Conan Rick's Investigator

However, as soon as we entered the crime scene, a very embarrassing little problem arose.

That is when Qin Zhibo discovered that he and this Inspector Megure were wearing the same clothes...

I didn't notice in my hurried glance in the hall just now that both of them were wearing almost the same style of light brown coats. The only difference was that Inspector Megure had a hat on his head.

In fact, it is not terrible to wear the same clothes as you. What is terrible is that the person who wears the same clothes as you looks more stylish than you.

Obviously, the same coat can't be said to be very stylish on the chubby Inspector Megure, it can only be said to be seriously out of shape...

Realizing this, Inspector Megure could only pull down the brim of his hat awkwardly, turn around and walk to the other side pretending to investigate a case.

Megure: Damn it, I shouldn't have let this guy in. Having Kudo as my brother should be enough to solve the case...

Qin Zhibo was looking around at everything in the room.

This is a small reception room on the third floor of the mansion.

The layout of the reception room is a regular rectangle. The short side of the rectangle is the door to the reception room. The door faces the balcony. On the right side of the door is a row of bookshelves that fill the entire wall, and the bookshelves are filled with a large number of books.

The raised object on the carpet in the middle of the reception room was the deceased.

Qin Zhibo walked forward to check the condition of the deceased.

Seeing this, Qin Zhibo frowned.

The chest of the deceased lying on the ground was stained bright red with blood. His right hand was tightly grasping the collar of his shirt, while his left hand was placed diagonally upwards, with his five fingers twisted in pain.

But what really made Qin Zhibo feel uncomfortable was not this, but the two medium-sized flesh holes on the cheeks of the deceased.

Through these two holes, you can see the deceased's mouth, where minced meat and blood foam are slowly solidifying.

The murderer brutally cut off two pieces of cheek flesh from the victim's face...

With all his attention focused on the dead figure on the ground, Qin Zhibo did not notice that in his attribute column, his willpower suddenly dropped from 90 to 89.

But the next second, 89 jumped back to 90, as if nothing had happened.

……

Shinichi Kudo, who was standing opposite Qin Zhibo, also looked down at the corpse across from him.

Even the seasoned Kudo Shinichi felt his stomach churning when he first saw this horrifying death.

It was precisely because the death of the body was too cruel that Kudo Shinichi increased the efforts to seal off the scene, just to prevent others, especially his childhood sweetheart Mouri Ran, from seeing this disgusting scene.

While examining the corpse, Kudo Shinichi was also observing Qin Zhibo's reaction when he saw the corpse from the corner of his eye.

Seeing the dead body, the man only frowned for less than a second before regaining his composure...

At this moment, the police officer at the door came to report: "Report to Inspector Megure! The owner of the mansion, Mr. Soba Sontoku, has been brought here."

"Well, let him in."

Inspector Megure nodded, and the officer at the door moved aside. An old man in a light purple suit and with his right leg in plaster slowly entered the room in an electric wheelchair.

"This should be the guest you invited to this banquet. Please identify him."

Under the instructions of Inspector Megure, the owner of the mansion, Sontoku Soba, came to the deceased in an electric wheelchair.

The moment he saw the deceased, Souwa Sontoku's body trembled, and his relatively calm expression of the previous second collapsed in an instant, swallowed by intense fear.

This fear even caused Su Yu Zun De's slightly swollen body to fall off the wheelchair. The police officer next to him hurried forward to support him and finally helped Su Yu Zun De back to the wheelchair.

“Yes… yes!”

"He is my guest, Tetsu Yamazaki."

"How could it become like this!?"

Inspector Megure, who was standing by, asked Soba Sontoku what his occupation was, and Soba Sontoku replied that he was the general manager of Baling Bank.

However, Kudo Shinichi's wise eyes had already seen some clues from the previous episode.

Just now, when Souwa Sontoku fell into the wheelchair due to fright, his right leg, which was still in a cast due to a broken bone, tried to stand up by stepping on the ground.

If the policeman next to him had not quickly stepped forward to help him up, Kudo Shinichi had no doubt that he could stand up on his own.

In other words, his leg injury has actually healed.

He is pretending to be sick now!

A signature confident smile flashed across Kudo Shinichi's face.

……

At the same time, Qin Zhibo was concentrating and didn't pay much attention to what was happening in the room.

At this moment, in Qin Zhibo's field of vision, some white spots appeared at several locations of the murder scene.

These light spots were like the highlighted areas in an adventure game where the player character could interact with the scene, attracting Qin Zhibo to walk to the nearest white light spot.

I walked to the bookshelf behind the door in the corner of the room, and the light on the bookshelf transformed into [Do you want to investigate?]

【Survey√】

As Qin Zhibo's brain confirmed it, he reached out and pulled out an inconspicuous book from the bookshelf.

On the dark red cover is gold-stamped writing in French.

Cultes Des Goules

At the same time, a rumbling sound sounded in Qin Zhibo's brain.

"Gain a new professional skill, mysterious mythology knowledge..."

"Current level of arcane mythology knowledge is 1, proficiency is 200/1000..."

Chapter 3 Kudo Shinichi: Has he discovered the truth before me?

Secret mythological knowledge?

Qin Zhibo didn't know anything relevant, so he could only turn his attention back to the book in his hand.

But before he could open the book with his hands, relevant information about the book had already appeared in his brain.

[The Ritual of the Canon of Corpse: Written by François-Honoré Balfour, Count of Dret, a 16th-century French nobleman.

The book catalogs the cults in France at the time that were addicted to black magic, cannibalism, and necrophilia, and provides a detailed account of the behavior and doctrines of these cults.

This book is an abridged French version, and the content is more normalized.

[Reading this book will reduce your Willpower by 2-8 points, and your Mythology Knowledge and Skill Proficiency + the Willpower lost by reading it × 100]

【Language barriers, unable to read】

Qin Zhibo, who didn't speak French, could only put the book back on the bookshelf and walk towards the next light spot that could be investigated in his sight.

……

On Kudo Shinichi's side, his intelligent little eyes watched Souwa Sontoku's acting performance in the wheelchair with great interest.

Among all the cases solved by Kudo Shinichi, Kudo Shinichi has to admit that Sowa Sontoku's acting skills are the most mature.

Many murderers not only do not flee the scene after committing a crime, but also boldly stay near the scene and wait for the police to come and question them.

Once the police accept the murderers' excuses for exoneration, they will unconsciously lose control of their facial expressions.

Kudo Shinichi has several times identified the murderer in advance based on the murderer's poor expression management, and then made inferences backwards.

But Souwa Sontoku's acting just now was quite realistic. Even international movie stars would have to admit defeat when he showed his shocked expression after seeing the corpse.

If I hadn't noticed that Su Yu Zun De was hiding the fact that his leg illness had healed, it would have been difficult to discover this old fox this time.

Kudo Shinichi secretly identified the murderer in his heart, and the next step was to find out the method of murder, motive for murder and most importantly, evidence.

First, the method of killing.

This reception room should be the first scene, and the key to the room was on the deceased, Tetsu Yamazaki.

In other words, the door of the room was locked from the inside by the deceased, probably in order to have a secret meeting with the murderer who invited him in, which he did not want to be seen by others.

Murder in a locked room...

It's a bit tricky, but Shinichi has already asked Megure's police to go downstairs to inquire, and I believe we'll get the result soon.

The second is the motive for murder.

One is the president of an investment company affiliated with the Suzuki Group, and the other is the general manager of Baying Bank.

From a professional perspective, it is very likely that the two have financial dealings, which may lead to disputes.

What Kudo Shinichi couldn't understand was how much hatred the two had that could make Soba Sontoku commit murder and cut off the flesh on Yamazaki Tetsu's face.

Finally, there is evidence. There are three pieces of evidence that can be relied upon.

The first was to ask Souwa Sontoku's attending physician whether he had concealed the fact that his leg illness had healed.

If the attending physician admitted it, then as long as Su Yu Zun De's psychological defenses were not strong, he would most likely reveal his flaws and confess.

Of course, this evidence is only available when Su Yu Zun De's psychological defenses are weak.

With this level of evidence, as long as Souyu Zunde insists that he did not kill the person and hires a smart and capable lawyer, he can get away with it.

Just now, Kudo Shinichi had witnessed Soba Sontoku's realistic acting skills with his own eyes, and he believed that the psychological defenses of this old fox would not be easily broken.

Therefore, Kudo Shinichi does not intend to use this evidence as evidence for the final conviction.

The real hard evidence is the other two.

Although the murder weapon, the knife, was left at the scene, Souwa Sontoku should have had a blood-stained shirt that he wore when committing the crime in order to prevent blood from splattering on himself.

In addition, there was cheek flesh cut from the deceased's face. Since it was not at the scene, it must have been taken away and hidden by Souwa Sontoku.

This is also what puzzles Kudo Shinichi the most. Why did Sowa Sontoku have to cut off the cheek flesh of the deceased?

Does this behavior have any special meaning?

Just as Kudo Shinichi was thinking to himself, Qin Zhibo passed by Kudo Shinichi.

This made Kudo Shinichi, who was in deep thought, raise his head and look in the direction Qin Zhibo was about to go.

What is this person doing on the balcony?

Kudo Shinichi turned his head and looked in the direction where Qin Zhibo came from, remembering that he seemed to have caught a glimpse of Qin Zhibo standing in front of the bookshelf with a book in his hand.

Did he discover something?

Driven by curiosity, Kudo Shinichi walked to the bookshelf where Qin Zhibo had just stood, and scanned the books on the shelf up and down.

On the bookshelf, a book that was placed slightly protruding attracted Kudo Shinichi's attention.

Kudo Shinichi reached out and pulled out the book. It had a dark red cover and French words written in gold-plated fonts.

Cultes Des Goules

Cultes…paganism?

Des...some...

Goules…what does this mean?

Although Kudo Shinichi has some understanding of all international languages and his English has reached a level where he can communicate fluently with international friends, his French is average and he can only understand some basic vocabulary.

So, Kudo Shinichi opened the book again and read the first few paragraphs.

It seems to be a book about the history of France in the 16th century?

This Su Yu Zun De has a really unique taste...

However, this book should have nothing to do with the case. The man probably picked it up and took a look at it out of curiosity about the title.

Thinking this in his mind, Kudo Shinichi put the books back on the bookshelf.

……

Qin Zhibo followed the light spot in his sight and came to the balcony.

There are three spots of light that can be seen on the balcony, but these three spots of light are not all on the balcony. Instead, they start from the balcony, follow the protruding edge of the eaves, and extend towards the small house on the side of the reception room.

Qin Zhibo started his investigation from the balcony where he was.

【Survey√】

[There are stains on the balcony railing. Someone has recently stepped on it, and there are traces of fixed ropes left behind.]