Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 495 Mother and Daughter
"Is that case of the deceased couple's resurrection still unsolved?" Ayako asked anxiously.

"The case hasn't been solved yet, but the idea of ​​resurrection is definitely nonsense. The current claim from the Tagikawa family is that she's the future cousin... Of course, that might not be true, but it seems she's definitely not from the future," Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

Not long ago, Gen and Yamada had "coincidentally" obtained the woman's fingerprints and compared them with those of Takigawa Mirai when she disappeared; they were completely different.

Because this wasn't a matter of following procedures, and the result was "not in compliance," it wasn't specifically mentioned.

However, the forensic team privately reported the results to Shiraishi...

In this way, Yamada and Kuroki's previous guesses were proven wrong—although they didn't know if the other person was Haruka, it was definitely not Mirai!
"That's good..." Ayako breathed a slight sigh of relief.

……

Meanwhile, Amagi, who was still working late into the night, found Kuroki and Kanzaki, who had previously discovered an important piece of evidence...

"This, although it wasn't at the scene, was carefully stored in a storage box belonging to Saijo. It was only discovered during today's inspection," Kuroki said, taking out an evidence bag containing a glove.

These gloves...

She's very young and has a childlike charm; she looks like a primary school student, and most likely a primary school girl!
“This is…” Tian Shu frowned when he saw the gloves.

It seems the future has already truly arrived...

"I was originally looking to see if I could find any unfamiliar fingerprints on things in other rooms, but I found this instead," Kanzaki said seriously.

The reason it wasn't discovered immediately is because the gloves weren't scattered around the scene, but were neatly stored in a locker in another room.

The items found at the crime scene were all sealed and sent back to the police station.

In order to find more clues, Kanzaki carefully examined the evidence after the meeting...

Even if the fingerprints are not found in the room where the murder occurred, they are not considered direct evidence. But that's how crime scene investigations are; often, you have to try anything, even if it seems hopeless.

This time I actually gained something...

No fingerprints were found, but the gloves are highly suspicious!
This doesn't seem like something a childless shut-in should have.

"Have you confirmed with the Tagikawa couple?" Amagi asked.

"I've sent the pictures to the source, but..." Kuroki's tone was somewhat helpless.

Just then, Genya returned. Hearing their conversation and seeing what Kuroki was holding, Genya said helplessly, "Madam Tagikawa just had a relapse and was taken to the hospital... Now is probably not a good time to get evidence from them."

"The illness has flared up?" Upon hearing this, Tian Shu seemed to realize something—it sounded like an illness he already knew about, rather than an "acute illness," but it just flared up very suddenly.

“Yes, we just learned that Mrs. Takikawa has colon cancer, and it’s already in stage three. I’m afraid…” Yuan shook his head as he spoke—I’m afraid she doesn’t have much time left!
In this situation, Mr. Tagikawa also directly drove away Genji and Yamada, and gave them a serious warning.

After all, they're not suspects... Unless there's real evidence pointing to the Takigawa family, it's hard to get them to continue cooperating based on just a few pictures from the scene.

Although Gen and Yamada already knew Haruka's true identity, it was not yet clear how it was related to the case.

"By the way, what about narcissism?" Kuroki asked at this moment, since only Amagi had come over.

“He is… well, taking a rather proactive approach to getting to know the suspect,” Tian Shu said, carefully choosing his words.

Because Chief Shiraishi had specifically asked about "Matsuo Satsuki" before, she is now considered one of the suspects!

Hearing Tian Shu's ambiguous statement, and considering his narcissistic behavior, everyone could guess what he was up to...

"What's going on with that Haruka? Have you found any clues?" Kuroki turned to look at Gen.

“Yes, we found her personal homepage before,” Yuan said matter-of-factly.

Yes, it sounds simple.

After all, young people nowadays basically share their lives online. Yuan felt that "Yaoxiang's" personality was not introverted at all, nor did it seem like she had been imprisoned for a long time. She was more like a delinquent girl. So he thought of searching for her online and actually found her.

"Actually, she's a hostess at a nightclub in Ginza. Her real name is Ayana Omoto, and she is indeed around the same age as Mirai. As for why she's impersonating Mirai... or rather, Haruka, we don't know yet. Mrs. Takigawa is already in the hospital, and Mr. Takigawa is unwilling to cooperate," Gen said helplessly.

"Booth girls? Which bar?" Kuroki inquired specifically.

“Hey…” Kanzaki glanced at him speechlessly.

"I was just asking," Kuroki said sheepishly.

He usually goes to shops in Kamurocho; the prices in Ginza are too high, and the service isn't as good...

“However, with this, many things are about to be revealed,” Tian Shu said, looking at the “glove.”

……

Just as Amagi said, narcissism made progress that very night.

Tonight, in a fit of narcissism, I stubbornly insisted on going to Matsuo Satsuki's house.

Of course, this isn't what you'd call progress. The real progress is that the narcissist, half-officially and half-personally, pestered Matsuo, looked at old photos, and the result...

"Matsuo-sensei, actually... you're the one who killed Saijo, aren't you?"

After Narcissistic and Amagi connected via radio, they confronted Matsuo live.

"Huh? Mr. Kogure, what are you talking about... I haven't seen him for over ten years, and why would I kill my former student?" Matsuo looked bewildered.

However, the narcissist wasn't buying it and continued, "That's because...it's related to the disappearance of Mirai Tagikawa thirteen years ago."

“The future? There’s no piano lesson on that day in the future…” Matsuo immediately said.

Narcissistic interrupted, "That's right, there was no piano lesson that day, but... she came to the music store, right? I think it was to retrieve the gloves she left there the day before. My colleague already found the gloves at Saijo's house. I think... it must be because he can't forget what happened that day." "How could that be... you mean Saijo is related to the future's disappearance?" Matsuo countered.

“That’s right, and to be precise… it’s ‘you’ who are involved in the future disappearance,” the narcissist said seriously.

"You're getting more and more absurd. What does this have to do with me? I'm just their piano teacher!" Matsuo was getting impatient. "Why do you look like you're possessed after you changed into a suit?"

Well, before he started his deduction, Narcissistic had Tian Shu bring over his white suit. Now Tian Shu and the others are downstairs, listening to Narcissistic's deduction over the walkie-talkie.

However, the narcissist didn't explain the suit issue at this moment. Instead, he said to himself, "If she was just a piano teacher, of course there would be no problem. But... I think that when she came to the music store after school to retrieve her lost gloves, she must have seen some secret, which became the direct cause of her disappearance!"

“Secret? A music store isn’t a police station… what secrets could it possibly have…” Matsuo’s face was grim, and his tone stiffened.

"Speaking of which, that day was Saijo's one-on-one piano lesson. If we're talking about secrets, there are many possibilities, such as..." The narcissist walked to the photo wall with pictures of past students and pointed to Saijo's wrist, who was still a normal young man at the time.

"For example, this bracelet was a very popular handmade couple bracelet back then, right?" the narcissist said.

"Is there a problem? That child... it's not surprising that he was in love back then, is it? It can't be the future..." Songyue became nervous.

"Of course it's not the future... You can't tell from these photos, but I just saw it in your private album... More than ten years ago, you also had an identical bracelet in private, and it was a handmade bracelet. From the color of each string to the way it was hand-woven, everything was the same. I'm afraid it can't be explained by coincidence, right?" The narcissist revealed at this moment.

"What...do you mean?" Matsuo was already losing his confidence.

"I was just mentioning a possibility of 'seeing a secret in the future at that time.'" After saying this, the narcissist looked at Matsuo seriously and said, "Matsuo-sensei, I hope you can say it yourself."

"I..." Matsuo was clearly wavering, but he was still persisting.

Narcissistic then added, "Furthermore, a long hair was found on Saijo's body, which is completely different from the hair of his mother and grandmother. Could you do a comparison later, Matsuo-sensei?"

The narcissist didn't mention that hair cannot be used to extract biological information.

A mere comparison of appearances cannot serve as valid evidence, but upon hearing this, Matsuo couldn't help but sit down on the ground.

"I... I had no choice... I wasn't divorced at the time... and... I didn't want to... I just wanted to stop Mirai and ask her to keep it a secret... but..." Matsuo finally revealed what happened back then.

Actually, Takigawa Mirai didn't disappear on her way home from school; she went to a music store she wouldn't normally go to.

As it turned out, the future witnessed a scene that was far too exciting for elementary school students!
Upon being visually shocked, Mirai instinctively turned and ran, and Saijo immediately pulled up his pants and chased after him.

Then, during the chase, Mirai slipped on the stairs and fell straight down...

When Matsuo hurriedly dressed and came over, Mirai's heart had already stopped beating!
Saijo was only seventeen years old at the time, and when he saw this scene, he was completely flustered. However, Matsuo was determined to keep it a secret!
Matsuo hid the body and cleaned up the scene—though not very thoroughly, but... no one knew at the time that the future would come to the music store on this day, so it wasn't thoroughly searched.

At the same time, Matsuo also instructed Saijo to throw her schoolbag into a trash can on her way home from school—Saijou did not know Mirai, but Matsuo knew Mirai's address!

Because of the lack of crucial information, the police only briefly questioned Matsuo, a piano teacher "unrelated to the case," about his future social interactions. They also failed to notice that Saijo, a high school student "completely unrelated" to the case, underwent a drastic personality change and developed a serious mental illness afterward...

Although thirteen years have passed, Saijo remains trapped in this matter.

When he saw the news online and the composite "future wedding photo," he could no longer tolerate it and decided to turn himself in. He also contacted Matsuo, wanting her to be a witness.

but……

Even though Matsuo is now divorced, she doesn't want her past scandals to be exposed, otherwise her current life would be ruined.

“I also tried to persuade him… So many years have passed… It’s all over… But…” Matsuo wanted to persuade Saijo to give up turning himself in.

However, upon seeing the photo, Saijo understood that the matter was not over yet. The future parents were still struggling with the predicament of their daughter's disappearance. If he did not turn himself in and bring the case to a close, the matter would never truly end.

then……

Although Matsuo didn't say it, but...

Clearly, upon discovering that Saijo was determined to turn himself in, Matsuo chose to kill him!
……

Meanwhile, having confirmed that Matsuo was the real culprit, Gen and Yamada also approached Haruka separately... or more precisely, Ayana Omoto.

“Actually, you’re not Haruka or Mirai, are you?” Gen said directly.

"You're still talking about this... My aunt is very ill right now, with frizzy hair and sclera showing. If you bother my family again, believe me, I'll slap you!" Omoto threatened directly.

"Don't worry, we don't plan to say anything about Mrs. Takigawa, but we might have to trouble Mr. Takigawa to identify the body later," Yuan said dejectedly.

Matsuo has already stated the location where he disposed of the body, and the police will verify it later.

“Identifying a corpse… It seems the future is truly already…” Upon hearing this, Omoto was also momentarily dazed.

"So... can you tell us why you're at the Takigawa family, Ms. Omoto?" Gen had probably already guessed the answer, but he still wanted to know more.

"It was my uncle... um, that is, Uncle Takigawa. He saw me in Ginza once and has been bothering me ever since, calling me 'Mirai' or something. At first, I thought he was some weird old man, but later I found out that it was true."

“I look a lot like her daughter when we grow up… well, at least six or seven points alike, right? Although he later realized that I was not his daughter, he still hoped that I could pretend to be the future. You already know the reason: 'Mom' doesn’t have much time left.”

After pausing, Omoto said in a seemingly casual tone, "Of course, it's also because he paid a lot that I'm willing to take the time to play this 'pretend to be a daughter' game with him... I don't think I'm illegally profiting, am I?"

To avoid police intervention, Naoki Takigawa had already instructed Omoto to pretend to be seriously injured to prevent his wife from calling the police.

However, unexpectedly, Saijo, who had just learned about the situation of the Takitawa family, wanted to turn himself in...

“Of course not. I also thank you, Miss Omoto, for accompanying Mrs. Takigawa on her final journey.” Yuan had, of course, investigated Ayana Omoto beforehand and knew that she came from a family where both her parents had died and that she had come to Tokyo to make her way in the world before she was an adult.

"Actually, I think 'Mom' probably already knows I'm not her daughter, after all, we're mother and daughter..."

(End of this chapter)