Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 447 Digging three feet into the ground
"It's right not to alert them... What about the others?" Shiraishi decided to start with the others.

The others sound like just Junji's cronies; it would be much easier to start with them than to directly target Junji.

Moreover, in cases involving multiple perpetrators, there is always a ringleader, an accomplice, or someone who reports the crime and is credited!
They usually beat others for fun, and because no serious consequences have occurred, the Shikishima councilor can protect them. But now, apart from loss of life, as long as they know that the Shikishima councilor can't protect them, no matter what councilor he is, a little scare will surely cause someone to confess the mastermind.

Kuroki then stood up and said, "He usually works with four other people, all of whom are idle. Two of them are from Tokyo and are currently living at the Shikishima residence. The other two are from Gunma and Nagano, and they both went back to their hometowns last night."

The detectives at the Beika Police Station naturally shared this idea: since they had someone protecting them on Shikishima, they should investigate others first!
Clearly, after the murder, Representative Shikishima knew the problem was serious. More importantly, although he was able to control the Kamuro Police Station and even get the headquarters to give up the investigation and hand it over to the local police station, the Beika Police Station interfered!
Out of fear of the Beika Bureau... or rather, of Shiraishi, Shikishima Jundai not only confined his son to the house, but also made arrangements for his son's cronies to lay low.

In Shikishima's view, the Beika Police Station was, after all, just a local police station and didn't have much ability to conduct cross-regional searches.

After all, even the Metropolitan Police Department needs to issue a document to get the Kanagawa Prefectural Police Headquarters and Nagano Prefectural Police Headquarters to cooperate.

“Gunma… Nagano… um, then you guys prepare for a business trip. Allocate yourselves, I'll find you local detectives to work with.” Shiraishi said directly, then added, “Business trip, but no allowance.”

If it's a "legitimate business trip," then of course I need to coordinate with the local county police headquarters, but...

It's impossible to do it properly; Bai Shi can't possibly get the paperwork approved. You can imagine it will definitely be blocked!

Therefore, Shiraishi did not intend to actually have them connect with the county police headquarters, but instead used his own connections to find acquaintances in the area.

For example, in the "Fire Ritual Murder Case," Shiraishi helped him a lot, and he was already trying to find connections to transfer back to Tokyo; another example is a certain cripple who lost his gun in Tokyo, and luckily Shiraishi was there to prevent him from causing any trouble...

“I’ll stay… They’re involved in more than just this one violent case. I’m going to have a good talk with those foreigners.” Yuan volunteered not to go on a business trip, but to stay and thoroughly investigate the criminal evidence of this gang.

Some overseas workers are too afraid to report to the police because of their immigration status. Even those with visas often distrust the police because past reports have been ignored and no further action has been taken.

For example, the sister of the deceased Mani didn't really trust the police officers. It was only after the owner of Fu Man told her that "Chief Mi Hua" was different from other police officers that she opened up.

In this situation, getting these people and police officers to tell the truth does require certain communication skills, and that's precisely Yuan's strength...

So it was finally decided that Narcissistic and Amagi would go to Gunma, Kuroki and Kanzaki would go to Nagano, and Gen would stay behind to continue the investigation.

After the meeting, Shiraishi, of course, couldn't sit idle and immediately contacted Chaji and Yamato...

Although both of them held the rank of inspector, which was much lower than Shiraishi's, in this situation, there was no need for them to "obey orders," and their "voluntary assistance" was purely driven by personal relationships.

Needless to say, he was also hoping that Shiraishi could put in a good word for him with Minister Odagiri—he had no desire to stay in Gunma and dreamed of returning to Tokyo.

As for Yamato...

Because of a previous favor owed to him, and because it involved "searching for suspects," he did not refuse.

However, finding someone to help is only the first step. Whether they can find these two people and how to arrest them after finding them are still questions. After all, they are not actually wanted yet. Only detectives from the Mihana Police Station who are on a mission there and local detectives who are helping can search for them in their personal capacity!
If it were delayed for two or three days, Shiraishi estimated that his pressure would increase dramatically.

After all, this case is theoretically not within the jurisdiction of the Mikasa Police Department to investigate...

……

Shiraishi initially thought the pressure wouldn't come for another two days, and the most important thing was whether the case could make quick progress, but the opposite turned out to be true...

That very night, while Shiraishi was asleep, his phone suddenly rang. When he saw that the caller ID showed it was Yamada, Shiraishi frowned deeply.

If it were the Criminal Investigation Division office or Munakata, Shiraishi wouldn't find it too strange; at most, they would have something important to discuss with him. But Yamada... for him to disregard everything and call him in the middle of the night, something serious must have happened!
"Hey……"

"Chief! Gen... Gen is in danger! He should have gone fishing..." Yamada said breathlessly.

This really cheered up Shiraishi!
"What? What happened... Never mind, get the nearby patrol officers over there right away!" Shiraishi said, jumping out of bed, grabbing his coat, and heading out the door.

Although Yamada's words were unclear, Shiraishi still roughly understood what he meant.

Yuan is likely going on a risky "fishing" trip, deliberately luring the other party out, and... he's all alone!

Yamada didn't specify an address, but Shiraishi implicitly agreed that it was probably at the crime scene.

……

Meanwhile, Yuan, who was examining the crime scene, was suddenly illuminated by a beam of light. He turned around and saw three men wearing motorcycle helmets and riding bicycles.

Yuan wasn't surprised at this point—he had previously ridiculed several accounts that appeared after the boxes were opened on the forum…

To escalate the impact, they even registered a secondary account to pretend to speak for the "murderer," and then had the secondary account pretend to be persuaded by their main account to join in criticizing the extreme behavior.

It's practically impossible for someone to be persuaded online like this, but because it happened, it broke down the defenses of Junji Shikishima, who was bored at home and had nothing to do but surf the internet...

Then Yuan mentioned that there were detectives from the Mihana Police Station investigating the scene and that they would definitely catch the shameless criminal. He was indeed waiting there all by himself—if there were two of them, the other party might not dare to come out!

"Who are you? This is a crime scene. The case hasn't been solved yet. You're not allowed to come near," Yuan said, squinting as he faced the car headlights.

"You scoundrel! You nosy cop!" the leader shouted arrogantly.

He didn't use a voice changer because he wasn't afraid of arousing police suspicion at all...

After saying that, the three of them swung their batons and charged toward Yuan on his bicycle, just like hunters on horseback hunting!
……

When Fuji and Kawai arrived in their patrol car, the three had already entered the circling kick phase. The siren startled them slightly, but they didn't stop immediately...

"Who goes there? Stop!" Teng shouted through a megaphone and drove over.

what--

Just then, one of the three cried out in pain, and then all three got on their bikes and rode away. One of them could be seen limping...

When Teng got closer, he first checked Yuan's injuries—his face was covered in blood, he had been beaten badly, and without a careful examination, it was hard to tell if he was in any danger.

"Yuan, Yuan!" Fuji shouted his name. Yuan struggled to raise his hand, unable to speak, but handed Fuji a blood-stained pen…

……

On his way to the scene, Shiraishi received a message from Fuji that Yuan had been taken to the hospital.

So Shiraishi went straight to the police hospital...

When Shiraishi arrived, he saw Yamada waiting in the corridor.

"Director..." Yamada stood up immediately upon seeing Shiraishi. Although he looked very tired, he tried his best not to show it.

"How is it?" Shiraishi asked directly.

"It's alright, there's no danger to his life...just superficial injuries...and a slight concussion. Those thugs didn't dare to use their knives," Yamada quickly said.

The other party's purpose was clearly just to "deter," just like they had done before—while it wasn't certain no one would die, it would most likely just result in a severe beating...

Upon learning that Yuan was alright, Shiraishi said irritably, "What happened? What is that Yuan guy up to!"

Yamada stammered as he recounted what had happened.

The original plan was to tell him that they should each go back to their dorms to rest, but when Yamada couldn't sleep in his dorm, he glanced at the forum and found that Shikishima Junji's account was arguing with someone.

At first, he was just watching the excitement, but later he realized something was wrong, especially when someone revealed that police officers were inspecting the scene!
Yamada tried to contact Gen, but the phone went unanswered. He went to Gen's room in the dormitory and knocked on the door, but no one answered. That's when he realized something was wrong.

"It's all my fault. If I had discovered the source's plan sooner..." Yamada said remorsefully.

"Alright, it's his own fault!" Shiraishi said irritably.

Of course, Shiraishi understood this as well.

Yuan's impulsiveness was likely influenced by "absolute empathy"—he had been communicating with the families of the victims who had been beaten before, as well as the family of the victim who was killed this time. Coupled with "absolute empathy," he became deeply moved and sympathetic, which made impulsive actions more likely...

After cursing Yuan, Baishi paused for a moment, then asked, "Have you caught him?" It seemed unlikely, otherwise there would have been news.

“No, but Yuan used his pen to stab one of the three in the leg, and Fuji has already followed the trail of blood,” Yamada said.

Just then, Shiraishi's phone rang again. He glanced at the caller ID and saw that it was Deputy Director Murasakibara's number.

"Hello, this is Shiraishi."

"Chief, just now, when Inspector Fuji was tracking the suspect to the door of Representative Shikishima's house, he had a misunderstanding with the representative's security personnel. What do you think..." Murasakibara cautiously asked Shiraishi for instructions.

Tonight is also very exciting for Murasakihara, who is on duty—especially now that the "Muto resignation incident has just occurred"!
"Did Fujii forcibly enter the private domain to conduct a search?" Shiraishi asked in return.

“No, no, Inspector Fuji was just searching the area for bloodstains,” Murasakibara quickly replied.

Shiraishi understood...

There probably wasn't that much blood.

Fuji barely managed to follow them to the vicinity of the Shikishima family. Since he already knew something about the case, he directly inspected the area around them, which resulted in the Shikishima family chasing him away and filing complaints.

"Since when do we need a search warrant to conduct searches on public roads?" Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"You mean... ignore the protests from the Shikishima councilor and let Fuji continue the search?" Murasakibara confirmed.

"No," Shiraishi denied. Just as Murasakibara was wondering, Shiraishi added, "Get all the patrol officers you can spare, call back those who can work overtime, especially the forensic team... Even if we have to dig the Shikishima family into an island tonight, I want to see blood!" Shiraishi gave the order directly.

"Yes!" Murasakibara replied without further hesitation.

……

Representative Shikishima watched with a cold expression as his son, who was wearing a mask of pain and disinfecting his wound, along with his two other cronies…

"Are you crazy? Didn't I tell you not to go out? Don't you know the Beika Police Station is looking for evidence against you? And you still dare to attack police officers..." Shikishima Jun said angrily.

"So what?" Junji Shikishima retorted loudly.

Junji Shikishima, still sporting long hair and the air of a delinquent youth, retorted defiantly, "What did I do wrong? I was clearly doing something to clean up the mess for society, and that damn cop actually tried to arrest me... He even went online to insult me ​​and mislead the public!"

“You…” Shikishima Jundai was now in a real bind—at this point, he couldn’t explain to his son, whose brain wasn’t working properly, that political slogans and real political goals had to be considered separately…

He did succeed in "deceiving gullible people," but... his son was also genuinely gullible.

At the same time, because Shikishima initially only wanted to use his son's act of bravery for publicity and did not correct his thinking from the beginning, he missed that crucial moment. As a result, his son had already become a firm believer in his political slogans and could no longer be explained away...

At this moment, Shikishima heard that it was still not quiet outside, and he looked out the French windows with some impatience—of course, you can't see directly outside the gate from here.

Seeing her son injured, and noticing that police officers had quickly arrived and appeared to be searching, Shikishima sensed something was wrong and immediately ordered them to leave. Fortunately, it seemed that only two female patrol officers had arrived...

But now, the arguments outside have not only not subsided, but have gradually increased!
Just then, his security captain rushed back – there are no security posts for members of Congress, and although there are former police officers among these security personnel, they are no longer on the police payroll.

"Associate of Councillor Shikishima... the Beika Police Station is increasing its manpower, and... they're being very forceful. It looks like they're going to conduct a large-scale search outside!" the security captain reported helplessly.

Even when only Fuji and Kawai were present, they maintained a standoff with the Shikishima family's security personnel. Even if they were unable to continue their inspection outside for a while, they resolutely stayed in place, not giving the other party the opportunity to damage the surrounding environment.

Not long after, the "complaint call" not only went unanswered, but more and more police cars arrived and surrounded the Shikishima residence...

"Damn it! What is Yan Tu doing... and that Shiraishi Kuro... he actually dared to..." Shikijima was also furious and quickly made another phone call.

(End of this chapter)