Stay away from Conan.

Vermouth already knew that Sherry had developed a temporary antidote for the drug, and she also knew that Shinichi Kudo had reverted to his original form during the Fantasy Park incident. Therefore, the appearance of Shinichi Kudo in his true form was not surprising.

Especially since he already knew that Ireland was hiding within the police force and that he had already become a suspect in "Conan".

As for why the other party would revert to their original form and appear here, Vermouth immediately guessed, knowing that she had come here to investigate the situation of "Mizutani Kosuke". She figured that the other party must also be here to find the real culprit.

Thus, seeing things had reached this point, Shinichi Kudo was forced to revert to his original form to deal with the current situation. Vermouth, who had been pondering where to begin, suddenly had an idea—

Since someone has voluntarily come forward to investigate, then I...

Let's just take advantage of this opportunity...

……

"Officer Sato, if we keep keeping watch like this, will it really lead to anything?"

Meanwhile, at Shiba Park in Minato Ward, Tokyo, Sato Miwako and Takagi Wataru, who were secretly staking out the area, were strolling around as a couple. However, their stakeout the previous night had yielded no results, and the body of the missing Shindo Sumire had not yet been found. Takagi Wataru began to have some doubts about the current situation.

Seeing Sato Miwako beside him, who was deep in thought, Takagi Wataru wondered if she was pondering something. So, he asked her casually, in a slightly awkward manner.

At this moment, Sato Miwako's thoughts were completely different from Takagi Wataru's. As the police officer who was assigned to pick up Shindo Sumire, who had reported the incident to the police in Hachioji City yesterday, she and Takagi Wataru were delayed because of a flat tire on the road. When they finally arrived at Shindo Sumire's residence, they found that Shindo Sumire had apparently met with misfortune.

Looking at the whole incident, Sato Miwako intuitively felt that it was full of problems, especially since Shindo Sumire had just called the police yesterday claiming that she knew the details of the serial murder case, but because she was worried about her safety, she asked the police to contact her in person before she would explain, which led to Sato Miwako and Takagi Wataru driving to Hachioji City.

Based on this, Sumire Shindo should indeed be a person involved in the incident. There must be a clear connection behind the entire series of murders. That is why Sumire Shindo realized what had happened after learning about the incident and even had a premonition that she herself would be the killer's target.

However, judging from the situation at the time, it was clear that when Sumire Shindo called the police, the situation was not yet extremely urgent. Otherwise, it should have been extremely urgent when she called the police. In that case, in urgent situations, one should act expediently. Yesterday's action should not have been for her and Takagi to go out and contact the other party. Instead, they should have contacted the local police station to go directly to their door.

From this perspective, at the time, Sumire Shindo didn't think things were that urgent; she didn't believe the killer had found her. But precisely under these circumstances, her car had a flat tire just as she arrived, and by then, Sumire Shindo had already met with certain death...

Such a coincidence made Miwako Sato feel that someone was behind this whole thing—

In particular, the tire blowout happened so critically, it was as if someone was deliberately preventing me from seeing Sumire Shindo in time.

Therefore, taking all of this into account, it seems that someone else learned of Sumire Shindo's existence at the same time as us, but in order to get ahead of the police, that person deliberately slowed down our progress by causing their vehicle to have a flat tire, so that they could make contact with Sumire Shindo one step earlier...

However, they only learned about their own situation after Sumire Shindo took the initiative to report it to the police, while the other side... If that's the case, could the problem lie within the police force?
Moreover, regarding the tire blowout incident, in order to save time, I contacted my colleagues in the traffic department to handle the subsequent vehicle handling. As a result, I didn't have time to check the cause of the tire blowout immediately. When I received the report from the traffic department later, the only information I received was that it was an accidental tire blowout.
If we consider the worst-case scenario, given that information within the police force could leak at any moment, could the reason the perpetrator wasn't spotted during the entire night's stakeout be because...

"Officer Sato? Officer Sato?"

Just then, as Sato Miwako was deep in thought, Takagi Wataru noticed that Sato Miwako hadn't responded to his words and had a frighteningly serious expression. This made Takagi Wataru, who already had a relationship with Sato Miwako, suspicious. He wondered if something was wrong and nervously pressed her for an answer.

As Takagi Wataru pressed her for answers, Sato Miwako was finally brought back to reality from her thoughts. Faced with her suspicions, Sato Miwako had no evidence. Looking at Takagi Wataru beside her, she felt it was best not to reveal the situation for the time being. So she made up an excuse and continued to stake out Shiba Park with Takagi Wataru until the shift changed...

Back in their car, where the tire had been changed, they had temporarily switched shifts and were resting. However, the signal that the operation was over hadn't been given yet, meaning the stakeout was still ongoing. Takagi and he could only rest briefly, remaining on standby. Exhausted, Takagi leaned back in his chair, let out a long sigh, and closed his eyes to rest. Meanwhile, for Sato Miwako, her suspicions about the incident were growing stronger, but…

After much deliberation, Sato Miwako suddenly took out her phone, scrolled through her contacts, and found one number among many, which she then dialed.

And this number is Gao Yuan's mobile phone number!

Since the reason for this stakeout mission was mainly due to Gao Yuan's analysis last night, perhaps Gao Yuan has more ideas about this whole matter.

More importantly, given that his suspicions involved personnel within the police force, reporting upwards was risky. Aside from Takagi Wataru, whom he could absolutely trust, everyone else in the police force…

None of these are reliable at the moment!

Therefore, the only solution to my current predicament is to find someone I can trust besides the police.

Naturally, Takato became Sato Miwako's best choice at this moment...

……

"Really? So you're the famous high school detective, Shinichi Kudo?"

Meanwhile, on the other side, Shinichi Kudo's investigation finally led him to the home of Nanako Honjo, who had died in the fire. With Tanabata (the seventh day of the seventh lunar month) approaching, the Honjo family was preparing for the upcoming anniversary of her death. Therefore, Shinichi Kudo, upon arriving, revealed his identity and met Nanako Honjo's brother—

Honjo and the tree... (End of this chapter)