Stay away from Conan.

"Officer Shiratori?"

Seeing Officer Shiratori come over to greet her, Sato Miwako, who was already feeling a bit tired, only responded with a puzzled look. Then, Officer Shiratori asked with some concern:
"Are you OK?"

At this moment, Officer Shiratori's feelings are complicated. After telling Takato and the others at his sister's engagement party tonight about why he likes Officer Sato and his childhood experiences, he felt that he might have mistaken Sato for someone else because of Takato's analysis and speculation.

Therefore, when Sato Miwako came out of the interrogation room, she looked a little tired. Although Officer Shiratori greeted Sato Miwako as usual, he couldn't help but start to seriously doubt whether he had really mistaken her for someone else.

Compared to Officer Shiratori's overthinking, Miwako Sato clearly didn't have much mental energy to deal with him. She simply forced a smile, waved her hand, and said:
"It's nothing... of course I'm fine! It's just that I've been really busy these past few days, so I'm a little tired..."

Having explained herself, Sato Miwako just wanted to leave as soon as possible, go back and get some rest, and sort out her emotions before making any further moves.

At this point, Officer Shiratori probably understood why Sato Miwako had reacted this way, and thought to himself—

This time, through the police's deployment and setup, the suspect arrested was none other than Inspector Tomonari Makoto, the son of Inspector Tomonari who had gone on a field mission with Miwako Sato more than a year ago and died suddenly on duty due to a heart attack.

It was just over a year ago that, due to an incident, Inspector Tomonari was on a field investigation with Officer Narasawa, Officer Shiba Ichiro, and Officer Sato. Inspector Tomonari suffered a sudden accident. Although, as far as I know, it was Officer Sato who took Inspector Tomonari to the hospital, the details show that the three officers who were on the field investigation with Inspector Tomonari did not immediately call an ambulance to take him to the hospital.

Therefore, due to the time difference, Inspector Yu Cheng's son, Yu Cheng Zhen, felt that the three police officers who were on the field with Inspector Yu Cheng at the time were all responsible for the eventual death of his father.

On the day of the vigil for Inspector Yu-cheng, Yu-cheng expressed his deep distrust of the police, which caused quite a stir at the time.

So now, with the shooting deaths of Officer Narasawa and Officer Yoichiro Shiba in this incident, the police have realized that this incident may be related to the incident a year ago. As an employee of that incident, Officer Sato is naturally considered the next target of the murderer. Therefore, the police have been protecting Officer Sato very well during this period.

And this time, with You Chengzhen being arrested, to be honest...

From Officer Shiratori's perspective, this outcome wasn't particularly surprising, given his resentment towards the three officers involved because of his father's situation. To be honest...

That's only human nature.

As colleagues, we also felt immense regret over Inspector Yu-cheng's departure. However, as outsiders, we could not truly understand the pain he felt at losing his father.

But when the investigation reached this point and it was discovered that the real culprit was indeed Tomonari, even Inspector Shiratori found it hard to believe. Because no matter how much they hated the police, the fact that Tomonari had actually committed the crime of shooting a police officer was, in a way, a very embarrassing slap in the face to the entire police force.

For the family of a police inspector who died in the line of duty to retaliate against the police in this way—doesn't this mean the police can't even comfort or protect the family of a colleague, and instead push the other party to the opposite side of the police? Therefore, Officer Shiratori also felt that, no matter what, Tomonari shouldn't be the murderer. But as a police officer, he had to believe the evidence.

The police set a trap to lure the perpetrator in, and the suspect who ultimately fell into the trap was Yoo Sung-jin. Furthermore, a cell phone used to detonate the bomb was found on him…

Even if the police wanted to believe Tomonari, they couldn't ignore this fact. Besides, he had followed Officer Sato to the restroom and was carrying a knife, which seemed like he was preparing to commit a crime.

Therefore, even I felt bad about this fact, let alone Officer Sato.

Therefore, when she saw Officer Sato preparing to leave, Officer Shiratori wanted to try to show her concern, but she couldn't help but think about the words Takato had said to her—

Is the person I like really Officer Sato?
Regarding this matter, Officer Shiratori really wanted to ask Officer Sato if he remembered what happened in the bookstore when he was a child, but he hesitated to ask because he was worried about what would happen if he was wrong, and what if Officer Sato was the person in his memory but had no recollection of what happened back then.

Therefore, after much hesitation, Officer Shiratori, facing Sato Miwako at this moment, finally only said:
"Is that so... You must be exhausted. Now that things have come to this point, you should get some rest. Maybe the interrogation will yield results soon."

"That's how it is," Officer Shiratori comforted Sato Miwako. "After all, although the evidence points to Tomonari, if we can get some information from the confession, whether it's to prove his crime or to confirm that it was just a mistake, it would be enough to give us an explanation, wouldn't it?"

Therefore, all we can do now is wait for the interrogating officer to give us the results as soon as possible...

And so, Officer Shiratori and Miwako Sato exchanged a few simple pleasantries before saying goodbye and walking off to opposite sides of the corridor. Both Officer Shiratori and Miwako Sato seemed to breathe a slight sigh of relief, as if they had just realized that their conversation had been filled with complex and poignant emotions.

But at that very moment, both Officer Shiratori's and Miwako Sato's phones rang simultaneously—

An anonymous email was sent to their phones.

Naturally, upon hearing the message on their phones, the two casually took out their phones to check the contents. After only a few glances, their expressions immediately turned to surprise and shock. They then became extremely anxious, wanting to find someone to help them analyze the email's contents.

So, the two who had just parted ways turned to look at each other.

"—Officer Sato!"

At the same time, Takagi Wataru rushed out of his office anxiously, calling out to Sato Miwako… (End of Chapter)