Conan's Exorcist Detective

Chapter 20 As the sleeping Kogoro, it is normal for me to reason twice, right?
Haruhiko looked at the two men who were carried into the house by the police officers. One of them was a man with glasses and side-parted hair. He was wearing a neat suit and looked timid.

The other one had a stubbled face and a pigtail. He was the most resistant and his catchphrase occasionally included a curse word or two.

Inspector Megure looked at the two of them with scrutinizing eyes and asked, "Why are you two here?"

Before either of them could speak, Mrs. Maru Ineko ran up to the man with the side-parted hair and explained, "This is Mr. Hatano, my husband's personal physician."

Inspector Megure frowned and took out a small notebook.

This notebook was found on the deceased. It recorded the names of several people that the deceased Marudenjiro was going to meet today, including Mr. Hatano.

Inspector Megure held the notebook and looked at the other person: "Then you are not..."

"Yes, I am the master sculptor Akutsu!"

Akutsu seemed very unhappy about being suspected. He said in a loud voice: "I made an appointment with Mr. Marudenjiro this morning to visit him today, but when I got here I found out that Mr. Marudenjiro had been murdered."

Inspector Megure nodded. There were four people on today's visiting list, and two of them had already appeared. With the addition of Kogoro Mouri who also appeared on the visiting list, only the last person had not appeared.

At this moment, Maori Kogoro behind him suddenly said: "I know, the murderer is the only one on the visiting list who did not show up, the man named Suwa Yuji."

Inspector Megure turned around, eyes wide open, and asked, "Really? Brother Maori, have you found anything new?"

Just as Kogoro Mouri was about to begin his reasoning, a voice coming from the shadows of the courtyard interrupted his spell.

"What can I do for you?" A man with narrow eyes and a handlebar mustache stepped out from the shadows. "I'm Suwa Yuji."

It turned out that he was wearing all black and standing in the shadow of the courtyard, so no one noticed him.

Suwa Yuji suddenly appeared, startling Suzuki Sonoko who was standing next to him. She hugged Xiaolan's arm and said, "W-What are you doing standing there?"

"I just didn't want to see Mr. Marudenjiro's death, so I stayed in the yard," Suwa explained.

"Is that so?" Maori Kogoro looked at the seemingly quiet man, and suddenly locked his eyes on his hands: "Mr. Suwa, I guess you are a kendo master?"

"Kendo master? Why do you say that?" Inspector Megure asked in confusion.

Maori Kogoro pointed at Suwa Yuji's hand and said, "Officer, look at his palm. There are scars there from being cut by a sword. Those are the marks that only people who practice kendo regularly will have."

Inspector Megure's eyes suddenly turned cold, because judging from the traces of fighting in the room, the murderer was most likely a kendo master. And Mr. Suwa, not only appeared on the agreed list, but was also a kendo master, so his suspicion would instantly rise to a very high level.

Maori Kogoro was also satisfied with his own reasoning: "That's right! The murderer is you, Mr. Suwa."

Suwa Yuji's face showed just the right amount of panic, and then he began to explain.

Behind the crowd, Conan pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and had a different opinion about Kogoro Mouri's reasoning.

Although logically speaking, Mr. Suwa, a kendo master, is the biggest suspect, there are still many doubts that have not been solved.

Why are there so many knife marks in the room? This can't just be caused by two people fighting, right?

Moreover, if Mr. Suwa really wanted to kill someone, why didn't he use a more subtle method of killing? Instead, he used a method that anyone with a discerning eye would associate with him.

Conan felt that the true face of the murderer was hidden beneath these knife marks.

Conan returned to the room and continued to search for clues at the scene. He soon noticed that the deceased's knife-holding posture was a little strange. He moved closer and found that the front and back directions of his hand were indeed reversed.

Conan felt like a bolt of lightning had struck his head.

A bold idea began to brew in his mind.

With this bold guess, he continued to re-examine the scene, and sure enough, he found a detail that he had not noticed before.

The dragon sculpture on the cabinet was not affected by the sword marks, but the antiques around it were all damaged to some extent.

"Huh? This sculpture seems a bit strange." Conan used his usual tricks to attract the attention of people around him.

Sure enough, the first person to discover this place was the sculptor Akutsu with the pigtails standing up.

After seeing the dragon sculpture, Akutsu walked to the front of it with a look of surprise and said, "So it's here! That's great! I was worried that Marudenjiro would sell it out."

Conan continued, "But why are all the surrounding carvings destroyed, but only this thing is fine?"

Kogoro also came over at this time.

Conan ran to the deceased again and pointed at the hand holding the knife: "Sister Xiaolan, I think Mr. Marudenjiro's knife-holding posture is also very strange. It's not the same as what I saw on TV."

After a scientific inducement, Kogoro Mouri finally seemed to realize something and stopped pestering Mr. Suwa.

Maori Kogoro examined the corpse's knife-holding posture and the sculpture, then slapped his head and shouted, "I know! The murderer is you, Mr. Akutsu!"

"W-what?" Akutsu was shocked. "How could I be the murderer? I don't know kendo at all!"

Maori Kogoro straightened his tie with his hand and began his second reasoning: "This is exactly your trick to deceive people. You deliberately arranged the scene to look like there were traces of a fight between kendo masters, in order to put the blame on Mr. Suwa.

Unfortunately, you knew nothing about kendo, which led to a major mistake: you got the deceased's sword-holding posture wrong.

Also, everything on the scene showed signs of damage, but the sculpture you pawned to Mr. Marudenjiro was the only one that remained unharmed. Don’t you find this strange, Mr. Akutsu?”

"What nonsense are you talking about? Why should I kill him?" Akutsu argued angrily.

While the two were arguing, no one noticed that the corner of Suwa Yuji's mouth twitched slightly, and then he controlled it again.

No wonder Suwa Yuji couldn't control his emotions.

When Suwa Yuji first saw that Kogoro Mori was so sure that he was the murderer, he was a little worried that the detective was too simple-minded and would not be able to see the flaws he had left behind.

Fortunately, the child's unintentional words allowed the detective to discover the bait trap he had set.

Suwa Yuji's heart is still beating very fast. If the bait is not discovered because the hint he left was too obscure, and he ends up in jail, that would be really stupid.

However, since the bait has been discovered, it is basically certain that he will be cleared of suspicion.

I'm sorry, Mr. Akutsu, please help me suffer in prison. Suwa Yuji wants to go out and smoke a cigarette to relieve his tense nerves.

But before he walked out of the house, he suddenly discovered that a high school student was standing in front of the drawer cabinet that had always worried him.

The high school student was observing the marks on the drawer, seemingly thinking about something.

Could it be that he discovered the secret of the drawer?

Suwa Yuji was shocked.

But then he felt that he was thinking too much. How could a high school student find out the clues that even the sleeping Kogoro didn't notice?
Maybe he was just a timid high school student who was scared by a dead body.

Suwa walked to the door, took out a lighter and lit a cigarette. After taking a deep breath, his irritable mood calmed down a lot.

Although Akutsu in the room kept making excuses, he could not produce any valid evidence. After investigation, the police found that he came to visit Maruden Jiro today but did not bring any money. Instead, he wanted to discuss with the other party to postpone the repayment date.

This makes him even more suspicious.

Because they failed to reach an agreement, they developed murderous intentions, and after killing someone, they used clever methods to put the blame on others.

Everything seems to make sense.

The police officer handcuffed Akutsu's hands and prepared to take him back to the police station for questioning.

Conan watched Akutsu's departing figure, but his heart seemed to be shrouded in an inexplicable haze.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't figure out why.

This feeling hasn't appeared for a long time.

He failed to find the murderer in the last art museum incident. Conan initially suspected that it was because he had become smaller and his brain could not keep up, which led to his failure to discover the details of the curator's murder.

However, he later experienced several murder cases with Mouri Kogoro, and solved them all perfectly, and also made Mouri Kogoro the "Sleeping Kogoro".

This helped Conan regain a lot of confidence, and at this time he was still very competitive.

Thinking of this, he subconsciously looked for Haruhiko at the scene, and found that he was standing in front of the cabinet, seemingly thinking about something.

A thought came to Conan's mind: Is there something wrong with this cabinet?
He quickly ran to the cabinet and began to observe the marks on it.

It turns out to be just ordinary sword marks. Could there be more...

Wait a minute, this trace!

Conan felt that the lightning of inspiration was brewing and was about to hit his head.

But at this moment——

"Mr. Suwa, I'm afraid it wouldn't be a good idea to just leave like this, right?"

Seeing Akutsu about to be taken away, Suwa Yuji, who was relieved and ready to leave, suddenly froze.

He turned slowly like a robot and looked at the source of the voice, who was the timid high school student standing in front of the cabinet.

Did he see through it? Suwa Yuji felt that things had deviated from his original plan.

Conan also looked at Haruhiko, but what he was thinking was:
Damn it, he's still ahead of me.

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(End of this chapter)