Detective Conan: I, with my magical powers, am going to destroy the world!

They had all heard of the famous Onmyoji.

"Aren't there still bloodstains on the balcony? And I definitely felt someone rushing towards the balcony."

"It just looks like someone escaped through the balcony; it feels like a lie."

Conan turned to Megure and said, "Inspector, let's question the guests first and search their belongings while we're at it."

Megure Shinji nodded and said, "That's all we can do for now. The weapon that pierced the victim's heart was a long, sharp, icicle-like weapon. If the perpetrator didn't escape, there's a high chance it was hidden on his person."

“Wait a minute,” the bald old man interrupted, “what about the bloodstains? According to you, shouldn’t the prisoner be covered in blood?”

“Yes,” a female guest chimed in, “we are not prepared to be questioned or searched until this issue is resolved first!”

"There's clearly nothing to suspect, so isn't it incredibly rude to still be investigating?"

The guests, all prominent figures, became agitated and strongly resisted the police investigation, clamoring to go home.

Conan watched all of this quietly.

With so many guests attending the birthday party, it seems no one is saddened by Mrs. Hoshino's death; what a failure she was.

No wonder they invited the murderer to the party.

Who is the murderer?

Inspector Megure's gaze swept over the guests who were in a hurry to leave, but before he could stop them, the bearded man with a pipe next to him blocked their way.

"Please wait a moment, everyone!" the pipe-smoking man urged. "Don't you understand? Someone has been murdered. We're all here today to celebrate her birthday. If the culprit is still among us, isn't it our duty to assist the police in their investigation?"

Although the process was somewhat bumpy, the guest ultimately stayed, perhaps for the sake of face, or perhaps truly for Mrs. Hoshina's sake.

Chapter 579 A very elastic and soft body

"Lord Akatsuki, what do you think?" Inspector Megure asked the pipe-smoking man and the others who were first taken outside for questioning.

"These people were with the victim when the crime occurred, right?"

Chi Chufeng followed him out of the banquet hall.

The four people who were with the Bokov at the time were the most suspicious.

The butler, the man with the pipe, the old man, and a female guest.

Apart from the butler, the other three people also arrived at the Hoshina residence early and were much more familiar with Mrs. Hoshina than the other guests.

"Let's hear their testimonies first."

Regardless of the reasons, and no matter how unlikable Mrs. Hoshina's personality was, the murder was a very serious matter.

There's no way that a watchmaker who died four years ago could be the murderer.

“That’s certainly true,” the bearded man said calmly, swallowing lightly as he listened to the conversation in the temporary interrogation room.

"There's a reason I asked everyone to stay, of course. I didn't want my childhood friend, the ghost of the watchmaker, to be treated as a criminal."

“Hmm,” Megure murmured, looking at Qingbian’s hands, “Your hands and cuffs are stained with blood.”

"Oh, this is from when I rushed to the collapsed lady's side," Qing explained, spreading her hands. "Besides, I didn't get any blood on any other part of my body, right?"

“That’s right, but did you notice anything when the incident happened?” Inspector Megure continued to ask.

“Now that you mention it,” Qing stroked his beard and thought for a moment, “it sounds like I heard the sound of fabric rubbing together. The culprit might be a woman in a dress, but I don’t know if she was holding a long, sharp weapon or something.”

"Could we inspect your pipe?"

"of course can."

Conan watched as Inspector Megure questioned each person, noting down information about the most suspicious ones, including the bearded man, in his notebook.

Shigemoto Sadako, 45 years old, a bearded man, is the architect who designed the Hoshina family mansion, and also the childhood friend of the deceased watchmaker.

Chiaki Suo, 39 years old, is a female guest who is particularly flattering to Mrs. Hoshina. She is the interior designer in charge of the Hoshina family's interior decoration and also the watchmaker's sister.

Rinzo Kogaki, 64 years old, a bald old man with a white beard, is a clockmaker who made the clock tower-like clock. He has come to check the clock every year since the clockmaker passed away 4 years ago. He and the clockmaker were old friends.

Interestingly, almost all three men were connected to the watchmaker who had passed away four years prior.

“After the culprit stabbed the lady to death, he escaped very quickly from my left side,” said the female designer, Chiaki Suo, showing her left arm. “So you see, my left arm is covered in bloodstains from that time, right?”

"By the way," Officer Takagi said, after examining the bloodstains, his attention shifting to the female designer's hair, "what's that hairpin in your hair?"

"It's a hairpin that my brother bought for me a while ago!"

The female designer angrily pulled out the hairpin and handed it to Takagi, saying, "If you doubt me and want to check, then go ahead and check, but remember to give it back to me afterwards!!"

The bald old man who was later questioned readily handed over his cane: "You can check it however you want, it's just my cane, there's nothing wrong with it."

"It seems so."

Megure looked around with his cane and asked the old man, "There's a little bit of blood on your right shoulder."

“That woman was attacked on my right side,” the old man said unhappily as he sat opposite Megure with his arms crossed. “If there’s nothing wrong with my cane, could you give it back to me? It was given to me by the watchmaker I mentioned earlier 10 years ago, it’s been quite a while.”

"Well, we still need to conduct a blood test. What impressions do you have of the prisoner?"

"Although it has nothing to do with me, I think the culprit must be a very fat guy. I was bumped into before that woman screamed, by a very elastic and soft body."

........ . .......

Conan listened to the testimony with a frown.

In such circumstances, even prisoners would not completely lie.

The testimonies of the three individuals all contain subjective judgments, but they are not without reference value. Reasoning and judging information and clues is also one of the tasks of a detective.

The fourth person to enter the room was the fat butler, Omegatake, whose somewhat obese physique raised suspicion.

“Mr. Qingmei, your fingerprints have been detected on the knife next to the cake.”

"Of course! After Madam blows out the candles, cutting the cake is my job as the butler!" the butler said angrily.

“Uncle Butler,” Conan interjected, “why didn’t the light come on immediately after the candle was blown out?”

“Because we didn’t get a signal from the lady,” the fat butler said, bewildered. “In the past, after blowing out the candles, the clock would strike 6 p.m., and after the bells finished ringing, the lady would snap her fingers and tell me to turn on the lights. But this time the clock didn’t ring immediately.”

“By the way,” Conan said suspiciously, staring at the butler, “you were right next to Madam, yet there wasn’t a single drop of blood on you!”

"Well, the prisoner seems to be a big guy; he's probably blocking everything." (Worker)

Chapter 580: The commission was not completed?

The portly butler wiped his sweat and left the room, leaving Inspector Megure and his group to continue their contemplation.

"Are there any guests who are tall, fat, agile, and dressed in formal attire?"

"Maybe not."

Conan did not participate in the subsequent questioning, and returned to the banquet hall where the crime scene was located with the notes he had taken of the previous four people.

Judging from the situation at the scene, whoever the prisoner is, they will inevitably arrive at the scene in advance to make arrangements.

Only the group of people who arrived early, along with the Hoshina family, were able to do this. At the time, only these four people were present at the party; the other maids, the chef, and the watchmaker were not there.

Putting aside the missing murder weapon, there was one thing that really bothered him.

It is said that the clock, which had never had any problems before, failed to chime at 6 o'clock, and it was during this short period of time that Madame Hoshino was assassinated.

Akatsuki and Conan walked onto the balcony together.

The bloodstains were found in the middle of the door frame of the French window and the middle of the balcony railing, suggesting that the prisoner had reopened the closed door and window and then climbed over the balcony railing.

Conan examined the bloodstains closely.

Strangely, the bloodstains on the door frame were at roughly the same height as the railing.

If a person covered in blood were to escape, they wouldn't leave behind such simple bloodstains and scratches; it would be much more messy.

The scene looks like it was wiped with some kind of tool.

In other words, after the culprit murdered Mrs. Hoshina, he triggered a pre-set mechanism that caused the murder weapon to leave the scene, while simultaneously creating the illusion that the culprit escaped from the balcony.

This inference is more reasonable, at least more reasonable than Inspector Megure's guess.

Inspector Megure believes that the perpetrator obtained Mrs. Hoshina's blood beforehand and then smeared the bloodstains here in advance.

If it had been prepared in advance, there would likely have been more bloodstains.

Conan stood by the railing, looking down at the well opening blocked by an iron frame, and then looked up at the large clock tower-like clock directly above.

If it were a mechanism, the well downstairs and the large clock would likely be used.

Conan's gaze gradually focused, and he entered his thought space as the clock moved.

The actions and words of the few people around him flashed by.

Time seemed to rewind, returning to the moment of the incident at the villa.

"So that's what happened!"

Conan closed his eyes for a while, and when he opened them, his eyes were much clearer.

"He really was the murderer."

Looking at the guests waiting to be questioned in the room, Conan said excitedly to Akatsuka, "The culprit confessed from the very beginning."