Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 479 This is actually scientific?
June 1st, Thursday.

Before nightfall, the Mihua Police Station recovered a body from Hulu Lake that had been shot in the forehead.

UDI was asked to work overtime to conduct the autopsy...

Although the body was highly decomposed after being submerged in the lake water, the autopsy sample comparison confirmed the identity of the deceased as Naohiko Merry, who had been missing for nearly a week!

As a result, the Mihana Police Department successfully convened a search meeting at 8 p.m.

It was also rare to see Section Chief Munakata present at this meeting—because Kotomi was one of the discoverers of the "mask" yesterday, and is now at the police station.

Yuan then presided over a review of the case...

"The victim, Naohiko Meri, male, 24 years old, died from a gunshot wound to the head. A 9mm standard bullet was lodged in his skull. Due to the long immersion time, a detailed ballistic comparison could not be performed. However, judging from the power, if it was a close-range shot, the bullet was not fired from a professional firearm."

A direct hit to the forehead, if we disregard the "sharpshooter," would undoubtedly be considered "close-range shooting."

However, judging from the fact that the bullet remained inside the skull, the airtightness of this gun is probably not very good, and it is likely a 3D-printed temporary gun.

"The victim recently lost his job and now lives with his mother. According to the victim's mother, Mrs. Merri, she has not seen her son since last Saturday, May 27. Because it was the weekend, she thought he had just gone to a friend's house on the first night, so she did not pay attention."

"But they didn't show up, didn't go to work, and couldn't be contacted, so Mrs. Merri called the police on Monday afternoon. Based on the autopsy results, the victim's time of death was estimated to be... well, May 27, May 28, or May 29, which means it could have been any time between Saturday and Monday."

When Yuan mentioned the time of death, he seemed a little embarrassed—the range was just too broad!

After all, it had been soaking in the lake for several days, and was severely decomposed, so there was nothing that could be done about the unclear time of death.

"In addition... before confirming the identity of the deceased, we also conducted a preliminary social relationship investigation, which revealed that the deceased had a considerable conflict with LT Medical Company, where he previously worked. When he went out on Saturday, he went to the home of Kijima, the president of LT Medical Company."

“Today we did a quick interview around Kijima’s neighborhood. Their neighbors heard a young man dressed like Merri get into a big argument with Kijima in front of his house on Saturday afternoon. He was then invited inside. However, the next morning, the neighbors also saw Merri leave on his motorcycle,” Yuan said, revealing the findings of their interview.

Because time was limited, and not many clues were obtained.

The Kijima family is in the medical field, so they are naturally a wealthy and influential family. They live in a well-to-do neighborhood with many courtyards and don't have many "neighbors." The so-called neighbors are just the owners of the houses next door.

"Didn't you go to the Kijima family to ask?" Munakata confirmed.

"Kijima's secretary said that President Kijima went to the United States on Sunday and will be back tomorrow. A meeting has been scheduled, and the immigration department is verifying it," Yuan replied.

"Why did Merri leave? What conflict did she have with the president?" Munakata continued to ask.

Upon hearing this, Kuroki raised his hand and said, "I went to the company to ask... Although my colleagues were tight-lipped, they still indirectly revealed to us that it was related to medical corruption. Merri was a salesperson, but the doctor he was in charge of communicating with was exposed for accepting bribes, so the company naturally made him take the blame."

"What did the hospital say?" Zong Fang pressed, not letting any relevant party slip through the cracks during the investigation.

However, Kuroki then said, "I inquired at the prosecutor's office. Do you remember that doctor... Chief Prosecutor, Dr. Wakui?"

"Hmm? The one from Dongdi Hospital?" Shiraishi certainly remembered—the one who attacked his fiancée because he was afraid that his bribery would be exposed.

“That’s right. He was arrested for attempted murder, and then bribery was discovered during the interrogation… So, the East Emperor Hospital shouldn’t be involved in the case. I’ll check again tomorrow,” Kuroki said.

Obviously, the exposure of Wakui's bribery was a complete surprise to Merri, and Merri had no way of saying anything to the East Emperor Hospital.

Then, the narcissistic man stood up and said, "Tian Shu and I went to see the location where the body was dumped at Hulu Lake... It's a relatively secluded spot in the park, not many people go there usually. We asked the park manager, but he doesn't seem to be very bright... There were no traces around, so it doesn't look like the primary crime scene."

That's roughly the situation...

Currently, it appears to be just a "common murder and body disposal case." Although the late discovery of the body has caused some difficulties in the investigation, no particularly unusual or complicated cases have been found, and there are even directions for the investigation, but...

Shiraishi frowned as he looked at the three groups of detectives attending the meeting: Genji Yamada, Kuroki Kanzaki, and Narcissistic Amagi. They all seemed to have nothing to add.

“There’s something even more obviously wrong, isn’t there?” Shiraishi said, taking out a transparent evidence bag. Inside the bag was none other than the “aluminum plate mask”!
"Do you have any leads on this?" Shiraishi asked matter-of-factly.

This perfectly fitting and clearly detailed "aluminum plate mask" is the biggest point of suspicion!

After confirming that the object was indeed taken from the corpse's face, Shiraishi wondered if it might have been formed by some supernatural factor.

Therefore, Shiraishi personally examined the evidence after it was returned to the police station.

but……

Not only Shiraishi, but even Ayari Chihiro didn't sense anything "strange" about it.

If the Red Demon...man might be mistaken in this regard, then "spirit medium" is a truly professionally qualified candidate. Ayari would not fail to sense even the slightest aura related to the dead.

In other words, this is "evidence within a scientific framework"!
This makes the "aluminum plate mask" highly suspicious...

After all, if it is said to be a "supernatural product," then Baishi can have many explanations, but if it is said to be "scientific," then Baishi cannot explain it for a while.

After Shiraishi took this out, everyone fell silent...

"The most important thing in investigating a case is to find suspicious points. You're not going to tell me that you didn't notice such a big suspicious point, are you? Narcissist, you go first." Shiraishi called on him directly.

Narcissistic then stood up awkwardly and stammered, "Um... I was thinking... Chief... could this be... a way for the deceased to seek help?"

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi's face darkened, and he said, "As a police officer, are you trying to say that this is an astral projection?"

"Well... there might be some deeper reason..." the narcissist said helplessly.

Shiraishi waved for him to sit down, then looked at Gen, who said awkwardly, "First of all... well, I don't think this was done by the murderer. After all, it seems that the discovery of this mask only made the body found sooner. Otherwise, it's uncertain when we would have realized this was a murder..."

This is true. The island nation has its own unique circumstances. Even the Mikasa Police Department would not treat such a baseless "disappearance case" as a "murder case," since there is a culture of "running away from home" in the country.

Yamada then confidently added, "And it shouldn't have been done by the victim!"

Everyone turned to look at him upon hearing this—it's been a waste of ten seconds to hear your words!

Yamada lowered his head in embarrassment. "Ah! Right, there's something related that's a bit strange," Gen said, as if remembering something.

Seeing everyone looking over, Yuan said, "The children are using these mask prints to hand in their homework, aren't they? I specifically contacted the craft teacher who assigned the homework, but..."

Yuan's expression was somewhat conflicted as he spoke, and just as everyone was about to lose patience, he continued, "However, after I went to his house and met him, he said... he had taken a week of sick leave and hadn't been to school at all."

Everyone:? ? ?
"Could it be... that the teacher is actually a thought being?" the narcissistic person said, letting their imagination run wild.

"Sick leave? He took leave?" Shiraishi asked, frowning.

“Yes, he said he asked the principal for leave, but Principal Uematsu said he didn’t receive his call…” Gen nodded.

The story is getting increasingly terrifying...

However, Shiraishi was now almost certain—it really was Vermouth!

Shiraishi had previously suspected that the mysteriously missing teacher might be Vermouth in disguise, as plaster casts and such are indeed suitable for collecting fingerprints.

Vermouth was also in "despair" when, while she was pretending to be an art teacher, a student brought in a rubbing of a corpse mask as an assignment, which led to the police being called in...

"He's probably too old to get involved in this kind of thing, so he's pretending to be stupid," Zongfang suggested, offering the most plausible guess.

Indeed, older people tend to be more averse to these things, so explaining the teacher's behavior in this way isn't entirely unreasonable.

"Ignoring it" is indeed a common reaction for ordinary people when encountering such paranormal phenomena.

The same atmosphere exists in the eastern island nation, as if as long as you pretend not to see them, you won't be bothered by "them".

“I guessed the same thing, and... in the end, it was purely coincidental that some students would discover the mask after he assigned the homework.” Yuan said, looking at Section Chief Munakata.

Zongfang nodded and said, "Yes, I also asked Kotomi. No adult guided them to Hulu Lake Park. It was only because Beihua Park had not been repaired after the last explosion that they decided to go to Hulu Lake Park on a whim."

From this perspective, the craft teacher had nothing to do with the murder case, so Yuan didn't dwell on it much.

“There must be some reason, and maybe the key to solving the case lies in this.” Shiraishi said, looking at Kuroki.

Kanzaki then said, "Actually, I did an experiment myself today..." As he spoke, Kanzaki also took out a thin aluminum plate.

"This is about the same thickness as the aluminum plate found at the scene. I asked Detective Kuroki to help me press this hard against his face... and you all saw the result." Kanzaki said, showing it to everyone.

There were indeed dents on the aluminum plate, but not only were the details blurry and completely different from the exquisite quality of the evidence, but more importantly... the facial features were severely distorted!

At this point, after Kuroki lay down, Kanzaki pressed down on him with both hands, relying solely on his body weight to push him out.

This raises a problem...

Not only will aluminum plates deform, but faces will too!

It's conceivable that even if Kanzaki had used more force... even if the chief himself had pressed it, the result would only be a "clearer imprint, but with more distorted facial features."

This is completely different from the aluminum plate mask that the Junior Detective League saw. If it were this... they probably wouldn't have picked it up at all!
Kanzaki, being a proponent of "physical evidence," did indeed pay attention to this aluminum plate, but...

Not only was it impossible to figure out who made the aluminum mask and why, but even how it was made was a mystery – after actually trying it, he discovered that it was not something that could be made simply by being strong.

Kuroki looked at the "pain mask" that Kanzaki was holding, and his expression also turned painful, as if he was recalling what he had experienced during the previous experiment.

“Director, don’t you know the witch… and there’s a spiritual medium living in her house? Maybe…” Kuroki said softly.

"That's all a lie!" Shiraishi said righteously.

Well, mainly because Shiraishi has already consulted the medium he carries with him.

When criminal investigators are solving cases, it's best not to consider supernatural factors, otherwise they can easily be fooled by the murderer.

However, seeing that no one had any ideas, and indeed, it seemed that the "aluminum plate mask" was not related to the case except for leading them to discover the body, Shiraishi could only adjourn the meeting and let everyone continue their investigation.

"Regarding this... don't pretend you didn't see it, you can expand on your thoughts." Shiraishi gave a final reminder, holding up the aluminum plate mask as he spoke.

but……

Apart from Kanzaki, everyone else was somewhat reluctant to look up.

After the meeting, Shiraishi naturally went straight home. As the chief, there was nothing for him to personally search.

Shiraishi checked the time and drove to pick up Ai from the lab. Recently, because Shiraishi had copied some useful data, Ai had also become a workaholic.

She would have been reluctant to leave if Shiraishi hadn't already come to pick her up.

"Any important discoveries? Can you recreate APTX4869? You've been staying this late every day lately..." Shiraishi asked while driving.

"It's still early... I don't understand the principles behind some of the raw materials for APTX4869. I only have the information I understand." Ai said, shaking her head.

“Since that’s the case, seeing how tired you’ve been lately… think of something else to clear your head and relax!” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

After listening to Shiraishi's description, Ai was silent for a moment before saying, "I've been so tired lately, so... I still have to help you with the case?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Dongdong: In terms of plot, the protagonist copied some data, which corresponds to the MO that Ai Haibara obtained in the Pisco case in the original work. In the original work, Ai Haibara always told Conan that the MO also perished in the fire, but in reality, she should have kept it...

Therefore, this was left as a loose end to avoid the original work being unable to explain the disc when it was deciphered in the book. You don't need to worry about it normally.

(End of this chapter)