Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 319: Choose one from three classics?

"Minister, the National Police Agency called... It was Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda, and he asked for Superintendent Shiraishi to come over as well." Uesugi hurriedly reported to Minister Iwami.

Upon hearing this, Iwami and Shiraishi left the scene first and came outside to where Deputy Chief Matsuda was. With such a big thing happening, Deputy Chief Matsuda also arrived at the scene, so the National Police Agency naturally contacted the Deputy Chief directly.

Aomori's deputy chief Matsuda has the same rank of "Superintendent" as the chief, and is the only one present with a higher rank than Shiraishi.

The murder of the chief of a county police headquarters naturally alarmed the National Police Agency. Now the National Police Agency is in direct contact with the Aomori Prefectural Police, bypassing the level of the district police station. In theory, there are district police stations between the county police in various parts of the East Island Country and the National Police Agency. Only the Tohoku Metropolitan Police Department and the Hokkaido Headquarters are directly under the jurisdiction of the National Police Agency. The Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters is normally under the "Tohoku District Police Station".

However, the Chief Cabinet Officer of the National Police Agency has directly contacted the Deputy Chief of the Aomori Prefectural Police...

"Inspector Shiraishi, you and everyone from the Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters are all here, right?" Onoda's voice came from the phone.

"Yes!" Bai Shi replied.

The "Chief Cabinet Secretary" of the East Island Country, which means "head of the Prime Minister's Cabinet", does not refer to the "department head", but is more like the position of "office director". He is usually ranked after the deputy minister of the department, theoretically No. 3, but has a closer relationship with the department head.

"You are so energetic... That's good. The National Police Agency will have emergency response personnel rushing to the scene tomorrow morning. Before that, on behalf of the National Police Agency, I appoint Superintendent Shiraishi Masaru to temporarily lead the investigation of the murder of Chief Kimura. The Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters should fully cooperate and put an end to private investigations. Deputy Chief Matsuda, you have to do a good job of coordination."

Onoda directly conveyed the meaning of "National Police Agency"...

Although the people from Aomori Prefectural Police were not very happy after hearing this, they also understood that they were being asked to "avoid suspicion"!
"Don't worry, Chief Cabinet Secretary. I will do a good job of organization and coordination, cooperate with Inspector Shiraishi's investigation, and assist with the handover with emergency response personnel." Deputy Director Matsuda responded immediately.

Although he felt uncomfortable, rationally speaking, Matsuda was relieved.

This kind of mess was not something he could handle. It was a good thing that a superintendent from Dongdu happened to be on the scene and was being urgently appointed.

"Officer Shiraishi, please answer the phone call yourself." Onoda said without hesitation.

Upon hearing this, Matsuda handed the phone to Shiraishi.

"Excuse me." After taking it, Shiraishi immediately cancelled the release and walked aside to avoid them, then signaled Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda.

Although this may seem like a lack of trust in local colleagues, but... the one who died was the local director, and it was the National Police Agency that asked them to recuse themselves, so why be polite?
"Chief Cabinet Officer, please go ahead."

"Inspector Shiraishi, tomorrow the Chief Inspector of the Secretariat of the National Police Agency will personally lead a team to Aomori to thoroughly investigate the death of Minister Kimura Motoko. What I hope you can do is... find the murderer before that." Onoda said seriously.

Compared to the hands-free mode just now, it was a little less lazy and a little more serious.

"Eh? Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda..." Shiraishi was stunned when he heard that.

"I've heard from Kazami's report. You should also know about the 'Crow Legion', right?" Onoda suddenly said.

Although Onoda said "Kazami", Shiraishi instinctively realized that what he actually wanted to say was not Kazami, but "Furiya Rei".

After all, Shiraishi's first official interaction with the "Black Organization" was when he came into contact with Fūya Zero.

However, Fūya Rei is on a covert mission, and his name cannot be revealed under any circumstances.

"The Crow Legion? I've heard a little bit about it... Is the matter concerning Chief Kimura related to them?" The image of Rena Mizunashi appeared in Shiraishi's mind - what a coincidence, there really is a bottle of wine here... fake wine is still wine!

"I don't know." Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda said unexpectedly, but then he explained: "Minister Kimura was investigating several disappearances in Aomori Prefecture... suspected to be related to the 'Crow Legion'. Just when he had some clues, this happened."

Onoda said with regret.

Shiraishi also understood what Onoda meant...

Although he did not say the reason, when mentioning the "Chief Inspector" of the Chief Secretary's Office, Onoda introduced him very solemnly and "respectfully". He even specifically mentioned that "Kazami" reported to him. Regardless of whether it was "Kazami" or not, it implied that he had a close relationship with the Public Security Section!

"I understand. I will do my best to solve the case of Minister Kimura's death as soon as possible." Shiraishi agreed.

Even if there were no other factors, since the leader's commission was to "solve the case as soon as possible", Shiraishi certainly had no reason to refuse.

and……

Although Shiraishi did not know what kind of power struggle was going on within the National Police Agency that caused the Chief Cabinet Secretary to give Shiraishi such instructions, Shiraishi knew that Chief Odagiri of the Metropolitan Police Department had a close relationship with Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda of the National Police Agency!
Shiraishi had only met Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda twice. The first time was shortly after he passed the exam. At that time, Onoda was the head of the personnel section of the Chief Cabinet, and he had met individually with all those who had passed the professional group assessment.

Although Onoda must have had a deep impression of Shiraishi because of his big stature, he did not have any communication with Shiraishi beyond his duties; the second time was two months ago, when Shiraishi was awarded the "National Police Agency Commissioner's Award" and Onoda was already the Chief Cabinet Secretary.

Shiraishi estimated that the reason why Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda specifically "instructed" him was definitely because he listened to Minister Odagiri's recommendation!

Moreover, in Shiraishi's impression, Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda was not a person who was eager for quick success and power.

If one is young enough and sits in the position of "Chief Cabinet of the Chief Cabinet", he or she will be a strong candidate to compete for the next "Superintendent General" or "Commissioner of the National Police Agency".

However, the current Chief Cabinet Secretary of the National Police Agency, Kimiaki Onoda, is not young enough. He is of the same generation as the current Commissioner of the National Police Agency. If nothing unexpected happens, he will retire earlier than the "Commissioner of the National Police Agency" - at this juncture, there is no need for him to fight for anything.

With less greed, people will naturally feel more trustworthy.

Onoda then hung up the phone at Shiraishi's place. When Shiraishi sent the call back to Deputy Director Matsuda, the phone was no longer connected.

"Then I'll have to trouble you all." Shiraishi said politely to the Aomori Prefectural Police.

"Where, where..."

“It should be, it should be…”

"We will definitely cooperate with Superintendent Shiraishi to conduct preliminary investigations."

The deputy minister and several ministers all agreed, except for the criminal minister Ishimi, who remained silent and seemed unhappy.

Shiraishi also emphasized at this time: "No, the most golden period for investigation after the case occurs is the first twelve hours. What we need to do is not to conduct preliminary investigations, but to be prepared to solve the case and strive to submit the case report directly to the Chief Inspector of the Police Department!"

Upon hearing this, several people from the Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters looked at each other in bewilderment, but they soon reacted and made promises one after another...

These people are all old hands, and of course they can guess that Superintendent Shiraishi must have received some instructions from Chief Cabinet Secretary Onoda.

But since the other party specifically asked them privately, they didn't ask any more questions.

And speaking of investigating the case...

These people are all complete laymen. They promise and cooperate, but they don’t know how to do it…

"Minister Iwami, you will take charge of the Criminal Department and fully cooperate with Inspector Shiraishi in investigating this case!" Deputy Minister Matsuda's "cooperation" basically ended here.

"Yes." Ishimi agreed.

The deputy minister and other ministers were about to return to the headquarters, but Shiraishi stopped them and said, "Minister Yinshan, please stay."

Iwami had said before that the only ones who knew the password in the prefectural police headquarters were him and Ginzan from the security department.

Shiraishi did not shy away from asking the two directly, "Before, Mr. Kimura told you the password to the safe house at home. I guess there must be a reason, right?"

Shi Jian nodded and said, "That's right. Two months ago, this minister began to retrieve documents on several missing cases in the county and prepared to re-investigate. Maybe at that time, this minister sensed the danger and asked the security department to build this safe house. He also told me... Hey."

Iwami said this and sighed.

Minister Yinshan of the Security Department knows the password because this thing was installed by the Security Department, and in principle, at least two people must know the password.

The reason why Iwami knew the password was because he was also assisting the director in investigating the missing case.

"What's the matter with the missing case?" Bai Shi asked at this time.

"There have been a series of disappearances in the county since last year. At first, it was just homeless people reporting other homeless people missing, and we didn't pay much attention to it at the time. But later, freelance IT professionals and even... police officers began to disappear. If there is a transfer order from above, I can give you the specific case files," Iwami said simply.

However, this case is obviously not simple now, and Ishimi does not dare to hand the case file directly to Shiraishi.
Bai Shi nodded, and then did not ask any more questions - although it seemed to be related to these cases, but...

Only one night!

If we start with the missing cases, it will definitely be too late.

Moreover, with the style of the "Black Organization", if Chief Kimura really died because of these cases, then they must have been sure that after killing Kimura, others would not be able to easily get clues from the case, and they might have already put an end to it.

"I see, Minister Yinshan, regarding this safe house..." Shiraishi then asked Yinshan for confirmation.

Afterwards, Yinshan also introduced the main functions of the safe house to Shiraishi.

The top priority is of course security. If you want to crack the password by force without any password, you must use explosives and destroy the building structure.

The second is confidentiality, the safe house is soundproof inside and outside...

However, there are special micro-signal stations, and in theory you can make calls inside.

In addition, as Iwami said before, this safe house can be closed and opened freely when inside, but to operate it from the outside, a password is required whether closing or opening.

……

After explaining the safe house to Shiraishi, Ginzan left the scene, but Iwami, as the chief of the criminal department, stayed behind to organize the search. At this time, Shiraishi discovered that the detectives from the Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters had already visited the scene and locked on the people who were on the second floor or above when the gunshots were heard - no more, no less, three.

The banquet was only held on the first floor and in the lobby, so there were not many people upstairs.

The first one is naturally Harumitsu Kimura, the young wife whom Minister Kimura married last year. She claimed that she was resting on the third floor at the time of the incident - she did not appear at the birthday party because she had just quarreled with her stepdaughter.

This is still a relatively legitimate reason, the other two are quite strange...

"Rena Mizunashi, the anchor of Nichimi TV; Judy Santimillion, the foreign teacher from the United States?" Shiraishi looked at the two people in front of him and couldn't help but feel a headache.

An FBI agent and a CIA fake wine.

However, the two people do not know each other now. After all, the FBI and the CIA are two departments, which are completely independent of each other, do not exchange information, and sometimes even compete secretly.

On the contrary, Shiraishi Kuro was the only person present who knew the identities of both of them!

"That's right, and at the beginning, they all wanted to get away with it." Uesugi looked at the two "suspects" with a stern face.

"I'm sorry, I originally wanted to talk to Harumitsu, but this place is too big and I got lost on the third floor... When I heard the gunshot, I was startled and ran downstairs quickly. I saw everyone gathered in the corridor. I was scared for a moment, so I went downstairs first." Mizunashi Rena said embarrassedly.

The safe house was located in the corridor, in front of the stairs. When everyone was crowded in the corridor, Rena Mizunashi went downstairs from behind everyone - in theory it was possible.

Uesugi then added: "And at first, she was not ready to admit it. Fortunately, Miss Suzuki saw her going upstairs shortly before the gunshot!"

That’s right, when Shiraishi just left, Ayako looked for where this little beauty was, and happened to see her going upstairs.

"I'm really sorry, I really don't know anything, and I'm a little scared, so..." Rena Mizunashi looked like a weak, helpless female anchor who was afraid of getting into trouble.

"And this... American?" Shiraishi ignored her cuteness and looked at Judy.

"Oh, my God, this is such a sad misunderstanding. I went upstairs to find the bathroom. Please forgive me for making such a mistake." Judy explained in a translator's tone.

Shiraishi:……

Can't you speak Dongdao dialect properly?
"And then she lied and said she had never been up here. It was anchor Mizuno who proved that she saw her upstairs." Uesugi said with a stern face, exposing her previous refusal to cooperate with the investigation.

Fortunately, Ayako saw Rena Mizunashi coming up, and Mizunashi gave Judy away, otherwise these two would not have been prepared to stand up!

"That's too bad. I think I may have misunderstood what the guy asking the question meant." Judy pretended that her Dongdao dialect was not very good.

At the same time, Judy secretly glanced at Rena Mizunashi with a sharp look, but Rena Mizunashi just turned her face away in embarrassment.

Bai Shi knew in his heart that neither of them was the kind of person who would tell the truth.

"Have you searched me?" Shiraishi asked Uesugi directly.

"Well, a female police officer has already searched it, but no suspicious items were found..." Uesugi reported to Shiraishi in a low voice.

Shi Jian heard this and asked, "What about the reaction to the smoke?"

"This... the sample has been taken." Uesugi said quickly, as if the testing had not been completed yet.

"No need to wait, these two have the smell of gunpowder residue on them." Shiraishi said, pointing at Judy and Mizuno.

How can a mere gunpowder smoke reaction test paper compare to Bai Shi's well-honed sense of smell!

But when Shiraishi said "smell", Mizuno showed a shy expression - it really was like the reaction of a pure female anchor, but Shiraishi was sure she was pretending...

This level of acting skills does not reduce her suspicion!

On the other hand, Judy said very openly at this time: "Officer Dongdao, you are really amazing. Do you want to smell it carefully again? Is there any other smell?"

Ishimi frowned and asked, "Why are you two..."

"There were fireworks outside just now. It was very beautiful. I was there at the time." Judy spread her hands.

"Me too..." Mizuno Rena also said in a low voice.

That’s right, Bai Shi already knew about this, so he didn’t care about the smoke reaction.

"Then am I..." Mrs. Kimura saw this and hurriedly tried to get herself out first.

However, Shiraishi interrupted and said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, I understand how you feel right now, but from the perspective of the search... you are the only one who has the opportunity to change clothes."

This is her home...

If you can take a shower and change clothes, it won't be that troublesome to deal with the smoke reaction.

There was no reaction to the gunpowder smoke on her body, which meant nothing at all.

As for the pistol...

The lady could hide anywhere in the house, and as for the two agents, they had not been targeted at the first time, so they had plenty of opportunities to make the gun "disappear."

Shiraishi even suspected that even if the guns were still on them when the female police searched them, they would be able to find a way to hide them without being discovered!

"Theoretically, only three of you have the chance to commit the crime now. Please stay for now. We have something to ask you three individually." Bai Shi said seriously.

"Eh? Officer, I just heard that the vicious murderer should be the guy who knows the password of the safe house, right? In this case, it has nothing to do with me and the anchor lady, right?" Judy said in a very provocative manner, relying on her American identity.

"I think you must have heard it wrong... Who did you hear it from? I can ask him to leave the search team now." Bai Shi asked calmly.

"That's probably... I heard it wrong. My Dongdao dialect is really bad!" Judy probably wanted to find an excuse for "not being able to explain it clearly" later, and her Dongdao dialect became more and more strange.

"Manager Uesugi, please record their basic statements first, focusing on what they did during the banquet." Shiraishi instructed Uesugi who was standing aside.

Uesugi looked at his boss Iwami, and seeing that he didn't say anything, he nodded and said, "Yes."

After Uesugi led the three suspects away, Iwami asked in confusion, "Officer Shiraishi, don't you need to go and question them?"

"No, let the detectives ask first. I want to take a look at the scene first." Shiraishi shook his head and put on gloves, obviously wanting to take a closer look.

Ishimi frowned slightly at this time, and seemed to be doubting whether Shiraishi would investigate the case - why didn't he try the suspect?

Although Iwami is also a superintendent of police, he is a front-line worker after all, and it can be said that he has reached the ceiling of the "semi-professional group"!
When it comes to investigations, he would not trust anyone of the same rank as himself, unless they were the Chief of the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Otherwise, he knew very well that except for these few positions in the country, no other police officers above the rank of Superintendent would investigate the case...

But perhaps because Shiraishi was only in charge for this one night, Iwami didn't say much - he still had to "battle wits and courage" with the Chief Inspector of the National Police Agency tomorrow!
After Shiraishi revealed that the person who was coming was the Chief Inspector of the National Police Agency, the entire Aomori Prefectural Police Headquarters became overwhelmed.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and local prefectural police also have inspectors and chief inspectors, but they are all in the "Personnel Division" and are only responsible for the "internal supervision activities" of their headquarters.

The chief inspector of the Touto Metropolitan Police Department is a superintendent, while the chiefs of other local headquarters are mostly just inspectors...

However, looking at his duties, one can tell that he is a typical "low position with great power". Even if he is a police captain, he can act arrogantly in the county police headquarters.

The Chief Inspector of the National Police Agency serves under the "Chief Secretary's Office" and his direct supervisor is the Commissioner of the National Police Agency. He holds the rank of "Senior Inspector General". In theory, he can supervise all police officers across the country!

Even though they are all "Superintendents", they are the directors of local police stations and local headquarters... these "Superintendents" are not comparable to the Chief Inspector of the National Police Agency.

……

Shiraishi also noticed Iwami's emotions, but did not say much - compared to the testimony, Shiraishi was indeed more concerned about the scene this time, which made him seem a bit like a "detective" and not enough like a "police officer."

Although there is a saying that "the scene is checked a hundred times", for "police officers", if the suspect has been identified, the priority of questioning is obviously much higher than the on-site inspection.

But this time things are different...

Three suspects, two of them are agents!
What the hell can this question lead to?

Not to mention trying to get the truth, they are trained to lie, and their flaws are not easily spotted, and they are not afraid of being intimidated by any imposing manner - if they can't even do this, they won't carry out their current mission.

In this situation, Shiraishi can only pay more attention to the "on-site evidence".

And the situation at the scene right now is indeed strange...

"The deceased died in the safe house, and judging by his injuries, he was shot to death. His position was not such that he could be shot from the outside. In other words, the murderer must have dragged him inside and then closed the door from the outside. But... what's the matter with this book?" Shiraishi looked at the book in the evidence bag in confusion.

In this case, it would be a bit strange for the deceased to be holding a book in his hand!
If this was something the deceased wanted to convey, the murderer should have had enough time to destroy it.

"Perhaps this is the effect the murderer wanted." Iwami thought that this should be the murderer's disguise - the kind that is specifically designed to fool the "detective".

Bai Shi did not comment on this, and instead asked, "And the broken pieces of the vase outside...have they been sorted out?"

(End of this chapter)