Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 73 Detective Kindaichi
"And why are you so sure that the culprit is Matsuo?"

Gao Mo retorted.

"Does Mr. Okami always do this casually when investigating cases, just because he identifies a suspect based on his gender?"

"So," Dashang Zhushan was about to lose his gentlemanly image in front of the camera, "what basis do you have for judging the criminal? Everything must be based on evidence..."

"You should have noticed, right? The criminal actually shot and killed people from upstairs. There's a warehouse on the 7th floor right above it."

Gao Mo glanced at the silent Dashang, and the clues in his mind were put together again.

This was the first time he had reasoned in public, not just in front of a group of reporters but with live national cameras.

I can vaguely feel countless gazes of attention.

If something goes wrong, not only will Kindaichi's disguise ruin his career as a famous detective, but his mustache may also become a laughing stock.

After some organizing thought, Gao Mo returned to the conference room under the flash photography and live camera. After thinking for a moment, he called over the mustache man next to him and said, "Maori, you play the role of Mr. Suwa who was killed."

"Me again?" Kogoro Mouri had just recovered, but his face tensed again when he heard that.

He didn't know what Gao Mo wanted to do, but it looked like he was suppressing Da Shang Zhu Shan.

His partner's victory is his victory.

"How to act?" Maori Kogoro asked in a low voice when he walked to Gao Mo.

"Open the window and look upstairs first."

Gao Mo made way for the man with the mustache and directed him to push the window and look out.

"Now, pretend you're shot in the head from above. Your legs give out and your body falls down naturally."

"Is that so?"

The man with a moustache had a dazed look on his face and collapsed to the ground, sticking to the window and the wall, looking a little funny.

With a crisp click, the opened window swung closed again, returning to the state it was in when the murder scene was discovered.

Megure at the door didn't care about the slightly ugly appearance of the mustache and quickly ran to the window: "It is indeed possible, but how can we get the victim to stick his head out from here?"

"I probably made a phone call and said something to the producer. The evidence is that the blood-stained phone was open and must have been held to his ear at the time."

Gao Mo reached out and pulled up his mustache.

"The officer could actually try it out in the warehouse on the 7th floor. The pistol only needs to be dropped before the window closes, so it can look like the murder took place in the conference room."

"Go now!" Megure hurriedly shouted to Takagi who was distracted outside.

"Yes!"

"In fact, the most obvious evidence is the bloodstains," Gao Mo continued. "The window is covered in splattered blood, even on the edges, but there's not a single drop of blood on the window frame or the wall. It's like it was cut in the middle...

This is probably the biggest flaw in this method, which is why the murderer is eager to find a scapegoat."

Gao Mo asked the police officer for the blood-stained mobile phone that was sealed as evidence: "The call records from that time should still be kept, right?"

"There were three calls in total," Megure nodded. "The first one has been confirmed to be from the studio at the start of the show. The second one was from Matsuo Takashi. The third one didn't go through, and no one answered when I called back..."

"I told you," Okami Zhushan seized the opportunity to stand up again. "Perhaps the murderer did fire from upstairs, but this only makes Matsuo Takashi a stronger suspect. Just like you said, it was Matsuo who called the producer to watch outside and then shot him!"

"Inspector Megure!" A few minutes later, Takagi peeked out from the 7th floor and met Megure's gaze, who had opened the window and was looking up. "There really is a warehouse here, right next to the stairs. Going from here to the 9th floor should cut the travel time in half!"

"Officer, I called Suwa to check on the situation, but the call didn't go through!"

Takashi Matsuo was brought back to the scene and regarded Gao Mo as his life-saving straw.

"Teacher Kindaichi, save me, Teacher Kindaichi!"

"..."

Now the teacher is calling you "teacher" all the time.

Gao Mo didn't want to pay much attention to this guy.

Call recording is a real issue, though.

Identifying the killer is one thing, but it is useless if you can't prove the killer committed the crime.

This shouldn't be the case. What went wrong?
It would be great if my reasoning ability could reach level 3, level 2 is still not enough...

Never mind, skipping this is just as well.

The other evidence is sufficient.

After thinking for a while, Gao Mo returned his gaze to the female assistant.

"Ms. Nagai, can I ask where you went during the show? You were chasing Matsuo out."

"I didn't see Matsuo when I left," the female assistant shook her head. "I only ran into him when I came out of the bathroom..."

"Nagai?"

Matsuo looked at the female assistant angrily.

"What are you talking about? I went straight into the bathroom, but you... I only saw you when I came out! Oh, you must have framed me!
"I did think about killing Suwa, but not this time. This time I wanted to prove myself... You're the one who killed Suwa! If Suwa really wanted to increase her sex appeal, you'd be the first one to be replaced!"

"not me……"

"Mr. Kindaichi!"

Dashang Zhushan impatiently interrupted the quarrel between the two suspects and looked at Gao Mo with sharp eyes.

"Don't change the subject. I still say that everything depends on evidence! How are you going to explain the phone call in front of the entire nation? Think carefully. Be careful about your career..."

Osaka.

A black teenager was watching TV in the living room. After being attracted by the incident on the TV station that was temporarily interrupted, he also made some simple inferences.

The method should be real, but how to explain the phone call?

Kindaichi's reasoning only further confirmed that the murderer was Matsuo Takashi.

"Tokyo? Come to think of it, there hasn't been any news about Kudo Shinichi, who's as famous as me, lately."

At the same time, in Beika Town, at Kudo's residence.

Ai Haibara actually has no interest in the case.

She had heard of and experienced too many cases in her previous life. Although she inexplicably lost the key information about death and method after her rebirth, she still knew who the murderer was.

She remembered the TV station case, and the murderer was definitely Takashi Matsuo.

Kindaichi is far from being a famous detective.

but……

Where did this Kindaichi come from?
When did Kogoro Mouri get a detective partner?
"What if Matsuo didn't lie?"

After a brief period of confusion, a powerful voice re-emerged on the live TV broadcast.

Kogoro Maori took over from Gao Mo to block everyone's questioning gazes.

"What if the missed call was actually made by Matsuo?" "What are you talking about? The police have confirmed it..."

"Don't you all have any doubts about the third call?" Maori Kogoro ignored the annoyed Ogami Zhushan, "It's been so long, and we still haven't found out who it is. No one answered the call back. If it's about work, they should call again soon, right?
And since the scene was being livestreamed, they should have at least some idea of ​​what was going on here. Why didn't they contact the police?"

"who knows?"

Dashang Zhushan felt like he was being held in a difficult position, and just like his mountain of debt, he was in a difficult position to get off the tiger.

It might be him who ruins his career.

Not to mention ruining his career, he couldn't even accept the impact on his reputation.

Once the funding chain is broken...

"It might be a harassing call," said Okami Zhushan, his cold eyes filled with murderous intent. "The current situation is that Matsuo called the producer before he died!"

"No, there's another strong possibility. The phone used to make the third call is currently on silent mode, and the owner is inconvenient and doesn't dare to answer it."

Maori Kogoro and Gao Mo stood shoulder to shoulder, their expressions more solemn than ever, their eyes fixed on the female assistant who suddenly showed a hint of panic.

At this moment, the man with the mustache seemed to be radiating light all over his body, and even Gao Mo took a few more glances at him.

"What if someone uses the exact same phone number, exchanges it with Matsuo's beforehand, and then finds a way to switch it back afterwards? Ms. Nagai, do you dare to answer the phone now?"

"Dad?" Xiaolan exclaimed in surprise, as if she was getting to know her father all over again.

Conan next to him also looked confused.

He had never seen his uncle like this before, and it seemed that he had changed a lot after partnering with Gao Mo.

Not at all like the confused uncle he knew.

"That's amazing," Megure was surprised for a long time before he came back to his senses. Looking at the stiff and motionless female assistant, he patted his mustache in amazement, "You really make me look at you in a new light, Maori!"

"a ha ha ha!"

The guy with a mustache who had just been praised laughed triumphantly with his hands on his hips.

"No big deal, no big deal. I'm just more experienced, hahaha! With our golden duo on the scene, what's a small case like this?!"

Da Shang Zhu Shan's face darkened, as if he had been hit by a boomerang.

He now doesn't know whether the man with the mustache is really stupid or just pretending to be stupid.

The detective team seems to have something to say...

"I do have the same phone number as Mr. Matsuo," the female assistant said, her head lowered, suddenly losing her composure. "But so what? How can you say that Mr. Matsuo and I exchanged phone numbers? How is that even evidence?!"

"what?"

Kogoro Mouri's smile froze and he opened his mouth but couldn't say anything.

"Well..."

really.

Conan's face twitched.

Sure enough, it was the uncle he was familiar with.

Familiar taste.

"If you want evidence, I'll give it to you," Gao Mo shook his head in amusement, pulled his mustache and said, "You deliberately mentioned that Matsuo had recently been training marksmanship abroad. How did you know that? If Matsuo intended to kill someone, he wouldn't reveal it so casually."

"What's the point of asking this?" The female assistant's pretty face turned a bit more fierce. "Is it not okay for me to find out by chance?"

"The police can check your exit records. I think you went abroad to train shooting," Gao Mo said calmly. "It's a pity that you are just a half-baked one. You don't know that there will be residue on your body after shooting."

The female assistant's face changed drastically, and before she could react, the man with a mustache strode forward and grabbed her arm.

"There's a smell of gunpowder!" The man with a mustache sniffed closely and became alert.

It's very light, but it does have a smell of gunpowder.

"And there are dust scratches under your arm. When you fired the gun from upstairs, it was inevitable that traces were left... Once it's done, it's impossible to completely cover it up. If the police focus their investigation on this aspect, you can't hide." Gao Mo finally reminded Megure.

In fact, the police in this world are not really that stupid.

It’s just that the police are too concerned about evidence and are completely overwhelmed with inspections.

There are many cases of wrongful convictions due to the lack of autopsies.

This is also the reason why there are so many detectives. Most detectives do not need to find a complete chain of evidence, but instead find flaws through reasoning.

By contrast, the detectives' rate of solving cases appears high.

It is also difficult for detectives to deal with suspects who refuse to confess.

"hehe."

The female assistant seemed to have lost all her strength. She dropped her handbag with a miserable smile and let the same phone as Matsuo Takashi's slide out.

"I actually noticed the smell too, but these two have been following me since the studio, and there's no way I can deal with them." The female assistant glanced at Xiaolan and Sonoko who were in a daze, "Great Detective, you suspected me from the beginning, right?
"Damn it! I never thought that Matsuo would find so many detectives... It's a pity that I only have this one chance."

The sirens sounded again downstairs of the TV station.

The female assistant lowered her head dejectedly, and Megure put on her coat and held her hands. She got into the car with Takashi Matsuo, followed by the flash cameras of reporters.

The latter was also sentenced for possessing a pistol, but his case was not as serious as that of the female assistant.

"Thank you, thank you, Mr. Kindaichi, Mr. Mori."

Takashi Matsuo burst into tears.

He had given up on his plan to kill, he really had given up.

Obviously, there is a new direction, and the popularity of the show is booming again.

But it seemed like God was playing a trick on him. The female assistant actually picked up his murder plan and almost framed him.

"At least the last show allowed me to see the charm of the detective team..."

"Mr. Okami, what are you thinking now?"

"Mr. Okami?"

Under the cover of night, only Okami Zhushan was left with a gloomy face, standing in the same frame with Gao Mo and Maori Kogoro, surrounded by the noise of reporters.

The sound of the wind, the sirens, the boiling voices, and the lingering resentment...

Gao Mo seemed to hear Conan's ending song, but the massive amount of malice that came with it made his brows twitch.

Becoming famous under a pseudonym also amplifies malice and murderous intent.

I turned around inadvertently and saw Dashang Zhushan leaving with a distraught look on his face. The aura of death I had felt before became even stronger.

Let’s go together…

Gao Mo took a step back unnoticed, allowing Bodyguard No. 1, whose face was flushed, to occupy more of the live broadcast screen.

(End of this chapter)