Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 441 The Aftermath of the Anomaly

The serial murder case "SL-9" from three years ago came to Shiraishi's attention because of Tetsuro Minato's death.

Previously, in the case of Tetsuro Minato, Shiraishi felt that Kaiji Yan was a bit "impatient" - even if "ending the case of the inspector's double suicide as soon as possible" was a task given to him by the Metropolitan Police Department, he shouldn't be in such a hurry!
Even when Shiraishi wanted to have a tacit understanding with him, a move that would be beneficial and harmless, he resolutely refused, preferring to fall out with Shiraishi rather than let him get away with it.

But now Shiraishi discovers that the "SL-09" case is also related to Yan Tu Haici...

"Who were the police officers who investigated the case back then?" Shiraishi asked again.

Three years have passed, and now Shiraishi wants to conduct a new investigation, but he has almost no way to start.

especially……

This case happened in Beika Town!

Reopening the search prematurely would only alert the enemy.

However, there is a faster way to understand the details of the case from back then: to find the police officers who handled the case at the time.

"Let me see... I've got it. The person in charge of the case at the time was Manager Fukada," Iwata said after reviewing the documents.

"Fukada?" Shiraishi frowned upon hearing this, then walked over to the computer and started looking at it himself.

"Hey, hey, hey...can't you have a little sense of confidentiality?" Iwata complained, but still kicked his legs and rolled his swivel chair to make room for Shiraishi.

Shiraishi still remembered this Fukada manager—he wasn't a particularly capable manager, and he's now retired to a secondary role.

"This case back then was Yan Tu's achievement, right?" Shiraishi asked Iwata to confirm—this wasn't something written in the documents, but rather Iwata's own memory.

"Yeah, that's right."

Seeing Iwata nod, Shiraishi understood that this supervisory officer had likely been sidelined by Yan Tu, who was then the local police chief...

Some impolite police chiefs do this.

Since he knew that Fukada's role was not significant, Shiraishi ignored him and looked at the frontline detectives below.

Among the investigators, Shiraishi focused on three people: Hibiki Ichigaya, the head of the sixth division of the First Investigation Division; Michio Tadashiki, the head of the Beido-cho Criminal Investigation Division; and Kyosuke Tsumimon, a detective involved in the case investigation.

The first two, needless to say, are the "heads" of the head office detective and the local police station detective, respectively, and they definitely have the most information. As for "Kyousuke Tsukimon," although he is just an ordinary detective in the First Investigation Division, he is also the older brother of the sacrificed prosecutor Naoto Tsukimon!
"Department head of the sixth department... check the personnel files of these three people," Shiraishi said with some helplessness.

As he spoke, Shiraishi began to operate the device himself.

Although no investigation has been conducted yet, Shiraishi already knows that the odds are against him – at least Ichigaya Hibiki and Tada Shikimichio should both have been downgraded.

Shiraishi was all too familiar with the position of "Chief of the Sixth Division of the First Investigation Division for Violent Crimes"!

After all, both of Shiraishi's two heads of the Criminal Investigation Division, namely "Shirai Takeshi" and "Kunikida Seiji," were once the heads of the Sixth Division...

Seiji Kunikida, after the serial poisoning case seven years ago, believed that he had contributed to the wrongful conviction and voluntarily left the First Investigation Division, where he has been stationed for many years in the Public Relations Division; Takeshi Shirai, on the other hand, was transferred to a local police station more than a year ago due to "poor performance".

As for "Chief of the Criminal Investigation Division of Beika Town", Shiraishi was not familiar with him, but he knew that it was not "Tadashiki Michio", and no important police officer in Beika Police Station was called by that name!
"Why don't you log into your own account!" Iwata rolled his eyes and retorted.

However, Iwata didn't say much—after all, it was just checking publicly available information, which wasn't a violation of the rules, and it wouldn't matter if it was discovered later.

“As expected…” Shiraishi glanced at Ichigaya Hibiki.

As expected, they couldn't break the "curse of six"!
Hibiki Ichigaya was the "Head of the Sixth Department" between seven and three years ago, specifically between Kunikida and Shirai...

Not long after the case of Aokage Takeru, Ichigaya Hibiki resigned on his own initiative. Before resigning, he was briefly transferred to a sinecure position. Obviously, this "self-resignation" was not a "voluntary" act.

Tadashiki Michio's personnel file remains in Beika Town, but he is no longer the head of the Criminal Investigation Division. He even received a major demerit after the case, changed departments three times in three years, and his personnel file is basically empty except for "job transfer," clearly indicating that he has been abandoned...

As for Kyosuke Jumon, although he had no further room for demotion, he has now been transferred to the General Affairs Section of the General Affairs Department, where he is specifically responsible for overseeing the evidence storage office.

"Huh? The case was finally solved, right?" Shiraishi grinned as he watched—basically all the key investigators either left the job, were demoted, or were sidelined afterward.

"The case was solved, but there was a lot of controversy surrounding it back then. Some people believed that the police had improperly collected evidence, and some even thought that the police had fabricated evidence..." Iwata recalled.

Three years ago, Shiraishi didn't have time to pay much attention to cases that weren't related to him, so he didn't know the details. However, Iwata was working at the Metropolitan Police Department at the time, so he would naturally have some impression of it.

"In short, Superintendent Yan's promotion is already a case of turning a tragedy into a celebration. The other officers who were directly involved in the investigation were basically all investigated internally afterwards," Iwata explained.

Shiraishi nodded upon hearing this...

Since Iwata was not a witness to the case, he simply made a normal judgment: the job transfers of these people were probably authorized by the higher-ups in the Metropolitan Police Department.

However, in Bai Shi’s view, because he was suspicious of Yan Tu Haici, he believed from the beginning that the “suppression” was likely not coming from a higher level, but from Yan Tu Haici himself!
"You're not really going to investigate Yan Tu Haici, are you? That old guy is no simpleton," Iwata warned.

"How much do you know about him?" Shiraishi clearly had no intention of giving up.

and……

Although Yan Tu Haici is Shiraishi's superior, Iwata actually knows more about him—after all, Shiraishi has no interest in him and has never specifically looked into him.

As for Yan Tu Haici, who is an "ambitious division chief", Iwata would also know something about him for the sake of gossip.

Seeing that Shiraishi did not deny it and instead asked him about Yan Tu, Iwata rolled his eyes.

However, I will still answer... In Iwata's memory, Yan Tu Haici was also a rare pragmatist among the high-ranking police officers. Although he was a professional, he also had rich experience in handling cases and was a very tough person. He had even served as the head of the First Investigation Division.

we can even say……

“I feel that Chief Inspector Yan Tu’s experience up until he became the local police chief is somewhat similar to yours. It’s just that he wasn’t as brave as you and had dealt with so many big shots. And you don’t have Chief Inspector Yan Tu’s long-term planning and ambition…” Iwata originally wanted to provoke Shiraishi.

However, Shiraishi remained unmoved by Iwata's sarcasm, and Iwata, having gotten a nod, continued talking.

The so-called "long-term planning and ambition" naturally refers to the fact that even in his position as "local director," Yan Tu did not forget to "scalp his own interests." He has greater ambitions for his future and his own ideas that he wants to realize!
And he really did go a step further...

Positions like the head of a local police station are rarely directly promoted from the position of a local police chief. Except for a few individuals who are promoted for a short-term "gilding" period, most people who hold this position will remain there for life, especially the chief of a "large-scale police station"—a superintendent rank. It wouldn't be unreasonable for a career officer to retire at this position.

However, Yan Tu eventually broke through the shackles of promotion. After serving as director for many years, he was promoted to "Chief of Police Department" and his police rank was also raised to "Superintendent".

"And now, Superintendent Yan is still trying to be transferred to the National Police Agency. If he succeeds, perhaps in the next few terms, a Superintendent General with real front-line experience will emerge..."

"Of course, this is just the best-case scenario. In reality, there is still a lot of resistance because Superintendent Yan's style is too hard-line. In fact, many people in the Metropolitan Police Department look down on him. This is why he is trying every means to transfer to the National Police Agency."

Iwata really knows Yan Tu Haici very well.

“Oh, right… there’s one more thing we need to be careful about. Superintendent Yan Tu has a staunch ally in the prosecution, namely Bao Yue Ba from the Tokyo District Prosecutors Office… who should be the chief prosecutor now,” Iwata reminded him.

"A prosecutor's ally?" Shiraishi found it strange—such a combination was quite unusual.

"Isn't there some kind of observer system... where prosecutors are sent down from the prosecutor's office to the Metropolitan Police Department to handle frontline police affairs?" Iwata added.

"Observers? Are they really useful?" Shiraishi asked with an even stranger expression.

The initial intention of this system was indeed good: to send prosecutors who were about to be promoted to understand how the police operate. Those who could come were generally newcomers who had already shown potential and were about to be promoted, laying the foundation for future police-prosecution cooperation.

However, in practice, it was a completely different story...

The prosecutors who came after them would put on airs, and the police generally found these "observers" to be a burden. They were extremely inconvenient, so they eventually tacitly agreed to place the observers in non-frontline departments and isolate them!

“Generally speaking, it’s useless, but there are always exceptions. Prosecutor Hozuki was assigned to the Beika Police Station by the Metropolitan Police Department as an observer.” Iwata said, then suddenly remembered something and said, “Right… let me see… yes, that’s right, it was during the period when SL-9 happened that Hozuki Tomoe was an observer at the Beika Police Station.”

Upon hearing that it was related to SL-9 again, Shiraishi frowned—unfortunately, Tetsuro Minato's notebook had been burned, and he didn't know what amiss he had discovered in this case.

but……

Shiraishi wasn't in a hurry to solve this old case.

Just like Kunikida's unresolved case, if you keep it in your heart, you'll eventually have a chance to solve it!
Not to mention, Shiraishi is not entirely without options right now.

Although it seems premature to directly open a case and reinvestigate, even if it's just an internal investigation within the department, Shiraishi has already come up with some pretexts...

On the way back to the police station, Shiraishi first called Kunikida.

"Hey, Inspector Kunikida... It's me. I haven't congratulated you yet." Shiraishi offered his congratulations first—Kunikida had passed the promotion exam and was now a formal "inspector."

Kunikida naturally offered a few words of modesty, and Shiraishi then asked, "Inspector Kunikida, actually I have some personal matters to discuss with you... um, I have personal matters to discuss with you, your chief won't be angry, will he?"

Kunikida:……

"Chief Shiraishi is joking. He has always admired you very much." Kunikida knew that Shiraishi was joking.

After all, Director Shiraishi has never shown any concern for him!
After lightening the mood, Shiraishi asked seriously, "Inspector Kunikida, when you left the 16th Division, the next division chief was an internal officer you recommended, right? What is Ms. Ichigaya doing now?"

That's right, this is one of Shiraishi's "clutches".

Although the personnel transfer record for Ichigaya only states that she was a detective in the Sixth Division before becoming the head of the Sixth Division, without mentioning anything else, Shiraishi speculates that she was most likely recommended by Kunikida. Even if he is wrong, she is undoubtedly one of Kunikida's old subordinates.

Ichigaya is the head of the "Cursed Sixth Department" and the head of the department after Kunikida. Back then, Kunikida was persuaded to stay by Director Hakuba, who was then the head of the Criminal Investigation Department, when he resigned. Hakuba helped him smooth things over and that's how he got transferred to the Public Relations Department. Therefore, Shiraishi guessed that Director Hakuba would definitely ask him to recommend a successor.

“That’s right, Ichigaya… well, after she left the police force, she did some ordinary work.” Kunikida knew exactly where Ichigaya was and what she was doing, and his tone became serious.

Ichigaya was Kunikida's old subordinate, and he knew that Ichigaya would not leave without a reason. Now that Chief Shiraishi had asked about this matter, it would naturally make him think more about it!

Shiraishi understood Kunikida's words—"ordinary livelihood" sounded vague, but it actually had two meanings: first, she wasn't engaged in any industry related to police work; second, she wasn't married and was still working…

As for what she does specifically, there's no need to go into more detail. It's mostly casual or informal work, and these kinds of jobs change frequently. Kunikida wasn't sure what she was doing at that moment.

“Ichigaya is an excellent detective. It’s such a waste for her to do such an ordinary job… I can recommend her to the Capital Security Company. I’m very familiar with their president.” Shiraishi brought up his “acquaintance.”

The situation is unclear, and Shiraishi cannot immediately say that he wants to investigate SL-9 and Yan Tu Haici; he can only probe first.

Kunikida understood what Chief Shiraishi meant, but at this point he could only say that he would convey Shiraishi's goodwill, since he only had a minor connection with Ichigaya and he was not currently Shiraishi's subordinate.

After returning to the police station, Shiraishi called Amagi over again.

"Detective Tian Shu, do you know the Sin Gate Patrol Officer?" Bai Shi asked directly.

"The Gate of Sin? Hmm... the Gate of Sin in the Evidence Storage Room?" Amagi was taken aback when he heard this, but he quickly realized what he meant.

That's right, Amagi's previous position was also in the General Affairs Department's General Affairs Section. The two were "close colleagues," and one worked in the "Lost and Found" office while the other worked in the "Evidence Storage" office. These were obviously very easy positions, so it's perfectly normal for them to know each other...

(End of this chapter)