Narumi's official identity was simply that of a doctor. He had only come to work on the island within the past two years, and he was an outsider who returned to Tokyo during holidays. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the mayoral election or any of its miscellaneous affairs.
Was that why they had felt safe letting him help keep watch?
Narumi turned sideways without showing much surprise. "If you're still awake at this hour, you won't be able to get up tomorrow morning, little detective."
"It's enough already, right, Narumi-niichan?"
Conan had deliberately stopped him at this distance. On one hand, they would not wake the other three people who were sleeping. On the other, if Narumi cried out, Conan could immediately wake Uncle and the others.
"I'm only going to the bathroom. It isn't far from here." Narumi's drooping, sleep-deprived eyelids concealed his emotions well.
Conan raised the sheet music. "That score is already enough reason for the police to obtain a search warrant. Look at the last sentence your father wrote: 'Seiji, live well.'"
"That's true." Narumi lifted his head and looked toward the sea at low tide.
No matter how much anyone said, there was no way to simply let it go. His entire family had been murdered, and his father had even been branded as the man who killed them all.
"Conan, people involved in the drug trade are capable of anything. If they aren't clinging to wishful thinking, then tonight they only have two choices."
The moment Narumi finished speaking, Conan's doglike nose suddenly caught a smell in the air besides the sea. His expression changed.
"Narumi-niichan, did you bring gasoline?"
"Who's there!" Narumi did not answer. His gaze snapped toward one direction.
After talking for a while, their eyes had gradually adjusted to the dark. The black silhouette lost its natural camouflage and revealed its true identity: the mayor's secretary.
"Hirata?"
Already guilty over what he had been doing, and cowardly by nature, Hirata was so startled by the shout that he dropped onto his backside. The gasoline can in his hand toppled over with a thud.
Hirata had not been one of the four people who murdered Narumi's family twelve years ago, but he was involved in the current drug trade. In fact, the packet hidden inside the piano was the one he had been trading with Kawashima.
"N-no! I never wanted to kill anyone!" His calves trembled as he desperately defended himself.
He did not look like the kind of person who could deliberately steel himself and plan a murder. Besides, anyone with a little sense would first make sure no one could escape before doing something like this. Of course, it was also possible that he had only meant to burn the crime scene and never intended to trap anyone inside.
Using the light that was still on indoors, Conan looked at the gasoline can.
A thud?
It had sounded like an empty can. If it had still been properly filled with gasoline, even with the cap open he should not have smelled it from here. They were right beside the sea!
Had Hirata been pouring gasoline as he came?
What he had just said more or less confirmed it. He had been ordered here by the current mayor, one of the two surviving members of the original group of four.
Fire suddenly flared up from the other side. By the time Conan realized what that meant, flames were already rising high into the sky.
"Uncle! Ran! Yimi!"
"Honestly, didn't I tell you this place was dangerous?! If I'd known this would happen, I never should have stayed here..."
Kogoro responded faster than Conan expected. The door Conan had casually pulled shut earlier was kicked open. Kogoro came charging out, dragging his own daughter with one hand while carrying a peacefully sleeping Yimi over his shoulder, her little mouth pursed.
Conan froze for a moment. Had this old man actually not been asleep at all?
"Uncle, the culprit should be near the front entrance..." Conan turned around, only to see that Narumi, whom he had stopped moments earlier, was already gone.
Damn it!
The current mayor, Kuroiwa Tatsuji, was the one who had ordered his secretary to pour the gasoline. They were all in the same boat, so of course Hirata would not dare refuse him.
A fire in a single-story building was unlikely to kill anyone by itself. To make absolutely certain, Kuroiwa had even prepared a crude homemade bomb for Hirata. He had not expected much from the secretary to begin with, but he had still never imagined the man could be this useless.
There was nothing he could do about it. He could not find a better helper. Everything had happened too suddenly. The police would arrive tomorrow, and unlike twelve years ago, he had no time to plan.
Of the four people who had once set fire to Aso Keiji's home together, two were already dead. Of the two survivors, the other one besides Kuroiwa had become extremely superstitious. The former mayor's strange death had frightened him for two or three years, and after Kawashima died he had screamed and fled on the spot.
So many years had passed. In his fifties now, Kuroiwa was no longer as nimble when doing things by himself.
"This is how you set the fire twelve years ago too, isn't it?" A cold female voice sounded. Narumi slowly approached while covering his face against the drifting smoke.
No. Twelve years ago, four people had carried out the crime in an organized, carefully planned way. There had been no possibility of anyone escaping.
"You?"
Narumi advanced step by step. "You may have forgotten, but twelve years ago Aso Keiji had a son who was hospitalized in Tokyo."
"Don't tell me you're...?" Kuroiwa Tatsuji stepped backward in shock, then quickly drew a gun and aimed it ahead.
As a mayor who still dared to deal drugs, he naturally had ways to obtain something like this. He had simply not wanted to shoot first and leave bullets at the scene before setting the fire.
At this distance, however, the instant he pulled the trigger, Narumi launched a high kick into his wrist and knocked the muzzle aside. She lowered her center of gravity, braced Kuroiwa, and slammed him headfirst into a nearby rock.
Blood burst from the back of Kuroiwa Tatsuji's skull. He died on the spot.
Narumi had made thorough preparations for her revenge. In her original plan, she had even intended to hold Kawashima's head underwater and drown him in the sea.
She had not expected Kuroiwa to pull out a gun, and it had genuinely startled her. There was something else too. Narumi could not tell whether it was just her imagination, but her body felt strange. She had somehow used far more force than expected to throw a fat old man.
"Narumi... niichan?" Conan and Mouri Kogoro caught up just in time to see what happened.
The other man had drawn a gun. At this point, it could still be considered self-defense.
But it was not over. There was one person left. After going this far, Narumi no longer had any intention of thinking about how to escape punishment.
"You!"
By extraordinarily good luck—or perhaps extraordinarily bad luck—Nishimoto, who had been terrified by the deaths among the original four, appeared at the scene as well. He even picked up the gun Kuroiwa Tatsuji had dropped.
How could he possibly have slept? He was the only one among them who genuinely believed in the "curse." Seeing Kawashima die too had nearly broken him.
But right now, all he felt was release.
"Ha... hahaha! So it was you! You came to this village right around the time Kameyama, the former mayor, died! Hahaha..."
He had spent so many years terrified by Kameyama's bizarre death. He had not dared participate in the drug trade again and had fallen into his present state—all because of this cross-dressing freak!
"Stop!" Conan searched for something he could use as a ball to kick. Luckily, he spotted a coconut that for some reason happened to be lying nearby.
Unfortunately, he never got the chance to use it.
Nishimoto Ken's laughter abruptly stopped. The gun barrel that had been aimed almost perfectly at Narumi suddenly veered aside. Nishimoto's face filled with astonishment.
He could feel something pressing down on his hand. The fear he had only just managed to release flooded back into him.
Is that you, Aso Keiji?
A moment later, Nishimoto Ken collapsed backward with that terrified expression still on his face, just like Kawashima, and stopped moving entirely.
The overwhelming sense of déjà vu made Conan's raised foot freeze. He slowly walked over to Nishimoto Ken and pressed his head near the man's chest.
Dead again.
Conan looked up in confusion and met Narumi's eyes.
Poison?