"Big sister, what's wrong? Why did you suddenly stop talking?"
Conan, sitting beside her, saw Ginbayashi Ena staring out the car window as though frozen and spoke up.
In his hand was the Spirit of Ecstasy ornament he had cleaned—the emblem from Shuto Goki's car, destroyed in the explosion.
This was also how Conan had lured Ginbayashi Ena into the car.
There were too many people at the scene, and they seemed to think the law could not punish them all. So when Inspector Yumichika again stated that although there was no clear suspect at present, the oil drum being tipped over three times in a row was still suspicious, and that he hoped everyone present would accompany him to the police station to give statements, the group instead fell silent.
Though there was no definite suspect yet, the case had not been concluded. Even if it sounded somewhat like excessive enforcement, what Inspector Yumichika was doing complied with procedure in every respect.
Without physical evidence identifying the killer, conducting preliminary inquiries and clarifying the victim's relationships and network of interests was basic work detectives excelled at. Other than making too much of a spectacle by transporting people in police cars, there was nothing wrong with it.
Shooting their mouths off amid a crowd in the open space before the villa and formally giving statements in an interrogation room at the station were two entirely different things. Naturally, they all lost their nerve.
Since they did not want to go, the only person who truly could not possibly be unrelated to the matter was Ginbayashi Ena.
When the police said that if she was willing to cooperate with the investigation, it would be enough for her to go alone, the people who had just been protecting her quickly became eager