Saturday!
When Heiji woke up, Kazuha was already gone.
"Good morning, Mother."
"Heiji, you're up? Kazuha went next door early this morning," Shizuka said as she wiped down the table.
"Next door?"
Heiji paused, then remembered—last night he'd told Kazuha that Yukiko had arrived.
After washing up, he sat down and started eating breakfast.
His phone rang.
"Heiji, another person is dead."
The moment he answered, Conan's voice came through—serious and tense.
"In Tokyo?" Heiji's focus sharpened.
"Yeah. This time it's right near the detective agency."
"Near the agency?" Heiji frowned. "Do you know the victim?"
"I do. His name is Nohara Shinnosuke. He owned a grocery store. I once helped him with a case," Conan said.
"A single shot again?"
"No. This time it was three shots."
"Three?" Heiji's eyes narrowed. "Are the wounds spread out?"
"That's why I'm calling. All three are in the chest. One would've been enough, so why fire three?" Conan sounded genuinely confused.
"Three shots…" Heiji said evenly. "I've got a similar case here. It happened the day before yesterday."
Conan's breathing caught. His voice dropped lower. "Then there's definitely a connection."
"And not a small one," Heiji said. "Both victims in Osaka used to live in Tokyo."
"Every death is tied to Tokyo," Conan said quickly. "That means they must share something. If we find the common point, we solve it."
"There was one more target," Heiji added. "But they didn't die."
"Yukiko was shot twice in a row."
"Yukiko…?"
There was a brief silence, then Conan's voice exploded through the line.
"What?! My mom was attacked?!"
Heiji pulled the phone away from his ear, waited for Conan to stop yelling, then spoke again. "She's fine. But if even Yukiko was attacked… you'd better check what connection she has to the others."
"Is my mom with you?" Conan fired back, fast and urgent.
Before Heiji could answer, Conan hung up.
Heiji set the phone down. A thought flickered across his face as he started lining everything up in his head.
Order of death: first was Megure Jun'ichiro—one shot. Then Uekusa—three shots. Next Oguchi Yamada—one shot. Then Yukiko—two shots. Finally Nohara Shinnosuke—three shots.
His mind ran through it again and again.
Why not kill Megure Jun'ichiro, Yukiko, and Nohara Shinnosuke in Tokyo first, then come to Osaka for Uekusa and Oguchi Yamada? Instead, the killer ignored distance and followed this exact order. What was the link?
Buzz—buzz!
A message came in from Kazuha: Heiji, come to Yukiko's villa right away.
"Mother, I'm going next door for a bit."
"Alright," Shizuka replied without looking up. "And bring Kazuha back for lunch."
Heiji put down his bowl and left.
"Heiji, the door isn't locked."
Kazuha's voice came from inside. The moment he stepped in, he heard two women laughing.
"Kazuha," Heiji said as he walked in, "you didn't call me over just to watch a talk show, did you?"
"Yeah," Kazuha said, still giggling. "It's really funny."
"Come on."
Kazuha stood, looped both arms around his, and pulled him over to sit on the sofa.
"I'm jealous of you two," Yukiko said, laughing beside them.
"Didn't Shinichi call you just now?" Heiji asked, glancing over at her.
"He did," Yukiko said smugly. "More than a dozen times. I only picked up the last one. Let him worry a little. Hmph."
She leaned back, pleased with herself. Heiji ignored her and watched the show with a bored expression.
On the TV, a foreign man who looked like a teacher smiled at a group of students.
"In English, words can be fun," he said. "If you rearrange the letters, you can get a completely different word. Who wants to try?"
A student stood up. "S-T-O-P. If you rearrange 'stop,' you get 'spot.'"
The teacher laughed. "Good. Quick thinking."
The studio audience laughed. Kazuha and Yukiko laughed with them.
Heiji didn't.
He stared at the subtitle—STOP → SPOT—and the idea hit him hard enough that everything else faded out.
"So that's it."
He said it under his breath. A confident look settled in his eyes. Kazuha noticed immediately.
"Heiji?"
Heiji turned slightly. "Kazuha. Bring me a blank sheet of paper and a pen."
She didn't understand why, but she went to get them. A moment later, the paper and pen were on the table in front of him.
Heiji picked up the pen and began to write. Kazuha and Yukiko sat on either side of him, watching.
He wrote the names in order:
Megure Jun'ichiro.
Uekusa
Oguchi Yamada.
Kudo Yukiko
Nohara Shinnosuke.
Kazuha glanced at Yukiko, confused. Yukiko's expression tightened for an instant when she saw her name, but she didn't interrupt.
Under the list, Heiji wrote:
One shot.
Three shots.
One shot.
Two shots.
Three shots.
Heiji stared at the page for a moment. His pupils tightened.
This wasn't random.
This wasn't just killing.
It was a message.
"Heiji," Kazuha asked quietly, "what are you writing?"
"And why is my name on there?" Yukiko added, teasing on reflex. "Don't tell me you've got a crush on me."
Heiji didn't react to the joke. He tapped the shot counts with the pen.
"The number of shots is the key," he said. "For each person, the killer is telling us which character to take from their name—first character for one shot, second for two, third for three. Put those selected characters together in order."
Kazuha and Yukiko leaned closer as Heiji quickly marked the selections on the page—one from each name, in sequence.
Then Heiji wrote the result in large letters:
TARGET: KUDO SHIN—
Kazuha blinked. "Target… Kudo Shin…?"
Yukiko's face went stiff. "That's not complete."
Heiji nodded once, grim. "It's missing the last part."
Yukiko's voice tightened as she finished it for herself. "There should be one more character… 'ichi.'"
Heiji underlined the conclusion and wrote it fully:
TARGET: KUDO SHINICHI.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Yukiko's eyes widened, fear replacing her earlier smugness.
"They're targeting Shinichi…?"