Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 269 I saw the murderer commit the crime!

Conan followed Sawaki Kohei to the kitchen and found that he hadn't taken any water; instead, he was standing in front of a cabinet.

He was holding a clear glass bottle containing red powder.

I opened the bottle cap, dipped some powder in my pinky finger, and put it in my mouth.

"Mr. Sawaki, the mineral water should be in the refrigerator," Conan kindly reminded him.

"Really? I understand."

Ze Muping didn't explain why he tasted the chili peppers. He nodded slightly, put down the glass bottle, opened the refrigerator, took out some water, and left.

After the other person left, Conan found a chair to stand on and started working on the glass bottles on the cabinet.

"Ok?"

Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the row of glass bottles where the other person had just tasted the flavors contained chili powder.

Moreover, the chili pepper that the other person just picked up and tried was labeled as extra spicy.

"it's wired."

Is it possible for a sommelier to eat this much spicy food?

Conan frowned, noted down this suspicious point, and left with two bottles of beer and two bottles of soft drinks.

After a series of unexpected events, everyone lost interest in visiting the underwater restaurant and started discussing how to leave.

"Don't worry, Shiratori knows we're here. If we can't get in touch, he'll definitely bring people over," Inspector Megure reassured us. "Everyone, don't panic. Just like Mr. Shishido said, Murakami Jo isn't here. Even if he wanted to do something, he couldn't."

However, the premise is that everyone stays in the lobby and doesn't wander around, so as to avoid triggering any more mechanisms.

The Metropolitan Police Department's backup will arrive no later than tonight.

After being comforted by Inspector Megure, the invitees present were finally much more at ease.

Nana Koyama, who was initially worried that she would be the next victim, has recovered and even has the time to paint her flawed nails.

"Sister Xiaolan, what's wrong?"

Conan noticed that Ran seemed depressed; ever since they came downstairs, Ran seemed to have something on her mind.

"Among the people present, there are all those from 2 to 8, but where is 1?"

"Huh?" Conan was confused.

Ran said to herself, "I think '1' refers to Shinichi, right? Did that guy sneak in too?"

Conan was a little annoyed that his large size had worried Ran, and gently comforted her:

"Sister Ran, we've already searched the entire underwater restaurant, and we still can't find Murakami Jo, let alone Shinichi-nii. Besides, I just contacted Shinichi-nii yesterday, and he's currently investigating a case in Europe."

"Really?" Xiaolan clearly didn't believe it.

"Of course, Shinichi should be on the train from Istanbul to Calais, France right now."

"Does Natsukawa-nii also know that Shinichi is in Europe?" Ran asked curiously.

Why is it that she's the only one who doesn't know where Shinichi went?

"Of course, I just heard about it yesterday. Apparently, someone died in the car, and the murderer is still in the car. He is working with a famous detective to solve the case."

"Are Natsukawa-san and Shinichi also close?"

"No, that's not it. I have a lot of friends, and I heard from them that he was also in that car, and he's a suspect."

Conan was initially puzzled as to why Natsukawa would say he had also contacted his main account, but after hearing the rest, he rolled his eyes.

What? On the train from Istanbul to Calais, France? Isn't this just like the Orient Express murders?

Fortunately, Xiaolan wasn't very knowledgeable about detective novels, and most of what she knew was from Sherlock Holmes cases that she had heard about from him.

Speaking of the detective who teamed up with him, wasn't it Poirot?

Although he prefers Sherlock Holmes, it must be said that Poirot is also very impressive.

Conan nodded frantically, "So Ran-neechan, don't worry about Shinichi-nii, he's definitely not here."

"All right."

Xiaolan managed a weak smile, her worries lessening somewhat.

"Uncle Natsukawa, thank you." Conan said with a meaningful tone.

"No need to thank me, I just felt that if Xiaolan continued to daydream like this, it would be very dangerous if something happened later."

"Huh?" Conan's eyes widened. He thought Natsukawa meant that he already knew he was Shinichi Kudo and was helping him hide his identity. Wasn't that right?

Just as Conan was thinking this, the lights in the hall flickered on and off for no apparent reason.

The flickering lights, combined with the enclosed, underwater restaurant setting, created a somewhat frightening atmosphere.

Boom——

Everyone felt the ground beneath their feet tremble, and then the lights in the hall went completely dark.

"What happened!" Kogoro Mori shouted. "Everyone stay where you are and don't move. Watch out for traps and hidden weapons."

"There might be a problem with the power distribution room." Inspector Megure, with his rich experience, immediately realized the cause of the noise. "Don't move around. There must be a backup power source here! It should start automatically in a bit."

Conan crouched on the ground, looking around. The swaying made it impossible for him to stand up, and he didn't have time to turn on his watch-shaped spotlight.

"Wait! What is that?"

In the darkness, Conan suddenly noticed something glowing.

It was a purplish light, a color that stood out brightly in the pitch-black environment.

The purple light vanished inexplicably after a fleeting glimpse, leaving one bewildered.

"Oh no, it's Nana Koyama!"

Conan had a bad feeling. The color looked a lot like Nana Koyama's nail polish. He tried to steady himself and turned on his flashlight to check the situation.

However, when he turned on his flashlight and shone it on the spot where the light had just appeared, he found Nana Koyama lying motionless on the ground with a dagger stuck in her back.

"Damn it, who is it?"

The next moment, the backup power came on, and the light in the hall was restored.

"Nana Koyamachi is dead."

Kogoro Mouri's face turned green; the murderer dared to kill someone right in front of him.

“We’ve already checked, there couldn’t possibly be anyone else here.” Shishido Eimei was somewhat dazed. He only dared to tease Koyama Nana because he was certain that Murakami Jo wasn’t here.

Now that the other person is dead, according to the order of the playing cards, he will be the next one to die!
“It couldn’t be Murakami Takeshi.” Conan said after examining the body. “The time from the stab wound to the light turning on was no more than three seconds. It’s absolutely impossible to kill someone and leave in three seconds.”

"Is the culprit among us?" Kogoro Mouri scanned the crowd, trying to glean some clue from their expressions.

After examination, Nana Koyama was confirmed dead. She had only let out one scream throughout the entire incident, and there were no other clues.

However, because of Kogoro Mouri's deduction, everyone began to be wary of each other.

Even Inspector Megure, who was a police inspector, was suspected by the invitees.

After all, the reason for the gathering was too strange, and Inspector Megure initially concealed the situation, which made the invitees somewhat distrustful of him.

However, this is exactly the scene that Sawaki Kohei wanted to see.

The more chaotic the scene, the more opportunities he has to make a move; he still has another target.

"Um... actually, I saw the murderer in the darkness just now." Xia Chuan coughed twice, drawing everyone's attention.

"How can it be!"

"Really? Brother Natsukawa!" Inspector Megure's eyes lit up. It was definitely the right choice to involve Natsukawa in this case. He never expected that Natsukawa could still discover the culprit under those circumstances!
He was certain that Xia Chuan was not lying. After all, he had known Xia Chuan for so long, and the other party seemed to have never lied. Every time, Xia Chuan had provided important clues.

Ze Mugong was horrified. How could this person named Xia Chuan have seen him in the dark?

"Are you trying to trick me?"

Just as this thought crossed his mind, Sawaki Kohei saw Natsukawa looking at him.

He thought to himself, "This is bad," and his arm stiffened, unsure of what to do with it.

"Mr. Natsukawa, have you discovered something?"

Xia Chuan didn't say anything, just stared straight at him.

"Hey, what do you mean?"

Ze Muping swallowed hard, a fine sheen of cold sweat appearing on his forehead, and he began to panic.

"I close my eyes before the lights go out, so I adapt to the darkness faster than any of you. Besides, I'm naturally the kind of person who can see quite clearly at night."

Just now, I saw with my own eyes Sawaki Kohei run up behind Koyama Nana and stab her to death.

Upon hearing this, the others quickly distanced themselves from Ze Mu Gongping.

"How could it be me? You all saw it just now. I didn't know Nana Koyama at all before."

“What he said seems to make sense.” Peter Ford nodded. “How could two people who have no connection kill each other? There must be a motive for killing Nana Oyama.”

Was the murder merely a spur-of-the-moment decision, or was it that he didn't care who died, and simply wanted to kill?

Peter Ford's thinking was a bit off. Conan's lips twitched. How could that be? There must be a reason for murder. After all, murder carries a sentence of at least ten or twenty years. How could someone just kill someone casually?

“Mr. Xia Chuan, we only met today. Why are you framing me? I was standing here the whole time and didn’t move. She was so far away from me, it couldn’t have been me who did it.”

Suddenly inspired, Zeki exclaimed in surprise, "Could it be that Mr. Natsukawa has been the killer all along? Judging from the distance between you and the victim, you should have had plenty of time to go over, stab her, and then run back to your original position."

“That’s no fun, Mr. Sawaki.”

"Your distance is manageable. As long as you pinpoint your location before the lights go out, and rush over the instant the lights disappear, you'll definitely make it in time."

Xia Chuan shrugged, walked to the body, and grabbed Koyama Nana's arm, which was now devoid of warmth. "Since you refuse to confess and instead try to frame me, a good person, then don't blame me for being impolite."

"Look, everyone, Nana Koyama has always had the habit of getting manicures, but one of her manicures has fallen off. I remember she was getting her nails done before the lighting went wrong, and all ten of her manicures were still on."

Following Xia Chuan's prompting, everyone looked and discovered that the deceased's slender fingers had brightly colored purple nail polish.

This color of nail art looks exceptionally good on fair and slender arms, but the only flaw is that the nail art on one finger is missing.

Ze Muping's expression stiffened, but he didn't think it was any kind of evidence: "Maybe it fell at some point. After all, it was pitch black just now. Maybe it fell when she was panicking, or when she was struggling during the attack by the murderer. What does it have to do with me?"

Xia Chuan's expression turned cold. "You're right about one thing: the fingernail did indeed fall off when I was struggling during the attack by the culprit."

Xia Chuan squatted down and looked at the ground, then said, "I don't know if you've noticed, but the manicure isn't on the ground. Where do you think it could have fallen if it's missing?"

"How am I supposed to know where her fingernails went!"

Conan listened quietly to Natsukawa's reasoning. He felt that the fingernail should belong to Sawaki Kohei, otherwise Natsukawa wouldn't have needed to say so much.

"I guess it's in the killer's pocket, Mr. Zeki, what do you think?"

After saying that, Natsukawa raised his hand to stop everyone from looking at his pockets, staring intently at Sawaki Kohei: "Mr. Sawaki, you're so far away from the deceased, surely that fingernail wouldn't have fallen into your pocket? However, in order to verify that my reasoning is wrong, I would like to ask Mr. Sawaki to have Inspector Megure check your pockets."

"Of course, to be fair, after checking Mr. Sawaki, Inspector Megure can check the rest of us."

Ze Muping narrowed his eyes and unconsciously raised his arm.

He wanted to check his pockets to see if the manicured nail polish was still there.

To be honest, he was in such a hurry that he didn't even notice whether Nana Koyama had accidentally dropped her nail polish into his pocket.

"Is that alright, Mr. Sawaki?"

Upon hearing this, Inspector Megure immediately took a step forward.

"."

Ze Mu Gongping lowered his head and remained silent, his hand already reaching into his pocket.

The next moment, his expression turned extremely ugly.

There was indeed a flat object in his pocket, and if Natsukawa was not mistaken, that was evidence that he killed Nana Koyama!
Xia Chuan didn't give Ze Mu a chance to speak fairly, and took out another piece of paper.

"This just fell out of Nana Oyama's handbag by accident. It has a vehicle repair schedule from three months ago on it. This afternoon when I came to your house, I saw a medical record on your table. It seems that Mr. Sawaki lost his sense of taste due to a car accident."

As a sommelier, losing your sense of taste is like losing a hand; you must hate the person who brought you this misfortune, right?

Xia Chuan waved the receipt before continuing to explain, "There's a very coincidental thing here: the times you had your car repair and your doctor's visit are highly consistent. We've been thinking wildly, making bold guesses and carefully verifying them. Is it possible that the person who caused you to lose your sense of taste in the car accident three months ago was Nana Koyama?"

And that's why you just killed Nana Koyama.

"A brilliant deduction." Sawaki Kohei closed his eyes as if sensing something. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

“Mr. Natsukawa, as Mr. Mori said, you have indeed helped him a lot with your reasoning, and even suspected me based on just two documents. However, it’s not always better to be more outstanding; sometimes being a little stupid is not necessarily a bad thing.”

His gaze swept over everyone, finally settling on Xia Chuan: "Originally, I intended to let you live, but you forced me to. If you want to blame someone, blame Xia Chuan; he's the one who killed you."

He expressionlessly put his hand in his trouser pocket and pulled something out.

What do you mean?
Conan was confused, but he felt that what the other party had taken out at this moment was dangerous. Just as he was about to warn Uncle Mori, Natsukawa pressed his head down.

(End of this chapter)