Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 414 Conan: Could it be that I won?
Everyone stared at Kishikawa, occasionally glancing at Imai...

"I...I don't know what you're talking about!" Kishikawa turned his gaze away, avoiding the question.

Considering that Kishikawa knew Imai Yasuhiko needed money and had shielded him from Shimamoto before, and judging from his previous demeanor, the person he wanted to protect might really be Imai—so when Imai showed suspicion towards him, his first reaction was anger, but he immediately concealed it.

Before Megure could ask any more questions, Shiraishi spoke up, "First of all, our previous speculations all assumed that the murderer took the eight million yen, right? Mr. Imai, so even if you get the eight million yen, you still can't pay it back. Even if you use cash, it will still be discovered."

Shiraishi spoke with certainty, while Imai shook his head repeatedly, saying, "I do hope I can pay it back, but I have no idea about any eight million! I also hope you can catch the real culprit as soon as possible..."

Imai looked at Kishikawa with a puzzled expression—now he also realized that Kishikawa didn't seem like the murderer anymore.

Shiraishi also looked at Kishikawa and said, "And Mr. Kishikawa, even if you want to admit that you are the murderer, you must be able to tell us the whereabouts of the eight million yen."

"In addition... Ms. Matsubara, your recent financial situation will also be tracked. Of course, it's not that you can't make large purchases, since what was lost at the scene was banknotes, and they were just taken away recently. We will apply to the bank to lock the serial numbers on these banknotes." Shiraishi suddenly looked at Matsubara, who had been just a "passerby" all along.

Megure was initially puzzled as to why Shiraishi was staring at passersby, but then he noticed that Matsubara's expression had indeed changed!

Matsubara's expression tightened at first, but then he seemed to realize something and admitted, "That's right, the eight million is indeed with me..."

"Eh? Ms. Matsubara, you admit..." Megure exclaimed in surprise.

"Of course, I'm not a murderer. Mr. Imai gave me the money voluntarily... If you do a thorough investigation and check the roadside surveillance footage, you might find that he went to my house yesterday," Matsubara quickly explained.

"Give it to you willingly?" Inspector Megure was taken aback.

Indeed, it hadn't been confirmed before why Imai wanted to withdraw money. At first, they suspected it was because of their son's debts, but he had clearly refused...

"Ah! Could it be... Really, you're already so old! If you're so eager to find someone, why don't you look for one while I'm lacking maternal love..." Little Imai muttered to himself.

She seemed to have figured out why her father gave her the money...

Hmm, a middle-aged or elderly man suddenly giving a middle-aged woman so much money, that must be something like that, right?
However, Kishikawa looked at Matsubara with suspicion—he had no idea that the boss knew this woman!
“Actually, I was married before. Back then, my surname wasn’t Matsubara, but… Hijikata,” Matsubara said, looking at Kishikawa.

Although it wasn't a rare surname, upon hearing it, Kishikawa's pupils constricted and his arms began to tremble involuntarily...

“You, you are…” Kishikawa began to stammer.

“That’s right, the man you killed ten years ago was my husband,” Matsubara said matter-of-factly.

"What? Ms. Matsubara, this... can't be a coincidence, can it?" Inspector Megure looked at Matsubara in surprise.

"It really was a coincidence. I discovered this when I first came to this store. Because I was worried about the owner's safety, I told Mr. Imai about it..." Matsubara said, pointing to Kishikawa.

"And then?" Megure pressed.

"After that? He didn't react much at the time, but later he arranged to visit my house and... hoped that I wouldn't reveal this matter again, and even gave me some money for it... To be honest, my financial situation hasn't been very good lately, so... although I felt a little bad for him, I still accepted it." Matsubara said somewhat embarrassedly.

“That’s understandable, but… Mr. Imai just paid eight million like that?” Of course, Inspector Megure wouldn’t immediately believe such a statement.

"Yes, I think he must regard Mr. Kishikawa as his own son." Matsubara seemed quite frank.

Kishikawa was naturally very moved upon hearing this, but Imai just grimaced at the thought...

As for the police officers present, although they had doubts about this explanation, it was indeed not inexplicable.

and……

"If the eight million yen was taken by the victim beforehand, then the killer's motive..." Megure began to mutter to himself.

However, Mori then said arrogantly, "No, Inspector Megure, this doesn't actually affect the murderer's motive. After all, no one else knows that the money is no longer here. On the contrary, Kishikawa and Imai... you two still think the money is in the store, right?"

"What do you mean by this..." Imai looked at Mori with displeasure.

Mori took two steps closer, looking at Imai with suspicion, and said, "So, you actually killed your own father, and then you still haven't found the money, right?"

"That's unlikely... Detective Mouri, there's no sign of ransacking upstairs," Takagi retorted sheepishly.

Since the money is usually kept in a drawer and can be easily found, it's normal that there are no signs of searching if the murderer took it.

But what if the murderer doesn't find the money...?

Logically speaking, they would definitely search everywhere else. Even if they were wearing gloves and couldn't collect fingerprints, it would be easy to find traces of searching!
However, judging from the situation upstairs, there was no evidence of searching, which does not fit the characteristics of a scene where "something was searched but not found".

Of course, this is only true in principle; in reality...

"It's possible that for various reasons, we didn't have time to look for it!" Mori said casually.

Seeing that Mori's reasoning was as crude as ever, Conan couldn't help but cover his face.

Just then, Shiraishi reminded him, "Actually, there's one more thing... Why did the murderer cook the curry beef?"

Upon hearing this, everyone else froze, but Conan looked at Shiraishi with surprise—seemingly not understanding why Shiraishi would say such a thing!
“Well… generally speaking, it should be for an alibi, right? Mr. Kishikawa, what time should Mr. Imai start cooking the curry?” Mori asked Kishikawa at this moment.

“After using the new recipe, you can start cooking at nine o’clock,” Kishikawa said.

It's easy to imagine that it had to be done much earlier and for much longer!
"In other words, the murderer entered the store before nine o'clock, killed Mr. Imai, and must have created an alibi for himself before nine o'clock..." Mori said, following up on the previous speculation.

but……

"Uh..." Mori looked at the three of them, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

I just asked them for their alibis, but none of them have a definite alibi!
In other words, if the murderer made the curry dish to create an alibi, then his disguise was far too poor—he didn't actually create an alibi for after 9 PM.

"Could the culprit be someone else? Or perhaps..." Mori racked his brains, trying to figure it out. Shiraishi just stared at him speechlessly...

This detective, after ten years away from his job and ten years working as a detective, has completely developed a detective mindset!

If it were a criminal investigator, their first reaction wouldn't be to think it's for an "alibi," but rather...

"Ah! Mr. Denmi, please... please carefully inspect all the kitchen utensils and tools, including the cutting board, and don't miss any bloodstains!" Inspector Megure hurriedly said to Denmi.

"Don't worry, leave it to me!" As a veteran crime scene investigator, Nozomi immediately understood what Megure meant.

That's right, that's the first reaction a criminal investigator would have—to cover up the evidence at the scene!
“With current technology, even if it’s been contaminated by the blood of beef, as long as there’s even a single drop… or even a tiny bit of human blood in it, it can be identified and its genetic information confirmed, right?” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

Upon hearing this, Kishikawa looked at Imai with a puzzled expression—he too was somewhat shaken, feeling that he might have misunderstood.

Imai showed no change in expression, while Matsubara seemed to be putting on a brave face.

Shiraishi then looked at Kishikawa and Imai and said, "Kishikawa, needless to say, the information is already on file. Mr. Imai... even if you are unwilling to conduct a comparison, if the genetic factors detected at that time match the victim's, it can still be confirmed that it is you."

After speaking with the two of them, Shiraishi turned to Matsubara and asked, "Ms. Matsubara, would you be willing to cooperate with the genetic sample collection and comparison?"

"No, this is utterly absurd! I finally made up my mind to forgive this kid... why am I being treated like a criminal now? I refuse this invasion of privacy!" Matsubara said excitedly.

Megure and the others' eyes had sharpened by this moment...

In their view, this unreasonable and irrational reaction was simply "self-destruction."

However, according to regulations, biological evidence such as genetic information cannot be collected and compared without a signature or documentation.

Conan continued to look at Shiraishi with a puzzled expression...

When Shiraishi brought this up, Conan couldn't understand it—he had thought of it too, but... if he said it now, would the culprit still cooperate?
Conan was just thinking that he either needed to find more direct evidence or find a way to make the murderer leave evidence!

I never expected Shiraishi to say it so directly...

If it were Inspector Megure and the others, Conan wouldn't be surprised. After all, the fact that they could even think of this was already an extraordinary achievement, and it would be hard to expect them to think of anything more.

But in Conan's opinion, Shiraishi should have been able to foresee the difficulties that would follow!

Could it be...

Is it because I put too much pressure on him, and he's afraid I'll figure out the answer first?

Conan looked at Shiraishi with a confident smile—if you make trouble for the case by giving the answer first, then I'll win!
at the same time……

Matsubara looked very angry at this point. He picked up his bag, stood up, and said, "That's enough! I've already cooperated with your investigation. We'll talk about the rest when you have a search warrant!"

He then turned to leave...

"Wait a minute, Ms. Matsubara..." Inspector Megure, seeing this, was just about to find an excuse to stop her from leaving.

However, just as Matsubara reached the restaurant entrance...

"Ouch!" Shimamoto lost his balance and took a step back, then... was bumped into by Matsubara.

"you……"

"You stinking blabbermouth, don't you have eyes?" After Shimamoto's seemingly contrived movement, he didn't follow up with a contrived act, but instead raised his hand and delivered a heavy slap.

It's hard to describe it as just a slap; aside from the fact that it wasn't a clenched fist, it was basically a right hook, delivered with a powerful wrist strike...

Not only did he swing his arm in a wide arc, but after hitting Matsubara, Matsubara also spun around and fell face-first to the ground, crashing onto the table.

"Ah! I'm so sorry, officers, you all saw it... She bumped into me first, I was only acting in self-defense, and I only made one move..." Shimamoto immediately explained.

Takagi, who was about to step forward to stop him, stopped in his tracks. At the same time, Sato quickly stepped forward to help Matsubara.

Regardless of whether you suspect her or not, even if she really was the murderer in the previous case, she is now a "victim".

Not only was half of Matsubara's face swollen and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, but his head was also bleeding profusely from hitting the corner of the table...

Although Inspector Megure was glaring angrily at Shimamoto, he still said to Tomi, "Mr. Tomi, please collect this bloodstain as well, to avoid any interference."

Upon hearing this, Matsubara's initial intention to demand compensation from Shimamoto vanished, and he hurriedly said, "This...this was just encountered! It's bound to splatter!"

“That’s right… We need to collect samples to avoid interference. However, this place is quite a distance from the kitchen, and even if there is a splash, we have already preserved all the movable kitchen utensils, including the cutting board. If human genetic material is found on them and matches this sample… well, then Ms. Matsubara, you’ll need to explain this carefully!” Inspector Megure said, glaring at Matsubara.

Upon hearing this, Matsubara's face immediately turned ashen...

"Damn it! You two bastards are to blame!" Matsubara glared angrily at Kishikawa and Imai.

"Huh?" Imai pointed innocently at himself—What does this have to do with me?
"Heh, as expected... I think you must be a member of a fraud ring, which is why you discovered this store and the murderer who killed your husband back then, right? The so-called boss Imai delivering money to you was probably the result of your threats, but I don't think he would give you as much as eight million."

"I think seven million of it should still be used to pay off Imai's debts, and the other one million is hush money to keep you from ruining Kishikawa's new life."

"Unfortunately, you're used to spending money lavishly, so one million isn't enough to satisfy your appetite... It seems that inheritances don't last long, do they?" Shiraishi said meaningfully.

Shiraishi had been paying attention to the case when it occurred, which is how he met Kishikawa. After all, it happened in Kamurocho, and Shiraishi discovered some things at the time. However, Shiraishi was just an ordinary law student then, and what he discovered didn't change anything...

(End of this chapter)