Ms. Moriarty wants to save Beika Town today too.

Seeing their smiles, Xiao Ai also smiled and said encouragingly: "Really? That's quite helpful... Let's go."

The entrance was sandwiched between two rooms. The secret passage was in the shape of a rectangle. The side close to the corridor was a dead end, while the side facing the window was a staircase leading down. Since Winnett didn't have a watch and Xiao Ai was worried about her being at the back, she led the team in front and let Winnett hold her shoulders.

"This staircase is so long, I can't even finish walking up it."

After walking up the stairs for a while, Yuantai complained.

The actual situation was that the length of the stairs was close to the stairs leading to the second floor of the castle, and they should be moving to the first floor. Winnett estimated the height and number of steps of the stairs, and after passing a turning corner, they continued to go down.

The secret passage is relatively narrow, indicating that it is also a space sandwiched between the walls.

After getting used to the height of the stairs, Xiao Ai shone the limited light source on the ground to look for clues. Before she got far, something that concerned her appeared in the light source - black and red traces.

She knelt on one knee and tapped the marks on the ground with her fingers.

Winnett saw Xiao Ai's serious expression and asked, "What did you find?"

"It's blood," she replied, the black solid substance smeared between her fingers, "Judging from the color and the degree of drying of the blood, it must have been left here not long ago."

Ayumi exclaimed frankly: "How amazing! Huibara-san, you look like Conan."

Ai was not pleased by this statement, and her voice sounded a bit admonishing: "Now is not the time to say such things. This is most likely Edogawa's blood, understand?"

Ayumi's face froze when she heard that.

Winnett reminded: "Shine the light around here, maybe you can find something."

Mitsuhiko did as he was told, and then he found a line of writing on a nearby staircase: "Look at this place, there seems to be some words engraved on this staircase... That person is now replacing my identity and wants to rob the treasure of the castle... It seems like he wants to write treasure at the end."

Ayumi subconsciously deduced: "Could it be that these words were carved by Conan?"

Ai then squatted down, checked the handwriting, and denied Ayumi's statement.

"No, judging from the words used, it shouldn't be. Some of the words are deliberately written in Katakana, and judging from the carving marks, it should be very old."

"Who carved these words?"

Mitsuhiko asked.

"I don't know," Xiao Ai said, "Although I don't know who carved these words, but judging from the fact that the word '藏' in '宝藏' was not finished, it seems that this person had no way to continue carving, so he stopped."

"I can't carve it..."

"Could it be that……"

Xiao Ai raised her head slightly and said confidently, "Yes, maybe he died here."

"what!"

Her words startled the children again, but this was no longer the time to care about anyone's feelings. Xiao Ai stood up and analyzed the whole thing:

"Edogawa Conan found his body. When he was concentrating, someone hit him from behind with a stick, or stabbed him, so there was some blood on the ground..."

Winnett agreed with Xiao Ai's inference. Judging from the bloodstains left on the stairs, it could not be anyone else except Conan. She said:

"It should be a blunt object. If it was a knife, the shape of the bloodstains would not be so even."

Using a knife will definitely leave splattered blood, and the falling blood will appear as dripping snowflakes. However, the bloodstain that Xiao Ai illuminated looked more like it was formed by a slow flow.

In other words, after the murderer knocked Conan down with a blunt object, the blood oozing from the wound slowly flowed to the ground, forming this kind of bloodstain.

As soon as Winnett finished speaking, Yuanta, who had slipped downstairs, made a surprised sound.

"There seems to be something here!" He picked up the thing on the ground, "It's a pair of glasses..."

Mitsuhiko came over and brought the light source over. After seeing the details, he was surprised and said, "Isn't this the doctor's glasses?"

One of the lenses of the glasses had cracked.

"How did the doctor's glasses fall in a place like this?" Yuantai said to himself.

Ayumi checked carefully and added: "Not only are the glasses broken, there is blood on them..."

"Did something happen to the Doctor?"

Mitsuhiko looked at Ai. Her performance just now had made the Junior Detective Team regard her as their backbone.

Winnett stroked her chin and said, "From our position, we should be on the first floor of the castle... He probably doesn't know the entrance we used to get in here. It's very likely that he found the entrance to another secret passage."

Although there is a deduction, there are still some unexplained points. According to Dr. Agasa's personality, he should not risk entering the secret passage, but come to inform her and Ai first. And judging from the reaction of Inspector Megure on the phone, he should not have received the call from the doctor, which means that something attracted him and made him think that there was something more important than making a phone call——

Conan's Clues!

Just as she was about to tell Ai the news, she heard a familiar flipping sound - exactly the same as when the secret passage was opened. She hurriedly looked towards the source of the sound and found that Ai, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were behind a secret door.

The light that shone in for a moment let Winnet know that they were back in the castle.

It’s better to return to the castle, at least we won’t be attacked directly.

"hateful!"

Yuantai saw the door that Xiaoai and the others went out through, and thought about opening it. When he was about to knock on the door, Winette stopped him and covered his mouth.

"Shh!"

Winnett's voice was very unique, and Yuan Tai could recognize it. She whispered, "Someone is following us. Turn off the flashlight."

During the conversation, she hadn't noticed it, but as soon as the door turned, the footsteps became obviously hurried.

Although Yuantai was anxious, out of trust in Winnett, he nodded quietly and turned off the light.

Without the light source, the space was completely dark. Winnet held her breath and listened to the direction of the footsteps - it was the stairs they came from. Combining this situation with Winnet, she knew that the person behind them was indeed someone who was following them, and was very cautious, waiting for them to enter the secret passage before going up to the second floor.

The location is too cramped.

Thinking of this, Winnet knew that she would be found immediately even if she didn't make any sound, so she planned to fight back when the enemy approached to prevent him from taking out hot weapons.

Although the probability was low, her years of experience had taught her not to be careless. If there was a silencer, perhaps the people in the castle would not be alerted.

As the footsteps approached, Winette moved slowly and made a preparatory movement. However, Yuantai didn't know what he stepped on, and subconsciously made an unbalanced hesitant sound.

Whoosh!

A sound of breaking air rang in her ears.

Experience told Winnett that this was a thin metal weapon similar to a steel pipe, usually used by gangs in street fights. Judging from the speed of the swing, it was obvious that he was holding back and didn't want to kill her directly. But even so, a hit to the head would cause a mild concussion, and if the target was a child, death was possible.

Winnet lowered her body, felt the wind flowing through her nose, and even smelled something that she didn't know whether it was rust or blood. In the killer's cold weapon training, Winnet was good at using the dagger, which was mainly based on agility. The opponent's movements were very open and closed, and she took advantage of the opponent's stamina in swinging the weapon and punched the opponent's elbow with a jab.

"what!"

A woman's scream?

Winnet hesitated for a moment, she thought the murderer might be Master Aman, but it was obviously not the case. She instantly recalled the women she had seen in the castle, only a young maid and the demented first lady, so she could not figure out the identity of the murderer for a while.

Oh, yes, the words on the stone steps.

Replace identity...

Could it be that?

Winnett wanted to confirm the identity of the opponent. The jab just now hit the opponent's wrist accurately. The man felt pain and the weapon in his hand fell to the ground, making a crisp metallic sound. Judging from her reaction and posture, he was just a rather fierce amateur. She could easily subdue him.

"Where did you hide them?"

Winnet blocked the secret door to prevent her from activating the mechanism and asking about Conan and the doctor.

After realizing the gap between herself and the other party, Winnet began to ignore her and did not even plan to subdue her. Her every move was under her control, and she could control her immediately if there was any suspicious movement.

However, she overlooked one point. The other party obviously regarded her as an invisible object - indeed, in this dark tunnel. She did not reply, but turned around and fled. Seeing this, Winnet had to catch up with her, intending to subdue her and ask her later. To be honest, the reason why she did not control the other party at the beginning was because she was afraid that she would not be able to control the situation and kill the person.

Even if she could control the force accurately, it was difficult to target non-vital areas in the pitch black. She was now Winnett, not the Abbes of the organization, and it would be difficult to explain if she killed or maimed someone.

Yuan Tai was still around, and she was afraid of scaring the children. If she didn't take her to play in the future, wouldn't the time she spent with Xiao Ai be greatly reduced! ?

How can this work!

In just two or three breaths, Winnet blocked her in front of her and was about to attack her lower body when she heard a sneering laugh.

"hehe."

Some people do react this way when they are at the end of their rope, and Winnett doesn't discriminate against them.

however--

The sound of the mechanism!?

For a moment, she was hanging in the air, like a trap in the ground. In the moment of danger, she quickly stretched out her palm and grabbed a piece of the ground, but before she could exert force, her fingers felt pain.

"I really underestimated you."

An old female voice came, she said with a smile:

"Looking at how beautiful you are, I thought you were a weak girl like my daughter when she was young... Haha, you really have an enviable face!"

As she spoke, the mechanism started up again, and the entrance to the "hole" began to return to its original state.

"Your daughter? A mere imposter!"

Through the voice, she already knew the other person's true identity - the castle's eldest wife. The inability to walk and dementia were all pretended, combined with the information found by Mitsuhiko, it means that the original eldest wife was replaced by the murderer in front of her.

Winnet had no choice but to let go, and she braced her legs against the wall to prevent herself from falling. Although she was fine, Yuanta was the only one left on top. Winnet was a little annoyed, thinking that he was just an ordinary murderer, so she held back.

Seeing the exit was closed, she tried to push it with her hand, but the stone wall did not respond. Winnett guessed that there was a mechanism nearby to open the upper level, but she could not see the surroundings clearly, and it would be too time-consuming to try little by little, so she turned her attention to the lower level. Fortunately, this was not a trap, but an underground passage connecting to another place.

She landed on the ground and estimated the height to be about three meters, deducing that this was an underground passage.

Winnett moved quickly, trying to find another exit, but there was more than one way out.

She thought to herself, "So that's why. She thought I couldn't see, so she wanted to trap me here. But, she is still a little too naive."

The underground space was different from the gaps on the upper floor. She could clearly feel the flow of air. Winnet, who was very sensitive, immediately locked the direction of the exit. She had to act quickly. If the other party planned to block all the exits, she could only learn from the prisoners in the prison to see if she could dig out.

……

383 Secret Passage Exploration

The passage is winding, dark and complicated.

There were three passages at the first fork in front of Winnet.

She chose the one where she could feel the wind, but she went deeper and deeper. Winnet soon realized that this road should lead outside the castle: she could not feel the tiles under her feet, and the soil was getting wetter.

"It seems that we missed the exit in the courtyard and headed towards the forest."

While recording her pace and number of steps, Winnett always maintained a swift speed. She had to leave this hellhole before Ai got hurt, so she kept running. During this process, the terrain of the passage changed from high to low and then to high again. This change made her realize that the exit was just around the corner.

"Based on my speed, I should be some distance away from the castle now. Judging from how she left me here without hesitation, this should be a circular passage. If you are not familiar with this place, it will be difficult to find the exit and you will just go around in circles... The blind girl is really underestimated."

There should be an exit at the next highest point.

As Winnet expected, the passage became narrower and narrower. At a convex tunnel, she stopped, stood on tiptoe and stretched out her hand.

There was soil on top, and it was still moist.

She touched the top edge, moving slowly, and after about twenty steps, the feel changed: it felt like a cool, smooth stone.

"There is."

Winette breathed a sigh of relief.

There are no mechanisms here like inside a castle. Instead, it looks like a combat trench. The soil layer in front is supported by a wooden structure, and up here, it looks more like a cave.

Winnett lifted the stone slab above, but still could not feel any change. It seemed that the top had been sealed by heavy objects in advance. Winnett took out a signature pen from her collar and took out the thin iron fiber hidden inside. Immediately, she pierced the iron fiber into the upper layer of soil, looking for a softer place without roots, and then took out a lipstick from her pocket.

"I hope the structure here isn't too fragile..."

She murmured, straightened the lipstick one-third of the way, turned the bottom plate, and then stuck it into the crack in the soil.

Then run back immediately.

After about five seconds, the lipstick exploded and Winnet felt a gust of hot air.

Its power was not much stronger than a firecracker, but it made a hole in the soil.

Winette continued to use the iron wire to pull out the roots of the weeds, and finally dug a hole with her bare hands. The price she paid was that her face was covered in dust and the fragrance of soil filled her body. Then the rain fell on her face and mixed into mud, as if her skin was covered with black spots one after another.

Winnet didn't have time to care about these things, this was not a very bad situation. She turned around and ran in the direction where the trees were sparse. In less than two minutes, her vision became wider. The sky was no longer covered tightly, and the black tower standing under the dark clouds had emerged before her.

She suddenly realized that there was a path leading into the tower.

Perhaps, there is more than one.

Recalling the contents of the fire story, neither the gardener nor Master Aman mentioned that there were any survivors. Most likely, the one who did such a dirty thing was the "big wife" who had just attacked her and Genta. She killed all the people who knew her and replaced the identity of the big wife. Thinking this way, the whole incident made sense. It seemed that Edogawa not only discovered the secret passage, but also discovered her secret, which led to her death.

"…What a trouble maker."