The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

More importantly, for some reason, that bespectacled kid was also looking at him with an expectant expression.

"Please, Mom, Aragaki, what are you doing?!" Ran asked, puzzled, after noticing that Eri Kisaki and Yuu Aragaki were both wearing gloves.

"There are three problems now..."

Unlike when Kogoro Mouri was still there, Eri Kisaki's eyes became extremely serious. "First of all, there's the telephone line that the murderer used as the murder weapon. If he was driven to murder by a drunken impulse, he should have forcefully pulled off the telephone line. But the telephone line didn't come out of its original position, and there were no signs of the plugs at either end of the telephone line being forcibly pulled out."

While Eri was speaking, Yuu Aragaki had already taken a picture of the telephone on the bedside table with a camera he had borrowed from somewhere.

Clearly, he and Eri Kisaki were thinking of the same thing.

Conan and Vermouth, disguised as Masami Hirota, did not express any doubt about this.

"Secondly, his cell phone was deliberately left by the door so that people outside could hear what was happening inside. This was clearly a deliberate arrangement."

Having calmed down long ago, Eri Kisaki naturally realized that something was wrong at the time.

After all, no matter how reckless a person is, a normal person wouldn't drop their phone in that kind of place as soon as they walk in.

"As for the third point, it's his hands. From the last time we saw the victim to the time we found her body, it was only about forty minutes. If he used a telephone cord to commit the crime, there should be some ligature marks left on his hands, right?"

Upon hearing this, Officer Yamamura immediately raised his own doubts, "But if Mr. Mori was wearing gloves at the time..."

However, before Officer Yamamura could finish speaking, Aragaki Yu, who had roughly finished taking the photos, returned to his side, patted him on the shoulder, handed the camera back to him, and said, "But we didn't find anything like gloves in this room, and since Mr. Mori was so drunk that he fell asleep on the bed at the crime scene, he probably didn't have any way to dispose of gloves or anything like that."

"Forehead……"

Officer Yamamura nodded, having to agree with their point of view, "What you're saying makes some sense!"

"So that's how it is! So the reason Mom didn't want to go to the police station with Dad was because she wanted to stay and help him!"

At this moment, Xiaolan finally understood her mother's intention and a smile returned to her face.

Perhaps because Kogoro Mouri wasn't present, Eri Kisaki said without any hesitation, "Silly child, your father and I have spent much more time together than you have. I was indeed very angry at first, but I know he's definitely not the kind of person who would kill someone."

"Also, there are torn marks on the papers in this notepad on the table."

Because he had just taken photos of various places in the room as evidence, Aragaki Yu also noticed this.

"That's right..."

Hearing this, Eri Kisaki moved closer to the table and frowned as she looked at the notepad that Yuu Aragaki was pointing to.

The key point is that this notebook has traces of several pages being torn out.

Chapter 657 Promotion and Salary Increase Are Just Around the Corner

"I think it must be this crumpled piece of paper in the trash can?"

Since he couldn't borrow any gloves, Conan could only wrap a handkerchief around a crumpled piece of paper from the trash can and hand it to Eri Kisaki.

"Ok?"

Eri knelt down, took the crumpled paper from Conan's hand, and unfolded it. "It looks like there's something written on it... This looks like Ritsuko's handwriting."

"There's a forest and a number 2 on it..." The village police officer, who had immediately come over, read out the contents of the paper.

Upon seeing this, Eri Kisaki suddenly frowned and pondered for a moment, "Could this be referring to the lawyer, Lin, who will be her partner in the next court appearance?"

“In the last sewage treatment lawsuit, because Attorney Mikasa made a mistake in the first instance and lost the case, Ms. Ritsuko, in order to ensure that she could win, specifically came to me and asked me to recommend a lawyer to replace Attorney Mikasa. I recommended Attorney Hayashi, who specializes in this type of case.”

As Eri Kisaki explained the identity of this lawyer, the look of doubt on her face deepened. "But I didn't tell Lawyer Lin that we would be staying at this hotel. How did he know that Miss Ritsuko would be here?"

"He said he learned it from Mr. Shiozawa."

Just then, a rather tall figure suddenly walked into the room.

"what?"

Upon hearing this unfamiliar voice, Eri Kisaki turned around in surprise to look behind her.

A hotel staff member walked in unnoticed. "Actually, I was the one who transferred Attorney Lin's call to this room today..."

Fei Yingli nodded.

Officer Yamamura, however, grew increasingly displeased. He couldn't help but point at the staff member who had brazenly entered the crime scene and reprimand him, "Hey, how could you just barge in like that?"

The staff member was clearly taken aback by Officer Yamamura's attitude, so he quickly explained, "I'm sorry, but there's something really strange that I wanted to talk to you about, Officer..."

"What's so strange?"

It turns out that tonight, the hotel staff received two phone calls from Mr. Lin.

The first time, he successfully transferred the call to Ms. Ritsuko Usui in the room.

However, the second time the call was transferred, there was no response. So the staff went to the room door and rang the doorbell, and even came twice.

The first time, there was no response from the room, so the staff specifically told Mr. Hayashi that Ms. Ritsuko Usui might already be resting.

However, Mr. Lin said that Ms. Ritsuko Usui might not have made any sound because she was taking a bath.

Therefore, Mr. Lin specifically asked him to come to Ms. Ritsuko's room again and call her once more.

However, on the second visit, the staff found a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door of the room.

There was also a note with crooked, handwritten words pasted on it—

I'm sorry, please tell him that I will definitely give him the money.

Now, even Officer Yamamura became puzzled.

"So, did you relay the message to Mr. Lin?" Eri asked.

Officer Yamamura, also holding his notes, approached the staff member and stared intently at him, repeating, "Yes, did you relay the message to him?"

The staff member was startled by the approaching police officer from the mountain village and instinctively took a step back before continuing, "I did say that, but Mr. Lin said he just wanted to discuss with her about changing their appointment from 2 pm tomorrow to 4 pm..."

"What exactly is going on?" Eri Kisaki pondered, stroking her chin. "The torn note in the trash can clearly stated that she and Attorney Lin had arranged to meet at 2 PM tomorrow."

Conan, standing nearby, also became serious, silently thinking, "That's right, but the note on the door says something unrelated..."

Yuu Aragaki naturally guessed what Eri Kisaki and Conan were thinking, and thus offered his own speculation: "Perhaps the note the staff saw was written by the real culprit. Since the culprit didn't know about Ritsuko's meeting with Attorney Hayashi, he wrote something unrelated and left it outside the door."

“That’s right. I think the culprit probably saw the words Ritsuko hurriedly left on the note, but misunderstood its meaning, which is why he left that kind of note outside the door!” Conan nodded, agreeing with Aragaki Yu’s opinion.

"But what does that mean?" Xiaolan didn't quite understand what they meant.

"What exactly does it mean, 2 and Hayashi (ハヤシ)..."

Following this line of thought, everyone frowned and began to ponder.

"Meat and onion risotto..." Just then, Vermouth spoke up quietly, offering a hint.

"Diced meat...onion risotto? Yes, so that's it, that's what it means!"

Conan, who was initially a little confused, paused for a moment, then clapped his hands excitedly and looked at Hirota Masami with delight.

Under the excited gazes of everyone, Vermouth, disguised as Masami Hirota, moved her feet slightly "embarrassed" and hid behind Yuu Aragaki.

Now, Eri Kisaki understood the meaning of the note.

She withdrew her gaze from Masami Hirota and took out the note she had retrieved from the trash can again. She explained to the still bewildered Ran and Officer Yamamura, "That's right. At the time, this note was still in the notepad, and the label book was on the room service bill. The murderer, who knew nothing about Attorney Hayashi's case, may have mistaken the words on it for Ritsuko's phone call to order two servings of diced meat and onion risotto."

Xiaolan finally caught up with everyone's train of thought, "So that's why the murderer left a note on the door saying that I would definitely pay him the money."

"So...so that's how it is!"

The village police officer, still completely bewildered, nodded haphazardly and hurriedly jotted down what they had just said in his notebook.

Although we don't know the exact situation yet, it seems like everything is moving in a positive direction.

Unexpectedly, even without Mr. Mori present, I was able to proceed with the case deduction so smoothly!

Hahaha!

Thinking about this, the clueless village police officer couldn't help but silently give himself a thumbs up.

I'm so amazing!

It looks like a promotion and raise are just around the corner!

Chapter 658 Vermouth with Her Own Plans

"Oh right, and the entrance..."

Seeing that everyone had figured it out, Conan turned to look at the doorway of the room. He had noticed the thing that had fallen there when he was checking the room earlier.

However, when he drew everyone's attention to the doorway, he discovered that what he had seen earlier was now gone.

"Huh? That's strange..."

Conan, who thought that the thing had been accidentally kicked away by someone, looked around in confusion and began to search for it.

However, Conan definitely won't be able to find this thing in the room this time.

At this moment, Eri Kisaki spoke up to answer Conan's question, "Conan, if you are looking for that thin thread, I just saw that Aragaki-kun has already handed it over to the forensic personnel."

"Hey?"

Upon hearing this, Conan was slightly taken aback, and then looked at Aragaki Yu in surprise, only to see the other party smiling and shrugging at him.

Of course, not only Conan, but even Officer Yamamura didn't see that scene.

Therefore, he asked with some confusion, "What kind of line is that?"