Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 52 This is the savior of the Metropolitan Police Department!
After searching around the lake for who knows how many times, Megure Juzo walked back with a heavy face.

"We can't find any clues. We have verified both Xuesong Kiyoko and Xuesong Nami indirectly. They both have alibis for that period. Brother Kudo, is this another unsolved case caused by the mastermind behind the scenes? Why can't you find any evidence?"

Kudo Shinichi returned to his thoughts and shook his head:
"Tojo Shuntatsu and Xuesong Masato's cases are related. The suspects may indeed be the mother and daughter of the Xuesong family, as well as the mastermind who has remained hidden until now. But if the latter did it personally, he would not have left such a mistake as the riverbank."

"So is this a new case that is unrelated to the past? Mr. Tojo didn't have much involvement in the case of Xuesong Masato. He just gave some testimonies, and there are others who can verify them."

“Maybe in another direction.”

Kudo Shinichi replied casually, having taken off his coat. The weather was a little cold, so he simply took off his white shirt as well. A series of dense goose bumps appeared on his arms, but he just stared at the lake with burning eyes.

He wanted to throw the clothes on the ground, but Megure Jusan caught them quickly: "Brother Kudo, what are you doing?"

"The clue may be at the bottom of the lake, sunk."

"Why, why is this?"

thump!
Kudo Shinichi did not answer. He took a pair of white gloves from Megure Jusan's pocket, put them on, and dived into the lake.

Hearing the noise, many people looked over in surprise. Megure Jusan was waiting on the shore with his clothes in his hand, looking a little dazed. Suddenly, he felt that the moonlight tonight was really bright, falling on the sparkling lake, like the broad back of some big fish rolling.

I don't know how long it took, the water surface surged, and the first thing that came up was a little crystal reflecting the moonlight, followed by a white glove that held it tightly.

Megure Jusan widened his eyes.

He didn't know what kind of reasoning Kudo Shinichi had made, but when he saw him breaking through the water, he saw the bright light in his eyes that almost pierced through the darkness.

Megure Jusan felt that he saw hope!
The Metropolitan Police Department's savior was not an empty promise. When Kudo Shinichi explained to them while wrapped in a blanket and warming himself on an electric stove, all the policemen fell into a state of confusion about their own low intelligence, which quickly evolved into a feeling that was almost like worship.

"We asked a homeless person who was familiar with Tojo Shuntatsu, and he was dressed more formally today than usual.

He hasn't tried to find a formal job and escape from his homeless life for a long time. It is reasonable to speculate that he takes care of his appearance in order to meet someone of the opposite sex he likes.

The fact that he was drunk can also be used as evidence. If he was meeting a good friend... Well, I'm not sure about this part. It feels a bit like putting the cart before the horse. After all, the first suspects are Xuesong and her daughter, and the way they tricked Tojo Shunshin out is obvious.

Anyway, those two people have alibis, and I believe that this incident was not done by the mastermind, so it must be a method of remote destruction of evidence. "

"Wait, Kudo-kun."

Megure Jusan interrupted, "Why can't it be someone else? There may be many men willing to work for Xuesong and her daughter."

"It is indeed possible, but I think killing is a serious matter after all. Most people can't make up their minds just for the sake of beauty." Kudo Shinichi wrapped himself in the quilt and smiled, "Besides, it would be more reasonable to go into the water to confirm first, and then change the direction of investigation if nothing is found, right?"

Megure Jusan sighed lightly and said nothing. He just looked back and wondered who was the person who bought hot soup for Brother Kudo and why was he so slow.

“And the most important thing is professionalism.”

Kudo Shinichi continued, "Although it may seem strange for me to say this, killing is indeed a technical job, especially if you want to leave no traces. No matter how many people Xuesong and her daughter can command, it is unlikely that there will be another person as professional as the previous one.

Rather than letting a novice increase the risk of exposure to the plan, it is better to use more sophisticated methods. "Kudo Shinichi looked around, and Megure Jusan said hurriedly: "I have sent the glass bottle to the Scientific Investigation Department. There are photos. Do you want to see it, Kudo brother?"

As he spoke, he had already placed the printed photos on the electric stove.

The glass bottle has a large body and a small mouth. It is a very common gift bottle, the kind used to hold folded paper stars, and is very common in middle schools. There are some black embers inside, which have been soaked in water and eroded, and their original appearance can no longer be seen.

But it still left a corner after all.

Above the second photo was a scrap of a notebook that had not yet been completely burned. On it was a heart drawn in red pen, half of which was intact and half of which was hidden in the edge of the black ashes, along with the word "love" in it.

Kudo Shinichi pointed to the second one and asked, "Is it painted with white phosphorus?"

"Um, we need to wait for the test results."

"Then let me explain my reasoning first."

Kudo Shinichi looked at the remains of the love heart and sighed inexplicably: "With this as evidence, my previous guess is completely closed. The person who drank with Tojo Shuntatsu, or the one he was expecting when he drank, and went to the lake alone for her, was definitely a woman.

But when he went to the lake, he did not see the man, but only saw a drifting bottle on the lake.

The message in the bottle might have a light on, or it might not. Anyway, the moon was bright tonight and he saw it.

There was a note in the bottle. We don’t know the content of the note now, but the part that was exposed and seen by Tojo Shunshin was definitely very tempting.

I guess the location of the drifting bottle must be quite extreme, and Tojo Shunshin had to lean out of the lake to reach it. He was already impatient, and probably opened the stopper of the drifting bottle directly in that unstable posture.

The sealed gas in the bottle immediately hit his face and flowed into his nasal cavity, causing him to suffer from momentary hypoxia. He lost his balance and fell into the lake, far away from the shore.

After the air in the bottle interacted with the outside world, the white phosphorus on the note immediately began to spontaneously combust, destroying the evidence, and finally fell to the bottom of the lake with the glass bottle, leaving no trace.

"!!!"

Kudo Shinichi's reasoning left everyone dumbfounded, and then they were shocked.

If it weren't for Kudo Shinichi's keen discovery of the problem, who would have thought that a random glass bottle at the bottom of the lake could be the key clue to the case.

Isn't that kind of garbage everywhere?!

The fact that the discovery was made so quickly was also crucial. If it had been a little later, the ashes in the bottle and even the remaining paper pages would have been washed away by the lake water, and there would have been no chance of a breakthrough in the case.

Kudo Shinichi did not consider everyone's feelings, but immediately pointed out the next step.

"Immediately compare the handwriting on the remaining pages, and then carefully search for fingerprints on the glass bottle."

"understand!"

(End of this chapter)