The unscrupulous detective in Conan

Chapter 1455: Opening the Box for Someone Upon Appearance

Clearly, Ayami Ogino had heard of Fujino's infamous reputation as the Metropolitan Police Department's Criminal Investigation Department Advisor, the Dark Detective, the Guardian General of Vespania, and the jinx that brings chaos to criminal organizations wherever he goes.

She recognized him as soon as they met.

Fujino wasn't surprised. Come to think of it, he was quite famous in Japan. If he wasn't a self-proclaimed household name, he was a well-known figure in the detective and police circles.

Fujino suspected that the woman in front of him, Ayami Ogino, was actually Vermouth in disguise.

It's only a little bit.

Fujino didn't sense any of that creepy, old-aunt vibe about her.

"Ahem!"

As soon as Inspector Megure entered, he saw several colleagues chatting with his good brother.

He coughed lightly, his voice slightly hoarse, and said, "It's about time for the meeting. Please return to your seats."

“Brother Fujino, come with me and sit next to me.”

Fujino turned around and saw that Inspector Megure had brought Shiratori Ninzaburo, Matsumoto Kiyonaga, and Takagi Wataru into the conference room.

Upon hearing this, everyone returned to their respective positions.

Takagi followed suit and sat down next to Sato Miwako.

Soon, Shiratori Ninzaburo began to describe the case, which was almost the same as what the old lady had investigated, including the murder weapon, information about the deceased, and speculations about the murderer.

Fujino looked down at the audience and saw a large group of police officers in formal attire sitting in front of him.

"It seems that everyone who comes here is quite young; the oldest is probably no more than forty years old..."

"They are probably all elites who entered through normal exams, and there may even be professional team members."

"That's true. After all, it's a joint investigation, the best stage to showcase our own capabilities."

"Among them, only Muji Juro and Matsumoto Kiyonaga are the oldest."

"It's just that Inspector Megure is an Inspector, while Kiyonaga Matsumoto has become a Superintendent... although Superintendent isn't exactly a great rank."

Fujino thought to himself, if Matsumoto Kiyonaga knew, he would definitely scold him: I only have four positions left, not to mention the chief inspector, there are still three. You have pretty high standards!
Matsumoto Kiyonaga's status was actually very high, but Fujino didn't think much of it.

At Southeast University, this would be equivalent to the deputy director-level position of the Criminal Investigation Corps.

Moreover, in Japan, Matsumoto Kiyonaga's power was more valuable.

Megure Juzo is equivalent to a section chief, so the group sitting in front of Fujino is a group of section chiefs, the guy next to him is a deputy director, and he himself is a proud contracted extra-staff member.

On the podium, the case was being discussed, while Vermouth, sitting below, felt a little mentally exhausted.

Sitting quietly in the audience and listening to lectures is really torture.

She looked up at Fujino, who was sitting next to Inspector Megure on the stage: "So, you cops really know how to sit still!"

Fujino sensed the gaze and looked over, only to see a policewoman with a ponytail wearing a sour face, looking somewhat resentful.

Yes, it's confirmed, this is indeed that old lady Vermouth.

Despite the change in appearance, the subtle micro-expressions that are unintentionally revealed are still accurate.

Most people wouldn't deliberately try to remember that kind of thing.

However, the other party is the old lady Vermouth, who can transform into someone else's ruthless person anytime, anywhere.

Although it can be detected in other ways, it's still necessary to have a backup plan if the detection is inaccurate.

"Judging from the old lady's expression, she seems to be having a hard time sitting here."

"Really, at such an old age, he still has no self-control..."

Do you even know what patience is?

"Patience means being able to endure and having a positive outlook!"

Fujino felt he had quite a bit of self-control; after a few moments of lost thought, the case explanation was already over.

Shiratori Ninzaburo then introduced the last unlucky guy.

"As for the last victim, his name is Tsutomu Ryuzaki, and he is the son of a real estate tycoon."

"The cause of death was that the vehicle went out of control, and the passenger was thrown out of the cockpit and hit the back of the head."

"Before he died, he left behind the message 'Tanabata Kyoto,' and next to him, there was also a mahjong tile with the number seven."

"That's all the intelligence we have at the moment."

Ayami Ogino typed on the keyboard without looking up, saying, "In the first case, one cake was left at the scene, while in the other cases, seven cakes were left, and in each case, one of the seven cakes at the crime scene was painted red..."

Sitting next to her, Yokomizo pondered for a moment, then said, "There are English letters or something at the end..."

"I have absolutely no idea what that guy's intentions are."

"And they also took something from each of the victims."

"Killing people is one thing, but to openly dump the body like that—do they even respect us?"

In an instant, the police officers present were excited. It was clear that these people were all outstanding individuals who, even outside of the Miho stage, shone brightly in their respective jurisdictions.

Six serial murders have utterly humiliated them—even though the Japanese police themselves have little face left.

Seeing this scene, Matsumoto felt that the situation was getting out of control and was about to speak to change the subject.

Fujino, standing nearby, coughed lightly before they could react: "Gentlemen, I advise you to calm down. In the current situation, even if you throw a tantrum, you won't get any clues out of us."

A group of police inspectors looked at Fujino with varying expressions. Of course, they all knew Fujino; after all, he was an old acquaintance. They heard about him every few days that he had solved murder cases and dismantled criminal organizations...

However, apart from Gunma Gosho, these people are basically top police officers with strong crime-solving abilities. They are mostly on the side of the anti-detective faction and the fence-sitter, so they naturally don't have a good impression of detectives and are mostly a bit unhappy.

Fujino said calmly, "Instead of shouting here, we should think about why the criminal did this and try to figure out his motives..."

Hearing Fujino say this, Inspector Megure couldn't help but ask, "Fujino, what's your opinion?" Fujino's response was simply to stand up slowly and reason calmly, "There is an inherent logic behind everything."

He slowly turned around and looked at the whiteboard and map behind him: "Seven of Bamboo tiles, English letters, taking an item from the victim, and the killer's act of disposing of the body after the murder..."

There must be a necessary motive behind these things.

"Judging from the red-stained mahjong tiles, the murderer probably wanted to collect all the tiles on the mahjong set to red-stained them all. Logically speaking, that makes sense. Counting the first 'one' tile and the subsequent 'seven' tiles, it means that a total of seven people would have been murdered."

Inspector Megure picked up the conversation, stroking his chin: "That makes perfect sense. If we exclude the first mochi from the crime scene and the five red-stained mochi that have already been found, are there two more people who could have been murdered?"

"What about the others?"

Faced with the question thrown at him by his brother Megure, Fujino looked at the map and said, "There is no logic to be found in the English letters and horizontal lines."

"However, the act of taking the victim's belongings and disposing of the body after the murder can be deduced by summarizing past cases."

As he spoke, Fujino looked at the map next to him and tapped the whiteboard on which the map was hanging: "As we all know, it is easy to kill someone but difficult to hide the body. A normal person would definitely try every means to hide the body after killing someone."

"However, this time the murderer did not, and even deliberately chose the location to dump the body."

"In other words, the murderer was very likely performing some kind of ritual, or the location where he disposed of the body had some special meaning to him."

He paused, his tone lowering slightly: "I once encountered an arson case, and that case does bear some resemblance to this one."

"The case at that time was a series of arson cases. The perpetrator set fires one after another in Tokyo, connecting the fire scenes into the shape of the Chinese character for 'fire'. The perpetrator's behavior of dumping the body after committing murder in this case can be associated with this kind of behavior."

As he spoke, he picked up a pen from the whiteboard table and drew a circle at the top of the map: "The first case occurred at the border between Gunma and Nagano prefectures, at the very top of the map, and the remaining mahjong tile is a 'dot'."

"The following cases, unlike the first one which occurred in northern Kanto, all occurred in southern Kanto and the bodies were dumped there. Furthermore, the mahjong tiles left next to the bodies in southern Kanto all had one of the seven of circles painted red. In other words, there is a high probability that the next two cases occurred in southern Kanto, near Tokyo."

"As for the current situation of body disposal, the locations of the body disposal are concentrated in Kanagawa Prefecture. There have been three cases in Kanagawa Prefecture so far, namely the second, fourth and sixth cases. Shizuoka has the fifth case, and the third case occurred in Tokyo."

"If we connect these cases together..."

As Fujino spoke, he connected the markings of the crime scene together: "If you look at it this way, it will form a shape that is close to a 'z'."

At this moment, Yokomizo Sango, sitting in the audience, couldn't sit still any longer and started to flatter him: "As expected of Detective Fujino, he has already figured out the main points!"

Sitting next to her, Ayami Ogino looked up and asked in a calm voice, "So, what exactly does this Z-shape represent?"

Fujino shook his head slightly: "I'm not sure about that yet, because there are still two points that haven't been identified."

"Could it be the Big Dipper?" Ayami Ogino brought it up. "Since you just mentioned that there are still two people the murderer hasn't killed, then the possible pattern would be composed of seven dots."

"There are five cases that have already occurred. If we add the remaining two dots, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a pattern consisting of seven dots is the Big Dipper."

Fujino felt that the policeman was quite savvy, so he roughly marked the remaining two points and then connected them together.

Then, the Big Dipper appeared.

Fujino, with his back to everyone, said, "If my guess is correct, then the remaining two locations according to the Big Dipper's position are where the murderer disposed of the body."

The police officers present were all stunned for a moment.

Wait, buddy, you opened it, right?

The moment they appeared, they already revealed where the body would be disposed of?

Faced with the young, unofficial staff member who had just arrived and had practically dismantled the case from top to bottom, everyone present was at a loss for words.

It just feels a bit outrageous.

We, the veteran police officers who have been fighting on the front line for many years, were actually outdone by you, a young, inexperienced, and unofficial staff member.

Yamamura Misao had no psychological burden. He was simple-minded and didn't care about the gazes of others. He stood up and said excitedly, "As expected of Brother Teng, you found the clue in no time!"

Everyone turned to look at him, making him seem somewhat out of place.

At this moment, Matsumoto Kiyonaga suddenly clapped his hands, and then all the police inspectors in the audience also began to applaud.

After all, he is a police inspector, which is a rank higher than them, the police inspectors.

We should still give them face.

Vermouth looked at the scene before her and stroked her chin: "This kid's doing pretty well here at the Metropolitan Police Department..."

"However, it's true that they are quite capable."

The older woman gained a new understanding of Fujino, the consultant for the Metropolitan Police Department.

Although I had heard about it before, seeing it today is quite a different story.

This guy seems to hold a very high position in the Metropolitan Police Department, even appearing to be quite influential.

Matsumoto Kiyoshi glanced at Fujino and said, "Fujino-kun, besides this, have you deduced any other clues?"

"We don't have much information yet." Fujino shrugged slightly. "Besides that, all we can conclude is that the killer's mental state was definitely not normal, and that he was rather extreme and emotional. That's about it."

"By the way, you just mentioned that the last victim left behind a death message. What was this death message?"

In response to Fujino's question, Inspector Megure replied, "He said it to the tollbooth staff before he died."

Fujino suddenly asked, "So, you died before you could finish speaking?"

Megure said helplessly, "That's right. If he had said a few more words back then, we probably wouldn't be in this mess now."

Fujino stroked his chin, lost in thought: "Tanabata, Kyoto... Tanabata should refer to the time, specifically the Tanabata Valentine's Day. As for Kyoto, there aren't many places in Japan called Kyoto; it's either Tokyo or Kyoto..."

"The time is Tanabata, and the location is Kyoto?" Inspector Megure frowned upon hearing this. "In that case, we can roughly figure out why the murderer committed the crime, or rather, what the victim did to offend the murderer..."

“Now that the direction of the operation has been confirmed, let’s begin.” Matsumoto Kiyonaga stood up at this moment. “Advisor Fujino has provided us with very valuable clues. We still need to continue investigating the other two pieces of information. However, the main focus is still on the disposal of the body in the Big Dipper constellation, as well as Tanabata and Kyoto.”

"At the same time, we must also pay attention to any new clues that emerge."

"Gentlemen, according to Advisor Fujino's prediction, two more people may be killed. During this time, I hope that you can put aside your personal grudges and prejudices and focus on the big picture. If you have any new information, please report it directly."

"This case concerns the authority of our Japanese police. We hope that you will investigate the case seriously and bring the real culprit to justice as soon as possible."

(End of this chapter)