Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 10 The Lost Ring

After showing the family ring to her three good sisters, Rina Hase put it back into the wooden box, put a talisman on it, and returned it to its original place in the bedroom.

But just now, when she went back to the bedroom to get something, she noticed that the wooden box had been moved and the talisman on it was not in the right place.

Hase Rina hurriedly opened the wooden box and found that the sapphire ring inside was missing.

From the time she showed the ring to her friend to the time it was lost, less than an hour passed.

During this period, no one else came to the apartment.

The person who stole the ring was obviously one of Hase Rina's three good sisters.

The first person Rina Hase suspected was the brown-haired Saki Imagawa.

After graduating from university, Saki Imagawa married a wealthy businessman and often showed off her wealthy family in front of others.

However, recently, due to failed investments, Saki Imagawa's husband not only lost a large sum of money, but also owed a lot of debts.

Although Saki Imagawa tried hard to hide it in front of her good sisters and tried her best to maintain her previous wealthy image.

But it was inevitable that other people would know about her husband's investment bankruptcy.

Rina Hase therefore suspected that it was Saki Imagawa who stole the ring and wanted to sell it to help her husband pay off his debts.

The two started arguing about this, and then it turned into a fight. Not only did they break the window on the balcony side, but Saki Imagawa also pushed Rina Hase off the balcony, almost killing her.

The second suspect is the woman who reeks of alcohol, Keiko Kawamura.

Keiko Kawamura's husband is the financial director of a large company. He often takes advantage of the company's management loopholes, embezzles public funds to speculate in stocks, and then makes up the money when he makes a profit.

Last month, the stock market plummeted, and Kawamura Keiko's husband lost all his savings, including the embezzled public funds.

If the misappropriated public funds are not replenished in time and the process is delayed for too long, the company will definitely notice it.

If it is discovered that Kawamura Keiko's husband has embezzled public funds, he will not only face imprisonment, but the Kawamura family may also lose their house.

In order to repay the public funds, Kawamura Keiko once revealed her family situation to Hase Rina, hoping to borrow money to tide over the difficulties, but was rejected by Hase Rina.

Although Kawamura Keiko only revealed the family situation to Hase Rina, she didn't expect that the matter had been spread by Hase Rina and known to everyone.

Therefore, Saki Imagawa judged that Keiko Kawamura was the one who needed the most money and was most likely to steal the ring.

In addition, there has been a long-standing feud between Keiko Kawamura and Rina Hase.

Rina Hase divorced her husband because he cheated on her. This was not a good thing, so she hid the real reason from others and just said that her relationship with her husband had broken down.

However, Keiko Kawamura somehow found out that her husband was cheating on her and told other people about it, causing Rina Hase to lose face among her sisters.

This is also the reason why when Keiko Kawamura encountered difficulties, Rina Hase not only did not lend her money, but also spread her husband's affairs.

The third suspect is the short-haired woman, Mika Hirata, who reached out and grabbed Rina Hase and saved her life.

She has an average appearance, an average family background, and her husband is just an ordinary company employee. Although her life is dull, she has not encountered any problems. Among the three women, she is the least suspicious.

"After putting the ring back into the box, did you four stay together the whole time, or did anyone leave in the middle?" asked Inspector Samezaki.

"After viewing the rings, the four of us sat in the living room and talked about our college days," Hase Rina said. "In the middle of that time, all three of them went to the bathroom alone."

"What's the order?" Officer Matsumoto pressed. "First, Keiko, then me," Imagawa Saki replied, "and finally, Mika."

"When looking at the ring, did the three of them touch the ring or the box containing the ring?" asked Officer Morimura.

"None of that," Rina Hase recalled the scene. "I opened the box and put it on the coffee table in the living room for them to see."

"Because the ring is cursed, I didn't let the three of them touch it."

"Your hands..." Lin Xiuyi interrupted, "Why are they all injured?"

"I was scratched by Rina when we were fighting just now."

Imagawa Saki looked at the scattered scratches on her hands and snorted coldly.
"But she didn't get any advantage. I pulled out several clumps of her hair."

The wound on Kawamura Keiko's hand was on the palm. She explained: "Before I came here, I drank a lot of alcohol and fell on the road. That's when my hand was cut."

"What about you?" Lin Xiuyi looked at Mika Hirata, who had almost no presence. There was a long scratch on the back of her right hand, and blood was still oozing out.

Mika Hirata thought for a moment and said, "This must have been scratched by Rina's nails when I grabbed her just now."

Rina Hase raised her hands and looked at them, and sure enough, she found bloodstains on the fingernails of her right hand.

She quickly apologized: "I was too scared at the time, so I accidentally scratched you. There should be iodine at home. I will help you find it now."

Rina Hase was very grateful to her savior, and quickly found iodine to disinfect Mika, and then put on a Band-Aid.

"Hey, Saki and I have injured our hands too," Kawamura Keiko reminded when she saw Rina Hase finishing treating the wound on Meika's hand and was about to put the iodine and Band-Aid back.

Rina Hase obviously still held a grudge against her two friends, so she simply threw the iodine and Band-Aids on the coffee table and let them deal with it themselves.

While the three women were treating the wounds on their hands, Lin Xiuyi wandered around the apartment.

Rina Hase is indeed a rich woman. This apartment is very large, more than 50 pings, or nearly square meters.

In addition to the living room, dining room and kitchen, the apartment also has three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

One bathroom is inside Rina Hase's bedroom, and the other is opposite her bedroom.

From the living room to Rina Hase's bedroom, there is a corner corridor.

People sitting in the living room cannot see Rina Hasegawa's bedroom and the bathroom opposite.

This is how the thief was able to steal the ring without alerting others.

Hayashi Shuichi walked into Rina Hase's bedroom, wanting to see if he could find any evidence. Inspector Samezaki obviously had the same idea as him.

Unfortunately, after a detailed search by the two, they did not find anything valuable.

Coming out of the bedroom, Lin Xiuyi was wondering if he had missed something when he heard Maori Kogoro suddenly laugh in surprise, then shouted, "I know who the thief is!"

His shout immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Kogoro, this is not a joke," Kisaki Eri kindly reminded, "You need evidence for what you say."

"I don't have any evidence yet," Maori Kogoro said with a smug smile, "but I know how to determine who the murderer is."

(End of this chapter)