Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 51 Reasoning Lv2 [Seeking follow-up reading (ˉˉ)]

"Yes!"

The man with the mustache regained his train of thought and quickly stopped Megure who was about to continue questioning the sculptor.

"Officer, what if this guy deliberately created these traces with this in mind? Through a frame-up with obvious flaws... it's not impossible for him to clear himself of suspicion!"

"Hmph," Suwa Yuji sneered and interrupted the mustache man without waiting for Megure's response, "Mr. Mori, I thought you were Japan's leading detective...

Why would I go to all that trouble to do something like this? I'm not a suspect in the first place, so why should I clear myself of suspicion? Or do you have evidence that I tampered with the case?"

"This……"

The mustache got stuck again.

"Mr. Maru is a 3rd degree kendo master. Who else but you can kill him?"

"You're kidding," Suwa Yuji opened his eyes slightly and stared at the mustache-wearing man in a menacing manner. "How can this be justified? There are so many ways to kill someone. Even a 3rd degree kendo master is just an ordinary person. If he's hit in the vitals, he'll die. If you doubt me, please show me the evidence!"

The man with a mustache had sweat on his forehead and was at a loss when Gao Mo pushed him from behind.

"Mr. Suwa," Gao Mo looked directly at Suwa Yuji and asked, "The murder weapon outside should be the collateral you left with Mr. Maru, right?"

Suwa Yuji raised his eyebrows slightly: "So what?"

"That knife seems to be a famous knife?" Gao Mo asked tentatively, "It should be very valuable, right?"

"That's my family's heirloom sword, 'Kikuchiyo,'" Suwa Yuji continued to frown. "What do you want to say?"

"Why didn't you say anything just now?" Gao Mo observed Suwa Yuji's expression, "You were clearly going to pay back the money to redeem the family heirloom sword, but you didn't react at all after seeing it... Isn't that abnormal? Are you afraid?"

Suwa Yuji's body trembled violently.

"This... I'm just worried about being linked to the murder case. After all, the corpse... was mistaken for the murder weapon."

"Maori," Gao Mo pointed to the lattice cabinet next to him, "Try to reassemble these drawers, like a puzzle, and see if you can form some words... Some of the carvings on them are not coherent, maybe they have been moved."

Suwa Yuji was shocked again, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead when he looked at Gao Mo.

"Text?" Kogoro Mouri did as he was told subconsciously, and it took him a while to react.

Why does it seem like he became an assistant?
"Is it okay, Inspector Megure?" asked the man with a mustache.

"The evidence collection is over, it doesn't matter..."

"Find the densely packed curved indentations."

Gao Mo reminded him and turned to meet Mumu's puzzled gaze.

"Judging from the bloodstains at the scene, Marudenjiro probably didn't die instantly, but rather left a message of death with his last breath. After the murderer discovered this, he hastily destroyed the scene."

The police officers outside, Mrs. Wan, and the maid all looked at Gao Mo in surprise.

Suwa Yuji's forehead was covered in sweat, and even his imposing aura seemed to be suppressed: "Who are you?"

"He's Mr. Kindaichi, Mori's partner," Megure introduced him and then asked, "Could it be that Mr. Maru carved the death message on this cabinet?"

"That's for sure. The murderer arranged the scene like this not only to clear himself of suspicion, but also to hide the information on the cabinet through the knife marks. Otherwise, no matter how many times he swapped the drawers, it would still look strange."

Gao Mo took out the organized clue notes.

"Besides that, the murderer likely intended to frame Akutsu, who was also visiting today. He probably heard Akutsu's message here after 3:00 PM and learned about the sculpture. He then deliberately left the sculpture untouched when fabricating the scene."

"But there's no message on the answering machine," Suwa Yuji lowered his head, "and..."

"Unfortunately, I happened to check the time of Akutsu's call, and it was different from the time of your message."

Gao Mo interrupted directly.

The conversations and lessons I had with Kudo Yusaku kept flashing through my mind. I felt that all the gains I had made in the past few days had been integrated, and my thoughts entered a stage of inspiration.

"You were probably deleting Akutsu's message and were about to leave your own message when you heard Mr. Dokuumaru carving something in the room. You hurried back to deal with it, so you missed the time to leave your message."

"Appeared!"

Kogoro Mouri exclaimed in surprise and successfully restored all the drawers with the help of several police officers.

It is clearly visible that "Suwa" and "Kikuchiyo" were specially carved with a knife.

"This guy is indeed the murderer!"

"Can this be used as evidence?" Suwa Yuji's face twisted slightly. "Perhaps someone deliberately left this message using reverse thinking... Based on what you just said, it's not impossible."

"Mr. Maru thought of this and then carved 'Kikuchiyo'."

Gao Mo felt that his reasoning level was advancing towards level 2.

Although he mainly relies on his extraordinary vision, information analysis and logical reasoning are his own abilities.

Practice has greatly improved his understanding of detective knowledge.

"Maybe Akutsu also knows about Kikuchiyo." Suwa Yuji gritted his teeth and continued to refute.

"No," Maori Kogoro suddenly said with a serious expression, holding Marudenjiro's notebook in his hand, "Even if he knew, it would be useless. Although there is no specific time in this booklet, it actually hints at the order of your appointments."

After Gao Mo's reasoning, he seemed to have opened up all his ideas and regained his status as a famous detective.

"Mr. Maru and I have the same habit of taking notes," the man with a small mustache unfolded the notebook in his hand, "The names written on it are, in order, Hatano Ikuya, Maori Kogoro, Suwa Yuji, Akutsu Makoto...

In fact, they are all arranged according to meeting time. Yes, the one who visited after me was actually you!

"Suwa Yuji, you are the murderer of Mr. Maru!"

"What kind of evidence is that?" Suwa Yuji was furious. "Then tell me, what about Hatano Ikuya? If he came before you, how would I kill him?"

"This..." The man with a mustache was stuck again. Facing the questioning gazes of the crowd, his Adam's apple rolled and sweat rolled down his forehead in an instant.

There is some goods, but not much.

"That's because you didn't kill Dr. Hatano, of course."

Gao Mo sensed the threat from Suwa Yuji and stood behind the man with a mustache and took over the conversation.

The reasoning level has officially reached level 2.

"I don't think you're the type to kill someone with a family heirloom sword and stay at the scene. Dr. Hatano must have been killed here by Mr. Maru before we arrived.

"Although I don't know the specific reason, he used Kikuchiyo to frame you, but he didn't expect you to kill first."

"I think I know the reason."

The man with the mustache regained his detective temperament, as if he had entered his professional field, and turned his back to the hostess outside and shouted something.

"Mrs. Maru, you were only horrified when you found your husband dead, but you started crying when you saw the doctor's body. And I just noticed that the corpse had the same perfume as yours...

"Ma'am, Dr. Hatano is the person you are having an affair with. Mr. Maru may have discovered this before meeting me today."

"Affair?" Megure widened his eyes, not expecting it to unfold like this.

This inexplicable sense of familiarity...why does it feel like the same case as this one?
The murderer was killed by the murderer again, right?
"That's right," the man with the mustache said solemnly, "I came here today on Mr. Maru's request to investigate his wife's affair... Mr. Maru probably already has a suspect, and I'm just a detective he uses to get rid of the murder suspicion."

The man with the mustache turned to Suwa Yuji and said, "Do you still want to quibble? An ordinary person could indeed kill Mr. Maru, but the injuries caused by a kendo master should still be distinguishable! I think your motive for murder is..."

"It's because of the knife."

Suwa Yuji's expression calmed down again. Seeing Kikuchiyo being taken back by the police officer, he seemed to have given up on making excuses.

"I really needed money to get through the kendo gym's difficulties, so I had no choice but to mortgage our Suwa family heirloom. But that pig actually said he sold Kikuchiyo and said it was worthless. He said the money from the sale would be used as interest on the loan..."

"So you killed him?"

"Yes," Suwa Yuji breathed slowly, "The famous sword Kikuchiyo, considered a symbol of honor for the Suwa family, was actually... I couldn't stand it, and I lost my mind for a moment, so I picked up a decorative knife and did it like this..."

"Ok?"

Gao Mo's eyes narrowed suddenly.

There is no sense of death, but a bloody aura can be clearly seen around.

not good!

"Wow!"

Gao Mo activated Eagle Vision again, and the next moment he saw Suwa Yuji suddenly take a step forward and snatch the sword Kikuchiyo from the police officer's hands.

"I'm just... like this... chopping... in one breath..."

"call!"

Suwa Yuji drew his sword, lowered his body, and stepped at high speed with a ferocious expression. He was much more terrifying than the fake fat man who was just an ordinary person, and he appeared extremely fast even in the extraordinary dynamic vision.

The slow motion images are obviously several times faster than others.

Especially Kikuchiyo, who swung the sword with one hand, and hit the mustache man right in the middle of his head.

The mustache guy, who was the target of the attack, was completely unable to react, and the dull and sluggish expression on his face formed a sharp contrast with Suwa Yuji.

The aura of death emanating from this uncle has nothing to do with Marudenjiro; it's him who has been targeted by the god of death...

Don’t even think about it!!
Gao Mo gritted his teeth and grabbed the collar of the mustache man, pulling it back, just missing the tip by 1 centimeter before the blade fell.

Several strands of hair broke and fell.

"what?"

Suwa Yuji, whose sword missed, looked up in surprise and met Gao Mo's extraordinary glowing eyes, and his body shook violently.

For a moment, it seemed as if I saw the world of death.

When he came to his senses, the policemen behind him were already shouting and taking the sword away from him, pinning him to the ground.

What was that look just now?
Suwa Yuji did not resist. He looked up again and was puzzled to find that Gao Mo's eyes had returned to normal, as if he was just having an illusion.

"Mouri!" Megure, still in shock, called out to the mustache boy, "Are you okay?!"

"what……"

The man with a mustache had chattering teeth. He turned his head away as if in a daze and looked at the familiar fat face of Megure, almost shedding tears.

Scared to death.

I thought I was going to be hacked to death.

"I-I seem to be fine."

[Mission completed, rewards being drawn...]

Gao Mo in the back breathed a sigh of relief.

He was even more nervous than the mustache guy just now - this guy's health is so bad that he can't react at all.

Fortunately, the breath of death did not last, it was just a chain reaction.

After today, I will try to post both chapters at 12 noon.

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(End of this chapter)