In any case, since they could not get hold of the Black Organization's trail for now, dealing with Chizo Ogura, the suspected drug dealer, was one of their most pressing priorities.
Hattori Heiji and Conan returned to the group and quietly repeated their speculation about the "low-profile guest's" identity to Inspector Otaki.
"An escaped fugitive?" Inspector Otaki's expression turned complicated. "If I'd known, I would've sent more people to search the mountain."
The store owner's wife had squeezed in beside them to eavesdrop. Hearing that, she breathed a sigh of relief. "That's what I said! That guest didn't look like a good person. He must've beaten my husband to death!"
Jiang Xia came back to himself and glanced at her. "I nearly forgot your case hasn't been resolved yet—you asked what evidence I had?"
The store owner's wife's heart skipped a beat. She forced herself to say, "Y-Yes. What makes you say I killed someone?"
Jiang Xia pointed at her collar, somewhat speechless. "Leaving aside the fingerprints and your clothes stained with gunpowder smoke, can you explain why there's human blood on your neck?"
"?!" The store owner's wife instinctively covered the spot he had pointed to. Her fingertips touched something sticky, and her face changed.
—She had felt that something was off with her neck earlier, but she had assumed that sweat had soaked her collar when she hurried back.
But judging from what this Detective had said, could it be...
"Ma'am, why is there blood stuck inside your collar?!"
The old farmer and the falconer took a closer look and jumped in fright—he had noticed earlier that the color around the store owner's wife's collar was a little strange, but the blood was stuck to the inside of it. He had been too embarrassed to keep staring at