A somewhat desolate suburb.
A group of police officers moved back and forth along the streets, their eyes fixed on the heights above. Under the wary, puzzled gazes of the crows, they examined the nests, searching for the steel-wire clothes hanger that had once strangled someone to death.
Jodie, James, and the two high school girls were also running around. They had been busy arguing earlier and had missed part of the information, so although they were likewise looking for the steel-wire hanger, their eyes were searching in different places from the police.
Farther out.
Amuro Tooru was also searching everywhere. Compared with the others, his search range was extraordinarily broad—from the utility poles and dense trees overhead to the walls and yards on the ground. Whenever he passed a sewer entrance, he would even go over and take a careful look to see whether there were any recent signs of someone going in or out.
The odds were slim, but they were not zero. Even comets could hit Earth—what if he was lucky enough to run into Matsuda... Kurosawa while he was retreating?
As he was thinking, Amuro Tooru suddenly paused, his gaze slowly settling on a tree on the next street over.
He stopped walking and frowned as he looked over. In the dense canopy, he spotted a low-key flickering black-and-white figure.
This was...
That Black Cat with White Paws that often wandered around Beika Town and Beido Town!
Why was it here?
What was it doing?
"..."
He had to search in some direction anyway. After thinking for a moment, Amuro Tooru simply passed through the alley between the two streets and headed toward the tree.
As he drew closer, he saw that the cat was standing beside a bird's nest. With one paw, it held down