Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"I'm quite familiar with the Sasaki family mansion. There's no one else besides Sasaki Kiyose, so what else is there to investigate?"

The entire Sasaki Manor had been completely emptied. Only Kudo Yuji and Kuroba Rize stood at the entrance of the annex, examining the outside of the room where Ono's body had been found from the side.

To set up those murder methods in the room, the killer would have had to have entered the memorial service beforehand, or have been in Sasaki's house from the beginning.

"We think that Sasaki Kiyose managed to evade the surveillance. While it's not impossible, it would be asking too much of him."

Kudo Yuji kicked the grass roots by the wall, squatted down to observe carefully, and found that this area was covered with light green moss, and above that was the wall surface that the cleaning staff were cleaning normally.

It's clear that no one entered from outside the window from beginning to end.

“If you can’t find Kiyose Sasaki when Sano is drunk, and he wouldn’t suspiciously go up the stairs from the front to the second floor, then the murderer is probably not him.”

Rize, who reeked of alcohol, glared at him, pulled out a stack of photos from her pocket, and picked up one of them.

"That woman in black must be Ms. Uchitake."

"is her."

Kudo Yuji took out a folder from behind his back and pulled out the purchase contract that Uchitake had used to buy Sasaki's car.

"I found the contract at that company, and sure enough, the teacher came to the memorial service today."

"Her suspicion has increased." Sayoko and Maki jumped out from behind Kuroba Rize.

"However, there is still no substantial evidence to prove that she killed Ono. No fingerprints were found on the murder weapons that were brought back to headquarters for testing." "Regarding this, one of the cleaning ladies hired by the Sasaki family suddenly went missing yesterday, forcing Sasaki Chiyo to hire another one from the housekeeping center." Nohara Maki raised her hand; she had been talking to the people working on the memorial service and had received this information.

"The missing female worker... Rize asked Hattori to ask Sasaki Chiyo what recruitment methods she used."

Kudo Yuji handed the phone to Kuroba Rize, then pinched his nose, thinking of the missing Ono Takuya. Sure enough, the key to breaking the deadlock still lay with that student. If Conan could successfully find him through the clues at the school, the case would be almost over.

"Recruiting by phone..."

Upon suddenly opening his eyes and hearing this, Kudo Yuji immediately instructed Rize to add more information and arranged for Hattori Heiji to investigate the call records of the number used by the Sasaki family to recruit female workers over the past two weeks.

"The lady of the house isn't exactly smart either. She actually hired people over the phone, and she didn't even see what the people who came looked like." Kuroba Rize handed the phone back to her father.

“Because it’s unnecessary; this memorial service was fake to begin with.” Kudo Yuji walked towards the inner area; he needed to check the staircase behind Sano’s room.

"It's a spiral staircase. His family isn't short of money, so why would they build a staircase like this?"

Holding onto the spiral staircase, Kudo Yuji found the design, which prioritized aesthetics over practicality, rather than its actual function, rather strange.

"It seems that the Sasaki family dislikes Sano, so they deliberately made this staircase like this because they don't allow Sano to go through the front door. There is a small door facing the back here."

"They really have no backbone at all, doing things that are utterly disgraceful..."

Yuji Kudo rolled his eyes. (End of Chapter)