A minute earlier.
Hashimoto Maya and Vodka stood side by side, watching the approaching police officers. Suddenly, an idea came to Hashimoto Maya.
Before Inspector Megure, who was leading the group, could speak, Hashimoto Maya stepped forward to meet them. With a grave expression, he said, "Inspector, you came at just the right time. I need to speak with you."
Inspector Megure froze. Taking a closer look, he quickly recognized the man addressing him through his exceptional ability to identify familiar younger acquaintances. "Brother Yamada, and... Brother Hashimoto? What a coincidence! You're here to watch this magic show too! Brother Jiang Xia told me you'd gone off to handle something else, but I never expected that today..."
"Ahem!" Officer Sato, who had had enough of this small talk, cleared her throat.
"Oh." Inspector Megure came back to himself and looked at Hashimoto Maya again. "What was it you wanted to tell me?"
"This..." Hashimoto Maya seemed a little nervous. He glanced around, then leaned closer and lowered his voice like an ordinary citizen who had stumbled upon something dangerous. "I suspect that audience member in seat 2, row 17, section B is carrying a dangerous weapon!"
Vodka, who had been eavesdropping with his ears pricked up: "..." Seat 2, row 17, section B... wasn't that your next seat? What a fine move of diverting trouble to others. You really are Uzo's subordinate—your conscience doesn't hurt at all when you do evil.
While quietly criticizing that detestable Uzo subordinate, Vodka pressed send and used a disguised Mailbox address to urge his trading partner to leave through the other passageway while he had the chance.
Unlike Vodka, who knew what was going on, Inspector Megure had already heard from Kudo Shinichi that there was an illegal transaction here. Hearing Hashimoto Maya's report,