Conan: The Heart Thief

"So, Mr. Koike, the housekeeper, was chatting with the neighbors at the gate between three and four in the afternoon, right?"

"Yes!" Koike Fumio nodded slightly uneasily.

Officer Megure continued while recording, "So, Mr. Takayoshi and Ms. Sachiko also arrived shortly before Mrs. Tsujimura returned home. Is that true?"

"Hi, that's true." Koike Fumio continued to nod.

Officer Megure turned to look at Takayoshi Tsujimura and Sachiko Katsuragi and said, "So, where were you when Mr. Koike went to the entrance to welcome Mrs. Tsujimura home?"

Takayoshi Tsujimura said, "We went to Dad's study, but the door was locked and he didn't answer, so we came downstairs quickly."

Katsuragi Sachiko continued, "After I went downstairs, I immediately met my mother at the entrance."

Officer Megure nodded, turned to look at the old man next to him, Tsujimura Toshimitsu, and asked, "So, Mr. Toshimitsu came here after two o'clock?"

"That's right." The old man nodded. "I finally got here, but Ah Dong was locked in the study, and Gong Jiang was out again. I really had no choice but to watch TV in the living room next to the study."

Officer Megure took note of the conversation and then asked, "So, when did Mrs. Tsujimura go out?"

"I went out an hour ago," replied Kimie Tsujimura.

Hattori Heiji was listening nearby and had already reached a preliminary conclusion. This meant that the three people other than Mr. Koike and Mrs. Tsujimura were the ones closest to the victim at the time of the crime.

Officer Megure turned around and saw the CDs on the bookshelf next to him. He exclaimed, "Wow, there are so many CDs here!"

"Yes," said Koike, "because our master has always loved listening to classical music."

Classical music? But when we first found the body, an opera was playing!

Conan heard this word in a daze, thinking vaguely. His heart suddenly beat violently.

"Sister Xiaolan, I don't feel well. I want to go down and rest first."

"Conan, I'll go with you..."

In any case, the kind-hearted Ran Maori was very worried when she saw Conan in pain.

"No thanks." Conan ran away.

Faced with Conan's strange behavior, Mao Lilan suddenly felt at a loss and couldn't help asking Lin Xiao: "Mr. Lin, is Conan... okay?"

"Don't worry, Conan, nothing will happen." Lin Xiao comforted Mao Li Ran.

Chapter 23 Kudo Shinichi and Hattori Heiji are completely wrong!

Just some time after Conan disappeared, Hattori Heiji had already started his reasoning show.

"The real murderer is you!" Hattori Heiji turned around and pointed his finger at the old man, Tsujimura Toshimitsu!

"What?" Everyone was surprised.

Officer Megure then asked, "Hattori Heiji, do you have any basis for your reasoning?"

"Of course." Hattori Heiji held a needle with a confident smile on his face, "Officer Megure, can you please play the role of the deceased?"

"Oh..." Inspector Megure nodded blankly.

"At the time of the crime, all the windows of this study were locked from the inside, and the only door that could be entered and exited was also locked with a key." Hattori explained his reasoning to everyone with a confident smile, "In this way, the study became a secret room with no gaps, but in this room that looks like a completely secret room, there is actually a gap!"

"What gap?" Kogoro Mouri was stunned for a moment, his face full of confusion.

"It's the gap under the door!" Hattori pointed at the gap under the door.

"You're not going to say that the murderer threw the study key into the victim's pocket through the gap in the door?" Kogoro Mouri squinted his eyes and looked disapproving.

"You're right, that's it!" Hattori's words were earth-shattering. "As long as we have the tape and what I just found..." He took out a roll of fishing line from his pocket, "The fishing line used to tie the iron needle will be fine."

"What's the use of fishing line?" Kogoro Mori was even more confused.

"Next, I will demonstrate the murderer's method of committing the crime..." Hattori Heiji came to Inspector Megure, who was playing the role of the deceased, holding an iron needle.

"The murderer first stabbed the victim's neck with a poison needle, killed him, and then took the victim's keys away.

Then, pull out the fishing line with the iron needle tied to it, and fix it with the other end of the fishing line tied to the iron needle on the tape. Stuff the end tied to the iron needle into the victim's pocket and let the fishing line pass through the middle.

Finally, the victim was made to sit on a chair... and the deceased was made to pose with his face resting on his hands as he was found.”

Hattori helped Officer Megure sit on the chair, then slowly pulled the fishing line to the door, closed the door, and pulled the line...

Amidst everyone's stunned expressions, the key actually slowly moved from outside the door into Inspector Megure's pocket!

"In this way, a complete secret room is formed!" Hattori Heiji opened the door and smiled confidently.

"Wow... so awesome!" Everyone stared at Hattori Heiji's reasoning, stunned for a moment.

Inspector Megure identified the murderer as Toshimitsu Tsujimura: "Mr. Tsujimura, the murderer is you?"

Just as Tsujimura Toshimitsu was about to admit it, Kudo Shinichi's voice of denial came from outside the door.

"No...you're wrong...the murderer is not Mr. Tsujimura!"

Everyone turned their heads and looked in the direction of the voice, only to see Kudo Shinichi leaning against the door, wearing a set of ill-fitting trousers and a white shirt, his face looking haggard.

Xiaolan quickly stepped forward and asked, "Shinichi, why are you here?"

Kudo Shinichi acted cool and said, "Because the case is calling me."

Xiaolan was speechless and said, "So, the case called you and you responded. I called you and you didn't move. Am I right?"

Kudo Shinichi was embarrassed and quickly explained: "No, Xiaolan, listen to me..."

Hattori Heiji interrupted Kudo Shinichi's explanation and asked: "Let me ask you, Kudo Shinichi, where did I go wrong?"

Kudo Shinichi no longer paid attention to Xiaolan, but chose to respond to Hattori Heiji: "Hattori Heiji, the method you mentioned is impossible to complete in practice.

"That's not right!" Inspector Megure couldn't understand, "But... the experiment just now was clearly successful!"

"Hattori Heiji, take another closer look." Kudo Shinichi pointed at Inspector Megure's pocket and said lightly.

"Kudo Shinichi, what do you mean?" Hattori Heiji pulled open Inspector Megure's pocket with confusion.

With a soft "ding!" sound, Hattori Heiji exclaimed.

"How is this possible?" Hattori stared at the key that fell to the ground in amazement, "I clearly... have already let the fishing line pass through the double pocket!"

"That's because Inspector Megure is sitting down." Kudo Shinichi picked up the key and gently opened the compartment in the middle of the key.

"When a person sits, wrinkles will appear between the clothes, which will block the key from entering. In addition, the deceased was fatter than Inspector Megure, and his pants would be tighter. Therefore, before the key could enter the double pocket, the connected fishing line was pulled away!" Shinichi played with the key chain in his hand and slowly walked to the bookshelf.

Hattori Heiji said in frustration: "Kudo Shinichi, then tell me, who is the murderer?"

Kudo Shinichi did not directly state the murderer, but began his reasoning.

"The books piled on the desk were only to cover up the hideous expression that the victim might have left before his death, and the opera was also to cover up the screams that might have been made. This is why the murderer did not use the classical music that the victim often listened to, but the Italian opera with a higher voice."

"Why would the murderer have to hide his actions so carefully?" Unconsciously, the original provocation in Hattori's words had disappeared.

"That's it..." Kudo Shinichi turned his head and looked at Hattori Heiji, smiling slightly, "Hattori Heiji you!"

"You mean..." Hattori Heiji had cold sweat on his forehead.

"Of course, there are other people who came into the room with him." Kudo Shinichi looked around and finally stopped his gaze on a person.

"If that's the case..." Hattori's body trembled and his eyes widened suddenly.

"The only ones who can get close to the victim are those of you present here, and the person who can kill the victim at the closest distance is Mrs. Tsujimura!" Kudo Shinichi raised his finger and pointed at Mrs. Tsujimura.

"It's actually Mrs. Tsujimura!" Everyone looked at Mrs. Tsujimura in surprise.

"I understand!" Maori Kogoro finally reacted, "The victim was still alive when we entered the room?"

"That's right." Kudo Shinichi nodded. "In fact, when we went in, the diplomat was just put to sleep by his wife using a powerful sleeping pill."

"But..." Inspector Megure looked at Kudo Shinichi in confusion, "Once the body is sent for examination, this method will..."

"No!" A voice came from the side, startling everyone.

Hattori Heiji stood up slowly, his face hidden by the brim of his cap. "The murderer's method of committing the crime would make us mistakenly believe that the victim died before we entered the room. The victim was stabbed to death by a poison needle, which could naturally contain anesthetic ingredients. Moreover, the murderer deliberately brought the detective here to give people the illusion that the murderer did not dare to kill in front of the detective."

While the two high school detectives were performing a reasoning show, Lin Xiao was also performing a reasoning show, but in the spiritual palace of Katsuragi Anko.

This time, he did not release the card of the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, but directly entered the soul palace of Anko Katsuragi. He had no intention of stealing hearts.

"who are you?"

In her own spiritual palace, Katsuragi Sachiko looked at Lin Xiao in horror as he rashly barged in.

"I am Lin Xiao."

"Are you a high school detective too?"

"No, I'm a Phantom Thief, the Phantom Thief of Hearts."

"The Phantom Thief of Hearts?" Katsuragi Sachiko couldn't understand the meaning of this. What was even more incomprehensible was that she had just been in the study room and now she was in a completely dark place. "Where is this place? Why are there only two of us?"

“This is your spiritual temple.”

The black space gradually became brighter, but it was a gray light filled with Katsuragi Sachiko's hatred.

"why?"

"If you want to ask why, I can only answer that I have questions that I want to ask you alone!"

"what is the problem?"

"According to the information Mrs. Tsujimura gave me, Ms. Katsuragi Sachiko, you are a student at Tokyo Medical College, right?"

"Yes, you are right."

"The diplomat was stabbed by the poison needle and died immediately. This shows that the poison in the diplomat is highly toxic. A very low amount can kill an adult, and the toxin has a paralyzing effect. Of all people, only you, a student from a prestigious Tokyo Medical School, can find such a special toxin. Am I right?"

The poison commonly used by criminals to commit crimes is usually cyanide. It is rare to find such a special poison as the one used by diplomats. It takes professionals to select and obtain the poison, which is impossible for ordinary people.

Chapter 24: Slapping the faces of two high school detectives

Katsuragi Sachiko was silent for a while, and then she admitted it directly. It was useless for her to deny it, as long as the police traced the source of the poison that poisoned the victim, she would not be able to escape.

"You're right. The tetrodotoxin I used was something I secretly took out from the school laboratory."

"It's really worthy of your expertise that you thought of using pufferfish toxin. It's such a pity..." Lin Xiao felt that Katsuragi Sachiko was really good. She was beautiful and a top student at Tokyo Medical College. She was perfect and impeccable.

"What's the pity?"

"If Miss Katsuragi had not been blinded by hatred, I think she would have become a female doctor who saved the world."