𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐒

file 018 | unexpected attacks

"Okay..." The kids said.

"Thank you," Suzume said to the man, who gave her a nod as he walked to the phone booth. Suzume turned her head to observe him pulling out a notebook, turning it sideways as he wrote in it. "Now I have a question for you guys." The kids looked up at her. "What do you think that man's job is?"

"A school teacher?" Ayumi suggested.

"A businessman?" Mitsuhiko was next. "No, he doesn't have a briefcase..."

"An eel restaurant owner?" Genta said.

Suzume shook her head at all of their suggestions. "The correct answer is police detective," she told them.

"P-Police detective?!"

"Whenever police detectives need to make a note of something, they turn their police notebooks horizontally to write in them."

All three kids were awed at her explanation.

"That's the Detective of the East for you!" Mitsuhiko grinned.

"Oh! It's green! Let's cross!" Genta said.

All four of them crossed the street and Suzume turned her head to see a man stand in front of the phone booth. As the detective opened the door, the person fired three shots from his silenced gun, running off as the detective collapsed.

"Shit! Call an ambulance now!" Suzume ordered as she dropped her umbrella and ran up and across the overhead bridge since the light to cross the street was red. When she got across, she couldn't find the shooter in sight, so she ran towards the detective on the ground. "Sir, hang in there!" She got on her knees next to him. "Do you know who shot you?!"

The detective slowly raised his hand to grip at his chest, where his police notebook was in his inner suit pocket. He gave her one last look before his head dropped onto the ground, dead.

Suzume stared at him with wide eyes. What...what did that mean?

~ — — — ~

"I'm sorry to ask yet again, but could you tell us about the murderer?" Megure asked Suzume and the three kids, along with Kogoro and Ran, with Takagi and Sato taking their statements.

"It was a young man!" Mitsuhiko said.

"No, it was a pretty lady!" Genta was next.

"No! It was a middle-aged man!" Ayumi argued.

"How about the person's umbrella?" Takagi asked them.

"It was a black umbrella!" Mitsuhiko said.

"It was green! Green!" Genta was next again.

"I think it was blue..." Ayumi said.

"Hey, now." Kogoro leaned forward from behind them, a doubtful look on his face. "Did you guys really see anything?"

Sato smiled at Suzume. "What about you, Suzume?"

"The raincoat and umbrella were grayish," she said, leaning back in her chair, and tapping a finger on the table. "I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman, though. But the umbrella was in their right hand."

"Meaning they fired the gun with their left hand," Sato murmured, tapping her pen to her chin.

"So the killer is left-handed," Megure said.

"Incidentally, Inspector," Kogoro said. "Why did Assistant Detective Narasawa die holding the left side of his chest?"

"We believe it was meant to indicate the police notebook in his pocket," Megure told him as Chiba walked into the room. "We're currently looking into everything written in that notebook."