Aside from Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko, there was only one other table of customers in this remote café.
As Mouri Ran held her breath and listened in, the man wearing glasses said in a low voice, "Sonoko didn't come. It must be because he didn't want her to."
The other man, with spiky hair, clicked his tongue. "That's why I wanted to have a proper talk with her."
The man wearing glasses sighed. "Since that's the case... we can only follow the original plan: wait outside for him to succeed, then escape together."
The spiky-haired man said, "Yeah. Today is our only chance to kill that guy."
"?!" Mouri Ran's hand trembled, and the lid of her cup clattered onto the table. She had never expected these two utterly ordinary-looking passersby to be the owners of that phone. What shocked her even more was that she had stumbled onto a murder plot in progress!
The crisp sound was not particularly loud, but in the quiet outskirts, it was conspicuous enough. The man with glasses looked up toward the sound and met Mouri Ran's eyes.
Seeing the shocked expression on the high school girl's face, he inwardly cried out in alarm and sprang to his feet.
The spiky-haired man turned around as well. Then he spotted something in Mouri Ran's hand, and his brow furrowed. "Why do you have Sonoko's phone?!"
"I-I just picked it up." Mouri Ran took a deep breath and tried to steady her expression, pretending she had heard nothing. "Did someone you know drop it?"
"Picked it up..." The man with glasses seemed to understand something and gave a bitter smile. "No wonder Sonoko didn't come. She never saw my message."
The spiky-haired man rose and approached with an oppressive air. "What did you hear just