Chapter 64: Diplomat Killing Incident (Fake)
The police investigated the situation at the scene.
Inspector Megure stood with his hands behind his back. "The deceased is Tsujimura Isao, 54 years old, a diplomat. The only people present were your wife, Tsujimura Kimie... Brother Mori, Brother Kamiya, and the rest of you."
"So, this incident is a murder?"
They are all old acquaintances. Although Brother Kamiya also represents the ability to solve the case quickly, Inspector Megure couldn't help but cover his face in his heart - there are almost always a few of them at the crime scene.
Maori Kogoro touched the back of his head and laughed dryly: "Inspector, I see no obvious external injuries on the body, maybe..."
"Look carefully, this body..." Conan suddenly shouted, pointing at Tsujimura Isao who was lying on the ground, "This must be..."
"Poison!" Hattori Heiji interrupted him. Conan groaned and couldn't help but look up at him.
Everyone looked at Hattori Heiji in surprise.
Except Yuya.
Hattori Heiji looked down at the body with a serious expression, "I just checked, there is a suspicious red spot behind his ear, and there is also a needle on the ground nearby that looks like a murder weapon. Although this uncle died with his chin propped up as if he was asleep, it is very likely that he was poisoned and then put into this position."
Maori Kogoro said: "But it is also possible that he committed suicide."
Hattori Heiji was surprised: "Why, haven't you noticed yet? The lips, hands and feet of this corpse have already started to turn purple, and there are some subtle bleeding spots on the conjunctiva. Although these symptoms are very mild, they are all evidence of death by suffocation. However, there are no signs of strangulation or drowning on his body.
This indicates that the deceased died of suffocation due to a neurotoxin that paralyzed his nerves.
Moreover, the body still had a relatively obvious body temperature, and there was no sign of rigor mortis or postmortem corpse spots, which meant that the deceased had been dead for no more than 30 minutes, which was exactly the time when the police chief and others arrived.
In other words, the deceased died at about the same time as our arrival, killed by a fast-acting, fatal poison.
Hattori Heiji finished telling his findings in one breath, then looked at Yuya with a provocative look, but found that he seemed a little absent-minded.
This guy... Hattori Heiji frowned slightly. Why is he distracted instead of solving the case?
Inspector Megure was shocked by his series of reasonings and couldn't help asking Yuya: "Brother Kamiya, who is this young man?"
Yuya came back to his senses and said, "He is a high school detective from Osaka, Hattori Heiji."
"Hattori Heiji," Inspector Megure felt that the name sounded familiar, and after thinking carefully, he immediately remembered, "So it's you! The chief of the Osaka Prefectural Police Headquarters, Hattori Heizo's son who is in high school. I have heard of your name."
Hattori Heiji curled his lips and said, "He is him and I am me." Obviously, Hattori Heiji didn't like others knowing him through his father.
"Akira!" Conan sneezed hard, and snot hung under his nose like melted candy.
Mao Lilan wiped it for him worriedly: "Conan, are you really okay? I feel like your cold seems to be getting worse."
Conan said in a very innocent voice: "It's okay, Xiaolan."
In his heart, he was secretly cursing Hattori Heiji. What kind of special medicine did he take? His cold was getting worse and worse. Not only was his nose running constantly, but his head was also dizzy, which made it impossible for him to sort out the clues he had collected.
Inspector Megure stroked his chin and analyzed: "At present, it seems that the windows in the room are locked from the inside. There is no way to open them from the outside, and there are no signs of prying. Then," his eyes fell on the study door, "the only entrance and exit is this door."
"Mrs. Tsujimura, how many keys are there to this door? Who has them?"
“There are only two keys,” she replied. “One is with me,” she said, pulling out the key she had just used to open the door from her bag. “The other is with my husband. He usually keeps it in his trouser pocket.”
Inspector Megure nodded, walked to the body, fumbled in his pocket, muttered "It's so tight", and then pulled the lining out.
As a result, a key with a key ring fell out from the second pocket of the lining, and it was exactly the same as the one in Mrs. Tsujimura's hand.
"How is this possible!" Inspector Megure shouted, and the faces of the others changed drastically. Yuya also followed suit and showed a shocked expression.
"Ah, what's wrong?" Only Kogoro Mouri was a little confused about the situation.
Yuya couldn't help but look at him, he had come into contact with this uncle a lot over the years, but with his acting ability that had now been upgraded to a proficient level (it was still a proficient level at this time, and it was upgraded to proficiency after rescuing Miyano Shiho). He couldn't tell if he was acting or he really didn't understand.
However, could it be that his ability would only burst out at certain times? For example, when it comes to people close to him, especially his family, Yuya has also observed this.
Forget it, no matter whether Kogoro Mori was really unconscious or pretending to be unconscious, it is enough to know that he is on the side of the red team.
Hattori Heiji was a little impatient with Mao Kogoro's confusion, and said loudly: "Haven't you figured it out yet? The study door was locked when we came. It was Mrs. Tsujimura who opened it with a key, and the other key was in the deceased's pocket, in a small pocket on the second floor."
"This becomes the perfect impossible crime! This is a locked room murder case!"
"Secret room murder?!" Everyone cooperated very well and showed shocked expressions.
"How is this possible?" Kogoro Mori looked shocked.
Hattori Heiji looked at the frustrated Kogoro Mori and showed an expression of "as expected" - this uncle has been frequently in the newspapers recently, and his reasoning process for solving cases is also perfect, but from the moment he met him, his abilities were very average.
Combined with what was previously deduced from Mouri Ran, that Kudo Shinichi had been observing her in secret, it turned out that the uncle was secretly helped by Kudo Shinichi in solving the case.
In addition... Hattori Heiji couldn't help but look at Yuya. This more famous high school detective had been silent all the time. Could it be that the cases he solved were also done by Kudo Shinichi behind the scenes?
Yuya noticed Hattori Heiji's gaze and smiled at him.
Hattori Heiji frowned and said nothing, thinking to himself, in that case, let's compete to see who can solve this locked room case first? Kudo Shinichi!
At this moment, Inspector Megure opened the key ring and found a small piece of tape stuck inside, and there was a very obvious, tiny bulge.
Hattori Heiji leaned over, looked at the bulge and began to think.
"Let me see too..." Conan walked over quietly, but suddenly felt a strong sense of suffocation in his chest, and began to feel needle-like pain all over his body.
No, I have to solve this incident quickly... Conan gasped for breath, looking at Yuya with blurred eyes who was distracted for some reason, thinking that he could only rely on himself this time.
He quickly recalled everything he had seen in the room, the books placed unnaturally on the table, which were obviously taken from the bookshelf, and the opera played too loudly...
Could it be?! Conan suddenly realized something, but his physical condition did not allow him to speak. He fell to the ground and passed out.
"Conan!" Mao Lilan screamed, and hurried over to hug him in her arms, touched his forehead, and exclaimed, "It's so hot! Why did you suddenly have a fever?"
Takayoshi Tsujimura came over and asked with concern: "Do you want him to go to my room and lie down for a while? It's at the end of the corridor. There is a bathroom in the room with towels."
Mao Lilan quickly thanked him and left with Conan in her arms.
Yuya looked at the back of Mao Lilan as she left, then glanced at the corpse on the ground. It was almost time.
So he coughed and stopped Hattori Heiji who was about to run away.
Hattori Heiji was not satisfied, he still wanted to find evidence! He already had an idea about the method of the secret room.
You ignored him and glanced around the room. He coughed lightly to focus everyone's attention on himself, and slowly said, "I have roughly figured out the situation."
"What?" Everyone looked shocked, including Hattori Heiji.
Hattori Heiji was surprised by the detective. He had been slacking off and didn't even check the scene. How did he crack the secret room?
Inspector Megure looked at Yuya with joy. Is he going to solve the case? Great, it looks like I can get off work early today.
"Then tell me, what is going on in this secret room?" Hattori Heiji asked in disbelief.
Yuya glanced at Hattori Heiji, and while apologizing in his heart, he slowly said, "Generally speaking, cases that occur in a closed room are considered suicides or sudden deaths. This is also the main reason why the murderer designed the crime scene as a closed room. However, today's situation is a bit strange.
The deceased was poisoned in a secret room. It looked like suicide, but the stab site was just below the right ear. If he really committed suicide, why did he choose such a troublesome location? There are obviously many places that can be easily stabbed.
When we came in, he was sleeping with his right hand supporting his chin. Rather than suicide, it seems that the murderer deliberately put him in this position to make us focus on the secret room itself rather than the deceased.
In this way, if we reason the case according to conventional circumstances, we will start from the time of death of the deceased and check everyone's alibi, as well as the method of cracking the locked room to solve the case. This will successfully lead us to the wrong path.
On this point, if my reasoning is correct, it should be about..."
Before Yuya could finish his words, several police officers ran in: "Inspector, I found a roll of fishing line in the trash can in the Japanese-style room."
"Me too. I found it in the bushes behind the house."
"Me too···"
Several policemen reported one by one. Although the locations were different, the things they found were surprisingly consistent - they were all fishing lines.
Youye nodded slightly: "This further verifies my reasoning." These policemen were specially sent out by him to search.
"How about it, Hattori, do you have any idea about the fishing line, the thin needle and the bulge in the key ring?" Yuya looked at Hattori Heiji and asked with a smile.
Hattori Heiji looked deep in thought, and soon he showed a look of realization, but it immediately turned into shock and fear.
What shocked Hattori Heiji was that Yuya said this, and it was obvious that he had thought of the same method of setting up a secret room as himself -
That is to kill the victim in the room first, then use the fishing line to fix the key, then pass it through the victim's pants, and then extend it all the way out of the room, lock the door with the key, and then let it pass through the gap under the door, and keep pulling the fishing line from the outside to pull the key into the victim's pocket.
Finally, cut the fishing line and you can successfully set up a secret room.
This idea is indeed feasible, but... the police found so many fishing lines, so it is obvious that these fishing lines were used by the murderer to frame someone.
Otherwise, there would be no need for him to place fishing lines in so many places. Was this done to prevent the framed person from appearing in different locations at the time of the crime?
What horrified him was that this approach was wrong.
If we really solve the case according to this line of thinking, the real murderer will go unpunished because of his wrong reasoning...