Facing the questioning looks of the crowd, Hattori Heiji said with a smile, "To avoid falsely accusing an innocent person, I'll need to speak with everyone one by one and ask a few questions before deciding on the specific culprit."
The program's director asked blankly, "There's a step like that in deduction? Are you trying to search someone?"
"Of course not." Hattori Heiji shook his head. "There are just certain questions that only the culprit can give specific answers to. If I ask them in front of everyone, this method of screening will be meaningless—so..."
He raised a hand and pointed at the dark-skinned, blond crew member. "We'll start with you. You look the most suspicious."
"I'm not the culprit," the blond muttered resentfully, though he did not resist.
The earlier incident had already scared him senseless, and he desperately wanted the real culprit to be found. So despite his displeasure, he quickly stood up cooperatively. "Ask whatever you want. Where are we going?"
"To the room over there."
Hattori Heiji stepped aside to let him out, then pulled the door nearly shut, leaving only a crack. He said to the others inside, "Don't worry, this won't take long—you can use this time to decide the order for the next round of questioning."
With that, he shut the door and headed into another room with Conan and the blond man.
Curacao looked at the two of them, then at Jiang Xia. ...She had a feeling those two lackeys were up to no good. Come to think of it, was she going to be questioned alone too?
...No. If that happened, even if she had to make excuses and stall until the rescue arrived, she absolutely could not agree.
As an Organization member fretted in secret.
Nearby, Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri