Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 272 Along the way
Otaki was caught by Heiji and had to admit it reluctantly: "It's Shiraishi, the police officer who was here before. He just happened to be in Osaka again. Let's go have a drink."

"Inspector Shiraishi from Toudou? That's great... I happen to have some things to do recently, so I want to go to Toudou. Take me with you!" Heiji said, and pestered Otaki to go to the appointment together.

Otaki can't get rid of it, and...

Thinking that Shiraishi had met Heiji before, he brought him to the pub where they had agreed to meet, and sent a text message to Shiraishi.

……

In the tavern, Shiraishi came in and recognized the people around Otaki, and immediately said, "Hmm? Heiji-san, you are not old enough to drink, right? The son of the boss of the Osaka Prefectural Police was photographed drinking underage, and he has to come out and bow to apologize."

"Of course I don't drink! This is a drink." Heiji emphasized while holding up the glass.

"So... you didn't come here just to drink drinks, right? After Inspector Otaki and I, there will be adults to take over." Shiraishi said as a matter of course.

"Eh? Uncle Otaki, so you also go to nightclubs?" Heiji said in surprise.

"Don't talk nonsense in front of the children..." Otaki said to Shiraishi helplessly - let's not talk about whether I've been there or not... when did you treat me to that?

Heiji then asked mysteriously, "Ahem, actually I want to ask... Inspector Shiraishi, you are in Toudou, you should know... Is there also a high school detective in Toudou, no, Kanto?"

"That's right, it's Kudo Shinichi, but he has been hiding recently because he has run out of ideas." Shiraishi said confidently.

"Hiding? It's true... Officer Shiraishi, according to my analysis... this Kudo Shinichi must be hiding around Mori Kogoro because of something!" Heiji said confidently.

"Huh?" Bai Shi was stunned when he heard that - your guess... is so accurate!

"I have specially investigated him before. He started to disappear in the past half month. However... it was also from this time that this formerly mediocre detective named Mouri Kogoro has been in the newspapers several times and has become a new famous detective!" Heiji's reasoning has a simple and unpretentious beauty.

"I say, Heiji..." Otaki dissuaded him helplessly - he felt that he was being too arbitrary.

"So why are you investigating him?" Bai Shi changed the subject.

"Of course we have to compete!" Heiji said as a matter of course.

Shiraishi:……

"Now, when it comes to the famous high school detective in Kanto, it's Kudo Shinichi, and the famous high school detective in Kansai, it's me, Hattori Heiji. Let's see who is the number one high school detective in the East Island Country!" Heiji said with full fighting spirit.

"No need to go to so much trouble... I just met the queen of Ingram." Bai Shi suddenly said.

"Hmm? So what?" Heiji also knew that Queen Serissabeth had arrived in Osaka not long ago, but he still couldn't understand what Shiraishi meant.

"I mean... I'm pretty familiar with Queen Cecilabeth. How about I ask her to help you immigrate? Then you'll be Ingram's top high school detective!" Shiraishi made a perfect suggestion.

Heiji:……

"The entire Ingram has a population of just over one million. You should work harder and strive to become the top high school student!" Shiraishi encouraged.

"No, forget it, I still like Osaka..." Heiji declined Shiraishi's "suggestion".

That being said, however...

"There's a holiday next week for 'National Foundation Day', and I'm going to the East City to meet Kudo Shinichi then. Officer Shiraishi, if you see Kudo Shinichi, please help me issue a declaration of war!" Heiji insisted.

In Heiji's opinion, since Kudo Shinichi is a famous detective, he should be very familiar with the police, especially... Kudo's home and school are in Shiraishi's jurisdiction!

"I don't see him very often." Bai Shi didn't refuse.

"It doesn't matter. If he hides, I will go find his woman!" Heiji said righteously.

"Heiji, be careful with your words!" Otaki reminded him. Then Otaki seemed to have seen something and said in surprise, "Waha, why are you here? Are you here to see Heiji?"

Otaki unexpectedly saw Kazuha outside the tavern.

"Ah! I...I was just passing by!" He Ye said helplessly when his "eavesdropping" was discovered.

"Huh? Passing by here? What are you doing here?" Heiji asked puzzledly.

The tavern that Shiraishi and Otaki chose is the busiest "Sōtenbori" in Osaka. Hattori and Toyama's family are not here...

"Shiraishi, this is Kazuha, the daughter of our Criminal Department Director Toyama. Kazuha, this is Officer Shiraishi Shimasa from Toudou... Don't you want to apply to the University of Tokyo in the future? Officer Shiraishi Shimasa is a top student who graduated from the University of Tokyo." Otaki introduced.

"Okay, you have ambition. When you come to Dongdu in the future, you can come to me if you have any problems...Todai is also within my jurisdiction." Although Bai Shi didn't know when she could go to college, nor was he sure whether she could pass the entrance exam, he still said encouragingly.

Compared to some little brats who want to be the “number one detective among high school students,” Shiraishi still thinks that “wanting to go to the University of Tokyo” is more ideal!
The University of Tokyo in this world is also in Beika Town - otherwise it wouldn't be next to Beika University, and Shiraishi and Ayako wouldn't know each other...

"Ah... Shiraishi... Officer, hello." He Ye looked at Shiraishi, who was sitting taller than him when he was standing, and sighed in his heart - he is indeed a top student!
Tokyo University... doesn't have a physical education department, right?
"Okay, Heiji, it's getting late, so you can just take Kazuha home." Otaki reminded.

"Really...Okay! You can go to the 'adult place' now." Heiji deliberately teased Otaki.

"Please spare me..." Otaki said helplessly.

But under normal circumstances, Kazuha would gossip a little, but now she was absent-minded - she seemed to have just heard Heiji say that he was going to Toudou to find a woman or something...

At this time, Shiraishi also secretly noted that Hattori Heiji will come to Beikacho next weekend!

Unfortunately, Shiraishi also forgot what case it was when Hattori Heiji first met Conan. He just guessed that there must be a case...

However, Shiraishi may not have time to take care of them by then. After all, next weekend, unless something big happens to get in the way, Shiraishi will board the "Queen Cesareth Bai" - there will be the Suzuki family's "Dark Star" exhibition at that time.

……

After having a small gathering with Otaki, Shiraishi was originally planning to return to Suzuki Hotel to rest. Ayako had already booked a room for him.

Seeing that Shiraishi really had no intention of inviting him to "turn the stage for adults", Otaki was about to leave, but at this moment...

beep beep-

Otaki's phone rang, and when he turned it on, he saw that the caller was Heiji...

"Hmm? What are you doing at this hour..." Otaki muttered, then picked up the phone: "Hey, Heiji, why aren't you asleep yet?"

"Uncle Otaki! Come to Room 906 of the Orange Apartment quickly, a murder has occurred here!" Heiji immediately said on the phone.

When Otaki heard the word "murder", he sobered up immediately, and Shiraishi perked up his liver, breaking down the alcohol in his body in an instant...

"Why are you there? Is it dangerous?" Otaki asked immediately.

"There's no danger. I've called the police. Come over here soon..." Heiji said hurriedly and hung up.

"Heiji, Heiji?" Otaki saw that he had hung up, turned to look at Shiraishi: "Shiraishi..."

"Let's go together!" Bai Shi said directly.

Otaki didn't say anything polite, knowing that he couldn't pretend he didn't hear it...

Although Shiraishi is a "superintendent" and is already a high-ranking police officer, the one that Otaki is most familiar with is Inspector Shiraishi, who, when he came on a business trip, stayed outside the office of a violent organization for half a month to monitor it with everyone.

"The crime scene is only two kilometers away from here..." Otaki looked around after leaving the pub.

This is also the reason why Heiji called Otaki immediately.

"Then you go borrow a car and I'll just follow you." Bai Shi said decisively.

That’s right, Otaki and Shiraishi both saw it—a group of spirit guys riding on will-o’-the-wisp were nearby!

Seeing Otaki approaching, the spirited guys were also startled...

"Officer Otaki, we are not disturbing anyone..." The energetic young man recognized Otaki.

"It's requisitioned. Come back to the police headquarters to get it!" Otaki said, and squeezed one person down.

"Ah? Okay...how about I take you there?" The alert young man didn't dare to say anything more. After all...these bad boys often have to deal with police officers.

Seeing that Otaki was drunk, he offered to take him there.

"Ah! I'm afraid this guy can't ride it?"

Even so, when they saw Bai Shi coming over, the Will-O-W-Fire boys were still startled. They felt that their vehicles could not withstand such abuse, so they stepped back slightly.

"I don't need it... You just send Inspector Otaki and I'll follow you." Shiraishi said as a matter of course.

After hearing what Bai Shi said, the Will-O-Wisp boys all breathed a sigh of relief, but at the same time... they were a little unconvinced - Can you keep up?

But they soon discovered...

"Are you riding this to take a walk? Hurry up!" Bai Shi urged.

Finally, they reached the speed limit of the road, which barely stopped Shiraishi from scolding them for being "too slow".

At the same time, Shiraishi and Otaki also saw a patrolman setting up a cordon outside the orange apartment - it was obvious that Hattori did call the police, but not many people came at the moment.

"Not allowed here...Inspector Otaki!" When the patrolman saw the Will-O-Wisp boys coming over, he thought they were causing trouble and scolded them in an unpleasant manner. However, when he saw Otaki, he immediately saluted and recognized him without him showing his ID.

"What's going on?" Otaki asked hurriedly after getting off the car.

"Master Hattori called the police and said that a body was found. Sato has already gone up to check... Gulu." The patrolman had obviously just arrived, and... at this time he also saw Shiraishi coming over.

"Oh, this is Police Officer Shiraishi, he's from Dongdu. He happens to be with me, so he came here together. There's no need to stop him." Otaki explained at this time.

"Yes!" The patrolman responded immediately - stop him? I have to dare too...

"This apartment... the occupancy rate is quite low." Shiraishi looked up at this time.

It was a western-style apartment, not very high up, and looked a bit shabby. Moreover, there was not a single house with lights on at this time...

It's not even twelve o'clock yet, and the nightlife has just begun. For people from Higashima and Osaka, it's a little too early to go to bed. It can't be that everyone in this apartment goes to bed early and gets up early, right?

"Something happened here before, and the area around here is going to be rebuilt soon," Otaki explained briefly. Indeed, when I first arrived at the streets around the apartment, there were very few people, and it seemed very quiet.

"I see... Let's go in and take a look at 'Master Hattori'." Shiraishi nodded in understanding.

After seeing the patrolmen, Otaki breathed a sigh of relief - since the patrolmen had arrived, it proved that Hattori should indeed be in no danger.

However, Otaki glared at the patrolman who was pulling the wire at this time - why were you calling him "young master" for nothing? Are you being teased?
Once you enter the apartment, the feeling of a "ghost apartment" becomes even stronger. There are messy advertisements on the walls and no one cares about them. There are also debris on the floor. It is obvious that the apartment is poorly managed.

When you get into the elevator, you can see a "Neighborhood Friendly Message Board" on the inner wall of the elevator...

[There is a pregnant woman at home in No. 408. I hope all neighbors will not use wireless networks and mobile phones at home, otherwise I will visit them in person! ]

[Stupid guy on the fourth floor, I have six Wi-Fi amplifiers at home, welcome to use them, password is 40844444. ]

[I have called the police on the bastard who used the Internet on the third floor! ]

[Who threw garbage in the elevator again? Do you have a sense of public morality? ]

[I am a resident of 306, my electric bike is parked in the corridor, go and sue me if you have the guts, don’t argue with me! ]

[Who is crazy enough to pretend to be me here? My electric bike is not blocking your way! ]

[Can you please not go to the toilet on the sixth floor at night? I have an elderly person with mental weakness at home. Please don’t let my elderly person come to you in person. ]

[No one lives on the sixth floor. If there is any noise, your elderly can go downstairs to look for him.]

……

The message board has all the elements, and it looks like a big apartment that is friendly and united.

"It's really messy..." Otaki felt a little embarrassed when he saw this.

Although he has a good relationship with Bai Shi, Bai Shi is from Dongdu after all, and it will always be painful for him to see his hometown embarrassed in front of outsiders.

But Bai Shi frowned as he looked at her, then laughed and shook his head. Just when he was about to say something...

Ding--

The elevator has reached the 9th floor.

When Shiraishi and Otaki came out, the lights were very dim, but they could already see the room where the crime occurred - it was the only room with an open door at this time, and there were sounds of conversation coming from it, but the lights were not on, so it was probably an empty room with a power outage!
"Well, I don't know who called..."

"When we came here, a man passed by downstairs. He was wearing a blue down jacket! Heiji, did you notice it?"

"Of course, that guy is indeed suspicious."

From the sound of it, Kazuha was also there.

Hearing footsteps in the corridor, the patrolman instinctively shone his flashlight towards the door, and the result was...

"Ah!" The patrolman let out a loud scream.

"what happened?"

"what!"

Heiji asked immediately, and after being startled, Kazuha also said something, and then...

In the light of the flashlight, a "headless giant" was standing at the door.

"Patrolman Sato, what are you yelling about!" Inspector Otaki lectured him unhappily - it makes us, the Osaka Prefectural Police, seem so ignorant!

"Ah...it's...Inspector Otaki, this is..." Sato finally calmed down a little.

"This is Police Superintendent Shiraishi from Dongdu. He just happened to come with me." Otaki introduced.

As he spoke, Bai Shi also lowered his head and "slipped" in from outside: "Good evening."

"Ah, yes! Officer Shiraishi, look carefully!" Upon hearing this, Patrolman Sato immediately saluted.

"Where is the deceased?" Otaki asked directly.

"This way, the bathroom is located." Patrolman Sato said quickly.

Otaki and Shiraishi followed him all the way here, and Otaki couldn't help but ask, "Is the power outage here?"

"Yes, I just contacted the apartment manager. This place hasn't been rented out for a long time, and the power is off in these rooms... The manager is on the way." Sato replied.

It was indeed an abandoned apartment, and even the manager was not usually here.

Soon, Otaki and Shiraishi also saw the corpse—a man lying in the bathtub with his eyes open!
"What was the cause of death?" Otaki asked directly.

"This..." Sato stammered - he hadn't had time to see it yet, and he was a little scared.

"It should have been strangled. There are marks on the neck, and... he probably didn't have much chance to resist. He was strangled to death. The Yoshikawa lines are very few and shallow." Heiji said at this time.

The Yoshikawa Line refers to the scar caused by the victim scratching his or her neck in order to break free from being strangled. It is one of the signs used as the criterion for judging "homicide" during the inspection and is named after the person who discovered and summarized the incident, "Yoshikawa Sumichi".

Immediately, Shiraishi and Otaki looked at Heiji and Kazuha.

"Heiji, what are you and Kazuha doing here?" Otaki asked suspiciously.

"Are you... here to explore a haunted apartment?" Shiraishi looked at Heiji in amazement - Xing, you're bringing a girl to explore an empty apartment late at night, right?

"Of course not! It was... when I got home, someone called me, and He Ye happened to answer the phone..."

Heiji then began to explain.

At around eight o'clock, Heiji wanted to send Kazuha home, but because Kazuha's father had to work overtime tonight and her mother had gone back to her parents' home, she had to stay at the Hattori's house. In fact, it was because of this that Kazuha came to find Heiji to go home under the instructions of Aunt Jinghua...

At around nine o'clock, when Ye and Aunt Jinghua were talking, Heiji's phone rang...

"I was taking a shower, and I don't know how and why Kazuha picked up the phone!" Heiji said with some complaint.

"I, I'm afraid it's an emergency!" Kazuha panicked when she heard that - in fact, it was what Heiji said to Otaki before that made her a little concerned, and she thought it was the "woman from Toudou" who called him, so after a mental struggle, she picked up the phone.

Then Kazuha also said: "In the end, the voice on the other end of the phone was indistinguishable between a man and a woman. It must have used a voice changer. It said that it was a challenge to Heiji, asking him to come to Room 0 of the Orange Apartment at midnight..."

This is why Heiji complained - perhaps he felt that if he were the one who answered the call, he might be able to hear more clues.

Although Heiji didn't understand what was going on after answering the phone, he decided to come over anyway...

"You really came just after midnight?" Bai Shi said after looking at the time - he didn't understand why he could be so honest!

"Of course not..." Heiji pouted.

"It was Aunt Jinghua... She originally didn't let Heiji out, but he waited until Aunt Jinghua fell asleep and then slipped out!" He Ye decisively exposed.

"I...didn't you slip out too?" Heiji immediately counterattacked.

"Huh? I'm just worried that something might happen to you!"

Not to mention their "flirting", Shiraishi and Otaki finally understood the cause and effect of the matter.

It seems that the murderer may have called Heiji over on purpose!
Why the murderer called someone over remains to be investigated...

However, there is no need to doubt the reason why the murderer is called "Hattori Heiji" - seeing that he still wants to go to Toudou to "challenge" Kudo Shinichi, we know that Hattori Heiji is usually very flamboyant.

If the murderer wanted to call a "less famous detective" over for some purpose, Hattori Heiji would obviously be a good choice. His contact information would also be easy to find out. After all, he was looking for cases and commissions everywhere on his own!

"But... judging from the slight stiffness, it is very likely that the killing was carried out while the phone call was in progress." Shiraishi said after putting on the gloves he always carried with him and touching the corpse's chin.

"What about the person you just saw outside?" Otaki asked at this time.

"A super suspicious person! Going out at this time, and in a place like this!" He Ye said immediately.

"What kind of person is he?" Otaki asked after hearing this.

"Well... wearing a blue down jacket... well..." That's all He Ye remembered.

In comparison, Heiji was much more professional. Even though they just passed by each other, but...

"He's about 1.80 meters tall, with short brown hair that's been slightly permed, a high nose bridge, and thick lips. He should be less than 30 years old..." Heiji described the characteristics he still remembered.

At this time, there were footsteps outside again, and more and more patrol officers, forensic officers, criminal police... began to take their positions.

Heiji had called the police before, but he also called Otaki who was nearby.

Although many people came, Otaki was a backbone of the Osaka Prefectural Police Criminal Division, and he was still the one arranging work on site.

At the same time, Shiraishi was introduced to the later police officers...

Among the detectives who came, Shiraishi found two or three familiar faces, with whom he had worked before.

As Otaki took the initiative to introduce Shiraishi, a "police officer from Touto", no one directly expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that he was hanging around the scene.

If Otaki wasn't there, or... if Shiraishi had a lower rank and was a frontline officer, the police in Osaka would definitely start criticizing him - are they trying to interfere with our Osaka Prefectural Police's investigation?

After all, the Osaka Prefectural Police is the second-ranked regional police headquarters in the eastern island country after the Metropolitan Police Department. Middle and low-level police officers will have a certain sense of competition with those in the Metropolitan Police Department.

Among the senior management, although this kind of emotion will be much weaker, after all, whether it is the senior management of the Metropolitan Police Department or the senior management of the Osaka Prefectural Police, they are all places where "professional groups" go back and forth to serve and accumulate qualifications. The barriers between camps in the minds of the senior management are much weaker, but in the competitive and confrontational consciousness of the entire organization, there is more mutual favoritism.

Bai Shi didn't mean to show up at this time, he just came to take a look...

(End of this chapter)