Conan's grammatical investigator

Chapter 1409 Strange Shadow in the Mirror
"Detective..."

When they heard that there were suddenly two famous detectives and a policeman in the house, the expressions on the faces of everyone in the Tonkura family changed slightly.

"Um... the food is already cold, can I reheat it?"

While everyone was discussing the case, the young maid appeared behind them and asked for instructions.

When the old woman heard this, she raised her eyebrows and angrily said, "What's wrong with you? It's already this time, and you're still asking about such an insignificant matter?"

"S-Sorry!"

The maid was so frightened that she quickly bowed her head and was about to turn around and leave.

"Wait a moment……"

Qin Zhibo stopped the maid and said with a smile, "Let's heat it up. I haven't had dinner yet."

……

After inspecting the scene, Officer Otaki and Kogoro Mori planned to go down the mountain immediately and send the blood on the coffin board to the nearby police station for testing.

This place is located in Gunma Prefecture, so of course we have to send it to the Gunma Prefecture Police Station.

After the two of them got down the mountain in the car, everyone returned to the restaurant to discuss the inheritance.

"In the end, Big Brother didn't show up at all?"

"Didn't we agree to explain the distribution of the inheritance after dinner?"

Torakura Jiro's wife complained, as if she didn't care about the dead body that had just been found.

After all, I didn't see the body with my own eyes. I just heard the one-sided story from the two little girls.

The old woman held the pretty boy's arm affectionately and suddenly said, "Should we take a picture first?"

Hattori Heiji, who was following behind, stepped forward and asked, "Why do you want to take pictures?"

The old woman turned around and explained: "Whenever our family gets together, everyone will gather together to take pictures..."

As an outsider, the pretty boy also echoed: "This habit has existed for three generations..."

Hattori Heiji drooped his eyelids and thought: Wasn't that when cameras started to be aimed at civilians?

"But isn't the owner of the villa not here now? Are you planning to take pictures too?" Yuanshan Heye asked with a frown.

Inakura Sannan replied nonchalantly, "Yes, last year when we were halfway through the photo shoot, my eldest brother suddenly rushed out of the room and rushed over to take the photo."

The youngest girl with glasses in the Torakura family also agreed, "That's true. When all of us are happily making noises, maybe the eldest brother will suddenly show up..."

Just like that, several people turned around and walked towards the photo studio.

Hattori Heiji and Conan looked at each other and felt that there was no need to inform Qin Zhibo who was having dinner in the restaurant.

Just keeping an eye on these people to see if they do anything out of line, the two high school detectives are enough.

……

In the restaurant, Qin Zhibo sat alone at the dining table, devouring the delicious food on the table.

Since we had been rushing all the way and had no chance to stop for dinner, our stomachs were already very hungry.

When he had almost finished eating, Qin Zhibo wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin and turned to look at the maid serving him.

Qin Zhibo glanced at the maid's name, which was Hihara Xiaoguang, and she was 24 years old.

Hihara... Haihara?
"Miss Maid, how long have you been working in this house?"

The maid was startled and said softly, "It's been half a year..."

Half a year?

Qin Zhibo thought about it and felt that if he wanted to inquire about the rumors about vampires, it seemed that this maid was not qualified enough.

"So that means you didn't experience the incident half a year ago when a maid from this house died in the nearby forest?"

The maid was stunned again, then her eyes lit up and she asked, "Are you talking about Miss Shimizu's incident?"

"I really didn't experience it. I came here to work as a maid after that incident..."

Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, and suddenly saw that the maid's uniform had a metal photo frame brooch pinned on the fabric between her collarbones.

The frame of the brooch shows a photo of a woman with a dignified and elegant temperament, and she looks 70% similar to the maid.

"Excuse me, is the woman on your brooch your mother?"

In response to Qin Zhibo's question, the maid looked down at her brooch and then nodded.

"Yes."

"Oh..." Qin Zhibo said casually, "It seems that you love your mother very much."

The maid replied: "Actually, this brooch was given to me by the master, and he asked me to always wear it on my clothes."

Qin Zhibo was puzzled, "Master? Mr. Torakura Sakoya?"

"Yes." The maid nodded, "The master said that as long as he sees this brooch, he will be reminded of my mother..."

The maid's answer made Qin Zhibo even more confused.

Realizing that the relationship was somewhat complicated, Qin Zhibo continued to ask questions.

Only then did they learn that the maid named "Hihara Komitsu" was the daughter of a mansion owner's fiancée.

Because the mother of Xiaoguang's maid died in an accident two years ago, Torakura Sakuya was unable to marry the maid's mother Yoko.

Maid Xiaoguang was born to a woman and her ex-husband, and clearly has no bloodline of the Tonkura family, so she has no right to inherit the estate.

After listening to the maid Xiaoguang's description of this relationship, Qin Zhibo finally understood what the old woman meant when she was in the office and was worried about other illegitimate children popping up.

"Let me ask you a rather impolite question. Since you have no right to inherit the estate, why are you still working as a maid here?"

"Doesn't it feel strange to be ordered around by your former family?"

"Especially those people from the Torakan family, they don't seem to be very friendly to you..."

Qin Zhibo's question made Xiaoguang's maid's eyes droop slightly, and the fingers of her hands were tangled together.

"Actually, the master invited me to come back here to be a maid..."

"Are you done eating? If you are, I will start clearing the table."

Seeing that the maid didn't want to continue this topic, Qin Zhibo stopped asking and nodded to indicate that it was okay.

Just then, a scream suddenly came from outside the corridor.

"what--!"

Qin Zhibo recognized this familiar scream as coming from Mao Lilan, with the scream of Yuanshan Heye as the harmony.

He immediately stood up and ran out of the restaurant, running towards the direction where the sound came from.

When we arrived at the photo studio, we found Mouri Ran and Toyama Kazuha standing behind the camera in the room, trembling with fear, looking as if they were still in shock.

Hattori Heiji and Conan were also staring at a mirror on the photo wall, as if trying to find something in it.

"What happened?" Qin Zhibo walked over and asked.

Mao Lilan and Yuanshan Heye raised their hands tremblingly and pointed at the wall. Mao Lilan explained: "Just now when we were taking a group photo, Mr. Torakura suddenly appeared there..."

"Yes, yes! It's almost like a ghost!"

Qin Zhibo looked at the place where the two women were pointing, which was exactly where Hattori Heiji and Conan were observing carefully.

Because the silver mirror was hung on the wall, Conan's dwarf's perspective was relatively biased, so Hattori Heiji held him in his arms. Qin Zhibo looked at the mirror and saw the investigation point on it at a glance.

【Topographic Survey√】

【A magic mirror】

"Can you please stop talking?"

"Anyway, you must have heard the rumors about vampires before, so you followed that detective here to have fun, right?"

"Please stop treating this place like a haunted house and screaming! Okay?"

The repeated sudden and unexpected behavior of Mao Li Ran and Toyama Kazuha caused Torako Jiro's wife to completely lose her temper, and she yelled at the two women in displeasure.

When Mouri Ran and Toyama Kazuha heard the word "vampire", they were also stunned.

Seeing the two people's puzzled looks, the old woman and the pretty boy smiled slightly, "Haha, you two came here without knowing anything?"

The two of them sang in unison and recounted the story of the maid's death that happened half a year ago.

The more Mouri Ran and Toyama Kazuha listened, the creepier they felt. Especially when they heard that the maid had holes on her neck like a vampire, they got goose bumps on their necks.

And Inakura Sannan looked determined and said calmly: "Anyway, let's split up and look for where big brother is. If we continue like this, big brother might really be treated like a monster..."

As soon as the three men finished speaking, Qin Zhibo, who was standing in front of the mirror, said.

"If you want to look for it, start in the room next to this photo studio."

Qin Zhibo pointed his fingers on the mirror, with his fingertips directly facing the fingertips in the mirror, with no distance in between.

When Hattori Heiji and Conan saw this scene, their expressions were stunned and they understood the meaning.

"This is a two-way mirror, which means that the other side of the mirror can also see this side, just like the mirror in the interrogation room of the police station..."

Everyone came to the room next to the photo studio, which used to be a guest room that no one used normally, but in the past six months it was converted into a personal dressing room by Torakura Sakuya.

Next to the photo wall of the photo studio next door is a huge wardrobe.

Qin Zhibo stood at the door of the closet, holding the door handle with both hands, and took a deep breath.

When he reached out to open the bookcase and pushed aside the clothes hanging inside, he found a handle on the wall.

Pulling open the wooden board connected to the handle, an oval mirror was revealed.

Opposite the mirror was the situation in the photo studio next door. One could see Mouri Ran and Toyama Kazuha still standing next to the camera, looking around nervously.

Qin Zhibo searched the inside of the closet again and only came out after confirming that there was no one hiding inside.

"It seems we are a step late..."

Qin Zhibo said lightly.

Hattori Heiji and Conan looked at the mirror in the closet in disbelief with slightly shocked expressions.

They were not surprised by this bizarre and scary method.

But when the photo was taken just now, all the members of the Tonkura family were clearly gathered together.

And after Mao Lilan and Toyama Kazuha saw Torakura Sakuya's head appear in the mirror, no one left the room until Qin Zhibo came over.

In other words, if someone from the Tonkura family in the photo studio had set up this trap during this period, it would have been impossible for them to take away the evidence in the closet.

Judging from the situation in the closet, in order to achieve the effect that Mao Li Ran and Toyama Kazuha just saw, at least Tora Kura's head must be cut off and hung on the closet.

But now, this head has disappeared...

There are three possibilities.

First, the real murderer was a servant in the villa, not a member of the Tonkura family.

The second is a servant in the villa, who is an accomplice, and the real murderer is still someone in the photo studio.

Third, Torakura Sakoya is still alive...

Generally speaking, a good mystery story should assume that the murderer is one person, rather than having someone with almost no presence as the murderer's accomplice.

The other people in the villa felt that there was no need to kill Torakura Sakuya.

Then it could be that...

Hattori Heiji and Conan's eyes changed and they immediately ran back to the photo room next door.

Seeing Hattori Heiji coming back, Toyama Kazuha, who was assigned to stay in the haunted room, felt as if she had been pardoned and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

However, Hattori Heiji came up and grabbed Toyama Kazuha's shoulders and asked loudly: "Kazuha! Did you really see clearly that the body in the coffin was Torakura Sakuya?"

"what?"

Before Yuanshan and Ye could react, Conan, who was standing lower, followed up with another question.
"Sister Xiaolan, when you found the body, did you notice anything else special?"

"This……"

Mao Lilan narrowed her eyes slightly, recalling the scene she didn't want to recall in her mind.

Suddenly, Mao Lilan's eyes changed slightly.

"...If there is anything special, it is that the blood I saw on the collar of the clothes seemed to be a little pink, which is different from the normal color of blood..."

"Eh?" Yuanshan Heye turned his head in confusion, "Is that so?"

Mao Lilan nodded slightly, "I remember it seems to be like this..."

Compared to Toyama Kazuha, Mao Li Ran has definitely seen blood more times and has more experience.

When Conan and Hattori Heiji heard the important clues proposed by Mouri Ran, their expressions suddenly changed, gradually from shock to calmness.

Human blood gradually changes from bright red to black depending on how long it is exposed to air.

Pink is not included in this process.

Pink blood is most likely caused by anemia, and cancer is most likely to cause anemia.

Mao Lilan's discovery proves that the blood should belong to Torakura Sakuya himself.

This means that Tokura Sakuya himself is most likely really dead...

But if he was dead, the situation in the closet just now should be that someone used his head to create that strange mirror illusion.

Because it would be too heavy to carry the entire corpse, and the target is too large to be convenient to move.

Furthermore, the people in the photo studio do not have the conditions to recover the head...

Then the person who can do this can only be a servant of the Tonkura family other than these people.

But why do this?

Hattori Heiji and Conan both held their chins in their hands, thinking about the further possibilities of the case.

Qin Zhibo was standing at the door and also heard what Mao Lilan said about her latest discovery after recalling it.

Pink blood...

Sounds reasonable for a cancer patient.

However, if we consider that Torakura Sakoya may be a real vampire, and if the description in literary works is correct, vampires should have a physique that is immune to all diseases.

Qin Zhibo was thinking, his eyes unconsciously glancing at the photo wall.

Suddenly, a photo hanging on the wall caught his attention.