Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Before the girl could finish speaking, she was gently patted on the head.

It's Kotona Kujo.

She had walked over at some point and was standing behind her daughter with a gentle smile on her face.

"Don't disturb Shuichi's concentration." Kotona Kujo pinched her daughter's chubby cheek. "Shuichi needs to focus on solving the case right now. How can he concentrate if you keep chattering away?"

"understood."

Lingzi quickly admitted her mistake, covering her cheeks with her hands where her mother had pinched her, but her big eyes remained fixed on Lin Xiuyi.

After disciplining her daughter, Kotona Kujo did not leave immediately.

She glanced at Lin Xiuyi, then leaned closer and whispered, "Good luck, Xiuyi."

Lin Xiuyi was slightly taken aback and looked at her aunt.

Kotona Kujo's smile held a hint of mischief, and her eyes clearly said, "I have high hopes for you."

Seeing Lin Xiuyi's surprised look, Kujo Kotona smiled and whispered, "Haven't you realized yet? Keiji clearly doesn't want to lose to a junior like you, and he's been working incredibly hard on this case. You absolutely have to beat him!"

Ugh?
Upon hearing this, Lin Xiuyi subconsciously looked up in the direction of Kujo Yoshiyuki.

The usually serious prosecutor uncle was now standing in another corner of the coffee shop, his brow furrowed, his gaze shifting back and forth between the three suspects.

His lips moved slightly, as if he were talking to himself, or as if he were silently reciting something.

Lin Xiuyi has known Kujo Yoshiyuki for so many years, and he has rarely seen him so focused and dedicated.

This uncle is usually calm and composed, and he is always confident in everything he does.

But now, his brows are furrowed into a deep frown, clearly stumped by the case.

"Mom, I'm going to tell Dad what you just said." Reiko grinned mischievously. "You actually want Dad to lose to Onii-chan."

“You’re the same.” Kotona Kujo patted her daughter’s head and laughed nonchalantly. “You were just saying that you wanted Shuichi to be the first to find the murderer.”

The mother and daughter smiled at each other, then looked at Lin Xiuyi together.

Two pairs of eyes, one gentle, the other innocent, yet both carrying the same expectation and encouragement.

Lin Xiuyi felt immense pressure from their stares and could only nod in agreement while quickly hiding to the side.

He needs to calm down and think carefully about this case.

But involuntarily, the image of Yukiko and Eri leaving in a hurry appeared in my mind.

What exactly did those two girls discover?
……

Meanwhile, Yukiko and Eri had already arrived at the alley next to the coffee shop.

The alley was narrow, with mottled walls on both sides covered with moss, graffiti, and advertising posters.

Sunlight streamed in through the gap between the two buildings, casting dappled shadows on the damp ground.

A faint musty smell permeated the air, along with the distinctive fishy stench of the sewers.

There are several drains on the ground, and the iron grates are rusted, with the gaps filled with cigarette butts and fallen leaves.

Several black garbage bags were piled up in the corner, emitting a foul odor.

The alley was cold and damp, a stark contrast to the sunny commercial street outside.

"Is it really here?" Yukiko looked around at her surroundings with some uncertainty, her brows furrowing slightly.

Her high heels creaked on the damp ground as she walked carefully, each step lest she step on something she shouldn't.

"This place is secluded, and few people come here, making it perfect for hiding or concealing something." Eri, however, showed no fear. She crouched down and carefully examined the marks on the ground.

“Look here.”

She pointed to a patch of ground next to the drain. The moss there showed signs of being trampled, with several shallow footprints.

The footprints were small, and they must have been from a woman's shoe.

“If Matsuzaka Yuuki really is the murderer, and if she returned to the coffee shop with bags of groceries after leaving,” Eri Kisaki continued her analysis, “then she couldn’t have been carrying those shopping bags the whole time. Shopping bags are too conspicuous; she would have found a place to hide them first.”

Yukiko's eyes lit up: "You mean, she hid the bag here?"

“Possibly.” Eri Kisaki stood up, her gaze slowly moving along the wall. “And the waitress said there was a damp stain on the bottom of one of the bags. If she left the bag here, in these damp places…”

She pointed to a patch of ground next to the drain, which was noticeably wetter than the rest of the area, with a small puddle of water.

“If you put the bag here, the bottom will get wet,” Eri Kisaki said. “The location and size of the wet stains are probably related to the angle at which the bag is placed on the ground.”

Yukiko leaned closer to look, and the more she looked, the more sense it made.

She looked around, then suddenly pointed to a spot in the corner and said, "Look there!"

There, in the corner where the wall met the floor, were several old cardboard boxes piled up, covered in dust.

But next to the cardboard box, there was a small open space where the moss had clearly been disturbed, revealing the dark ground underneath.

The two girls exchanged a glance and walked over together.

Yukiko carefully parted the cardboard boxes, while Eri squatted down to examine the patch of moss that had been disturbed.

“Someone left something here,” Eri Kisaki said definitively. “The moss marks are still fresh, so it must have happened today.”

"Where is that thing?" Yukiko looked around. "If she left something here and then took it away, that means..."

She stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence.

Because she saw that there was a small thing stuck in the gap of the cardboard box.

That was a receipt.

It was crumpled into a ball and stuffed into the gaps of a cardboard box; you wouldn't notice it unless you looked closely.

Yukiko reached out and carefully took out the receipt.

She unfolded the crumpled paper and leaned in with Eri to look at it.

The handwriting on the receipt was a bit blurry, but the key information was still legible.

"A certain brand of clothing store, yesterday at 11:23 AM, item: one dress, amount:..."

The price and time are listed next.

yesterday.

Not today.

Yukiko and Eri Kisaki looked at each other again, this time unable to suppress their excitement.

Yuki Matsuzaka said she bought the skirt an hour ago. But the receipt clearly states that it was bought yesterday.

Moreover, this receipt appeared in this alley, in the most likely place to hide the item.

What does this mean?
This suggests that Yuki Matsuzaka bought a skirt yesterday and brought it to the vicinity of the coffee shop today, possibly to create the illusion that "I'm shopping."

There must be some important reason why she would go to such lengths to lie and cover it up. (End of Chapter)