Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 268 Give him some strength!

After getting Odagiri's signature slip, Shiraishi went home from get off work. After getting the signature, of course Shiraishi didn't need to go for inspection in person. As the director, he just had to wait for news.

Anyway, there was nothing else to do tonight, and Shiraishi had already come to the Metropolitan Police Department, so he went to have a drink with Iwata and gossip about "Takigawa Foods".

In the tavern, after hearing what Shiraishi said, Iwata slapped his thigh and said, "Takigawa Foods? The rice is fake? I'll tell you! I'll tell you that the rice in the cafeteria doesn't taste right. It's not made in China!"

Shiraishi:……

I am really a Dongdao person who is stubborn all my life...

If I had known, I would have asked you what you think of the rice in the cafeteria!

"But if you want to get a pile of bones, you have to investigate the Takigawa murder case. Be careful not to get bitten back. They have a good relationship with the Ministry of Justice." Iwata then reminded in a low voice.

From Iwata's attitude, Shiraishi could tell that Takigawa Foods... was just so-so!

"Just 'be careful'? It seems like there's no backing!" Bai Shi said with more confidence.

Previously, Shiraishi investigated the Minister of Justice, the broker of the National Police Agency, a member of the National Assembly, and the former Chief Justice...

What was Iwata's attitude at that time?

It was as if Bai Shi was going to die!
Now just simply say "be careful" and the difference is obvious.

"Nonsense! Regardless of whether he has the backing or not, it also depends on who you're competing with." Iwata rolled his eyes.

If it were an ordinary police officer, or even the chief of an ordinary police station, Takigawa Foods would indeed be considered to have "a backer", but... after Shiraishi brought down Ichiro Inukai and personally arrested Atsumori Ryuzou and Takadobe, would Takigawa Foods dare to say in front of Shiraishi that it had a backer?

It's not like he supplies rice to the Metropolitan Police Department cafeteria, he's Director Baiba's brother-in-law.

……

The next day, February 2rd, was Friday.

The scientific research institute has already released the results - DNA has been extracted from the bones and matched with biological data in the gene bank.

The deceased was indeed a former employee of Takigawa Foods, but...

The investigation into "Takigawa Foods" was not going smoothly. To be more precise... the other party was completely uncooperative.

The Rice Flower Agency does not have a "search warrant" and has not even formally opened a case. The attitude of "Takigawa Foods" on this is - do not affect our normal business activities without a "search warrant".

Indeed, it is impossible to determine homicide based on just a pile of bones. Even if there is a letter of complaint whose authenticity is unknown, it is impossible to apply for a "search warrant".

only……

The attitude of "Takigawa Foods" is very suspicious. Generally speaking, even without a "search warrant", they would not be so completely uncooperative. Even if they really killed someone, they would have to pretend!
Shiraishi was also a little surprised when he heard the report - this is different from what Iwata said? The president of Takigawa is tall and hard!
"This President Takigawa...is he really from Nishijima?" Shiraishi asked Kunikida curiously.

Kunikida:? ? ?

"It should be... no way? Director, do you know him?" Kunikida didn't know where the director came up with such a question - his name doesn't sound like he's from Nishijima?
"I don't know, but he's so tough... Could he really be Director Bai Ma's brother-in-law?" Bai Shi complained.

Kunikida:……

"It shouldn't be, but...we really don't have a search warrant." Kunikida said sullenly.

"Okay, I get it. As for the legal search, it's usually thanks to Section Chief Kunikida who oversees it." Shiraishi praised Kunikida.

Of course, the reward was a reward, but after Kunikida left, Shiraishi immediately called Aida.

"Director, do you have any exclusive information? I feel like if we report it a few more times, our scandal will become true." Aida joked after answering the phone.

A communications reporter had spread rumors before, saying that the reason why Aida was always in the news about cases related to the Beika Police Station was because he had an improper relationship with Director Shiraishi and was able to use the backdoor!

"There's no such thing as exclusive information...but you can talk to the source recently." Shiraishi hinted.

Bai Shi would not let this matter spread from here.

Although it is not a secret, but what came out of Shiraishi's mouth seemed like Shiraishi deliberately spread the scandal of "Takigawa Foods".

but……

If it was spread from the mouth of a minor detective, then it would really be just a "scandal". In essence, the case has not yet been filed and it is not even "related to the case". Even if the other party complains, it will be useless.

It is another matter entirely if Aida came to the police station for an interview after he “heard” about it.

Searches must also be based on principles and discipline, but... some people just need to be dealt with more forcefully!
……

At noon, in the president's office of "Takigawa Foods".

General Manager Hasegawa, who looked worried, hesitantly suggested to Takigawa, "President, should we cooperate with the police? They are investigating a murder case anyway, which has nothing to do with us."

Takigawa was only about thirty years old, wearing brown glasses and had a neatly styled hairdo, while Hasegawa, the general manager, looked to be in his fifties, with very few hairs on his head...

The current president, Takigawa, is the "second generation", while Hasegawa is an old man in the company, so he can give some advice.

Upon hearing this, Takigawa waved his hands impatiently and said, "Don't worry about it! Since they have no evidence and no search warrant, they don't need to cooperate. Otherwise, wouldn't we have wasted our legal department? Besides, I have people in the Ministry of Justice..."

At this moment, the secretary knocked on the door and said urgently, "President, someone from the Rice Flower Department..."

"Again? Tell the employees, especially those with criminal records, that they are not allowed to answer any questions. Tell them to come to the company's legal department!" Takigawa said with a wave of his hand.

"No... President, it's not the police who came, it's the Rice Flower Agency who accepted the interview!" the secretary quickly corrected.

"What interview?" Takigawa couldn't help but frown.

Upon hearing this, the secretary quickly turned on the large LCD TV in the office.

The camera was facing the entrance of the Mihua Police Department. It seemed that there was a group of reporters gathered there. There were different logos on the microphones they held up, and the content of the interviews...

At this time, an old police officer with gray hair and the rank of superintendent was blocking the reporters at the door and answering some questions...

"Deputy Director Arikawa, a dead body was found in the Rice Bureau some time ago, and there was a letter of complaint against Takigawa Foods next to it, claiming that the rice sold by Takigawa Foods was a mixture of high-quality domestically produced rice and processed rice imported from abroad... Is that true?" Aida asked questions to Deputy Director Arikawa who came out.

In response, Bichuan just said with a straight face: "It is true that a skeleton was found in an abandoned warehouse in Go-chome. As for the rest... we are still investigating, so I have no comment!"

"Has the police filed a homicide case now?" Aida asked.

"It's not certain yet. If anyone has any clues, please feel free to provide them." Bichuan denied.

"It is said that the body is a former employee of Takigawa Foods, right?"

"No comment."

……

In this regard, Deputy Director Bichuan is also experienced - if it is no, he will say "no" or "not sure"; if it is yes, he will say "no comment" or "not convenient to disclose".

After the interview, "Takigawa Food" was directly pushed to the forefront.

After seeing the interview footage, Takikawa's face turned ugly.

He could remain indifferent to the police's invitation for assistance, but... now a business scandal of "Takigawa Foods" has begun to emerge, and it directly hits the weak point - rice quality!

Only then did Takigawa realize that something was wrong!

At this time, General Manager Hasegawa asked quietly, "President, do you want me to contact the detective who came earlier and have him receive you?"

After a moment of silence, Takikawa said, "You decide!"

Hasegawa understood what was going on, so he dialed the phone number that Akasaka had left for him and invited back the detective he had driven away.

……

Before leaving get off work, Shiraishi attended the investigation meeting. Because "Takigawa Foods" was aware of its national responsibility and took the initiative to assist the police in the investigation, the case progressed.

"The deceased, Katsumi Hachiya, was 53 years old. He was arrested six years ago for occupational embezzlement and intentional injury and sentenced to three years in prison. After he was released from prison, he was able to work at Takigawa Foods thanks to the Ministry of Justice's 'Cooperating Employer System.' We then visited Takigawa Foods and his family..." Akasaka presided over the meeting and introduced the case.

Akasaka glanced at Yuan when he said this. Yuan stood up and said, "We visited Takigawa Foods today. Of course, they did not admit the content of the report, and they also showed the recent random inspection results of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries..."

When Yuan was halfway through his speech, Qing Mu couldn't help but said, "We don't need to investigate that kind of thing, right? Test reports and the like... can you understand them?" Yuan nodded and said, "I don't understand them at all... But I found that 'Takigawa Foods' only has recent test reports. According to the estimated time of death of the deceased, they should have wanted to report it a year ago, but there was no random inspection during that period."

Didn’t get it by chance?
Or did they deliberately not check?

The source of this is only mentioned briefly. After all, the quality of the rice and whether it is really mixed with imported rice have nothing to do with the Rice Bureau, and the police station canteen does not use this kind of expensive rice!
The only thing related to the police station is the content of the report, which is very likely related to the cause of death of Fengya. As for the "false report" itself, the detectives of the Beika Police Station are not interested in it, and it is not within the scope of their investigation.

"But then I saw the clocking in record of Katsumi Hoshiya. He had not been to work since the Chinese New Year last year... Takigawa explained that this was often the case with employees who came from the 'cooperative employer system'. They suddenly stopped going to work, and most of them didn't have families, so they were used to it and didn't call the police.

"And when we were talking about this, President Takigawa suddenly came over and accused us of revealing the business scandal. He also accused Mr. Fengya of stealing rice from the company, saying that he was going to be fired anyway, so he deliberately took revenge.

"However, regarding the theft, I didn't say much because I was stopped by General Manager Hasegawa..." Yuan continued to report.

After a pause, Yuan continued, "Later, when we checked the clock-in records of Takigawa Foods, we discovered another thing... At the same time that Fengya stopped clocking in, another employee also stopped clocking in. That employee was Mr. Kamei Yukichi."

As Yuan spoke, he projected a "pure prison-style" photo of Kamei Yukichi, who looked to be in his sixties or seventies, thin and old, wearing prison uniforms... Apparently, this was also an ex-employee hired under the "cooperative employer system."

What is even more eye-catching is the “resume” written on the left, which shows that he has been a repeat offender thirteen times in more than twenty years!
"He's married, has relatives, a wife and a son, but he's basically been in prison for the past 25 years..." Huigu curled his lips, seeming to feel disdain for this irresponsible guy.

Twenty-five years, if it was "murder", he would have been released long ago. Even if it was "impulsive murder", he might have been released if he killed two people!

But this Kamei is clearly an old man who is dependent on the prison...

He has thirteen criminal records. Except for the first one for intentional injury, the rest were petty theft and free dining. And he committed the crime again almost every time not long after being released from prison. It is obvious that he did it on purpose. He has treated prison as his home!

"Some elderly people with criminal records feel that society is not as comfortable as prison. In addition, they have no one to rely on and are constantly imprisoned for minor crimes. This has become a social problem," Aoki said seriously.

"That's right. This Mr. Kamei did not disappear for no reason a year ago. People from the Protection Department later informed Takigawa Foods that he was a repeat offender and was imprisoned, and then he was fired." Yuan confirmed at this time.

A year ago, Kamei was imprisoned again and again for "dine-and-dine". Because he was a repeat offender, he was sentenced to another year and two months. Now he is about to be released from prison.

The Protection Department probably doesn't bother to take care of him now, and the prison guards also know that for him, being released from prison is just like going out for a "buffet"...

"Hmm? The longest time he was away was when he worked at 'Takigawa Foods' for six months." Kuroki noticed this only "interval" at this time.

And right after Fengya disappeared, he was imprisoned again for "eating for free"...

"Well, we have already submitted an application to the Beika Prison and will go for a meeting and inquiry later." Yuan also nodded, indicating that he had noticed this person.

Of course, Gen wanted to find him more to understand the situation and did not have too many doubts about him - after all, Kamei was just a skinny old man, and the victim, Hochiya, was a strong young man when he was alive, and he would hardly be a match for Hochiya even if he was given a knife.

Seeing that Yuan had already sat down, Kuroki winked at Kanzaki beside him. Kanzaki stood up helplessly at this time, and then... smiled shyly and said: "Detective Kuroki and I visited the family of the deceased... There is no clue."

"No clues? That's it?" Akasaka widened his eyes when he heard that - in theory, even if there were no important clues, there must be some clues.

Kanzaki also said with a stiff face: "That's right... After he was imprisoned, Fengya's family never contacted him again. Although he went to visit his family when he was released from prison, they only met once and didn't know anything about him."

Kuroki chimed in, "This kind of passive severance of family ties is also very common among ex-convicts. After all, their family members will suffer bad reviews and discrimination because of their imprisonment, so many ex-convicts cannot return to their families."

Therefore, their efforts this time were in vain - they chose the wrong direction of investigation, and the line of investigation on Fengya's family was completely broken.

After the police officers finished their reports, Kunikida consulted Shiraishi and concluded, "At present, due to the difficulty of the autopsy, this case cannot be filed as a homicide. Now that the direction of the investigation has been locked, then from now on... Minamoto and Yamada will be in charge. Until there is more direct evidence to file a homicide case, no more police force will be deployed for the time being."

The Mihua Police Department is not so flexible as to devote too many police forces to a case that has not been filed for a long time.

But it is worth noting that...

This time, Kunikida said "Genmina and Yamada" instead of "Akasaka Squad". Not only were there fewer people, but it also showed Kunikida's recognition of Genmina and Yamada. He began to arrange independent search missions for them, just like he did for Akasaka Squad and Aoki Squad!

After the investigation meeting, Shiraishi went straight from get off work to look for Ayako. At this time, the radio in the car also broadcast the news that the Queen of the Principality of Ingram was visiting...

The Duchy of Ingram is a small European country located on the Mediterranean coast. Its population is mainly white, but it numbers only a few million. The country's economic lifeline is gem mines and the cruise industry. It has maintained a closed monarchy, and even the king still exercises diplomatic power.

Although he is also the head of a country, due to the limited international influence of the other party, he has not made any major current news in the East Island country.

"It seems that it was Gao Yue... no, it was the opinion of 'the second generation president of Yamashiro' that Yamashiro Railway chose this opportunity this time." Ayako emphasized at this time - this woman is not a naive person!

"Eh? Is that so? As expected of Gao Yue-san..." Shiraishi sighed.

Ayako:……

Is this what I want to say?

"Well, the Yamashiro Railway is very famous and has strong assets, but... in recent years, profitability has been a problem, so it has been actively expanding new businesses. Previously, Koichi Yamashiro was just following his father's approach, so it's no wonder that it's not pleasing both sides." Ayako then commented on the "Yamashiro Railway."

Yamashiro Koichi's ability is average, and he is able to become the "President" entirely because of his father's reputation. As such, he is naturally conservative in his actions...

When the group needed change, it continued to follow the old rules. Over time, the board of directors naturally became dissatisfied.

The elderly Yamashiro Zennosuke, due to his illness, has a brain disease and a stubborn personality. He is completely unaware of the current situation. Seeing that the group's performance is getting worse, his eldest son Yamashiro Koichi is not living up to expectations and is always thinking about change...

So both sides disliked him, which put more and more psychological pressure on Koichi Yamashiro, until one day, the conflict broke out!
In comparison, Yamashiro Gaoyue's current situation is much better - although she is also under the banner of "Yamashiro Zennosuke's successor", but... the difference is that she is using the "tablet tablet".

More importantly, in the process of rising to power, Yamashiro Gaoyue had already "fought" and created an environment for himself to do things.

However, these "battles" only reflect her "political fighting level". She can only fight people but cannot save the "Mountain City Railway".

Although a centipede is still alive even after death, it is even more difficult to bring it back to life!

Yamashiro Gaoyue is now starting to promote a series of income-generating projects...

If these projects can be successful and allow her to demonstrate sufficient "business skills", she will be able to secure the throne of Shancheng Railway.

Among them, the "Royal Express" is an important project - it is positioned as a high-end luxury train, and its target customers are business people and travel enthusiasts. It strives to be shaped into a "cruise ship on the ground" and avoid competing with the Shinkansen on the ordinary track of "convenience and speed"...

The name of the "Royal Express" is not for nothing. During the maiden voyage ceremony, Yamashiro Satsuki had several online talks with Queen Theresabeth and successfully invited her to attend the maiden voyage ceremony in addition to her visit to the Eastern Island Country.

As a result, the "Mountain City Railway" was promoted as "the Queen's car" and "the emperor's experience", and Queen Theresabeth also wanted to take this opportunity to have more contact with the people of East Island and establish an international image, and she hit it off with the "Mountain City Railway".

This is how the maiden voyage of the "Royal Express" came about...

Sure enough, after the news about the visit of the Queen of the Duchy of Ingram, there was a special mention of the "Royal Express"!

[The journey from Tokyo to Osaka takes seven hours, which is not fast, but it is said to be a royal experience. 】

[I don’t know about the experience, this price is really ‘royal’…]

On the radio station, two anchors even complained about it when they mentioned it.

[In addition, at the inaugural ceremony, Queen Theresabeth will also display the national treasure of the Principality of Ingram, the largest yellow sapphire in Europe - the Mother of Crystal! ]

"Hmm? Gem?" Bai Shi immediately noticed it.

"What's wrong?" Ayako asked curiously.

"Nothing... By the way, are the Suzuki family going to exhibit some kind of gem?" Shiraishi had a bad feeling.

At the same time, Shiraishi also remembered that during the New Year, Ayako's father had mentioned that he was going to prepare for the "Dark Star" gem exhibition.

"That's right, it's next weekend... We'll first have the exhibition at the Beika Museum, and then we'll rent the Queen Cesarebella to hold an exhibition salon in Toudou Bay. If you don't have to work overtime, you can come too!" Ayako invited.

"Dark Star" is a black pearl.

What is more important is not only its own value, but also that the Suzuki family regards this thing as a "family heirloom" and believes that it brings good luck to the Suzuki family.

"Next weekend...Okay." Bai Shi agreed without any hesitation.

After all, Shiraishi felt a little embarrassed that he couldn't spend Valentine's Day with Ayako - but Shiraishi had already promised Inspector Matsumoto that he would attend his daughter's engagement party.

"Queen Cecilabeth...is that the cruise ship of the Principality of Ingram?" Bai Shi heard that the two names were the same, so it shouldn't be a coincidence.

"Yes, it's the new cruise ship that started cruising two years ago after the Queen ascended the throne. This time it also came to the East Island Country with the Queen." Ayako confirmed.

----

Dongdong: Queen Cecilabeth in "Kid", Queen Cecilabeth in "Detective Conan"... I don't know what Aoyama is hinting at, or if it just happens that he particularly likes this Western name or has the same name...

However, in this book, the two are related.

(End of this chapter)