Hattori Heiji froze for a moment, then clapped a hand over his ears, hating his superior comprehension skills for the first time in his life. He had only been changing the subject—how had Jiang Xia actually solved the case?! And how had he actually understood it?!
An interesting puzzle had only just taken shape when someone ripped away its cover.
Hattori Heiji clutched his chest in anguish for a while, then couldn't help grabbing Jiang Xia. "Fine, you figured it out—but why did you have to tell me?!"
Jiang Xia looked at him as though he were being utterly unreasonable. "Didn't you ask?"
"..."
A silence fell.
A deathly silence.
A moment later, Hattori Heiji weakly released his grip, turned around, and slapped himself.
—Serves you right for talking too much! Of all things, why did you have to talk to him about this?!
He took a deep breath and gritted out, "No matter what, it's good that the case is solved. I'm going to share the good news with Kudo."
The two High School Detectives, each in very different moods, ran off to join the others.
They had barely arrived when, before Hattori Heiji could find Conan, an officer jogged over to Inspector Otaki. "Inspector! We just received word that the gun in the tree actually belonged to the victim—he reported it missing to the police last week, and the Police Station still has the record."
Inspector Otaki paused. "Is that so?"
The young officer nodded and added, "Also, Detective Jiang Xia had us investigate the architectural ornament outside the second-floor wall. The results are in—the substance on that steel pipe was cooking oil."
"As expected." Hattori Heiji rubbed his temple, now completely certain of the truth behind the case. He looked around, then approached Conan with a