New York in mid-September was still fairly cold.
Dragged out here in the middle of the night for a mission, Ritsu tightened his black tactical outfit around himself. He had even pulled up the hood, at least to block the wind a little.
The phone he had been gripping the entire time finally vibrated. He answered as quickly as possible and said irritably,
"What exactly are you playing at? Vermouth, I'm not your subordinate. If thatperson hadn't ordered me to assist you with this mission, I absolutely would never—"
"Ara, don't be angry. It's bad for your health," Vermouth replied as she put on a mask and walked toward an area with fewer people. After all, Sharon Vineyard was a famous actress in America and she couldn't let this face cause a commotion in New York.
"You'd better give me a reasonable explanation."
Thinking about Yukiko's face and what had just happened, Vermouth chuckled softly.
"I just happened to run into an old acquaintance connected to Sharon's identity and spent a little time catching up… You should still remember her, right? The same Yukiko who learned disguise and voice-changing techniques alongside me back when I asked you to investigate Toichi Kuroba."
Naturally, Ritsu remembered. In fact, he had already identified several people's voices earlier.
"Oh, that actress who got married absurdly young."
"Yeah. Her son is already sixteen years old now. Time really flies."
Vermouth returned to her safe house in New York and stepped into the bathroom. Looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar face reflected in the mirror, she raised her hand and peeled away the disguise before suddenly muttering,
"I've gotten old."
"Hm? What did you say?"
"Nothing. It's not important."
While disguising her exquisite face as the Silver-Haired Murderer, Vermouth instructed,
"Your mission is to kill the real Silver-Haired Murderer. He's hiding in one of the warehouses near the abandoned factory. Remember to stage it as a suicide scene. Consider it a little gift for the kittens."
"Oh. Then I'm hanging up."
"Mhm. Be careful."
"The one who should be careful is you, isn't it?"
The phone line quickly filled with the busy tone. She really did hang up fast.
Vermouth continued applying the disguise to her face while recalling the words she had blurted out earlier.
She really had gotten old.
'Since when had your age become greater than mine, Yukiko?'
...
After ending the call, Ritsu immediately entered mission mode. According to Vermouth, the Silver-Haired Murderer was hiding in one of the nearby warehouses. Since all the factories in this area had already been abandoned, the warehouse should logically have been unoccupied.
He truly hadn't expected the Federal Bureau of Investigation to decline to this extent.
Hadn't they even investigated a place like this?
Precisely because of that, the Organization had found a loophole and used the Silver-Haired Murderer to eliminate the real target.
Ritsu slowed his footsteps as he approached the warehouse. No lights were visible, which meant the Silver-Haired Murderer was at least somewhat cautious. If lights appeared in a place where nobody should be living, it would naturally attract suspicion from passersby.
However, his vigilance clearly wasn't very strong.
Choosing the warehouse farthest from the busy streets, then carelessly watching stand-up comedy on his phone, that was basically exposing his own location.
A skilled hitman naturally had to master locating enemies by sound.
Crouching low, Ritsu quietly approached the warehouse where the Silver-Haired Murderer was hiding. After confirming the man was positioned in the eastern corner of the second floor, he easily climbed through a window and moved toward the staircase.
A plastic convenience store bag sat near the stairwell.
Just as Vermouth had said, this really was the Silver-Haired Murderer's hideout.
Stepping over the pile of stuffed plastic bags, Ritsu made the first move. He pulled out a marble he had prepared beforehand and flicked it toward the Silver-Haired Murderer curled up in the corner.
Focused entirely on the stand-up comedy, the man failed to notice it. The moment the marble struck him, he hurriedly tossed aside his phone and drew the M1911 hidden at his waist.
Unfortunately for him, he was too slow.
Before the gun was even aimed properly, Ritsu had already used a flash step to close the distance. Wearing a high-hardness knuckle duster on his right hand, he viciously struck the Silver-Haired Murderer's left temple.
"Guh!"
The devastating blow directly fractured his temporal bone. He collapsed to the floor, twitching in agony.
Ritsu snatched away the pistol and fired at the exact same location, intending to conceal the wound caused by the knuckle duster.
Likewise, he needed to create the illusion of a gunshot suicide before the man died from cerebral oxygen deprivation. If the gunshot were inflicted after death, a forensic autopsy would easily detect the difference between pre-mortem and post-mortem wounds.
After cleaning away every trace of homicide, Ritsu headed outside the warehouse. Pulling out his phone to report mission completion, he noticed the name displayed on the screen,
[Kudo Shinichi]
"..."
Why was he calling him out of nowhere? Could it be that Ran really had gotten injured?
Ritsu immediately rejected that possibility. They were currently in New York, and Shinichi had no idea he himself was in New York.
That left only one possibility, the kid had run into another troublesome case again.
Thinking that, Ritsu sighed helplessly. This kid really did have a constitution that attracted cases.
"Hello? Sensei, do you have time right now?"
Hearing the urgency in Shinichi's voice, Ritsu guessed he was probably right.
"Did you run into a difficult case?" he asked soothingly. "Take it slow. Tell me as much as you can about the crime scene and what you've discovered."
Shinichi hadn't expected Ritsu to immediately guess the reason for the call. Internally praising him, he quickly began explaining the case.
A few minutes later, Ritsu had more or less sorted out the suspects and the victim at the scene. Lowering his head in thought, a three-dimensional reconstruction formed in his mind as he simulated from what position the killer could have successfully shot the victim with a handgun.
"Kudo, can you go take a look at the stage?"
"Sensei, did you figure something out?"
Ritsu unconsciously nodded before replying,
"Yeah. My thoughts are the same as yours. The killer probably fired upward from below, so I want to know whether the stage has a lift platform."
The moment he heard the words "lift platform," Shinichi instantly understood what Ritsu meant. He hurriedly ran to inspect the stage and, sure enough, discovered that the stage used for today's performance did indeed have a lift platform.
Then the only person capable of carrying out all these actions could be her!
"Sensei!"
"Looks like you know who the culprit is now."
"Yeah! Thanks for the hint, Sensei. I'm hanging up first!"
Before Ritsu could even say goodbye, the busy tone rang from the other end of the line. He couldn't help but laugh and curse lightly,
"That brat really hangs up fast."
Unlocking the darkened phone screen again with his thumb, he found Vermouth's contact information. However, the only thing he got in return was no answer. It seemed she still hadn't finished her own mission.
It was already 9:28 PM.
There was definitely no chance of getting that fancy dinner anymore.
Rubbing his painfully empty stomach, Ritsu decided to find a small nearby restaurant to deal with his hunger first. As for Vermouth, she would definitely contact him after completing her mission, so there was no need to rush.
Still, his luck today might truly have been bottom-tier bad luck. The kind where even drawing a fortune slip at Sensō-ji would result in a "GreatCurse."
The sirloin steak that had just been served to his table hadn't even received its first cut when Vermouth called.
And the moment he answered, he heard her suppressing pained breaths on the other end of the line.
Most likely, she had run into those little kittens who loved digging through trash cans.
"Tch. Can't even eat a proper meal… The FBI really are a pain."
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