The police are a system.
There are police for traffic, police for the mafia, police for criminal cases, police for Yonahanmachi, police officers for Ekuta.
Officer Megure's precinct is Beika-cho.
Conan saw Officer Megure almost every day, and even the last time he saw Ichijō Mirai, it was Officer Megure who responded to the murder.
...But the villa isn't in Beika-cho?
And the police didn't know there was going to be a murder in the first place, did they? Why did Inspector Megure from Search 1 lead the team?
As if she had heard Conan's successive question bubbles popping up from just one rhetorical question, the operator softly explained, "Since the snowfall in Yonahanamachi wasn't too severe, and there were no problems with road cleanup or traffic jams, the police deployed a number of men from various departments to the snow-stricken area to provide support, including Search One."
"Inspector Megure was checking the drafts of missing persons in each area and found the two Ms. Suzuki, Ms. Mouri, and you, took the initiative to go to the support."
"He's familiar with you, so it's easier to communicate."
She let out a breath, a little thankful, "Luckily, those who went to the support had some of Search Division 1's men in their hands, so they were able to stabilize the situation as soon as possible."
And assured, "I will report to the top about the murder and ask for more police officers to be deployed."
The murder was solved, so it didn't really matter how many people came.
But the bodies and evidence were still in the dark jungle, and needed to be gathered and collected as soon as possible, so Conan didn't turn down the police reinforcements, and slowly answered, "Oh."
He was still a little uncertain and confused.
What the operator said made sense.
The storm had brought snowstorms, and police officers from the less severe areas were backing up the more severe ones. Officer Megure was one of the backing up police, and seeing that the list of missing people included acquaintances he knew almost every day, he rushed in to rescue the missing people.
The police are there to protect and rescue people.
...But this is Japan.
Japanese police, Tokyo police, and Beika-cho police have never been rushed to a situation where it's only been snowing for a while, only two or three hours, from afternoon to nightfall.
It's too efficient, too responsible.
Even the Tokyo police can't respond to an earthquake as fast as they can to a 'snowstorm' that lasted only 2-3 hours.
This efficiency is good, but it's so strange that even Conan, who has no prejudice against the police, frowned and thought something was wrong.
He could only grudgingly think: Are the police better trained?
That's good.
Conan looked up with some misgivings and glanced at Ichijō Mirai to see if he had any indication of the police's strange behavior, but found that he had lowered his eyes again and was once again drowsy, seemingly unresponsive, and practically exuding a 'blue bar depleted, don't bother me' vibe all over his body.
He could only say back: "Well,"
Before he could finish his sentence, he saw Ichijō Mirai suddenly raise his eyes again, and paused for a moment.
Instead of looking at Conan, Ichijō Mirai turned his head toward the door, stared at the wall in the hallway for a few seconds, and stood up straight, "What time is it?"
What time is it?
Conan subconsciously cut out the call page, "8:30."
"The trip back is two hours, half an hour to the police station for the statement," Ichijō Mirai judged the time he could go into 'death-on-the-spot-style sleep', "eleven o'clock at the earliest."
"Tch."
He leaned back against the door, "The police are coming."
The police are coming.
Conan heard the faint sound of a police car's siren and immediately rushed across the room, peering out the window.
In the darkness of the night and the reflective color of the snow, a faint red and blue flash appeared, slowly approaching the villa.
By the time they reached the foot of the hill, the police cars were almost hidden by the layers of jungle, with only a small halo of light illuminating the tops of the trees and the sirens blaring.
On the first floor, the others also faintly heard the sirens, and the stoicism of the group watching the murderer was broken.
Conan heard Suzuki Sonoko's cheer: "The police are here!"
Her first thought was, "That was fast!"
"Mr. Mirai, how are you?" She rushed upstairs quickly and announced the good news, "The police are here!"
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes lit up.
Conan: "..."
Is this a crush? It's so obvious!
But Ichijō Mirai's gift of a pair of bracelets to Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran on Valentine's Day was also an obvious, gentle sideways rejection.
He took one more look at Suzuki Sonoko, who was smiling brightly, and one more look at Ichijō Mirai, who was talking to her in a low voice, and said into the phone, "The police have arrived."
The operator lady stayed quiet, not speaking or hanging up, as if she had been away for a brief period of time, and answered only a few seconds after Conan had spoken, "That's wonderful."
Her tone was soft, and she spoke a little slower than normal, as if she was looking at something: "Although something unfortunate happened, it's great that the misfortune didn't spread to other people, that no young children died, that no lovers were separated or died, or anything like that."
The tone was one of regret and gratitude that someone had died, that only one person had died, that no children or lovers had been hurt, and so on.
Conan corrected, "Ah, you probably misunderstood, not a couple."
There wasn't a couple in the villa that was in a committed relationship.
"I see," The operator apologizes, "I misunderstood."
They hung up quickly.
The police, who had not expected the bridge to break, but had prepared a set of relief tools and set up a simple ladder for passage, walked up to the suspension bridge in the snow.
Some police officers entered the villa via the ladder first, while others stayed on the cliffside, working with their colleagues to pull the suspension bridge back up and secure it.
The police officer who led the team into the villa was Inspector Megure, who first sent his men to isolate the murderer, and with a wave of his hand and a few words of reassurance, quickly assigned some of the police officers to search the jungle, while others cooperated in taking their own statements.
"It will take some time for the suspension bridge to be restored, so let's take statements first, so that when the police send you all back, they can send you directly to your doorsteps, reducing time and avoiding any further accidents."
He spoke according to the instructions of the phone call he received at the foot of the mountain, and looked around, "That, may I ask if there is a computer in the villa?"
Normally, no. After all, it's not a permanent villa, it's a vacation-style villa, so there's no need to go through the expense and trouble of installing a computer.
But Suzuki's villa does.
"I'll do it, Mr. Megure," Takagi Wataru knew that Megure Jūzō didn't know how to use a computer, so he stepped forward immediately, like a disciple who understood his master's dilemma, "We didn't expect a murder, and we didn't have enough equipment with us, so we had to use the computer to connect to the police station and record statements in real time." he said.
His eyes swept around, "There are still a few people who have not come down?"
"Let's start with that detective, shall we?"