Solving cases with Detective Conan's science? No, I'm a cultivator!

Kitagawa Taki asked, "Did anyone see Naoko leave the room?"

Shimabukuro Kimie shook her head and said, "She wasn't in the room when I arrived."

Fukuyama Rokuro said, "Me too."

Slightly tipsy, Kadowaki Benzo hiccuped and said, "I didn't see it either."

Hattori Heiji's gaze sharpened, and he asked, "Mr. Kadowaki, I have a question for you. Where did you get your number plate?"

Kadowaki Benzo affirmed, "Of course I drew it!"

Conan asked Kimie Shimabukuro, "Kimi-neechan, do you keep records of who drew the number?"

Kimie Shimabukuro replied, "Yes, there is."

Upon hearing this, Kadowaki Benzo's eyes flashed, and his expression became somewhat unnatural.

Hattori Heiji's eyes widened in suspicion; he strongly suspected that Kadowaki Benzo was the murderer.

"Then, Miss Junhui, please take us to see it."

The group had just stood up when they were stopped by the police.

The bald man said, "You can't leave now. We need to check everyone's belongings."

Hattori Heiji's lips twitched. "Hey, old man, you don't really think the murderer would be stupid enough to carry a dugong arrow on him, do you?"

The bald man raised an eyebrow: "How can it not be possible? We can't let any possibility slip by."

Heiji Hattori choked. In a way, what the older man said made a lot of sense.

Therefore, everyone had no choice but to cooperate with the police investigation.

Kitagawa Taki and Toyama Kazuha each have a dugong arrow in their bodies, no problem.

The last person to be checked was Kadowaki Benzo. He reached into his coat pocket and found an arrow.

He was a little confused himself. He had clearly already sold the dugong arrow with Ebina Sumi's number tag that he had picked up for a high price.

However, after a brief moment of deliberation, he made a decision immediately.

That means taking this arrow for ourselves!

You should know that he sold the last arrow for a whopping one million yen, enough for him to live a carefree life for a long time.

Anyway, nobody knows that his arrows have already been sold, right?

Kadowaki Benzo took out the Dugong Arrow and readily admitted that it was the one he had drawn.

Kitagawa Taki saw that Kadowaki Benzo had fallen into the trap and chuckled to himself.

In fact, as early as last night, after seeing Kadowaki Benzo obtain the number plate that originally belonged to Ebina Sumi, Kitagawa Taki had already decided to pin the murder charge on him.

He happened to notice that Kadowaki Benzo wasn't carrying a dugong arrow, so he put the one that Kuroe Naoko had on Kadowaki Benzo.

Unexpectedly, Kadowaki Benzo foolishly admitted that it was the one he had drawn.

Kitagawa Taki called the bald man aside and whispered, "Inspector, you can put all the arrows away and check the fingerprints on them."

The bald man's eyes lit up. If there were Naoko Kuroe's fingerprints on the arrow, wouldn't that mean that person was the murderer?

He immediately complied and took away the dugong arrows from the three men.

Completely oblivious to the problem, Kadowaki Benzo asked with considerable displeasure, "Officer, you'll give it back to me, won't you?"

The bald man waved his hand dismissively, "Of course!"

After saying that, the bald man left the room with two policemen.

Shimabukuro Kimie's eyes dimmed, and she sighed, "Saori wouldn't be like this too..."

A middle-aged woman chimed in, "As for Saori, I saw her near Mermaid Falls yesterday morning!"

Another uncle said, "I saw her too. I saw her wandering around in the forest from afar."

Hattori Heiji asked, "Are you sure that's Kadokawa Saori?"

The middle-aged man said with certainty, "There's no mistake, she's the only one who has dyed her hair and wears glasses."

Hattori Heiji pinched his chin. So, it's possible that Kadokawa Saori was forced to flee around the island to escape someone's pursuit.

"Mr. Kadowaki, do you know the inside story?"

“Who knows? She never tells me anything.” Kadowaki Benzo shrugged, his gaze fixed on the corpse of Kuroe Naoko outside the house.

"I just hope she doesn't end up like this girl and become a mermaid too."

"Mermaid?" Kazuha Toyama glanced at the corpse again, somewhat frightened.

Ai Haibara, with her hands behind her back, slowly said, "Legend has it that Yaobikuni used to eat the flesh of mermaids that were hung on nets."

Kazuha Toyama swallowed hard. The way the murderer had deliberately arranged the person was truly chilling.

Hattori Heiji frowned. Was this the attitude a father should have?

……

On the way back to the shrine.

Hattori Heiji asked, "Hey, Kitagawa, you didn't ask that old man to take away the Dugong Arrow, did you?"

Kitagawa Taki nodded: "Yeah, what's wrong?"

Hattori Heiji narrowed his eyes slightly: "You also think Kadowaki Benzo is the murderer?"

Kitagawa Taki said, "That's right. Ebina Sumi, who drew the number plate, didn't have a number plate on her. Apart from me and Kazuha, there's also the dead Kuroe Naoko. Kadowaki Benzo is very suspicious."

Heiji Hattori's lips curled into a slight smile. "As long as we check the number plate records, we can expose his lies."

Chapter 429 The Possibility of Going Against the Grain

shrine.

"That's strange, I clearly put them all here."

Shimabukuro Kimie searched the drawers thoroughly but couldn't find it.

Hattori Heiji asked, "Is the roster missing?"

Kimie Shimabukuro hummed in agreement: "Only this year's batch is missing."

Conan asked, "Could it be that the old lady took it?"

Kimie Shimabukuro shook her head: "No, my great-grandmother didn't care about that."

Hattori Heiji thought of Kadowaki Benzo and asked, "Is there anyone else who knows that the roster is kept here?"

Kimie Shimabukuro said, "This is not a secret on the island; everyone knows it."

Then she stood up and said, "I'll look in the other rooms!"

Kazuha Toyama stepped forward: "Miss Kimie, let me help you."

"Thank you for your help."

After saying that, the two left the room together.

The people in the room flipped through the old rosters.

"The people here are quite influential! A former Foreign Minister and the Governor of the Bank of Japan. It seems everyone wants to live forever!"

Hattori Heiji read out a few names.

Kitagawa Taki flipped through last year's roster and quickly found his and Haibara Ai's names.

Of course, there are also the names of gin and vodka.

Just then, a scream came from outside the room from Toyama Kazuha.

The group hurriedly went outside, where Toyama and Kazuha were in the corridor.

Kitagawa Taki asked, "Kazuha, what's wrong?"

Kazuha Toyama pointed to the forest outside the house: "There's a woman wearing glasses staring at me!"

The group looked around, but there was nothing there.

Hattori Heiji exclaimed in surprise, "Could it be Saori?"

"Wait a minute, where's Miss Kimie?" Kitagawa Taki put on a dramatic performance.

"She said she'd go look in the warehouse over there," Kazuha Toyama said, pointing to the left side of the shrine.

The sky over there was ablaze with fire, exceptionally bright.

"Could it be..."

The expressions on their faces changed.

……

The warehouse fire burned all night and was not extinguished until the next day. The entire warehouse was burned to the ground, and only a charred corpse was found inside. It was confirmed that the charred corpse was wearing glasses.

The bald man led the police to cordon off the scene, preventing anyone from entering.

A policeman jogged over and whispered the situation to him.

"Damn it! We can't let him escape. We have to find him, even if we have to turn the whole island upside down!"

Hattori Heiji couldn't help but ask, "Uncle, did the test results come back yesterday?"

The bald man looked at Kitagawa Taki gratefully: "We're out. Thanks to Mr. Kitagawa's reminder, we found Ebina Sumi's fingerprints on the arrow that Kadowaki Benzo was carrying."

"It's a pity that Kadowaki Benzo isn't at home, but I've already sent people to watch the port, so I can confirm that he hasn't escaped from the island."

Hattori Heiji glanced at him in surprise. This bald uncle was actually quite reliable!

At that moment, Conan tugged at Heiji Hattori's trouser leg.

Heiji Hattori followed Conan to the side.

"What's wrong, Kudo?"

Conan said in a deep voice, "Hattori, Miss Kimie said she saw a dentist a few days ago, right?"

Hattori Heiji's expression changed. "You mean?"