Ke Xue: This police officer is too martial

Chapter 247 Unprocessed Evidence

As Maori Kogoro finished speaking, Sera Masumi, who was standing beside him, looked at the two young women next to the victim and spoke slowly:
"Judging from the manner of death, he did die of cyanide poisoning. Since we can smell a distinct almond flavor coming from his mouth, the victim must have taken the poison orally. You two should be his friends, right? Did he eat or drink anything before that?"

Sera Masumi's calm attitude and accurate questions immediately attracted the attention of Mori Kogoro and others.

Conan immediately looked up at Sera Masumi, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.

At this moment, one of the short-haired women looked at Sera Masumi nervously and said in a nervous tone: "I, we are indeed his friends, may I ask who you are...?"

Masumi Sera glanced at Conan out of the corner of his eye and said seriously: "I am a high school detective, my name is Masumi Sera."

"A high school student detective?!" Before the two women could speak, Xiaolan and Sonoko on the side exclaimed at the same time.

Kogoro Mouri and Conan also showed expressions of surprise. They never thought that Masumi Sera was also a so-called high school detective.

When the two young women heard that Sera Masumi was a "detective", they were slightly stunned and did not speak for a while.

Makino carefully observed everyone's reactions and said, "Let's call the police first. This should be the jurisdiction of the Nagano Prefectural Police. Ayako, please take Sonoko and Xiaolan to inform the other guests and ask them to leave here temporarily."

"Okay!" The three of them nodded immediately.

The next second, Makino slowly walked up to the two women, glanced casually at the sports bag on the seat not far away, and continued, "I'm a detective from the Metropolitan Police Department. Please cooperate with our investigation."

"Police?!" Upon hearing that Makino was a policeman, and even a detective from the Metropolitan Police Department, the two women's eyes flashed with panic.

After coming to their senses, the two men began to introduce themselves and the victim's identities, and told everything that happened before the victim's death.

The victim was named Shimatani Sho, the president of a real estate company.

The short-haired woman is Junko Shida, and she was a subordinate of the victim, Sho Shimatani.

The long-haired woman is called Shiina Miyu, and she works as a hostess in a Ginza nightclub.

After hearing that the victim had drunk water before his death, Makino took out a pair of white gloves from his pocket, then walked to the sports bag nearby and opened the backpack.

In addition to some sports supplies, the bag contained three thermos bottles that looked almost identical. According to the two women, the bottles were filled with lemonade that they had filled before arriving.

One of the bottles had obviously less water than the other two, and it should be the bottle that the victim, Shimatani Sho, had drunk from not long ago.

On the other side, seeing that Makino was carrying white gloves with him, Conan and Sera Masumi both blinked in confusion.

However, they did not dwell on it, but looked at the water bottle in Makino's hand with their big curious eyes.

Conan even asked directly: "Officer Makino, is the poison in this bottle?"

Makino nodded. "Yes, although it is covered by the smell of lemon, it still has a relatively light smell of cyanide."

Hearing this, Conan immediately lowered his head and carefully observed the difference between the water bottle in Makino's hand and the other two water bottles.

Masumi Sera on the side was observing Conan's every move with a serious expression.

Maori Kogoro glanced at the two women beside him, walked over to Makino and whispered, "Makino, this is clearly a case of poisoning. I think the murderer must be among them. Do you want me to ask them in detail about their 'specific' relationship with the deceased?"

Makino nodded and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Maori."

Upon hearing this, Kogoro Maori immediately nodded seriously, walked to the two women with a serious face, and carefully asked them why they came here and their exact relationship with the victim.

After Maori Kogoro left, Conan subconsciously asked: "This case is not complicated, but there is one thing I haven't figured out yet. Since these three water bottles are exactly the same, how did the murderer make the victim choose the bottle of lemonade with poison?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Conan suddenly realized that Sera Masumi was still behind him. His eyes widened immediately, and he added in a childish voice while sweating coldly: "Ha, hahaha! Officer Makino, that's what the detective on TV asked the other day. Did I imitate him just now?"

Makino: "?"

Deadlift, right?

You kid don't treat Sera Masumi as a human being.

Sera Masumi: "(>^ω^<)~"

After a moment's silence, Makino looked down at Conan who was trying to fool around, and shook his head, saying, "There were no signs of drinking in the other two bottles. If nothing unexpected happens, these three bottles of lemonade should have been poisoned. We'll know after we have the forensics department test them."

Hearing what Makino said, Conan and Sera Masumi both frowned.

Indiscriminate killing?
Or……

This can indeed explain how the murderer made the victim drink the poison, but... aren't the signs of murder a little too obvious?
After seeing Conan and the other two's expressions, Makino roughly guessed what they were thinking: "Poisoning is different from ordinary murders. Generally, there is no so-called 'alibi'.

There are only two possibilities for the murderer to kill in this way. Either the murderer has completely lost the ability to suppress his hatred for the victim and does not care whether he will be arrested by the police in the end. Or the murderer has found a way to avoid suspicion.

"A way to avoid suspicion?" Sera Masumi looked at Makino in confusion.

Before Makino could answer, Maori Kogoro suddenly walked back quickly with a serious expression: "There is a new situation. In addition to the two of them, there is another person cooking in the villa where they live. According to them, the lemonade was prepared by the lady named Yoshioka Rie!"

……

Soon after, the Nagano Prefectural Police arrived at the scene.

The police inspectors leading the team were Yamato Gansuke and Uehara Yui, who were familiar to Makino and others.

After everyone briefly greeted each other, Inspector Yamato immediately ordered his subordinates to begin cordoning off and investigating the scene, and based on Makino's statement, he asked the officers from the Forensic Division to first check whether the three water bottles were poisoned.

After doing all this, Inspector Yamato walked up to Makino and whispered, "Inspector Makino, why are Detective Mori and the others here again? Don't you think you can always see them at the crime scene?"

Without waiting for Makino to speak, Inspector Uehara whispered, "I feel like I've seen Mr. Maori and Conan at crime scenes a lot recently. Could they be entangled by something bad?"

In addition to the serial murder case that happened not long ago, Inspectors Yamato and Uehara always felt that they seemed to see Kogoro Mori and others at the crime scenes frequently recently.

Makino: "..."

As expected of an excellent police officer in Nagano Prefecture, he noticed this faster than Inspector Megure and others.

After a moment of silence, Makino slowly spoke: "Let's not talk about this for now. How do you think about what I said last time?"

Upon hearing this, Inspector Yamato and Inspector Uehara were both stunned.

After a moment, Inspector Yamato slowly shook his head and said, "Thank you very much for your recognition, but I cannot leave Nagano Prefecture for the time being because I have a case that I have not thoroughly investigated..." At this point, a huge snow mountain suddenly appeared in Inspector Yamato's mind. He quickly covered his left eye with one hand, and his expression gradually became somewhat painful.

Seeing this, Makino stopped discussing this topic: "It doesn't matter, let's wait until you have dealt with your own affairs first. The door of the Metropolitan Police Department is always open to you."

"Thank you for your understanding..."

"..."

Not long after, in the villa where the victim, Shimatani Sho, was.

After handing over the task of guarding and investigating the scene to Inspector Yamato's subordinates, everyone came to the villa where Shimatani Sho was located, ready to meet Yoshioka Rie who had not yet appeared, and conducted a thorough search of the villa.

While Inspector Yamato and others were questioning Yoshioka Rie, who had been preparing lunch in the villa, Makino was also carefully observing Yoshioka Rie's reaction.

Yoshioka Rie was the secretary of the victim, Shimatani Sho. Since she didn't know how to play tennis, she took the initiative to take on the task of cooking during this vacation.

Judging from the calmness and indifference that Yoshioka Rie inadvertently revealed, she seemed to have known that the police would come to investigate and question her.

However, during the questioning, she stated without hesitation that it was indeed she who prepared the lemonade for the three people who went out to play ball, but she insisted that she did not add anything suspicious to the lemonade.

In the absence of clear evidence to show who the criminal was, Inspector Yamato and his colleagues finally had to end the interrogation and wait for the results of the search by other police officers.

After Yoshioka Rie returned to the living room, the two women who were on the tennis court immediately stepped forward and started talking:
"Yoshioka, could it be that you really killed Shimatani?"

"By the way, I've heard from other people in the company that the reason you became President Shimatani's secretary was because you secretly asked the president..."

"..."

Everyone in Makino looked at this all-too-familiar "classic blame-shifting session" with subtle expressions.

Sometimes, this kind of identification between "friends" can undoubtedly provide more information than the police's proactive investigation and questioning.

In less than a moment, everyone obtained a lot of "important information" that they had not obtained from previous inquiries.

Whether it is Junko Shida, Miyu Shiina, or Rie Yoshioka who has been in the villa, they all have unclear relationships with the victim, President Shimatani.

It seems that everyone has a reason and suspicion to kill President Shimatani.

If Inspector Uehara had not stepped forward to mediate the fight, the three suspects might have started fighting on the spot.

Taking advantage of the somewhat chaotic situation, Conan began to conduct a systematic investigation inside the villa as usual.

Masumi Sera glanced at Conan who was walking back and forth in the kitchen, and then glanced at Kogoro Mori who was chatting with Inspector Yamato not far away, and a smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.

Half an hour later, a police officer quickly walked up to Inspector Yamato and told him the results of their investigation into the water bottle and the villa:

"Inspector, those three bottles of lemon juice do contain cyanide. In addition, we also found the same cyanide in the lemonade in the refrigerator."

Inspector Yamato frowned and asked, "Have you found the source of the cyanide?"

The police officer nodded seriously: "We found a bottle of potassium cyanide in the suitcase of Ms. Yoshioka Rie's room!"

Since the police officer did not deliberately control his volume, everyone in the living room heard the results of the investigation.

The bottle of potassium cyanide found in Yoshioka Rie's suitcase is undoubtedly the best evidence at the moment.

Everyone's eyes immediately focused on Yoshioka Rie.

The other two suspects, Junko Shida and Miyu Shiina, also stood up and looked at Yoshioka Rie, and said:
"Yoshioka, you are the criminal after all!"

"I didn't expect you to poison the lemonade! If we hadn't drunk that bottle of lemonade, wouldn't we be poisoned to death by you like Shimatani?"

"You want to kill us all?!"

"..."

At this moment, Maori Kogoro also walked up to Yoshioka Rie with a look of regret, closed his eyes and sighed: "Ms. Yoshioka, why did you do this?"

After seeing what Kogoro Mori did, Masumi Sera blinked in confusion, seeming a little puzzled.

Conan covered his face with his hands, sighed softly, and subconsciously touched the watch on his wrist.

Although the current evidence does point to Miss Yoshioka Rie, doesn't the uncle really think that something is a little off?
Unlike the two people playing tennis on the tennis court, Yoshioka Rie, who was alone in the villa, clearly had plenty of time to deal with the bottle of potassium cyanide, but she put it in her suitcase blatantly, waiting to be discovered by the police who came to investigate?

Thinking of this, Conan looked at Kogoro Mouri helplessly, then stole a glance at Masumi Sera not far away, and slowly shook his head.

If it weren't for the fact that Sera Masumi, whose background he was a little confused about, was also there, he really wanted to stab the uncle unconscious right now...

At this moment, Sera Masumi suddenly looked at Maori Kogoro who was questioning Yoshioka Rie, and shook his head and said, "Uncle Maori, I think this Miss Yoshioka is probably not the real criminal."

After finishing speaking, Sera Masumi turned to look at Makino and chuckled, "Officer Makino, you should think so too, right?"

Sera Masumi's words immediately drew everyone's attention to Makino.

Makino shook his head slowly, turned to look at Inspector Yamato and Inspector Uehara beside him and added: "Yamato, Uehara, what do you think?"

Not to mention that he is still on vacation and this is not under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Department.

With Conan, Masumi Sera, Inspector Yamato, and Inspector Uehara all present, does he still need to take action to solve such a simple case? !
Inspector Yamato and Inspector Uehara looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.

The next second, Inspector Yamato looked at the police officer next to him and asked, "Have you tested the fingerprints on the bottle of potassium cyanide?"

The police officer nodded and said, "We have checked it, and there are no fingerprints on it."

Inspector Yamato lowered his head and thought: "Really? No fingerprints were detected..."

Thinking of this, Inspector Yamato looked up at the three suspects, including Yoshioka Rie, with a serious expression: "It's a pity that the bottle of potassium cyanide found in Miss Yoshioka's suitcase cannot be used as evidence."

"What?!" Junko Shida and Miyu Shiina's eyes widened instantly.

(End of this chapter)