Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 512 Troublesome
"Detective Kobe, arrest him," Shiraishi ordered directly to Kobe.

Although he could understand what Uno was thinking, Shiraishi was not prepared to grant his request.

Upon hearing the chief's words, Kobe took out the handcuffs that were hidden inside his dress—because he was on a mission, Kobe was now wearing handcuffs, and even a pistol!
Upon hearing this, Uno looked at Shiraishi in despair, then turned to the railing beside him...

Just as Kobe took out handcuffs from his waist, Uno also rushed towards the railing like a madman!

Because the distance was too far, even Shiraishi couldn't rush over in time.

but……

boom--

Kobe felt a gust of wind coming from behind, and then the concealed gun holster on his waist loosened, followed by a gunshot!
It was Shiraishi who rushed over and drew Kobe's sidearm—though he didn't have time to reach Uno, he did reach Kobe's side in time.

As he charged forward, Shiraishi had already taken off his pendant and unfolded it—the custom-made pistol grip extension that Ayako had given him!
As he took Kobe's sidearm, Shiraishi immediately gripped it with an extender and fired a shot at Uno, who was about to jump...

what--

The prisoner's suicide attempt was successfully prevented!

A jet of blood spurted from Uno's calf as he collapsed in front of the railing.

It was Shiraishi who shot him in the left leg...

"Go, arrest him," Shiraishi said to Kobe with a stern face.

"Yes!" Kobe nodded.

"Why? Do you look down on me? Damn it... I thought you would understand..." Seeing that Shiraishi had injured him, yet still wanted that "unworldly" policewoman to arrest him, Uno was both angry and in pain, and couldn't help but tremble.

“Hmm, I simply don’t understand why someone like you would act pitiful…” Shiraishi said, shaking his head regretfully. “Among all the murderers I’ve ever met, you’re not even close to being the most pitiful, and your reasons for killing are utterly absurd!”

Kobe stepped forward and handcuffed the struggling Uno: "June 24th, 11:30 AM, Uno Kensuke, arrest."

At the same time, Shiraishi continued, "You're still a long way from wanting to act like a spoiled child in society at this level!"

Uno was so angry when he heard Shiraishi's words that he banged his head on the ground, but he was quickly subdued by the plainclothes officers who rushed up to him.

……

Shiraishi had nothing to say about this "ordinary murderer," but as he turned to leave, he happened to run into Kobayakawa Taizo, who was staring at him with a livid expression.

"Inspector Shiraishi, now that the investigation has yielded results, why didn't you arrest him earlier? Are you trying to fool me?" Kobayakawa Taizo said angrily.

“Consul Kobayakawa is overthinking it. We just arrested members of the Silver Dragon Society and collected important evidence, which is why we made the arrests,” Shiraishi replied calmly.

Upon hearing "arrest the Silver Dragon Society members," Kobayakawa's expression changed slightly, but he still maintained a stern face...

Indeed, there was a transfer of benefits between Hoshimiya Koichi, the Silver Dragon Society, and Kobayakawa. Previously, it was because Uno discovered the photos of Hoshimiya Koichi and Kobayakawa Nahomi indulging in debauchery at the Silver Dragon Society's casino that the Kobayakawa family was threatened.

"I see. Inspector Shiraishi is indeed very meticulous in handling cases... Hehe, I hope Inspector Shiraishi can maintain this in the future!" Kobayakawa said after twitching his eyebrows.

After all, Hoshimiya Koichi was dead, and Uno Kensuke, who had tried to threaten the Kobayakawa family, had been arrested...

At this point, the media will likely release some vague and ambiguous information. As long as the Kobayakawa family doesn't respond to these rumors, that's fine!

even……

Kobayakawa Taizo had already made preparations. He planned to ask a "friend" in the Metropolitan Police Department to investigate the underground casino as soon as possible, to clarify the crimes of the Silver Dragon Society and Hoshimiya Koichi, and not to involve the Kobayakawa family!

As for the photos of the daughter and her fiancé at the underground casino...

Can that be considered evidence?

It might be acceptable in the public sphere, but it's unlikely to be considered evidence in court or during an investigation. As long as he's not being relentlessly exposed, Kobayakawa Taizo isn't worried.

Shiraishi's phone rang again, so he went aside to answer it.

"Hello, this is Shiraishi... What? Okay, I understand... Well, just cooperate with their search." After hanging up the phone, Shiraishi's brows remained furrowed, as if he had a feeling that things weren't so simple.

"What's wrong?" Ayako asked worriedly, noticing Shiraishi's expression. "Are you going back to the police station?"

"No need for now, it won't be of any use going back," Shiraishi said, shaking his head.

That was a call from Section Chief Munakata...

Overall, the capture of the Silver Dragon Society went smoothly, but a "minor incident" occurred during the process.

A key member of the Silver Dragon Society was able to escape because he was nearby the back door of the office at the first opportunity...

Although the scene was chaotic, Kuroki still noticed that a big fish was trying to escape, so he gave chase.

Finally, a shooting occurred in an alley!

According to Kuroki, someone drove to the other end of the alley, and when the car stopped, the person being chased clearly wanted to get in, but...

The driver then shot and killed him!
They even shot at Kuroki, but luckily he was hit on the edge of the gas mask's eyeglass frame and narrowly escaped death.

The gunman then sped away.

By the time reinforcements arrived, the Silver Dragon Society member was already dead...

Munakata then gave a routine report on the matter—although someone died and it was a shooting, it had basically nothing to do with the Beika Police Station except for "Kuroki's confrontation with him".

After all, the two cases investigated by the Mikasa Police Department did not involve officers who were shot, yet they were still solved.

The other party's attempt to silence them was not aimed at the cases being investigated by the Mikasa Police Department; the real headache was for the team.

Shiraishi was also familiar with this kind of silencing tactics; it was the style of violent organizations, but...

Shiraishi felt something was off!

Putting aside the fact that such a decisive martial arts faction is now very rare, what Shiraishi is more concerned about is why the person who was being silenced knew about this operation? And... why was it Kuroki?

However, since it has already happened, Shiraishi can't change anything now. This matter can't be considered Kuroki's mistake, let alone the responsibility of the Beika Department.

After all, apart from Kuroki, no one else has caught up yet!

Shiraishi then called Takei...

"What's going on? Besides the Fourth Department and the Mikasa Bureau, who else knows about the operation?" Shiraishi asked directly.

“Section Chief, Department Head… and that fat guy.” Takei’s voice also deepened.

It's normal for the section chief and department head of the group to know, but it's a bit annoying that "that fat guy" knows!
When Shiraishi and Takei were talking, the "fat guy" they were referring to was, of course, Zeden, the head of the Kamuro Police Department. "This is just on my end... I'm not sure how many people knew about this beforehand, given how big a fuss your department's young master made," Takei said, trying to shift the blame.

"Impossible! The security measures in Kobe are much better than those guys who have to report everywhere... It's one thing for the team leader and section chief, but how could that fat guy know!" Shiraishi said with dissatisfaction.

“This is Kamurocho. Even without the Kamuro Agency’s assistance, how could this kind of thing not alarm them?” Takei retorted.

"One of them was silenced... He probably knew some useful information. It seems this team's operation didn't go as planned," Shiraishi remarked on behalf of Takei.

beep - beep - beep -

Takei hung up the phone.

After that, Shiraishi didn't think much about it until June 26th, which was Monday.

……

On Monday, Shiraishi was working in his office when he suddenly heard Mado's hurried footsteps... no, the sound of running.

"Chief! Something's happened..." Yuanwei said as he pushed the door open.

"What's wrong? Tell me slowly." Seeing that Section Chief Mado had barged in without even knocking, Shiraishi realized that something was amiss.

"Inspector, the inspectors from the headquarters have arrived and taken Kuroki away," Mado said breathlessly.

"Take them away? Who told them to take them away?" Shiraishi slammed his hand on the table and stood up.

The inspector from the Metropolitan Police Department arrived without even greeting Shiraishi, and directly took away the detective from the Beika Police Station. The inspector's attitude towards Shiraishi was self-evident!

“It’s… an arrest warrant, they brought an arrest warrant,” Yuanwei said quickly.

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi frowned – instead of cooperating with the investigation, he had brought an arrest warrant!

In other words, regardless of what the other party is searching for, they now have preliminary evidence...

Shiraishi slowly sat back down, then said to Madoka, "Okay, I understand. Go and calm the officers in the station down first."

“Yes…” Yuanwei replied, then glanced at Shiraishi a few times with concern, but didn’t say anything more.

She also understood that Shiraishi was more aware of the urgency of the matter than she was.

After Mado left, Shiraishi immediately called Iwata—at least, Shiraishi needed to know what had happened.

"Hello..." Iwata deliberately lowered his voice when answering the phone.

"What's going on?" Shiraishi asked in a low voice—Iwata obviously knew it was his phone call.

"I don't know the specifics, but I heard that the forensic department discovered something, and then the personnel department inspector was immediately alerted. Within an hour, they sent someone to your Beika Police Station," Iwata said in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi understood that the forensic department must have discovered something extraordinary.

So Shiraishi hung up the phone with Iwata first, and then called Kenmochi's cell phone...

Half a day later, Kenchi was answering a phone call.

but……

"Hello? Hello?" Shiraishi didn't hear Kenchi's voice on the receiver, as if he had accidentally touched it and then answered.

After waiting for a while, Shiraishi finally heard faint conversations coming from the other side.

"Alright, Kenmochi, you used to be in the Beika Bureau too...you know that Kuroki guy, right? Don't get involved in this."

“I know that we should avoid suspicion, but I still find it a bit strange. Kuroki isn’t a new police officer, so why would he tell such a lie? The bullet in the Silver Dragon Society executive who was silenced was obviously fired from his pistol… Didn’t he know about bullet hole analysis?”

"Who knows? Maybe they really can't avoid it anymore and have no choice but to submit evidence."

"However, although the bullet damage analysis results for those two bullets matched the handgun Kuroki was carrying at the time, they were clearly different from the bullet damage information previously registered with the police station..."

"Then you'll have to ask the Mikasa Police Department about their gun control policies."

"Given the same gun model and batch, the rifling marks are bound to be very similar, right?"

"It's just 'similar.' In the past, there was a possibility of coincidence, but now rifling inspection is done with an electron microscope, with an identification level of one-thousandth of a millimeter. At this level of precision, it's impossible for two guns to have exactly the same rifling marks."

"Then...could it have been switched?"

“I know you know Kuroki, but don’t try to find excuses for him… His fingerprints are clearly visible on that gun, and the serial number matches. The only thing that’s not right is the bullet hole record of the Mika Police Station itself.”

"The police officers at the scene were really something... a shooting had occurred, and they didn't even immediately conduct a gun smoke analysis."

……

Clearly, Kenmochi was deliberately using this method to leak information to Shiraishi.

After listening, Shiraishi hung up the phone immediately.

In this way, the matter becomes clear.

It actually happened on Saturday!
At the time, Kuroki was chasing a Silver Dragon Society member into an alley. According to Kuroki, a gunman came from the other side of the alley and killed the Silver Dragon Society member who had already run close. The gunman then fired at Kuroki from a distance, even hitting Kuroki's gas mask. He almost got promoted to inspector...

However, this matter has little to do with the Beika Police Department. The dead Silver Dragon Society executive is unrelated to the case that the Beika Police Department is investigating. Kuroki was just cooperating with the follow-up investigation as usual, and he also submitted his service weapon at the time.

result……

Then something bad happened!
According to the forensic results, the bullets that killed the Silver Dragon Society cadres and were found in Kuroki's gas mask came from Kuroki's pistol, based on the "rifling marks" found in the bullet hole analysis.

This refers to the scratches left when a bullet passes through the rifling of a gun barrel.

Although the barrels are all standardized, the rifling of each gun will have slight differences. Rifling identification is to determine which gun fired the bullet by looking at the scratches on the bullet casing. In the past, it could only identify the batch, but now it can be accurate to each individual gun!
Moreover, according to the forensic experts, the gun didn't seem to have been switched; the fingerprints and serial number on it indicated that it was Kuroki's sidearm at the time.

only……

"It's different from the bullet hole records in the department?" Shiraishi muttered to himself, sensing a conspiracy.

Organizations responsible for gun control keep records of bullet marks on every gun, but the records at the Mikasa Police Station are not as accurate.

However, this "not that high precision" is enough to confirm that the gun Kuroki used at the time was completely different from the rifling marks on the bullets found at the scene.

However, this now seems to be attributed to "loopholes in the management of the Mikasa Police Station," rather than the guns being switched.

Now Shiraishi understands why the arrest warrant was issued so quickly—the rifling marks matched perfectly, the evidence was too strong…

(End of this chapter)