The unscrupulous detective in Conan

Chapter 1321 Gray Cat: Who is Corgi? I don't know him at all.

Everyone present was speechless for a moment, feeling that this police minister-level leader was really shameless, so they simply stopped paying attention to him.

Unlike the others, Fujino turned to the elderly woman, Kaneoka Fumie, and asked, "Would someone like Mr. Kanemaru make any excessive demands on debtors because they can't pay the interest?"

"Well..." Kanaoka Fumie thought for a moment, "There probably will be, since I couldn't pay the interest, so he just asked me to come and clean the rooms here."

"And what about harassment?"

"I'm not so sure about that."

Kanaoka Fumie lowered her eyes and pondered, "However, considering that he is still single and has no family, it is not impossible."

"But, well, someone like him probably only cares about money."

"That's it."

Fujino nodded upon hearing this, then turned to Ishigami beside him and asked, "Speaking of which, Mr. Ishigami, besides Ms. Murai, have you seen anyone else enter this place?"

"After all, you were in the coffee shop across the street."

"This is it."

Upon hearing this, Ishigami pondered for a moment and said, "I'm not quite sure either, since the cashier can't see over there."

"Is that so?" he continued, "Then how did you see Ms. Murai?"

Ishigami paused for a moment, then continued, "I was just reading the newspaper in the store when I was caught by her out of the corner of my eye. I was just curious that a girl like her would ask Mr. Kanemaru for a loan or something."

"After that, I wanted to see her a few more times, so I just looked at her."

As if to prove himself, he pointed to his small shop next door: "Look, it's over there. I had just finished cleaning up the mess left by a customer and looked at the newspaper he left on the spot."

"It really is a coincidence."

"I didn't look at it again after that lady left."

Fujino frowned: "Didn't you think about going over to take a look?"

"After all, the way she looked, it was as if she had killed someone."

Ishigami said helplessly, "I thought she was being harassed by Mr. Kanemaru."

"I see."

Fujino nodded upon hearing this. "Then how did you determine it to be around ten minutes?"

"Well..."

Ishigami thought for a moment and said, "I was making coffee at the time and set a timer for the machine. When the timer ended, I came out and saw her running out from there."

Fujino pondered for a moment upon hearing this, then asked again, "I see. Did you notice anyone else going in?"

Ishigami immediately replied, "Well, there shouldn't be any more. I should have said before that I stopped looking after that lady left."

"That's it."

"But Detective Fujino, why are you asking these questions?"

"I'm ruling out other people as perpetrators. The guy is for Ms. Murai."

"How is this possible?"

"Why isn't it possible?"

Fujino looked at him in confusion: "Didn't you say you didn't see anyone else go in?"

"That's true, but considering how anxious she was to run out of there, it must be because of this."

"Then why are you so sure that at the time it wasn't murder, but sexual harassment?"

"..."

This left Ishigami speechless for a moment, and he said helplessly, "Well, I only started to suspect this after I learned that Mr. Kanemaru was dead."

"Sorry, it's just a professional habit."

Fujino nodded upon hearing this, then turned around and began circling the crime scene, intending to search for some evidence.

Conan glanced at Fujino and figured that after asking these questions, Fujino went back to his office and was probably trying to sneak away again, so he decided to follow him and investigate.

Hopefully, they can find evidence before Fujino does.

Although I've decided to play it safe and fight back, I still need to keep looking for opportunities.

Counterattack is not the goal.

Showing off is the real thrill, right?
Then, the kids noticed what the two were looking for, so they joined the search for evidence.

Immediately, the three groups split up and began searching.

Ai Haibara, holding the cat, looked at the two people bustling around and felt quite helpless.

So, no wonder he's a detective, he's practically a carbon copy of someone else.

Feeling helpless, she looked around and realized she should also help find some evidence.

Just as she decided to take action, her eyes suddenly widened in surprise.

In just a brief moment, her eyes narrowed slightly, just like Fujino's, turning into the same squinty crescent-shaped eyes as Ayako Suzuki.

"evidence……"

"Some should have been left behind."

Fujino looked around the crime scene and felt that there should be more evidence than just the vacuum cleaner.

If he's right, the murderer must have acted suddenly; otherwise, the case will have to be solved using very abstract methods.

The evidence is right there in front of us...

All I can say is that in this country where everyone has supermale syndrome, people will kill you on the spot if they don't like you. Don't worry about hiding evidence; getting killed is the most important thing.

If someone had any sense, and truly harbored deep-seated hatred, and had planned it all out, it certainly wouldn't be like this.

In this situation, it's clear that the overly excited Mikado person couldn't control their trembling hands and killed someone. After killing the person, they had a sudden idea and decided to get away with it.

Especially if the victim is a company president, a high-risk profession where appearing on screen could very likely end the filming process.

After using the elimination method, only Ishigami remained.

That's a classic.

Fujino was a little suspicious of what Ishigami said. Could things really be as coincidental as he described?
I saw it in the newspaper, and then I saw it again because of the timer, and I even wrote down the time.

Is it such a coincidence?

Afterwards, when asked about the time, I hesitated for a moment. Was I really not making this up on the spot?

Considering that people react differently in different situations, and some reactions may just be personal habits, Fujino felt that it was indeed possible that it was a coincidence, rather than a traditional Detective Conan story.

Therefore, Fujino did not directly confront Ishigami, because even if he had suspicions, they were only in his mind. He needed to find evidence before confirming and convicting him.

Reading the script is one thing, but you need solid evidence.

You can't just say, "I think you're a murderer because I believe you fit a certain law in the world of Detective Conan," right?
That's impossible.

I can kill you if you're guilty, but I can't just assume you're guilty and call you guilty if I'm not sure you're guilty.

If someone is accused of murder without any evidence and sentenced to death, what's the difference between them and a female detective who is skilled in memory recovery and can tell who the murderer is just by looking at them and using her intuition?

That would be worse than vigilante justice.

At the very least, vigilante justice can provide emotional and moral feedback to the public, which is far better than arresting and convicting people just to boost performance targets.

To put it bluntly, in terms of process, trials conducted by courts, police, and procuratorates are all conducted by people. Compared to vigilante justice, they simply lack public credibility and procedural legitimacy.

When public trust in a place is virtually nonexistent, vigilante justice becomes acceptable to the public. However, when vigilante justice surpasses public trust, isn't that a tragedy?
Of course, this refers to cases where murders frequently occur, and the Metropolitan Police Department officers handling the cases are as indifferent as NPCs.

With that in mind, Fujino looked around and found that the office was spacious, right next to the floor-to-ceiling window at the front, and connected to the window of the reception room. Although the decoration was not as modern and luxurious as his own detective agency, it was still acceptable for the style of the 1990s.

It has a retro vibe, you know.

Upon entering, there's a wooden desk and executive chair in front, and behind it, a large stack of file folders and cabinets. To the right, there's a sofa and coffee table, apparently for receiving guests. To the right of that, there's a television; if you sit on one side of the sofa, you can see what's on the screen.

Above the television was a retro-style mechanical flip clock, where the blades would fall down and hit the blades below every minute, making a "click" sound.

Fujino began conducting a routine crime scene investigation.

Murai has been definitively identified as the murderer based on Ishigami's statement, so the question now is to prove that Murai is not the murderer.

If she were truly the murderer, then her crime should be plausible and believable.

But now...

Fujino felt that if what Ishigami said was true, then it was possible that more people would enter the crime scene later.

He turned his head and glanced around, only to find that there was only one window.

Judging from the layout of this small building, this window should lead to the alley next door, and the window is open.

It's possible that they could sneak in from here to kill someone.

Fujino walked forward slowly, looking around and thinking at the same time.

He had only taken two steps forward when his gaze suddenly sharpened: "So that's how it is, so that's what the cat meant..."

"Ouch!"

"Genta, how could you be so careless?"

"I'm trying to find something, okay?!"

"Then you too..."

Nearby, the little ones began a thorough search, leaving no detail unchecked. Then, Genta, who was focused on observing, was knocked to the ground by Mitsuhiko.

Just as the two were arguing, Mitsuhiko turned around and noticed something.

He then pointed to the ground below and said, "Look, what I found!"

Fujino turned around and saw the little ones pull out a fragment of a cat paw from under the sofa.

"what is this?"

"It looks like a lucky cat's paw..."

"That's strange, how come there are cat paw fragments here?"

"Could this be crucial evidence...?"

"Brother Fujino, come take a look!"

Fujino: "..."

You little rascals, can you please not be so quick when you find something?
It's covered in fingerprints!

He was speechless for a moment, but since the children had just discovered the item, he couldn't say anything discouraging to dampen their enthusiasm. So he slowly walked forward, took out a pair of white gloves from his pocket and put them on, took the cat's paw and casually took out an evidence bag from his pocket and put it in.

The little ones couldn't wait any longer: "Brother Fujino, is this an important clue?"

"Yes, it is indeed quite important."

Looking at the lucky cat's paws, Fujino finally understood the meaning of the cat mentioned in the system's prompt, as well as the lucky cat's left and right paws.

At this moment, Inspector Megure noticed the commotion and came over to ask curiously, "Fujino-kun, what's wrong?"

"Are you teaching these kids detective theory again?"

"No, it's being put into practice now."

"practice?"

"Yes, we also made some gains."

Fujino held up the bag containing the lucky cat's paw and said, "This is a crucial clue."

"A crucial clue?" Megure asked, puzzled. "Brother, what do you mean?"

"These kids just found this lucky cat's paw under the sofa."

"Huh? What kind of clue is this? Could it have flown in from outside?"

“While that’s a possibility, it’s not quite like that,” Fujino interrupted his brother Megure, and continued, “Take a closer look at this cat’s paw.”

"Cat's paw?"

Conan looked at the cat's paws and understood.

He was about to speak when he was interrupted by a voice: "I think it's because this cat's paw is the left paw, right?"

"The claw of the left hand?"

Megure was puzzled for a moment, while Conan looked at Ai Haibara, who was holding a cat and had suddenly moved closer and made a noise, and was startled.

Ai Haibara's hands were busy stroking the cat as she said casually, "Speaking of which, it's really strange. The lucky cat here clearly only has one right hand, but Ms. Murai used the lucky cat to kill Mr. Kanemaru..."

Halfway through her sentence, she revealed a little girl's demeanor, the cat she was holding making her look even more like an innocent little girl: "Oh dear, this is really strange. Logically, it should be the right hand that's raised, so why is it the left hand?"

"Yeah, it shouldn't be the left hand..."

Megure Juzo was immediately puzzled and began to stare at the cat's paws, lost in thought.

Upon hearing "Ah-le-le," Conan realized that this was definitely aimed at him.

Just speak seriously, why do you have to add "ah" and "le" and look like a silly kid...

If you're not here to pamper me, who are you here for?

He cast a resentful glance at Ai Haibara and started a private chat: "Haibane, what are you doing? These are all my lines!"

Ai Haibara, who was holding the cat, only glanced at Conan before rejecting the private channel link. Clearly, she had figured out what trick the corgi was up to.

Conan's lips twitched slightly as he continued the private chat connection: "Haibara, you're just targeting me, Detective Conan... Shinichi Kudo, aren't you!"

Ai Haibara and the cat both rolled their eyes at Conan, then simultaneously turned their heads to give him a side profile.

Okay, I've blocked it.

However, Conan noticed the contact name that had blocked him: "You're the famous detective Corgi, so am I not Fujino's detective assistant?"

"So you're allowed to be a little detective, but I can't be a detective's assistant?"

Conan: "..."

Damn it, I was just talking back to Fujino, was it really that big of a deal?

Are you the detective or am I?
Don't steal my job!

What about our camaraderie?

What is our position as two people on the same front?

In response, Ai Haibara stated: "I belong to the Fujino family, so of course I will stand firmly on the Fujino side."

Who is your Corgi? I don't know him at all.

[I've been quite busy these past couple of days. I bought a car today, and after driving it home, I didn't manage my time well, so this update is a bit late.]

(End of this chapter)