Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 382 Playing Chess
"Chief Shiraishi, did a prosecutor pass away in Beika Town today?"

"No, no, no, I just have some connections with that Prosecutor Matsui, so I was just asking..."

"Sorry, I don't know anything about it."

……

Kunikida came to Shiraishi because he wanted to inquire about Matsui Hiroshi.

However, he was very dishonest and refused to say anything, as if he was only asking because he "had a relationship" with the person in question.

but……

How could Shiraishi possibly believe that?

Putting aside Kunikida's reaction when he saw the surveillance footage at the coffee shop, the direct evidence is that Shiraishi can now clearly see the "Trial Mission" label on Kunikida's attribute list!

Now Shiraishi is certain that Kunikida's concern yesterday stemmed not only from knowing the three of them, but also from the fact that the case that haunted Kunikida seven years ago was very likely fabricated by those three...

"I see, we just know each other... Okay, then Inspector Kunikida, could you do me a small favor and copy the CCTV footage from yesterday's coffee shop?" Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

Kunikida:……

Kunikida had initially thought that Shiraishi might not have recognized the people in the surveillance footage, but now it seems that Shiraishi at least knows about their private meeting!

"Of course, the surveillance footage cannot be given to people unrelated to the case..." Kunikida said, forcing a smile.

Kunikida undoubtedly still acknowledges Shiraishi as his "old leader," otherwise Shiraishi wouldn't have been able to see his attributes.

"Then I'll ask Tohsaka for it?" Shiraishi said, shrugging.

Kunikida:……

Kunikida sighed and sat down on the sofa in the office, running his hands through his sparse hair.

"Seven years ago, I was in the First Investigation Division, in charge of investigating a murder case..." Kunikida began to recount.

Seven years ago, an attempted murder occurred on Tsukishima Island.

Asuka Murano fell into a coma and became a vegetable due to potassium cyanide gas poisoning at home.

And the case didn't end there; three more people from Tsukishima subsequently died from potassium cyanide poisoning...

The suspect that the police eventually identified was Keisuke Murano, the husband of the first victim.

Later in the trial, Keisuke Murano was also sentenced to death.

Although the execution rate in the Eastern Island Nation is not high due to the "final signature of the Minister of Justice", Murano committed suicide in prison not long after the trial.

……

"At the time, Keisuke Murano was going through a divorce with his wife. Of the other three people, two of them had disputes with him. Moreover, the chemical reagents for synthesizing potassium cyanide gas could be obtained at his workplace. We later discovered that the management of these reagents was very lax, and the missing reagents were also found during Murano's shifts..."

“There was some other scattered evidence pointing to Murano, plus… the third victim didn’t die immediately after being poisoned, but died in a coma for two months. The grief of the family interfered with my judgment. During the investigation… I forced the vague evidence to be tested and ignored the evidence that was favorable to the suspect!”

Kunikida said regretfully at this moment.

After listening, Shiraishi nodded and said, "But in the end, it wasn't discovered that this was a miscarriage of justice, was it?"

Kunikida talked for a long time but didn't mention anything about Prosecutor Matsui Hiroshi at all, but Shiraishi wasn't in a hurry.

“No, although I can’t say for sure, the strongest alibi for the suspect is that someone was near the crime scene when one of the cases happened and saw the killer’s back, while Murano was drawing a fortune at a nearby shrine at the time… but there were no witnesses,” Kunikida said at this point.

"No witnesses?" Shiraishi frowned. "What kind of alibi is that?"

"There were no witnesses, but after the prosecution filed charges, I happened to go to the shrine to pray for the victim and make a vow. I also drew a fortune slip, and I found that the fortune slips at that shrine were very special. Moreover, the fortune slip with the word 'Suekichi' appeared on a letter that the suspect wrote to his family while he was in detention..."

"Afterwards, I also confirmed with the shrine's head priest. Although he did not see the suspect come to the shrine at the time, there should only be one person who took the 'Suekichi' fortune slip that day, and it was within the time period stated by the suspect."

"That was the first time someone drew the Suekichi and hung it up after the fortune was modified. Theoretically... the suspect should not have had any other chance to know the fortune."

Kunikida explained the main reason why he believed "the investigation's conclusions were flawed"!

Although this evidence was somewhat more inferential than direct, it still made Kunikida suddenly realize his mistake—after all, he understood that there were still doubts during the investigation, largely due to his overly strong subjective judgment and eagerness to push the case forward.

Once this subjective belief disappeared, Kunikida immediately overturned his own investigation results in his mind.

So Kunikida went to the prosecutor's office to apply for a delay in prosecution, but was refused because the prosecution process had already begun. Even when he pleaded with Prosecutor Matsui, he was only reprimanded...

Kunikida continued to investigate the case, hoping to find the real culprit, but because it had dragged on for so long, there were no more clues.

Ultimately, he was punished for taking it upon himself to reinvestigate, and the subsequent suicide of the prisoner also deeply affected him, leading him to resign.

However, despite Director Hakuba's attempts to persuade him to stay, Kunikida's resignation was not approved. He was instead transferred to the Public Relations Department and was no longer involved in frontline work. Kunikida himself also began to feel very resistant to frontline investigations...

Six years later, Shiraishi arrives at the Beika Police Station, and at the same time, Shirai, the former head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Beika Police Station, makes another mistake. And so... the gears of fate begin to turn.

And then, after more than half a year, Kunikida returned to Tsukishima and became the acting deputy director and head of the criminal investigation department of the Tsukishima Police Station...

In the surveillance footage of another murder case, Matsui was seen conspiring with the presiding judge and the defendant's legal aid lawyer.

This greatly shocked Kunikida, who resolved to investigate further, but...

Before he could figure out where to start, he learned of Matsui Hiroshi's death.

Since he had just died at the hands of his "former leader," Kunikida naturally rushed over, hoping to learn some inside information.

Unexpectedly, his "former boss" knew more, forcing him to reveal his own secrets.

In fact, Kunikida wanted to keep this a secret because he didn't want to cause trouble for Shiraishi—just look at how Matsui Hiroshi, Sakurai Jun, and Kobayashi Norio were plotting together... If they were to dig deeper into what happened back then, they would not only face pressure from the prosecutor's office, but it could also become a scandal for the Tokyo High Court!
even……

If that's really the case, even the Bar Association would be uneasy in the face of such a scandal!

……

“I see… These three people might be repeat offenders!” Shiraishi said, using a large mouse to search for older cases online.

In recent years, the three have not appeared together in court, but in the past, it was common for them to meet!
Moreover, the records that can be found online are basically "perfect trials"—the kind where the defendant is perfectly tried. Shiraishi even discovered that, many years ago, Attorney Kobayashi was once a "model of voluntarily accepting more legal aid."

Legal aid is something that would normally be a time-consuming matter for top lawyers and law firms, so if someone is willing to take on this task, the bar association will certainly encourage it.

However, the bar association later discovered that something was wrong with this guy. Not only could he not reduce his sentence, but he often managed to increase it as the trial progressed. In many cases, other crimes were discovered against him during the trial.

Therefore, in recent years, the Bar Association has stopped asking him to "voluntarily undertake more legal aid".

In addition, these three people are all quite old and are considered "pillars" in their respective fields, so it is not so easy for them to meet again.

"However, it cannot be confirmed that Matsui's death was murder yet. Also... there haven't been any cases involving the three of them together recently," Shiraishi revealed.

Shiraishi believes this matter is related to their conspiracy, largely because he "saw them meeting privately in a coffee shop before," but in reality, there are no cases involving them in court.

Afterwards, Shiraishi shared some details of Matsui's sudden death with Kunikida...

However, Kunikida couldn't think of any useful clues regarding "cardiac paralysis".

and……

"If they really did discuss and conspire privately during the trial to orchestrate a so-called perfect trial, it certainly wasn't just once or twice. In other words... if it really was a homicide, and that was the real motive, it would be very difficult to pinpoint the suspect based on the motive," Shiraishi concluded.

Indeed, if someone has done something like this, it's definitely not just once or twice.

Shiraishi had also seen some of their earlier records, showing that the three of them had been in the same courtroom many times when they were young!

And Shiraishi also discovered another "coincidence" at this time - all three of them were fifty-nine years old!
This is certainly no coincidence...

“Yes, I confirmed it during the day. The three of them… were classmates in the Waseda Law Department. I think it was around that time that they… well, developed flawed ideas,” Kunikida said sullenly.

Although Kunikida was unaware of Matsui's death during the day, he spent his time at work today studying the three people because of what he had seen and heard yesterday!

It turned out that the three were the same age, and further, they discovered that they had graduated from the same university...

Clearly, it is at this age that "idea kings" are more likely to emerge!
Especially those who harbor what they consider to be great and lofty dreams, and who also share the same ideals, are likely to generate a wealth of "ideas".

It doesn't matter anymore which of the three of them was the "idea king" or whether they were all of them.

Anyway...

What they did has likely already been discovered and is now being resented.

“Inspector Kunikida, it would be illegitimate for the Tsukishima Police Station to investigate this matter. Even if they were to assist from the sidelines, it wouldn’t be easy. If you really want to get involved, you can ask Tohsaka directly… or even ask Gen and Yamada for assistance.” Shiraishi specifically instructed.

Shiraishi didn't want the Tsukishima Police Station to get involved, but he was afraid that the Tsukishima Police Station would have no reason to get involved, and that Kunikida himself was too hasty and was getting involved alone!

If the killer's motive is as currently speculated, he must also harbor hatred towards the police.

Even if I don't hate these three people that much, they could still kill me at any time, so investigating alone would be very dangerous.

However, Shiraishi did not dissuade Kunikida from getting involved...

He even managed to get the [Trial Quest]!

It is clear that Kunikida cares deeply about this matter; it is a "deep-seated concern" for him, and it is impossible for him to ignore it.

Therefore, Shiraishi suggested that they could even lend someone to Kunikida for help—after all, Gen and Yamada had also said they missed Section Chief Kunikida…

"Director..." Kunikida was deeply moved.

"Alright, actually they're just calling me back to work for free at the Beika Police Station, don't be too touched... but I still need to say hello to Section Chief Munakata," Shiraishi said specifically.

Although Shiraishi felt that Munakata wasn't the type to care about such things, he was, after all, the head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Beika Police Station, and as a former head of the Criminal Investigation Division, he had to pay a courtesy visit when he came to borrow someone.

“Of course,” Kunikida immediately agreed.

After seeing Kunikida off, Shiraishi called Suzuki and Makitaka over before leaving get off work—not Ayako, but Suzuki Atsushi.

"Suzuki, Maki, how are you feeling about the five-hundred-million-yen heist?" Shiraishi asked first.

Upon hearing this, both of them looked somewhat embarrassed—those jobs were all time-consuming, and... the current priority was "fishing in Kobe"!
As for the other detectives, they could only marvel at Kobe's wealth while doing odd jobs.

“Chief, we…we can’t really be of much help. It’s all thanks to Miss Kobe…cough, Detective Kobe,” Suzuki Atsushi said honestly.

Shiraishi could also tell that Kobe wasn't very good at interacting with colleagues.

To be precise, Kobe is simply not good at dealing with "ordinary people"!

She has absolutely no empathy in this regard...

It's not about "looking down on" or anything like that, but rather a complete inability to understand the existence of "ordinary people".

However, Kobe's good point is that she has a simple sense of justice. For example, although she cannot understand why some police officers work for such a small salary, she insists that being a police officer is a sacred profession and a guardian of justice. It's not "Why are you working so hard for 200,000 a month?" but "You're working so hard, it's definitely not because of that 200,000."

“Then let’s not help for now…” Shiraishi said at this moment.

"Ah! Chief, that's not what we meant." Mu Gao thought the chief was unhappy.

However, Shiraishi raised his hand to stop them, saying, "You should go and assist Kuroki in continuing the investigation into Prosecutor Matsui's case."

Because Matsui was not convicted of murder, not much manpower was allocated to him.

On one hand, Shiraishi wanted to find more people to help with the case, and on the other hand...

Because it's difficult to find the culprit from the perspective of "motive" nowadays, Shiraishi wants to start from the "case itself," and in this regard, the police certainly don't have a "detective" to match!

Although Shiraishi cannot hire a detective, but...

Suzuki has a chance of "summoning" a detective!

Moreover, this scandal involves the court, the prosecutor's office, and lawyers simultaneously, and Shiraishi is preparing to use the "director's son" as a countermeasure...

Director Bai Ma, I've learned how to play chess!
(End of this chapter)