Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 17 Evidence on the Arm
"Yes, that's true." Officer Tomi nodded.

"As I said earlier, this is just normal," Lin Xiuyi continued, "There are many other factors that can affect rigor mortis after death, such as temperature."

"Temperature?" Hibari was stunned. "Is this why the murderer turned on the air conditioner and set the temperature so low?"

"That's right," Lin Xiuyi confirmed. "Rigor mortis occurs because muscle metabolism ceases after death, causing glycogen to degrade under hypoxic conditions, producing lactic acid, which rapidly lowers the pH. In an acidic environment, ATPase activity increases, causing ATP to break down into ADP. The released energy causes actin and myosin to combine to form actomyosin, which in turn causes muscle stiffness."

"Temperature significantly affects this process. High temperatures accelerate the degradation of glycogen and increase the activity of ATPase, thus causing muscle stiffness to occur earlier. Low temperatures, on the contrary, slow down the degradation of glycogen and weaken the activity of ATPase, thus delaying the onset of muscle stiffness."

"Dr. Kobayashi," Vice Principal Inoue confirmed, "Is he right?"

"Although the process is a bit simplified, it's not wrong." Dr. Kobayashi nodded and looked at Lin Xiuyi in surprise. "How do you know all this?"

This knowledge is not new to doctors, but it is a bit strange that a high school student knows this.

"After my parents passed away, one of the relatives who adopted me was a doctor," Lin Xiuyi made up on the spot. "I saw all this in her collection of books."

Inspector Samezaki asked, "Lin-kun, where is the evidence for your statement?"

"When I was checking the activity room just now, I noticed a lot of condensation on the wall below the air conditioner, which means it was still cooling a while ago," Lin Xiuyi explained. "In addition, the temperature of the air conditioner has been lowered to 16 degrees."

"The Judo Club didn't have any activities during the day, and no students were using the activity room. The air conditioning in the activity room should have been turned off."

"Besides that, generally speaking, the air conditioning temperature in the gymnasium is set between 26 and 28 degrees. I've already confirmed this with Maori."

"That's right," Maori Kogoro nodded hurriedly, "I turned off the air conditioner in the activity room when I left yesterday. The temperature definitely wasn't as low as 16 degrees."

"The gymnasium's air conditioning shouldn't be set too low," the PE teacher said. "If it's too low, students will easily get cramps or catch a cold after exercising."

"It's very hot outside today, almost over 30 degrees Celsius," Lin Xiuyi continued. "And the air conditioner in the activity room is set too low. After continuously cooling, it suddenly turns off, allowing the hot air outside to rush in. When it hits the cold wall below the air conditioner, it condenses and forms condensation."

"This condensation water is evidence that the murderer turned on the air conditioner."

"The murderer did this to delay the onset of rigor mortis, thereby affecting the police's judgment and creating an alibi for himself."

"Am I right, Minister Hoshino?"

"Even so, what makes you say that I killed Hayato?" Hoshino Teru gritted his teeth and said, "Others could also be the murderer, especially Makino."

"Haha, Makino Shinji was just a scapegoat you had no choice but to find," Lin Xiuyi sneered. "You originally thought that as long as you disguised Doi Hayato's death as hanging, the police would most likely conclude that it was suicide."

"But you didn't expect that I would reveal your hanging disguise so quickly." "Although you also used temperature to change the rigor mortis period and create an alibi for yourself."

"But this isn't safe, because you were the last person to see Doi Hayato during lunch break. To avoid the police's attention and to give them a direction for their investigation, you mentioned Makino Shinji."

"He may have said that he wanted to take revenge on Doi Hayato, but he definitely wouldn't be the murderer!" Lin Xiuyi said with certainty, "Because the deceased Doi Hayato has left evidence on the body of the real murderer, you!"

"You're talking nonsense! Where's the evidence?" Hoshino Teru's face turned pale, but his right hand subconsciously raised to cover his left arm.

"During lunch break today, you found an excuse to invite Doi Hayato to this activity room. Then, while he was off guard, you strangled him with a rope. As he struggled, he scratched your arm with his fingers," Lin Xiuyi said. "The bloody and fleshy fragments that Officer Tomi and I found under the nail of Doi's right index finger were from your arm."

"I, I didn't..." Hoshino Teru kept backing away.

Inspector Megure stepped forward and wanted to check his arm, but was thrown over the shoulder by Hoshino Teru and fell onto the tatami.

Kogoro Mouri rushed forward to help, but was also grabbed by the arm by Teru Hoshino and thrown forward.

Seeing that he was about to take a shoulder throw like Inspector Megure, at the critical moment, Kogoro Mouri remembered the grappling techniques that Hideichi Hayashi had taught him before.

At the moment of falling, he also tripped Hoshino Teru to the ground with his legs. Then, while the two were struggling, Maori Kogoro grabbed Hoshino Teru's neck and prevented him from getting up.

Seeing this, other police officers also rushed forward to help. However, I don’t know if it was the characteristic of Japanese police, but these police officers actually pounced on Kogoro Mouri and Teru Hoshino one after another, and directly used the method of stacking people to pin the two men firmly under them.

Officer Megure also quickly got up, took out the handcuffs, found Hoshino Teru's hands in the crowd and handcuffed them tightly, and then let the police officers who were stacked up in a human pyramid stand up one by one.

"I, I was almost crushed to death just now!" Maori Kogoro complained breathlessly, "Can't you try another way?"

"Sorry," Officer Megure explained with a dry laugh, "That's what we teach in the police academy. Using the human pyramid method can completely suppress the criminal's actions."

Lin Xiuyi walked up to Hoshino Teru and pulled up his left sleeve. A bloodstain was clearly visible on the exposed left arm.

"Now, what else do you have to say?"

"I..." The expression on Hoshino Teru's face turned fierce, "That guy Hayato deserves it, he deserves to die! He was the one who betrayed me first!"

"Aren't you two good friends?" Maori Kogoro asked in confusion. "You both achieved such great results in the National Judo League last year. Why…"

"It's all because of Makino Shinji!" Hoshino Teru snorted coldly, "Although that guy only joined the judo club last year, his talent in judo is higher than both Hayato and I!"

(End of this chapter)