Everyone in the bedroom stood frozen.
After a moment of stunned silence, they all hula-ed out to the terrace to look downstairs.
Right on cue, "Nagato Hideomi," his face wrapped in bandages and holding a blood-stained kitchen knife, poked his head out from the floor below—then slowly turned to look up at them.
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Jiangxia also inhaled sharply, then narrowed his eyes at the fake downstairs.
…Nagato Hideomi had died yesterday.
And the only two people who knew this in the Nagato family were:
The secretary, Miyuki Hyuga—she was the one who'd found the body.
The son-in-law, Nagato Mitsuaki—he knew because Hinata had told him.
Now, this ambitious son-in-law had accepted a little "suggestion" from Miyuki: stage a fake attack downstairs, lure everyone out of the chairman's bedroom, then sneak back in via the balcony, murder the old man, and fast-track his inheritance from the Nagato Group.
But Miyuki had her own plan: the moment Nagato Mitsuaki climbed the balcony, she'd push him off and kill the man responsible for the fire all those years ago.
So today's drama was all part of the scheme.
At that moment, everyone in the bedroom heard the shriek from the phone, saw "Nagato Hideomi" with a knife downstairs, and panicked—rushing out the door.
Hattori Heiji and Ran Mouri were no exception.
Jiangxia darted after them.
As the two classmates turned the corner and approached the stairs, Jiangxia reached out and grabbed them—one in each hand.
Startled, they turned back to look at him, confused.
Conan had also noticed something was off and stopped in his tracks.
Jiangxia glanced back toward the bedroom and whispered, "The attacker knew the chairman's birthday party was upstairs, with a bunch of people in the room. But he still made that dramatic appearance after the 'attack,' then immediately fled… It felt less like a killing and more like a performance."
That gave both Hattori and Conan pause.
Then, almost in unison, they remembered the old chairman—alone in the bedroom—and smelled a setup.
"You mean… someone deliberately lured us away from the chairman?" Hattori asked.
Jiangxia nodded.
Hattori looked toward the staircase and saw that the butler and several security guards had already run downstairs. If Nagato Mitsuaki really was attacked, they'd all more than enough to help him.
"…Alright. We'll go back and check first," Hattori said. Conan nodded. Ran followed suit, serious-faced.
Jiangxia turned around, leading the group back to the bedroom.
Just as they reached the door—
Clack.
The sound of an iron hook catching onto the balcony railing echoed faintly.
A rope dropped down and pulled taut—someone was climbing up.
Jiangxia quickly glanced inside. At that moment, the only people in the room were the sleeping chairman and Miyuki, who had quietly moved to the balcony, clearly preparing to shove someone off.
Jiangxia sprinted forward and yelled, pretending to be worried for her safety: "Watch out! Move away from that hook!"
At the same time, he dashed toward the balcony.
The bedroom was huge, with a massive bed smack in the middle.
By the time Jiangxia got to the balcony, no one was visible below—just a swinging rope swaying in the wind.
Hattori and Conan saw the scene and slammed their fists against the railing in frustration. Click.
But they didn't blame Jiangxia for yelling.
After all, they didn't know where the climber had gotten to—or whether he had a weapon. If Jiangxia hadn't shouted, Miyuki—standing right there—might've gotten knifed.
Jiangxia also gave the innocent railing a knock.
He didn't feel particularly sorry, though.
Because honestly… he did it on purpose.
If the son-in-law had been caught red-handed, and no one got hurt, he could've brushed it off as a "prank" and shooed the detectives away.
But now? The Bandage Man had escaped, Hideomi's death hadn't been exposed yet, and Jiangxia still had a legitimate reason to hang around and continue his investigation.
(A.k.a. ghost fishing.)
And in the meantime, he'd have plenty of chances to resolve the ghost's obsession and sneak them away. Win-win.
…
Since someone had tried to attack the chairman with a kitchen knife, the Nagato family had no choice but to call the police—even if the suspect was one of their own.
The son-in-law's plan had failed.
He fled in a panic, ditched his disguise somewhere, and reverted to his "innocent family man" persona before slinking back into the room.
He claimed the attacker had only shoved him from behind—no stabbing—so he managed to get away.
As for the blood on his clothes? "Uh… maybe the guy cut himself by accident. Who knows."
Surprisingly, one of the responding officers bought the story.
But Conan and Hattori Heiji weren't so gullible.
The more they looked at this door-crashing son-in-law, the more suspicious he seemed. So they strolled over to "chat."
Nagato Mitsuaki got annoyed and cussed them out until they left.
Then he lit a cigarette with an impatient click, already planning his next move.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 20/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*