Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 415: Clue items were found in Beika Town after a refresh...

"Damn it! What can I do? Although I got the inheritance, I spent it all in no time! I could manage by taking money from idiots, but these police officers are making things difficult for us too..."

"When I was following this kid, I found out that the murderer brat was actually working as a shop assistant here. That damned old man only agreed to take one million. It's just... what a joke! Does he know how much money I need a month to maintain my current lifestyle?" Matsubara said angrily.

Hearing Matsubara say this, Kishikawa initially felt a little guilty, after all, her husband had been accidentally killed by her.

However, after hearing the rest, Kishikawa and Imai realized that she was a member of a fraud organization.

The reason she came to this shop was because Imai was in debt. She came to secretly film her family to threaten her, but by chance she discovered Kishikawa, and then used that to blackmail Imai, the shop owner...

However, Boss Imai only took out one million yen; the other seven million yen was for Little Imai to pay off his debts—in other words, it was for the entire fraud organization.

While haggling over the price, Songyuan also revealed that he was a member of a fraud organization.

Fearing that Imai had become suspicious of him, and with the police now investigating, Matsubara decided to kill Imai to silence him and take all the money!

Although Matsubara was just a frail woman, Mr. Imai was old and had difficulty walking.

Even so, during the fight, Matsubara was still cut by a kitchen knife on the cutting board...

Matsubara knew that wiping away the bloodstains was useless, so to avoid the bloodstains being discovered, Matsubara cut the beef on the table and then put it into the pot along with the other prepared spices. She didn't touch the vegetable broth because she didn't know what it was for.

"You bastard... let me go!" Kishikawa and Imai got angrier and angrier as they listened, and couldn't help but want to make a move, but they were quickly stopped by Takagi and Sato.

"Heh, I can also talk about fraud, maybe that will reduce my sentence?" Matsubara pursed his lips, but the movement aggravated the spot where he had been slapped, causing another sharp pain.

"Go talk to your colleagues in the Second Investigation Division about this!" Megure also felt that this guy was hopeless.

Bai Shi suddenly spoke up, "If you want a reduced sentence, you might as well explain the case from ten years ago as well."

"Huh? Ten years ago?" Kishikawa was taken aback, then said, "It was indeed me ten years ago..."

“It is true that you broke into the house and ‘accidentally’ encountered the male homeowner, resulting in a fight and a murder. However… Ms. Matsubara, as far as I know, ten years ago you were the one spreading rumors among thugs that there was a large amount of cash in the house, and deliberately making it seem like no one was home when your husband was home… right?” Shiraishi said calmly at this moment.

"What? Such a thing exists?" Inspector Megure exclaimed in surprise.

“Yes, ten years ago I was still in school, and I paid special attention to the murders that happened ‘right in my neighborhood,’ especially those involving these kids,” Shiraishi nodded.

Although Kishikawa wasn't much younger than Shiraishi, Shiraishi still called him "kid"...

After all, Shiraishi was already very famous in Kamurocho ten years ago.

Kishikawa then understood why there were so many "coincidences" back then...

Of course, what Shiraishi said cannot change the nature of Kishikawa's case back then, and because he was a minor at the time, the sentence was already lenient.

It was precisely because Shiraishi had inquired about this matter back then that he actually had an impression of Matsubara, although he had no direct contact with him.

However, in recent years she has become very unrestrained, and there have been obvious changes in her clothing and temperament. In addition, she has changed her surname, so Baishi did not recognize her at first glance.

Matsubara had already been put into the police car, while Imai thanked Kishikawa somewhat embarrassedly—although there were many things he didn't understand, he at least understood that Kishikawa had intended to take the blame for him...

“Mr. Kishikawa…” Imai walked over at that moment.

"No need to thank me. It's all thanks to Mr. Imai's care that I have this new life today." Kishikawa knew at this point that even though Mr. Imai was threatened, he didn't say anything to him, but instead prepared one million yen for Matsubara.

The store's profit margin wasn't much, and the eight million yen was almost all of Imai's savings, which he had withdrawn to settle things for his "two sons."

"Actually, the reason the boss accepted the vegetable juice suggestion was because it would shorten the cooking time, and he thought that you might come back..." Kishikawa said to Koimai.

When Kishikawa first learned this little trick, his first thought was to improve the curry in his shop—not to make it taste better, but at least to save him some effort.

Mr. Imai was initially dismissive, but Kishikawa told him that this might bring Yasuhiko back, so the shop changed the recipe.

At this point, Imai burst into tears and bowed solemnly to Kishikawa again, saying, "Mr. Kishikawa, please teach me how to make Imai Curry! Let's work together to continue running this shop and make sure the taste of Imai Curry never disappears from Kamurocho!"

Shiraishi watched from the side and nodded with satisfaction.

Although I wanted to remind them that the most important thing about opening a shop is not to distribute coupons in Beika Town, I thought it would ruin the atmosphere, so I didn't say it.

……

"You only won this time because of information from outside the game..." Conan muttered unconvinced.

"Huh? What do you mean by winning?" Shiraishi looked down at him, puzzled.

Seeing Shiraishi's nonchalant "who's comparing with you?" tone, Conan became even more furious.

“Oh, you mean the case… Being able to recognize people who were unrelated ten years ago is an advantage, isn’t it?” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"What kind of advantage is that! If it were me, I could recognize it at a glance..." Conan said unconvinced.

Of course, this was just Conan's assumption, after all, his life was less than two decades, not to mention the drastic changes in Matsubara.

"Conan, are you causing trouble for Chief Shiraishi again?" Ran said as she walked over.

Seeing this, Shiraishi explained for him, "No, Conan just said... he won't forget the people he's met now when he's seventeen... By the way, Ran, can you remember what people you met when you were seven years old looked like?"

Upon hearing Shiraishi's words, Conan immediately changed his previous defiant expression and became flustered, gesturing wildly with his eyes, hoping Shiraishi would shut up...

“When I was seven years old…” Xiao Lan said, glancing at her father—it seemed like it was like this ten years ago? Younger, but limited.

My mother, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have changed much. She's just become more capable and assertive since returning to her work as a lawyer after the separation.

The other people you might see are Shinichi and Sonoko...

Sonoko's mysterious hairstyle seems to have been like this since she was little. I wonder if it's some kind of family rule in the Suzuki family. As for Shinichi...

"Huh?" Ran looked at Conan in surprise.

"Heh...heh heh..." Conan chuckled awkwardly, then immediately said, "Ran-neechan, I'm starving! Let's go find somewhere to eat!"

"Yeah, okay... By the way, Conan, you and Shinichi really look alike when you were little," Ran said matter-of-factly.

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi said in a low voice, "I told you, ordinary people wouldn't recognize him after ten years, not even familiar people." Conan really wanted to say, "That's because this is from seven to seventeen years old," the time when humans change the most, but what he could say was, "Please, say less."

Seeing that Conan had finally admitted what he said, Shiraishi nodded in satisfaction.

Shiraishi was also hungry at this point, and Ayako had sent him a message on his phone with the address of a nearby restaurant that the two of them had visited together before.

After Ayako took control, she led Satsuki to a slightly upscale restaurant.

As a result, Satsuki's outfit appears somewhat too casual...

Of course, Ayako didn't choose a fancy restaurant either. Firstly, the occasion wasn't right, and secondly... it was also a way of letting her off the hook!

After dinner, Ayako and Shiraishi also escorted Satsuki home—this was Shiraishi's second visit to the Yamashiro family home, which had been completely renovated and was now more like a modern manor than the previous classical style…

Unlike before, all the people living here, except for Satsuki, have been replaced.

Unlike before when no servants were hired, now everyone here except Satsuki is a servant.

Not to mention property, with Komikado's help, Satsuki's previous divorce even resulted in the Yamashiro family name being divided up...

When Shiraishi took Ayako home, he noticed that she was in an exceptionally good mood.

"What's making you so happy?" Shiraishi asked curiously.

"It's nothing... I'm relieved to see that Satsuki is doing well now," Ayako said with a smile.

Today, having taken the initiative and subdued Satsuki, Ayako was naturally in a good mood...

……

Meanwhile, in Beika Town, in an abandoned factory...

Narcissistic and Amagi, at this moment, came in, flashlights in hand, seemingly inspecting something.

"Senior Narcissist, may I ask why we are here on patrol?" Tian Shu asked, puzzled.

Although he was a few years older than Narcissistic, Amagi still called him senior.

"This is a rule set by our chief. We have to patrol areas in the town that haven't been visited for a long time to prevent fugitives from hiding or bodies from being found... It's usually the patrol officers who do this, but we detectives sometimes help out when we're not busy," the narcissist explained. To make sure the man understood, he added, "Don't underestimate this job. It's only been underway for less than six months, and we've already caught four fugitives and found three bodies hidden there!"

Tian Shu: ...

"The director is really... well, he's thinking ahead." Tian Shu didn't know what to say.

He is indeed conscientious and responsible, but...

Why does a perfectly good town keep "refreshing" with corpses and fugitives everywhere?

"Speaking of which... it's fine for you to call me senior, but why have you started calling me narcissistic too?" Narcissistic asked, concerned.

"Don't worry about it so much, you narcissistic senior!" Amagi said deliberately.

"Fine, call me whatever you want..." The narcissist had almost forgotten what his own name was. Sometimes when the chief called him "Detective Kogure," he would be stunned for a moment.

The two wandered around the abandoned factory, but finding nothing, the narcissist prepared to leave...

"Looks like nothing's refreshed here this month... What's wrong?" As the narcissist was saying this, he noticed that the Heavenly Tree was picking something up from the ground and looking at it.

“No, we’ve discovered something…that looks very important,” Amagi said.

The narcissist went over to take a look and found that it was a drawing—obviously drawn by a child, on the back of an advertising flyer.

Although the drawing is very abstract, you can still tell that it should be the child's mother. It also has "Happy Birthday" written on it and a drawing of a birthday cake—it should be a gift from a child to his mother.

"Hmm? Is this the junk left behind? Honestly, it's a child's thoughtful gift, it should be kept safe!" The narcissist chimed in with a few words of condemnation for this kind of parent.

However, Yu Amagi then said, "This factory has been shut down for several months, hasn't it? The shopping mall that's distributing flyers only opened on the 11th of this month, and the flyers were only started being distributed on the 8th... less than half a month ago."

Today is April 23rd, which means...

"Hmm? This painting was brought in half a month ago? Has anyone been in here?" the narcissist said, looking around again, but not finding anything that had been disturbed.

“I’m a little concerned… how about we go ask this family?” Amagi said, looking at the name “Kanda Hinata” on the sign.

The deaths of Amagi Yu's wife and daughter have always been a wound in his heart. When he sees the drawings his children made for their mother, even if they are just childish drawings on advertising flyers, he is particularly concerned about the incongruities in them.

If he had seen more of these things back then...

"Okay, let's go take a look." The narcissist didn't refuse.

After taking one last look at the small room in the factory, Amagi and Narcissistic left together.

The two then went to Mihana Park...

Although there was no address on the painting, and the two hadn't even discussed it with each other, coming to Mika Park at this time was an unspoken choice.

I wonder where the Kanda family is located?

Of course, you should ask the kids around you!
Judging from the brushstrokes, the child drawing this must be quite young, probably in the lower grades of elementary school...

The two quickly identified their target!
"Ah, great, there's a detective team ready... well, although the chief's sister and that narcissistic brat aren't here." The narcissist noticed immediately that the detective team was missing two members.

Tian Shu glanced at him then—"Are you still going to call others narcissistic?"
Even if the two most useful ones are not here, the remaining three at least have one person who is "enthusiastic".

Moreover, they also recognize narcissism, after all, they have dealt with the Mikasa Bureau more than once or twice!
"Narcissistic brother! Are you investigating a case? Do you want to entrust it to our Junior Detective Club?" Genta asked as he saw them approaching.

Narcissism: ...

What's my name again? Never mind, it doesn't matter...

(End of this chapter)