Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 11: The First Battle with the Detective Ends

"Lost? This..."

Megure Juzo followed Kudo Shinichi and ran quickly back to the scene of the accident. He was panting, and when he heard his brother's words, he looked up quickly.

"Brother Kudo, what is going on?"

Why did he become more confused the more he listened?

Kudo Shinichi pointed to the ground, and Megure Jusan followed his gaze and saw several fallen weeds there.

It is now the end of April, late spring. The park is covered with green grass everywhere, but those weeds are withered and yellow, with a pool of black carbon powder in the center, as if they had been burned by something.

Looking more closely, there was a flat cigarette butt in the center, which had been stepped on several times.

What does this mean?
Kudo Shinichi's face was solemn. "The broken high-voltage line is real, and it is also true that there is no electricity on it. But the method is not to privately connect the wires to make it a decoration, but to artificially create a short circuit to trip the transformer!"

"what?!"

Megure Jusan suddenly realized and looked up. Sure enough, the abnormal weeds were right below the high-voltage lines!

"Did the wire that caused the short circuit melt and drip here?!"

Kudo Shinichi nodded, "I think that's right. The method used by the murderer this morning was to privately wire and create metal fatigue.

There was another power outage at noon today, and the method used was a short circuit... probably there were wires extending from the treetops, and the high-voltage wires would touch them when they fell."

Megure Jusan opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

The complexity of the cases in Beika Town is far beyond average!
Miwako Sato hesitated and said, "If it was a short circuit that caused the transformer to trip, then there would be no electricity here. Wouldn't that be inconsistent?

According to the data provided by the power company, the circuit breaker only tripped once, and you said that Xuesong Masato died after that."

"Why did we think there was a leakage here before?" asked Kudo Shinichi.

"Because the homeless Banyuan, he was well-protected and jumped in here... Wait!" Sato Miwako's eyes widened, "Could it be that he was disguised, and the purpose was to make Tojo who saw him think that there was a leakage of electricity here?!"

"First there was a sudden sound of electricity, and then someone fell down as if he had been electrocuted, and then someone jumped in... Everyone would think there was a leakage of electricity here."

Kudo Shinichi smiled bitterly: "Including us."

"so……"

Miwako Sato frowned, "The first scene of Xuesong Masato's death was not here. The real murderer electrocuted him to death somewhere else as soon as he received the news from Itahara, and then moved him here?"

If that's the case, then the suspicion of driving the car, Nami Yukino, has increased even more.

However, I didn’t hear of any high-voltage electricity leakage accidents in other places this afternoon.

Can it be artificially created?

Kudo Shinichi looked up at the densely crowned camphor tree next to him, "In fact, the high voltage first electrocuted the unconscious Xueshou Masato, and then the power was cut off due to a short circuit after he fell to the ground. These two things are not contradictory."

Miwako Sato followed his line of sight and suddenly realized, "Masato Xuesong was probably hiding in the tree at that time, connected to the wire that caused the short circuit!"

at last,

From beginning to end, everything was clear.

The real murderer created metal fatigue of the high-voltage wires early this morning, connected Xue Song Zhengren to the wires, and hid him in a tree. After the high-voltage wires broke, Xue Song Zhengren was electrocuted to death, and then the power was cut off due to a short circuit and he continued to fall.

The homeless man Banyuan, who had been waiting for a long time, took the initiative to step forward, pretending to be electrocuted, and informed the real culprit.

The real murderer arrived quickly, replaced the real one with a raccoon, and had Itahara pretend to approach the scene cautiously again later, making people mistakenly believe that there was a power leak in that area.

But in reality, he was cleaning up the clues!

Miwako Sato looked sharp, rolled up her sleeves, and quickly climbed up the camphor tree, searching for any possible clues. Shinichi Kudo watched her leaping flexibly on the branches with an expectant look in his eyes.

However, he also knew in his heart that the real murderer who could devise such a method would probably not leave such a tail...

"Found it! There are words!"

"Nani?!"

All the people who were waiting eagerly below were surprised and delighted. Under their burning gazes, Sato Miwako threw down a cigarette box, a box of ladies' cigarettes!
Megure Jusan quickly ran over to catch it, turned it left and right, and immediately found a word written on the side.

【バ】

???

What does it mean?
Many phrases quickly flashed through Kudo Shinichi's mind, and a bad premonition immediately emerged in his heart.

And the next second, his premonition became reality.

"asshole!!!"

Sato Miwako roared from the treetops, grabbed a broken red kite in her right hand, jumped down, and landed heavily on the ground. Kudo Shinichi had sharp eyes and saw the words written on the kite at a glance.

【power】

Combined with the previous word, it's Baka...

That is: Idiot!!!

"How can I repair it! That bastard is mocking the police!"

"The heinous crime! The heinous crime!"

"What on earth does he think of murder?!"

The police officers who had been busy all day were furious when they saw this blatant mockery, and Megure Jusan's face also turned ashen.

"Brother Kudo, can you identify the suspect?"

In fact, he had had another thought before, wondering if his younger brother was thinking too much. In fact, it was just an accident.

But now... this is a direct mockery!
What a brazen criminal!
Kudo Shinichi looked at the cigarette box of the lady and said in a deep voice: "Last night's burglary, the call that couldn't be reached at noon, the hairband in the dead man's hand, the cigarette butts that were crushed on the grass, and this cigarette box...

I can only say that Nami Yukimatsu is the biggest suspect, but I cannot rule out the possibility that someone framed her.

The most important thing is... Alas, Officer Megure, we don't have any solid evidence. Apart from the murderer's voluntary self-explosion, I don't even have any other physical evidence to verify the method I described. "

"Brother Kudo, you have done a great job. If it weren't for you, we would still be kept in the dark."

Megure Jusan sighed deeply, "That is to say, we still have to start with the alibi. Xuesong Nami... the police will confirm it again. Starting tomorrow, we will visit her social relations one by one!"

He patted Kudo Shinichi's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry to bother you today. I'll take you home."

Kudo Shinichi nodded but couldn't move.

A huge feeling of frustration pinned him to the spot, causing him to ponder over and over again what on earth he had missed and why the case had developed like this?
Although Megure Juzo said that he would launch an investigation, he knew very well in his heart that if no physical evidence was found, the matter would end there.

The police force for searching the three departments is limited, and it is impossible to keep wasting time on hopeless cases.

Even if they were to focus all their efforts on the murderer for a while because of his taunting, after a while...

and many more!

If the real murderer's purpose was to defraud insurance, why would he blow himself up?
It is impossible that it was just out of arrogance. Anyone who could design such a method would definitely not be unable to control his emotions.

Unless... he has other intentions!
Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense!
(End of this chapter)