Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 623 Scapegoat: Torada Yoshiro
The living room of the Torada family was an old-fashioned tatami room, where the group and the head of the Torada family, Torada Naonobu, sat around a low table.

"Officer Yamato, what brings you here today?"

The short, stout Naonobu Torada sat cross-legged on the cushion with a sinister expression, making one wonder if his buttocks could even reach his lap.

Without answering the other person's question, Yamato Kansuke's gaze was fixed on the other person's arm.

There was a white cloth wrapped around it; in Nagano Prefecture, this kind of thing usually only appears when someone in the family has passed away.

The fact that this has now appeared proves that someone in the Torada family recently passed away.

Although the Torada family is a large family, it is not very large, with only four members currently.

They are the head of the family, Torada Naonobu; his wife, Torada Eita; his eldest son, Torada Yoshiro; and his second son, Torada Shigeji.

But why wouldn't he know that someone in this family had died? He had come by a few days ago, and at that time, this situation hadn't occurred.

Others were either observing their surroundings or also focusing their attention on Naonobu Torada.

In short, this kind of attention, like that of an animal being watched, made the head of the Torada family quite uncomfortable, especially since his eldest son had just passed away.

"I apologize for interrupting, but this isn't about Kai-senpai."

Despite verbally apologizing, Yamato Kansuke's gaze remained sharp, locked in a fierce confrontation with his opponent.

Torada Naonobu's expression darkened slightly. He did not lower his guard because of what the other party said. His emotionless mouth uttered an unspeakable irritation: "Even if you came for Kai Genjin, Giro can't accept your questioning now."

Besides anger, there was also a hint of mockery in his eyes.

They clearly did not believe Yamato Kansuke's statement.

"What do you mean?"

Conan couldn't help but ask, "I see you have a white cloth wrapped around your arm, Uncle. In many parts of Japan, there's a custom of wrapping a white cloth around the arm when someone in the family has passed away. Does that mean someone has died?"

Upon seeing Conan, Naonobu Torada frowned, but his expression wasn't too bad. He seemed to think that Kansuke Yamato wouldn't bring a child to ask about Genjin Kai. After a moment of thought, he explained, "Yesterday afternoon, my eldest son, Yoshiro, was practicing archery in the forest when he was suddenly caught in a tornado. By the time we found him, he had already fallen onto a large rock and died."

Although his tone was calm, his reddened eyes and clenched fists told everyone that he was not at peace inside.

"tornado?"

Xia Chuan frowned, then looked at the forest outside. "Although Nagano Prefecture is near the sea, this place is far from the coastline, and tornadoes rarely occur in forested areas. Are you sure?"

A tornado struck the area yesterday afternoon, but he didn't notice any of its effects when he passed through the forest.

At least on their way here, there should have been many tree branches broken by the tornado, and not many fallen leaves on the ground. Even if the tornado was not very destructive, it wouldn't have been like this.

“It was indeed a tornado; I saw it with my own eyes.”

The Japanese-style door opened, and a woman wearing a kimono, with many wrinkles on her face but still wearing bright red lipstick, walked in. Her face looked sickly pale from the makeup.

Judging from her age, she was probably in her fifties or sixties. From the tone of her voice, she was probably not a Filipino maid, but most likely the mistress of the Torada family.

“I saw with my own eyes that Yilang was swept up into the sky by the tornado, and was thrown out shortly afterward. When I found him, he had already fallen to the ground and died a gruesome death.”

Xia Chuan immediately saw through the other party's identity and then said, "Mrs. Torada, are you sure you saw a tornado and not something else?"

“That’s right.” Torada Eita nodded vigorously: “Although it was because of the tornado, I don’t think Girou died accidentally. He was definitely murdered.”

These words were like a bombshell, immediately drawing the attention of the police officers and detectives at the scene. To claim to have witnessed being swept up by a tornado while simultaneously denying an accidental death was truly baffling.

Yuri asked directly, "Then why didn't you call the police?"

"With the recent yakuza shootout and the robbery that happened the night before last, can the police in Nagano Prefecture still be trusted?"

Naonobu Torada made no attempt to hide his distrust as he cast a disapproving glance at Kansuke Yamato: "If we call the police, we might end up investigating one of our own people."

The living room was silent for a few seconds, and the police officers didn't know how to start the conversation.

This was a group AOE attack, and even Yuri, a public security officer, didn't know how to respond, because based on his interactions with Yamato Kansuke over the past two days, the other party didn't seem to be a proper police officer.

It's really possible.

"We definitely need to investigate Torada Yoshiro's matter, but before that, we want to ask where the Torada family's helicopter is."

Xia Chuan did not ask why they could not be reached yesterday afternoon. Judging from the time of Torada Yoshiro's death, they were probably all dealing with Torada Yoshiro's affairs at that time, so missing the call seemed understandable.

However, Longwei's family didn't answer the phone either; we'll need to find out the reason later.

Natsukawa's direct approach surprised Torada Naonobu, who clearly hadn't expected him to be there because of his own helicopter.

"Speaking of which, I haven't used a helicopter since my health deteriorated these past two years. I remember Yilang was in charge of it."

After going around in circles, the question has returned to the deceased.

This situation, however, caught Conan's attention.

The day after the gold heist, Torada Yoshiro suddenly died. Both events were related to helicopters, so he couldn't help but make the connection.

“Take us to the helipad and then we can go back and investigate Mr. Torada Yoshiro’s death. Since you think their deaths weren’t caused by a tornado, you must have some other guesses. Tell us about them on the way.”

The Torada family estate is quite large. In addition to the main house, there is a stable next to it. After walking for a long time, you can see an open space covered by a high wall, with a black helicopter parked in the middle.

On the way, Naonobu Torada also voiced his guess.

The Torada and Ryuo families have always had a bad relationship, so Torada Naonobu and Torada Eita have been suspecting that the murderer might be someone from the Ryuo family, and are planning to invite Tokyo's famous detective Kogoro Mouri to investigate.

"Do you really think the Dragon Tail family knows magic? That they can summon tornadoes out of thin air?"

Yuri scoffed at this, but in his heart he was wondering if the Torada family had deliberately pushed Torada Yoshiro out as a scapegoat after discovering their investigation.

Once someone dies, it's impossible to find out anything.

"Hmph, who knows? Maybe the Ryuo family knew the tornado's path in advance," Torata Eita muttered under his breath, but no one paid him any attention.

Upon hearing Uncle Kogoro's name, Conan couldn't help but twitch his lips.

This suited the family's wishes perfectly.

Although Uncle Kogoro didn't come, the mastermind behind the Sleeping Detective did. With him there, the helicopter problem and Yoshiro Torada's death will both be solved.

Yes, there's something wrong with the helicopter.

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(End of this chapter)