Conan: The Heart Thief

"Just before twelve o'clock, the security guard on the first floor said that you came back. Can you tell me more about it?"

The yellow-haired man then spoke up: "Today I wanted to show my mother the car model."

"I arrived at about eleven o'clock, but when I rang the doorbell, no one answered."

"I thought everyone went out and took a walk in the nearby park to kill time, and then came back."

"If I had known that Mom would hang herself later, I would definitely be waiting at the door. Wuuwuwu, Mom!"

Inspector Megure asked, "Detective Hayashi, what do you mean by 'prepared step'?"

"It's the suicide note." Lin Xiao went straight to the point: "Look carefully at the contents of the suicide note. The first suspicious point is: 'Good luck on your exam, son. I believe you will be fine.' As far as I know, Mr. Jingjia should be preparing for the written test for his driver's license recently, right? Would you be so worried that Mr. Jingjia would not pass this kind of test?"

"Because my wife likes to worry about things like this," Itami explained. "Like now, because my son, who is about to graduate from college, hasn't found a job yet, she is very worried."

Lin Xiao did not comment and continued, "There is also a second suspicious point, which is that Ms. Chiyoko let her sister's daughter wear her kimono."

"I remember Ms. Chitose just said that when my wife was seven years old, she caught a cold and did not participate in the Shichi-Go-San Festival prayer activities, nor did she wear a kimono."

"So, when she said 'my kimono', if she meant the kimono she didn't wear when she was seven, doesn't that seem a little strange?"

"Well... I do feel like something is wrong." Inspector Megure said, touching his chin.

"It's the year!" Yumi said.

"Miyamoto, what have you thought of?" asked Officer Takagi.

Miyamoto Yumi smiled slightly: "Didn't you notice? If these contents were put four years ago, they would also be suitable, or even more reasonable!"

"Huh?" Several police officers were stunned.

Yumi said, "Four years ago... Mr. Jingjia is about to graduate from college now. Four years ago, he should have been preparing for the college entrance examination, right?"

"Yes! If it's a college entrance exam, then it's normal for a mother to be a little worried!" Officer Takagi also realized, "And four years ago, your wife's niece was three years old, and she also had to celebrate Shichi-Go-San!"

Officer Megure's expression was slightly moved: "Could it be that this suicide note was actually written four years ago?"

"Hey! Wait a minute!" Yidan took off his glasses and pointed at his eyes and said, "Didn't the suicide note say that my eyes were injured by an ashtray? Doesn't that mean..."

"Then we need to confirm whether Mrs. Chiyoko also injured Mr. Itami four years ago." Lin Xiao said lightly.

"Mr. Jingjia! Was your father injured four years ago?" Yumi asked.

"Oh! Now that you mention it, it's true!" Jingjia recalled, "I remember that my parents went skiing together, but my mom didn't ski very well, so she accidentally bumped into my dad, causing him to break his leg."

"As a result, my mother had to fly alone to the New Year party in the countryside for our family every year. The plane almost crashed, but luckily it landed safely and my mother managed to save her life."

Lin Xiao's eyes flickered with a gleam: "In other words, this suicide note was most likely hastily written on the crashed plane!"

He pointed to the signature on the suicide note and explained: "You see, the name and the will are written together. The purpose is obviously to quickly confirm the identity when searching for the victims."

Yumi had a thoughtful look on her face: "No wonder the handwriting on the suicide note is so sloppy, it turns out that it was written in a hurry during the turbulence of the plane!"

Officer Megure nodded slightly, "I see. This suicide note was probably written by my wife four years ago, and then obtained by the criminal from somewhere, and used in this murder case four years later as part of a carefully planned plot."

"Officer!" A forensic officer rushed over. "By comparing the photo of the suicide note with Ms. Chiyoko's other notes, we have confirmed that the suicide note was indeed written by Ms. Chiyoko."

"Thank you for your hard work!" Inspector Megure nodded slightly, "It seems that this hypothesis is more credible."

"Isn't it obvious who the culprit is?" Yumi blinked. "If the 7-5-3 Festival and the exam were coincidental, then Mr. Itami being beaten by Ms. Chiyoko was definitely premeditated."

"This happened in a private residence, and it is difficult for outsiders to know about it. In addition, time is tight. The only person who could use this suicide note to commit the crime could be one of Miss Qiansui and Mr. Yongxin!"

The expressions of the two people named by Lin Xiao suddenly changed.

"No! It can't be me! I just came here to help!" Ito Chitose hurriedly explained, "I knew nothing about skiing four years ago!"

"Yeah, how could I kill my own wife?" Itami Naganobu quickly retorted.

"Didn't you both go to the supermarket before the incident?" Lin Xiao looked at the two of them. "Were you together during that time?"

"No." Ito shook his head. "After arriving at the supermarket, I went shopping alone, and Mr. Yongxin waited for me in the smoking area."

"Have the police checked the supermarket surveillance?" Lin Xiao asked.

"We're already investigating and there should be results soon," replied Officer Megure.

Sure enough, within a minute, Officer Chiba came in hurriedly to report: "Officer! The supermarket surveillance shows that Miss Chitose had been shopping in the supermarket before the incident. She has sufficient proof of her alibi!"

"Great, Chitose has been cleared!" Miike Naoko said excitedly, feeling genuinely happy that her friend had been cleared of suspicion.

"Then, the only remaining suspect is Mr. Naginobu. You are the murderer!" Inspector Megure turned his gaze to Itami Naginobu.

Itami Naginobu's face froze, and he immediately protested loudly, "These are just your speculations! Besides, when we returned home with the maid, didn't we hear the bedroom door closing? My wife should still be alive at that time!"

"After that I was chatting with the maid and had no time to commit the crime!"

"That's easy to do." Lin Xiao turned to Ito, "Ms. Chitose, was the window open when you entered the bedroom?"

"Yes, but Mr. Itami said it was pitiful to let his wife feel the cold air, so he closed it immediately after coming in," Ito replied.

"Come on, Yumei, show them." Lin Xiao motioned to Yumei.

"Yes!" Yumi responded, reopening the bedroom window and running out of the bedroom, leaving the door open.

Yumi's footsteps gradually faded away.

Just as everyone was puzzled, the bedroom door suddenly slammed shut.

"What's going on? Who is it?" Yumi immediately rushed to the door and opened it.

However, there was nothing outside the door.

Everyone looked out through the open door into the corridor.

"No one?" Inspector Megure frowned.

At this time, Miaozi noticed that Yumi was slowly walking towards the bedroom.

"Sister Yumi, were you the one who closed the door just now?" Miaozi asked.

Yumi looked confused. "What did you say? I just opened the door and took a look at the corridor!"

"This..." Miaozi looked confused.

"The principle is very simple." Lin Xiao explained, "If the heating is on indoors and the bedroom window is open, once the door is opened, the warm air indoors will be blown out of the window, causing the bedroom door to automatically close due to the airflow."

"So that's it! It's the effect of airflow!" Officer Takagi suddenly realized.

"However, if Mr. Itami had to leave to reunite with Ms. Chitose after committing the crime, wouldn't the bedroom door have closed automatically when he left?" Inspector Megure asked, "Wouldn't that go against his plan?"

"This is exactly the key to why Miss Qiansui found the phone left at the bedroom door." Lin Xiao explained in detail, "The phone is actually a clever device to ensure that the door is not accidentally closed."

"Let me try!" Yumi seemed to understand something and stuffed her cell phone into the crack of the door. Sure enough, the door remained open.

"Then, all it takes is a simple phone call, and the phone will vibrate and slip through the crack in the door." Lin Xiao further elaborated.

"Miaozi, give me a call and try!" Yumei ordered.

"Okay!" Miike Naeko quickly dialed Yumi's number.

As the phone vibrated, everyone's eyes focused on the crack in the door. The phone slowly slid out and was finally caught by Yumi swiftly. "Lin Xiao's reasoning was indeed accurate!" Yumi breathed a sigh of relief.

"But we checked your wife's cell phone before and didn't find any call records?" Officer Takagi asked doubtfully.

Lin Xiao smiled slightly and turned to Itami Naginobu: "Mr. Itami, can you let me see your phone?"

Itami Naginobu hesitated for a moment, but finally handed over his cell phone.

Officer Megure took the phone and stared at it: "Huh? Mr. Yongxin's phone is the same model as his wife's!"

"This means that simply by changing the phone case, it will be difficult to tell who the phone originally belonged to." Officer Takagi suddenly realized.

"That's right." Lin Xiao smiled, "Check the call records in the phone. Even if Mr. Itami has deleted them, the police can restore them through technical means. Of course, if Mr. Itami received a call while smoking..."

"Oh? Who called?" Inspector Megure asked suspiciously.

"Yes...I dialed the wrong number." Ito Naginobu answered hesitantly.

Lin Xiao chuckled: "At that time, Mr. Yidan either used his wife's cell phone to make the call, or used a public phone."

"Considering that using his wife's phone would leave records, which would make it difficult to disguise it as suicide, Mr. Itami is more likely to choose a public phone."

"But few people use public telephones nowadays, and Mr. Itami needs to reunite with Ms. Chitose as soon as possible, so he is unlikely to go far."

"I think if we investigate nearby pay phones, we might be able to find Mr. Itami's fingerprints."

"Take action immediately!" Inspector Megure gave the order decisively.

Itami Naginobu remained silent and his face grew paler.

The others also waited in silence, the atmosphere was solemn.

In less than twenty minutes, the investigation results came back.

"We questioned a convenience store based on the photos, and the manager confirmed that Mr. Itami had secretly used the public phone in front of the store before the incident! Forensic personnel are collecting fingerprints." Officer Chiba reported.

Officer Megure nodded and looked at Itami Naginobu with a sharp gaze: "Mr. Naginobu, do you have anything else to say?"

Chapter 458: Vermouth disguises himself as Xiaolan and delivers the goods to the door

Seeing that there was no way to refute his mistake, Itami Naginobu sighed helplessly: "Alas! It seems that luck is not on my side..."

"What? Did you really kill my mother? Why?" Jing Jia's face was full of disbelief.

Itami Naginobu smiled bitterly: "Why... Alas!"

It turned out that in order to invest in stocks, Chiyoko Itami had mortgaged her house without permission to borrow money, and the two had a big quarrel because of this. Chiyoko even hit Itami Naganobu with an ashtray in impulse.

In anger and despair, Itami Naginobu suddenly thought, isn't this exactly the same as the situation described in the suicide note four years ago? So he carefully planned the murder.

Afterwards, the police officers from the Investigation Division 1 took the murderer away from the scene.

"Yumi, it's time for us to go back." Lin Xiao smiled at Yumi Miyamoto.

Miyamoto Yumi smiled sweetly in return, said "hmm", and then said hello to Miike Miaozi: "Miaozi, Lin Xiao and I will leave first."

Miike Naeko nodded, "Yumi, you and Detective Hayashi go ahead. I'll stay and keep Chitose company for a while longer."

"OK."

Yumi Miyamoto took Lin Xiao's hand and left without even looking at Hideyoshi Haneda.

Hideyoshi Haneda felt very unwilling when he saw the beautiful Yumi Miyamoto leaving with Lin Xiao!

……