Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

Segawa Shoichi's body was quickly removed from the deck by the ship's patrol officers and crew. The murderer seemed to have no intention of hiding it at all; there was a frighteningly long stab wound on the man's neck, and no signs of suffocation.

"Judging from the knife marks, the neck was cut open from behind. The blood should have been spraying forward and upward, which is why there are bloodstains on the beard on the chin."

Old Kudo, wearing gloves, touched the corpse's wounds and even turned over the somewhat yellowed human skin, asking Conan to observe the time of death.

“About an hour ago, shortly after we returned to the lower level from Segawa Taikei’s room, he died.”

Old Kudo saw a man sitting on a beach chair not far away, covering his face, surrounded by a group of people from the boat comforting him, so he went over to him.

"He suddenly said that his younger brother liked cake and red wine, so he asked me to call a restaurant to send a cake to the morgue and then go to the wine shop on the top floor to get a bottle of good wine to send together."

The secretary seemed to be quite lucky. He had just delivered the red wine to the morgue and was about to return to Segawa Shoichi's room when a violent explosion occurred in the morgue. When he rushed back, Segawa Shoichi had already disappeared from his room.

"I think it's the guy who killed Segawa Taikei. Wasn't he also slit in the stomach with a very sharp knife?"

One afternoon, a man in the banquet hall shared his opinion with those around him, though it wasn't absolute. Those at the heart of the case, however, didn't take his words seriously, because ever since the discovery of Segawa Taikei's body, that floor had been virtually off-limits to outsiders.

"Did the security cameras in the corridor capture any image of Mr. Segawa?"

Old Kudo asked anxiously, "Or, after you left, did anyone enter his room?"

"Mr. Zhengyi didn't have any; he was tidying up the documents he brought to the ship from his room. The others did have some: a cleaning lady, a manager in charge of the banquet, and an electrician who did regular maintenance. All of these people were searched, and it was Mr. Zhengyi who called them up."

Can a person's identity be confirmed?

Upon learning that both the auntie and the electrician had been working on the ship for a long time and continued to work after Segawa Masakazu acquired the ship, everyone immediately focused their attention on the restaurant manager, and even the onlookers suspected him first.

"This person was originally the manager of the Beika Hotel. Hearing that Director Segawa's ship was about to open, he brought a large group of colleagues and jumped ship to work here. However, the Beika Hotel didn't have any chefs, so Mr. Segawa recruited many excellent chefs from all over Japan and offered them high salaries." "I'm afraid it's not this manager. I saw him at the restaurant; he was emaciated and had anorexia. I think Segawa Shoichi's death is related to the time of the power outage." Old Kudo stroked his chin: "Maybe Segawa went out when the power went out. We need to find the murder weapon and the crime scene."

“But on Mr. Segawa’s floor, all electronic devices have their own power supply…” The secretary seemed to have recovered and stood up, leaning on the beach chair.

"He couldn't have just disappeared from the room suddenly, could he? There was no footage of Segawa Shoichi in the hallway, so what did the security cameras in the room capture?"

Conan stared at the secretary suspiciously, finding him quite suspicious. This was because only this person could freely enter and exit various parts of the ship, and so far he had been the one explaining the situation to others. Moreover, the explosion just as he left the morgue seemed too coincidental.

[And that spider-like monster, he must have been the one who hung Segawa's body there.]

He didn't suspect that Spider was the murderer. Judging from that person's performance, there was no need to use a knife. He could have easily smashed Segawa Shoichi's head like an egg.

"In the video, Mr. Zhengyi used the toilet in the suite's bathroom and never came out again."

"So the method is in the toilet!" Old Kudo clapped his hands: "I remember that in Segawa Taikei's bathroom, there was an exhaust pipe above the toilet. The murderer was very likely hiding there, waiting for the right moment to strike, and then moving the body out through the pipe."

"With his wound like that, there's probably blood everywhere in the bathroom, and it'll be impossible to clean it properly."

Conan scanned the crowd, and only when Old Kudo suggested going to Segawa Shoichi's room to take a look did he hurriedly tug at his sleeve.

"I'm not going. I'm going to find something to eat. I'm hungry."

He couldn't let the case hold him back; he had to find the Spider and the people behind them first. He needed to seek help. (End of Chapter)