Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 401 The Angry Criminal
"What are you doing... what are you all doing? I was just asked to play a prank... is it really necessary?" the cross-dressing man wailed, on the verge of tears.

"A prank? This is a prank? This coordinate is the scene of the first murder, isn't it?" Zhimo asked, clutching the card he had just found.

"Huh? W-what murder case? I don't know anything about it... It was given to me by the person who hired me..." The man in women's clothing also seemed flustered.

However, none of the detectives or patrol officers present believed his one-sided story—there are plenty of criminals who would make such excuses!
only……

Mr. Teng felt something was off. Because he was worried, he quickly returned to the front desk. Anyway, the suspect couldn't get away from here!

Because of the chaos that had just occurred, many guests came to the front desk, and the hotel staff tried to calm them down.

When Kuga saw Fujii approaching, he asked with some concern, "Officer Fujii, have you caught the criminal?"

The wedding in the morning required plainclothes protection from officers from the Beika Police Station, so the people at the front desk already knew that Fuji was a police officer and that the previous investigation was a secret operation, so their attitude was naturally different.

"Yes, the person who caused the disturbance has been caught... What about Yamagishi?" Fuji asked after looking around.

"Oh, the head waiter, Yamagishi... he was called away by a customer," Kuga said with a sigh of relief.

"Guests? Who?" Teng's unease grew stronger.

"It's Mrs. Katagiri. Her husband couldn't make it due to other commitments, but she didn't want to cancel her appointment, so she came on her own..." Kuga said calmly—in his opinion, it wasn't a big deal.

Mrs. Katagiri arrived right after the wedding. Yamagishi was surprised to see her. He later learned that her husband had canceled his trip. However, Mrs. Katagiri had a good impression of the hotel, so she did not cancel her reservation and decided to relax by herself.

“Katagiri…” Fuji felt increasingly uneasy, instinctively recalling Katagiri’s secret spying on him at the restaurant earlier.

Feeling uneasy, Fuji directly operated the computer at the front desk and found Katagiri's room number...

"Eh..." Kuga instinctively wanted to stop him—after all, Fuji was a police officer now, not a receptionist. Was it against the rules to check internal documents like this?
If a police officer comes, they definitely can't check without proof!
However, since he and Fuji were acquainted, and Fuji was a police officer at the Beika Police Station, Kujiro thought about it and decided not to say anything.

Immediately, Teng took off running towards the elevator...

Arriving at the door of room 1313, Teng cautiously knocked first, but just then...

Chirp chirp—

what--

After hearing the sound of shattering glass from inside, there was another scream from a young woman, and Fuji recognized it as Yamagishi's voice.

Upon hearing this, Teng quickly swiped the brush to open the room...

"What... um?" After Teng entered, he found that the scene in front of him was somewhat beyond his imagination.

Indeed, Yamagishi was sitting on the ground, her hands and feet still bound, and she seemed somewhat frightened. The scream was definitely hers, but...

The screams were clearly not caused by what happened to Yamagishi, but by "Katagiri"—who was lying directly to the side, seemingly... violently knocked unconscious.

Although I didn't see any injuries on the vine, but...

Seeing Shiraishi standing to the side, it's easy for everyone to guess that she was knocked unconscious!
At the same time, it can be seen that she is no longer wearing her wig and sunglasses, which clearly shows that she is disguised—her actual age is much younger than she appeared to be.

"Director... this is..." Fujii was also stunned.

"Untie Yamagishi first," Shiraishi said calmly, while stepping forward to check on "Katagiri"—well, although he was a little too rough, he's not dead!
Yamagishi finally came to his senses and thanked Shiraishi, saying, "Chief Shiraishi, thank goodness you were here..."

Just now, Yamagishi was tricked into the room by "Katagiri". Katagiri then asked Yamagishi to close her eyes and relax her whole body under the pretext of wanting Yamagishi to cooperate with his divination. Since Katagiri had said before that he and his wife were very sensitive to "spirits", Yamagishi did not think much of it.

However, just as she lowered her guard, Katagiri tied her hands and feet with plastic cable ties, and then took out a syringe...

Just as Yamagishi was in shock, Katagiri removed her disguise—but Yamagishi still didn't recognize her!
However, Katagiri did recognize her, and "Katagiri" was, of course, a pseudonym; her real surname was Nagakura...

To be precise, she wasn't even a guest of the hotel.

Six months ago, Yamagishi helped a male customer get rid of a female stalker—that person was Nagakura!
What Yamagishi didn't know was that she wasn't just a stalker; she had actually been Matsuoka's girlfriend before.

However, after Nagakura became pregnant, Matsuoka ran away because he was afraid to take responsibility. When he checked into the hotel, he claimed that he was being followed and asked the hotel staff to refuse him entry.

After being brushed off, Nagakura waited outside the hotel, hoping to catch Matsuoka, but his attempt failed...

Matsuoka was also the victim of the second murder in this serial killing case!
It was after killing Matsuoka that Nagakura wanted to kill the hotel receptionist who had rejected her, as revenge for his unborn child.

After subduing Yamagishi, Nagakura prepared to kill him by injecting him with a potent poison he had prepared beforehand. Since a syringe was used, the police would likely suspect the bride Takayama's stalker after discovering this. She had indeed stalked Takayama for a few days after disguising herself as a man, deliberately making him wary. Therefore, even if the police discovered that the man who was disguised as a woman and accepted tasks online was not the real culprit, they would only suspect the previous stalker!
To enhance the sense of satisfaction from the revenge, Nagakura also told Yamagishi about his purpose.

but……

The expression on Yamagishi's face was not one of panic or fear, but rather a strange one that angered Nagakura.

Just as she was about to make her move, Shiraishi broke through the window and entered. Yamagishi's strange expression was because he saw Shiraishi hanging from the window with one hand behind Nagakura.

Anyone who sees Shiraishi behind the culprit would find it hard to be afraid; even if they feel some apprehension, their concern would be primarily for the criminal...

Sure enough, just as Nagakura, seeing her expression, was about to inject her with poison in a fit of rage, Shiraishi burst through the window and knocked her unconscious with a chop to the neck!

Her arm, which was slinged in place, was never taken down—after all, a young woman holding a syringe was far too weak a fighter against a wild boar.

……

"The director just went a little too far, you didn't have to scream like that, did you?" Fuji rolled her eyes after confirming that Yamagishi was alright. She had told Yamagishi before to be careful of this "Katagiri," but she didn't listen... Look at her, look at her?

Yamagishi:……

Yamagishi then said in a muffled voice, "Chief Shiraishi, thank you... You saved me again. I'm so glad you were here."

Last time, when she shielded a customer from a gunshot, it was Shiraishi who appeared in time to prevent any casualties.

only……

Yamagishi still didn't think there was anything wrong with her "scream" just now, after all, this is what she saw—(picture).

Seeing that Yamagishi was alright, Fuji went over and handcuffed the unconscious Nagakura again—of course, she showed no sign of waking up.

The other officers, having also received the news, arrived at the room door. They breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that Teng had handcuffed the man and that the hotel receptionist was unharmed.

"Director, please don't make things so dangerous..." Yuan said with a sigh of relief.

Zhimo and Tianshu were not very familiar with each other, but the "old hands" of the Mikado Department basically knew the director's character—he was dignified when he needed to be, and he could also exploit people when he needed to be, but he could also take responsibility when he needed to be. Similarly, it was okay to joke with him on some unimportant occasions.

"Haha, without you distracting her, this cunning she-fox wouldn't have made a move. She probably killed the second victim as well. Once she escapes, who knows what she'll do next," Shiraishi explained.

The reason why no one else was involved in the ambush was twofold: firstly, Shiraishi had absolute confidence in himself, and secondly, it was precisely to make the suspect careless!
After all, this woman has already killed someone. Once she discovers that the police have her in their sights, she might just go into hiding—her behavior of taking her anger out on others has almost reached the point of retaliating against society. If she gets away, who knows what she might do…

"A second victim? Mr. Matsuoka?" Gen was taken aback upon hearing this.

"Could it be... because of the investigation last night?" Yamada asked, puzzled.

Indeed, of the three victims mentioned above, only Matsuoka was connected to the Suzuki Hotel!
"So that's how it is, a serial killer posing as a serial killer..." Tian Shu finally understood.

He was the first officer in the Mikasa Police Department to get involved in this serial murder case, and he had also been paying attention to the previous three cases.

"What do you mean?" Yuan looked over, puzzled—reasoning was Yuan's relative weakness.

Seeing that the chief remained silent, Tian Shu explained on his behalf: "The previous three murder cases were actually quite strange, weren't they? The causes of death of the victims were completely different, and once a murderer's profile was drawn based on the causes of death, the conclusions were also different. Therefore, the police have never dared to investigate them entirely as 'serial killers'."

"This...didn't we already know that? The murderers in the three cases are different..." Yamada still didn't understand.

"That's true. But generally speaking, since they've already agreed on the dark web to make it look like the same person did it so that the 'four people' can create alibis for each other, they should have agreed on the method of the murder as well. So, if we have reasonable suspicion, the organizer's motive is actually the opposite, or there's a deeper layer to it."

"In other words, in this case, there is a side that is still advantageous to the perpetrator even after the police discover that the crime was committed by different people."

What Tian Shu said at this moment was purely logical deduction.

However, once you think of this step, it becomes very simple to confirm it later—if two cases are committed by the same perpetrator, then there is likely to be a connection between the two victims, even if it is only a weak connection.

Similarly, the "non-toxic red wine with a pinhole" also reveals the misleading nature of using "reverse thinking," demonstrating the killer's thought process.

This also proves that one of the at least two murders the killer intended to commit was this fourth one!
So Shiraishi immediately ordered the police to conduct a "human big data" style investigation, which eventually revealed that Matsuoka was connected to the Suzuki Hotel.

Although he only stayed in a hotel for one night, Shiraishi discovered Nagakura after investigating Matsuoka's police report. Because half a year had passed and the police report stated that the two had a "relationship conflict," Nagakura was not initially listed as a suspect.

However, Shiraishi then remembered what Yamagishi had mentioned to him about "female stalkers," and thus roughly guessed the killer's motive.

Although Shiraishi didn't see Katagiri in person and couldn't be sure that she was the one with the problem, he knew that the real target of the murderer was definitely Yamagishi!
In this way, Shiraishi naturally kept a close eye on the mountainside and eventually succeeded in capturing the murderer.

……

The officers then escorted the two suspects away, but Shiraishi did not follow—after that, Shiraishi only needed to sign a document; as the chief of police, he could have already left work for the day.

Yamagishi looked somewhat dejected at this moment—Shiraishi noticed that she was in a bad mood and specifically told Yamagishi that she could rest for a while and go to the police station to give a statement in the afternoon.

After everyone left, Yamagishi couldn't help but ask Shiraishi, "Chief Shiraishi... this case... is it all my fault? What if I tell Katagiri... no, tell Nagakura..."

Shiraishi interrupted directly, saying, "Of course not. Just because a stalker might turn into a murderer, does that mean the whole society should cooperate with stalkers? How can there be such an absurd conclusion... If I had to say, Ms. Yamagishi, the thing you didn't do well was that you didn't immediately help Mr. Matsuoka call the police."

Of course, calling the police may not be useful, just like Matsuoka had called the police before, but not in Beika Town.

Even when women are being stalked, it's difficult to resolve the issue immediately, let alone when a grown man is being stalked...

However, if the Mikasa Police Department were to handle the case, they would certainly be particularly concerned about the possibility that it could escalate into a more serious crime.

“Huh? But Ms. Nagakura isn’t a stalker, is she…” Yamagishi was taken aback, not yet understanding Shiraishi’s logic.

"No, without a doubt, it's stalking... If it's the other way around, and the woman wants to break up, and the man follows her afterward, it undoubtedly falls under the category of stalking and harassment, then of course the reverse also applies." Shiraishi stated that men and women are equal before the law.

Yamagishi, not quite understanding at first, said, "But... Ms. Nagakura should have been pregnant at that time..."

“Pregnancy can only mitigate the punishment and does not change the nature of stalking and harassment. Moreover, women in Japan have independent reproductive rights. Legally speaking, her stalking of Mr. Matsuoka was not legitimate. Furthermore, as an adult, she is fully responsible for the fact that she gave birth outside the hotel after being refused entry and ended up having a miscarriage.” Shiraishi explained the law to Yamagishi with great certainty.

Regardless, hearing Shiraishi's words did make Yamagishi feel much better; otherwise, she too would have been caught in a state of inner conflict and self-doubt...

When Nagakura confessed earlier, Shiraishi heard it from outside the window. She was hanging behind Nagakura at the time and could hear it through the window.

If Nagakura had only killed Matsuoka, Shiraishi might have felt a little sympathy and wouldn't have been so harsh. However, Shiraishi didn't have a good impression of this kind of guy who took his anger out on everyone else just because he felt he had been wronged, and that's why he went a little too far...

(End of this chapter)