Thud!
"This is bad," Inspector Megure muttered. "Could it be that Shiratori got his car blown up, only to get his head blown off by drug dealers right after?"
Thinking of Officer Shiratori's recent streak of terrible luck, Chiba's heart skipped a beat too. "Surely... he can't be that unlucky, right?"
The two stared at each other. For a moment, they had even thought up Shiratori's posthumous commendations. But then the phone rang again. Looking down, they saw that it was Shiratori once more.
This time, Inspector Megure did not dare delay and answered with lightning speed.
Though he had not picked up much faster than before, fortunately, the person on the other end had no intention of hanging up this time.
Just as Inspector Megure was about to speak, Officer Shiratori's voice came first. "Inspector, don't worry. Everything is under control!"
"Huh? Oh, th-then that's good." The martyr he had imagined was speaking to him, alive and well, leaving Inspector Megure somewhat disoriented. After choking on his words for a moment, he asked, "Why did you hang up right after calling just now?"
Officer Shiratori replied calmly, "Oh, I wanted to report the progress over here. After dialing, I accidentally tapped the screen."
—He did not tell Inspector Megure about that little incident. Given how much Megure cared about Brother Jiang Xia, what if he heard that Jiang Xia was playing a kidnapping game at the amusement park and immediately led a squad over here?
With Inspector Megure around, the Sato Miwako Defense Line would not be able to operate as freely as it was now.
Fortunately, Inspector Megure did not suspect a thing and was easily placated. "All right, then continue directing things. If anything goes wrong, make sure to contact me. That Yagura has a long criminal