I'm Not Suspicious at All

The next day.

Jiang Xia had originally planned to continue what he had started the night before—visit Maruden Jirou's house, the unscrupulous creditor who had been secretly selling off pledged items, and check things out.

However, the Detective Agency still had several scheduled clients, so Jiang Xia could only spend another day at work.

That afternoon, after returning the two cats the delinquents had newly found to their owner, Jiang Xia closed up the Detective Agency and left.

Following the address on Maruden Jirou's business card, he made his way there. In the end, he arrived at a detached house with a courtyard.

—This was the home of the creditor, Maruden Jirou.

"..." The courtyard was pretty big.

Although Maruden Jirou was a rich man, like most people in this world, he had neither surveillance cameras nor security guards in his yard. Breaking in was about as difficult as taking a walk.

Jiang Xia first went around to a nearby hill and looked down over the courtyard's layout.

After memorizing the locations, he put on his hat and face mask, then lightly vaulted over the wall and headed straight for the storage room in the side building.

Security this weak did not require a puppet.

—He was now a spirit medium who had to support two ghosts. Miyano Akemi's new skill recovery was also tied to Killing Intent, so he had to save where he could...

After entering the storage room, Jiang Xia compared the pottery with the photo the client had given him and easily found his target on a shelf.

The piece of pottery had a three-layer hollow structure. Jiang Xia opened it at the middle section and tossed in a piece of Black Technology: a transmitter.

Once fully charged, the transmitter could operate for nearly forty hours.

The moment the pottery was sold, Jiang Xia would immediately know and could notify the client as promised.

From then on, he only needed to come by once every two days to replace the transmitter, allowing him to keep track of the pottery's location at all times.

A few days later.

When the signal from the receiver began cutting in and out again due to low battery.

Jiang Xia returned to Maruden Jirou's house, intending to replace the transmitter.

Familiar with the route by now, he circled around to the low section of the wall, pulled up his hood, put on a face mask and gloves, then jumped up and grabbed the courtyard wall.

The moment he poked his head over, he suddenly saw a man and a woman emerge from Maruden's side room—both familiar police officers, Takagi Wataru and Sato Miwako.

Officer Sato happened to glance toward the top of the wall and unexpectedly met Jiang Xia's gaze.

Though, with his hood blocking her view, strictly speaking, this "eye contact" was one-sided.

—Jiang Xia saw Officer Sato's eyes.

As for Sato Miwako...

She saw only the outline of a pair of eyes shrouded in shadow.

Officer Sato froze for a moment, then barked, "Who's there?!"

As she spoke, she rushed over.

The moment this Police Flower raised her voice, several burly men came running out of the house. Jiang Xia swept his eyes over them and realized they were all police officers.

Jiang Xia: "..."

It was just like climbing over the school wall after being late, only to reach the top and see an emergency teachers' meeting being held directly below it...

Feeling a little awkward, Jiang Xia let go and dropped down.

Through the wall, he heard Officer Sato shout, "Stop!"

Jiang Xia thought about it and stopped.

Illegal entry was indeed against the law. But in this world, such behavior was rarely pursued, especially when the offender was a detective.

Besides, strictly speaking, Jiang Xia had not entered the house today.

He had merely illegally clung to someone else's wall.

There was really no need to suddenly launch into a passionate chase scene with the police like some Pervert Murderer.

However, people did not always think alike.

Sato Miwako in the courtyard clearly had not expected that the suspicious person would actually stop just because she shouted, "Stop!"

Thus, as Jiang Xia stood still at the base of the wall.

A shadow suddenly passed over his head.

"?"

Jiang Xia paused, looked up, and saw Officer Sato nimbly climb onto the wall. Without looking aside, she whooshed over Jiang Xia like she was clearing a hurdle, landing gracefully four or five meters away.

Then, without pausing for even half a second, she sprinted down the street.

"Um..." Jiang Xia raised a hand toward her, wanting to call her back. But he had barely made a sound before she vanished from sight.

Jiang Xia stared at that excessively agile retreating figure. "..."

At that moment, several tiny clumps of dirt and gravel fell from the wall beside him.

Jiang Xia silently looked up.

This time, he saw another of Inspector Megure's subordinates—Takagi Wataru.

Officer Takagi laboriously climbed onto the wall and was just about to jump down.

But when he looked below, he saw that the face-covered "suspicious person" had not run away. Instead, he was standing at the base of the wall, looking up and watching him climb over.

Officer Takagi froze.

The two stared at each other in silence, one above and one below, for nearly half a minute.

After a while, Takagi Wataru hesitantly asked, "...What are you standing there for?"

The "suspicious person" hesitantly replied, "Didn't you tell me to 'stop'?"

Officer Takagi: "..." That was true...

No, what he had actually wanted to ask was why this suspicious person had been climbing someone else's wall.

But since the "suspicious person" had not run and seemed to have a pretty good attitude, that could wait.

The urgent matter was calling back Officer Sato, who had run off who knew where...

Sitting atop the wall, Takagi Wataru took out his phone and dialed his respected senior, Officer Sato.

Five minutes later.

In Maruden Jirou's courtyard.

Jiang Xia and Sato Miwako walked in one after the other.

Besides the police, Jiang Xia was pleasantly surprised to find several familiar faces here as well—Mouri Ran, Mouri Kogoro, and Conan.

The various groups had appeared here for different reasons.

Jiang Xia's assignment was to keep an eye on Maruden Jirou for the client's wife and prevent the unscrupulous creditor from selling off the pledged items ahead of time.

Mouri Kogoro had also received a job, but his client was Maruden Jirou himself—Maruden Jirou suspected his wife of cheating and had asked Mouri Kogoro to find evidence.

The police, meanwhile, were not here because of a client.

—Maruden Jirou was dead.

He had died this very afternoon.

Naturally, considering that Jiang Xia's job involved the element of "illegal entry," he did not immediately tell the truth.

He casually came up with an excuse. "I was passing by just now and heard some commotion over here. Then I saw police cars outside, so I got curious and climbed up the wall to take a look."

Sato Miwako was doubtful. "Then why were you covering your face?"

Jiang Xia pulled his face mask higher and tugged his hat brim lower. Like a vampire scorched by sunlight, he sighed. "Sun allergy."

Officer Sato: "...?"

She had initially thought Jiang Xia was making things up.

But after thinking back, Sato Miwako suddenly realized that every time she had seen Jiang Xia, it had either been at night, indoors, or indoors at night... In any case, she really had never seen Jiang Xia out in the sun.

Nearby, Conan watched their conversation with dead fish eyes, wanting to say something but holding back.

When he used to visit Professor's House, he had often stood on the balcony and looked out over Beika Town, only to see Jiang Xia carrying out a lounge chair and sprawling in the sun next door.

But in the end, Conan did not expose him.

—In Conan's judgment, Jiang Xia was probably not the murderer.

When Conan had been playing in the courtyard earlier, he had actually seen the murderer's feet beneath the bushes.

That person had been wearing proper dress trousers and leather shoes, completely unlike Jiang Xia's outfit.

And Jiang Xia was a detective. There was no way he would commit such a foolish act as killing someone, then being unable to resist returning to the Crime Scene for a look and walking right into the trap.

Although Officer Sato still had some questions.

Inside the small house where the Crime Scene was located.

Inspector Megure had finally had enough of Mouri Kogoro's dramatic deductions.

With a headache, he pushed open the sliding door and looked over this way. Then he waved his chubby little hand at Jiang Xia, anticipation hidden in his gesture.

—Inspector Megure had also heard about Jiang Xia climbing the wall and knew he was suspicious.

But suspicious was suspicious; that did not conflict with hearing Jiang Xia's deductions.

After all, solving cases was about evidence. In the past, no one had ever demanded that detectives prove themselves completely innocent before allowing them to reason.

There had even been plenty of major suspects who put on a deduction show right there to prove their innocence.

Compared to them, at least Jiang Xia solved cases quickly and professionally...