Painted Skin

Kogou was feeding crickets into the spider enclosures one by one, while Mrs. Kuwashima looked somewhat impatient.

When Kogou reached a large terrarium in the inner room, his expression suddenly changed. However, he made no fuss and hurriedly fed it as well.

Then—

"Hm? Where's Carmel?" Kogou asked suspiciously as he looked at an empty terrarium.

"Carmel?" Shiraishi echoed.

"Carmel is a Brazilian giant golden-red—Yuji's favorite little darling," Kogou explained.

"The one that was in there died," Mrs. Kuwashima explained.

"It died? When I came to feed it half a month ago, it was still full of energy—" Kogou said in disbelief.

"It was two or three days before the incident." Mrs. Kuwashima clearly did not want to say more.

"I see—could that be why Yuji was distracted—" Kogou said, glancing again at the terrarium containing the Sydney funnel-web spider.

Kogou seemed to believe that because Kuwashima's beloved spider had died, he had been absentminded even after being bitten by the Sydney funnel-web spider.

After sighing, Kogou said nothing more. He fed all the crickets he had brought, along with the crickets remaining in the boxes already in the apartment, then prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Shiraishi and the others also withdrew.

Only Conan was reluctant to leave, but Kogou simply carried him out—

"Mrs. Mika, if you don't want to come tomorrow, you can give me the key. I can open the door for Mr. Kogou," Misumi offered.

For one thing, she was indeed worried that Kuwashima would be reminded of painful memories by the place, and she clearly did not want to deal with Kogou. For another, Misumi figured that if she had a key, it would be more convenient if Shiraishi needed to inspect anything else.

"No need—I'm planning to move out anyway. Tomorrow will be a