The pet section on the fourth floor.
Mouri Ran sprinted up the stairs and rushed in with Officer Sato and Conan. But with a quick sweep of her eyes, she found only rows of neatly arranged counters—no Suzuki Sonoko, no security guard, and no scattered stones from a shattered aquarium.
"Sonoko?" Mouri Ran cried anxiously. "Are you there? Sonoko!!"
Conan ran to the Aquatic Animal Section and looked at the completely unscathed fish tanks, his heart sinking. "It wasn't broken..."
Had he been wrong? Had the sound of scattered stones he had heard in the stairwell come not from aquarium rocks, but from something else—like... the Go stones in the Stationery Section on the eighth floor?!
"Quick!" Conan shouted at the baffled Mouri Ran and Sato Miwako. "To the eighth floor!"
The Stationery Section on the eighth floor.
Inspector Megure performed beyond all expectations and actually figured out the right location before Conan did.
He charged into the floor and shone his flashlight toward where the sound had come from. At the sight within the beam, the officer's heart nearly stopped.
—Beside the Go counter, Suzuki Sonoko had sat down on the ground in exhaustion. In front of her, the murderer had raised a long stick high, about to bring it down with all his strength.
There was no time for words. Inspector Megure kicked off the ground and rushed forward with strength he had not displayed in years. Just as the murderer swung the stick down, he somehow moved with a speed that even he found unbelievable, placing himself in its path.
With a dull thud, blood flowed out from beneath the brim of his hat.
Sada-kane Yoshio stared blankly at the police officer who had appeared from nowhere.
Inspector Megure steadied his swaying body and glared coldly