Due to the significant damage Karasawa had inflicted on the crime scene, the police who rushed over had no choice but to first reposition him exactly as he had been, bloodstains and all, and photograph the evidence.
"Are we good now?" asked Karasawa, holding his hands in the air like a criminal reenacting a scene. "Can I clean myself up?"
"We've finished collecting evidence from you. Go ahead and wipe your face." Inspector Megure handed him a clean handkerchief, giving a long-suffering look toward the door now leaning off to the side. "Next time you use a public restroom, please try to be a bit more gentle... Though, yeah, I guess your luck was pretty rotten this time."
As a veteran of detective-themed disasters, Megure had seen his fair share of incident magnets. But someone like Karasawa—who'd merely gone to the restroom, reached out, and ripped the door clean off only to end up soaked in blood—was a new species entirely.
Karasawa murmured his thanks, quietly wiping the dried blood from his chin.
"Karasawa-kun?" came Ran Mouri's confused voice from the entrance. "And… Conan? What are you two doing here?"
Conan, who had been crouched silently near Karasawa's feet, examining the body and weapon, flinched at the sound of her voice. Just as he began an awkward "Ahaha…" to deflect suspicion, Karasawa clamped a hand over his mouth.
"I came out for a coffee," Karasawa lied smoothly, "and Conan-kun happened to come down looking for me to read him something. I figured I'd show him around a bit. You're here too, Mouri-san? I didn't even notice when I came in."
His performance was far more polished than Conan's could ever hope to be. Without a stammer or pause, he had spun the entire backstory into place.
"Ah, weren't you here to look for Shinichi-niichan?" Conan, finally free, abruptly remembered his original purpose. He asked, with exaggerated innocence, "How come he's not here? If he were, he'd probably have this case wrapped up by now!"
"Um…" Ran's smile stiffened. She looked like she didn't know whether to speak plainly or keep it vague.
A calm, mature woman's voice interrupted from behind. "Why is everyone gathered here?"
Ran turned and brightened at the sight of a striking, elegant woman in a sharp professional outfit walking toward them.
"Mom! You're here!" she said with visible relief and a wide smile.
"Long time no see, Ran." Eri Kisaki pulled her daughter into a hug before turning toward the restroom scene. "There's been a murder?"
Karasawa glanced down at Conan, watching for a reaction.
Wait—Ran was meeting with Eri Kisaki today?
So the important person she mentioned… was her mother?
Conan froze completely, inching back behind Karasawa as if trying to disappear. Memories of being verbally eviscerated by Eri during his childhood came flooding back. His limbs stiffened, and the sharp edge of his case-solving enthusiasm wilted instantly.
Over by the doorway, Eri finished exchanging a few polite words with Inspector Megure and promptly cut to the case.
"To begin with, I can tell you I'm not the killer," Karasawa said by way of introduction, his voice full of false innocence. Then he began outlining what the crime scene might have originally looked like. "The victim was likely pressed right up against the door—that's why it wasn't locked but I still couldn't push it open."
"Victim is Yayoi Hime no, twenty-four years old." Megure, clearly not treating Karasawa as a suspect, smoothly added the results of the preliminary investigation. "Single stab to the heart. Killer didn't hesitate."
"There's a ligature mark on her neck." Conan had quietly been flipping through the case and now knelt by a nearby officer, pointing to the wound. "She might have been strangled unconscious before being stabbed."
"Brutal method," one of the officers muttered, visibly disturbed.
"Her wallet was empty," Megure continued. "If this was a robbery, the killer probably didn't want to be seen. I'm guessing they came in through that window behind the toilet, waited inside, then attacked the moment someone opened the door. Grabbed the loot and took off."
"Not likely." Karasawa shook his head before Conan could speak. "I only tugged the door open and got blood all over my pants. If that's how the killer struck, they would've been soaked in blood too. No way they could've climbed out that window without leaving a trace."
Eri nodded in agreement. "And they were careless enough to leave the weapon behind. Someone that sloppy wouldn't have taken the time to wipe down the window on their way out."
"But then it doesn't make sense," Megure said, gesturing at the door Karasawa had so tragically mangled. "The door was completely shut, with the body blocking it from inside. If they didn't leave through the window, how'd they get out of the stall?"
"The answer's simple—they went up." Eri pointed at the open space above the stall partition.
"That gap?" Megure looked up, stroking his chin. "Seems too narrow. Could an adult even fit through there?"
"Only one way to find out," Eri said, about to volunteer a random officer to try it out.
But Karasawa was already at the neighboring stall, grabbing the edge of the partition and hoisting himself up.
"Don't even think about it!" Megure yanked him back by the collar. "Let go before you rip this one off too."
"I told you I didn't break the last one on purpose…" Karasawa muttered, stepping aside with a sigh as an officer was called over for the test.
"They can get through," came the report a few minutes later, "but only if they're fairly slim."
Megure, who had no chance of passing through himself, rubbed his belly thoughtfully.
"Which means the killer wasn't some outsider breaking in to rob the place." Karasawa crossed his arms. "They were already in the building."
"Oh—right." Megure's neurons reconnected. He nodded in sudden clarity, his now-smooth cerebral cortex resting at peace.
"Inspector Megure…" Karasawa tilted his head at him.
"Right, let's lock the place down," Megure barked, now fully alert again. "We need to confirm who entered before the murder. Is there security footage?"
—
"Based on the footage, the suspects are limited to those who entered the restroom after the victim." Megure soon had the list narrowed down. "Mr. Yuichi Sumeragi, Mr. Juuzou Tonoyama, and the one who discovered the body—Mr. Akira Karasawa. Please state your purpose for coming to the café, and what you did while here."
Karasawa glanced at the other two men and couldn't help straightening up.
Here it comes—the classic three-choice lineup.
Even if he clearly looked like the odd one out, some last-minute filler suspect thrown in for symmetry, he still felt strangely invested.
He was going to get to the bottom of this. And then give the killer a serious piece of his mind for leaving someone to bleed out in a stall with a collapsing door.
Being treated like a suspect? He could live with that.
But ruining his new outfit?
That, Karasawa could not forgive.