fairy Island. Shinji Nagayama had indeed reported a crime, and the police had set up surveillance, but nothing had come of it.
"So you're saying the police didn't know about the third letter?" Tsuneo asked, looking up after reading the file. The reports mentioned the first two threatening letters, but the third was absent.
"A third letter?" Takagi shook his head, completely unaware.
"I see. I'll be heading out then," Tsuneo said to the three of them before leaving the station.
The first two letters were standard threats—give us the treasure or else. But the third letter contained an item belonging to the eldest daughter abroad. It was likely that Shinji Nagayama didn't dare report it to the police.
"Tsuneo-kun, are you all right?" Professor Agasa had dropped the kids off and come back to pick up Tsuneo. Seeing the file in his hand, he asked, "What's that?"
"Not sure. Let's go get dinner first," Tsuneo said, stretching. Since Akemi and the Professor both had colds, it was better to buy something ready-made.
"By the way, what was the deal with that Ms. Jodie?" the Professor asked curiously. She had been quite bold.
"Who knows..." Tsuneo leaned back and looked out the window. A bus full of 'monsters'... those hijackers were truly unlucky.
Inside a certain apartment.
A group of people was looking at photos pinned to a wall.
"Strange... this Mr. Tsuneo?" Ms. Jodie stood before a group of men in suits, her fingers on her chin, looking puzzled. They had collected some data on the repairman before, but his performance at the scene today had been quite unexpected.
"Beyond his skills and nerve, I'm more curious about his relationship with her," said Akai Shuichi, who had also been among the passengers today. He was looking at a photo of the disguised "witch."
"I did hear that he asked for a favor to get her a prison visit," Jodie said with a smile. It seemed the helpful repairman might have inadvertently done something problematic.
Akai Shuichi pondered for a moment, then reached out, unpinned Tsuneo's photo, and moved it to the right—placing it directly beside the photo of the young boy named Conan.
(End of Chapter)
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