"Hm? Two evidence bags?" Inspector Megure looked at them, then belatedly sensed that something was wrong. "Why would the victim have brought two phones?"
Jiang Xia put on gloves and picked up one of them. "Because one of these didn't belong to the victim—it belonged to Lawyer Sakaguchi. He left his phone on the coffee table beforehand. And this phone's ring tone was the first command used to control the dog."
As he spoke, Jiang Xia identified the phone number and placed a call.
A distinctive ring tone sounded through the evidence bag. John, who had been strolling around leisurely, twitched his ears, abruptly froze, and turned to look over.
Jiang Xia glanced at the clock in the living room. "If I remember correctly, this clock chimes on the hour. And when Lawyer Sakaguchi called home in front of us earlier, it was exactly nine o'clock—if we fast-forward it to the next hour..."
With the Forensics Department officer's extremely cooperative adjustments, the clock promptly began to chime.
Amid the repeated strikes, John, who had been lazily lounging around moments ago, lowered his body, bared his teeth, and assumed an attacking stance.
Jiang Xia glanced at him. "Next, as long as Mr. Sakaguchi says the phrase, 'Hello, John,' it will receive the final attack command and pounce on the target in front of it."
"..."
Lawyer Sakaguchi had unknowingly broken out in a cold sweat. Looking at John's familiar attacking posture, he felt a strong urge to speak the command and have the dog bite that meddlesome detective to pieces.
Yet in the end, some instinct made him merely sigh and slump wearily onto a nearby sofa.
"So it really was you." Seeing him like that, Inspector Megure immediately understood everything. Still, he could not help asking, "But after what happened