Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 343 When there's work to be done, the secretary does it; when there's nothing to do, there's nothing

Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of them, Inspector Samezaki could only look at Hayashi Hideichi with a glimmer of hope in his eyes, wishing he could find something.

“Let’s wait for the detailed report from the forensic department,” Lin Xiuyi thought for a moment. “But I have a feeling that the murderer put the head in the convenience store’s freezer on purpose, hoping that someone would find it.”

"Intentionally?" Inspector Megure looked puzzled. "Shouldn't murderers try their best to hide evidence?"

“Although the head was disfigured, the wounds were carefully cleaned,” Lin Xiuyi analyzed. “Why go through all this trouble if the goal is to completely destroy the evidence? Unless the head has another purpose for the murderer.”

"But what's the point?" Inspector Megure scratched his head in confusion. "Could it be that the killer was deliberately provoking the police?"

“The deceased was dismembered and disfigured,” Lin Xiuyi shook his head. “Either the two sides had a deep-seated hatred, or the murderer had other motives. The most urgent task is to find the other parts of the body.”

Before he could finish speaking, Officer Matsumoto rushed in through the door: "Inspector! We just received a report that a headless female corpse has been found by the river!"

"No way?" Lin Xiuyi and the other two looked at each other in surprise.

What a coincidence! They were just saying they were looking for the remaining bodies, and they found them so quickly?

……

Lin Xiuyi wanted Lingzi to accompany Eri back to the izakaya to rest, but Eri insisted on going to the scene with him.

“I want to be a lawyer in the future,” the girl took a deep breath, trying not to make her voice tremble. “I’ll have to get used to this kind of situation sooner or later, so I might as well start getting used to it now.”

Lin Xiuyi looked at her stubbornly pursed lips and wanted to persuade her that she didn't have to pursue the path of a criminal lawyer, but considering Fei Yingli's temper, he could only nod in the end.

Seeing this, Lingzi naturally refused to stay behind alone and insisted on going with her brother to take care of him.

Only then did Inspector Samezaki learn that Hayashi Hideichi had been unconscious the previous night.

“Running an izakaya while studying is too hard,” he kindly reminded her. “Didn’t you make a lot of money from that last commission? That should be enough for your university tuition, right? Why don’t you close the izakaya?”

He was referring to the commission to investigate the death of Ichiro Ito, the leader of the Sumiyoshi-kai, from which Hideichi Hayashi earned ten million yen.

Inspector Megure, who was driving, glanced at the rearview mirror in surprise upon hearing this. What kind of request could earn enough for college tuition in one go?
"It's nothing, I've just been a bit busy lately," Lin Xiuyi shook his head. "Yukiko should be back this weekend, then things will be a bit easier."

Upon hearing Yukiko's name, a hint of disappointment flashed in Eri Kisaki's eyes.

Yukiko can help Shuichi manage the izakaya, but she herself can't even burn an egg when she's frying it...

Thinking of this, the girl unconsciously bit her lower lip.

Just then, a warm hand covered the back of her hand.

Eri looked up and met Hideaki Hayashi's gentle gaze: "You've helped me a lot too. Everyone has different strengths."

“Shuichi…”

Eri felt a warmth in her heart, her eyes reddened slightly, and she gently leaned against her childhood friend.

Seeing this, Reiko immediately grabbed her brother's other arm, not to be outdone.

The back seat suddenly became a heartwarming yet comical scene, making the two police officers in the front row burst into laughter.

The police car was parked on the riverbank. At Lin Xiuyi's urging, Fei Yingli only stood outside the police line, glanced at the body from a distance, and did not approach.

Lin Xiuyi walked down the slope. The soil by the river was still a little damp from the rain of the past few days, and she sank slightly when she stepped on it.

The body was placed on a plastic sheet, and a forensic examiner was conducting a preliminary examination.

Like the head found in the convenience store, the neck cut of the corpse was also carefully cleaned, with the cut surface so neat that it looked almost like the result of surgery.

A police officer handed over a woman's wallet. The identification inside showed that the deceased was named Mari Ogasawara and worked for a trading company.

“There are multiple bruises on the body,” Inspector Megure said as he crouched down to examine the body. He quickly noticed several purplish-black marks on the body’s arms and abdomen. “The colors vary in shade, so they must have been caused at different times. The body may have suffered prolonged violent beatings before death.”

Inspector Samezaki signaled to Tommy from the forensic department to bring over the head that had been found earlier at the convenience store.

When the disfigured head, ravaged by sulfuric acid, was carefully placed around the corpse's neck, the officers present unconsciously held their breath.

The wounds on the head and the body could barely be matched, but Inspector Megure frowned: "Something feels off..." "A section of the neck is missing," Lin Xiuyi pointed out the problem.

“Indeed.” Inspector Samezaki nodded. “His neck is noticeably shorter than normal.”

“There are people with short necks, too,” Inspector Megure said uncertainly. “Could we be overthinking it?”

"...Let's find the deceased's relatives and the people from her company first," Inspector Samezaki instructed. "Then we'll know whether she was born with a short neck."

……

Using the identification documents found in the wallet, the police quickly contacted the deceased's relatives and colleagues at his workplace.

The first to arrive was Yuto Ogasawara, the younger brother of the deceased Mari Ogasawara.

He was a young man in his early twenties, wearing a wrinkled shirt and jeans, his hair as messy as if he had just gotten out of bed.

Upon seeing the corpse, his face turned deathly pale, and his lips trembled uncontrollably.

“One-san…” Yuto Ogasawara choked out, then rushed over and lay on the corpse, weeping bitterly.

“This…” Inspector Samezaki crouched down and said softly, “Although we found your sister’s wallet on the body, because the head found at another convenience store was disfigured, we cannot yet confirm that she is…”

Before he could finish speaking, he was excitedly interrupted by Yuto Ogasawara.

“No, she is Eunice!” The young man looked up, his red eyes filled with grief and anger.

He pointed to the corpse's right wrist, his voice hoarse: "Eunice has a small mole on the inside of his wrist, he's been there since he was a child! I can't mistake him!"

Inspector Samezaki carefully turned the body's wrist over and found a small brown mole the size of a mung bean on the inside of the right wrist.

He nodded, signaling to Inspector Megure beside him to record the feature.

At that moment, a middle-aged man in a well-tailored suit rushed to the scene. Upon seeing him, Yuto Ogasawara immediately jumped up like an enraged lion and pounced on him.

"You bastard!"

Yuto Ogasawara roared and punched President Okawa in the face with a dull thud.

"You must have killed Eunice! It must have been you..."

Yuto Ogasawara's voice was distorted with anger, and as he raised his fist again, he was stopped in time by the police officers who had reacted.

"President Okawa, please confirm the identity of the body..."

Inspector Megure led the still-shaken middle-aged man to the body.

President Okawa took out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat from his forehead and the blood from the corner of his mouth. He first looked at the corpse's face, which had been disfigured by sulfuric acid, with horror, and then wrinkled his nose in disgust.

His gaze then swept over the corpse's wrist, and his expression turned even more grim when he saw the small mole.

"It's...it's definitely Ogasawara..." President Okawa's voice trembled, "She...she's my secretary."

"Why would Mr. Ogasawara say that you killed his sister?" Inspector Samezaki questioned.

"This..." President Okawa swallowed hard and hurriedly explained, "Mari and I... had an affair, but I really didn't kill her!"

"You bastard, you must have killed Ernest!"

Yuto Ogasawara, who was being held by the police officers, roared angrily.
“Ever since he joined your company, Onassis has been staying out all night, and when he comes home the next day, he’s covered in injuries! You dare say you didn’t do those things?”

"It must have been when you beat Eunice again that you accidentally hit her too hard and killed her!"

Ogasawara's words reminded Hayashi Hideichi of the bruises of varying depths on the corpse.

He looked at President Okawa and noticed that the other man's forehead was covered in more sweat and his eyes were becoming unfocused.

"President Okawa, is what he said true? Do you often beat up Ms. Ogasawara?"

(End of this chapter)