Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Thank you, Doctor." Sitting in the Beetle car, Kudo Yusaku looked in the rearview mirror at the editorial team that had not caught up with him and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just now, Officer Megure reminded me with a pager and called me. He said there was a difficult case that couldn't be solved."

Driving the Beetle, Dr. Agasa looked at Kudo Yusaku who was sitting in the passenger seat, "I don't mind. There hasn't been much progress in the research recently. It's okay for me to go to the site with you, but it's time for you to buy a car."

Shaking his index finger, Kudo Yusaku laughed: "What are you talking about, Doctor? If a detective buys a car, isn't that just leaving it for others to destroy?"

"Have you watched too much TV?"

"These are the bloody lessons of our predecessors."

After parking the car in the parking lot of the Haido Apartment, which has four floors, Kudo Yusaku immediately ran to the crime scene 401 with Dr. Agasa.

The entire fourth floor is currently blocked by police, and residents on the remaining floors are also asked not to leave their rooms.

After confirming their identities with the police officers in front of the blockade, Yusaku Kudo and Takashi Agasato saw the familiar big belly of Inspector Megure from afar.

"Ah, Kudo-kun, you're here!"

Holding the hat on his head, Inspector Megure looked at Kudo Yusaku who walked to the door of the room and asked the other police officers to leave the room first.

"Dr. Agasa is here too."

After nodding and greeting the doctor, Officer Megure pointed to the kitchen in the suite and said, "The deceased is Hirotoki Kishida, 72 years old. He went to England with his wife and daughter to do business in his early years. Later, he returned to Japan alone and bought this apartment building. He made a living by collecting rent. His medical record card said he had diabetes."

Following Inspector Megure into the living room, Kudo Yusaku stopped at the kitchen door and looked inside. He noticed the body of an old man lying on the ground with his head smashed. There was no doubt that the deceased had been killed by a blunt object.

There was a pool of yellow blood on the ground, and some stainless steel bowls and plates that were originally placed on the table had fallen down, but there was no deformation, and the kitchen was still very clean.

"The air conditioner in the living room was on all the time, and there were no signs of a fight in the kitchen, so we concluded that the murderer was someone familiar with the deceased."

Officer Megure took out a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over: "Here is the preliminary estimated time of death, about five to seven in the morning."

"Have the police identified any suspects yet?"

Kudo Yusaku's gaze lingered on the name of the first discoverer "Hayatami Kyoto", and then he looked at the murder weapon determined by the police, which was a wrench.

"We have eliminated a lot of people, and we have locked the suspects on Kishida Hirotoki's cousin Kishida Shunzo, his neighbor Hayami Konaga, and Izumi Hibiki downstairs."

Shunzo Kishida is Hirotoki Kishida's cousin. He is 65 years old this year. He is currently living alone because he is not married. He is a company employee and has not retired yet.

According to him, he came to his cousin for morning exercise this morning as usual on Saturdays, but found that his cousin did not get up early as usual and the door of the apartment was locked from the inside.

He thought his cousin wanted to rest today, so he went for morning exercise. When he finished his exercise and came back, he found that the door was still not open. He took out the spare key, walked into the apartment and found Hirotoki Kishida dead in the kitchen.

"So, this case is a closed-room murder case?" Dr. Agasa looked at the corpse on the ground in surprise, but unexpectedly, Kudo Yusaku shook his head.

"Actually, it's not. Just now, I saw from the outside that the balcony of this apartment was not sealed when it was built. The adjacent buildings are only separated by plastic sheets. If you are good at it, you can get here from the balcony next door."

No wonder the police suspected that the neighbor had seen today's murder. Among these three people, he could easily commit the murder.

"Hayami has a history of theft. He was released from prison five years ago. He has since rented a house here and makes a living by doing odd jobs." Officer Megure watched Kudo Yusaku flipping through documents, and took the two of them to the balcony and knocked on the thin plastic board.

Because of his criminal record, the police are most suspicious of Hayami Konagawa among the suspects. "Izumi Hibiki is a third-year student at Haido High School and lives here alone. According to the residents of this building, he always felt that the rent was too high, so he often quarreled with Kishida Hirotoki, and we also listed him as a suspect."

Officer Megure pointed to the fire escape on the ground and said, "This apartment building also has a fire escape that can be used to escape from upstairs to downstairs. However, this week, Hirotoki Kishida changed the escape door for each resident to a one-way opening from the top."

(Was it changed just this week?)

Kudo Yusaku squatted on the ground, wearing gloves and touched the handle of the escape door. He found that there was no lock. It could be opened directly by just lifting it from above. However, if it was a resident downstairs, it would definitely not be able to be opened because of the design.

"Officer! Someone wants to see you." A policeman knocked twice on the door of the apartment: "It's a woman."

"Woman?" Officer Megure frowned in confusion: "Has Kishida Hirotoki's daughter returned from England? But he just died this morning."

"She said someone was trying to steal her husband." The police officer looked at Inspector Megure hesitantly, then snickered.

"I think it's my wife." Kudo Yusaku smiled helplessly and looked up at Dr. Agasa.

"PhD?"

"Ah! Because Yukiko insisted that I tell her the location, otherwise I won't get my share of lunch tomorrow, so..."

"Well, let's not do this again."

"Yusaku..."

With a tired look on her face, Kudo Yukiko walked into the entrance of the apartment with a wronged look on her face. Worried that she would fall, Kudo Yusaku immediately walked over and hugged his wife.

"I suddenly feel unsafe going to the checkup alone. Hurry up and get rid of the fat uncle and go home with me..."

"Who is the fat uncle?" x2
"I see. Please wait for me for a moment."

"Yusaku, you too..." x2
Kudo Yusaku patted his wife on the head and turned to look at Officer Megure: "Officer Megure, where were Hayami Konokane and Izumi Hibiki during the time of death?"

After getting a confession from his subordinates, Inspector Megure gave a copy to Kudo Yusaku and also gave a copy to Dr. Agasa.

It was written in the transcript that because today was a rare day off every month, Zaojian wanted to sleep in today. He slept soundly from five to seven o'clock and had no idea what was going on next door.

Simply put, this person has a criminal record, no alibi, and could climb over the balcony to kill the victim and then climb back down at any time. Of course, the police would list him as the prime suspect.

In contrast, Izumi Hibiki had a complete alibi. Between five and seven o'clock, he was in the Beido Library studying for his college entrance exam.

"Eh? This is the murder scene?"

Standing at the door curiously, a voice suddenly woke up everyone in the room.

"Who are you?! How did you get in!" (Megure)

"Mori?!" (Yusaku Kudo)

"Kogoro!" (Yukiko)
"Who is it?" (Dr. Agasa) (End of this chapter)