Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 267 Director’s Opinion!

After Shiraishi's simple mathematical calculations and judgment based on common sense of physics, Megure's eyes became sharp.

At this point, Megure also reacted - there was something wrong with this elevator!
Director Jinchuan's originally pale face turned green, and sweat began to appear on his M-shaped bald head...

Of course he knew there was something wrong with the elevator!

but……

He had not expected that Chief Shiraishi and Inspector Megure would together press down nearly 300 kilograms, directly pushing the elevator to its maximum load-bearing capacity!

"This... may be because... the elevator hasn't been inspected for a while... I'll pay attention to it!" Director Jinchuan still wanted to force an explanation.

After all, this is not an ordinary crime, and he is unwilling to give up as long as there is a possibility.

However, Shiraishi directly took him out and said to the police officer in dispatch uniform outside: "Go and check on the elevator."

Shiraishi was not afraid of making a mistake. When he just entered the elevator, he vaguely smelled the smell of decay. The elevator being overloaded only made him completely guess where the body was.

"Wait! That...according to elevator safety regulations...that..." Jinchuan wanted to stop him, but no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't break free.

Even if a normal adult man was held by Bai Shi with one hand, there would be no possibility of breaking free, let alone a drug addict like him!
After hearing what Shiraishi said, the detectives from Section 5 immediately ran up the stairs to the second floor in pairs...

A moment later, there was a crash in the elevator, followed by a faint shout from above: "There's a body here!"

Upon hearing this, Megure shouted directly to the staff next to him: "Where is the key for elevator maintenance?"

The library staff was also frightened at this time, and quickly said: "In...it should be in the director's office."

"Mr. Tsukawa, it seems that I will need you to cooperate with the investigation later." Megure said to Tsukawa.

"Damn it! Bastard... Damn it!" Jinchuan was dancing with joy, looking helpless and furious.

These drug addicts who have connections with violent organizations and are involved in buying and selling drugs will not be OTZ for killing to silence the witnesses. They will only be hopelessly resentful that they were discovered.

Jinchuan was directly arrested by the Investigation Division on suspicion of murder...

"We now suspect that your library is involved in the transaction of banned drugs. After Jinchuan is arrested, who among you can make the decision? Cooperate with our police dogs to search, is that ok?" Shiraishi said directly to the remaining library employees.

"Yes... I am the deputy director... but... I don't know anything!" the deputy director said hurriedly.

Bai Shi took a look and found that this guy was fat and did not look like a poisonous insect.

But now the police are acting like "you all might be accomplices", so of course the rest of the people are fully cooperating, and no one is stopping the police dog from coming in...

Although it’s not that Shiraishi can’t smell it himself, but... leaving aside the efficiency issue, as the director, there’s no need for Shiraishi to compete with police dogs for work!

Police dogs also need opportunities to perform and fight in real combat...

Not long after, in the storage cabinet, two police dogs from the Mihua Police Department barked a few times at the imported books that had just been delivered, and then squatted aside and refused to leave.

Upon seeing this, the detective team immediately opened the books to check, and found out...

They are all empty book covers!
There were no books inside, but instead there were bags of white powdery substances...

Seeing that such things were really found, the deputy director panicked and quickly explained: "These are high-end books that the director wants to purchase... In fact, they were purchased by customers contacted by the director himself, and we didn't know about it..."

"Okay, got it. Come with us to take the statement later."

……

After school at Teitan Elementary School, Conan was dragged to the Beika Library by his new friends, ready to read extracurricular books and write a reading diary. As a result, he happened to see police cars driving away and the library was sealed off...

"Huh? Did something happen at the Beika Library?" Ayumi couldn't help but say with regret when she saw this.

"Ah! It's Director King Kong! Let's go ask him!" Mitsuhiko saw Shiraishi, who stood out from the crowd, at a glance.

When Conan saw Shiraishi, he also had something to ask, so he reluctantly ran over with the little kids.

"Uncle Director, what's going on in the library?" Ayumi asked timidly.

Shiraishi looked down and saw several children, and replied kindly: "First of all, it's 'brother'... As for the library, something happened just now, and it can't be opened for the next two days."

"Huh? It can't be opened for the past two days? Brother King Kong, did many people die in there?" Yuan Tai said in surprise.

Shiraishi:……

Why did he directly become the brother of "King Kong"?
And... Genta is worthy of being a native of Beika Town. He knows that if only one person dies, the seal cannot last so long!

However, he guessed wrong this time, not because there were so many deaths, but because he had to continue the detailed search to see if there was any missed physical evidence - since it was confirmed that this was a secret place for illegal drug transactions, in addition to contraband, there might also be things like account books.

"Inside...some things happened that a good child shouldn't know." Bai Shi continued to smile.

"Eh..." The three little ones regretted that Bai Shi was so tight-lipped.

"It seems that I can't read in the library today..."

"Come to my house! I have some new extracurricular books at home! And you can ask my mom to prepare a cake!"

"Okay, I agree!"

……

The three kids had already discussed "Plan 2" and Conan said, "You guys go first... Uncle Maori asked me to ask him something."

"Eh? Is that so..."

Although the three little ones felt regretful, they were temporarily tricked away by him.

Seeing that there was no one else around, Conan asked quietly, "Is there a drug transaction going on? Those people from the forensic department look like detectives in disguise."

"You don't have to worry about that." Bai Shi rolled his eyes - do you want to know everything?

Conan just said it casually, this is not what he wanted to ask...

"Have you found out anything about that organization? Have Gin and Vodka been caught?" Conan asked nervously.

Last weekend, thanks to Conan's request for help, the staff on the Meitetsu Line successfully defused the bomb, and after arriving at the station, the passenger carrying the bomb was taken away by the police.

But after that, Bai Shi never contacted him again!
While Conan was complaining in his heart about Shiraishi's "betrayal" and "demolition", he could only swallow his anger and ask - at this time, Conan had not yet realized how powerful his opponent was.

Perhaps in his opinion, after catching the trader, he could follow the clues and wipe out this "Black Organization", but...

"The people were taken away by the police. How would I know what they found?" Shiraishi shook his head and continued, "After that, there were several more explosions in Nagoya. I looked at the case records and found that they were all transferred to the police in the end. The Aichi Prefecture police did not investigate. I'm afraid the police didn't find anything either."

Conan was stunned when he heard this - this organization is so powerful? After the failure of silencing someone, the cost is just... silencing more people?
In this way, Conan has some new understanding of the huge power of the black organization!
If the force is not large enough, this kind of provocative behavior will only lead to "more police force deployment" instead of "being included in the jurisdiction of public security" and then being dealt with coldly.

After witnessing once again the scale and power of the "Black Organization", Conan also realized that there was no time to rush. Hearing the code names of those two guys and arresting one or two partners would not cause any serious damage to the "Black Organization"!

Shiraishi was not in a good mood at this time, and he went back to the police station directly...

As for why Shiraishi was in a bad mood?
At this time, Section Chief Marubi also came to Shiraishi and asked...what to do with the counting board at the door!
I haven't considered this before - if the time is found to be much later than the time of the crime, how should I calculate it?

"The person was killed the day before yesterday... Let's calculate according to the actual time of death!" Bai Shi decided.

……

When he got off work, Shiraishi saw that the count on the "Mika Counting Board" had changed: [It has been "2" days since the last murder in Mika Town... Please don't let the number go to zero because of you! ]

That’s right, because another murder occurred, the number was “cleared”.

And because the person was killed the day before yesterday, it is not just "zero", but it has been set back two days. Theoretically, there was no "seven days without a homicide" before that. It can only be said that "no homicide was found in seven days"...

But after changing clothes and getting off work, Shiraishi still took a selfie here!
[It's been another two days of calm in Mihua City. ]

……

In the evening, Ayako probably saw Shiraishi's updates, so she called him to "comfort" him - because Ayako and Shiraishi would attend the inaugural ceremony of the Royal Express Train together on the weekend, so Ayako was very busy these days and had a lot of work to arrange.

Bai Shi was also helpless about this kind of murder case that was "discovered after a long time", and at the same time... it also gave Bai Shi a reminder!
The next morning, Bai Shi specially organized a morning meeting and assigned new tasks to the patrolmen on the spur of the moment.

"Everyone must have heard about the Beika Library case. In view of the special situation in Beika Town, we will organize a 'mass investigation of hidden locations' starting today!
"Each of you, by this afternoon, sort out all the empty warehouses, empty houses, abandoned or to-be-demolished buildings, and other places that have not been used for a period of time within your jurisdiction and report them to the Regional Affairs Division. The Regional Affairs Division will summarize them for me before leaving get off work.

"And in the next week, each shift, after being on duty, must contact the property owner and conduct a thorough screening to make sure there are no bodies hidden there!"

The regional section and patrol officers were also helpless about the sudden increase in tasks assigned by the director - what does "after-duty" mean? It means that they should find time to do it, and they should be on duty as usual!

But since the director has said so, the people below can only carry out the order...

Bai Shi still has a very high prestige in the agency!
Of course, most of the police officers were "indifferent" at this time - how could there be a hidden body so easily? Even if there was a hidden body, it wouldn't be hidden in a place that was open to the public, right?
According to the director, this kind of investigation is just to "take a look around a building that has not been entered for a long time." It is impossible to really search it. What can be found?
What Bai Shi was thinking about was actually more of a "warning" move, telling the Mihua people that it is easy to kill someone but difficult to hide a body!
……

At 3 o'clock that afternoon, Kunikida came to the director's office to report. As soon as he came in, he said, "Director, I have a good idea. The regional department's large-scale investigation has found something!"

Shiraishi:……

Is it really true?
Bai Shi was actually just trying to figure it out, but he didn't expect that he would come up with the real thing that day!
"A skeleton-like body was found in a building to be demolished in 5-chome that had not been entered for a year." Kunikida briefly described the situation.

Bai Shi frowned when he heard this: "Turn into bones? That means he was in there about a year ago..."

It would take at least a year for the corpse to completely turn into bones in the air!

"Yeah, the identification team said so too..." Kunikida said sullenly.

"So...what else can the forensic team find?" Bai Shi asked helplessly.

Whether it was out of common sense or from Kunikida's reaction, Shiraishi could guess...

There should be very few clues!

After all, a whole year has passed...

"The identification team said...the deceased was a male." Kunikida answered concisely.

Shiraishi:……

"Other than that, there is no obvious damage to the bones, so the cause of death is difficult to determine. As for the age... we should be able to draw a conclusion after further analysis." Kunikida said that at present they only know that it is a male, and even if they give the identification team more time, the clues they can get from the body will be limited.

"Then we can't even determine whether it was suicide, homicide or an accident?" Bai Shi said, rubbing one of his temples.

"We can't be sure, but at the moment, there's a high possibility that it was homicide, because the victim's clothes were not on his body, but were next to him. When they were found, there were only bones." Kunikida interjected at this time.

"Huh? He was completely naked before death? Are you sure it was a man?" Bai Shi confirmed immediately.

"That's right. The identification team determined from the skeleton that it was a male, and the clothes worn at the scene were indeed those of a male," Kunikida said with certainty.

"Are there any other clues?" Bai Shi further confirmed.

"Not yet. The owner of the building also said that he was not aware of it. The Life Safety Division is also checking the missing records within the approximate time period. In addition... the detectives are still searching for evidence at the scene. I hope they can get some useful clues..." Kunikida could only "stay tuned."

but……

His expectations were not in vain!

At around four o'clock, Kunikida came to report new clues, holding evidence in his hand...

Normally, when investigating a case, even if it was the Mika Police, they didn't have to report everything to the Director. The normal procedure was to report to Shiraishi when there was a major breakthrough, but...

This evidence is a little special!
Kunikida also needs to seek Shiraishi's opinion.

"Is this... rice? And a suicide note?" Shiraishi looked at the two pieces of evidence in confusion - one was a small bag of rice wrapped in brown paper, and the other was a letter, both in an evidence bag.

Although I can tell what is written in the letter at a glance, but... Shiraishi now has the temperament of a leader - he just asks questions as soon as he opens his mouth!

"It's not a suicide note, it's a letter of denunciation... Patrolman Fuji found it at the scene. The letter was in this bag of rice, and the bag of rice was under a pile of building materials, in a very hidden place." Kunikida explained.

Fuji found a new clue at the scene - although he was not a detective, but... Fuji was the patrolman of Go-chome, and of course he was also at the scene.

Shiraishi also read the contents of the letter at this time...

"Takigawa Foods? Such a familiar name... Oh, right, it's the food company that responded to the Ministry of Justice's 'cooperative employer system', right?" Shiraishi realized.

The subject of the complaint is the company where the "young criminal with a criminal record" who was found when we were helping the beef rice boss find his missing wife is currently working!
At that time, I heard from people in the Protection Department that Takigawa Foods was cooperating with the Ministry of Justice and would accept some ex-convicts as employees, and the Ministry of Justice would give them some subsidies accordingly.

There were very few companies willing to accept people with criminal records, and Yamakawa Akira cherished the opportunity to work at the time.

However, the content of this report letter directly points the finger at "Takigawa Food"!
The complaint said that "Takigawa Foods" has long been mixing imported rice with domestic rice for sale, and this mixing was done by these ex-convict employees...

These special employees are managed separately and carry out these shameful operations, and their workload far exceeds the legal requirements.

Even if someone threatens to report it, "Takigawa Foods" will be the first to file a complaint - because of the special status of these employees with previous criminal records, society often has prejudices against them and of course trusts "Takigawa Foods" more.

Not to mention…

It is obvious that Takigawa Foods has a legal background!

There is no evidence to support the claim. Even if a report is made, the reporter will be the one who suffers in the end and may even be sent to jail again.

And this bag of rice is the sample provided by the whistleblower...

"Mixed with imported rice...it looks like it involves smuggling." Bai Shi pondered after reading it.

Because of the existence of the Agricultural Cooperatives, East Island almost never imports rice from abroad. Not only are the procedures strict, but the tariffs are also extremely high. And thanks to the Agricultural Cooperatives' persistent publicity, the people of East Island also have extraordinary confidence in "domestic high-quality rice."

If the contents of the report are true, then "Takigawa Food" is not only involved in serious dishonesty crimes in its operations, but the bodies found are also likely to have been silenced by them!
The body was naked and the evidence was hidden. Judging from the scene, it was completely consistent with the situation that "the murderer wanted to search for evidence, but it was hidden by the informant in advance, so it could not be found even after taking off all the clothes."

"I understand... I'll go to the main office right now." Bai Shi decided to go there in person.

On the one hand, if they want to test the identity of the "white bones", they need the technical support of the General Office. Since they have turned into bones, it is useless to look for UDI as they are not professionally qualified. On the other hand, Shiraishi is also ready to inquire about the matter of "Takigawa Food"!

Although this company's factory is located in Beika-cho, it obviously has connections with the Ministry of Justice. Even... Shiraishi remembered that the Metropolitan Police Department cafeteria also purchased rice from it. Shiraishi needed to know himself and his enemy.

……

When Shiraishi arrived at the Metropolitan Police Department, it was almost time to get off work. Shiraishi first went to the Criminal Department and knocked on the door of the director's office.

"Come in."

"Minister, long time no see!" Shiraishi said enthusiastically.

Odagiri:......

After finding out it was Shiraishi, Odagiri put down his chopsticks - yes, Director Odagiri, he obviously had to work overtime today, and at this time, there was a lunch box from the cafeteria on the table...

Shiraishi took a look and saw that what he was eating was... pork chop rice.

"There is no need to address each other by rank if there is no subordinate relationship... Inspector Shiraishi, is there anything I can help you with?" Odagiri said with a stern face, as if he was going to draw a clear line between us.

"Is this the pork chop rice in the cafeteria? I remember... the rice supplier for the Metropolitan Police Department cafeteria is Takigawa Foods, right? I remember hearing someone say that this company has a strong background... what do you think?" Shiraishi asked curiously.

Odagiri looked at Shiraishi in confusion - what kind of new way of greeting was this?
"Not bad," Odagiri said casually, and then, perhaps feeling that it was not grand enough, he emphasized, "Very good rice, worthy of being high-quality domestic rice."

The subtext is "Don't talk about background all the time, the quality is very good"!
"Just now, the Mika Police Department discovered a body that had been dead for more than a year. It has completely turned into bones. I would like to use the technical capabilities of the scientific research team to conduct a DNA test and comparison." Shiraishi said directly.

"If the person has been dead for more than a year... and there is a high suspicion of homicide, it is better to hand him over directly to the Investigation Division." Odagiri frowned.

Odagiri can let the Beika Police Department handle the case themselves, but... the prerequisite is that it will not delay things!

After all, his "acceptance" was based on his recognition of Shiraishi's ability, not on "territorial concept".

If the death has been going on for too long and there is suspicion of homicide, it will be difficult to handle the case and the police station may not be able to handle it.

In Odagiri's opinion, Shiraishi should not be the kind of person who does not know the seriousness of the matter and who would add more difficulties to the case for the sake of territorial consciousness.

"They are all bones now. We cannot determine whether it is homicide or not. We will definitely not be able to file a case if we search the area. However, there is a letter of complaint at the scene, so we have a preliminary suspect, who is in Beika Town."

After hearing what Shiraishi said, Odagiri finally showed a look of understanding.

To confirm homicide, autopsy evidence is needed. A mere letter of complaint, such subjective evidence... Search One is too busy to handle it!
"Oh, then you go find Scientific Research Institute." Odagiri said, nodded in agreement, and wrote a note to Shiraishi.

Shiraishi saw that he had finished writing, and then looked at the pork chop rice, and then reminded him: "From the scene of the crime, the body should be an internal employee of Takigawa Foods. A letter of complaint against Takigawa Foods was also found at the scene, saying that their rice was a mixture of domestic and imported rice... It may also be suspected of smuggling."

Odagiri:......

"I'm really sorry that I can't taste the difference between domestic rice and imported rice!" Odagiri's face turned dark - are you doing this on purpose?

"No, if you ask me...it might be the agricultural cooperative's closed propaganda for price protection. In fact, domestic rice is not that good at all. Imported rice may have less radiation." Shiraishi confidently helped Odagiri find a reason.

"Get out!" Odagiri yelled at him to get out.

Dare to say anything?
Rather than being thought of as "slandering the Agricultural Cooperative behind its back", Odagiri would rather admit that he has no taste.

Shiraishi took Odagiri's note and left, lest he snatch it back later...

Shiraishi remembered that the Scientific Investigation Institute had the relevant technology - that is, the "Scientific Investigation Institute", which was a department under the Metropolitan Police Department. Shiraishi was a local director and had no power to report anything directly, so he needed Minister Odagiri's help...

(End of this chapter)