Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 438 Bait and the Real Culprit
October 5th, Thursday.

Early in the morning, Shiraishi had just arrived at the police station when he heard some "big news"—Sakaki Ken had been arrested and brought to the station!

"Last night, Inspector Muto discovered that Ken Sakaki was lurking suspiciously near Inspector Minato's house. When he went up to question him, he tried to escape, but Inspector Muto caught him... Although there were two thugs from the Sakaki Group with Ken Sakaki, they were still apprehended on the spot by Inspector Muto." Haiya then reported to Chief Shiraishi.

"And then?" Shiraishi frowned upon hearing this—what was he lingering around the Minato family's neighborhood for?
"The interrogation has just begun, but... Director Ninomiya is here and is in the interrogation room," Haiya said somewhat awkwardly.

When we brought the person back last night, it was already past midnight, past the interrogation time.

This morning, upon hearing that the Beika Police Station had arrested Kenjiro Sakaki, Ninomiya rushed over to personally interrogate him.

After listening to Ashiya's report, Shiroshi nodded and said, "Okay, I understand..."

With that, Shiraishi himself went to the interrogation room...

The director of the First Investigation Division still wields considerable influence over criminal cases. Even without the establishment of an investigation headquarters, he still has the authority to visit local police stations to learn about the case.

In other words, it was the Beika Police Station. If it were any other police station, they wouldn't have been at this stalemate. The detectives at the Beika Police Station didn't understand what Ninomiya had to do with this case either, and they thought he was trying to bend the law for personal gain, so they never let him ask.

When Shiraishi arrived at the interrogation room, Ninomiya was also outside.

“Inspector Ninomiya, let’s leave professional matters to the professionals,” Shiraishi advised Ninomiya, who hadn’t given up yet.

“I…” Ninomiya’s eyes widened for a moment upon hearing this, but then he said weakly, “Okay.”

It's perfectly normal for Shiraishi to ask him to stay away.

After all, although Ninomiya is theoretically a "front-line" member, he is a semi-professional and in criminal cases, he is responsible for giving instructions and has little interrogation experience.

And given his relationship with Minato...

Indeed, it is necessary to avoid this!
"Hopefully your officers can get him to talk soon, otherwise headquarters is in a hurry to close the case," Ninomiya said sullenly.

Shiraishi then noticed that it was no wonder Ninomiya was in such a hurry; the interrogation of Ken Sakaki was indeed not going smoothly.

There's no need to listen to which stage of the interrogation is being conducted; anyone watching from the outside can tell that Kenjiro Sakaki, standing in front of Gen, is striking a super Dior-esque pose, practically with his feet on the table...

"Officer, have you considered the consequences of arresting innocent people without cause?" Sakaki said confidently.

"It wasn't without reason. What did you do there last night? Why did you suddenly run away after seeing the patrol officers?" Yuan remained calm, unperturbed by his words.

"I've got a condition where I want to run away whenever I see a police officer, okay? You can chase me, I'll just run away!" Sakaki said, shrugging his shoulders.

……

Seeing that Kenjiro Sakaki was unmoved by either threats or cajoling, Shiraishi frowned outside and asked, "Was he the only one there when we arrested him last night?"

“No, two members of the Sakaki Group were also arrested at the same time,” Munakata replied.

That makes sense. He's the "young master" of the group, how could he not even have a bodyguard?
However, this only deepened Shiraishi's doubts...

"Escape means... all three of them ran away together?" Shiraishi asked with a strange expression.

Is the vine really that intimidating?

He was only seen near the Minato family's residence. Although Shiraishi didn't think it was a coincidence, since he wasn't caught red-handed, why did the young master of the violent organization simply flee with his men?
"That's how it is at present." Zongfang had thought about this issue before, but he didn't get any useful information from Sakaki Ken, who was unyielding to both soft and hard approaches.

而在隔音室内，源这时继续问着：“5月8日晚上10点，到5月9日凌晨3点，你在什么地方？”

"Who knows? My nightlife is much more exciting than yours, officers... By the way, ask that big guy if he wants to work with me. What's the point of risking your life for 200,000 a month?" Instead of answering directly, Sakaki started to provoke him.

"Do I need to remind you? You appeared on the Beika Hotel's security camera at 11 PM on May 8th," Gen asked, his eyes still fixed on Sakaki.

Sakaki remained unmoved and said, "Oh, whatever you say... Maybe I made an appointment with some young woman... But if you ask me who I made an appointment with, I can't remember." He then gave a sly laugh.

source:……

……

Even outside, Shiraishi could sense that this guy was truly fearless.

"Where are Narcissism and Amagi?" Shiraishi asked after looking at the people in the interrogation room.

Because it wasn't a formal occasion, Shiraishi was addressed rather casually.

"They went to Officer Minato's house, but they still didn't give up. They wanted to know what Officer Minato had been doing before," Munakata said.

They were initially sent to the Metropolitan Police Department, their workplace, to look for clues, but they found nothing.

Having no other choice, I had to go to his house to try my luck...

Just then, Ninomiya's phone rang.

"Excuse me." Ninomiya glanced at his phone, a hint of impatience in his expression, but still went outside to answer the call.

“That’s right…it’s a detective from the Mikasa Police Station…What? Aren’t you too nervous? How could that be…”

Shiraishi suddenly looked towards the door.

Normally, Ninomiya would have kept his voice down, so nothing would have been heard from inside, but...

Shiraishi has practiced!
Shiraishi not only heard Ninomiya's impatient voice, but also heard Yuriko's words on the phone...

Mrs. Yuriko was somewhat worried about the identity of the person who visited her home today. The reason she still had such doubts after seeing the police ID was, of course, because... her narcissism was acting up!

Ninomiya, however, didn't believe this at all. He just thought this woman was troublesome and even a little impatient.

However, upon hearing this, Shiraishi immediately had a sudden thought!
……

When Ninomiya returned to the interrogation room after hanging up the phone, he found that the interrogation had been suspended.
"What's wrong?" Ninomiya asked, frowning. "If you guys can't do it, I can!"

“Something’s not right. This guy… seems like bait. I’ll have him fill out the form first,” Shiraishi said with a dark face.

"What? You mean you want to let him go?" Ninomiya was now anxious—even when he disliked Shiraishi before, he never dared to point fingers at him like this. It's clear...

The recusal system still makes sense!

“Calm down. Do you remember that wine glass when we first suspected the ‘third person’? Did Ken Sakaki invite Minato and Nakajima to drink together after they found their room, and then drink it all himself?” Shiraishi asked rhetorically.

Indeed, Shiraishi had always felt that if Ken Sakaki was a "third person," there were many things on the scene that didn't make sense logically.

Even assuming that Minato's suicide was staged, his previous behavior of drinking red wine seemed rather strange.

What circumstances led Minato to invite Sakaki, who had previously harassed Nakajima, to drink red wine with the three of them?

Surely it's not like they're saying, "Give me some face" or "It's all in the drink," right?

Ninomiya frowned at this moment—in his memory, Minato wasn't such a "streetwise" person.

“But he was definitely at the hotel! It can’t be a coincidence, can it?” Ninomiya said unhappily.

Munakata gave Ninomiya a strange look at that moment...

As a veteran inspector, Zong Fang had a vague feeling that this guy seemed a bit strange.

“It’s certainly not a coincidence, but… his current performance at the police station is most likely due to guidance from a master.” Shiraishi said in a deep voice.

When the narcissistic "Cupid's poisoned arrow" was shot, Shiraishi had basically pieced together all the evidence in his mind, although some were still missing, but...

The most urgent task is no longer to fill in the gaps, but to deal with Ken Sakaki, this hot potato!
……

At the police station entrance, Gen had already politely seen Ken Sakaki and his two henchmen off.

"Officer, can we really leave now? Didn't they say we're suspected of murder? Shouldn't we be interrogated a little longer?" Sakaki asked provocatively, with a hint of regret.

“No, it’s just because you acted suspiciously near the victim’s family last night and evaded normal questioning, so we’re asking you to cooperate with the investigation,” Yuan said with a smile.

Although he didn't know why, since the chief had already determined that this guy was not the murderer, but a "bait" with ulterior motives, Yuan was naturally careful to distance himself from the Mikado Police Department.

However, Sakaki persisted, saying, "Normal questioning? That doesn't seem right... That female patrol officer was very fierce. She scared the three of us men so much that we ran away. She even pulled out a gun to scare us... And my brother here was also injured by your police station."

Indeed, one of the three still had a bandage on his arm—last night, when Muto received a message from Fuji and rushed over from the neighboring ward to intercept the three who were trying to escape, a fight broke out between them.

Although it was a one-against-three fight, Muto managed to hold them off until Fuji and Kawai caught up. Only then did Fuji pull out his gun to intimidate them and "arrest" them.

When Gen heard what Sakaki said, he immediately understood that this guy was indeed prepared to bite back!
“Of course it was just a routine questioning, but you turned around and ran away, which alerted my colleagues,” Yuan insisted.

"Alarm? If you're so easily alarmed, how can we law-abiding citizens feel at ease...tsk tsk..." Sakaki clearly had no intention of letting this matter go.

What infuriates Ken Sakaki now is that the Beika Police Department reacted so quickly—something must have been discovered somewhere. Otherwise, his original plan was to play dumb and stay here for 48 hours, hoping to get these cops to resort to some "extreme measures" so that he could go directly for a mental evaluation and accuse the Beika Police Department of coercing and inducing him to confess!
after all……

Ken Sakaki claimed he "didn't remember," but he actually had a very solid alibi!
If they simply "remember" it afterward, they can easily prove that the Beika Police Department conducted an improper search—this doesn't seem like the approach of the militant faction...

Unfortunately, Ken Sakaki didn't know where he had slipped up, and he even suspected that the flaw wasn't in himself.

"I won't let this go so easily!" Ken Sakaki said bitterly.

Even if it's just for one night, but...

Fortunately, one of his underlings was also injured, so he could still make a fuss about it.

Although he did run away first, Sakaki Ken is still confident that he can cause some trouble given the current situation!
Yuan knew that saying more at this point would only lead to more mistakes, so he simply emphasized the legal provisions again and again, without saying anything more.

Seeing that he hadn't revealed any flaws, Sakaki left in a huff, while Gen hurriedly ran back to the Criminal Investigation Division to report the matter to the division chief.

"Yes, the General Affairs Department is already handling it. You just need to focus on your own work." Zong Fang wasn't in a hurry, because the director had already made arrangements—publicity, handling complaints, and the like also fell under the General Affairs Department's purview.

Of course, both Shiraishi and Munakata understood that the other party's involvement at this point was definitely not to file a complaint against a particular police officer with the police station...

"Section Chief, about Officer Kou's case after that..." Yuan realized that he had to work even faster and seize the time to solve the case so that he would be more confident in facing that guy's counterattack.

Otherwise, if the case is indeed closed as a "suicide," even if the Mikasa Police Department's procedures were theoretically sound and it wasn't an "improper search," it would at least be considered an "improper search."

"This case... you can put it aside for now. There are other rapist cases in the department," Zongfang said matter-of-factly.

The director had already made the arrangements, and Zongfang didn't feel there was anything to add.

……

Sure enough, in the afternoon, Shiraishi was on the phone non-stop.

Originally, Shiraishi's rash intervention in the "inspector's suicide case" hadn't elicited any reaction from the headquarters. Odagiri probably thought that giving Shiraishi a day or two more might uncover something—of course, if the result was just "forced suicide," then Odagiri would have to give him a good scolding...

However, Odagiri's department and Hakuba, who knew Shiraishi better, still felt that Shiraishi wouldn't have investigated so superficially; he had probably discovered a deeper problem!
Of course, for Odagiri, it wouldn't matter if he guessed wrong...

After all, he and Minister Tanaka didn't have a good relationship to begin with!
However, now that the Sakaki Group has hired lawyers and reporters to publicize the violent search by the Beika Police Station and the unfair treatment they have suffered, the headquarters can no longer sit still.

"Don't worry, he was arrested last night and rested at the police station. He was interrogated for less than an hour this morning... Just a moment." Shiraishi glanced at the message on his phone.

Shiraishi then said with even greater confidence, "Minister, there's new progress in Minato's case... Someone just came to the Beika Police Station to turn himself in."

The time is just right!
Because of the effect of Cupid's poisoned arrow, Shiraishi was awakened by the arrow, and Shiraishi immediately ordered Narcissistic to investigate Minato Yuriko.

After most of the day, Yuriko's psychological defenses were finally broken down, and she was on her way to turn herself in at the Mihoko Police Station!

"Confess?" Odagiri's tone became strange at this moment.

Judging from this, the case is not only not a "suicide pact," but also... not a forced suicide pact?

For the Metropolitan Police Department, this is good news. It's much better for an inspector to be murdered than for him to kill his mistress and then commit suicide, or to die with his mistress...

(End of this chapter)