Disclaimer: The original series of Detective Conan and its characters are rightfully created and owned by Gosho Aoyama, and I do not claim ownership over them or the world of Detective Conan. I only claim the rights to my original character. This story is merely my invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of Gosho Aoyama's story canon.

Author's Note: Set around file 936 where Scotch made his first appearance. It is my first foray into writing mystery so do cut me some slacks.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

- Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 1: Death by Carbonara

SNAP

The camera shutter went off.

After checking the photo, Suzu let out an unsatisfied exhalation.

The carbonara on the table has gone from hot with expressive steaming lustre to quietly tepid when she was eventually pleased with her photos and is ready to eat. She eagerly picks up her forks and twirls the spaghetti to a mouthful.

"Scrumptious!" she erupted with joy so sudden the old couple right to her left similarly erupted; except in startle. Oblivious to that, she helped herself to the greasy bacon covered in copious amounts of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

So captivated by the carbonara, she had to internally berate herself for her oversight and immediately reach out for her notebook and assiduously jotted down several notes.

What she wrote is as follows:

•Fettuccine is well cooked: not too rigid; not too mushy

•No cream is used for carbonara, therefore it is the traditional, authentic preparation

•The sauce consist of unsalted butter, raw eggs and Parmigiano-Reggiano

•No coagulating of eggs, which is good

•Sauce is not excessively oleaginous with the bacon

•Moderate amount of pepper for a hint of spice

My conclusion is a 4.5/5 for Miss Marple's Eatery's carbonara

Highly Recommend – Delicious and reasonably priced

Delighted by her own observations, she resumed eating heartily. After finishing the last bits of bacon that was stubbornly attached to the white ceramic, she paid her food and walked out to the frosty winter night. She tightens her scarf instinctively. Just as she was about to ambulate down the street to allow the sinfully delicious carbonara to digest, her steps were halted by a tall imposing figure and a shorter yet much burlier man coming out from the alleyway beside the eatery.

Their faces were adorned with such a sinister grin they could have well been the devil himself possessing them. It did not seem like they had heeded the presence of Suzu as they just sauntered away towards a dark vintage-looking car. Suzu shielded herself with the wall of the alleyway and mechanically took out her camera.

Thanks to the distance between them, the two mysterious men did not hear the shutter sounds reverberating from her camera.

Suzu only stopped pressing the button when they hastily left as soon as she had the few seconds to take some pictures of them – she was sure she did. She then heard a strained grunt coming from the alleyway. Her heart palpitated.

The alleyway was dark and dingy. And the further she walked into the alleyway, the atmosphere got acutely tense; the temperature also seemed to have plummeted. Then she heard it; the voice that she unmistakably heard from the street.

Concentrating on finding the source of where the noise is coming from, she hears it again, it sounded like the person was saying, "You won't escape this, Gin."

"Good gracious!" Suzu breath paused for a moment when at that moment, she saw a pasty-faced man lifeless on the dilapidated floor not far from her right. He was bleeding so profusely it covered the floor in a puddle of red crimson blood.

Once she saw the gravely wound on his chest, she hastily went towards the man.

"Are you OK, sir? Can you hear me?" She cried out while placing her index and middle finger on his cold neck and wrist. "Don't worry; I'll call the ambulance now."

As if suddenly filled with a surge of miraculous energy, the man uses his remaining strength to swipe away her phone from her hand.

"Not the ambulance," said he in an imploring tone, "you have nothing to do with this. Get away from this place and forget what you have seen, now!" he added critically with a shallow breath which gradually waned and departed from him.

She stood up from the bloodied floor and hopelessly stared at the body. She was nonplussed and she surely did not know what she was supposed to do during this circumstance. She knew that calling the ambulance was too late – should she call the police? But the person made it clear that he was desperate that no one must be aware of his passing, or maybe just his presence

Suzu thought of nothing else more, except to press her camera's button. After a few snaps, she quickly retrieves her phone and ran out of ominous place.

"Let's go to this place for Lunch," Ran said excitedly, "if Suzu says it's good, it means it's really good!"

"Who is Suzu?" Conan enquired with a lack of interest, but to only entertain the girl.

"Come on, Conan," said Ran, disbelievingly, "Suzu – Suzu Iseya, doesn't that ring a bell? She is a famous journalist. These days she's been travelling around Japan discovering unknown but delicious foods. Even 'Ramen Ogura' got popularised because of her article. She often writes for 'Let's Eat' magazine – just today she wrote about Miss Marple's Eatery. She assured us that the food there is good and cheap. We should go try it out," she rabbited on.

Ran held up the magazine for both Conan and Kogoro to see, "Look, this is her and that is the carbonara she just ate yesterday."

Kogoro fell off his chair and snatched the magazine out of Ran's hand, "Beautiful!" Kogoro exclaimed in a sing-song voice.

"Right? Sonoko also said so –" Ran paused for a moment, "well, that is not the point, dad!" She snatched back the magazine from her father's grip.

Mouri Kogoro straightened himself and said, "What I meant to say was – there is no harm trying out a new place to eat since Poirot Café is close for the week," Ran smiled triumphantly leaving Conan to sigh at their behaviour.

So typical – Conan thought to himself.

The distance to Miss Marple's Eatery was not that far so they decided to walk there – not that they have any other mode of transport.

Upon reaching there, they were greeted with loud sirens and a very disgruntled voice of Inspector Megure, "not you again," said him not liking the turn of events.

"It's like God is telling me to do my duty – because I am the one and only Great Detective that leaves no case unsolved! Mouri Kogorou is here to give you assistance!" Mouri Kogoro chortled in his own exuberance.

"More like Death God," Inspector Megure mumbled to himself.

Miss Marple's Eatery was cordoned off by yellow police tape but Conan, confident as he always is, walked straight into the eatery despite the police officer's and Ran's chivvies.

Once inside, Conan's eyes were led to a gangling, almost emaciated man sprawled across the floor close to the table nearest to the glass window. The man had his hands on his neck like he had been struggling from suffocation.

Conan saw a plate of almost-finished carbonara on the table where the man previously occupied, then he scrutinised the body. He sniffed the mouth and astutely noted the subtle bitter almond smell of cyanide. Upon further analyzation, he detected an unusual smudge on the victims –

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, Conan?!" Mouri Kogoro seizes Conan by his collar and brusquely throws him aside. Conan was going to answer impertinently until he heard a lady's voice, "are you OK, boy?" He looked at the lady and let out an unintelligible respond of, "y-you-"

"Is that S-S-Suzu Iseya?" Ran sprints through the police towards Conan and Suzu with unbridled joy but was masked with concern to fit the context of the scene.

"Suzu?" Mouri Kogoro turned his head, and post-haste, his eyes sparkled in the purest form of rapture.

Almost like he had a split personality, his usual indolent (and rather vacuous) disposition did an 180-degree turn. Now, Mouri Kogoro comported a histrionic gentleman disposition with a repulsively ingratiating face.

Conan made an inaudible noise that resembled a sick man regurgitating. Ran, on the other hand, did not react similarly. Before Mouri Kogoro could unabashedly do a pantomime curtsy, Ran decided to stop her father from further mortifying himself.

"Dad," she slowly enunciated her words in a doomy, sweet, dulcet voice.

Mouri Kogoro knew what the nuances of that voice meant.

Gulping his saliva hesitantly, he gingerly introduces himself to Suzu, "I am the Greatest Detective, Mouri Kogoro if you're in need of any help you are free to call me anytime. Here's my name card." He takes out a garishly reflective gold card. Suzu reciprocated and gave out her name card.

"Dad is so embarrassing," Ran hid her face behind her hands, "what's more, it's in front of Iseya Suzu."

Suzu has heard of the name Mouri Kogorou multiples times before – why wouldn't she? He was considered to be the most commercial sleuth in the 21st century after the sudden disappearance of the genius high school sleuth, Kudo Shinichi.

However, now, the widely acclaimed Mouri Kogoro did not appear the same as how she had preconceived him to be; smart, cool and composed. Whatever the case is, he is still the guy who unravels the inexplicable.

"I am Suzu Iseya, nice to meet you Mouri Kogoro, it is an absolute honour." She bowed her head. "But why are you back here?" Ran asked inquisitively. Taken by surprise and at lost for words for a moment or two, Suzu spoke a random slur of words, "oh, that I can't disclose. Maybe the carbonara was too addictive?"

She then went off at a tangent to divert their attention and said, "and it turns out that I got involved in a troublesome case right now."

"Yes, she is one of our main suspects," Megure said as he brought with him, four other peoples. "M-main suspect?" Mouri Kogoro exclaimed with mouth hanged opened incredulously.

"Unfortunately so, but protocol still remains without the interference of subjective influence. She is just one one of the other four suspects," Inspector Megure said earnestly.

"The victim's death was by cyanide poisoning and it was placed in the carbonara," said he as he gestured officer Takagi to introduce the probable culprits, and Conan studied them carefully.

The first man that was introduced was the shortest of the four. His name is Sugita Heizo, 65, food critic. He is a rather stout old man wearing a scrawny, metallic-gold prescription glasses; nearly bald; dull blue eyes. It was either his immaculate attire or his demeanour that emanates a sense of his antiquated nature.

The second was a youthful girl: Haruto Otonari, 19, student. She is slightly taller than Sugita by an inch. She was in all aspects unlike Sugita, she was sylphlike – Conan deduced that she was probably a gymnast – thick, healthy hair and brilliant blue eyes. She was dressed in today's fashionable standard clothes.

The third is Matsumoto Kiyoshi, 36, waiter of Miss Marple's Eatery. He is an average height Japanese man with a bulky physique. His dark brown eyes were fierce and ready for defiance but his hair said otherwise; it was gelled up neatly leaving no strands of hair behind. To boot, His attire was spick and span with evident iron folds.

The fourth is Yajiro Seiji, 45, chef of Miss Marple's Eatery. He is thought to be the most suspicious of all as he was the one who prepared the carbonara for the victim. He is as stout as Sugita but taller than him – height similar to Kiyoshi. He has dark tousled hair and the uniform he wore was bedraggled and head-to-toe covered in some sort of grime. Conan wondered if he is indeed a qualified chef.

And lastly, Iseya Suzu, 27, journalist. She is, by estimation, same height as Kiyoshi. Her eyes were of chestnut brown and her hair was wavy with fringes. She was casually clothed in a mundane winter fashion. However, one thing that did not escape Conan's observations was her boots; it bore the same sludge as Seiji, the chef.

"The victim died at approximately 11:45 in the late morning and of everyone in the eatery, these are the five who had come into contact with the victim. Not to mention, all of them have some form of motive towards the victim," officer Takagi read off from his police notebook.

"What motive does Suzu hold towards the victim?" Mouri Kogoro intercepted impetuously almost as if he wanted to ask it for the longest time already. "Loosen up, Mouri. Be patient and everything will be expounded accurately," investigator Megure assured Mouri Kogoro, however with an undertone of latent annoyance.

Officer Takagi cleared his throat and continues reading off his police notepad, "Here is the plausible timeline as accounted by witnesses: the victim, Okamura Heikichi, arrived at Miss Marple's Eatery at 10:50 in the morning. He took a sit at his usual spot – the table near the glass window – and ordered a plate of carbonara from the waiter, Kiyoshi Matsumoto. The order took about 10 minutes or more to prepare as provided by Kiyoshi, and at the interval, Iseya Suzu stepped into the eatery. Witness allege that as soon as Miss Iseya took her seat, the victim accosted her. Customers were disconcerted because soon the victim started reprimanding Miss Iseya, and that was at 10:55; before the victim's carbonara was served.

"Regular customer said that the victim was a very tumultuous and irrational person, so when he started hauling Miss Iseya over the coals, they did not dare to interfere," Takagi said dutifully. Conan thought for a moment and asked, "What was the altercation about?"

"About that – witnesses said it was something about Miss Iseya's carbonara write-up – that her write-up was inaccurate," Takagi squatted to Conan and said while looking at his police notebook. "What was inaccurate about her write-up?" Conan pressed.

"Hey! Conan, don't interfere the police job," Mouri Kogoro rebuked Conan again as Takagi was about to answer Conan's question. Just trying to help decipher the mystery, great detective, Conan thought to himself sardonically.

Takagi laughed off, deftly flipping the pages to resume, "After a while, the victim was placated when miss Haruto Otonari took courage and interposed – "

"Of course I had to do it. Nobody dared to stop him," Haruto unthinkingly expressed with her index finger pointing sharply at Takagi, which astonished him into mumchance. Haruto then shyly glanced at Suzu and said, "and he was hounding Miss Iseya when she did nothing wrong."

Suzu gave a fleeting smile of gratitude to the young girl, who flustered immediately. Suzu was completely aware of to the reason of the victim's belligerence earlier on and it was as what the police has mentioned – her review of Miss Marple's Eatery. The man was so adamant that her description was downright erroneous; he kept saying along the lines of, "the recipe is wrong you bogus" and "I've been a regular customer here for ages; I know every minute detail of the food here".

If there was one thing Suzu was sure to not let her down, it was her impeccable palate. And she was undeniably sure the carbonara was how she had described it to be. But the discrepancy of the carbonara recipe did bother her.

This time, Takagi cleared his throat deliberately louder, "If I can continue, please?" Haruto went back to her position and Takagi went on, "Now where was I? Ah, Haruto Otonari interposed and the altercation ceased. Some minutes later, the victim's plate arrived at his table at 11:10 a.m. It didn't take long till he left his table. Accordingly to witnesses, he took his plate of carbonara to the kitchen and came out with the same plate."

"We deduce that the there was two plates of carbonara and the second one caused the death," Inspector Megure surmised, "we suspected that chef Seiji was the culprit but he denied that he was not in the kitchen when the victim was in there and insisted for a piece of solid evidence if we want to incarcerate him for an offence he did not execute. And because our hypothesis is still feeble and that there are many alternate ways to poison the victim, we distilled those who had the closest contact with the victim and also motives towards the victim."

"Kiyoshi Matsumoto was an ex-classmate of the victim and he was one of the closest to the victim, so he might have a chance to poison him; Haruto Otonari, no history with the victim, but was found loitering around the victim during his demise; Sugita Heizo, had a feud with victim, the cause was a clash in Mr Sugita's food critique and the victims opinion, and Mr Sugita was sitting closest to the victim, which gives him ample time to poison him; Iseya Suzu, no history with the victim, but after the ignominious altercation and the strong demurral from the victim, she might have developed a motive, and she was the first to leave the scene right after the death," Takagi completed his stream of notes with a long expiration.

Conan assimilated all the facts and cranked up his brain. By crime annals, there is a consistent pattern where the person who had had a history with the victim is the most liable to be the murderer – so far, it is Kiyoshi Matsumoto. Unfortunately, the lack of evidence makes it unfeasible to incriminate him.

In his train of thoughts, he suddenly remembered something. He hurried to the victim. Then he saw it: the smudge on the victim's sleeve. He investigated closer and queried Officer Tome, "Mr Tome, what is this white substance?" Officer Tome took out a magnifying glass, used his gloved finger to touch it and concluded, "It seems like this is carbonara sauce."

Conan let out a satisfied grin – I knew it.

From a distance, Suzu could see a short, elementary school boy clad in a dark blue suit with a conspicuous red bow tie roving about the eatery and soberly questioning officers, forensics and suspects.

Odd.

Suzu had read about the boy in the news before; all his successful captures of the elusive, Kaito Kid. She had always thought it was Mouri Kogorou who had given his assistance to the young boy but it appears to be on the contrary.

She then saw him approaching her. She mechanically opened her mouth, "Is there something you need, little detective?"

"A-about the carbonara," Conan put on his guileless façade, and in the most petulant manner said, "does it taste good? I never tried it before."

Placidly, Suzu replied, "Well, it's the best that I've tried so far in Beika Street – I'm sure my taste proofs me right all the time."

Just in time, Ran saw Conan and went to give him a few words of reproach. Then, Conan saw the 'Let's Eat' magazine on Ran's hand. He asked if he could have it and with Ran's approval, he studied it.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Iseya Suzu. I'm Mouri Ran and this is an acquaintance of ours, Edogawa Conan," Ran pauses for a moment and had to muster some self-assurance to continue, "I'm your big fan! "

Feeling slightly diffident from the spontaneous compliment, Suzu awkwardly smiles, "Ah, a fan of mine – I'm so honoured. You can call me Suzu." Suzu shortly mused if that was unforthcoming of her, but Ran's next reply relaxes her.

"Thank you, Suzu!"

Ran turned around to call for Conan but he was not there; Conan was in the kitchen.

As Conan was poring over the kitchen, he heard a boastful bellow, "Inspector Megure, I know who the murderer is!" At that, everyone looked at Mouri Kogorou expectantly. Once he was content with the attention, he propounded his theory, "The murderer is Yajiro Seiji – you!"

"The only person fully capable of doing such deed is none other than you. Nothing can escape this great detective's eyes," Mouri Kogoro smirked with an overflowing amount of smugness, "You previously had a kind of disagreement with the victim and he besmirched your pride. You felt livid and thought of murdering him. You saw him coming in today and you prepared his dish with poison in it."

Conan sweat-dropped.

Seiji, on the other hand, was crossed at the accusation, "How dare you!? Okamura was my loyal customer for many years – we never got into any disagreements before," said Seiji impatiently.

"Mouri…" said Inspector Megure, "Your hypothesis has too many holes in it."

Everyone who was so attentive to Mouri Kogoro just seconds before had now adorned a mixture of confused and frustrated expression.

"Mouri, your hypothesis does not explain why he went back to the kitchen and came back with another plate of carbonara. Second, as Seji had mentioned, the victim was a loyal customer that appreciates his food," said Inspector Megure.

The complacency within Mouri Kogoro diminished in seconds, and it was his turn to open his mouth vacuously.

Suzu could not believe her ears; the thought-to-be intelligent sleuth is making such an explicit blunder. This went far beyond paradoxical. Could it be the news was wrong about him?

Still, in the kitchen, Conan smiled at himself as he tasted the residual carbonara sauce on the pan that was discreetly placed aside by someone. With a little flick of his nifty wristwatch, the tranquillizer dart set off to rest on the nape of Mouri Kogoro's neck.

Floundering and yelping he goes, he finally slumped directly on a chair. "There is only one person capable of committing such an act," Conan spoke through his voice-changing bowtie. Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi lidded up and in synchronisation, said, "the real Mouri Kogorou is here!"

"First, let me explain the sequence of the event. The victim arrives at Miss Marple's Eatery and ordered carbonara. He ate it and went back to the kitchen. Why did he have to that? Something must have been so peculiar in the carbonara that he had to personally go to the kitchen. But why make a beeline to the kitchen when you can summon a waiter? It was because he was personally acquainted with the chef.

"As we all already know, the victim was a frequent and loyal patron. If a person of his kind – so terribly blunt and uninhibited – finds any negligible disaccord within the eatery, I'm certain he will not keep quiet about it."

"What do you mean by that, Mouri?" Inspector Megure enquiries. It only took moments before it dawned on him, "you don't mean –

"Yes, I do mean the carbonara," Mouri Kogorou completed Inspector Megure's revelation, and continued, "the taste of the carbonara did not taste quite the same, and that is when Miss Iseya comes into the eatery.

"The reason to why the victim got so infuriated when he saw her was indeed because of her write-up," Suzu frowned at that, "the victim clearly had great knowledge of how Miss Marple's Eatery facilitates and that does not omit his full comprehension of the entire eatery's menu.

"Chef Seiji, if you could so kindly tell us what is the recipe, or more importantly, the ingredients needed for the carbonara," Mouri Kogoro asked.

Tentatively, Seiji said, " Fettuccine pasta, bacon, Parmigiano-Reggiano, unsalted butter," Suzu nodded her head, " raw eggs and cream." At that, Suzu stopped nodding her head.

"Now, food critic Sugita Heizo, how would you describe the carbonara pasta you had earlier on?" Mouri Kogoro enquired.

In a self-important manner, he said, "The carbonara that I had certainly did not have the traditional Italian flair and palate."

"Are you saying that my descriptions are wrong of the carbonara that I had in this same eatery?" Suzu indignantly challenged.

"I know what I ate, Miss," Sugita provoked.

Suzu, however, did not reply but she contemplated on what was happening; a carbonara with cream and another without. Did they eat an entirely different plate of carbonara? Did the eatery have another chef at night whose preparation was so different to the one during daylight?

"The fact is now clear that what both of you ate was different despite the similar name," Mouri Kogoro stated, "and it appears that the victim also consumed a different carbonara from Miss Iseya."

"That's why he was so mad," Suzu realised.

"I knew it; Suzu can never be wrong on her descriptions!" Haruto burst in to relieve.

"But I don't remember having another chef besides me," a bemused Seiji said scratching his head.

"Here, we have reached the mystery, one which I will reveal the murderer," said Mouri Kogoro, "The murderer is the one who rustled up Miss Iseya's carbonara and he is a person highly proficient in cooking to have much impressed Miss Iseya, and the murderer does not cook when there is a lot of customers."

Suzu thought to herself – now that I think about it, the previous night when I ate at Miss Marple's Eatery, it was near closing time and it was very much vacant.

"This is how it went: the murderer had already beforehand prepared his version of his carbonara and let it be served to the victim, and because the victim knew all too well the carbonara was not the authentic 'Miss Marple's Eatery ' style of carbonara, he stormed towards the kitchen with the plate in hand. He was expecting to see chef Seiji there but instead he saw another plate of carbonara in a microwave oven. The murderer wanted the plate to be noticeable yet still warm so he placed it in a microwave oven but left it opened so the victim could see it. The victim was sceptical, but he couldn't resist therefore he took a single strand of fettuccine to taste it and so delighted he was, he took the plate back to his table. It was only a matter of time before he eats to the bottom of the plate where there is the cyanide poisoning," Mouri Kogoro stated without a hint of hesitation.

Suzu gaped in unadulterated marvel. She was impressed by the great sleuth; even without any evidence produced, he was still able to sound so convincing.

"This murderer is a person who knows this Eatery well enough to prepare a dish and is also a person who've known the victim's personality all too well to exploit it, and this person is Kiyoshi Matsumoto," Conan asserted through his bowtie.

"Don't joke around, Mr Detective; it is only your supposition, you don't have any evidence to prove that I am the murderer. Plus, that numpty chef could also have been the murderer," Kiyoshi defied rigidly.

"You want evidence? I have it," Mouri Kogorou said positively, "if you deny that the victim only had one plate of carbonara I can prove you wrong."

"Mr Tome!" Mouri Kogoro cried out.

"Just now Conan pointed out that there was something on the victim's sleeve so I checked and found out it was actually carbonara sauce. I send it to forensic together with the carbonara that was prepared by chef Seiji to check for the compounds and discovered that the one on the sleeve contained no cream while the other did," Tome did his report quickly.

Kiyoshi faltered and Mouri Kogoro continued, "How do you explain that? If there is one chef with one recipe, how did he produce another of a different kind? I presume you thought your plan was to go smoothly if you just drain the pasta down the sink and wash it squeaky clean – the thought of a slip never occurred to you didn't it?"

"Yes, it was me who murdered that imbecile! He ruined my dreams of becoming a chef. I was on my interview to enter the most prestigious cooking school but he rejected me. I first blamed myself that I was too inept but soon I realised he got bribed into letting another rich son in instead of me. That man was so obsessed and blinded by money that he doesn't even know how to discern good food!" Kiyoshi expressed irrationally.

"I was so happy when I saw Miss Iseya praising my carbonara, but what had to be had to be done. When I went for an interview to become a trainee chef in Miss Marple's Eatery, I quickly found out that Okamura was the proprietor of the Eatery. He saw me, recognised me and he didn't even bat an eye and placed me as a mere waiter. And the result? A chef that can't even cook a proper dish," Kiyoshi scowled at Seiji, " – no wonder this eatery had no other customers before Miss Iseya was here," Kiyoshi concluded his final statement before being taken away by officer Takagi.

As Suzu was walking towards Mouri Kogorou to congratulate his magnificent deductions, her track was stopped by an agitated Conan.

"What's the matter, Conan?" Suzu stared at him in puzzlement. "Uncle Kogoro must not be bothered after a case because his mental juices are strained and need to rest," Conan lied between his breath.

"On another topic, why are your boots so dirty, Miss Suzu?" This time it was her turn to lie, "Oh, I think I must have stepped into a puddle of soot on my way here," said Suzu while checking her boots to show ignorance.

"I don't think I have any business here so I'll get going – bye!" Suzu bid him goodbye curtly.

Conan frowned in suspicion, and as soon as Seiji came into sight, he asked, "Uncle, how did you dirty your shoe?"

"I think I was outside smoking when I was on break – just behind the eatery," said Seiji.

Conan ran into the alleyway. To his surprise, he saw a blonde-haired lady coming to view.

"Jodie-sensei?!" Conan exclaimed.

"I knew you would be here; I saw Ran outside the eatery and knew automatically you'll be inside," said she furtively.

Catching her secretive manner, Conan asked in a hushed tone, "What are you doing here?"

Jodie said sombrely, "one of our men was found dead here just last night. We received message last night and expeditiously set out to collect his body before anyone sees him, however, to our endless consternation, his body vanished upon our arrival."

"Was it a job by them?" Conan's eyes kindled intensely.

"As inferred by the blood spatter, it was a single, accurate shot possibly close to the heart. Very brief and clean job done without any evidence of careless amateur shooter – it definitely is them" said Jodie, fuming with ire.

"We shouldn't talk here," Jodie composed and gestured Conan to follow but Conan's eyes were still focussed on the ground. After a while, he eventually went out of the alley.

Jodie led Conan to a silver-white Mercedes CLK320 that was parked far away from Miss Marple's Café.

"I'll explain everything to you inside," said Jodie.

TBC

━━━━ Suzu's Food Feature ━━━━

Today's special food feature is Carbonara. Carbonara is Suzu's best-loved Italian pasta dish; she loves cheese and juicy bacon. Suzu's recommendation is to not use heavy cream as the carbonara sauce. The authentic sauce recipe would only require virgin olive oil or butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan, a single clove of garlic, cracked peppers, three eggs, and pork bacon or pancetta - it is that simple. Suzu also has a halal alternative: instead of using pork bacon, you can use turkey bacon or any meat with high-fat content to produce grease.

That is all for Suzu's Food Feature!