Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 302 The Man Behind the Famous Detective
"Awaited."

The old butler lowered his head and closed his eyes as he returned to the control room, completely unaware of what had happened during his short absence, still maintaining the humble demeanor befitting a guest.

“I originally wanted the master to cooperate with everyone to find the culprit, but the master was quite angry and still didn’t think being threatened was a big deal.”

Gao Mo observed the old butler with great interest.

A qualified prisoner must have good acting skills, and this old butler is quite impressive.

Moreover, after a rough deduction, he discovered that the other party's design was probably not just a simple trick like surveillance.

Master Fujieda will be killed, but it won't be as simple as just being killed.

Based on the impressions of the maids around them, the butler had worked for the Fujieda family for decades and had practically grown up alongside the former wife.

If the motive for the crime was his ex-wife, then it's impossible for him to let his current wife off the hook.

Because the short-haired woman insisted on erasing all traces of her ex, including but not limited to rebuilding the villa and courtyard, many of the elderly people in the family complained. Even the introverted and taciturn old gardener in the courtyard had clearly expressed his dissatisfaction, but the old housekeeper said nothing.

There's a saying: "A dog that bites doesn't bark."

The old butler's silence was all the more terrifying.

Gao Mo's gaze followed the old butler back to the surveillance footage.

The old butler, who had been calm, suddenly pointed at the screen in the audiovisual room and exclaimed, "Master... Master's hand is raised!"

"What?" Yukiko and Eri, who were chatting nearby about the high school beauty pageant, turned around.

"Did someone go in with a gun?"

“Impossible,” the old butler said in a panic. “When I left, the master locked the door from the inside, and I didn’t see anyone strange!”

In the surveillance footage, Mr. Fujieda had his back to the camera with his hands raised. After a while, he suddenly fell straight down and remained motionless.

It looks like he's been shot.

But he saw clearly when the old man got up that he not only finished his coffee, but also leisurely placed a bookmark in his book.

Rather than being threatened to stand up, he simply stretched after finishing his book, and he didn't see the gunshot when he fell down—although the image wasn't very clear, his eyes couldn't possibly have been mistaken.

Gao Mo narrowed his eyes slightly.

It reminds me of the Mihana Art Museum incident, where incorrect information was transmitted through surveillance footage...

"Hurry to the audiovisual room!" Eri and the others, oblivious to anything amiss, rushed out of the control room. "Butler, is there a spare key to that room?"

"In...in my room..."

"Go get it quickly!"

"Let's go to the audiovisual room first!"

Gao Mo didn't follow, but instead pulled the man with the mustache aside and whispered a few words in his ear.

No matter how despicable Master Fujieda was, or what the culprit's reasons were... he couldn't care less about those things; he just needed to focus on helping the mustachioed man complete his mission.

"Really?" The man with the mustache looked surprised, but after receiving a reassuring look from Gao Mo, he immediately regained his serious expression. "I understand. Leave the rest to me."

Gao Mo watched as the man with the mustache hurriedly left and followed the old butler.

On the other side, Conan, who was following Eri, glanced back, paused slightly, and continued to check the audiovisual room.

"Mrs. Fujieda, call the police and an ambulance right now! Hurry! There might still be hope!" Yukiko shouted to the panicked short-haired woman, only then noticing that Gao Mo hadn't moved.

what happened?
There was no movement in the audiovisual room. Seeing that the housekeeper still hadn't brought the key, the group didn't care about anything else and directly asked Xiaolan to kick open the door.

There was no difference between the audiovisual room and the surveillance footage, except that Mr. Fujieda, who had been thought to have been shot, was shaking his head and getting up.

"What are you doing?" the old man roared, regaining his composure. "Who told you to kick the door?!"

"Are you okay?"

Eri's gaze narrowed, and she suddenly noticed two figures outside the other window. The old butler with the gun was having his wrist tightly held down by the mustachioed man.

The towel slipped off, revealing the silencer on the gun barrel.

"How is this going?"

"Butler Ueki?!"

Everyone's attention was drawn to what was happening outside the window.

The old butler still looked surprised, seemingly not expecting the mustache to suddenly appear.

“That’s enough, Mr. Butler,” the man with the mustache snatched the pistol from the butler’s hand. “It’s time to end this farce you’ve orchestrated!”

"How did you know it was me?" the old butler asked, his voice trembling.

"No, I don't know, you're just really unlucky."

The man with the mustache had one hand in his pocket.

If the commission fee hadn't been so high, he wouldn't have been so overconfident and squandered money; and if he hadn't squandered money, he wouldn't have sought help from Kido. Perhaps then the old steward could have successfully implemented his plan.

If the old man is murdered by then, even if the butler is caught, it will be too late, and he might not be able to get the final payment.

All I can say is that it's all fate.

A hint of pity flickered in the mustache's eyes.

Of course, if he were to choose, he certainly wouldn't want to be the one who suffers the loss.

"Tell me, why would you want to kill your master for no reason?" the man with the mustache asked curiously. "As far as I know, although your master did a lot of bad things, it seems that none of them had anything to do with you."

"Ueki! I haven't mistreated you, have I?" The old man in the room, Fujieda, was equally furious, his temper flaring as he rushed to the window. "You bastard! I trusted you so much! You said it was just a prank and there was nothing to worry about, but it turns out you're the culprit! Why did you want to kill me?"

“Because of Miss,” the butler glanced at the old man with a hint of disgust, “I advised Miss not to trust you back then, but you somehow won her heart and married into the Fujie family. That’s one thing, but how did you treat Miss after that?”
You've gotten to where you are today entirely by taking advantage of Miss, but you never loved her. Only six months after her death, you married your mistress, and now you're even planning to demolish this house full of Miss's memories, as well as her favorite courtyard...

I cannot bear to see even the last trace of the young lady being erased!

"What a joke!" Master Fujieda roared. "You are my butler now, not that woman's! If I die, none of you will have a good ending!" "To protect Miss's memories, I can accept any outcome... What a pity, this courtyard that Miss has carefully protected."

The butler turned around blankly, his hands behind his back, reminiscing as he surveyed the exquisite courtyard under the night sky.

The cloudy, tearful eyes seemed to travel through time and space, reflecting scenes from the past. Amidst the echoing sirens, the old man murmured the name of his deceased wife.

……

Fujieda family courtyard.

The man with the mustache received his full payment as he wished, and a great weight was lifted from his heart as he breathed a sigh of relief.

Overspending is terrifying. We can't be too optimistic in the future, no matter what. We need to think more about the possible consequences.

“Mouri,” Gomer came up from behind, “I just asked him. At the urging of the butler, Master Fujieda added a sentence to the end of his will that if no one can protect his life, he has no right to inherit the estate.”

"Is this directed at his current wife? Butler Ueki is really loyal to his ex-wife," the mustachioed man remarked. "But to be honest, I can understand this butler. Fujieda Mikio was never a good person to begin with. It's a real shame to have the Fujieda family in the hands of someone like that."

"There's nothing to regret."

Gao Mo turned his gaze to the old man Fujie, who was cursing and swearing as he left because he had paid a ten million yuan commission fee.

How can someone be so stingy with the detective who saved their life expect to have a good outcome?
But the story isn't over yet.

If the man with the mustache hadn't stopped him, this guy would have really been shot by the butler.

Time is running out for them.

"Oh, right, here you go," the man with the mustache said, taking half of the commission fee. "Without your help this time, I really don't know what I would have done. I don't know what Eri and the others would think of me."

“No need,” Gao Mo said, taking out only one million. “I said I only wanted 10%. Besides, don’t you owe more than eight million? This little bit of money is nothing to me, but it’s a lifesaver for you.”

"I still have some savings. If all else fails, I can just take on a few more cases later."

The man with the mustache was adamant.

"You may not care about this amount of money, but I still have to give it to you. If I weren't having financial difficulties, I would give you it all. After all, you helped me regain my dignity as a man!"

A man's dignity...

Gao Mo's expression was subtle, but in the end he accepted the mustachioed man's kindness.

A guy who's obsessed with saving face.

"Kirouto!"

At the entrance of Fujie's house, just as Gao Mo was about to leave by car, Fujie Suka chased after him alone, her beautiful face filled with a strange mix of melancholy and anticipation.

"Will we ever see each other again?"

"If you need anything, you can come to the Kido Detective Agency to find me."

Gao Mo replied casually.

It's best if we don't meet again.

He had no desire to have anything to do with this kind of woman.

And to be honest, judging from old man Fujieda's style, he probably won't leave any inheritance to this woman at all.

Not all rich people are easy to manipulate.

"This woman is actually Kido's classmate?" Eri Kisaki stood to the side with her arms crossed, originally wanting to see what her husband would say, but she ended up seeing the short-haired woman's entire reaction.

She's already resorting to marrying a rich man, yet she still wants to make a move on her classmate.

"Mom," Xiaolan said, her mind racing again to try and bring her parents together, "Dad was really amazing today, wasn't he?"

"Impressive?" Eri Kisaki raised an eyebrow and pushed up her glasses suspiciously. "Don't I know what kind of person he is? If he were really impressive, he wouldn't have pretended to be dead and wouldn't have been too afraid to go home, let alone have the audacity to go to the detective agency next door for help. I bet it's Kindaichi who's secretly helping him again."

Conan agreed, but also felt a little frustrated, especially when he saw his mother winking mischievously across from him.

The first thing Mom did when she got back wasn't to see her son, Kido. Does that mean she's tacitly admitting that Kido is better than her?

"Never mind, I'm going back." Eri Kisaki waited for a long time but her husband didn't speak to her, so she sat back in her car with a stern face.

“But Mom,” Xiaolan said anxiously, “Dad just said he was going to treat us to dinner.”

"No need, I didn't help much anyway. He should keep that money to pay off his debts, so he doesn't cause any more trouble. He might not be so lucky next time."

"Oh no!"

"Something happened to the master!"

A sudden burst of panicked shouts came from the Fujieda family courtyard. The police officers who hadn't left yet looked at each other in bewilderment, and the old housekeeper, who had gotten into the police car, was also utterly astonished.

After learning that Master Fujieda had accidentally fallen down the stairs and lost consciousness, the butler burst into laughter: "Karma, karma! So what if you have a detective to help you? Miss Fujieda's spirit in heaven won't let you off the hook!"

Laughter carried far through the night sky, and was tinged with sarcasm towards the detective.

The man with the mustache's face darkened upon hearing this, but Gao Mo didn't seem to care much.

There's no such thing as a spirit in heaven; it's just that old man Fujieda is on the Grim Reaper's list.

Let's just let the other person hold onto that hope for now.

"Kido," the man with the mustache pleaded, "aren't you really going to eat with us?"

"Yes, there are people waiting at home."

Gao Mo waved his hand.

If it weren't for helping the mustachioed man, he would still be at home writing his novel.

Because to advance to level 4 as a novelist, one not only needs to serialize a novel, but also needs to publish a best-selling novel, which puts time on the line.

(End of this chapter)