The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

Call and ask Yuno Kiharu to bring the notebook over.

After connecting the data cable, Jiang Hang unlocked the screen in no time, and even jokingly asked Yamamura, "The police shouldn't hold me responsible for this, right?"

Yamamura quickly explained, "Don't worry, Mr. Jiang Hang. As an advisor to the Metropolitan Police Department, these are all to assist in the investigation, and you certainly won't be punished."

As he said this, he opened his phone to check.

"There's only one number in the contacts. Does this person never communicate with anyone, or is this phone not the one they usually use?" Yamamura Misao scratched his forehead.

"That seems to be the latter reason. Perhaps the deceased had two cell phones. He used one more often, which was found and taken by the murderer. He kept the other cell phone, which he used less, away and never took it out. I guess the murderer didn't think of this and was careless."

With one small mystery solved, Yamamura Misao was quite excited and immediately contacted the only number in the phone.

A short while later, a somewhat puzzled male voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Hey, is this Duff? Why did you suddenly call me? Did you manage to land that big deal you told me about last time?"

"Oh, right, your landlord contacted me before and said that if you don't pay your rent this month, he will ask you to move out. What's the situation on your end?"

Yamamura hesitated for a moment, about to tell the person on the other end of the phone that he was a police officer and ask them to help him solve the case.

The person on the other end of the phone seemed to be a busy person as well. After talking to Yamamura Misao for a while, he suddenly said, "I have a customer here. I'll contact you later." Then he hung up the phone.

Jiang Hang suspected that the owner of the phone might have sensed something was wrong, so he simply pretended to be dead and hung up.

However, this is not a problem for the police.

Since there's nothing wrong with the number, the police just need to verify the identity of the number's owner.

Moreover, the abruptly ended phone call wasn't entirely without effect.

At least they now know the deceased's name.

"Sen Tatsuo, Tatsuo is the name the other party called on the phone, and Sen is the Romanized name of the note the other party stuck on the back of the phone. After that, all we need to do is investigate whether the deceased had another phone number, and find out who that phone number contacted. That should allow us to find out the identities of those who spoke to the deceased on the phone before his death, right?"

In addition, it has been confirmed that the deceased was short of money.

Before his death, he couldn't even afford the rent, but he came here without hesitation because he seemed to have recently received some kind of big job.

"In other words, this deceased person is not related to the case four or five years ago. Instead, it seems more like someone who looks like Kogoro Mouri. Because he was short of money, he dressed up as Kogoro Mouri at someone's suggestion and successfully took the briefcase."

Jiang Hang squinted and began to make his own deductions.

As for the newspaper in the briefcase, they were probably puzzled when they opened it, wondering why it was there.

"If this newspaper wasn't replaced later, then it means that this newspaper might be a code?"

Jiang Hang's thinking gradually became clearer.

Even though he wasn't good at solving puzzles, especially Japanese-style puzzles that were combined with traditional Japanese projects, it didn't stop him from reasoning and summarizing the truth of the case based on the clues he could see with his own eyes.

"Let's make this assumption for now."

Five years ago, two people acquired a large sum of money through some means. However, a disagreement arose when it came to dividing the money. Eventually, one of them, the long-haired man in red, probably sensed something was wrong and simply hid the treasure, leaving only this newspaper as the so-called treasure map.

"When he was storing his briefcase, he told the shopkeeper that he would come back to pick up the treasure chest within a year at the latest. He also added a condition: 'If it's not me, give that envelope to that person.' He also wrote a curse on the murderer in the letter."

"It's a pity that the long-haired man in red was eventually murdered by the killer five years ago, and his body was not discovered until five years later."

Jiang Hang's gaze fell on Urakawa Eiji, after all, he was the one who found the corpse while digging for wild vegetables.

Urakawa Eiji quickly explained, "That was just a pure coincidence. I definitely didn't kill that person. Otherwise, after so many years, wouldn't it have been better for me to keep his body hidden? Why would I go to the trouble of finding his body and calling the police to handle it?"

Listening to Urakawa Eiji's explanation, Jiang Hang nodded noncommittally: "That's right. From this point of view, your suspicion is indeed much less than that of others. In fact, from this perspective, your suspicion is about the same as that of the hotel owner."

When Yoshiro Toda heard Jiang Hang suddenly mention him, he panicked a little: "What did I do wrong? I've been carrying this briefcase for four or five years, and I was the one who took the initiative to ask Detective Mouri to come and investigate. If I were the murderer, I wouldn't need to go out of my way to find a fake Kogoro Mouri to act for me!"

"So you're relatively safe here with me for now." After temporarily excluding the group, Jiang Hang looked at the remaining hotel staff.

One of them was Masao Jinbo, who had parked the car for Kogoro Mouri and was mentioned by Eiji Urakawa as the one who was in charge of picking wild vegetables in the mountains with the three of them.

Seeing the suspicion in Jiang Hang's eyes, the staff member instinctively wanted to look away.

But he quickly realized something and immediately questioned Jiang Hang: "According to you, there's another problem here, isn't there? We can't confirm whether the long-haired man's body was a suicide four years ago or a murder five years ago that was staged!"

Chapter 466: Chapter 462: The Murderer Who Exposed His True Colors

Upon hearing Masao Jinbo's question, Jiang Hang's face remained expressionless, as if he had anticipated this.

Instead, under the staff member's questioning, Kogoro Mouri and Misao Yamamura, who were standing nearby, couldn't help but look at him, as if they wanted to figure out his position for asking the question.

It's not unusual to question the deductions of detectives or police officers. In fact, many times it's necessary for someone to stand up and question things in order to discover the key to the problem.

However, Masao Jinbo's attitude was a bit strange. After the hotel owner and another colleague proved that they had no motive for the crime, he seemed to be inexplicably too anxious.

Jiang Hang hadn't even asked him anything yet, and he was already bringing up the matter of the long-haired man from five years ago.

Is he genuinely trying to help the police solve the case and uncover the truth from five years ago, or is he feeling guilty and trying to find flaws in Jiang Hang's reasoning to attack him?

This matter is still unclear, but because of his actions at this moment, he has indeed been silently marked by the people present.

After saying these words, Masao Jinbo seemed to realize that he might have been a bit too sensitive, and quickly began to explain: "I just want to clarify one thing. After all, this detective from Tokyo has been saying from the beginning that the case five years ago and this case were committed by the same person. But what if the man from five years ago really committed suicide? If that's the case, then wasn't the reasoning wrong from the start?"

Sensing Masao Jinbo's somewhat tense tone, Jiang Hang waved his hand at him, telling him not to be so sensitive.

“Your doubts are indeed valid. Although there are many suspicious points about the recently discovered body, I cannot completely prove it right now. So let’s take a complete look at the items on that body.”

Jiang Hang said this, then looked at Yamamura Misao beside him: "Officer Yamamura, I remember you came here to revisit and confirm with Mr. Urakawa Eiji, who discovered the body, so you should have a fairly complete record on you now, right?"

"And Mr. Urakawa Eiji, you should still remember the location of the body and the items on his body, right?"

The two people Jiang Hang asked nodded at the same time.

Yamamura Misao felt a sense of accomplishment in being able to assist Jiang Hang, while Urakawa Eiji simply wanted to get rid of the suspicion against him as soon as possible.

“I happen to have some photos with me. If that’s not enough, I can have someone take pictures of the records and send them to you directly.” As Yamamura Misao said this, he took out a stack of photos from his person.

There weren't many photos, only about a dozen.

Each image contains only a single object.

A bottle of milk that's half-finished—of course, so many years have passed that even if the milk hasn't completely evaporated, the rest has probably long since spoiled into who knows what.

A pack of cigarettes that had been smoked a few times, a completely rotten loaf of bread, car keys, the sweater the deceased was wearing, a wallet, and some items inside the wallet.

The most crucial thing here is a convenience store receipt.

The date and year are clearly marked on it—the time is the morning of July 10th, four years ago.

Below are the items the deceased purchased: a carton of fresh milk, a piece of red bean bread, and a pack of cigarettes, which correspond perfectly to the items found on the deceased's person.

Looking at these things, Jiang Hang, who had initially only felt something was wrong, was now almost certain that the deceased had not committed suicide.

"The murderer left too many clues, or rather, he never expected that the police would care so much about this suicide case."

Jiang Hang began to count the problems on his fingers.

"First of all, the date on the shopping receipt on the deceased is July, which is already summer, but the deceased was wearing a sweater that was worn in spring or autumn. Even if someone wanted to commit suicide, they wouldn't choose to hang themselves in the forest in the middle of summer while wearing a sweater. This is illogical."

"Then he brought a pack of cigarettes that he had already smoked a few times but no lighter, which could be considered an extension of the shopping receipt."

"If the deceased didn't want others to know his identity, so it's normal for him to bring his car keys but not his driver's license or anything that could prove his identity, then it's very suspicious that a smoker bought a pack of cigarettes but didn't bring his lighter. It can't be that the deceased committed suicide and a passerby found him and deliberately came to pick up his lighter."

"Of course, there is another issue that is equally crucial." Jiang Hang pulled out the photo of the carton of milk.

"The carton of milk was opened and placed in the deceased's backpack, but no straw was found in the backpack. So who would put an opened carton of milk in a backpack without taking any precautions?"

“There are clear problems with the body, and the deceased had just deposited a briefcase and made so many instructions before his death. Yet, a year later, when he was supposed to come back to retrieve the briefcase, he suddenly committed suicide. There’s something wrong with this.”

"Therefore, I can now say with considerable certainty that the deceased's time of death was much earlier than this date, and it is even very likely that he was murdered by the killer shortly after he left the briefcase at the hotel."

At this point, Kogoro Mouri recalled what the innkeeper had mentioned when he received the request: "Speaking of which, someone came to claim the briefcase the day after it was stored at the inn."

In the end, the person didn't get the briefcase, but left with a letter that read "May you die." After that, he disappeared without a trace.

"If we consider it this way, then the person who came to pick up the briefcase is the murderer. It's even possible that the long-haired man was already killed by him at that time. But after a while, he was worried that the victim's body would be discovered and he would be suspected, so he secretly went over to prepare a disguise and took away the driver's license that could prove the victim's identity. That's why the police have been unable to find out the man's identity."

As Jiang Hang said this, he then looked at Jinbo Masao, whose forehead was slightly covered in a fine layer of sweat.

"I believe my reasoning is quite sound and well-founded, and it should no longer be considered mere delusion. So, Mr. Jinbo, do you have any further questions?"

Before Masao Jinbo could speak, Jiang Hang suddenly turned to Yoshiro Toda and asked, "Boss, I'd like to ask, when did Mr. Jinbo start working at your hotel?"

When asked this question, Yoshiro Toda paused for a moment, but quickly answered: "It should be more than four years now. It was about a month after that long-haired man came to my place to deposit his briefcase."

At this point, Yoshiro Toda seemed to sense that something was amiss.

He paused for a moment, then looked at Masao Jinbo with some disbelief.

He hadn't thought too much about it before, but now that Jiang Hang had brought it up so deliberately, he didn't know why, but when he looked at Masao Jinbo, he sensed a hint of panic in the other man's expression.

"Yafu, could it really be you?" he asked somewhat uncertainly.

Of course, Masao Jinbo couldn't possibly choose to answer such a potentially disastrous question.

He quickly waved his hand: "It was just a coincidence. Boss, didn't I tell you before? I used to work in Tokyo, but I couldn't get used to the fast pace of the city, so I specifically found a sparsely populated place to recuperate here. I knew nothing about that long-haired man. I only overheard you mentioning it a few times later."

"Is it a coincidence?" Jiang Hang said noncommittally, then decided to put pressure on the "murderer" who was starting to lose his composure.

"So, is it also a coincidence that your footprints are on this table?"

Jiang Hang suddenly pointed to the table next to him and said a fact that shocked everyone.

Even Conan couldn't help but glance at Jiang Hang again.

"He truly is a monster. I couldn't even see anything on the table, yet Jiang Hang found someone else's footprints right there on it. Is he playing with people's eyes using a magnifying glass?"

Under normal circumstances, there would be no effect to bringing up evidence or clues in this situation. However, since the prisoner is currently in a state of tension and confusion, bringing up this evidence at this moment might have a surprising effect.

As expected, under Jiang Hang's relentless pressure, the murderer, upon realizing that his plan had encountered so many problems from the very beginning, panicked and blurted out, "I... I'm an employee of this hotel. Sometimes when the lights in the rooms break, I have to come and fix them."

“These footprints are probably from when I was fixing the light bulb. They have absolutely no connection to this case. If you really have any doubts, you can investigate the light bulb in the room. I think you can definitely find my fingerprints on it.”

Judging from his appearance, there are probably really his fingerprints on the light bulb in the room; he must have actually been here to change a light bulb.

Jiang Hang couldn't help but chuckle softly.

"You seem quite confident, but are you sure there's nothing wrong with what you just said?"

Seeing Jiang Hang's appearance, Jinbo Masao suddenly became hesitant again.

But he remembered that he had indeed changed light bulbs in this room before and cleaned it many times. Jiang Hang shouldn't be able to find any problems, right?

But faced with Jiang Hang's overwhelming offensive, he was indeed tempted to back down.

Seeing that Masao Jinbo was too afraid to speak, Jiang Hang continued to explain to the somewhat confused Misao Yamamura and Kogoro Mouri.