Conan: The Man Behind the Romance

Chapter 64: Drinking poison to quench thirst!

In the case of Xuesong Masato, the missing homeless man Banyuan was very important. After the police searched for him that night without success, they published a missing person notice in the newspaper early the next morning, offering a fee.

But after several days, there was still no result.

It was not until Kudo Shinichi roughly identified several men who might have been exploited by Yuzuki Kiyoko in the Shibuya club where Yuzuki Nami was staying on Saturday afternoon and wanted to conduct further investigation that the police suddenly received a report from the public.

It was a man who said that when he was drinking in a water vendor in Tsuburaya-cho, he overheard a prostitute mention this name, saying that it was a pity to lose an old customer.

The police had investigated this area before and knew immediately what he was talking about. They also questioned the prostitute, but it turned out that she knew nothing at all.

The box of cheap jewelry that Itahara gave her might have hidden secrets, but before the police arrived, they had already been bought by short-sighted customers at high prices.

The customer was naturally very suspicious, but the police were unable to find him and were helpless.

Is this report just in this direction?
Megure Jusan was still thinking about what he could gain, but after listening to the person on the other end's story, he was immediately filled with disappointment. He said some formal words of thanks and was about to hang up the phone.

The police officer seemed to realize that his news was not explosive enough and wanted to deny it, so he quickly said, "Not only this name, I also heard her mention Tokyo Bay and Akagi Pier!"

"Nani?!!!"

As expected, Megure Jusan became interested at once, but he still hung up the phone quickly and directly flipped to the number left before and called the prostitute in question.

Why do we need a middleman when we can connect directly to the terminal?

"How did you know so quickly?"

After Megure Juzo asked the question, the woman on the other side sounded quite unhappy.

"The man who bought my jewelry before found it and said that there was a note left by Mr. Itahara in the box. It was very important and at least worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. If I gave him 100,000 yuan, he would be willing to return the note to me."

"What's written on the note?!" Megure Jusan asked excitedly.

"That person told me that Mr. Itahara left something for me, somewhere at Akagi Pier in Tokyo Bay, but I don't know exactly where."

The woman said casually, "Yes, of course I didn't buy the note. Don't I know Mr. Itahara's financial situation? And he's in trouble now, right? I don't want to have anything to do with him."

"What?! Contact that person immediately and buy the note back!"

"Yes, yes, the police will pay for it?"

Megure Jusan gritted his teeth and said, "The police!"

So ten minutes later, the police learned the full contents of the note, which roughly said:

Someone hired Itahara to handle a household electricity problem. A deposit of 100,000 has been paid in advance, and the balance of 300,000 will be settled at Akagi Pier in Tokyo Bay after the matter is settled. There is another hidden secret in this matter. If he can't come back, he will try his best to hide the money somewhere, and the location is related to the name of his beloved.

Itahara entrusted the note to the prostitute, and it was obvious who his beloved was.

After learning that the prostitute's real name was Kumi, the police immediately retrieved the surveillance footage from a few days ago near Akagi Wharf, and indeed found several images of Itahara a little further away.
Unfortunately, the area around Akagi Wharf is too desolate and there is no surveillance, so a more accurate positioning is impossible.

However, this is already a great achievement, and the police rushed to Tokyo Bay. Arrival time:
12:13 noon.

Nine is a Chinese character for the number Nine. There were many abandoned containers on the Akagi Wharf. When the police saw them for the first time, they connected the two together and started searching.

They sorted horizontally, vertically, diagonally and in all directions, looking for the target of "Jiu". From the sky, everyone looked like tiny ants, running around aimlessly on the dark gray circuit board full of transistors, searching in vain for the smell of food.

Not long after...

"Sure enough, another lie."

Kudo Shinichi did not go out to search in person, but stood on the rooftop of a nearby low building, looking down and taking in the overall situation as much as possible. He shook his head:
"I found it strange before. It was clearly a note entrusted to a fixed target. Why did he bother to write a riddle? He couldn't have known that the note would fall into the hands of others, so there was no need to keep it secret."

Megure Jusan beside him looked solemn: "So someone is misleading the police?"

Kudo Shinichi shook his head: "The note should have been forged later, but it is true that Banyuan appeared in this area. Even if we can't find the key clues, we can always find some fragments. Add them together and we will be able to piece together the truth sooner or later.

Giving the police a vague target to search for is more like stalling for time.

Inspector Megure, the investigation in the Shibuya club is the key and we cannot let our guard down.

In addition, the person who bought the jewelry from Miss Jiumei before has appeared again. He must be related to Xuesong Qingzi, and it is very likely that he has seen the secret that Mr. Banyuan really left in the box. As long as we can catch him, everything will be simple. "

Megure Jusan said in a deep voice: "Takagi and his men were attacked, the nature of the situation has changed. After I reported your reasoning to Superintendent Matsumoto, he has already dispatched the First and Second Investigation Divisions to Shibuya and Tsuburaya-cho respectively to assist us in the investigation. We will definitely be able to catch that person."

Kudo Shinichi felt a little relieved, but also a little regretful: "That's great. Xuesong Kiyoko is using this incident to delay time, which is definitely a big mistake. We may be able to use this to expose the true identity of the mastermind behind the scenes."

He didn't know how to feel when he saw that his opponent, whom he had just recognized, was defeated because of a stupid teammate.

All I can say is, in this kind of intellectual confrontation, the role of women is really negative?
But we can't relax yet.

Kudo Shinichi said: "Xue Song Qingzi is drinking poison to quench thirst. If the mastermind has been paying attention to this place, he may end up in trouble again. There are two directions he may choose. One is to help Xue Song Qingzi finish the job, and the other is to kill her to silence her!

Officer Megure, has Xuesong Kiyoko not been found yet?"

After Takagi Shigeki and his partner were attacked last night, the police wanted to arrest Yuzuko Yukimura, or at least keep her under the nose of the Metropolitan Police Department so that she could no longer do anything tricky in the dark.

Although the case was temporarily shelved due to insufficient evidence, the police still sent people to monitor her new home.

The two surveillance police officers kept reporting that Xuesong Qingzi was always supervising the renovation at home and had not gone anywhere.

But when Kudo Shinichi unravelled the two frame-up tactics and wanted to question Kiyoko Yuzuki, the two policemen said that Kiyoko Yuzuki was missing.

They kept their eyes on the large flat to make sure they didn't see Xuesong Qingzi leave.

She disappeared out of thin air!

(End of this chapter)