Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

Chapter 356 They're in cahoots

It was Yusaku Kudo who came to the villa, not Kogoro Mouri.

This also spared Kogoro the pain of acupuncture.

Sakurai died under a street lamp, and the street lamp above him was smashed.

Not only the streetlights, but the windows of the villa opposite the streetlights were also shattered.

"Whose room has the broken glass?" Yusaku Kudo asked.

“Mine,” Ishibashi stepped forward and said.

Da Shan frowned and said:

"Could it be that Ishibashi-senpai killed him?"

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Ishibashi said to Oyama with dissatisfaction.

Oyama stroked his chin and said, "Judging from Ms. Sakurai's head, she must have been hit by something heavy."

"Could it be that something fell from a height by Ishibashi-senpai and hit Ms. Sakurai?"

After saying that, Da Shan scratched his head sheepishly and said:
"Of course, this is just a guess. I'm sorry, Ishibashi-senpai."

"Shut up!" Ishibashi growled. "Even if I were to drop something from a great height, I wouldn't need to break the window."

He glanced at the corpse on the ground.

"Besides, I have no grudge against Sakurai, so why would I kill her?"

"No enmity? That's not necessarily true," Da Shan said.

The writers all looked indifferently at the stone bridge.

We're all competitors.

One billion yen is enough to give people the courage to do things they can't tell outsiders.

Ishibashi was originally a detective novelist and writer; he wrote murder cases for so many years and never repeated a single one.

He was proficient in all kinds of murder methods.

"Humph!"

Ishibashi snorted coldly and said, "If you want to accuse me of being the murderer, you'd better produce some evidence."

He looked at Yusaku Kudo and said, "Here's some evidence for you all. On many occasions late at night, I've heard something hitting the wall."

Conan asked curiously, "Have you talked about it with other authors?"

"Why should I tell them?" Ishibashi said dismissively.

We are all competitors.

Moreover, after what happened with Takeda and Matsumura, who knows if there will be other murders?

What if that sound of smashing the wall is an imitation of the story of Takeda Matsumura?
It's a huge benefit to have one or two fewer competitors.

He only cares about protecting himself and doesn't care about the lives of others.

Conan frowned.

That's really cold-hearted.

He looked at the others, and everyone's reaction was similar; they showed no concern for Sakurai's death.

This group of people are all indifferent.

I don't know how Zheng Yi chose his people, but they all turned out to be like this.

Hey~
Zheng Yi Ge has terrible judgment when it comes to people.

Ishimoto looked at Hashimoto and said, "Ms. Hashimoto and Ms. Sakurai have a deep conflict. She is the most suspicious person."

Hashimoto said with a cold laugh, "Everyone knows that I have a deep conflict with Sakurai. With her dead, I am the most likely suspect."

"Would I be stupid enough to kill someone here?"

Seeing that even the superficial harmony could not be maintained, Conan shook his head.

He felt these people had to be separated.

Otherwise, something else will definitely happen in the future.

……

The villa belongs to the Zheng family.

Zheng Yi, wearing pajamas, personally opened the door for the guest.

"Please come in."

"We won't go in."

Sato and Takagi stood in front of the villa, both dressed in police uniforms and with serious expressions.

"So, what brings you two officers here so late at night?" Zheng Yi asked curiously.

He buttoned up the top button of his pajamas.

Sato said, "Ms. Sakurai's death has led the Metropolitan Police Department to believe that Mr. Shoichi is involved. We request that Mr. Shoichi come over."

"Me? I'm not familiar with Ms. Sakurai, can I not go?" Masakazu asked.

Sato said, "Ms. Sakurai once spoke ill of Mr. Shoichi publicly, and Mr. Shoichi had a motive to kill."

"Moreover, Ms. Sakurai died in your villa, and she was invited in by you."

Zheng Yi nodded: "So, it does have a lot to do with me."

He looked at Sato's face and said, "But she actually said bad things about me? I wouldn't have known if Officer Sato hadn't pointed it out."

"If I had known she had said bad things about me, I wouldn't have invited them this time."

Zheng Yi said jokingly, "It seems that Officer Sato cares about me a lot, even knowing about such a small thing."

Sato remained expressionless.

Standing behind Sato, Takagi whispered, "Mr. Shoichi, would you like to come with us?"

"Go."

Zheng Yi said, "I invited them all. Two of them have already died, so I'll go and comfort them."

"Let's go."

As soon as Zheng Yi closed the door, he planned to follow Sato and the others.

Sato looked at the pajamas that Masakazu was wearing.

"You still have time to change your clothes."

“No need to change it,” Zheng Yi said.

Sato's face twitched.

Wearing pajamas to a crime scene? That's so unserious!

"Alright, alright, let's go," Takagi said.

Zhengyi is fine as long as he's willing to go; there's no need to worry about what he wears.

The three got into the police car.

Takagi drove, and Sato sat in the passenger seat.

Zheng Yi sat in the back seat, looking just like their boss.

Shoichi said with a smile, "If you were calling me, Officer Sato would have been an old acquaintance. Why did Takagi come too?"

Takagi drove silently, offering no reply.

Sato bluntly stated, "Inspector Megure was worried that you and I would argue, so he sent Takagi to mediate."

Zheng Yi chuckled silently.

"Officer Sato and I are old friends, how could we quarrel?"

Takagi remained silent.

Sato also had a cold expression.

Zheng Yi placed his hand on his knee and trembled his right leg slightly.

"Besides, we can't even start an argument."

“It was Officer Sato who yelled at me before, I never yelled at her.”

I am a very gentle person and I never argue with anyone.

"Cough cough."

Takagi didn't want to continue the topic, lest Sato and Masakazu feel uncomfortable.

He changed the subject, saying, "Mr. Zhengyi, it's very cold now. Is it alright for you to wear just a nightgown?"

"It's fine in the car," Zheng Yi said. "When we go outside, could you please give me a police uniform to wear?"

"Cough cough!"

Takagi coughed suddenly again.

Is this good?
It's normal for police officers to give a lightly dressed person a police uniform to cover them up.

But you're not a normal person!

Your relationship with the Metropolitan Police Department is truly something that can't be easily severed.

If others see you in a police uniform, how will the public perceive our Metropolitan Police Department?

Takagi hesitated, but ultimately did not object.

Forget it, in the public's eyes, the Metropolitan Police Department has already fallen so low that there's no room for it to go any lower. Even if people saw a police officer shining Shoichi's shoes, they would just secretly curse him as a lackey and then forget about it.

"Why didn't you change your clothes when you came out? I reminded you." Sato asked.

“I’m not one to listen to advice easily,” Zheng Yi said.

"Haha, the weather's nice today," Takagi quickly remarked.

Inspector Megure truly had foresight.

If I hadn't been there, Sato would definitely have started arguing with Masakazu.

Shoichi and Sato glanced at Takagi and simultaneously curled their lips.

Would I get into an argument with him/her so easily?

“Mr. Shoichi, there are a few clothes in the trunk. Please put them on when you go out later,” Takagi said.

"it is good."

……

A villa in the mountains.

“Although the murderer’s trick seems flawless, it is actually quite crude,” Yusaku Kudo said.

He glanced at the three people, including Da Shan.

These three people wrote so many murder cases; their methods shouldn't be this crude.

As soon as he said this, everyone's eyes were focused on Yusaku Kudo.

“You are the murderer, Ms. Hashimoto,” Yusaku Kudo said.

Hashimoto's face paled, and he involuntarily took a step back.

But he quickly regained his composure and said calmly:

“Mr. Kudo, you should speak with evidence. Although you are one of my favorite authors, you can’t just falsely accuse me.”

Yusaku Kudo took out the slingshot he had found inside the villa.

"Your method is actually not complicated, and you could even say it's very primitive. You first used a slingshot to shoot the fishing line with the stone attached onto the branch of the big tree across the street."

"Then, you climb the tree, thread the fishing line through the branches, go back to your room, tie one end of the fishing line to a thick rope, and use a pulley to pull the rope across the gap between the tree and the villa."

Yusaku Kudo pointed to the big tree across the street and said:
"Next, in the room, you tie a hiking sock filled with stones to one end of a rope, and in the dark, using the light of a cigarette to locate the target, you drop the heavy object down to the victim downstairs."

"That's why the victim suffered a severe blow to the head, but the murder weapon wasn't found at the scene—because you retrieved it with a rope!"

Hashimoto's lips were dry.

Yusaku Kudo said, "Do you think this will allow you to get away with it perfectly?"

"Your mistake was that when you were retrieving the murder weapon, the sock containing the stone accidentally hit the window of Mr. Ishibashi's room."

"The bloodstains on the glass shards are the most direct evidence."

Conan jogged over.

He took out a transparent bag containing blood-stained shards of glass.

Conan looked at Hashimoto and said, "In Hashimoto's room, those hiking socks that once contained stones should still be there, right?"
"Moreover, the stones in the fish tank where the goldfish are kept in the hall seem to have disappeared, and we don't know where they are."

Hashimoto finally collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.

“Sakurai stole my sister’s work. Her book, ‘Stepfather,’ which won the Naoki Prize, was actually written by my sister.”

"Back then, my sister went to confront her, but that girl was very arrogant."

"Only works written by her can get more attention; no one will pay attention to or praise the works of an unknown writer."

Hashimoto covered her eyes and said, "Having my work stolen felt like having my own child stolen. My sister eventually committed suicide at home."

Conan remained silent for a moment.

"So, you've used this as leverage to blackmail Ms. Sakurai quite a bit, haven't you?" Conan asked.

"Yes."

Hashimoto said, "I've asked her to help me a lot, and I only came here because I blackmailed her into helping me."

"But this is all she deserves! If it weren't for my sister's work, why would she enjoy such fame and fortune!"

As night fell, the case came to a close.

Inspector Megure arrived late in his police car.

Upon arriving at the location, the group led Inspector Megure to the deceased and handed over the murderer.

Inspector Megure frowned.

He even felt like a corrupt cop who had fallen from grace.

The case wasn't investigated.

As soon as the person arrived at the scene, the villa owner handed the murderer over to him.

There is evidence, and the murderer has confessed.

So weird.

"Brother Kudo, is she really the murderer?" Inspector Megure asked.

“There is evidence, and the murderer has confessed,” Yusaku Kudo said.

What is there to doubt?

Inspector Megure rubbed his hands together.

But this time, he didn't feel involved at all.

If the media finds out, what will they say about me? What will they say about the Metropolitan Police Department?

He glanced at the three of them, including Takahashi.

If these three were to turn today's events into a storyline and write it into a TV series, the police's reputation would be even worse.

"Inspector Megure, don't be so formal," Conan said.

"This isn't a matter of formalities," Inspector Megure said through gritted teeth.

These days, the media are scrutinizing the Metropolitan Police Department with a magnifying glass.

Inspector Megure said, "The Metropolitan Police Department will continue to investigate the truth."

Conan curled his lips.

In his view, Inspector Megure's actions were completely unnecessary and pure formalism.

The food was practically placed right in front of his mouth, but he just wouldn't eat.

He yawned and walked into the villa.

If you want to investigate, then investigate.

"Anyway, the results you find out won't be any different from what we told you," Conan said softly.

"Conan, you brat! What do you mean by that?" Inspector Megure said, somewhat annoyed.

That's really infuriating.

That tone is exactly the same as Zheng Yi's.

Conan shrugged.

I was just stating the truth, why is Inspector Megure suddenly so angry?

So sensitive?

"Humph!"

Inspector Megure snorted coldly, not wanting to argue with a child like Conan.

He started asking Takahashi and the others all sorts of questions.

"Seriously! Kudo Yusaku asked once, and now your Metropolitan Police Department wants to ask again? Is this never going to end?" Ishimoto said, dissatisfied.

"Please cooperate with the Metropolitan Police Department."

"Humph!"

Because Yusaku Kudo has already identified the culprit, and Hashimoto has already confessed.

Therefore, during police questioning.

Takahashi and the others' answers always unconsciously leaned towards Hashimoto's direction.

In Inspector Megure's eyes, this meant that everyone in the villa was trying to lead the police towards Hashimoto.

We must make the police believe that Hashimoto is the murderer.

"This is a bit troublesome," Inspector Megure muttered under his breath.

Everyone in the villa was in cahoots.

They were like exchanging confessions.

"Inspector Megure, based on the information and clues they provided, the final culprit is Hashimoto," an officer said.

Officer Megure nodded.