Kabuto Yakushi deliberately left his sentence unfinished, giving Kogoro Mouri room to speculate. At the same time, he subtly shifted position until his back faced the surveillance camera in the Library lobby.
"W-what? What's that supposed to mean?" Kogoro Mouri grew even angrier at the challenge, his face flushing red.
"Uncle! Let it go!" Seeing this, Conan hurried forward and tugged at Kogoro Mouri's coat, playing peacemaker.
As he spoke, he studied Kabuto Yakushi with wide, innocent eyes. "This man didn't do it on purpose. Let's just pick everything up."
But Conan had noticed something odd about Kabuto Yakushi. He was in a hurry to apologize and leave at first. Why did he start arguing with Uncle after the person behind the service desk left?
As if the reason he'd wanted to leave was gone?
With Kogoro Mouri no longer pestering him, Kabuto Yakushi quickly turned and disappeared into the crowd in the reading area.
To make his lingering seem natural, he pulled a book from a shelf at random—The Evolution of Puppet Technique, by Sasori of the Red Sands—and sat down by the window.
He appeared absorbed in his reading, but his senses swept across the entire lobby like radar, especially the door to the workroom.
Outside the window, a sparrow tilted its head on a branch. Its black eyes reflected Kabuto Yakushi's quiet profile, Kogoro Mouri scratching his head as he gathered the scattered papers, and the bespectacled boy beside him, whose expression was growing grave.
Elsewhere, the morning sun had long since flooded the windowsill when Anya jolted awake.
She saw the clock hands pointing to nine, and her small face went pale.
Oh no, oh no! I overslept! Father's in danger!
She scrambled out of bed without even brushing her hair, grabbed her Bondman doll, and