Conan Rick's Investigator

The case of Hiroshi Haneda.

It is also known as the "Amanda Case" in the United States.

When Toru Amuro was studying at the police academy, this case, which still has many doubts, was often assigned as a typical case for after-class analysis.

Therefore, Toru Amuro also knew a little about the circumstances of this case.

"If I remember correctly, there was a case 17 years ago at a hotel in Los Angeles, USA, but there were two deaths."

"The two deceased were American capitalist Amanda Hughes and Japanese shogi player Hiroshi Haneda."

"The two had agreed to meet at the hotel, but when hotel staff discovered their bodies, they were found in different rooms."

"The identity of the murderer remains a mystery, but most people suspect it was a political assassination because there were rumors at the time that Amanda Hughes would run for the next US president."

"And Haneda Hiroshi might have just happened to see the murderer's face, so he was chased into the room and silenced..."

This is the standard answer to the case analysis assignment assigned by the police academy, and Toru Amuro still remembers it.

However, Toru Amuro has always been skeptical about this standard answer.

After all, too little of the case has been made public, and without seeing the situation at the scene, no one can assert that the truth of the case is this.

Kuroda Bei nodded slightly, agreeing with Amuro Toru's statement.

"What you said is similar to the rumors accepted by most people outside."

"But what I'm going to talk about next is another perspective that not many people know about..."

Next, Kuroda Beibei recounted his experience 17 years ago.

At that time, Kuroda Bei received a secret order from his superiors and went to Los Angeles, USA for vacation under the pretext of taking a vacation, but in fact he was going to discuss cooperation matters with Amanda Hughes.

However, since Amanda Hughes is a hot topic in the United States, it is easy to arouse suspicion if a Japanese person is invited to the room for no reason.

So, Amanda Hughes designated a candidate to serve as a "front" for the two to meet.

This person is Hiroshi Haneda.

"Haneda Hiroshi is a good man."

"After hearing my request, he agreed without even thinking..."

"So, we flew to Los Angeles separately, and he went to meet Amanda first as her idol at the time we had agreed on."

"While my colleagues and I were on vacation, we used Hiroshi Haneda to get in touch with Amanda."

"Of course, that colleague didn't know I was carrying out a mission..."

Kuroda Bei stood on the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and a hint of reminiscence flashed in his one eye behind his sunglasses.

"At 5 o'clock that afternoon, Haneda Hiroshi went to Amanda's room to have a detailed discussion with her."

"As for the content of their conversation, I don't know...but the content of their conversation is not important in the first place."

"According to the original plan, Amanda would have a brief meeting with Hiroshi Haneda, and then change her meeting with me midway, giving the outside world the misconception that she would only meet with one Japanese person, Hiroshi Haneda."

"However, while I was waiting to be summoned in the public restroom on the upper floor, two men in black attacked me."

"These two guys were well-trained. One of them tried to attract my attention by picking up something, while the other one was going to attack me from behind with a stun gun."

"However, I discovered their intentions through the bathroom mirror, and I subdued these two men."

"That's when I realized something might be wrong. Plus, Amanda hadn't called me, so I went to the front desk and identified myself as a Japanese police officer, hoping to get Amanda's room number from them."

"However, Japanese police have no law enforcement authority in the United States, and the front desk staff refused to cooperate, so I had to find out Amanda's room location through other means."

"But by the time I got to that room, I was still a step too late..."

"Amanda Hughes was no longer breathing, and the room was empty.

Download this.”

As he spoke, Kuroda Bei raised his hand and took out a photo from the pocket of his suit jacket.

Qin Zhibo reached out to take the photo and found that it was not a photo of Amanda Hughes' body, but a photo taken sideways of a chessboard.

There was a chess piece, a "Knight," in the middle of the chessboard, and both sides of the white piece were stained with bright red fingerprints.

And in the chess piece record.

"Is this... a death message?"

Before Qin Zhibo could speak, Toru Amuro, who was looking over at him, spoke seriously.

In addition to seeing the survey points in the photos, Qin Zhibo also wanted to complain, why were there camera phones 17 years ago?

And it was captured so clearly...

Kurodabei nodded, "Yes, that was my first guess at the time."

“So I took this photo and then went looking for Haneda Hiroshi.”

"I knew Haneda Hiroshi's room number, but when I got to the room, I saw a group of men in black coming out of Haneda Hiroshi's room."

"After those men in black left, another man in black stayed behind to clean up the various traces in the room."

"After I knocked him down, I found Haneda Hiroshi's body in the room."

"The area around Haneda Hiroshi's body was quite messy, and I was distracted by other things at the time, so I forgot to take a picture..."

"And the person who interrupted me was Amanda's personal bodyguard."

"That woman was very skilled. She got out of the hidden space behind the bookcase by herself."

"She seems unaware of what just happened in the room and she mistakenly thinks I killed Haneda Hiroshi."

"I had no choice but to subdue her first, then put her in the suitcase that the man in black left behind, and then get her out of the hotel first."

"But when we were going downstairs, those men in black returned to Haneda Hiroshi's room."

"After I drove away from the hotel, these lingering men in black drove after me."

"While trying to evade their pursuit, I was hit by a truck traveling sideways at an intersection and suffered a serious car accident."

"When I regained consciousness, I asked the doctor who came to my aid, and only then did I learn that the woman named 'Asaka' had long since disappeared..."

"After that, I was in a coma in a hospital in the United States for nearly ten years, and it was only recently that I woke up."

"At first, I seemed to be suspected of murder, but after learning that I had arranged to meet Amanda, and after the hotel doorman's testimony, I was cleared of suspicion."

Kuroda Heibei's memories come to an end for now.

Toru Amuro glanced sideways at Kuroda Heibei, and today he finally got to know this mysterious parachuted boss better.

When he received the order from above to go to Arkham Asylum in the United States to bring back a Japanese policeman, he couldn't help but feel puzzled.

Why would a Japanese policeman be treated as a mental patient in an American mental hospital?

It now seems that this may be a means for the relevant parties to mediate.

After all, Amanda Hughes is an important American figure, and it is definitely not as easy as Kuroda Beiwei said to completely eliminate the suspicion of murder.

Staying in a mental hospital for 17 years was actually a form of house arrest.

As for the case, Toru Amuro judged from the description of "men in black" that it was probably the work of an organization.

Although the organization does not have a uniform dress code, most grassroots members and cadres wear black.

And since Kuroda Bei is now assigned by his superiors to investigate cases related to the organization, it means that his mission 17 years ago should also be related to this.

After listening to Kuroda Heibei's description, Qin Zhibo was quite impressed by the various uniforms he wore.

Two men in black tried to attack him in the bathroom, but he subdued them...

A man in black was cleaning the room and was subdued by him...

Amanda's bodyguard, Asaka, mistook him for the murderer and was subdued by him...

This is not Kuroda Heibei, this is Kuroda Heiwang!

However, from his description, Qin Zhibo also learned a new situation.

That is, as early as 17 years ago, the Japanese police tried to cooperate with the FBI through the Nine Angels.

However, after this incident, it is estimated that the cooperation plan has been shelved.

"By the way, Amanda's bodyguards were knocked unconscious by someone unknown."

"When they woke up, they found themselves in the hotel's warehouse..."

Kuroda Bei made some additional explanations.

Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, then asked, "Except for that woman named "Qianxiang", right?"

"That's right."

Kurodabei adjusted his stance and asked in a deep voice, "And then? Can you decipher the message Amanda left before her death?"

The message that Kuroda Bei gave before his death was the photo he had just given.

In response to this, Qin Zhibo showed a confident smile.

"Yeah, that's almost it."

"Oh? I'd like to hear more about it." Kuroda Bei replied.

Qin Zhibo held the photo in his hand and stared at the investigation point on it.

【Secret Word Survey√】

【Survey……】

After a while, the investigation instructions appeared.

Qin Zhibo took a quick glance and found that the content was basically consistent with his own reasoning.

However, he was not in a hurry to reason. Instead, he turned to look at Amuro Toru and asked.

"Touko, what do you think?"

Toru Amuro was stunned. He didn't expect that Qin Zhibo would be asked the question directly.

But it just so happened that he had just been observing this photo for a long time and already had some ideas in his mind.

"First, let's look at the mark on the watch. You can clearly see it's a lip mark, left by lipstick."

"If it's a lipstick mark, you might think of the word lips, or the red color of lipstick..."

"But if you look closely at the diamond ring around the watch crystal, you can see that there is also red paint inside."

"This suggests that Amanda once felt the mark she left wasn't accurate enough, so she erased it and re-marked it."

"If it's lips, it's easy to associate them with something just by looking at the lines on the lips, and lipstick is even more so..."

"In other words, what Amanda wanted to express was not lips or lipstick, but the mouth that must be composed of two lips - outh."

"If you look closely at the two lip prints, you can see that neither corner of the mouth is imprinted."

"This probably means removing the two ends. That is, removing the first and last two letters of outh, it becomes out."

"Add the word atch to the watch, and it becomes atchout, meaning 'careful.'"

Amuro Toru's expression became more and more confident as he spoke, with a confident smile on his face. "But even so, I don't know what you mean by 'be careful'?"

"But looking at the head of this chess piece, the knight's eyes are also printed with lipstick. Perhaps it's a reminder to pay attention to someone's eyes?"

"Who can you think of in this regard?"

Amuro Toru turned and looked at Kuroda Bei.

Kuroda Heibei was stunned and immediately thought of someone.

"Come to think of it, there was indeed someone with unusual eyes who passed by us..."

"Though I couldn't see clearly through the monocle, he has eyes as sharp as a snake."

Amuro Toru asked in confusion, "Snake's eyes?"

Kuroda Bei nodded and added: "But this is only limited to India.

I don’t know who that person is or what the specific meaning is…”

Just as the two were thinking in this direction, Qin Zhibo interrupted them in time.

"So far, my reasoning seems to be correct..."

Qin Zhibo nodded in approval, but then changed the subject, "But it's not perfect yet."