Jiang Xia picked up the greeting card and opened it to check, and found that the card was exactly the same as the "death notice" that Officer Sato showed them earlier, and it should have been sent by the same person.
Last time, the cute Christmas card said "Santa Claus with the red beard" would kill for this show.
This time, the message on the card read:
[When the 12 o'clock bell ends
My shadow will appear in the well.
——Red-bearded Santa Claus]
"well?"
Jiang Xia walked to the window, glanced down, and saw a spacious dry well in the yard - this should be the only well nearby, and it was also the location marked in the greeting card.
The time now is around 11:50, and it will soon be 12 o'clock as the greeting card said.
"It's late at night, it's so cold and you have to ask people out." Jiang Xia looked at the snow-covered yard outside and was quite dissatisfied.
But a detective obviously shouldn't care about such trivial matters. He thought about it, took his coat and went out.
When I walked to the stairs, I happened to see Officer Sato not sleeping at midnight, but looking at two vending machines, deep in thought.
Jiang Xia said hello: "What's wrong?"
"Huh?" Sato Miwako came back to her senses and pointed to the machine selling bento, "This type of A set meal is sold out too fast. Before I went downstairs, I saw that there were three or four left. I wanted to wait until I came back.
I bought one to improve the taste, but now I see it’s gone—this restaurant is obviously in charge of food, so who is buying bento so frequently?”
Jiang Xia thought of the sneaky trio of temporary workers: "Maybe someone was worried that the chef would poison the food."
Officer Sato held the hot coffee he just bought and said happily: "There are really more and more persecutory paranoia these days."
After a pause, she saw Jiang Xia's dress and felt something was wrong: "Are you going out?"
Jiang Xia nodded.
Officer Sato suddenly frowned: "How dare you run around alone at this time? Don't forget that the scriptwriter slipped out of the house for no apparent reason in the middle of the night and was killed."
Jiang Xia took out the greeting card: "Someone sent me an invitation letter."
As soon as Miwako Sato saw the familiar greeting card, her expression changed: "'Santa Claus with a red beard'?! It's such a dangerous thing, you actually want to go quietly by yourself - luckily I saw it, see you next time"
For this kind of thing, you must remember to call me together."
…
There is only one more person in the team.
When he walked to the lobby on the first floor, Jiang Xia suddenly felt something.
When I turned around, I saw a single sofa placed at a strange angle, and a strong man in black was sitting on the sofa, with a face as heavy as iron, and his sharp eyes scanned the people coming and going, as if every one was there.
In his eyes, everyone is a potential criminal.
"Mr. Inozuka?" Jiang Xia walked over, "Why are you sitting here?"
"..." Saburo Inozuka, "This drama gave me a lot of feelings. I couldn't sleep, thinking about life here."
Jiang Xia: "..." It's quite artistic, but your expression doesn't quite match the lines.
But this is not a problem. He warmly invited: "I am planning to solve a case. Do you want to come with me?"
Saburo Inozuka trembled: "Goodbye, have a nice trip."
Jiang Xia glanced at him as if he didn't understand, nodded, turned around and left.
Behind him, Saburo Inozuka pushed up his sunglasses and said: "..." He suddenly went out at this time. Could it be that the protagonist of tonight's stage is Jiang Xia?
...Wonderful! Compared with this detective, I am definitely a dispensable piece of cake.
Saburo Inozuka felt a sense of security in his heart.
But soon he remembered something again and glanced at his phone with complicated eyes: "..." It has been a long time since he replied to Maya Hashimoto's message. Why is there still no reply?
Could it be that his two companions were also dragged to the show?
Indeed, if you want to deal with a detective like Jiang Xia, you don't have enough brushes. Maybe it won't be long before a police car arrives and escorts Maya Hashimoto and Kazuma Kurosawa, the two villains who murdered the detective, to the police station.
Then two bullets flew from far away on the way...
Thinking of this, Saburo Inozuka suddenly fell into deep thought.
——At that time, both companions will be eliminated as risk factors, what about you? Will you be killed together?
...Or he might as well run away before the police came.
...No, there is surveillance above his head now, and he has a hard-as-iron alibi! If he stays here without moving, as long as he persists afterwards, he will not be forcibly taken away by the police. On the contrary, if he has a wrong thought, he runs away at this time, or
If you accept Jiang Xia's invitation just now and go with him, something bad will happen to you!
Saburo Inozuka: "..." It's really scary. Ever since I encountered that thing, there have been traps at every step. Something as simple as "surviving" has turned out to be so difficult.
After going through an extremely fierce ideological struggle and imagining a bunch of plans that were either reckless or extremely cautious, Saburo Inozuka finally made a decision.
He slowly leaned back in his chair, intending to remain unchanged in response to any changes.
…
The ghosts watched Saburo Inozuka sit upright and then collapse, then collapse and then sit upright. Although they were quite puzzled by this human's behavior, since he had murderous intent, the ghosts decided to be generous and not worry about it so much.
Jiang Xia passed by Inozuka Saburo, took a few wisps of boiled water that was neither salty nor bland, and left with some satisfaction. After going out and enduring the cold, he finally gained something.
…
After meeting no other people, Jiang Xia and Sato Miwako walked out of the hotel door, stepped on the crunching snow, and came to the well in the courtyard.
Miwako Sato used a flashlight and carefully looked down. She expected to see a corpse or other things related to the case, but inside there was just a patch of snow-covered weeds, and there didn't seem to be much out of the ordinary.
"We agreed to come to the well at zero o'clock to see his shadow? Now that time has passed, there is still nothing wrong. Could this guy send you a greeting card just to make the tiger leave the mountain?" Sato Miwako took back the flashlight and looked at it suspiciously.
All around, "Luring you away and then causing mischief in the hotel?"
"Probably not." Jiang Xia tightened his collar, "It's so close. What happened? He ran back in less than two minutes."
"That's right..." Sato Miwako was confused, "So the 'red-bearded Santa Claus' is simply late?"
At this time, Jiang Xia's cell phone suddenly rang. The caller ID showed an unknown call.
Jiang Xia picked it up easily. He usually exchanged contact information with people from all walks of life. The pile of business cards he sent out was probably higher than Conan's.
Therefore, the more unknown the call was, the faster he answered it: "Hello, I am Jiang Xia. If you have a commission, you can come directly to the door, or leave a message at the email address of Amuro Detective Agency. I wrote the email address on the business card, and you can also call directly online.
Found."
"..."
There was silence on the phone for a while, and after several seconds, a voice that had been changed by a voice changer came through.
The caller tried his best to bring the off-track atmosphere back on track with a horrifying and twisted smile: "I've been waiting for a long time, detective."