The unscrupulous detective in Conan

Chapter 1446 As long as you're bold enough, even a policewoman can take maternity leave.

Vermouth took a deep breath and ultimately swallowed the words she wanted to say.

In any case, it was I who started the joke, so it's not unreasonable for them to joke back.

Suppressing resentment doesn't necessarily mean you're relieved.

So, Vermouth, still resentful, changed the subject: "Alright, enough about why you look so weak, let's get down to business."

"I infiltrated the Metropolitan Police Department and obtained some intelligence."

"Five people have died in this case so far. The guy first stunned the unfortunate victims with electricity, then stabbed them to death with a dagger, and took the bodies away to dispose of them. Before disposing of the bodies, he would take something and leave a mark at the crime scene."

"Those markings are probably from a mahjong game. One of the round tiles is painted red, and there are English letters and black lines written on the back of it."

As she spoke, she opened the black shoulder bag she was carrying, took out a stack of documents, and then handed them to Fujino beside her: "Great Detective, come and see if you can find any clues?"

"So, you're really quick on your feet, you even made copies of the documents..." Fujino reached out, took the documents, and made a sarcastic remark.

"It's alright, I should say it's very simple." Vermouth shrugged, looking somewhat helpless. "I disguised myself a little and sneaked into their internal archives without any resistance at all."

"Besides, it's not like we haven't gone in and stolen before."

"However, these files have not been filed yet. I went to the archives but couldn't find anything. I had to search for quite a while to find these things."

Fujino chuckled, not at all surprised by this.

The Metropolitan Police Department, to be honest, is really quite incompetent.

It should be said that the Japanese public security system is very incompetent.

With a little disguise, they could even get their hands on the police's undercover agent list.

However, this is only relatively speaking. For Vermouth, the Thousand-Faced Witch, getting her hands on police files like this is really nothing.

Fujino took the documents and examined them carefully: "Junpei Jinno, Associate Professor at Tokyo University; Shizuko Kaga, restaurant owner; Masaaki Okakura, secretary to Member of Parliament; Azusa Kitajima, temporary worker; Kozo Zaitsu, motorcycle shop owner..."

"A, E, A, L, H, pendant, amulet, motorcycle key, makeup box, doll."

Fujino looked her over, noticing the parliamentary secretary, and then asked Vermouth, "You mean Okakura Masaaki?"

Vermouth replied, "It's him."

Fujino sighed: "Why would you hire a secretary for a member of parliament? Shouldn't they be at least a member of parliament?"

“He was just there to gather information,” Vermouth said calmly, arms crossed. “His main purpose was to infiltrate another congressman's camp to collect evidence of his crimes and get him arrested. You should understand what a political enemy is.”

"Well, as expected of the organization."

Fujino felt that this explained why some politicians would seek refuge with the organization.

If you have political enemies, he will genuinely send people to deal with them.

However, considering the price to pay, this thing doesn't seem quite right.

Who knows, one day, while holding an official position, the organization might just throw him away as a black glove.

At that point, they won't even know how they died.

Vermouth, a veteran of the organization, was not surprised by this and simply asked Fujino, "Have you noticed any clues?"

“I didn’t see it coming.” Fujino placed the documents on his lap. “We have the victim’s information, but to find the killer, we still need to look into their social circles…”

"Of course, it wouldn't make any difference."

“I’ve seen many cases like this. You never know what might cause a murder case to come to light.”

Vermouth narrowed her eyes: "So, you didn't notice?"

"Yes, in this situation, we just need to continue investigating until we find any clues."

"Tsk."

Upon hearing this, Vermouth clicked her tongue, saying with a hint of disdain, "I thought famous detectives solved cases like this, but it's just this..."

Fujino looked speechless: "Do you really think I can predict the future?"

Of course, that's just talk. The murderer already has a plan. In fact, he knew from the beginning who it was and why they killed him.

But for now, it's better not to say anything.

Without being involved in the case or having any connection with the other party, directly identifying them would be almost like predicting the future.

Even if someone could foresee the future, they certainly wouldn't tell this old lady.

Vermouth, however, curled her lips into a slight smile, saying with a playful tone, "Given your abilities, you shouldn't be like this... Could it be that you've overdone it and your mind isn't quite clear anymore?"

Fujino glanced at her speechlessly: "Stop talking nonsense. If you keep talking nonsense, I'll start to suspect that you've been secretly investigating me."

Vermouth smacked her lips upon hearing this: "I actually guessed right?"

"How did you guess? Give me a reason."

"There's something wrong with your eyes."

"...?"

Vermouth looked at the puzzled Fujino, shook her head slightly with a disappointed expression, and sighed, "The eyes of someone who has tasted the flavor of a woman are different from those of a pure and innocent young chef like Minami."

She narrowed her eyes and said with a playful smile, "You look so pale, and your eyes are a bit unfocused. You even glanced at me a few times. You must still be reminiscing about something."

"But you must be really hungry to be taking an old woman like me."

Fujino's lips twitched slightly: "Do you even believe what you're saying?"

"I still have some confidence in myself."

Vermouth wore a seductive, foxy expression and puffed out her chest.

Fujino glanced at her and scrutinized her carefully.

"I have to say, this older woman is quite radiant."

"In terms of size, it's still not as good as my Hongye Nizi, it's a little bit smaller than her."

"Um...why am I thinking about these things?"

Fujino pulled himself out of his thoughts, looked away, and felt somewhat seduced.

Seeing this, Vermouth laughed out loud: "That's the right gaze."

"...?"

“When you looked at me just now, you didn’t give me a single extra glance.” Vermouth’s smile remained. “This kind of look is just like the way you looked at me before, but it seems to have an even more probing meaning now.”

"As expected, they just had their first taste of meat."

Upon hearing this, Fujino understood what was meant and said irritably, "Are you trying to fool me?"

"That's not true."

Vermouth smiled and sniffed, "Apart from your eyes, you still smell like you just took a shower and haven't washed off the shower gel. It's impossible that you would take a shower and dress up specially just to see me."

"So, the purpose of taking a bath must be to prevent people with a sensitive sense of smell from catching a whiff of something..."

"It's obvious he just had an affair with another woman."

Fujino: "..."

You deduced so much just from their eyes and the smell on their body?

This older lady certainly has a wealth of knowledge. But could you perhaps apply that reasoning ability to something else?

For things like this, please don't use your brain's processing power to make random inferences!

Fujino was momentarily at a loss for words.

He could only chuckle and tease, "You're really something, aren't you? You managed to deduce that. It's a waste of your talent if you don't come with me to catch your lover cheating."

"Is that so? Then I don't mind." The older woman smiled as before. "Who knows, if I go to the hotel with you to catch someone cheating, and hear or see something embarrassing, something might even happen."

Fujino: "..."

No, ma'am, are you sure you didn't install a surveillance camera here?

Damn, you guessed it right!

Vermouth watched as Fujino's expression gradually became a little unnatural. She paused for a moment, then smiled again: "No way, you really did what I told you, that something strange happened when you went to catch someone cheating with you?"

As she spoke, she revealed a weary expression, like an elder dealing with a younger generation: "You little nephew, I really don't know what to say to you."

Fujino: "..."

So, can this old lady just go and die?
Fujino had very mixed feelings, thinking it was a real shame that this old lady wasn't going to catch him cheating or something.

If this were to be used to catch someone cheating, it would definitely become a rising star in the adultery-catching race.

He took a deep breath and dismissed these bizarre ideas.

He turned to Vermouth, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Old lady, stop messing around. If you keep doing this, I'll pin you to the ground and let you experience the strange things you're talking about."

The older woman was stunned at first upon hearing this, then a charming smile appeared on her lips as she gently pulled at the shoulder strap of her dress.

Fujino's lips twitched slightly upon seeing this, then he slapped her hand away, his face darkening: "What are you doing now?"

"Of course, we'll go along with my nephew's wishes."

Vermouth put on a pitiful look, "Little nephew, if you want to hold me down and execute me on the spot, your aunt can't resist at all."

"Since we can't resist it, we might as well enjoy it."

Fujino: "..."

That old woman has absolutely no shame.

Fujino rubbed his head, feeling that he really couldn't handle this shameless old lady.

She's shameless, how can we deal with her now?
Fujino took another deep breath in exasperation, then withdrew his hand and looked at her: "Then take it off, I'll watch and let me see how you've developed."

After saying that, Fujino looked directly at her, his eyes scrutinizing her.

Vermouth narrowed her eyes upon hearing this, then reached for her bra strap and slowly moved it down.

The shoulder straps gradually sag downwards, revealing her cleavage.

Only after seeing that Fujino didn't stop her and intended to continue observing whether her development was truly normal did she slowly stop what she was doing and cease exposing her cleavage.

"What, you won't let me watch anymore?"

Fujino watched her put the bra strap back on with indifferent eyes and teased, "I thought you really wanted me to see it."

Vermouth adjusted her bra straps, adopting a somewhat dignified demeanor: "If you don't want to see it, then showing it to you is called resistance. If you want to see it and I show it to you, then wouldn't I become a wanton old woman?"

"Playing hard to get, is that it?"

"You seem to know a lot about this."

"Stop talking nonsense." Fujino wasn't going to argue with the old lady any further. "I can't tell what's true about this information for now. What are your plans next?"

Shouldn't I be the one asking you this?

"You've investigated for so long, and your reasoning skills are excellent, but all you've found is this little bit of information?"

Seeing that Fujino had become serious, Vermouth decided to stop teasing her capable junior apprentice and said solemnly, "There is indeed no other information. After all, the Metropolitan Police Department hasn't found anything yet."

"I certainly can't gather as much intelligence as the Metropolitan Police Department on my own."

"No matter what, they are still state apparatuses."

As she spoke, she touched her chin and pondered, "However, they have compiled quite a few suspects."

“The suspects are useless.” Fujino leaned back in his chair. “In cases like this, the suspects are the most useless clues. I doubt the real culprit is even among the suspects.”

Vermouth listened to this, then looked at Fujino and asked in confusion, "Then, where do you think the real culprit is?"

“I don’t know.” Fujino glanced at her. “In cases like this, the suspect only comes out at the last minute. Before that, he has nothing to do with the case itself.”

"So, we can only try our luck then, right?"

"It's pretty much a matter of luck," Fujino shrugged helplessly. "If we're unlucky, we might never find the real culprit in our lifetime."

"You don't want the organization's list of undercover agents anymore?"

“Of course we need to, but we can’t rush it,” Fujino explained. “We need to wait for the murderer to kill the others and reveal more evidence.”

Vermouth lowered her eyelids, stared at Fujino for a while, and finally sighed helplessly. She took out a cigarette case from her bag, took out a lighter, and lit a cigarette.

He took a deep breath, exhaled, and his expression relaxed considerably: "So, you're making me run errands by sending me over to investigate?"

“No, that’s not it. The main thing is to expose you to the police.” Fujino crossed his legs, reached into her bag, rummaged around, took out her cigarette case, lit one of her cigarettes, and said, “Only by exposing you can they know that you are also paying attention to this case.”

"If anyone becomes suspicious in the future, they can pin the blame on you."

Vermouth bit her cigarette butt: "Fine, I'll take the blame, but why are you smoking my cigarette?"

"Of course I want to try what your aunt usually smokes, and see what 'aunt's flavor' tastes like."

"So what do you think it tastes like?"

"It's quite strong. As expected, blended cigarettes from Europe and America tend to be quite potent."

Fujino, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, glanced at her and said, "Since the Metropolitan Police Department hasn't found anything yet, and this case involves several aircraft, then the next step should be a joint investigation, right?"

"Pretty much, the agenda has been set." Vermouth wasn't surprised that Fujino could guess the Metropolitan Police Department's actions.

After all, he works with the police, so he's definitely more familiar with these kinds of things than she is.

So she continued, "I estimate it will happen in the next few days. They will definitely invite you to investigate the case together."

"Then it will be your time to shine."

Fujino chuckled: "Don't just talk about me, there's also a share for you."

"what?"

"When the time comes, won't you have to come with me to investigate the case?"

"Tsk, isn't having a policewoman enough? Why do you have to drag me into it?"

"Policewoman?"

"Don't act stupid."

Vermouth chuckled maliciously, "I've heard the news from the Metropolitan Police Department. Your affair with that policewoman named Sato has become the talk of the town..."

"You've got some nerve, kid. I heard that policewomen are on maternity leave."

"...?"

(End of this chapter)