The nonsense before that could be ignored. Curacao's gaze shifted, and her attention quickly focused on the most suspicious part.
--XXX
The familiar shape quickly reminded her of the silencing lists she had handled—every dead person would be marked with an X, disappearing without a trace.
"He wants to kill people? Three of them?" Curacao brought all her analytical abilities to bear, trying to decipher the alarming email. "Fine, kill them if you want. Why send it to me? Could I be one of those three? Or is he subtly asking me for a mission list?"
"...Never mind. I'll pretend I didn't see it, like before. I'm still away on business anyway. No matter how terrifying that guy's stage is, it can't reach this far."
Curacao swiftly adjusted her mindset, trying to erase the message, with its ominous aura, from her memory.
The two detectives each sank into thought, and neither seemed likely to produce an answer anytime soon.
Mouri Ran did not press the matter. Instead, she remembered something else. "Come to think of it, Teacher Jodie seems much more relaxed in class lately than she used to be."
Suzuki Sonoko nodded like a chick pecking at rice. "When she first arrived, she was so serious—more serious than that English teacher in his fifties. But now she's becoming more and more approachable. She even explains everyday English expressions in class... Do you think she's encountered too many murder cases, realized how fleeting life is, and decided to enjoy life while she still can?"
"You're gossiping about your teacher behind her back?" a voice suddenly came from behind them.
"?!" The two high school girls jolted in alarm and whirled around, only to see Jodie smiling at them. The foreign teacher patted both of them on the shoulders and