Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 549 The Truth
"So... whose idea was this?" Yokomizo was helpless, but now that he had discovered this, he still had to find out the "mastermind".

“It’s me!” Namiki said without hesitation.

“No, it was me…” Shinkura shook his head, then said, “Namiki already said to stop today, I lied to him and said I would send the liquid nitrogen back.”

"Enough! You idiots!" Masumura said impatiently.

The already trembling Zengcun shook his head even more, his eyes, red and bulging from alcohol dependence, staring at the useless and troublesome fellows in front of him.

However, Shiraishi then said something fair...

“No, although I don’t know the reason yet, but… the first person who made me feel that you were ‘in trouble’ today was actually you, Mr. Masumura,” Shiraishi said helplessly.

Upon hearing this, Masumura wore an incredulous expression.

Shiraishi continued, "You have a serious alcohol dependence, right? It's easy to tell. Your coworkers all say that you can't change your drinking habit, and you even accept that you'll eventually get drunk and die... But yesterday and today, you didn't drink a drop of alcohol."

"Yesterday I thought it was a coincidence, but on a day like today, you're still acting like you're suffering from alcohol dependence, and you haven't indulged yourself in drinking at all. This kind of self-discipline is not what a bad drinker should have, so it's obvious... you have something important to do, right?"

Indeed, during the earlier parade, Shiraishi noticed that Masumura was trembling in the crowd, and realized that something was not a simple matter.

Masumura: ...

As Masumura wavered, he trembled even more—he had initially thought something else was too bad, but it turned out... he was the one who had exposed himself?
“I see, indeed… using liquid nitrogen to suffocate someone is something that can only work in a special space like a closet. Even the door handle was removed; it was specifically used as an air vent, right? Only you, the owner of the house, could arrange things like that!” Yu Jian realized at this moment.

"What? Mr. Masumura, aren't you a friend of Hasunuma?" Yokomizo asked in surprise.

Masumura then fell silent...

However, Shiraishi then speculated, "I think it must be related to the disappearance of Motohashi Yuna, right? Eighteen years ago, Motohashi Yuna disappeared when she was only twelve years old, and her remains were found in the wild..."

"Hasunuma was arrested as a suspect, but was ultimately acquitted during the prosecution process. Yumiko, Motohashi Yuna's mother, committed suicide in despair after receiving notification from the prosecutor's office that she would not be prosecuted..."

"Regarding Yumiko Motohashi, I had someone check in Tokyo before. She was originally from Kikuno, and her original surname was Fujiwara. However, she changed her surname after her mother remarried. I guess... this Ms. Yumiko must be Mr. Masumura's sister, right?"

"Twenty-five years ago, in Mr. Masumura's court record, your defense lawyer also mentioned that after his parents passed away, Mr. Masumura dropped out of school at a young age to work in order to take care of his younger sister. He was always honest and law-abiding, and the reason why he hurt someone was also due to self-defense."

Whether Masumura Eiji and Motohashi Yumiko are related by blood is no longer verifiable in the family register.

However, Shiraishi did not believe that the two were a coincidence...

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Masumura was resistant and did not answer Shiraishi’s question.

That doesn't matter. At least the others now understand why Masumura did this, and even... Masumura was actually the one who started this whole thing!

This is true.

Zengcun learned of his sister's death after he was released from prison. He had dropped out of junior high school to take care of his four-year-old sister, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that he considered her his daughter.

later……

Masumura even discovered that the man who was suspected of killing his niece and causing his sister to commit suicide was actually standing in front of him!

So Masumura deliberately approached him, hoping to find out the truth from him.

Because of the widespread hatred and dislike of Hasunuma at the time, Masumura's actions ironically made him his only "friend"—others would completely ignore him, but Masumura... would even lend him money in order to get close to him.

This led Hasunuma to also see him as a kind-hearted person she could take advantage of.

Unfortunately, before Masumura could glean anything from him, Namiki Saori's case came to light, leading to Hasunuma's dismissal. Hasunuma then left Kikuno and never contacted this "friend" again until now, three years later.

Just then, a commotion arose from the ambulance area, and...

Hasunuma then came out.

Looking at Niikura, Hasunuma, now filled with anger mixed with... cowardice, hid behind Yokomizo and pointed at Niikura, saying, "You're a police officer, right? Quick! Arrest him! He tried to kill me..."

At the same time, Hasunuma also saw the Namiki couple, Masumura... as well as Miyazawa Maya, Tojima Shusaku, and Takagaki Tomoya, who had just arrived after hearing the news...

"What's going on?" Maya didn't know what had happened; she had only heard that the police were going to arrest Shinkura.

"Oh, Ms. Niikura... it's not because I asked you to take this back to my factory that it's overloaded, is it?" Tojima thought he had figured out the situation, assuming that Niikura had been caught before he could act, so he immediately said.

This can't really be hidden...

The liquid nitrogen tanks are used in his factory to quickly freeze meat!
“Yes, yes, because the float is too light and we need to adjust the center of gravity, that’s why we put these in the boxes,” Maya quickly added.

"I'm sorry, I didn't have time to return these things after I moved them out, so I'm entrusting them to... Mr. Niikura," Takagaki added.

Shiraishi believed that...

Earlier at the end of the parade, Shiraishi felt that someone in a van was watching him—it must have been Takagaki who, after discovering that he was also there, nervously watched Shiraishi and immediately drove away after Shiraishi looked back.

In other words, their original plan was for Tojima to load liquid nitrogen onto the parade convoy at a factory not far from the starting point, then use the "treasure chest" to transport this important item, and after arriving at the finish line, Takagaki and Niikura would deliver it to the Masumura family, which was not far from the finish line.

After the two leave, Jingmu will come here and use the prepared tools to carry out the plan...

It's even possible that Masumura took the opportunity to give him sleeping pills to ensure he wouldn't wake up prematurely!

As for why it's so complicated?
Shiraishi believed that their primary goal was to force Hasunuma to confess to the two murders.

but……

It's not impossible that Hasunuma would rather die than tell!
If we can't stop in the end...

Even if people don't say it, they've all thought about this possibility.

This arrangement ensures that even if something goes wrong later, everyone will have an alibi.

Miyazawa Maya and Masumura Eiji were present at the entire festival, needless to say; Takagaki only delivered something after the parade, for a maximum of half an hour; Niikura was a judge at the talent show on the other side, and also left for less than half an hour; Iki only closed his shop and left after the parade ended...

If someone were to die, Zengcun would call the police immediately upon returning home, thus pinpointing the time of the incident to be when "no one had the opportunity to commit the crime."

Of course, the more participants there are, the easier it is to be exposed...

However, if everyone truly stops telling the truth or even "remains silent," the police will indeed be unable to establish a chain of evidence.

When Hasunuma looked at their "excuses," his face turned ugly.

The crowd looked at him with "terrified" eyes, and Hasunuma immediately became timid.

Before this, he didn't care about these people's anger at all, just thinking it was the barking of defeated dogs. But now... he knew that these people really wanted to kill him!
So Renuma gritted her teeth and said, "Fine...fine...since that's how it is, then I'll tell you!"

"You..." Upon seeing this, Niikura couldn't help but panic.

Hasunuma pointed at him and said, "You! What are you pretending for? Wasn't it your wife who killed that woman?"

"what?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?"

"You bastard! What other nonsense are you going to spout..."

Hearing this, everyone looked at him with even greater anger, while Renzuma, seeing this, once again acted like a shameless rogue, as if he had nothing to lose.

However, they didn't notice that Shiraishi, Yokomizo, and Mitsurugi all had subtle changes in their expressions at that moment...

"Ahem, you're saying the murderer is Mrs. Niikura? Do you have any evidence?" Yokomizo suddenly asked.

"Of course it's a lie!"

"What on earth are you thinking?"

Why bother listening to his nonsense?

Namiki and the others became dissatisfied, but Niikura remained silent at this moment.

Hasunuma immediately sneered, "Lying? I saw it with my own eyes back then! I was collecting garbage near that small square in 6-chome when I saw... that woman pushed Saori, and then she fell on that pile of iron pipes and died!"

"New warehouse?"

"what happened!"

The others then also noticed that something was wrong with Shinkura's behavior...

“That’s right…it’s all my fault…” Niikura admitted at this point.

Actually, he only found out last night!

Upon learning of the plan, Niikura immediately decided to participate, after all, Saori was his prized student, and Niikura could not accept Saori's death. However, he did not hide this from his wife.

It was only at this point that Rumi Niikura confessed...

Three years ago, Saori told her that she was pregnant and didn't want to debut.

However, Mrs. Niikura knew how much her husband hoped for Saori, so she tried to persuade her. But Saori, being young and impetuous, argued for a few moments and then tried to leave. Mrs. Niikura tried to pull her back, but...

In a moment of carelessness, he pulled Saori down, and they crashed into a pile of building materials in an open space!

Afterwards, Rumi Niikura completely broke down and wanted to commit suicide to end it all. However, after climbing onto the bridge railing, she happened to hear a police siren and wanted to go back to check, only to find that... the "body" was gone.

"So Mrs. Niikura was wearing a black top and white bottom that day, right?" Yokomizo realized at this moment that the clue they had found earlier was indeed "related to the case".

"This..." Niikura didn't know either, but his wife did know that after learning about their plan last night, she immediately realized that she was about to be exposed, so she confessed this to him.

In fact, for the past three years, Mrs. Niikura had been threatened by Hasunuma and had given him a lot of money—which is why Hasunuma stopped trying to extort money from the garbage disposal plant and still lived a carefree life.

but……

"Wait, so you still hid the 'corpse', right?" Yokomizo immediately questioned Hasunuma.

Hasunuma looked completely indifferent, while Mitsurugi, standing beside him, said with a dark expression, "So, the one who set the fire was actually yourself, wasn't it? Concealing a corpse... the statute of limitations is only three years. Did you taste the sweetness of the previous judicial compensation?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Hasunuma pursed her lips, not admitting it.

However, Hasunuma didn't really care about the matter being exposed at this point—that was his plan. If the Eastern Capital detained him for a longer period and then filed a lawsuit, he could produce evidence at a crucial moment...

The fact that Mrs. Niikura has been threatened and given money to him over the years is the best proof of this!

Afterwards, since the three-year statute of limitations for his crime of concealing a corpse had expired, he would not be punished at all. On the contrary, since the murder prosecution was a wrongful conviction, he could get another sum of money.

Mitsurugi was naturally furious at this act of fooling the Prosecutor's Office.

Meanwhile, Niikura was also there, performing a dogeza (a form of Buddhist prayer) with the Namiki family...

“Rumi originally wanted to turn herself in, but… I stopped her and decided to kill him here today!” Shinkura confessed his “Plan Two”—to prevent this guy from speaking again.

"So it was indeed you who took Saori away?" Yokomizo asked again at this moment.

“That’s right, but I don’t want to answer the reason.” It wasn’t that Hasunuma didn’t care about being prosecuted for concealing a corpse, but…

click-

Yokomizo then handcuffed him.

"At 3:54 PM, we are now arresting Hasunuma Kanichi on charges of intentional homicide," Yokomizo said after glancing at his watch.

"Wh...what are you doing? Are you crazy? Are you in such a hurry to pay me back?" Renuma said in a panic.

"Are you trying to say that after Mrs. Niikura 'killed' Namiki Saori, you only took her body as a threat?" Yokomizo asked with a stern face.

"It wasn't a threat, she gave me the money voluntarily..." Hasuma denied any coercion.

However, the focus right now isn't on coercion...

“That’s impossible,” Yokomizo said directly.

"What did you say? She is..." Renma immediately tried to explain.

However, Yokomizo interrupted, "Indeed, Mrs. Niikura herself should also believe that she accidentally killed Saori, but in reality... there was no blood at the scene, which is completely inconsistent with the autopsy results and the bloodstains on your work clothes, so Saori's death can only have occurred after that."

Based on the information that Shiraishi and the other two had, they could roughly guess that Saori had a conflict with someone in the park and was killed elsewhere. However, they didn't know whether the murderer was the same person as the one in the park, and they were even less sure where Saori went afterward.

But when Hasunuma began to admit that he saw Mrs. Niikura "kill" Saori there, the three of them realized what had happened next...

Hasunuma remained silent, and indeed the prosecution and police could not convict him. However, after he "talked too much" and said that he was the last person to see "Saori, who could not have died at the time," it will be difficult for him to get away with it!
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: Today is September 28th, the birthday of Confucius, the most influential thinker of Chinese civilization 2576 years ago. Please vote for me! Please vote for me! Please vote for me!
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