Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 124 Kindaichi the Great Detective Assistant
"call!"

In the drizzling rain, a row of luxury cars in the open space in front of the museum exploded and burned to the ground. Even the only rented car was not spared and was completely consumed by the flames.

Seeing this, the man with the mustache was completely heartbroken.

This was the first time he had encountered such a situation in all these years; at most, he had only had his tires deflated and punctured before.

"What kind of bastard is this?" The mustachioed man grew angrier the more he thought about it. "If they really didn't want us to leave, blowing up the suspension bridge would have been enough! Why blow up the cars?"

“Okay, Dad,” Xiaolan comforted him, “We can go through insurance for the car, but it’s more important to find a way to leave right now.”

The man with the mustache felt a little uneasy: "Do you think Kido... Kindaichi, that guy, deliberately didn't drive the car over?"

"How could that be?" Ran denied. "Mr. Kindaichi can't predict the future."

"That's true..."

The man with the mustache turned his attention back to the burning luxury car.

Even though it's not my own car, it really hurts to see it like this.

Such an expensive car, and it just exploded like that.

"Beast!"

……

"The lips didn't turn bluish-purple...it's cyanide poisoning."

The restaurant inside the building.

Da Shang Zhu Shan remained lying on the dining table in the same death pose.

Originally intending to poison Gao Mo, she never expected that she would be the one to die.

It seems to confirm the prediction made by the man with the mustache—to die at the very table of food he was so proud of.

Senma Kōdai took out a 10-yen copper coin and dipped it into the black tea that Ōgami Shozen had drunk before his death.

"There was no redox reaction, so it seems the death wasn't caused by this cup of black tea."

"What's going on?"

Harufumi Mogi bent down to examine the area around the corpse.

"If there was something wrong with the tableware, this guy wouldn't have died last."

“In any case,” Hakuba Saguru put away his pocket watch and turned his gaze to the masked man who was still sitting calmly, “since the seats were arranged in advance, it means that he was after Ogami from the beginning… Ogami’s death is inextricably linked to this guy.”

Gao Mo withdrew his gaze from the deathly aura emanating from the crowd, his eyes deep as he ripped off the masked man's mask: "I think you've all made a mistake. The murderer isn't this guy."

"A dummy?!" Hakuba Saguru stopped in his tracks. "It's just a dummy with a megaphone attached..."

"So, does that mean the killer is still monitoring us somewhere?"

"The villa is indeed covered by surveillance cameras everywhere."

“It has nothing to do with those surveillance cameras,” Gao Mo interrupted everyone’s exploration by pushing the mannequin over. “The person behind it all just pre-recorded the audio and played it at a set time. The person in question has always been among us.”

"It's a recording?"

The remaining few looked at each other, feeling a deep sense of apprehension.

"I just spoke with him... Did he even anticipate what we were thinking?"

"It's just a little trick of designing the serving time in stages. That guy strictly determined the order of serving the dishes... But as far as I know, Phantom Thief Kid never causes any deaths." Mogi Harufumi frowned as he looked at Gao Mo's back.

"I didn't say it was Kaito Kid; I should say that from the very beginning, someone was using Kaito Kid as a front."

Gao Mo stepped forward.

The megaphone, lying on the ground, was still playing: "It seems you all know I wasn't joking. Kindaichi's death is regrettable, but this is just the beginning. You all don't have much time left either..."

"Let me give you one more hint: Two travelers gaze at the night sky, and... a demon..."

"Beep!"

Gao Mo reached out and turned off the tape recording.

The other detectives didn't pay much attention, only scoffing, "It seems the guy who pulled the trick wasn't perfect after all; he actually got the victim wrong."

"Actually, there was no mistake. They originally intended to kill me."

Gao Mo used a handkerchief to fold up the tape, completely ruining the treasure hunt.

Two travelers gaze at the night sky, when a demon descends upon the castle. The king flees with his treasure, the queen weeps over the Holy Grail, begging for forgiveness, and a soldier takes his own life, his blood staining the fields...

This is the complete code that matches the story we just heard.

It's possible that one of these famous detectives might be able to solve the mystery and find the treasure, so it's safer to cut off this lead and shift all focus to the murder case. "Originally should have... what does that mean?"

Harufumi Mogi continued to scrutinize the famous detective's assistant in front of him.

"Do you already know something?"

"Yes."

Gao Mo felt everyone's gaze upon him.

This includes Kenjiro Wakita, who came from the kitchen, and Kogoro Mouri, who returned to the restaurant with Ran.

“I know who the murderer is, and I know what happened to Mr. Ogami. The truth... I know everything now.”

"what?"

The detectives, who were searching for clues and pondering the reasoning, froze in place.

Claiming to know the truth right after the case has occurred? What kind of super detective are you?
Even the top-tier legendary detectives have to conduct investigations first...

“Haha,” Harufumi Mogi covered his face and laughed, “I say, Mr. Assistant, even your mustachioed partner hasn’t said anything, yet you already know the truth…”

"Stop joking around now, okay? You can't have had this mannequin tell you that, can you?"

Conan, who was also examining the body, was equally astonished.

He had only just begun to speculate about the cause of Da Shang Zhu Shan's death.

What is Kido doing?
Why the rush to deduce? Even if you want to show off in front of these famous detectives...

He doesn't usually seem like the type to like being in the spotlight.
"Stop joking, we don't even know how Da Shang was poisoned to death yet."

Harufumi Mogi waved his hand and turned to Kogoro Mouri with a smile.

“Keep an eye on your partner, you little mustache.”

Hakuba Saguru followed up with, "What's the situation outside? Were all the cars really destroyed?"

"Just as he said, the cars were all destroyed, but the situation on the other side of the suspension bridge is still unknown."

"It was a deep voice," Kogoro Mouri said.

"However, there's still one car in the backyard that's completely intact..."

“That’s my car,” the maid quickly explained, “because the master told me to park it at the back door.”

"Damn it," Harufumi Mogi said with a pained expression, "My beloved Romeo... that's the car I spent five years finally getting my hands on. If you're going to blow up a bridge, then blow up a bridge. Why blow up the car?"

"Maybe they're worried we'll find another way down the mountain?"

Senma Kōdai stood up from beside the corpse of Daigami.

"I think we should take the maid's car to the suspension bridge and check the surrounding area. Maybe it's just the murderer playing a trick."

"Grandma Senjang".

Noticing that the aura of death among the crowd was growing stronger, Gao Mo called out to Senma Kazuyo.

"Mr. Osaka is dead. Should this charade continue?"

"what?"

The group, who were about to leave with Senma Kazuyo, stopped in their tracks in confusion, and the old lady's body trembled slightly.

"Even if you manage to fake your death, the treasure hunt can't continue. I've already sent a message to the police, and they should be able to rescue you soon."

"What's going on?" Kogoro Mouri asked in surprise. "Kindaichi, isn't there no signal or phone call here?"

“I prepared a signal relay device beforehand,” Gao Mo said, glancing back at Chima Kazuyo, who had frozen in place. “It’s in the car on the other side of the suspension bridge… After all, I’ve experienced this kind of isolation before.”

Conan raised an eyebrow, recalling the incident of the bandaged man at the mountain villa.

So the car wasn't damaged at all, and it was deliberately parked on the mountain road?

It really is……

“Wait,” Harufumi Mogi interrupted, “you’re not trying to say that Granny Senma is the murderer, are you? What faked death? What acting?”

"Don't you understand yet?"

Gao Mo sat down in the spot where the masked man had been sitting.

"This banquet was a scheme orchestrated by two people from the very beginning. The Mercedes that was parked at the entrance early was just a decoy. The reason the so-called host was so well hidden was because he couldn't show up in person. Since he was among the guests, he didn't meet the maid at all."

(End of this chapter)