Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 286 A Guide for Freelance Writers

"The deceased was named Yasuhiro Kamoshita, 37 years old, a freelance writer."

Familiar police car, familiar police officers.

Gao Mo once again encountered Coral Head Heng Gou on a police call.

After the forensic team finished collecting evidence, Yokomizo invited Mustache to participate in the case investigation.

"The cause of death was strangulation, but prior to that, the back of the head appeared to have been struck, with bleeding, but not fatal. It's likely that he was first knocked unconscious and then strangled with a rope..."

"The victim's phone, which was lying next to him, captured the scene of the crime. A naked woman was strangling a duck by the neck from behind with some kind of thin black thread... Unfortunately, the photo was backlit and not very clear, and it didn't capture the face, only the chest area."

There is a black mole below the collarbone, meaning the perpetrator is a woman with a black mole on her chest.

A police officer reported this.

"According to the hotel staff, after checking in, Kamoshita went around talking about something worth 20 million yen. In the evening, he deliberately stopped a few female staff members and said that if they didn't want to be exposed, they could talk in his room. It seemed that he had caught one of the female staff members doing something wrong."

"There were three waitresses who did not have alibis at the time of the incident..."

Upon hearing this, Gao Mo's expression shifted slightly. He bypassed the forensic personnel and indeed found signs of being beaten on the back of the corpse's head.

The strangulation wasn't severe enough, so the victim woke up while being strangled.

This, in turn, further corroborates his reasoning.

However, many questions remain about the case.

One method was to deliberately soak the body in a bath.

Secondly, the bathroom was used as the crime scene.

Thirdly, the murder weapon...

Gao Mo's eyes were bright as he quickly filtered through clues and organized his thoughts.

Deductive reasoning is a technical skill, but fortunately, he has the Mind Palace, so as a current Level 5 detective, reconstructing the scene is not too difficult.

“This case is very simple,” the man with the mustache said, still talking to his mystery enthusiast, Inspector Yokomizo. “We just need to see which of the three waitresses has a mole on her chest.”

"Could it be that the criminal manipulated the time display to create an alibi, and deliberately took the photos?" Yokomizo couldn't help but wonder.

“I don’t think so,” Conan popped out from behind the mustache. “Because in the photo, the criminal has the rope wrapped tightly around his neck with both hands, so he can’t take the picture without freeing his hands. Also, the chest is visible in the photo. If the criminal took the picture himself, he would definitely be dressed properly, making it impossible to tell whether he is male or female.”

"It seems that the reporter uncle had his phone on silent so that taking pictures wouldn't make any noise, so the criminal must not have noticed."

"It's you again, you brat," the mustachioed man waved his hand impatiently. "Go away, don't cause trouble here!"

Conan's forehead twitched.

That old geezer is incompetent himself, and not only does he always have to clean up his messes, but he also loves to chase him away.

If it were a castle...

Conan turned his head and saw Gao Mo watching a videotape in the bedroom.

Why watch a videotape at this time?
Conan, still confused by Gao Mo's actions, continued to look at the phone in Yokomizo's hand.

The victim would have taken their phone into the bathroom at the time of the incident, which means they were likely talking to someone beforehand and might have provided some clues.

“Anyway,” Yokomizo said, stepping out of the bathroom and facing the three hostesses brought by the police officers, showing them photos taken on his phone, “there were only three of you at the time of the incident, so you don’t have alibis. Can we check your bodies? Let’s see if you have any moles on your chests…”

"What? You want to look at our breasts here?"

"No, no, we'll have the policewoman check other rooms."

"There's no need for that, I'm just looking at your chest," the short-haired woman said, blushing as she pulled open her yukata to reveal her bra. "See? No moles, right?"

“Hey, Bessou! You…”

"Dawdling will only arouse suspicion; we still have work to do."

"makes sense."

The other two were surprised, looked at each other, and then also pulled open their yukatas.

"Is this okay?"

The man with the mustache stared wide-eyed, but quickly regained his composure under his daughter Xiaolan's gaze: "Ahem, speaking of which, you all have moles, one near your mouth, one on the back of your neck, and one..."

The man with the mustache paused, looking directly at the older female waitress, the same supervisor who had spoken to him when he arrived at the hotel.

"Your mole is indeed on your chest!"

"Look more closely!" the older waitress explained urgently, "Mine is on the right, but in the photo it's on the left! It's completely opposite, okay?"

“I said,” the woman with the braid said impatiently, “putting aside moles and all that, is it really that hard to check the fingerprints on the murder weapon? Even if some of us have moles on our chests, what does that prove?”

“Well,” Yokomizo said with a headache, “we haven’t found the murder weapon yet, we only know that it should be a very long, thin black thread.”

"It's unbelievable that they suspect us when they can't even find the murder weapon."

"We're very busy, okay?"

"Yes, why should we be suspected? We were just taking a bath in an open-air bath when the incident happened."

"Are you sure you were all together when the crime happened?" Gao Mo, fiddling with the videotape, suddenly spoke up. "It's not a good thing to give false testimony to help the murderer get away with it."

"This……"

All three waitresses' eyes fell on Gao Mo at the same time.

“Who are you?”

"..."

Gao Mo felt a dark cloud over his forehead. Was he really that unnoticed?
"I am Mr. Mori's assistant. Do you remember the time we went to the open-air bath?"

"I don't quite remember," the three waitresses said, hesitant to speak further. "I only know it was after all the guests had finished showering."

"You must remember who went in last, or who left halfway through, right?" The man with the mustache stepped forward with a smug look on his face.

With Gao Mo volunteering to be his assistant, he felt even more confident in solving the case.

“I was the last one to go in,” the woman with the braid replied, frowning. “Are you doubting me?”

“I happened to be at the bathhouse at that time. They all entered the bathhouse after the time of the incident,” Conan interrupted the mustachioed man’s questioning. “Anyone has time to commit a crime.”

The man with the mustache lowered his eyelids again, his expression unusually unfriendly: "What are you doing at the bathhouse, you brat?"

“Of course it’s to help Kazuki find his mother,” Conan said matter-of-factly. “I saw the moles on the aunties’ faces back then.”

The mustache is even more of a headache.

Damn it, why was he sleeping at that time?

Gao Mo's gaze darted back and forth between the three waitresses.

With the case stalled, Yokomizo is trying to contact the editorial department with whom Kamoshita last spoke.

However, he already knew who the murderer was and who Kinukawa Kazuki's mother was.

The entire murder case was crystal clear to him.

“Officer Yokomizo,” the officer reported, “we have contacted Tokyo Publishing House. The editor-in-chief of ‘Hot Weekly’ is in charge of Kamoshita. He did speak with Kamoshita before the incident, but Kamoshita only mentioned that a woman was taking a shower in the bathroom. It seems that Kamoshita was planning to secretly take pictures of her.”

"What is that woman's identity?" Yokomizo asked excitedly.

“Yamo didn’t say that on the phone.” The officer handed the phone to Yokomizo.

"Yes, he only said it was Kinukawa Kazuki's mother, a woman named Atsuko. Kamoshita caught her extorting 2000 million yen from Kinukawa Kazuki's agency," the editor-in-chief responded over the phone. "I heard that the agency initially thought it was a prank, but the other party knew a lot about Kinukawa Kazuki's past and physical characteristics..."

“Wait a minute,” Yokomizo said, somewhat confused, “Kinukawa Kazuki’s mother is extorting money from the agency… What’s going on? The culprit is Kinukawa Kazuki’s mother?”

The child star, who had been standing quietly to the side, turned pale and put his sunglasses back on.

Gao Mo handed him a piece of chocolate. Although it was a little annoying, he was still just a kid.

Kinukawa Kazuki instinctively took the chocolate, then paused for a moment before realizing what he was doing: "What are you doing? I don't care if that woman is a murderer or not!"

I didn't say anything to you.

Gao Mo's eyes twitched, and he squatted down to return all the postcards to the kid: "Is it possible that you remembered the location of the mole wrong? If you're holding a child, you won't be able to cut vegetables. It's easier to carry him on your back."

"Carrying it on your back?"

Kinukawa Kazuki's mind went blank, and by the time he came to his senses, Gao Mo had already walked towards the police officers handling the case.

"Could it be that she's not one of the waitresses here?" the man with the mustache said, scratching his head in deep thought. "Could it be that Kamoshita himself made a mistake?"

"That's possible, but..."

“I do find it strange that the criminal isn’t wearing any clothes,” Gao Mo quickly stopped the man with the mustache from veerging the investigation off course. “Don’t you guys think so? He’s not even wearing a bra in the photos. He was about to kill someone, and it was a sneak attack, so there’s no need for him to take everything off, right? And he even deliberately soaked the duck’s body in water…”

"Maybe he's a pervert? Or maybe he's trying to lower the duck's guard?" The mustachioed man said blankly, then his mind suddenly became much sharper. "Wait a minute, maybe he's worried about blood splattering on his clothes and wants to make it easier to clean up the bloodstains."

Yes, that's right, that's why they chose to commit the crime in the bathroom... but that doesn't prove anything.

"Mouri, is that mole really a mole?" Gao Mo cut straight to the heart of the case. "Could it be blood splattered on the criminal? After all, the photos taken with the phone aren't very clear."

Yokomizo's eyes lit up, and he nodded vigorously again: "That's possible! That would make them suspects again!"

“The problem is still not solved,” the little mustache’s flash of inspiration vanished again in despair. “Even the mole, a rare clue, is gone, and the biggest problem now is still not finding the murder weapon.”

"The things the prisoner knocked out under the duck were found; bloodstains were found on the showerhead in the bathroom."

Yokomizo turned seriously to the three waitresses.

"Could you please cooperate? I suspect the murder weapon might be hidden on one of you..."

"Impossible, right?" the short-haired woman said nervously. "We've all been to the outdoor bathhouse changing room; there's nowhere to hide any rope there."

"The murder weapon is probably gone, but we might find other clues." Gao Mo gave the short-haired woman a special look.

Why can't I have children? — Toshiko Bessho, a woman with short hair.

【I'm sorry, Kazu.】—Sanji Asaka

Why did he have to die at our hotel? —Mizu Kusano

Compared to the fierce and aloof braided woman and the older female waitress, the short-haired woman seemed somewhat introverted. She had been evasive before, but became much more proactive once she arrived.

So even though the projected text was blurry, he still locked onto the woman immediately.

“Speaking of the long, thin black thing,” Gomer turned to the man with the mustache and reminded him, “I just found something, the videotape in the room.”

"Huh?" The man with the mustache picked up the videotape box, looking bewildered. "Isn't this He Hui's film? You're not saying the murder weapon is the tape inside, are you? Haha, the tape inside is still intact."

“I didn’t say the murder weapon was a cassette tape, it’s just that the length is a bit strange,” Gao Mo continued to guide the conversation. “It’s marked as 93 minutes, but when I fast-forwarded through it just now, the total length only showed 91 minutes, as if someone cut 2 minutes off the tape…”

"It was cut off?"

The man with the mustache froze, and after picking up the videotape to watch it, his expression gradually turned serious.

"If it were a 2-minute cassette tape, and stretched out, it would be about a meter long, which matches the murder weapon! And it would be easy to burn it afterward. The reason for choosing the bathroom was to make it easier to clean up any remaining magnetic powder!"

Conan was stunned when Gao Mo said that the mole wasn't a mole, and now he was even more shocked, a flash of inspiration crossing his mind.

I've already formed a prejudice.

He should have expected this bad luck.

Why is he always a step behind? It feels like Gao Mo knows the answer in advance, never taking any detours and always hitting the bullseye.

Conan scratched his head, staring at the mustachioed guide, Gao Mo, with a puzzled look.

This is usually his job, although most of the time he can't stand his uncle's slowness and chooses to use an anesthetic.

Uncle's mind is quite active right now.

"Miss Bessho!"

Suddenly, the man with the mustache got into the zone, his whole being seemed to be glowing. Gone was his previous lecherous and sleazy demeanor; he stared at the short-haired woman like a true detective.

"You deliberately pulled open your yukata in front of us because you were afraid the police would find the bloodstains on your collar during a body search, right? That's right, the area below the collarbone is a blind spot. You didn't notice the victim's blood there when you were rushing to deal with the scene, and you just put the yukata on..."

I only realized it when I saw the photo: the bloodstains on your body were washed away, but what about the ones on your yukata? That's probably the only reason someone as introverted as you would take the initiative like this.

"Miss Bessho is the murderer?" Inspector Yokomizo asked in surprise. "Are you Kinukawa Kazuki's mother?"

“No, it shouldn’t be her,” the man with the mustache said definitively. “How could a mother who regularly sends postcards to her son suddenly blackmail the agency? After that, the agency never handed over any postcards it received to Kinukawa Kazuki again. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Eh?
Conan stared dumbfounded at the drastically changed mustache.

Gao Mo's guidance seemed no different from his usual approach, but it was as if the old man had suddenly switched to a serious mode.

why?
“Am I right?” The man with the mustache continued to stare directly at the short-haired woman. “How do you know so much about Kinukawa Kazuki? I think it’s very likely that you know the real Kazuki’s mother.”

"Ha ha……"

The short-haired woman loosened her grip on the collar of her yukata, her smile bleak.

“I didn’t want to either. At first, I was just a little jealous and wanted to play a joke to scare them so the agency wouldn’t accept her postcards anymore. But the agency actually gave me the money. When I didn’t know what to do, this guy suddenly found out about this place and said he’d eat me alive for the rest of my life… I’m really scared…”

"You really are the murderer?" Yokomizo exclaimed in amazement. "Amazing! As expected of the famous detective Kogoro Mouri, you solved the case so easily without even falling asleep!"

"Hahaha!" The man with the mustache laughed triumphantly, instantly shattering the serious atmosphere.

Gao Mo did not remain at the scene.

Despite the fear, the technique was very professional; aside from missing the bloodstains under the collarbone, almost no other traces were left.

But can cassette tapes really be used to kill people?

This aspect was still a blank in his knowledge of assassins.

"Do you still have late-night snacks?" Gao Mo found the kitchen, where a chef was on duty.

"We only have pasta dishes," the chef replied.

"Could you please make me a bowl of buckwheat noodles, without scallions?"

"I want a bowl too."

Kinukawa Kazuki, wearing sunglasses, followed Gao Mo. After calling out to him, he faced Gao Mo directly, and only stammered, "Thank you," when the chef started working.

"Thank me for what?" Gao Mo glanced at the little brat.

“It’s nothing,” the child said, turning his head away again. “I’ll give you the money when we get back.”

"Give it to Mori, I already received my commission fee." Gao Mo curled his lip.

If he hadn't been in contact with the firm, you'd really think this guy was rich.

Because he was a minor, his earnings were all with the church that adopted him. The little kid only had some small pocket money that he saved up and kept in a piggy bank at the agency.

Fortunately, he was quick-witted and went directly to the law firm to ask for the commission fee.

"About that woman," the child hesitated, "could we not tell anyone else? I don't mean anything by it, I just find it troublesome..."

"That's your problem," Gao Mo yawned.

After gaining extraordinary powers, he found himself increasingly uncomfortable staying up late.

I used to spend all night cultivating immortality.

[The Freelance Writer's Guide - Yasuhiro Kamoshita] 4 stars

(End of this chapter)