A Murderer, Yet No Murderer

"Why are you carrying a knife?"

"F-for self-defense."

"What about the gloves?"

"..."

Ooba Yoshitoshi stammered, unable to keep making things up.

He had worn Higo Ryusuke's jersey to pose as a fan, lied while explaining his whereabouts, bought a subway ticket in advance, and carried gloves and a knife. It was all too suspicious to explain away.

"If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Ooba..."

Vermouth narrowed her eyes, a playful smile appearing on her lips.

"When Akagi Kakubu forced his way to the front of the line, you must have been right behind him, correct?"

"That's right!" Someone at the scene remembered.

They might not have remembered much about the people passing by them.

But they would not so easily forget someone who had cut in front of their group.

"That Akagi Kakubu took the lead in cutting the line."

"And that long-haired guy, Ooba, was right behind him!"

Ooba Yoshitoshi had followed closely behind Akagi Kakubu as he cut in line. At the time, it had seemed like he was simply some uncivilized jerk trying to cut ahead, only to run into an even more shameless leader.

But now it seemed...

"You followed him into the line immediately because you didn't want to lose track of your target, didn't you?"

Vermouth pointed out Ooba Yoshitoshi's intentions.

By now, even the elementary-school detectives watching from the sidelines—Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta—could piece together what had happened.

"I get it. Mr. Ooba was originally planning to kill Mr. Akagi with that knife."

"But Mr. Akagi happened to cut to the front of the line and stand at the edge of the platform, giving Mr. Ooba an even better opportunity to kill him."

"So he made a snap decision, changed his method, and pushed Mr. Akagi down just as the subway was arriving!"