The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

However, there have been instances in the world of Detective Conan where information was conveyed using content from newspapers.

However, it seems that relying solely on this one newspaper is not enough to deduce any more useful information for the time being.

Therefore, Yuu Aragaki, seeing the disappointed hotel owner, did not offer any further explanation.

"Well then, Mr. Toda, while we're staying here, please leave this box here for now. We'll let you know if we find anything."

"Then I'll leave it to you, Mr. Aragaki and Ms. Hirota."

The hotel owner, Mr. Toda, nodded with some regret.

He naturally wouldn't refuse Aragaki's request, although he didn't think they could find any useful clues from this ordinary newspaper.

As for why Mr. Toda called Vermouth "Miss Hirota," it's naturally because Vermouth used the name Hirota Masami during this trip.

After all, if he used his real name and appeared in the same place as Yu Aragaki, who knows what trouble it might cause.

By using the pseudonym that Akemi Miyano usually uses, Vermouth can save a lot of trouble.

“It’s getting late.” At this moment, Mr. Toda suddenly glanced at the clock on the wall and realized that it was almost time for the hotel to stop serving dinner. “Why don’t you two go to the restaurant for dinner?”

"Okay, then I'll leave it to Mr. Toda."

Aragaki Yu and Vermouth nodded in agreement. After glancing at the suitcase on the table, they followed Mr. Toda out of the room and headed towards the restaurant.

As Vermouth and Yuya Aragaki followed the hotel owner out of the room and closed the door, they instinctively looked at each other, exchanged a brief glance, and then smiled knowingly at each other.

Yes, if we don't leave any opportunities, how can we attract the mice to come out?

……

the other side.

The person whom Aragaki Yu and Vermouth considered a rat was hiding in an empty storage room with a grim expression.

Indeed, if Mr. Toda, the hotel owner, were here right now, he would immediately recognize him.

He was Masao Jinbo, a staff member who came to the Aoi-ya Ryokan five years ago.

Not long ago, while working in the lobby, Masao Jinbo suddenly noticed that the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, was excitedly carrying a suitcase and walking towards a room.

Suddenly realizing something, Masao Jinbo immediately put down his work and nervously followed Mr. Toda.

Only after noticing Mr. Toda enter the room of the two guests who had just checked in did he cautiously peek through the sliding door to eavesdrop on their conversation.

After learning the identities of the two guests in the room and the request from the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, to investigate the suitcase, Masao Jinbo's expression grew increasingly grim, and he became extremely anxious.

That's right, the reason why Masao Jinbo has been working at the Aoi-ya Inn for the past five years is because of the suitcase in the hands of the inn's owner, Mr. Toda.

It turns out that the man who approached Mr. Toda five years ago wearing sunglasses and a hat and sporting a thick beard was actually Masao Jinbo in disguise.

Unfortunately, he didn't get any information about the suitcase from Mr. Toda back then, so he has been lurking in this hotel for the past few years in search of that suitcase.

In fact, the strange man in red from five years ago was an accomplice of Masao Jinbo in the 100 million yen extortion case.

However, after receiving 100 million yen, Masao Jinbo was overcome by greed and decided to keep the money for himself.

Therefore, he deliberately chose the Head God Forest, known as a "suicide hotspot," as the location for their agreed meeting to divide the loot.

The purpose of doing this was, of course, to kill his accomplices in the forest and then pocket the 100 million yen in illicit funds.

Unfortunately, something unexpected happened to Masao Jinbo: his accomplice realized his plan and hid the stolen money that he was temporarily holding.

Chapter 639 Masao Jinbo's Perfect Plan

After Masao Jinbo hanged his accomplice in the Toujin Forest, he discovered that Jinbo had not brought the stolen money to this place.

After frantically searching the area around the transaction location, Masao Jinbo still couldn't find the stolen money.

At this point, Masao Jinbo realized that the money had probably already been hidden by his accomplice who had seen through his intentions.

Although it is known that finding the stolen money hidden in such a forest is undoubtedly a pipe dream.

But that's 100 million yen after all!

If I can find it, even if it takes some time, I can be sure that I won't have to worry about food and drink in the days to come.

So, after searching around for a while, Masao Jinbo finally turned his attention to the Aoi-ya Hotel.

Although he had already gone to the Aoi-ya Ryokan to confirm, and only obtained a threatening letter from there, his intuition told him that the stolen money must have something to do with the ryokan.

So, after some time, Masao Jinbo quietly came to the Aoi-ya Ryokan and became an employee there.

Firstly, he could use his position as a hotel employee to search for the stolen money near the forest.

Because the staff of Aoi-ya Ryokan often need to go into the mountains to dig for wild vegetables, it can conveniently cover up their search for stolen money in the forest.

Secondly, Masao Jinbo felt that if he stayed in this place, he could deal with any problems that might arise with his partner's body.

Of course, more importantly, because he didn't get the stolen money, Masao Jinbo was broke.

They've even run out of money for food and lodging.

Although Masao Jinbo once made such a bold statement—that it is impossible for him to work part-time.

Not to mention that the salaries of employees at Aoi-ya Ryokan are not very high.

However, there's nothing that the "free meals and accommodation" perk can't solve.

……

And so, time flew by.

Masao Jinbo has been working at the Aoi-ya Ryokan for over four years.

In his spare time, he searched extensively throughout the forest, but still couldn't find the stolen money.

Just as he was about to give up on finding the stolen money due to despair, the body of the partner he had murdered years ago was discovered by his colleague while digging for wild vegetables.

Originally this was nothing.

After all these years, Masao Jinbo believed that even the police would be unable to find any clues.

In the end, the police will only recognize his companion as someone who committed suicide in the Head God Forest.

However, one evening during dinner, he was shocked to learn the following news from the hotel owner, Mr. Tota—

The strange man in red from back then, who left a suitcase with him, and the fact that he delivered a letter to another strange man at the man in red's request.

At that moment, Masao Jinbo almost broke down.

Unexpectedly, the clues I had been searching for for the past four years had actually been right beside me all along.

Moreover, the reason why the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, had never mentioned the suitcase all these years was because he had long forgotten about it until he heard the news of the man in red's death.

It's truly a case of "the mountains and rivers seem to block the way, but then a new village appears amidst the willows and flowers."

Upon learning that his companion's suitcase was in the hands of the hotel owner, Masao Jinbo's previously calmed mind finally stirred again.

That's 100 million yen, how could he possibly give it up?

Of course, Masao Jinbo didn't rush to take action against the suitcase.

After all, if the hotel owner, Mr. Toda, discovered that the suitcase had been stolen as soon as he mentioned it, it would certainly arouse his suspicion.

It would be bad if the police got involved.

Whether I choose to hide the suitcase and remain inactive or find the stolen money and abscond with it, it will be a very troublesome matter.

As for the idea of ​​killing him to cover it up, it only flashed through Masao Jinbo's mind briefly before he abandoned it.

Although the Aoi-ya Inn is located right next to the Togami Forest, if the innkeeper dies, as an employee, I could easily become a suspect in the case, which would create many obstacles for my future actions.

In addition, Mr. Toda was very tight-lipped. No matter how much Masao Kambo tried to get him drunk and extract information, Mr. Toda never revealed where the suitcase was hidden.

For various reasons, Masao Jinbo's idea of ​​retrieving his suitcase was temporarily put on hold.

After hearing that Mr. Toda had not yet opened the suitcase, Masao Jinbo decided to wait a little longer.

Since five years have already passed, he doesn't mind waiting a little longer.

He planned to wait until the news of his accomplice's body being discovered had died down before trying to get the suitcase back from the hotel owner, Mr. Toda.

However, only two days later, Masao Jinbo's idea failed.

I originally thought that Mr. Toda had just mentioned the suitcase casually and that he would forget about it after a while.

But I never expected Mr. Toda to be so curious. He actually wanted to hire a detective to investigate the man in red and the suitcase from back then.

Left with no other choice, Masao Jinbo had to change his plans.

Through a period of subtle questioning, Masao Jinbo learned from Mr. Toda that he had originally planned to hire the recently popular "high school detective" Yuu Aragaki to investigate the suitcase.

This also serves as a good opportunity to advertise Aoi-ya Ryokan.

Unexpectedly, Mr. Toda was unable to contact the high school detective, so he had no choice but to change his target and contact the equally famous detective, Mr. Kogoro Mouri.

After finding out when Kogoro Mouri would arrive at the inn, Masao Jinbo immediately made his own arrangements.

He planned to take advantage of Mr. Toda's face blindness.

In addition, everyone had only seen Kogoro Mouri in newspapers or on television, and had never seen him in person.

So they hired someone who looked somewhat like Kogoro Mouri, had him disguise himself appropriately, and then went to the Aoi-ya Inn before Kogoro Mouri arrived, tricking Mr. Toda out of the suitcase.

Masao Jinbo believed that there was absolutely no reason for people to suspect that someone could be impersonating a famous detective.