Conan: Start with three choices, but sequence potion

Chapter 228 Death returns to the scene of his loyal crime!!

It was eleven minutes to two at night.

"what!!!"

The shrill scream broke the silence of the night.

The adults who were drinking put down their glasses in a daze, startled by the sound.

The girls downstairs also shouted a few times upstairs in confusion, asking about the situation, and it seemed that they were also alarmed.

Although he was a little drunk, Detective Kogoro Mouri's instincts were still there. He made a decision quickly, dropped his wine glass, got up, and ran out the door.

Even Conan and Hattori Heiji were a step slower than him.

Monk Ryuen, Saijo Taikawa and Mizuo Harutaro seemed to realize that something bad had happened, and they hurriedly cleaned up the table, stood up and followed him out.

It didn't take long.

"The deceased, Sakura Masazo, was an antique art dealer, 51 years old, and had a store on Teramachi Street."

"The crime scene was located at the entrance of the basement warehouse of the izakaya called 'Sakura House'. From the situation at the scene, it seems that the deceased was looking for something inside and was attacked and killed on the way."

"The fatal wound was on the left carotid artery. The knife mark was sharp and the blow was fatal. The murderer's method was very crude. The victim had no time to react at all. There were no signs of a fight at the scene."

"The buttons on the deceased's coat were roughly torn open. It seems that the murderer wanted to find something from him. Moreover, the time was very tight and there was no time to unbutton the clothes."

"In addition, the valuables, wallet, bank cards and brand-name watch on his wrist are all still there, so it should be ruled out that this was a robbery."

Officer Ayanokouji squatted beside the body, made a brief note of the situation in his handbook, then took out his cell phone and called the police station for reinforcements.

Hattori Heiji and Conan watched several adults gathered around the corpse and watched Officer Ayanokouji investigate. Contrary to his usual behavior, he did not rush in to look for clues, but stood at the door of the warehouse, touching his chin in the same posture.

"If it was an outsider who broke in, the door of the pub would have made a noise of being opened, and the mama-san should have noticed it."

"And we also need to know that Mr. Sakura Shozo was downstairs. This is a reasonable premise for the crime."

"That is to say, those friends of Sakura Shozo who knew where Mr. Nishijo, Mr. Ryuen, and Mr. Mizuo, they are all possible perpetrators."

Conan had a keen eye for observation and remembered the details he had casually memorized earlier: "They all went out to use the restroom on the way."

"Next to the toilet is a staircase leading to the basement. If I pretend to go to the toilet, I can use this time to kill Mr. Sakura Masazo who is in the warehouse at the time."

“Time may be tight.”

"But this just fits the situation shown by the body, doesn't it?" Hattori Heiji felt that there was no big problem with the direction of locking in the suspect.

"But it is worth noting that when Mr. Mizuo went out, Miss Chiga Ling accompanied him." Conan pondered.

Hattori Heiji spread his hands and said, "All dancers seem to do this."

"So we also have to consider the possibility that the two were accomplices."

"makes sense."

The two of them argued back and forth about the circumstances of the case.

"Let's go." Hattori Heiji put his hands in his pockets, turned around and went upstairs.

"Eh?" Conan looked at him in confusion.

"Don't pretend." Hattori Heiji squeezed out a dead fish eye, "I saw it clearly when you took that thing."

Conan smiled awkwardly and took out a key from his pocket.

He had taken this off the corpse not long ago, before anyone else.

"Should we call Mr. Anhe and the others?" he suddenly asked.

"They seem to have gone back to the B&B to rest. Let's not disturb them. Wouldn't it be more convenient for the two of us to act together?" Hattori Heiji waved his hand. "Besides, the murderer is among this group of people. It's very likely that he is the same murderer as in the case of 'Genji Hotaru'. We'd better keep a low profile."

"Ok."

The two avoided everyone's attention and walked out of the pub's door.

Teramachi Street is not far away, it is right inside Pontocho, but it is not next to the Kamogawa River, but a few streets behind, and the straight-line distance is only about one or two kilometers.

I have to say that Kyoto's traffic planning is really anti-human, with all the one-way streets and intersections. If you drive, you may have to take a long detour. But since the two of them were walking, they naturally didn't have this worry.

Ten minutes later, the two arrived at the door of Mr. Sakura Shozo's shop.

Although this is an antique shop, the overall decoration is not old-fashioned, but rather very modern. The simple and clean interior forms a sharp contrast with the shabby exterior of the house.

Unlike common Japanese houses, there is not even a genkan at the entrance, and there is no need to change indoor shoes.

On the left hand side is the main hall, and on the right hand side is the side hall. There is no difference in the size of the two spaces, but the difference lies in the different years of the antiques displayed on both sides.

To put it simply, it is divided into different price levels.

After a quick look around, the two didn't find any noteworthy clues, so they went up the stairs and came to the area where Sakura Masazao usually worked.

As soon as you enter the door, you can see a coffee table with a sofa next to it. It seems that this is not only Sakura Zhengzo's office, but also serves as a reception room for conversations.

“There are quite a few books.”

Hattori Heiji looked around and saw that a row of tall bookcases almost replaced the walls, surrounding half of the room and filled with various books.

"Hey." Hattori Heiji called Conan, took out two pairs of white gloves from his pocket and threw one over.

"Thanks." Conan took the glove, but was puzzled to find that his hands were too small to put it on. He had to put it away and continue to use the handkerchief that was more convenient to use.

Hattori Heiji opened the bookcases one by one, trying to find out if there were any secret compartments inside, while Conan walked to the desk and started fiddling with the old model computer.

The computer booted up very smoothly and there was no password to be cracked. Conan couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.

It turns out that although not every computer with secrets has a password, computers without passwords most likely have no secrets.

Conan first opened the storage disk and looked for hidden files, but to no avail.

So he opened the browser again and started looking through his browsing history.

After finding some disgusting things in the hidden browsing history, Conan finally confirmed that this computer was just a tool that Sakura Masao used for work and occasional slacking off, and there was nothing special about it.

He turned to look at Hattori Heiji, and it happened that this friend had discovered something. "Yoshitsune Ki?"

Hattori Heiji stood on tiptoe and pulled out a thick book from the top of the bookcase. He opened the last page and saw "Ise Saburo" written in marker at the end of the page.

"So Mr. Sakura Shozo is the surviving Ise Saburo."

According to the police's analysis, the "Genji Hotaru" serial murder case was the result of an internal conflict within a theft gang.

The members of this gang all used Yoshitsune and his retainers as code names. So far, the police have found the book "Yoshitsune Ki" on all the dead, and their code names were written at the end of the book.

As of the last case, only the names of Benkei, Isesaburo, and Yoshitsune himself had not been discovered.

Now it seems that Ise Saburo has also been killed.

Hattori Heiji suddenly found an unnatural gap between the pages of the book, and reached out to pull out a folded piece of paper.

"This is?!"

Both of them were shocked after seeing the contents on the paper.

Conan opened his phone and pulled out a photo to put together with it.

It was the drawing paper that Sannoji received that was said to contain a puzzle!!

"Could it be that the letter was sent to Sannoji by Mr. Sakura Shozo?" Hattori Heiji frowned and guessed according to this logic.

But if that's the case, what's his purpose?

Conan took a photo of the book, the name "Ise Saburo" at the end of it, and the drawing paper, closed it and put it back to its original place.

"I think I know part of the truth."

"Since Mr. Sakura Masao is a member of 'Genji Hotaru', this case should be officially investigated as a serial murder case. Let's go back and share the clues with others." Conan said, putting the gloves that Hattori Heiji had given him back into his pocket.

But on the way, his hand seemed to touch something.

"what is this?"

He took it out curiously, and a card with a blurry black shadow appeared in front of him.

For some reason, he always felt an inexplicable attraction calling him to open his psychic vision and look at this strange card.

"Oh, this?" Hattori Heiji did not hide it, "This thing seems to be called the 'blasphemous card', and it records an extraordinary path without gods."

As he spoke, he also became a little confused. "I was going to tell you about this last time on the phone, but why didn't I think of it after meeting you today? Strange."

"An extraordinary path without gods." Conan repeated this sentence, gently twisted the card in his hand, and a strong sense of intimacy came over him.

"Hattori, can you lend me this thing to study for a few days?" He raised his head and asked his little friend.

"Just take it if you want it."

Hattori Heiji was very open-minded. "I have tried to find out if I can go through the 'death' path recorded here before, but it's too strange no matter how I think about it. Without gods, I can't use the sacrificial method. That means I have to find all the Beyonder characteristics of the sequence myself. Let's not talk about whether I can find them or not. Isn't it too difficult to go through this path?"

"If you can research something, let me know. I'm also curious about the capabilities of this path."

"Yeah." Conan nodded, took another look at the card with a strange style, and then put it in his pocket.

"Let's go back first."

The research on the "Blaze Card" must wait until the case is solved.

If the Tokyo police are more business-oriented and the Osaka police are more sports-oriented, then the Kyoto police are somewhere in between the two, with a response speed that is neither fast nor slow.

When the two of them went back and forth, "Sakura House" had been blocked off, the street was blocked, and alternating red and blue police lights illuminated the night sky.

After some effort, the two were finally let into the scene and found Uncle Maori and others.

Kogoro Mori was much more sober now, and was very surprised when he heard the news the two men brought back.

"What?!" His eyes widened, "You said Mr. Sakura is actually a member of 'Genji Hotaru'?!"

He could never imagine that the person who had been drinking and chatting with him and treating him as a brother not long ago was killed in the blink of an eye, and later told him that he was a member of the criminal gang that the police had been wanting?
Hattori Heiji nodded and showed the photos they took in Sakura Masazo's office: "We found this in Sakura Masazo's copy of Yoshitsune Ki."

“Although it is a photocopy, it is obviously the same drawing paper that Shanneng Temple received.”

"And from the police's investigation of several previous cases, no similar drawings were found in the Yoshitsuneki at the scene. However, this does not mean that they do not exist. On the contrary, I personally believe that the murderer recovered them after committing the crime."

"This can be inferred from the circumstances when Sakura Masazo was murdered. The murderer was searching for something on his body, and that thing was not property. The murderer was most likely trying to find the Yoshitsune Ki that belonged to Sakura Masazo."

However, what the murderer miscalculated was that Sakura Masazo did not carry such an important item as "Yokeiki" with him, which would reveal his identity as a member of the theft gang. Instead, he just placed it on the bookshelf in his office, hiding it from the crowd.

Conan, who was standing next to Hattori Heiji, pushed his glasses up and tried to lower his presence in a low profile.

Hattori Heiji's reasoning just now was actually the result of the joint efforts of the two of them. However, in order to maintain his own childish persona, he had to let Hattori be the one to remind the uncles and the others.

"This piece of paper is the 'map' that was inserted in the Yoshitsune Ki, pointing to the Yakushi Nyorai statue that they stole."

"That is to say." Hattori Heiji smiled confidently and put his phone on the table, "Finally, we have evidence to prove the connection between the 'Genji Hotaru' serial murder case and the 'Sannoji Buddha statue theft case'. We can officially merge these two cases for investigation."

"So who is the murderer?" Yuanshan Heye asked with a little concern and curiosity.

In her eyes, the smile Heiji showed must mean that great progress has been made in the case, or at least he has a clear idea of the suspect.

Hattori Heiji had no intention of keeping anything back about his childhood sweetheart and directly reported the progress of his reasoning.

"I personally think that Mr. Nishijo, Mr. Ryuen, Mr. Mizuo, Ms. Chiga Ling and even Mama-san, who were in the same private room with us at the time, are all suspects."

"Huh?!" Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran looked at him in shock.

"But they don't have any weapons on them?" Mao Lilan was a little confused.

Suzuki Sonoko also nodded and agreed, "We were all searched when the police came not long ago."

"No one would be stupid enough to carry the murder weapon with them after killing someone, right? Most likely they hid it or threw it away." Hattori Heiji sighed.

"But we didn't find anything in the store," Mao Lilan raised her hand weakly.

(End of this chapter)