Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 92 The New Suspect

As dawn broke, fishermen from Moonshadow Island had already gone out to sea to fish, and the peaceful atmosphere made it seem as if no murder had ever occurred.

The lights at the community center stayed on all night.

Ken Nishimoto died, but police officers still found some powder in his house, as well as in the homes of Kuroiwa and Kawashima.

This confirms some of Asai Narumi's statements.

Asai Narumi himself was detained by the police on suspicion of deliberately destroying the crime scene.

The Metropolitan Police Department's backup forces arrived before dawn.

Considering that the perpetrator was provoking the police, the Metropolitan Police Department dispatched thirty officers this time.

There were also two autopsy personnel among them.

"How is it?" Inspector Megure asked.

"Hideo Kawashima died around 12:30 a.m., and Ken Nishimoto died around 2 a.m.

The coroner paused for a moment before continuing, "Kuroiwa Tatsuji's body was not properly preserved, so we cannot determine the exact time of death. We can only estimate that he died between noon and 1 p.m. yesterday."

“I see.” Inspector Megure nodded.

"Brother Mori, what do you think?"

Kogoro Mouri, just woke up, looked sleepy and bewildered, and asked, "What's for breakfast?"

Inspector Megure:
Inspector Megure decided to skip Kogoro Mouri; that guy was a bit unreliable.

Although Keiji Aso's son was found last night, the real culprit was not found.

"Alright, what about Brother Xia Chuan?"

Xia Chuan pulled out some sunflower seeds from somewhere and was cracking them open when he was surprised to hear Inspector Megure call him.

However, in the spirit of helping others, he still offered a word of advice.

"Kawashima Hideo's body was dumped a little after one o'clock, just as Asai Narumi arrived at the Kawashima residence."

Ken Nishimoto's body was dumped around 2:30 or 3:00. I happened to be passing by the Nishimoto house at that time and saw Narumi Asai preparing to climb over the wall to enter the Nishimoto house.

In conclusion, the deaths of Kawashima and Nishimoto were unrelated to Asai Narumi; the true culprit was someone else.

Inspector Megure nodded.

So, who is the murderer?
Tell me quickly, I'm in a hurry to get off work, I haven't slept all night, thank you.

"If revenge doesn't work, perhaps we can try a different approach. For example, this isn't a revenge killing, but a murder caused by a conflict of interest."

"So, Brother Xia Chuan, what have you discovered? Tell me quickly!"

Inspector Megure was furious with the killer; after all, disposing of a body in front of the police twice was something no one could tolerate.

"It's not that I've discovered anything, I just have some suspicions about that Shimizu Masato."

Natsukawa pointed to Shimizu Masato, who hadn't slept all night and still had a smile on his face, and said:

"This guy is suspicious, and you don't necessarily have to kill someone yourself. If Asai Narumi can hire a detective, why can't Shimizu Masato use money to hire a hitman?"

He, along with the deceased Kuroiwa Tatsuji and Kawashima Hideo, were all candidates for village chief, and his vote count was the worst, making it possible he committed murder.

In the world of Detective Conan, spitting anywhere can be fatal, let alone competing for the position of village chief.

Furthermore, both Kuroiwa and Kawashima used money to garner votes, while Shimizu Masato didn't have that much money.

Therefore, he had every reason to kill the two men because of this hired killer.

As for Ken Nishimoto...
It was probably just a side effect; Shimizu Masato probably felt that killing only two competitors would attract too much attention, so he added Nishimoto Ken, the unemployed bum.

Inspector Megure nodded outwardly, but inwardly he was cursing.

This hypothesis was too bold, somewhat beyond his imagination.

So the killer isn't among the people at the community center, but rather a killer who appeared out of nowhere, killed them all, and then left?

But upon closer reflection, what Xia Chuan said wasn't entirely unreasonable. "You can check Shimizu Masato's account and see if there have been any large transactions recently. If there are large transactions that have disappeared without a trace, then this is very likely the case."

“But even if we find out about a large amount of unaccounted-for transactions, we have no right to question them, and he has plenty of ways to evade the issue.”

Inspector Megure was quite helpless.

What's needed most right now is evidence. Without evidence, even if the speculation is true, Masato Shimizu won't admit it.

"Officer Megure!"

Anya appeared out of nowhere, climbing up from Natsukawa's calves to be level with Inspector Megure, and then said mysteriously, "I heard that uncle say yesterday that he has a computer at home!"

"A computer?" Inspector Megure pondered for a few seconds, then suddenly realized something, slapping his right hand with his left, looking as if he had just understood.

"What's wrong?" Xia Chuan was confused, not understanding what Anya meant by those words.

"Maybe it really works!" Inspector Megure didn't answer, but hurriedly walked to the side, took out his mobile phone, and started dialing.

After thinking for a moment, Natsukawa understood what Inspector Megure was trying to do.

There are two ways to post tasks on the dark web.

One method is to directly contact people on the dark web to post tasks, and the other is to log in to the dark web yourself to post tasks.

The first method of conducting transactions leaves no trace, but it makes it easy for people on the dark web to spy on the poster's information. Therefore, most people choose the second method and log in to the dark web to post tasks themselves.

While this method can conceal one's identity, the bank card will leave a transfer record when the payment is made, and the computer's browsing history and chat history can be recovered even if deleted.

However, residents' computers are not normally hacked. This method sounds riskier, but in reality, the possibility of being exposed is very low.

"Ania is really smart!" Xia Chuan wanted to pat Anya's head, but found that he touched her hat instead.

"When did you buy this outfit? I didn't know. And you're even wearing sunglasses. Are you imitating Bondman again?"

“I bought them before, with my allowance, the money I saved to buy peanuts.” Anya poked her two index fingers together, afraid that her father would get angry.

However, Xia Chuan was clearly not that kind of person. How his daughter dressed was her own business, and he wouldn't try to control that.

Moreover, this outfit looks much better than Conan's blue suit.

Speaking of Conan, where did he go?
"Where's Conan?" Natsukawa asked.

The other person, who had been sitting behind the sofa where Kogoro Mouri was, has now disappeared.

“I don’t know,” Anya said, shrugging.

Xia Chuan turned to ask Uncle Mori a question, only to find that the man was already fast asleep.

That's amazing.
"You can go back."

As soon as Inspector Megure spoke, everyone stood up.

I was called in late at night to listen to a deduction, but in the end, the murderer was never found.

Aside from the bombshell that Asai Narumi is a man, there was practically nothing else to discover.

Oh no, Reiko Kuroiwa has made a discovery; she's about to receive a notice of house raiding. Her fiancé, who used to be cuddling with her, will no longer stand beside her.

To paraphrase Murasawa Shuichi, who has just become her ex-fiancé, "What kind of love is it if you don't have money? You're a poor bastard!"
After everyone left, Inspector Megure began pacing around the room.

"Inspector Megure, have you had someone check his IP address?" Natsukawa asked.

Inspector Megure stopped in his tracks, a rare sinister smile spreading across his face. "That's right. I've already had the Metropolitan Police Department locate his home IP address. As long as he turns on his computer, I can trace the network cable to see if he's ever placed any dark web bounties."

"Speaking of which, this feature was developed for us by Professor Agasa, and it's really useful! Since we got this feature, the crime rate in Tokyo has dropped significantly."

Inspector Megure was beaming, and Natsukawa felt too embarrassed to interrupt him.

If Tokyo's crime rate has decreased now, then Natsukawa can't even imagine what Tokyo was like before.

Thinking about it this way, Xia Chuan suddenly realized that providing a full range of funeral services in Tokyo should be very lucrative.

Unfortunately, the market share for this product has probably already been snapped up by those with good foresight.

(End of this chapter)