Conan: Above all force, there is truth!

Only the keyboardist, Xiao Mu, with his bangs, could modify the sheet music beforehand.

……

A short while later, Officer Takagi finished his call and returned to Inspector Megure's side.

"How's it going, Takagi? Have you found all those people?"

"Two or three of them cannot be contacted..."

Before Inspector Megure could give further instructions, Sera Masumi stepped forward and interrupted, "There's no need for that, because the culprit hasn't escaped from here yet."

"What?!" Inspector Megure exclaimed in surprise.

“That’s right, the murderer is one of the three band members of the victims!” Amuro Tooru nodded, one hand in his pocket.

Upon hearing this, Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi immediately turned to look at the three people sitting to the side.

Noticing the gazes of the crowd, the three immediately stood up and walked up to Inspector Megure and his companion, excitedly explaining:

"What are you talking about? How could we be criminals?!"

"Yes! We were already searched, weren't we? None of us had any rope-like weapons on us!"

"You wouldn't suspect us just because of what those two people speculated, would you?"

"Since we didn't have a murder weapon on us, and we didn't find one in the recording studio, aren't we innocent?!"

"..."

Although Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi also had their suspicions about the three men, just as the three men said, they hadn't even found the murder weapon yet, so they had no evidence to use as evidence.

For a moment, Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi were almost overwhelmed, and the two immediately turned to Sera Masumi and Amuro Tooru for help.

“The murder weapon couldn’t possibly be found inside the store, because it has already been taken out,” Amuro Tooru chuckled.

Upon hearing this, the three started arguing again—since they hadn't left the store at all, how could they have taken the murder weapon out?

Seeing this, Sera Masumi added, "He means that the people who took the murder weapon out were not you, but the police!"

Upon hearing Sera Masumi's words, not only the three suspects, but also Inspector Megure and the others blinked in confusion.

Sonoko turned to Ryuno, frowning, and asked, "What does Sera mean? What do you mean the murder weapon was taken away by the police?"

Xiaolan also looked at Longye, her eyes filled with doubt.

"Because the murder weapon was on the victim's body," Longye said calmly.

"Huh?" Ryuno's explanation only made Ran and Sonoko more confused.

Although the three were speaking softly, the break room wasn't very large, so Inspector Megure and the others could hear them clearly.

Amuro Tooru and Sera Masumi smiled slightly and nodded in agreement.

As expected, Tatsuno had already discovered the truth.

"Brother Ryūno, the murder weapon was on the victim? But there was no rope-like object on her." Inspector Megure asked, puzzled.

"I remember the victim, Ms. Yamaji, was wearing a woolen hat, right?" Ryuno recalled.

"A woolen hat..."

Sera Masumi smiled and nodded: "That's right, the so-called thin rope should now have been woven and incorporated into the knitted hat~"

"The murderer prepared yarn in advance that matched the color of the wool hat worn by the victim, then strangled the victim with the yarn and finally wove the 'murder weapon' into the wool hat."

After listening to Sera Masumi's explanation, Officer Takagi asked, "But if you're knitting, don't you need two knitting needles? None of the three of them have any of those on them."

"The so-called 'knitting needles,' aren't they still at the scene?" Amuro Tooru replied, "They're the two drumsticks the victim used to play the drums."

"Drumsticks?"

"That's right. With a little effort, those two drumsticks can be turned into knitting needles to help knit yarn."

Chapter 351 Sera Masumi Chooses to Reveal Her Cards

After listening to Amuro Tooru's explanation, Inspector Takagi and Inspector Megure nodded, understanding what the others meant.

No wonder they couldn't find the murder weapon no matter how hard they searched; it turned out the murderer had cleverly hidden it.

After thinking for a moment, Officer Takagi pressed further: "But at the time of the incident, the three of them were sewing clothes and changing guitar strings, so it seems they didn't have time to weave anything, did they?"

“No, there is one person who can do it; only she can prepare everything in advance,” Amuro Tooru said with a smile, his eyes closed.

After saying that, Amuro Tooru opened his eyes and looked to the side: "If it were you, you could do all of this~ Am I right, Ms. Keyboardist with bangs?"

After being identified by Amuro Tooru, a hint of panic flashed across Komugi's face.

Officer Takagi glanced at Komugi's bangs and then suddenly realized, "So that's how it is! Whether it was Miss Ranhana's coat button almost falling off or the guitar string she rented from the store breaking, they were all coincidences. It's hard to tamper with them beforehand!"

Inspector Megure pondered, "Conversely, if it's about modifying a piece of music, as long as it's modified at home beforehand... once we get to the scene, we can just copy it again."

“That’s right! Plus, Miss Komugi is different from others; she sits with her back to the monitor. So she can pretend to be playing music when she’s actually weaving something,” Sera Masumi nodded.

After hearing everyone's explanations, Xiao Mu's companions immediately began to defend him:

"Even if you wanted to do that, you'd have to cover half of the surveillance camera, right?"

"Yes, although the surveillance camera happened to be blocked by a phone and a selfie stick, it was a decision we made after looking at the phone screen and constantly changing the settings."

"That's right, it's all a coincidence! Or are you saying that we conspired to cover up the surveillance cameras, so we deliberately placed them there?"

Seeing that the three were still arguing, Amuro Tooru calmly said, "I already know your criminal methods, especially after watching your practice videos."

Upon hearing this, Inspector Megure immediately asked the three of them to bring out the video of their performance practice again.

After watching the video once, Inspector Megure couldn't help but feel puzzled.

What's wrong with this video? He didn't notice anything!

Seemingly noticing the confusion in Inspector Megure's eyes, Amuro Tooru explained, "Inspector, that's where the four of them are standing."

"Location?" Inspector Megure blinked.

Amuro Tooru continued to explain: "Because the drum kit is very heavy, the drummer's position is fixed from the beginning and it is difficult to move. However, the bassist and guitarist in the middle can easily adjust their positions no matter what."

"Therefore, the position of the selfie stick actually only depends on the keyboardist in the upper left corner, that is, Ms. Xiao Mu Liu Hai."

"Only she could use adjusting the electronic keyboard as an excuse to secretly control the position of the selfie stick."

After Amuro Tooru finished speaking, Sera Masumi continued, "After confirming that half of the surveillance footage was covered, she went into the recording studio, pretending to revise the score and wake up the victim. In reality, she strangled him with a prepared yarn, and then used a drumstick to weave the murder weapon into the victim's woolen hat."

After listening to the two's reasoning, Inspector Megure nodded, understanding the course of the case.

However, to be on the safe side, Inspector Megure still asked, "But how did she know that the victim would definitely sleep on the drum today?"

Amuro Tooru chuckled lightly, "I remember they said before that the victims always slept like this."

"In that case, to ensure she sleeps tonight, we just need to add sleeping pills to her water beforehand."

"Since they didn't bring any water bottles, we can just search all the trash cans in this recording studio; we should be able to find plastic bottles stained with sleeping pills."

At this point, all of Inspector Megure's questions were answered.

He immediately ordered Officer Takagi to investigate the plastic bottles in the store and instructed the Metropolitan Police Department's forensic team to examine the deceased's beanie.

Seeing Officer Takagi leave the lounge, keyboardist Komugi's bangs also broke out in a cold sweat.

But she still wouldn't give up, and said, "But...but where are the scissors? Without scissors, we can't finish weaving..."

Seeing that she still wanted to struggle, Long Ye said calmly, "Miss Mu, don't waste your time. Once the forensic team has collected your fingerprints from the yarn, no matter how you try to explain, it will be useless."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Mu's two companions immediately stood in front of her and continued to defend her.

Seeing that the two were still trying to defend themselves even now, Xiao Mu lowered his head and slowly said, "That's right, it was indeed me who did it."

Amidst their shocked expressions, Xiao Mu revealed his motive.

Some time ago, a drunk victim said this to the original lead singer, Akane Hito: "I hope your singing has more depth."

Believing the victim's advice, Zhu Yin, the leader, rinsed her mouth with strong liquor and buried her face in the cushion, shouting loudly.

Finally, her voice really did become magnetic.

But after hearing her voice, the victim actually said that her voice sounded strange now and that her old voice was better.

A few days later, Zhu Yin, the head of the group, committed suicide by crashing her car.

That's why she's here today to avenge Zhu Yin, the leader who died with resentment.

Just as Longye and the others were beginning to understand her motive for murder, Mokufune Ranka suddenly spoke up: "That's not it! She didn't commit suicide; it was just a traffic accident!"

Upon hearing his companion's words, Xiao Mu immediately and frantically refuted them, stating that it was suicide.

Otherwise, the timid and sensible leader Zhu Yin would never have run a red light.

Upon hearing this, Yuiko Fuekawa chimed in, "Ribbons, that's not how it works! It wasn't Akane who ran the red light, it was a little boy. She was hit by the car while trying to save that child!"

"No, impossible! Hagiwara clearly said at the funeral that Zhu Yin's death was all her fault!" Xiao Muliu shouted hoarsely.

“That’s because Akane followed Hagiwara’s instructions to her…” Yuiko Fuekawa continued.

"Instructions?"

"Yes, Hagiwara later apologized to Zhu Yin, saying that it was all because she said those stupid things while drunk that caused her voice to become hoarse. She told Zhu Yin not to speak until her voice was healed."

"That's why Zhu Yin didn't say anything at the time, but instead rushed over to save the person..."

"..."

Soon after, everyone finally figured out what had happened.

Xiao Muliu was so devastated by the news of Zhu Yin's death that he fell ill and was bedridden.

So they never had a chance to tell her about it, for fear that she would fall ill again because of it.

After hearing what the two said, Xiao Muliu immediately knelt down and covered his face, crying bitterly.

Longye looked at Xiao Muliuhai, who was lying on the ground, and shook his head slightly.

It's a classic trope—hatred and murderous intent arising from a misunderstanding.

He was at his wit's end. If the murderer and the victim had just communicated a little, this situation wouldn't have happened.

……

Shortly after, Inspector Megure and his team handcuffed Koga Rukai.

Because of this incident, Sonoko and the others gave up the idea of ​​rehearsing and prepared to go home.