Conan: I'm really not the mastermind behind the scenes

The second floor of the detective agency fell into an eerie silence.

Maori Kogoro looked at the young boy's innocent face in the newspaper clipping, his expression becoming more serious. "He has a grudge against his son, so it seems very likely that he is the culprit."

"It's just that John didn't launch an attack during the two tests. Lawyer Sakaguchi might have used other methods..."

Seeing him thinking seriously, Edogawa Conan looked at him in surprise.

Jinpei Matsuda agreed with this view. He wanted to say something, but at this moment, he accidentally glanced at the clock on the opposite wall.

As if realizing that it was getting late, he took out his business card and placed it on the table, then stood up and said, "I have to go back. If you two find anything suspicious, you can call me."

When Conan Edogawa saw him about to leave, he quickly called out to him, "Officer Matsuda."

Matsuda Jinpei glanced at him: "Anything else?"

"Do you know..." Edogawa Conan hesitated a little, but still asked: "Why was Lawyer Sakaguchi's son bullied at school?"

He knew that this question was a bit offensive, but as a detective he had to ask clearly, as there might be clues hidden in it.

"..."

Jinpei Matsuda's expression became a little subtle.

He always wears a black suit and sunglasses, and even though he looks good, he always gives off a feeling of being difficult to mess with. The moment Edogawa Conan met his gaze, he even thought, "Does he want to beat me up?"

Of course, Jinpei Matsuda didn't beat anyone.

As a policeman, he would not beat up passers-by at random, let alone children, even if the child is talkative.

He just nodded nonchalantly: "We will continue to investigate this."

……

Perhaps it was because of the offensive question suddenly asked by the child at home when he was about to leave, that Kogoro Mori, as an adult, rarely took the trouble to personally send Jinpei Matsuda downstairs.

"I am sorry."

He smiled and apologized again: "Conan always likes to ask strange questions. He is fostered here by a friend, so I can't discipline him too harshly..."

Matsuda Jinpei lit up a cigarette as he stepped onto the stairs. Hearing this, he smiled nonchalantly and said, "No need to apologize. This kid is quite smart."

He really didn't seem to care. After smoking downstairs at the Maori Detective Agency, he got in his car and went straight back to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Kogoro Mori looked at the direction the car was leaving and scratched his head in confusion.

"Strange, did he come back with me just to tell me more clues to the case?"

……

Metropolitan Police Department.

After returning, Jinpei Matsuda did not go to the Investigation Section 1 office to discuss the details of the case with Miwako Sato and others, but went to the police dog training center.

Now it is training time. Dozens of young police dogs are sitting in a row on the grass. There are several rows of packages of different sizes in front of them. The trainer is leading one of them. It buries its head in the package and sniffs carefully, occasionally looking up and barking at the trainer.

Matsuda Jinpei was familiar with this scene, he was a former explosive ordnance disposal police officer, and he often dealt with bomb-sniffing dogs at that time. He did not disturb their training and walked to the other side of the training ground.

The German Shepherd dog John was temporarily placed there. A trainer was watching him nearby, and when he saw Jinpei Matsuda coming over, he raised his hand and said hello.

"Thank you for your hard work." Matsuda Jinpei said, "You go ahead and do your work. I can do it on my own."

The trainer knew him well, and he said, "I'll be leaving first. Be careful. A German Shepherd of this size can easily knock down an adult man. Don't let it out carelessly."

Matsuda Jinpei waved his hand casually, and only looked at the cage when the footsteps faded away. He looked at the suspected dog lying on the ground and squatted in front of the cage.

John heard the noise, his ears twitched slightly, and he stood up and looked at the person outside the cage.

Jinpei Matsuda was also looking at it. The man and the dog just stared at each other from a distance, neither of them making a sound.

"..."

At this moment, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly heard someone shouting from behind: "Matsuda?"

He looked back, raised his eyebrows in surprise, and stood up again with his hands on his knees: "You are discharged from the hospital?"

Standing behind him was Zhufu Jingguang.

Saturday night was too chaotic, so even though the public security kept things very secret, the Metropolitan Police Department still had some rumors, and Matsuda Jinpei learned from Furuya Rei that Morobushi Keimitsu was in the hospital. Because of his special status, he refused to allow other people to visit him, so Matsuda Jinpei didn't know his specific situation.

"I was just discharged from the hospital at noon. I just went to report to the administrator. I have to wait a few days to officially resume my job."

Zhu Fu Jingguang walked towards him as he spoke, looking at the cage curiously: "I saw you walking here from upstairs, so I came to see...what happened to this dog?"

Public security would not reveal their cases or missions to ordinary police officers, and ordinary criminal police officers were not so particular. Matsuda Jinpei said directly: "It killed someone." "..."

Zhu Fu Jingguang took a second to sort out what he meant: "...So it's going to be euthanized?"

“No verdict yet.”

Matsuda Jinpei put his hands in his pockets. Unlike the child who barely reached the waist of an adult, he stood up straight and looked down at the big dog: "If it was ordered by its owner to do so, it might not have to die."

Zhu Fujingguang had been in the Ministry of Public Security just now, and he didn't know what case the Investigation Division had encountered today - the public security would occasionally take over cases, but they wouldn't take over all cases - he could hear that Matsuda Jinpei's tone was complicated.

Before he could ask, Matsuda Jinpei suddenly asked:

"Do you remember the time when we were in police academy and we met a middle school student who was bullied?"

Zhu Fu Jingguang was stunned for a moment.

……

The management of Japanese police academies is not strict.

In addition to the curfew during the school day, students are allowed to go out from Friday to the weekend. They have also encountered a lot of trouble during their time outside the school.

From facing armed gangsters kidnapping on the street to mediating fights between junior high school students.

That day, it was like this——

The five of them went to the park to play baseball. Hagiwara Kenji ran to another street to pick up a baseball that flew over the wall, and Matsuda Jinpei followed him.

Unexpectedly, just as they found the ball, they heard laughter coming from the end of the street, and a junior high school boy was pushed against the wall by several other people.

The boy fell to the ground, holding a dog in his hand. The dog was not big, and when it saw its owner being pushed down, it immediately barked fiercely at the people, but was kicked hard by the leader, and the boy quickly protected it in his arms.

Seeing that they were about to surround and beat people again, Hagiwara Kenji quickly ran over to stop them:

"Hey, stop!"

He was already tall and strong, and he looked very imposing when he shouted, not to mention that there was also a man named Jinpei Matsuda who had an even stronger aura following him.

Those people shrank back and did not move forward.

Kenji Hagiwara was the first to run to the boy and helped him up. Jinpei Matsuda looked the boy over, and after making sure that he was okay, he turned to the guys who beat him up.

While he was considering whether to give them a beating or call their parents, Kenji Hagiwara also looked over at them, with a cold expression on his usually friendly face.

Maybe his expression scared those people. The leader raised his chin and said loudly with a lack of confidence: "I, I warn you! My father is a very powerful prosecutor! If you dare to hit me, I will let him sue you!"

Jinpei Matsuda laughed angrily beside him: "You hit someone, but you're afraid of being hit?"

Hagiwara Kenji frowned and looked at him: "Since your father is a prosecutor, you should know that beating people is illegal."

"That's for other people."

The son of some prosecutor raised his voice, pointed at the boy and said viciously:
"Don't treat him the same way! He deserves it!"

……

"…A week later, the junior high school student committed suicide."

"Hagi was the first to see the news. He told me that he regretted not chasing after the boy and disciplining him that day. He also said that we should have sent the bullied boy to the hospital at that time... If he had been given a psychologist in time, perhaps it would not have come to that point."

When talking about his deceased childhood friend, Jinpei Matsuda spoke calmly.

When Zhu Fujingguang heard this, he was also reminded of that long-lost memory. He looked at John and realized something: "Could it be..."

"It was the dog at that time, and the boy who led the bullying was the victim in today's case."

Matsuda Jinpei took out a cigarette and a lighter: "His father, the prosecutor, has also received the news and should be able to come to Tokyo tomorrow."

In fact, he already had a clue about this case when he re-examined the testimony, and he came to find the dog to verify it.

What puzzles him now is the follow-up of seven years ago.

An instructor who had just retired from the Metropolitan Police Department and was in charge of teaching them job ethics saw the newspaper and learned that they had met the teenager who committed suicide due to bullying. He tried his best to persuade them not to get involved in the matter.

- If you join the Metropolitan Police Department in the future, don’t mention it to anyone else.

Matsuda Jinpei lit a cigarette, put aside the past memories for the time being, and dealt with the case at hand. At this moment, he seemed to remember something and turned to Morobushi Kagemitsu, who was frowning and wondering what he was thinking.

"By the way, where is your follower? Why isn't he with you today?"

"You mean Jiang Teng?" Zhu Fujingguang came back to his senses, "He asked for leave." (End of this chapter)