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

Conan Edogawa thought he would have to wait a while to receive a reply, but to his surprise, his phone suddenly vibrated just a few minutes later.

[Conan, Matsuda is very concerned about the origin of the bomb. Where are you now? Is Mr. Mori with you? What is the status of the bomb?]

"..."

When Conan Edogawa saw the name Jinpei Matsuda, he was taken aback at first, but he quickly realized that this police officer was indeed the professional he had just requested in the email, and that he happened to be in the First Investigation Division.

He looked up at Kogoro Mouri and the client, who were still talking. He glanced at the butler, and seeing that he wasn't paying attention to him, he quietly moved to the side and started typing.

[We're in Nakano Ward, and Uncle Mori received a request from a family named Kunitomo...]

Conan Edogawa first briefly described the request, then mentioned that the family claimed to have dealt with the bomb, then said that they didn't like the police, and finally gave them their address.

He had just sent the email when he heard a commotion from Kogoro Mouri's end.

"Thank you for your trouble, Mr. Mori." The client held Kogoro Mori's hand tightly. "You may inspect any of the other rooms in this house except for this bedroom on the third floor."

Kogoro Mouri disliked having his hand held by an older man, but he was too embarrassed to pull away, so he could only laugh awkwardly and say, "Okay, I'll do my best."

After leaving the third floor, Conan Edogawa put his phone back in his pocket, and led by the butler, they began to inspect the house.

He waited for news throughout the period, but even after they had seen all the rooms and it was time for dinner, Officer Takagi still hadn't replied.

The Kuni family didn't eat dinner together. There were several square tables for four people in the dining room, and the Mori family sat by the window.

Conan Edogawa was sitting directly opposite the window. Looking at the night view outside, he was still worried about the news from the Metropolitan Police Department, wondering if he should send another email to inquire. Kogoro Mouri, sitting to his left, also looked helpless.

"Mr. Mori, have you noticed anything?" the butler asked eagerly.

"Not yet." Kogoro Mouri had to put down his fork for the time being. "I checked that fallen cabinet several times. Even if someone had installed a mechanism before, after so much time, the mechanism has probably been taken down by now."

The butler wanted to ask more questions, but the voices from another table nearby interrupted him.

"You're eating while wearing gloves again."

The female chef stood by a table and slammed the coffee pot she was holding onto it. "I always wash the plates and utensils very clean. This is so rude of you!"

Conan Edogawa turned his head and saw the driver who brought them sitting at another table behind him, and sure enough, he was wearing gloves on his hands as he held the knife and fork.

He couldn't help but wonder: "It seems like this driver was wearing gloves while driving."

Some employers are very particular and require their servants to wear gloves when touching their belongings, but I never expected that they would do the same even when eating.

The butler glanced over there, guessing what Conan Edogawa was thinking, and explained, "He asked to wear them himself. He's had obsessive-compulsive disorder since he was a child, and it's gotten worse in recent years. He has to wear gloves at all times to feel at ease."

Kogoro Mouri was slightly speechless: "He's a germaphobe, you have OCD, what about the other servants in your house? Don't they have some 'minor quirks' too?"

He mentioned it casually, but the butler nodded repeatedly in surprise:
“You’re right, Mr. Mori. The chef, Ms. Namikawa, has a fear of heights; she’s afraid of anything above the second floor. The other housekeeper, Mrs. Senzaki, is Ms. Namikawa’s mother, and she has a severe fear of sharp objects, so we have to be careful not to hand her tools like scissors directly.”

Mouri Kogoro: "..."

Conan Edogawa turned his attention away from the driver and asked curiously, "Uncle Butler, won't these quirks affect your daily work? Why did Mr. Kunitomo hire you?"

If an adult asked this question, they would probably roll their eyes at him, but Conan Edogawa is currently a child, so even if he's blunt, most people wouldn't take it to heart.

The butler's eyebrow twitched, but he still answered patiently, "We've been with the master since we were young, and we've worked here for nearly thirty years. The master has long accepted our flaws and won't say anything more about them."

Conan Edogawa blinked and turned to the driver and the cook, who looked to be in their early twenties: "What about them? I remember the cook said this afternoon that she took over her father's job."

“Mianyin is the same. His father used to be the family driver, and he took over the job after his father died.” The butler sighed softly.

The driver's son is still a driver, and the chef's daughter is still a chef.

Conan Edogawa wasn't focused on the issue of succession; he pressed on, "Their fathers are all dead? How did they die?"

The driver and the female cook looked to be in their early twenties, while their father was probably in his fifties. The average life expectancy for men in Japan is eighty-one years. Were they dying too young?
"Conan!"

Ran Mouri quickly stopped him when she saw that his questions were getting increasingly outrageous.

The butler, however, wasn't offended. He smiled wryly and said, "Actually, there was also my wife... Thirteen years ago, the master took the whole family on a trip, but unexpectedly, a shipwreck occurred midway, and they all perished in the accident." A shipwreck?

Upon hearing this keyword, and recalling the text on the card attached to the prank bomb, Conan Edogawa's eyes lit up, feeling that he had grasped an important clue.

He wanted to ask again, but just then, a fist came from the side and hit him hard on the head, making him dizzy.

Kogoro Mouri withdrew his hand and said irritably, "Stop prying into other people's private affairs."

Conan Edogawa covered the large bump on his head and shut his mouth in annoyance.

Their discussion didn't disturb the neighbors. After finishing his meal, the driver got up and called to the female chef who was about to leave, "Excuse me, Bohua, could you please go to the third floor and call the master and madam? It's almost time to go to the hospital, and I need to check the car first."

"Ah good."

The female chef put down the coffee pot again, turned around, and left the restaurant.

……

As night deepened, after dinner, the butler arranged for them to check into guest rooms on the second floor.

The guest room was much smaller than the master bedroom, and the terrace outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was so small that it could barely accommodate three people standing. The two beds inside were placed side by side and very close to each other, and there were no chairs or desks.

Kogoro Mouri loosened his tie, plopped down on a bed, and let out a long sigh: "These kinds of inexplicable requests are the most troublesome."

Conan Edogawa stood by the bed with his notebook in hand, his brows furrowing slightly as he looked at the entries.

"Conan, have you received a reply?" Ran Mouri suddenly asked.

Kogoro Mouri looked over in confusion: "What reply?"

Conan Edogawa explained, "I sent a picture of the bomb to Inspector Takagi, hoping he would ask a police officer who knows how to defuse bombs, but he hasn't replied yet."

"Didn't I say it was just a prank?" Kogoro Mouri looked impatient. "The Metropolitan Police Department has been very busy lately. There was a theft at the Japanese gunpowder depot not long ago, and the explosive ordnance disposal unit is probably all busy with that. They probably don't have time to deal with you."

"But……"

"Click—"

The voice of Conan Edogawa almost overlapped with the sound of something falling to the ground outside the window.

The three people inside were all stunned. Conan Edogawa saw the men's leather shoes on the balcony through the transparent window and had a bad feeling.

"What fell down?"

Since he couldn't see it from the right angle, Kogoro Mouri got up and opened the French windows. Ran Mouri followed behind him, curiously looking up.

A pair of human legs came into view.

Looking further up, there was a man's distorted, pale face. The president of the security company was hanging motionless from the third-floor balcony, a rope wrapped around his neck.

"what--!"

……

"What are you yelling about in the middle of the night?!"

In his apartment in Nerima Ward, Sanshawa, who rarely goes to bed early, was awakened by a sharp shout.

He opened his eyes and instinctively let out a dissatisfied roar. Only after he finished roaring did he belatedly realize that the scream was not from the TV volume being too loud somewhere, but seemed to be coming directly from next door.

"..."

Kazuya Miwa sat in the quilt, paused for a moment, then hesitantly turned to the wall.

It seems like that mother and son, who appear to be a single-parent family, live next door... Could something have happened to them? (End of Chapter)