"What's going on?" Officer Sato got out of the car and asked Officer Takagi, who also got out of the car from the other side to check the tires.

"It looks like the tires blew up?" Officer Takagi crouched down, looking at the wreckage of the tires, which had been almost stripped from the hub. "It's really ...... Efficient......"

"Efficient?" Sato was stunned and walked over to Takagi.

"yes," Takagi said, pointing to the tires. "Look at this broken part here...... Compared with a normal puncture, this damage mark is still very regular...... Could it be that our car ran over something that could puncture the tires? ”

"Huh?" Sato was stunned and looked at the place where the tire had just burst. "Unlikely, right? There must have been cars that had just walked down our lane, why didn't they get a flat tire? ”

"But we can't move on anyway," Takagi sighed. "There was only one tire in the back of the car, but we've blown up two tires now."

"I'll have to call the headquarters first," Sato said, pulling out his phone. "You call the landline of Xintang's house and let her stay at home."

"Hmm," Takagi nodded, and dialed the landline of the Shindo house. "Uh...... Xintangyi didn't answer the phone, what should I do? ”

"Didn't answer the phone?" Sato frowned. "This ......"

At this moment, Sato realized that something was wrong.

"Buzz!" At this moment, the sound of the engine of the sports car attracted Sato's attention, and he saw that on the bridge they had just crossed through the bridge hole, a sports car had just started and was speeding away.

“？” Sato frowned slightly.

Their car has just burst a tire, and it is obviously not a very common thing for a police car to burst a tire on the highway......

"Sato," Takagi said, having stopped a car at this point. "I borrowed a spare tire from this car, let's just replace the broken tire and rush over!"

"Okay," Sato dialed the Metropolitan Police Department while going to the trunk, took out the jack, and handed it to Takagi. "Hey, I'm Sato, look for Officer Twilight."

…………

At the front door of an apartment, a Porsche 356A stopped.

"Big brother, shall we go in directly?" Vodka stopped the car, looked at the gin and asked.

"Wait a minute......" Gin frowned, stopping the vodka.

It's now half past three in the afternoon, and if the information given by his logistics team is okay, it's the time for Shindo to paint, and he should be painting in the painting room on the second floor with the natural light outside the window...... But now, the curtains in the painting room on the second floor are closed.

Gripping the pistol in his coat pocket, Gin opened the door. "Follow me up and get ready for battle."

If it goes well, maybe we'll be able to get the list back here. Thinking like this, Gin took the vodka to the main entrance of Shintang's house, only to find that the glass door of Shintang's single-family house was open, and the security door leading to the house was only hidden.

"Big brother, this?" Vodka also realized that something was wrong and turned his head to look at Gin.

"Ready to fight," Gin walked in with a calm face, his pistol already out of his coat. "When you meet someone, you will break your hands and feet and bring them back."

Gin's left hand, which was not holding a gun, had already pulled a slinger from his sleeve, and after throwing out an iron rod, he took it in his hand, walked to the door, and gently hooked the half-hidden front door with his foot.

There was not a single movement.

Gin waited for half a second before rushing into the room with the stick in front of him and the pistol on his waist.

There was no one in the room.

"......," Gin narrowed his eyes. We go up to the second floor. ”

"Big brother," just then, Vodka suddenly stopped Gin. "Come and see!"

"Huh?" Gin thought about it, but retreated out the door and looked at the keyhole that Vodka was pointing. "What's wrong——!?"

Gin found that on the keyhole of this security door, there were a large number of scratches caused by violent unlocking.

"Let's hurry up!" Gin immediately realized that his worst fears had happened and waved his hand. "Hurry up!"

Half a minute later, on the second floor, Gin and Vodka stood in the door of the drawing room with the door wide open. In front of them, there was a mess in the painting room.

"Big brother, this?" Vodka was surprised.

"We're a step late," Gin said after glancing around as he walked to the center of the studio. "This place should not stay for a long time, evacuate!"

"Okay!" Vodka nodded, and then walked back out with Gin.

On the floor where the vodka had just stepped on, a piece of white bread that had been almost flattened was clinging to the ground, and the pattern pressed by the sole of the shoe was clearly visible.

———————————— (breadcrumbs are painting supplies that can soften the picture of sketches, especially charcoal sketches)

"What?" Kiyonaga Matsumoto, who was waiting for the latest news with the others, was surprised. "People are not there? Are you sure it's not an ordinary outing? ”

"I'm sure," Sato said solemnly, standing at the door of the studio. "The house was a mess, and it was obvious that someone had fought here. I think it may be that the murderer has been lurking here for a long time, and after Shindotsu arrives at the studio, he suddenly attacks and subdues Shindotsu after the fight. (Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the curtains in the painting room were not opened, and if they did, it would have been the murderer who broke into the painting room and attacked Shindo, who was painting.) ）

"I see," Matsumoto nodded. "I will immediately order the arrest of Xintang, please look nearby for any witnesses who have seen the murderer, and the others will arrive there in about 20 minutes to assist you in your investigation."

"Okay!" After Sato finished speaking, she put away her phone after hearing a busy sound from the other side, and just as she was about to exit the scene, she found a piece of bread that had been trampled under her feet. “？”

This is a pair of leather shoes, the pattern is relatively light, and the texture is goose-shaped......

"......" Sato frowned as he looked at the other marks of the fight in the house.

Right next to the easel, there was also a flattened loaf of bread, on which the shoe patterns were densely packed with parallel lines.

On the ground between the easel and the doorway, a tube of paint without a lid was poured on the ground, and the paint inside was squeezed out by someone for some reason, and the paint that flowed out was trampled on through a piece of paper that had fallen on the ground. Since the paint underneath had not dried at the time, the stamping marks of this foot had been modeled onto the paper that had been glued to the paint.

The pattern on this is a square pattern, and from the width it looks like it should be the pattern at the heel position - it is completely different from the other two patterns, and it is not possible to appear on the same shoe at all.

Is there anyone other than the murderer? Who is this person?