Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 501 The Disappearing Murder Weapon

Upon hearing Kenichi Yoshioka's testimony, Hakuba and Hattori were speechless for a moment...

“I see, Mr. Yoshioka… Your testimony is actually very important,” Hakuba said helplessly.

"Yes, that was almost a fatal blow," Hattori remarked in agreement.

"Huh? There was a first discoverer of the case, who was no more than two minutes later than me, right?" Yoshioka was also taken aback when he heard this.

Yoshioka didn't want the police to discover that Taiyo was an unregistered resident, nor did he want to delay going to the hospital because his wife was still giving birth.

However, there was another very important reason why Yoshioka lied and said he didn't see the body: he felt it wouldn't have any impact, since the department store manager had only been a step slower than him...

“Yes, there was indeed a first person who discovered the incident, but… the police didn’t find the murder weapon,” Hattori said.

"What? Impossible... I clearly remember..." Yoshioka hurriedly tried to explain.

Seeing this, Bai Ma immediately comforted them, "We understand, don't worry, so... the problem lies in this 'contradiction'."

Yoshioka saw the murder weapon, but after Shirakawa saw the body, the weapon disappeared, so...

"It seems that 'black suit' should actually be 'that'," Bai Ma realized at this point.

……

Hakuba Kimimitsu then went directly to Beika Department Store.

Suzuki and Maki felt particularly guilty at this moment, after all, this was no longer Beika Town, but Beika Town's Chief Yantu, who was also the head of the local headquarters and, theoretically, Chief Shiraishi's superior!
Shiraishi can ignore Yantu, but Suzuki and Makitaka cannot...

However, to their slight relief, the Beihu Bureau did not seem to have discovered their actions.

Of course, it was actually discovered!
When Shiraishi visited Beika Department Store before, the patrol officers in the nearby area reported it, but Shiraishi never came back after that, and the Beika Police Station did not contact the Beika Police Station.

Upon seeing plainclothes police cars from the Beika Police Station arrive at the Beika Department Store again, the nearby patrol officers naturally reported it once more.

Yan Tu knew that Hakuba and Hattori were both present, so he did not intervene directly.

However, if nothing is found, Yan Tu will take the opportunity at tomorrow's director's meeting to give Bai Shi a hard time!
After Hakuba and Hattori arrived at the mall, they immediately and casually invited the Shirakawa father and son to "greet" them.

Furthermore, as soon as Shirakawa Haruyoshi arrived, Hattori said, "President Shirakawa, there is one more thing about the case that I need you to explain."

Hearing Hattori speak so directly, Shirakawa couldn't help but frown.

When Chief Mika brought this young man before, Shirakawa was already suspicious of his identity. Seeing his rudeness now, he also put on a stern face and said, "I have already told the police about the case from back then..."

"No, there's another problem. We've found another person who was the first to discover the body. They claim that when they found the body, there was a knife with a red handle stuck in the victim's chest. Didn't President Shirakawa see that at the time?" Hakuba interrupted directly.

Upon hearing this, Shirakawa's pupils contracted involuntarily.

"What first discoverer? Is there anyone who discovered it before me? Then you can go ask him... When I saw it, it looked exactly like that." Shirakawa remained defiant.

"Let's change the subject then. Has President Shirakawa seen this card before?" Hakuba said, showing him a picture of the Winged Dragon of Ra on his phone screen.

"No, it's probably something for little kids." Shirakawa just shook his head, seemingly genuinely unaware.

“Actually, there are two fingerprints on it, but because one of them is the fingerprint of a two-year-old child, and the other is different from everyone else present at the time, it has not been taken seriously by the police. But now…” Hattori pressed on.

"Do you suspect it's my fingerprints? My fingerprints were taken at the time. If you don't believe me, you can take them again," Shirakawa said matter-of-factly.

However, Hattori shook his head and said, "No, what we want to collect is not President Shirakawa's fingerprints, but... the fingerprints of your son, Shirakawa Kazuya!"

Hearing Hattori say this, Shirakawa Haruyoshi's face turned even uglier: "I don't know what you're talking about... and Tianhe wasn't here on the day of the case either!"

“No, as the manager of the underground parking garage at the time, it would have been far too easy for you to hide someone,” Bai Ma said calmly.

"Moreover, as the first person to discover the body, because you went directly to check the condition of the body, even if you were splattered with blood when you drew your knife, the police wouldn't suspect anything," Hattori explained.

“As for the murder weapon… as the manager of the underground parking lot, you would naturally know some places that others can’t find,” Hakuba continued.

"And the reason you did this... needless to say, you actually recognized that knife, right?" Hattori continued to press.

“I…” Shirakawa Haruyoshi’s face had turned ashen.

Just then, Shirakawa Kazuya pushed open the door and said directly, "It's alright... Father, let me go with them."

Clearly, this statement is tantamount to admitting to murder!
"Kazuya!" Shirakawa Haruyoshi snapped at him.

Just as Hakuba was about to speak, Hattori interrupted, shouting, "Enough! Act like a real father! He doesn't need protection; he needs a chance to atone!"

“I…” Shirakawa paused upon hearing this.

Hakuba then looked at Shirakawa Kazuya and asked, "So... what exactly happened back then?"

“Actually… that child who came with you last time, wasn’t that Taiyo?” Kazuya looked at Hattori at this moment.

"Yes." Hattori nodded.

“As expected…” Kazuya’s face showed a guilty expression at this moment.

Later, through Kazuya, Hakuba and Hattori also learned about what happened back then.

Although Shirakawa Haruyoshi's cover-up and the fingerprints on the card suggest that the murderer is Shirakawa Kazuya, ... if he doesn't reveal it himself, no one will know the motive!

To be precise, there wasn't really any motive...

“I was fifteen years old that year, a little younger than you are now. After school that day, when I came to find my father, I met Xiao Taiyang, who had gotten separated from my dad, and I played with him for a while.”

"At that time, he couldn't speak very well, he could only answer that his name was 'Sun,' so I showed him the card and told him that the card was also called 'Sun'..."

"After that, because his father never showed up, I took out a knife and showed it to him. Just then, Mr. Guan Tian, ​​who was probably there to fix the air conditioner, appeared. He was startled to see me pointing a knife at a child."

"He quickly took the sun away and said he would tell my parents... I don't know what came over me at the time, I only had one thought in my mind... that I absolutely couldn't let my dad know... and then, and then..." Shirakawa Haruyoshi quickly interrupted, "No! It's all my fault... it's because I'm usually too strict with him, that's why..."

He didn't finish speaking, but everyone could already guess what would happen next.

Hakuba and Hattori seemed unable to understand this, after all...

Fifteen years old?
Two years ago, we wouldn't have killed someone for this reason!

However, Suzuki and Maki already understood...

Many juvenile delinquents are like this!
They are immature, unable to distinguish the magnitude of the "cost," and prone to impulsiveness and making hasty decisions.

At that time, he probably thought that being told by his parents about playing with a knife was a huge deal, and he didn't have time to think about how serious "murder" would be!

In reality, this was a crime of passion, and they didn't even take the murder weapon with them.

The sun and the card were both left at the scene...

Kenichi Yoshioka, who discovered the body later, remained silent, while Shirakawa, who was the second to discover the body, recognized the knife as one that he had confiscated from his son, and immediately decided to cover up the evidence of the crime!
"I'm sorry... for doing this... and... the sun is probably always..." Shirakawa Kazuya was already on the ground, OTZ.

Hattori now understood that the reason Taiyo had such a deep impression was because the deceased had been holding him and had witnessed the murder scene up close, which had caused him severe psychological trauma.

Even though I forgot about it later because I was young, the scene still often appeared in my dreams.

The so-called "black suit" is actually a variation of the junior high school suit uniform in Yoshioka Tsubasa's memory!

Because of the close proximity at the time and the characteristics of dreams, the first-person and third-person perspectives are often confused, so sometimes I dream that I am the one who was stabbed.

Adding to the fact that he didn't know his real age, when he discovered that a murder had occurred on the day he was born, he became even more convinced that it was a "memory from a past life".

"Wait! Wasn't it you who attacked the sun yesterday?" Suzuki suddenly realized.

"Attack the sun?" Shirakawa Kazuya was taken aback, then immediately shook his head, saying, "How could I do such a thing... What happened to the sun?"

"What are you talking about? Kazuya was at the mall all day yesterday!" Shirakawa Haruyoshi said immediately.

Although such an alibi is not sufficient to be accepted as a father, since it was said to have happened in a shopping mall, there should be many people who can vouch for it, so it doesn't seem like a lie.

At the same time, a dark figure approached the door of "Yoshioka Tsubasa's" hospital room...

……

Worried about Yoshioka Tsubasa's safety, Hattori rushed back to the hospital, only to find Mrs. Sekida there, looking rather apologetic.

"Yoshioka... Hmm? Mrs. Sekida, what are you doing here?" Hattori was taken aback when he saw this.

Yoshioka's parents hesitated for a moment, but Sekida himself admitted, "I'm sorry, I stabbed this child yesterday..."

"As expected..." Hattori was slightly surprised, but not too surprised.

After all, Yoshioka had clearly covered up for the assailant before, and Hattori suspected that it must be someone he knew. Hattori even suspected his father.

“Auntie, he’s not your husband reincarnated. He just witnessed the crime scene when he was a child…” Hattori said speechlessly.

"I understand, Mr. Yoshioka just told me... I was confused too," Sekida said apologetically.

"So why did you harm your husband's reincarnation?" the white horse asked directly.

"I..." Guan Tian hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, but finally confessed: "Actually... in the phone call before my husband passed away, I was still complaining to him about how our trip together was canceled because of overtime work. Then, when I received the news from him again..."

“I keep thinking, if I hadn’t argued with him back then, would none of this have happened… I asked Yoshioka to come out earlier because I wanted to find out what ‘he’ was thinking when he was stabbed and about to leave… whether he was still blaming me…”

"But of course, Yoshioka-san doesn't know anything. I lost control for a moment, and then..."

In order to awaken his memories of his past life, Guan Tian specially brought along all the work tools that her husband had kept over the years.

But Yoshioka, of course, remembers nothing except the details of the incident, and has no memory of anything related to Mrs. Sekida.

After a 17-year manhunt, the husband, reincarnated, still remembers the events of the crime but not himself…

This left Guan Tian in a state of confusion. On the one hand, she was indignant that her husband didn't remember her well. On the other hand, she wondered if it was because her husband had blamed or even hated her when he was alive, which was why he didn't remember her in his next life. In her confused state, she used the screwdriver her husband had used to stab the person in front of her!

Yoshioka Tsubasa noticed her pain, which is why she wanted to hide the truth and even conceal the murder weapon, but...

After he threw the murder weapon into the bushes, he himself was already seriously injured and collapsed to the ground.

Fujiya arrived quickly and took Mrs. Sekita away—as for Suzuki and Maki, they were escorting Shirakawa.

The stabbing of Yoshioka occurred in Beika Town, and Beika Town is handling the case, while Beika Department Store...

Although the case wasn't in the Beika Police Station, the murderer had already come forward, so the Beika Police Station naturally made the arrest. If it were in a district where they had a good relationship with Shiraishi, Shiraishi might have informed them in advance so they could work together to investigate. But Beika Town... well, they had already fallen out, so Shiraishi just "stood still" to the end.

……

Soon after, Shiraishi also learned that the suspects in both the old murder case and the new assault case had been apprehended.

Hakuba also came to the Beika Police Station in person to talk to Shiraishi about the case, since it could be considered that Shiraishi had "commissioned" him to do it!
"So that's what 'reincarnation' is all about," Shiraishi said in realization.

Indeed, people still need to believe in science!
This case...

The memories of "Yoshioka Tsubasa" in particular have made things even more confusing, and even Shiraishi once wondered if it was caused by some "supernatural" factor.

In retrospect, the incident can be summarized as follows:

Yoshioka Tsubasa's father, Grandpa Sato, registered Yoshioka Tsubasa under a false household registration because he was afraid that his ex-husband would cause trouble. In fact, Yoshioka Tsubasa had already died young, and he was her brother!
Even Yoshioka Tsubasa's decline in kendo skills has an explanation—his incredible skill in junior high was because he was actually two years older than his classmates! By high school, that two-year age difference was no longer significant…

(End of this chapter)