The cross-dressing master in the world of Detective Conan

Two police officers led a man upstairs, and then one of them jogged over to Kazama Kaoru and whispered to him about the man's situation.

"Mr. Kazuhiro Tokunaga, is that right?"

Kaoru Kazama looked at the middle-aged man wearing glasses and asked.

"That's right, that's me."

Perhaps because of her poor mental fortitude, her voice trembled slightly when Kazama Kaoru questioned her.

"Don't be nervous, we just want to ask you about the situation."

"Okay... okay."

At this point, Kaoru Kazama glanced at the mischievous children behind him.

They all glared at Mr. Tokunaga Kazuhiro, who was standing opposite them.

Could it be that these kids subconsciously mistook this man for the murderer? After all, they didn't want Ms. Hosono Sanae to be the murderer.

"Ahem, excuse me for calling you here so abruptly. Here's the thing: today, your neighbor, Sanae Hosono, found a body inside her newly purchased secondhand sofa."

"Ah~"

The man made a surprised expression, his mouth slightly open.

"What were you doing between 2 PM and 3 PM yesterday?"

"I work the night shift in my room."

"Did you hear any strange noises?"

"Hmm, thinking about it carefully, I do think I heard arguing upstairs last night."

"So, it's very likely that Ms. Hosono's alibi was fabricated."

Miwako whispered these words in Kazama Kaoru's ear.

"No, Ms. Hosono did go to see a movie last night, that's correct."

Kaoru Kazama said to Miwako with absolute certainty.

"Chris, are you sure the surveillance footage you found is correct?"

Kaoru Kazama asked Christia in his mind.

"Yes, Mom, I've done a precise comparison, there's absolutely no mistake."

As Christia spoke, she also transmitted the photo from the surveillance video comparison to Kazama Kaoru's retina.

Even the time stamp in the lower left corner of the photo is clearly visible; it's exactly around 3:30 PM.

The location is near the cinema's parking lot.

The cinema is about five kilometers away from this residence, and due to severe traffic congestion, it would take at least half an hour to get there.

In other words, Ms. Hosono could not possibly be the murderer.

This is beyond doubt.

So here's the question: why would this guy say he heard arguing coming from upstairs at that time?

Is this guy lying, or is there an argument at Ms. Hosono's doorstep?

Because the apartment building is structured with doors facing each other, there are only two residents on this floor: Ms. Hosono and Mr. Tokunaga.

Both of them are single, so if Ms. Hosono wasn't home and Mr. Tokunaga didn't open the door, it would be virtually impossible for them to start arguing.

After all, no one is going to go and argue in front of someone else's house for no reason.

Kaoru Kazama did not immediately suspect that this person was the murderer.

After all, many people might give the police misleading information because they don't want the case to involve them.

Or they might worry that not being able to give the correct answer would arouse suspicion from the police, so they simply nod along with the crowd.

That's why the police repeatedly asked the same questions during the interrogation.

Just then, Chiba, the chubby boy, came running up, panting.

"Report, Officer Kazama, I've brought the employees and owner of the secondhand furniture store with me."

"Okay, I'll be there in a bit. Tell them to wait a moment."

Kaoru Kazama did not arrange for the witnesses to be interrogated in the same place.

If the case involves two people working together, there is a possibility of them colluding on the spot, which could greatly mislead the investigation.

While the possibility is low, it's not entirely out of the question.

"Hello, I'm Kazama from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. I've taken the liberty of calling you here today because I'd like to ask you about something."

"Hello, Officer Kazama. I am Hino Masateru, the owner of the furniture store. These are my employees. Please feel free to ask us anything you would like to know."

Takagi did a pretty good job this time.

He didn't just call the boss over; after understanding the situation, he also called over several of the store employees who had gone to the city to pick up the sofa the previous afternoon.

Because this store is a second-hand furniture store, you need to acquire furniture first before you can resell it.

"Here's the situation: Ms. Hosono, a resident of this apartment building and also a customer of your furniture store, found a body inside the secondhand sofa she bought yesterday."

"what?"

"corpse"

Once they got involved in a murder case, the group of people, who were initially quite calm, started to panic.

"Officer, the body has absolutely nothing to do with us."

"Please don't panic. I didn't say the body was related to you. I just wanted to ask you about the circumstances since the body was found inside the sofa."

"Who delivered the sofa at 10 a.m. this morning?"

"It was Hiroki and I who moved here."

The man wearing an apron, who was also the owner of the secondhand furniture store, answered, pointing to a bearded man standing next to him.

Chapter 437 The Successor of the Lion's Roar

"Is this the sofa you're moving?"

Kaoru Kazama pulled up the photos on her phone and showed them to the two of them.

"Yes."

Did you notice anything unusual about the weight when you were moving it?

"No."

"no"

The two of them shook their heads.

"Because we had already moved several times before that, we were a bit exhausted and our arms were numb, so we weren't as sensitive."

Perhaps out of concern that he might be suspected, furniture store owner Masaaki Hino added this sentence.

Kazama Kaoru wasn't surprised. The female corpse was petite, and by 10 a.m., she had been dead for over 20 hours. She was severely dehydrated and probably weighed around 40 or 50 pounds. It wasn't surprising that she wasn't noticed because she was hidden inside a heavy sofa.

So actually, Hino Masateru didn't say that, and Kazama Kaoru wouldn't easily suspect him.

"Then tell me the details of when Ms. Hosono bought the sofa."

Although based on the time of death, Sanae Hosono had a sufficient alibi.

However, this does not prevent Kazama Kaoru from verifying her statement from another perspective.

On the way here, Chiba the Fatty had already given them a preliminary explanation of the situation.

When the police come to question you, it's not enough to just say "We need to find out what's going on with you."

Saying nothing will only intensify the other person's fear.

That would actually create difficulties in the investigation and evidence collection process.

"It's like this, this sofa is actually a second-hand item that I just bought from a customer yesterday. Ms. Hosono heard that we would need two or three days to organize it after unloading, so she said she needed it urgently and asked us to deliver it to her the next day."

So, you didn't actually disassemble or rearrange this sofa?

Kaoru Kazama immediately grasped the key point in her boss's words.

"Yes, I think if we had done the check-up back then, this might not have happened."

The owner of the secondhand furniture store said to Kaoru Kazama with a wry smile.

It's clear that this boss is a kind-hearted chubby guy.

If an ordinary person knew there was a corpse inside the sofa, they would probably run away as fast as they could, so why would they actively seek out trouble?

"So what did Ms. Hosono do after she bought the sofa?"

Kaoru Kazama pressed on with more questions.

“Ms. Hosono stayed in our store until closing time, and since the sofa was to be delivered the next day, we just loaded it into the truck.”

"Can anyone outside your company access that truck loaded with sofas?"

At present, Tokunaga Kazuhiro, whose testimony contained obvious lies, is the most likely suspect.

However, we still cannot arbitrarily conclude that the other party is definitely the murderer; we must consider all aspects.

After all, there is also the possibility that someone else committed the crime.

"That's absolutely impossible, because we usually park our trucks in the warehouse, and the warehouse door is locked. Generally speaking, no one can access it."

Are there any security cameras in the garage?

"some."

"Okay, Takagi, go and get all the CCTV footage from the area near the furniture store's garage."

"Yes."

Because this was happening in public, Kaoru Kazama instructed Takagi to run the errand.

In fact, she had already mentally replayed the surveillance footage in Chris's mind.