Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 557 The Dead's Frame-Up
On July 23rd, at night, Shiraishi and Ayako were having dinner in the ship's restaurant when Nishino rushed over shouting, "Officer Shiraishi! Something terrible has happened, he's dead... Ryuu Sakkawa... is dead!"

Upon hearing his words, not only did Shiraishi immediately stand up, but Kogoro and the others who were also in the restaurant quickly followed Nishino to Kanagawa's room.

Inside the room, Han Chuanlong lay on the floor, his right eye a gaping hole, blood flowing everywhere, a horrifying sight...

Meanwhile, the room was ransacked, and even the feather pillows were scattered.

“Detective Mouri and I will go in. The rest of you wait outside… Ayako, go call the police.” Shiraishi said, putting on the gloves he always carried with him.

Mori also asked Nishino for a pair...

Regardless of his reasoning ability, Mori was a detective before and still has plenty of experience at murder scenes, so there's no problem having him assist in the search.

After all, he doesn't actually have to do anything; it's mainly about "two people"—although Shiraishi can do it alone when there's really no one else around, procedurally speaking, it's better to have two people.

After the two entered, they went straight to the most important body.

Shiraishi stepped forward, examined the remaining left eye, and then touched the corpse's chin...

“The cornea is not cloudy yet, rigor mortis has just appeared on the lower jaw, and the body temperature has begun to drop, but not significantly... The estimated time of death should be one to two hours ago, which is... um, between 6:30 and 7:30 in the evening,” Shiraishi said while examining the patient.

"Huh? His necklace is gone." Kogoro noticed that Kankawa's chest was now bare.

"Judging from the scene, if it wasn't a deliberate misdirection, the killer seems to be looking for something," Shiraishi said after looking around.

After examining the body, the two men conducted a brief search of the scene.

Ayako used the ship's satellite phone to call the police and returned to say, "Shiraishi, Inspector Megure said they're dispatching by helicopter immediately, and the crew is in contact with the police."

"Okay... let's go out first." Shiraishi said, and he and Kogoro left the crime scene first.

"Wait! This is...this pen, isn't it Mr. Nishino's?" Kogoro suddenly found a pen on the ground.

Shiraishi:……

You really are perceptive at the worst possible time!
Shiraishi had already seen it, but...

Shiraishi knew very well that the murderer was "Sköbing" and it couldn't be Nishino—when "Sköbing" sniped Kid, Nishino was with Kosaka, so he was basically ruled out as a suspect.

Moreover, even considering the extreme scenario of "Nishino impersonating Shi Kaobing to commit the crime," it is impossible based on the scene of the crime...

Although it could be explained, Shiraishi originally thought it was too troublesome, and now he just wanted to force the real Scorpion out immediately to avoid problems later!

However, since it has already been discovered...

"Then let's go out and ask," Shiraishi said casually.

……

Because of the death, all the "related parties" gathered in the ship's main hall, where a sense of panic was palpable.

Yaro appeared very impatient, and Pu Siqinglan looked worried... However, Baishi could actually tell that the two of them didn't have that much emotion in their eyes, but rather a sense of "calmness".

Inui and Nishino were genuinely panicked, while Kosaka, besides being tense, also felt some regret and sorrow, seemingly unable to understand why someone would kill for a ring... Her butler was the most panicked at this moment, because if the murderer was after the Romanov dynasty's ring, then this treasure hunt would be even more dangerous!

"Mr. Nishino, why did you go to Mr. Kankawa's room before?" Mori asked Nishino.

"Huh? Because we were about to miss dinner, I went to remind Mr. Hanchuan, but no one answered the door, and the door wasn't locked. When I opened the door, I found... sigh." Nishino said honestly.

"Did you go inside at that time?" Mori pressed.

“No.” Nishino shook his head, then added, “The situation is obvious, isn’t it…”

"Hmm, it's normal that you didn't go in, but... then why is your pen in Hanchuan's room?" Mori asked sharply, taking out the pen as he spoke.

"What? My pen..." Upon seeing this, Nishino instinctively reached into his pocket, only to find it empty; there was no pen inside. "It really is my pen... That's strange..."

"What's so strange?" Mao looked at him with a dangerous gaze, as if to say, "Just admit it, you murderer."

"I don't know when the pen disappeared..." Nishino didn't know how to explain for a moment.

For a moment, everyone else also looked at him warily.

“It is indeed very strange. It would be understandable if it happened before the incident, but it's impossible for Nishino to have entered that room during or after the incident,” Shiraishi interjected.

"Huh?" Mori was taken aback and looked at Shiraishi in surprise.

"Mr. Nishino, you actually have a severe feather allergy, don't you?" Shiraishi asked calmly.

“That’s right… How did you know?” Nishino asked, puzzled.

“When you saw the pigeons earlier, you immediately ran away to blow your nose… In this situation, if you were the murderer, you wouldn’t have torn the pillow to shreds, leaving feathers everywhere, and after what happened, you wouldn’t have been able to go back in,” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"Is...is it possible...that this is his performance?" Mori said in confusion.

"You can find out about this with a simple inspection once we're ashore," Shiraishi said, shaking his head.

“That’s right, I have a severe feather allergy. I was afraid it would affect my job opportunities, so I didn’t say anything. I’m sorry…” Nishino said with a sigh of relief, finally free from suspicion. He also said to Ayako and Sonoko with embarrassment.

After all, the Suzuki family were his employers, a fact he had concealed from them.

"It's alright, everyone has their own secrets, but these things should still be communicated to us in advance, otherwise we'll be in trouble if we encounter danger at work later," Ayako reassured her with a slight smile.

"But if that's the case, then this pen... is the murderer who stole the ring, trying to frame Nishino?" Mori asked疑惑地.

At the same time, Conan, standing nearby, uttered in a cute voice: "Huh... if the culprit was trying to steal the ring, why was the room ransacked like that? The ring was hanging on his chest, wasn't it?"

"Idiot! That's because... the ring wasn't hanging on his chest when he committed the crime!" Kogoro said righteously.

"But he was wearing it before... Even if he took it off, shouldn't he have done it in a more conspicuous place?" Conan countered.

"Mr. Nishino, you and Ryuu Hanakawa must have known each other before, right?" Shiraishi asked at this moment.

"Huh? No... This is the first time we've met." Nishino said, seemingly not lying.

Shiraishi shook his head and said, "Back in Osaka, when he first saw you, he avoided you like the plague, but you really didn't react... Think carefully, haven't you seen him somewhere before?" "This... Ryuu Sakkawa... a correspondent... Ah!" Nishino suddenly remembered something.

"How is it?" Shiraishi asked directly.

“I remember now… Indeed, I once saw him in a war-torn country in the Middle East when I was volunteering for an international charity! At that time, a little girl’s family and home had just been destroyed by bombing, and she was crying helplessly. But that guy was excitedly taking pictures of the little girl with the burning buildings as a background… I couldn’t stand it, so I punched him, cough cough… Thinking about it now, I was a bit impulsive.”

While Nishino didn't exactly regret it, considering that Shiraishi was a police officer, it wouldn't be good if he didn't show any remorse after admitting to hitting someone in front of him...

“That’s right. The person I wanted to take the pen to the room wasn’t the murderer, but Mr. Hanchuan himself,” Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"What? Could it be... that you're retaliating by 'stealing his pen'?" Mori asked, puzzled.

Shiraishi:……

What kind of elementary school student's thought process is this?

“Of course not. I think… Mr. Hanchuan probably wanted to frame Mr. Nishino and steal his ring. That would explain why the murderer searched the room like that but still couldn’t find the ring,” Shiraishi said leisurely.

"You mean..." Mori finally realized.

“Mr. Nishino, please show us your room,” Shiraishi said to Nishino.

"Eh? Okay..."

To clear himself of suspicion, Nishino did not object and led everyone directly to his room.

After Shiraishi came in, he asked, "How long has it been since you've been back to your room?"

"He hasn't come back since after lunch." Nishino wasn't a guest; he had a lot of work to do.

After entering the room, Shiraishi immediately checked the most likely places, and sure enough, when he looked under the pillow as the second place, he found the ring—Nishino's pillow had been replaced with one that wasn't made of feathers.

"Sure enough, when you're framing someone, you don't want to hide it too carefully, and in the end, it's always just a few places." Shiraishi said, shaking his head.

"Framed?" Sonoko still didn't understand.

“That’s right. It seems that Hanchuan is holding a grudge about what happened back then and wants to frame Mr. Nishino. So he secretly took his pen and secretly put his own ring in Nishino’s room. That way, he can say that his ring is lost. When the police or all of us find the pen in his room and then search Nishino’s room, we will conclude that Nishino stole his ring.” Mori explained in a deep voice, as if he had deduced it himself.

And that is largely true.

Han Chuanlong never expected that he would be killed before he could even begin to make his arrangements!
"I see, you're amazing... Conan," Ran said with a smile.

Mori initially thought his daughter was going to praise him, but then he suddenly heard Conan's name.

"Huh? What are you saying, Ran-neechan? I don't understand... I'm still a child... Hehehe." Conan chuckled dryly.

"Then...who killed him?" Nishino asked, puzzled.

"It's not certain yet, but... I think it's the same person who sniped Kid before," Shiraishi said definitively.

"What? Why?" Kogoro asked, puzzled.

"The right eye... the lens that Kid was found before was also the one he wore in his right eye," Shiraishi said matter-of-factly.

"Indeed... but is that all?" Mori remembered this too, but still felt it was a bit far-fetched.

"In fact, I suspected before that the sniper who attacked Kidd was likely the international fugitive and professional killer 'Scobbin'. After all, his characteristic was that he was used to aiming at the right eye of his target, and in addition to being commissioned to kill, he was also interested in the 'treasures of the Romanov dynasty'."

Shiraishi then presented another piece of evidence.

"Treasures of the Romanov dynasty?" Maori immediately realized what was going on.

Two coincidences can still be called coincidences, but when all three elements are met, it's hard to call it a coincidence anymore!
"A professional assassin?" Kosaka's butler exclaimed in surprise—seemingly worried that this person might harm his young lady.

"So... the one who killed Han Chuan was also this professional assassin?" Pu Siqinglan said with a hint of fear in her voice.

Of course, Shiraishi knew that she was faking it. Not to mention that Shiraishi was 90% sure that she was Scrooge, more importantly, even if he was right about that one point, she was not Scrooge. As a successor of dark magic, would she be afraid of a professional assassin?

"That seems to be the case for now." Shiraishi nodded.

Just then, a crew member ran over to report that one of the lifeboats was missing.

"Did they run away? Damn it!" Mori said unwillingly.

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief—it was good that they weren't on the ship...

"It seems his skill level was only so-so. In the end, although he killed someone, he still didn't get what he wanted," Pu Siqinglan said with a sigh.

Shiraishi looked at her, then smiled slightly and said, "No, I think his main target is not the ring, but... Hanchuanlong's camera. I didn't find it in the room before."

"A camera?" Everyone was taken aback when they heard this.

"I think it's probably because Han Chuan accidentally filmed something that was detrimental to him before he died. After all, that guy had no professional ethics; he would always suddenly start recording without even telling anyone," Bai Shi deduced.

“Indeed…” Sonoko suddenly remembered something. That guy always took random pictures. He even knocked on the door on purpose before, recorded her expression after she opened the door, and then left.

"Huh? Wait a minute... then..." Xiaolan suddenly realized that this situation was a bit like that time with the bandaged man... except that time she accidentally saw the other man's real body.

If Shiraishi hadn't been there, someone would definitely have died, and she herself would have been attacked, so Ran had a deep impression of it.

Because the situation was so similar, Xiaolan immediately thought of that other time...

"Does that mean... the murderer must be on the ship? If it's an outsider, he wouldn't be able to film anything, right?" Xiaolan immediately said.

“That’s right, it seems very likely at the moment…” Shiraishi also pointed this out.

Bai Shi no longer wanted to let Shi Kao Bing disembark...

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(End of this chapter)