The Forensics Department officer nodded. "That should be it."
Inspector Megure was about to nod when he suddenly noticed Jiang Xia looking thoughtful. He immediately changed his story cleverly. "Brother Jiang Xia, what do you think?"
Jiang Xia tilted his head and looked at the side of the half-destroyed ball. "The colored lines on it seem wrong."
Inspector Megure froze, then tilted his head to look as well. He saw two intersecting red lines printed in a cross on the ball.
He scratched his head, puzzled. "What's wrong with them? I remember practice balls all having markings like this."
Hearing them discuss his own business, the Golf Driving Range manager came over to take a look and hurriedly said, "There really is a problem. The lines on this ball are red, but the practice balls at our range have blue lines—this isn't one of ours."
So today's incident had nothing to do with their innocent Driving Range!
Suzuki Sonoko had slipped over with Jiang Xia earlier. Hearing them mention Black Powder and now discuss colors, memories of studying for exams not long ago came rushing back.
Suzuki Sonoko's chemistry mindset kicked in, and she boldly hypothesized, "Could the high temperature from the explosion have caused it to turn into the opposite color?"
The Golf Driving Range manager was horrified. "..." Where had this failing student come from?! Don't spout nonsense in front of the police and Detective!
"Of course not! How could it possibly be such a coincidence!"
The manager hurriedly picked up one of the range's balls and held it beside the bomb ball for comparison. "And look, these red and blue colors are so pure and flawless. An explosion couldn't have changed them into this—they were originally these colors!"
Inspector Megure had just thought Suzuki Sonoko made sense,