No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

It also included a voice-over—the suspect actually showed obvious signs of wavering based on Ms. Lauder's speculation!

"Hehe, you've guessed pretty much right. My husband has been hiding his extramarital affair from me for the past ten years. What's even more infuriating is... do you know how I found out about his infidelity?"

"How was it discovered?"

"He actually wrote this experience into a novel! I am his wife, and I have been reading his books. When I read the contents of that novel, I knew that the woman who was betrayed but still loved was me, and the man who cheated but was tormented by guilt was my husband."

Such an outrageous experience could actually be written into a novel; writers are truly incomprehensible. Even Kitahara Masaki showed surprise this time. What's even more absurd is that the TV station had Okino Yoko ask Kitahara Masaki:

"Officer Kitahara, what's your opinion on this kind of thing?"

"Ahem, although his behavior is unacceptable, from the police's perspective, he's practically a criminal who has turned himself in."

"Where is Officer Koshimizu?"

"If you're tormented by guilt, then why write a book about this experience? It seems like you're not reflecting on it at all."

"I wonder what Miss Lauder's opinion is this time?"

"Well—how should I put it, this husband seems to be enjoying it. He's probably enjoying the process of suffering and then stopping, which means he's a mental patient who needs treatment."

A voice-over sounds again—In modern society, this kind of person is generally called an M.

When she saw that the show was about to go astray, Yoko Okino quickly switched the style back to mystery.

"Distinguished guests, after asking a round of questions, have any questions come to mind?"

"Of course there are many doubts, but the most crucial question is what the reporter actually saw, or rather, what his testimony was?"

"Hehe, that's what the reporter saw when I handed the snack to my husband outside the window. He then broke the snack in half, gave me one half, and ate the other half himself."

Ms. Bill recounted the journalist's testimony, but this raised other questions.

So you also ate half of the dessert?

"Of course, and the half I ate wasn't poisoned, so only my husband died."

As mentioned before, the dessert they ate was Japanese Imagawa-yaki. Imagawa-yaki, like dorayaki, is round, and the filling is usually red bean paste. If poison were added to the filling, even if it were divided in half, it wouldn't be possible for one half to be poisoned while the other half remained unpoisoned. This is because after poisoning, the poison would naturally seep into the entire filling; breaking it open wouldn't result in only one side being poisoned.

"So you coated the outside with poison and then tricked your husband into eating the poisoned side?"

"Haha, Miss Officer, that's impossible. If the poison was applied to the outside, my husband's hands would also be poisoned. But I didn't wipe his hands after he collapsed, because the reporter who was peeping saw the whole thing."

This indeed caused Kitahara Masaki and Koshimizu Nanatsuki to fall silent for a moment, but Vermouth then asked Ms. Bill:

"Madam, you are an American family, why are you eating Japanese sweets?"

"Haha, this is one of the eating habits that my husband and I both have. We both love food from all over the world, so we often eat Japanese sweets."

"And what about the reporter who was peeping? Was he familiar with Japanese sweets?"

"No, he knew absolutely nothing about Japanese sweets. I was the one who gave the police the names of the sweets when he gave his statement."

It turned out to be the case.

Vermouth finally understood how Ms. Bill, who had lied at crucial points, had committed the crime.

Chapter 360 Imagawa-yaki and Taiyaki

"Ms. Bill must have concealed important details in her words, details that could change the case."

"Does Officer Kitahara think so too?"

“That’s right. I personally think she concealed her relationship with the reporter, and it’s very likely that she made a deal with the reporter through the inheritance she received. Perhaps the deal wasn’t directly with money, but rather with something like real estate or privileges that she gave to the reporter.”

"I see! Then what about Officer Koshimizu?"

"Hmm—I think it's possible that Ms. Bill and the maid conspired to plan this poisoning."

But then Vermouth offered an even more interesting theory: she started with the food.

"Imagawa-yaki, a type of Japanese sweet, becomes unpalatable when it gets cold. Since it's been home for so long, it must have gotten cold. You should have reheated it before eating it."

Ms. Bill was taken aback; she hadn't expected Vermouth to approach the issue from a food perspective instead of focusing on interpersonal relationships.

"Yes, I did heat it up before serving it."

"So what did you use to heat it?"

"Of course, it's an oven."

"But aren't you the maid who's always roasting beef in the kitchen?"

Ms. Bill had originally stated that although the maid was roasting beef, the beef had already been eaten for lunch, so the oven should have been empty when she heated up the snacks. However, under Vermouth's rapid questioning, Ms. Bill finally revealed a flaw in her statement.

"I remember now, I used a bread machine."

"That's impossible. A bread machine can only fit bread. Imagawa-yaki is about the same size as a dorayaki, no, it should be said that it is bigger than a dorayaki. How could it fit into a bread machine? So where exactly are you heating it?"

Ms. Bill was taken aback, and immediately thought of heating it in a pot.

"I put it on a plate and then put it in a pot to heat it up."

"Does it really take so much effort to heat up a pastry? You have to boil the water in the pot first before you can put the pastry in to heat it. And if you heat it like this, won't the pastry still not taste good?"

Speechless after being questioned, Ms. Bill stopped speaking, fearing that Vermouth would immediately refute her and leave her completely embarrassed.

"I didn't expect Miss Lan Dai to be the first to notice something that neither of the two officers noticed!"

After Yoko Okino said that, the camera captured Masaki Kitahara trying to suppress his laughter, and Nanatsuki Koshimizu, whose face turned red and who was defiant.

"So, Miss Lauder, what are your thoughts? Where exactly did Ms. Bill lie?"

“I think the dessert they ate that day wasn’t Imagawa-yaki, but taiyaki. Although the filling is red bean paste, it’s different from Imagawa-yaki. Taiyaki is fish-shaped, and the filling is mostly wrapped in the fish head. If you two are very knowledgeable about Japanese sweets, and your husband feels guilty for cheating, then he would most likely break off the fish head and give it to you, right?”

Ms. Bill was acquitted because reporters saw her husband break the pastry and personally serve it to his wife. However, Vermouth revealed the true method behind this.

"Ms. Bill, you poisoned the fish in the tail. As for taiyaki and Imagawa-yaki, the ingredients are the same, only the shape is different. But at this point, it's all just speculation. After all, it's already been eaten, so we can't know for sure whether it was taiyaki or not."

"Yes, it's too late to say anything now."

"But there are still a few things that I don't understand. What would you do if your husband gave you the fishtail part? And the fact that the reporter took the photos was probably just a coincidence. Without the reporter's testimony, you couldn't have been found not guilty."

Ms. Bill, whose modus operandi had been figured out, said with a smile:

“If I were assigned the tail section, then poisoning me would be one way to get revenge on my husband. Besides, I was already mentally prepared to be arrested, and I didn’t care if I went to jail. The fact that the reporter spied on the whole process also shocked me back then.”

After uncovering the crime's method, the program was nearing its end. The production team added an animated segment in post-production, explaining the differences between Imagawa-yaki and taiyaki. The high quality of the production demonstrated Nichiri TV's dedication, and Conan, Hattori, and others watching at home were not only impressed by the crime's method—or rather, strongly condemned it.

It's really tough on the US police. How could those officers, who eat fast food every day, possibly distinguish between taiyaki and imagayaki? Shuichi Akai and Jodie, watching on TV, also expressed their sympathy for the US police. The evidence they needed had been completely digested into a mess, and then they ran into a meddlesome reporter, which prevented them from convicting the real culprit.

"Ms. Bill, our three guests today have cracked your modus operandi. Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

"Haha, after my husband died, his novel became a sensation in New York. Everyone in New York knew about my relationship with my husband. Some people thought I was a vengeful and vicious woman, while others thought I was a pitiful woman. No one thought I was loved by my husband. In fact, my comfortable life afterward was only due to the royalties from that novel. This is, for me, the cruelest joke."

“Ms. Bill, many things are beyond your control; you can only let nature take its course. Also, don’t date that kind of psychologically disturbed man again. It’s torture for a normal person to be with someone like that.”

"Ms. Lauder, is your partner a good person?"

"Hmm—I'd say he's someone who shares my tastes."

Ms. Bill, whose veil had been torn off, could only leave the stage with a gloomy expression, while Vermouth stood there like a victor.

The show has ended here, and the first case has come to a close. The second case will invite more guests. People like Kitahara Masaki are just there to help the show gain recognition; they are not regular guests.

Meanwhile, the American police, far across the ocean, only understood what they had missed back then after watching the broadcast of the program with the help of a translator. They lamented that the difference in food culture had led the case astray, with the real culprit misleading them.

As for Vermouth, she became an instant sensation, transforming into a famous detective who even surpassed Kitahara Masaki.

Chapter 361 Making money is so easy! (Yeah, right)

"Mr. Amuro!"

"Oh, it's Officer Kitahara. Are you here to observe the first lesson at the Detective Academy too?"

"Haha, that's right. I've been following this company called the Detective Guild. Now they've even started offering classes on detective knowledge, which really interests me."

Well, that's the idea I came up with, specifically to make money off detectives and those who want to be detectives.

"I see. Actually, I'm more interested in the detective rating."

"Really? But I can't seem to find any information about Mr. Amuro in the Detective Guild's database."

Amuro Toru chuckled and scratched his head. As a public security officer, how could he possibly register his detective identity? If someone came to the Detective Guild specifically asking him to do a case, it would be too unreasonable for him to refuse. Therefore, he did not register his detective agency's information with the Detective Guild.

"Haha, I'm just a detective out of interest, I don't treat this interest as a job, so I didn't register here."

When Kitahara Masaki and Amuro Tooru went in, Vermouth, Koshimizu, and Sera were already inside looking at the detectives' information. Meanwhile, Conan, who was being lifted up by Ran because he wasn't tall enough, was also clicking on his own information on the tablet screen. Of course, it was Kudo Shinichi's information.

"Ran-neechan, Shinichi-nii is the top detective!"

"Yes, that's right."

Xiaolan was happy to see that her boyfriend was recognized by others, but when she saw that he was rated "S" in the homicide category, she felt worried again.

"Sister Xiaolan, Shinichi is so amazing, he's not afraid of those prisoners anymore."

"Hmph, I'm not worried about him at all. Oh, by the way, there are also evaluations of the detective here."

The Detective Guild also provides overall evaluations of the detectives for guests to refer to. As for Shinichi Kudo, his evaluation is:

(Although I have exceptional deductive reasoning skills in murder cases, I am a high school student and always attract a lot of media attention whenever I appear in public. This makes me very unfriendly to clients who want to conduct investigations in a confidential manner. In addition, I am also a high school student who wants to attract attention. Generally speaking, our detective agency does not recommend these detectives to investigate murder cases. Please notify the police immediately after discovering a murder. At least in Tokyo, the police can still be trusted.)

After seeing this comment, Conan angrily closed his own page and opened Hattori's page. Ran, on the other hand, laughed when she saw the comment about Shinichi Kudo, because the comment was very accurate. Shinichi does like to talk a lot in front of the media, and his secrecy is basically zero.

Meanwhile, after reading Shinichi Kudo's evaluation, Sera found that the detective agency was indeed quite neutral. The information only recorded the detective's past deeds and crime-solving style, without revealing any of the detective's private information. The address only showed the address of the detective's office, and the same went for the phone number.

"Sera, aren't you going to register? I remember you were a high school detective before you joined our Crime Investigation Division, right?"

"No need. I'm just a detective out of interest, and I don't want to be registered in this kind of company's database."

Amuro Tooru, who happened to hear Sera's words, couldn't help but smile. This girl had the same idea as him, but he still had to pretend that he didn't know her. After all, the person who knew her was Inspector Saseo, not Detective Amuro.

Meanwhile, Kitahara Masaki understood that Amuro Tooru did not know Sera yet, so he introduced Amuro Tooru to everyone. Sera, who was supposed to be meeting Amuro Tooru for the first time, suddenly felt a sense of familiarity with Amuro Tooru, as if she had seen him before.

"By the way! Kitahara-kun, all of our Criminal Investigation Division 1 personnel are out here. Aren't you worried something might happen?"

"Ahem, Sera, relax when you're resting, don't be such a spoilsport. By the way, take a look at Koshimizu's information, I remember it also includes Koshimizu's information."

Basically, all the detectives in the Detective Guild with an S-rank rating are unable to accept private cases. Kudo, Hattori, and Hakuba are all high school students, and as for Koshimizu, he has been recruited by the police and become a police officer, so he can no longer accept private cases.

Looking at the energetic kids and then at his own A-level rating in 'infidelity investigations', Uncle Mori suddenly felt that he was really getting old. However, since his Mori Detective Agency had joined the Detective Guild, many wealthy people had recently asked him to conduct investigations, and he was earning quite a bit of money.

Kitahara Masaki watched as these acquaintances discussed the ranking of detectives, which was somewhat surreal, considering that he and Vermouth were the owners of this detective guild. However, Vermouth was hiding behind him at the moment.