The country straight below the equator—Singapore.

The country smaller that Tokyo’s twenty three special wards had modern high rise buildings built upon it and among them, something even more eye catching, the “Marina Bay Sands”, was built along the Marina Bay.

Aside from the hotel having the feature of a novel design which comprised of three tall towers with a massive ship riding on top of them, it was an integrated facility comprising of a shopping centre, casino, theatre and so on. The roof of the hotel which resembled a ship floating in the sky had the “Sands Sky Park” which was an impressive area three hundred and forty metres long and thirty eight metres wide and consisted of restaurants, bars and a pool.

In the middle of the Sands Sky Park was a large pool, reserved for the hotel guests and from which one could see the Singapore skyline which was made of skyscrapers, which was full of men and women in swimsuits.

A tall man who was eye-catching appeared at the side of the pool. He was a man of chinese descent in his mid-forties, his sunglasses and suit making him stand out. Using his dominant hand, he walked through the gate after tapping his card key on it and walked to the pool side in a light-hearted manner. The man’s extraordinary looks stole the glances of female guests who were passing by or lying on deck chairs.

The man entered a restaurant which was by the pool side. Seated at the seat near the back was a woman in her forties who was frowning till there were creases between her brows and tapping her nails on the table, seemingly irritated. The woman wore a good quality one-piece dress and had wavy tresses that reached her waist and her bag, which was of a luxury brand, was placed on the table. The man pulled out a chair that was next to the woman and sat down right next to her.

“Did I make you wait? I called you to a strange place.”

The woman shot a glance at the man who spoke to her in English, placed the book she had into her bag and placed it on her knee.

“Could you speak in Japanese so the people around can’t listen in to us?”

The woman said as such in English and then continued speaking in Japanese.

“Even if you lay eyes on it, you won’t be able to copy it, right?”

“What a blunt comment. Almost as though I’m targeting you.”

“Am I wrong?”

The woman looked at the man coldly.

“And I thought we had a good relationship as frien……”

“Don’t talk about unnecessary matters.”

The woman interrupted the man’s words and faced him with a grim expression.

“Let me know your reply to my proposal. Yes? Or No?”

A smile suddenly appeared on the man’s face and he neatened his wavy hair and rubbed his mustache before abruptly drawing near the woman’s face. Because of the sunglasses the man’s expression could not be read and one could not tell what he was thinking.
“Before I reply, let me guess what you ordered.”

His gaze shifted from the table which had nothing on it to the woman.

“It’s not ice tea. Champan……no, wine. It’s not red but white. And it’s well chilled, a Meursault.”

At the same time the woman’s eyes widened, the waiter arrived. Holding a tray that had a wine glass, he spoke in English.

“Here’s the Meursault you ordered.”

“…….Wh, why do you know?”

“I read your mind.”

The man lowered his face and shifted his eyes upward, looking at the woman. That pair of captivating eyes were peering at her through the gap between the sunglasses.

“Excuse me, the wine……”

“I don’t need it.”

The woman leapt out of her seat and cut straight past the confused waiter.

“Ah, wait.”

The man’s voice reached the woman who stood up and dashed off.

“…….What?”

“The answer is no.”

It seemed like the eyes of the woman which were quivering fearfully were dyed to the color of anger and she stormed off, her heels crying loudly.

The man slid some folded bills into the pocket of the waiter, who saw the woman off with a dumbfounded expression, and patted his chest.

“Um, excus…..”

“You helped out.”

The man spoke to the waiter in English and placed his index fingers on his own lips.

Then he removed his sunglasses, a smile appearing on his face.

With such a graceful body and dazzling smile, even the waiter, who was of the same sex, blushed.

An elevator descended to the first floor at Tower Three of the Marina Bay Sands hotel.
The door of the elevator opened and the guests who were within it exited it one after another and the last to leave was the woman from the restaurant. Stumbling and taking unsteady steps, tiny drops of blood dripped drop by drop near the feet of the woman who was walking to the lobby.

Next, another elevator also reached the first floor. There was only a single man inside. It was the man who was with that woman. The man pulled a large suitcase and looked on from behind the woman who was walking off with shaky steps.

 

The shopping mall connected to the Hotel Tower via a bridge, “The Shoppes At Marina Bay Sands” was given the proud standing of being Singapore’s largest scale mall, and the atriums on all three floors, from the first floor to two floors below ground level were full of tourists.

The woman who crossed the Lion’s Bridge bumped into the back of a tourist and staggered backwards. Then she bumped into a male tourist who was walking around with his female partner.

“Are you okay?”

The woman fell over and leaned against the male tourist. The male tourist who had his arms around the woman, supporting her, felt that something had leaked onto his left hand. Looking at his left hand, he saw that sticky crimson red blood had become stuck onto it.

That was when the man’s partner, who had been looking on in a worried manner, noticed a knife sticking out of the fallen woman’s back.

“Kyaaaaa!!” “Uwahhhh!!”

In shock, the male tourist’s hand left the woman and with a flop, he landed on his buttocks. The woman who had a knife sticking out of her back fell flat on her face and was motionless.

Upon hearing the scream, the tourists who were nearby stopped walking. Even those who were walking along the passageways on the opposite side of this atrium also stopped dead in their steps and saw the collapsed woman.

Among them was the man who was pulling the suitcase.

 

At that time.

From a luxury car that was parked in the underground car park of the Marina Bay Sands, beep beep beep beep……an electronic sound cried out. That came from a small black plastic box that was attached to the bottom of the body of the car.
The exact second a red light lit up—DO—N!! The car exploded in a flash of light.
The surrounding cars were blown into the air by the shockwave and smoke swiftly spread out through the area.

 

Suddenly, just as everyone in the shopping mall felt the ground shake violently, the lights turned off.

The elevators and escalators also stopped and those people who were riding the escalators were thrown forward and some fell over.

The sudden tremors and blackout caused an uproar within the mall. The shoppers who had panicked ran in the direction of the exit to get out.

[Please remain calm! Follow our instructions……]

While the security team was in the middle of controlling the situation, white smoke rose up from the floor below and the guests were escaping panicked even further.

“Hiiiieee!”

The tourist couple who were kneeling next to the collapsed woman also ran out together.

“Ah, wait up?!”

The security officer who had approached the woman tried to call the couple but they had already run off as fast as their legs could take them.

The security officer stared at the woman, flabbergasted. Right after that, a man wearing sunglasses and a suit entered the shop in front of him. It was the tall man who was together with the woman at the restaurant. Just when the officer was wondering if the man was removing a piece of cloth from a display in the shop, the man walked towards the woman, cloth in hand.

“What are you………?!”

“Preserving the crime scene. If this goes on, the crime scene would get damaged, wouldn’t it?”

The man said and a large while cloth was swiftly spread out in the air, covering the woman’s corpse.

 

Because of the explosion in an underground carpark and a murder case at Marina Bay Sands, numerous police cars, ambulances and fire engines stopped at the space between the hotel towers and the shopping mall. The area in front of the hotel towers were crowded with curious onlookers and hotel guests who have been evacuated.

A police car stopped in front of the lobby of Tower 3, which was the north-most tower of the three. The door opened and a well-built man who was holding a cup of coffee in one hand stepped out. He had fairly tanned skin and well-shaped eyes and nose, a Singaporean man of Indian descent, Police inspector Aiden.

“Thanks for handling this.”

The police squad member who was standing in front of the lobby greeted him.

“Where’s the guy I called?”

“He’s already inside.”

“Thanks.”

After Inspector Aiden raised his hand to drink his coffee, he headed for the lobby.

The outside of the hotel was overflowing with hotel lodgers who had evacuated but there were only police officers stationed in the lobby, which made the place look deserted.

A young man was sitting in front of the escalators that had stopped moving because of the blackout. When Inspector Aiden approached after crossing the police barrier, he stared.

“I kept you waiting, Rishi!”

Inspector Aiden called out to the young man.

“Inspector Aiden!! Thank you for contacting me.”

The young man’s name was Rishi Ramanasan. He was one of the auxiliary police officers who Inspector Aiden had requested to give him support.

“The murder scene is in the shopping mall up ahead. Today has become somewhat of a tricky case.”

Inspector Aiden and Rishi Ramanasan crossed the Lions Bridge and entered the shopping mall. They walked down the escalator that had stopped during the blackout.

Inspector Aiden looked back at Rishi for a short while then looked forward, knitting his brows.

In the passageway before the escalator landing lay the women’s corpse and there were police and investigators around her. In addition, there was a tall man standing in the passageway on the opposite side of the atrium. There was a suitcase in his hand and he was staring intently at the body.

“That “Leon Lowe” was the first person to discover the body in this case.”

Inspector Aiden sipped a mouthful of coffee while shooting a look of displeasure at the tall man.

“Mr Leon……!”

“You’re that guy’s best student, aren’t you? Please try not to reveal too much about this case, alright?”

“I can’t talk about such things. I’ll go greet him!”

Rishi said and headed towards Leon’s direction.

“Teacher! Mr Leon!”

“Why, is that you, Rishi? It’s been a while.”

“It sure has!”

Leon shook hands with Rishi and glancing at the police officers who were nearby, he softly said “Speak in Japanese.”

“Alright.”

After Rishi replied, he started to talk to Leon in Japanese.

“So you’re working as a private auxiliary police officer now? You sure have moved up in your career.”

“All thanks to you, Leon-sensei. When you were my instructor, you hammered all the stuff about criminal behavior psychology into my head.”

“Stop with the instructor and what not. I’m just a civilian now.”

Leon gave a strained smile and directed his gaze at the passageway on the opposite side. He could see Inspector Aiden next to the body and was saying some words to a police officer.

“Even so, the culprit actually went as far as preparing a bomb.”

“The car that was blown up belonged to the victim, Sherilyn Tan.”

“She was a brilliant lawyer so she probably made some enemies along the way and met up with someone dangerous……”

At that moment, the policeman’s wireless communicator made a noise.

[Is the inspector there?!]

“Hold on. Inspector Aiden, you got a radio…….”

The police officer held out his speaker’s microphone towards Aiden who was crouching next to the body.

 

Inspector Aiden was led to the location by the police officer who was located at Tower Three over the wireless communicator and he headed out of the shopping mall towards Tower Three.

“Sorry! Please let me through!”

There were many police officers in front of the elevator hall and Inspector Aiden squeezed his way to the back.

“What happened?”

“There’s a strange item on the elevator wall……”

Inspector Aiden was told that by the police officer who was standing in front of the elevator that was right before him. The inspector peered into the inside of the elevator.

“Wha?!”

The mirrored wall in front of him had a blood covered card stuck to it.

Rishi and Leon came in and stopped behind Inspector Aiden who was staring at the card absentmindedly.
“!!”

Leon’s eyes widened the moment he saw the card.

The bloody card that was stuck to the wall had Kaito Kid’s mark drawn on it.

 

It was now evening. The Merlion park which was located on the opposite coast of Marina Bay was overflowing with tourists.

The Merlion statue, which had the head of a lion and the body of a fish was Singapore’s legendary creature and it spit water into the bay like a fountain. There were many tourists standing around holding cameras at the pier nearby which surrounded it.

Suddenly, red coloured water sprayed out from the mouth of the Merlion statue.

The water was blown around by the wind and a woman who was standing next to the statue got her shirt dyed crimson.

“Kyaaa!!”

The tourists got startled by the blood coloured water and scattered like tiny arachnids, running away. Even during that time, the Merlion continued to spit red water, forming a red crescent moon shape on the surface of the water.