Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 376, Question 370: Who in the world is not asleep?

The Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, Supervisor's Office.

As gatekeepers in the police bureaucracy, becoming a management officer means you can say you're an official in the police force.

Once you become a manager, you will also have your own private office.

From the officers down, such as police inspectors and police assistant inspectors, they work in the same large office area as other criminal police officers.

At most, the police inspector's "workstation" location is better.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this should be the last time Matsumoto Kiyonaga works through the night in this office.

Although this was Matsumoto Kiyonaga's last shift in the First Investigative Division's management office, he remained diligent and conscientious in his duties.

After all, he also wanted to fulfill his duties as a manager and take office as section chief with "glory".

Solving a major serial murder case before taking up his post is a rather impressive resume for an administrator who was promoted beyond his rank.

Unfortunately, this case is not so easy to solve.

At one o'clock in the morning, Matsumoto Kiyonaga put down the files he had read countless times and sighed heavily.

As the number of crimes increased, the police still couldn't find any connection between the victims.

The sixth victim left a death message before dying, which consisted of only three words: "Qixi Festival, Beijing".

Besides the clear reference to Qixi Festival, the "京" (Jing) character following it also left many police officers completely baffled.

It's not that the death message left by the victim was particularly mysterious; it's just that the victim was on the verge of death, and all the strength he had was enough to support him in leaving those three words.

"Ugh"

Matsumoto Kiyonaga checked the time, closed the file, locked it in the drawer, and then prepared to go to the lounge to rest.

Four days later is the joint investigation meeting involving criminal police from various prefectures. As the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, it is imperative to come up with some plausible inferences or conjectures by then.

Matsumoto Kiyonaga walked down the corridor of the First Investigation Division after leaving his office.

Although the First Investigation Division wasn't exactly brightly lit in the early morning, there were only a few fewer detectives working on the case compared to daytime.

There's nothing that can be done about it. With a mini-Gotham like Beika Town around, how could these detectives not be busy?
This is not something that Kiyoshi Matsumoto, a mere manager or section chief, can solve. Above him are high-ranking officials like department heads and the Superintendent General of Police, yet they still cannot resolve Tokyo's increasingly deteriorating public security situation.
As Matsumoto Kiyonaga walked to the corner of the corridor, he suddenly saw a cleaner pushing a cleaning cart.

Matsumoto Kiyoshi nodded to the cleaner subconsciously, then immediately realized what he meant.

wrong!

Why would there be cleaners working at the Metropolitan Police Department at this time?
The cleaning staff at the Metropolitan Police Department are different from the detectives; they get off work regular hours—they can't work overtime just because the detectives are working overtime, can they?

They don't get overtime pay for working overtime.

"What are you doing?" Matsumoto Kiyoshi walked toward the janitor who had his head down, his face stern. Just as he was about to ask his question, he suddenly saw the janitor take out a pen from his breast pocket.

A fountain pen?
A big question mark appeared in Matsumoto Kiyonaga's mind, and then he planned to make the "cleaner" look up.

Then a white light flashed, and a strong drowsiness swept over Matsumoto Kiyonaga.

"Yes, yes!" Matsumoto Kiyoshi wanted to shout for help, but unfortunately the anesthetic took effect quickly and strongly.

All I heard was him weakly utter two words, "yes," before collapsing to the ground, utterly exhausted.

Matsumoto Kiyona's last thought before falling into a deep sleep was: Damn it, how come he's behaving just like that kid Mori now?

At this point, the "cleaner," who had been keeping his head down and hat brim pulled low, finally raised his head, revealing Binga's distinctive face. He stepped forward to catch the collapsed Matsumoto Kiyonaga, then held his breath and listened intently.

After confirming that no one was around, Binga stuffed Matsumoto Kiyonaga into the space under the "cleaning vehicle" and then turned and left.

Before leaving, Binga waved to the camera in the corridor.

The previously motionless camera now pointed up and down at Binga. It was obvious that the person in the Metropolitan Police Department's monitoring room was one of their own.

Binga, pushing the cleaning cart, lowered his head again, naturally with the help of his organized accomplices to cover for him along the way.

After leaving the area of ​​the First Investigation Division, Binga breathed a slight sigh of relief.

It was already past midnight. Apart from the detectives in the First Investigation Division who would work through the night on cases, no other police unit in the Metropolitan Police Department was this busy.

Upon arriving at the elevator, Binga pressed the down button. He then proceeded smoothly to the underground parking lot.

A black MPV was already waiting at the elevator entrance in the parking lot.

After the cleaning truck was pushed out of the elevator by Binga, two other members of the organization got out of the car and helped Matsumoto Kiyonaga into the MPV.

The cleaning truck was then put into the trunk, but Binga did not get in.

After watching the black MPV leave, I walked to the corner of the parking lot, where another black MPV was waiting.

Opening the back door revealed Vermouth inside.

"Ready, Binga? Your undercover career is about to begin." Vermouth said to Binga with a smile, waving the disguise tools in her hand.

"I can not wait any more!"

Ever since Rum discovered that he had "two minds," Binga's life in the intelligence support department has been like Wang Xiaoer's New Year, getting worse year by year.

He thought this agonizing, hopeless life would never end, but then he suddenly received an offer from Ireland.

The deputy director of the intelligence department, and the deputy director handpicked by the boss.

This is clearly a move to pit Ireland against Rum.

Since there's no chance of advancement with Rum, why not seek another wise patron?
Binga gladly accepted the olive branch extended by Ireland; this mission was Ireland's test of Binga's true worth!

In any case, Binga had no way out but to complete this mission perfectly.

Several tens of minutes later, Binga, now with a different face, reappeared in the underground parking lot.

His mask has a built-in voice changer that allows Binga to speak in the voice of Matsumoto Kiyotaka.

It was the same elevator. Binga, with Matsumoto Kiyotaka's face, returned to the First Investigation Division's office area.

I happened to run into a criminal police officer who was working overtime in the corridor.

"Manager Matsumoto, you've worked hard!" The subordinate greeted "Matsumoto Kiyonaga" respectfully.

"You've all worked hard. Cases aren't solved in a day, so please take a rest." Binga's face was expressionless, but he spoke kind words.

"Yes, Manager Matsumoto!"

After parting ways with his subordinates in the corridor, Binga breathed a sigh of relief. Vermouth's disguise was indeed perfect; no one suspected him at all as "Matsumoto Kiyonaga."

Now it's up to the detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department to see how they perform.

(End of this chapter)