Science: The Little Shota of the Maori Family

Xiaolan held her forehead with one hand and said helplessly.

……

Osaka.

Cocktail party banquet venue.

As more and more people arrived, the venue gradually became lively.

"Wow, so many celebrities are here!" Maori Kogoro (no Li Hao) excitedly scanned the crowd, "Kuraki Mai... Komatsu Miho... TWO-MIX! And..."

His eyes fell on Yoko Okino who was not far away: "Ms. Yoko Okino, whom I support the most."

As if noticing the fiery gaze, Yoko Okino turned her head and saw Maori Kogoro. She was slightly startled, then walked over and said with a smile: "Mr. Maori, I didn't expect to meet you here. However, with Mr. Maori's status and fame, being invited is also in the process of cleaning."

Maori Kogoro scratched his head and laughed. Just as he was about to brag about himself, Xiaolan explained beside him: "Actually, we didn't receive an invitation. We came here with our friends."

"Is that so?" Yoko Okino smiled and didn't care.

"Xiaolan." At this time, Yuanshan Heye came over and waved to Xiaolan.

413. Hotel Shooting

"Heye." Xiaolan and Watanabe Toru came forward and said, "Thank you and Hattori for inviting us to the cocktail party. However, I still feel it's not quite right. The guests here are all celebrities, and it seems a bit strange for us to come here uninvited."

Toyama Heye, who was wearing a formal dress, waved her hand nonchalantly: "Don't worry, your father is also a well-known celebrity."

"Please don't say that." Xiaolan felt a little embarrassed.

"By the way, is there any news about Kudo Shinichi recently?" Hattori Heiji walked over with a plate of chicken legs and asked Xiaolan about Kudo Shinichi's situation.

Xiaolan shook her head: "We haven't been in touch for a long time."

Hattori Heiji looked incredulous: "Aren't you boyfriend and girlfriend? How could you not be in touch?"

Xiaolan said unhappily: "Everyone says that Shinichi and I are not the kind of relationship you think. We are just ordinary friends."

Hattori Heiji looked suspicious.

At that moment, the lights in the banquet hall suddenly went out. A few seconds later, the lights on the stage came on. The host, holding the microphone, said to the guests, "I'm sure you've all been waiting for a long time. Now, let me formally introduce the three owners of the 3K Hotel, who are also the protagonists of this cocktail party."

Everyone stopped talking and turned to look.

"First, the undefeated former heavyweight champion of the world, Mr. Ricca Barre!"

As the host introduced him, a dark-skinned, sturdy man walked out amid applause.

"Next up is Mr. Mike Nord, the best newcomer pitcher with a 160 kph speed!"

The man who came out afterwards had a mustache and was tall and thin. He waved to the people who were applauding.

"Then there's the famous goalkeeper known as 'Europe's Iron Wall', Mr. Ray Cartis!"

The last man to come out was tall and blond, and he also waved to the crowd.

Amidst the cheers and thunderous applause of the crowd, the three of them gathered on the stage.

The next step was the question-and-answer session. When asked why the three of them opened a restaurant in Wano Country, Ray Katis explained in Wano Country dialect that Wano Country was their second hometown, which won the unanimous favor of the guests present.

When naming the restaurant 3K, Ray Kattis said that the first K is the K for KO, the second K is the K for strikeout, and the third K is taken from goalkeeper.

"I see."

Hearing what 3K meant, the host was about to praise it when a discordant voice rang out, "You seem to have forgotten one, Lei. People like you three who pollute Wano Country with scandals can only be described in one word: Dirty K."

The speaker was a short, fat man with a small mustache.

"You are so rude! Get out!" Ray Curtis obviously knew the man and said in English with an angry look on his face.

"Don't be ridiculous! I'm a formally invited guest." The man took out the invitation and showed it to the guests. He then turned around, picked up the sushi on the table next to him and left. "Although I don't know who invited me, I'm very grateful to him because I love sushi, hahaha..."

"Who is that guy?" Hattori Heiji muttered curiously as he watched the man leave in a leisurely manner.

Maori Kogoro explained, "He's a celebrity in Country M. He usually exposes scandals of famous athletes and is also a gossip reporter. Although the content is all fictitious, he has a brilliant pen and has almost never lost even in court."

On the other side, in order to ease the atmosphere, the host started the question-and-answer session early.

Perhaps her attitude towards Kudo Shinichi really changed. Xiaolan, who was supposed to get Ray Curtis's autograph for him, was indifferent. However, in the subsequent lottery session, Xiaolan, who was possessed by the koi again, drew a VIP ticket for Curtis's game at Nagai Stadium.

"Xiaolan, you are so lucky." Yuanshan Heye looked envious.

Although she was not very interested in football, she had never encountered such luck before.

Xiaolan raised the intercom in her hand again and said with a smile: "But he wants me to do a favor and give everyone a surprise..."

……

In front of the restaurant.

Xiaolan took the walkie-talkie and gave orders: "Mr. Lei, no problem, I saw it. Mr. Ricardo, it's not there, a little to the left..."

Maori Kogoro, who was standing by, suddenly realized: "So they want to use lights to illuminate the restaurant's name, K, in the window of the restaurant above that hasn't opened yet."

Hattori Heiji continued, "This way, the guests coming out of the restaurant will definitely be overjoyed."

"But they don't have to do this kind of thing themselves." Yuanshan Heye expressed his confusion. The three big stars could just leave this kind of thing to others.

Xiaolan explained with a smile: "Because they said that this idea was their own, so they wanted to do it themselves."

Hattori Heiji nodded in agreement: "If any one of the three of them goes outside to give orders, it will cause a commotion, so we asked you to help, Xiaolan."

Under Xiaolan's command, the letter 'K' lit up. At the same time, gunshots were suddenly heard in the hotel, and the window glass of the room in the middle of the second floor was shattered.

In the leftmost room on the fifth floor, Rica Barrera opened the window, looked out, and asked into the intercom, "What's going on?"

Almost at the same time, Mike Nord, who was in the middle room on the third floor, and Ray Cartis, who was in the rightmost room on the first floor, also poked their heads out of the windows and asked, "What happened?"

"Was that a gunshot just now?"

Hattori Heiji, who had realized that something was wrong, immediately ran towards the hotel. Mouri Kogoro was a little slow to react, and after reacting, he followed closely behind Hattori Heiji.

There were also several reporters with a keen sense of smell who rushed in together.

Toru Watanabe followed Kogoro Mori and Heiji Hattori to the second floor of the hotel. According to the direction of the gunshots, he found the room and walked in.

In the dark room, a man lay in a pool of blood, with no signs of life.

Hattori Heiji looked at the man's face and exclaimed, "It's the newspaper reporter from before."

Maori Kogoro's face turned serious: "It seems that he was shot to death, but why is he here?"

414. Death Message

Hattori Heiji made a new discovery: "His left hand seemed to be holding something."

"Huh?" Maori Kogoro immediately looked in the direction Hattori Heiji pointed. After seeing that it was just a belt, he was a little disappointed and said nonchalantly: "I guess he just happened to touch the belt."

……

After receiving the alarm call, the Osaka police officer arrived at the scene quickly. He was Officer Otaki, who was very familiar to Hattori Heiji.

"The victim was Ed Michael, a 48-year-old newspaper reporter currently stationed in Chicago, USA." Officer Otaki looked at the body on the ground and explained the current situation. "He was shot in the chest and almost killed on the spot. The murderer used a Smith & Wesson revolver. There were slight signs of a struggle at the scene, which confirms that the deceased struggled for some time after being shot. Heiji..."

Officer Otaki looked at Hattori Heiji beside him and asked, "Do you know when the gunshot was fired?"

Hattori Heiji nodded. "It was around 8:05 pm. At that time, Kazuha and I heard the gunshots outside the hotel and saw the glass in this room shatter. So it shouldn't be wrong."

Officer Otaki was stunned. "Outside the hotel? So you were planning to go back?"

"No, no, no." Hattori Heiji waved his hand and explained, "Actually, Ran was asked by the three of them to help them confirm whether the hotel room lights had produced the letter ~K outside the hotel."

"Who are the three people you're talking about?"

"Of course it's the three owners of this restaurant."

Officer Otaki frowned slightly. "So, it was these three who turned on the lights in the room."

"Yes." Hattori Heiji nodded. "Lei is in charge of the five rooms on the first and second floors, Mike is in charge of the four rooms on the third and fourth floors, and as for Rika, he is in charge of the two rooms on the fifth floor. They went up at the same time."

Officer Otaki analyzed, "So, the murderer could be these three."

At this time, Maori Kogoro spoke up, agreeing with Officer Otaki's opinion: "This possibility is very high, because those three people seemed to be quite disgusted with the deceased."

"But that doesn't seem possible." He Ye had a different opinion: "This room is in the middle of the second floor. At the time of the incident, the three of them were far away from this room, right, Xiaolan?"

Xiaolan nodded and recalled, "I remember Mr. Mike was in the upstairs room, opening the half-open curtains. Then Mr. Ricca immediately turned off the light that had been mistakenly turned on in the second room on the left on the top floor. Finally, Mr. Lei turned on the light in the room on the far right on the first floor that had been missed. Just as we were rejoicing that K had finally finished, we heard gunshots and the sound of breaking glass."

Officer Otaki asked, "Did you see the three of them at that time?"

"No," Xiaolan denied. "But from the time Mr. Mike opened the curtain to the time Mr. Lei turned on the light, it was about five seconds. After the gunshot, they all stuck their heads out and asked what happened."

"Besides, the murderer isn't necessarily just these three." Hattori Heiji had a new idea: "After the accident, Uncle Mori and I immediately rushed into the hotel. At that time, many people wanted to know what happened and followed us to the room where the crime occurred. The murderer might have been hiding in a corner at that time and escaped during the panic."

Officer Otaki rubbed his chin and said with a headache, "If you say that, then all the guests at this reception are suspects. It will be difficult to find the murderer."

"That's not necessarily true." Hattori Heiji squatted beside the corpse and pointed at his hands. "Look, the corpse's left hand is holding a belt, and the little finger and ring finger of the right hand are bent. This may be a death message left behind before he died."

Officer Otaki nodded. "If that's the case, then we can use this as a clue to filter out the guests still waiting in the restaurant one by one."

"No, I don't think that's necessary," Maori Kogoro suddenly said. He looked so confident, as if he had already come up with something. "In my opinion, the murderer must be one of these three. That's right, the belt the deceased was holding symbolizes the championship symbol that only the strongest person can wear after a fierce battle. In other words, the murderer is the former boxing champion, Rica Barre."

0 ·······Request flowers· ···

"Then what do fingers mean?" asked Toyama Kazuha.

Mouri Kogoro was stunned for a moment.

Toyama Kazuha continued, "Since Rica Barre always knocks his opponents down in the fourth round, he should be showing the number four with his fingers."

Maori Kogoro thought there was some truth in this, so he changed his words and said, "The murderer is the professional football player Lei. He once won the final championship for his team in Italy, Spain and the United States."

.... ... ....

Hattori Heiji was speechless: "Lei also won the championship in Country Y."

Maori Kogoro was immediately speechless: "Yes, that's right."

Xiaolan gestured aside, "Could it be that his finger isn't pointing to 3, but is hinting at a baseball? Think about it, pitchers always use three fingers to hold the ball when throwing."

"That's right, it must be like this." Xiaolan's words reminded Yuanshan and Ye: "So, the murderer is Mike, the professional baseball player from Country M."

"No, no, no, that doesn't make sense." Maori Kogoro shook his head: "Mike's team has never won a championship. Even if they win a championship in baseball, they won't win a belt."

Seeing that everyone had analyzed a lot but still couldn't find any useful clues, Officer Otaki was a little frustrated. He pinched his chin and said, "The only clues now are his fingers and the white bandage he's holding. I think we need to solve this first before we can move on to the next step."

"bandage?"

When he heard this word, Kogoro Maori was stunned.

Officer Otaki asked back, "Why, haven't you ever heard anyone call a belt a bandage?"

"I think only old grandpa and grandma would shout like that." Hattori Heiji complained.

However, Officer Otaki's words seemed to have inspired Maori Kogoro. He pinched his chin and muttered to himself in thought: "Bandage, 3 bands, 3 bands..."

415: The Detective's Stage

Maori Kogoro muttered to himself for a few seconds, and suddenly an idea flashed in his mind. He showed an expression of sudden enlightenment and said excitedly, "I know, Mr. Bando, yes, it's Mr. Bando. As long as we can find someone with the last name Bando among the invited guests, it will be much easier, hahahaha..."

Officer Otaki looked at the confident Maori Kogoro speechlessly and couldn't help but ask Hattori Heiji in a low voice: "Is this guy really the famous sleeping Maori Kogoro?"

Hattori Heiji laughed dryly: "Maybe he's drunk."

He regained his serious expression as he spoke, "In my opinion, we can study the news of his death later. It would be better to investigate whether there was any smoke reaction first."

Since it has been confirmed that the deceased died from being shot, there must be residues of "480" gunpowder on the murderer's body when he fired the gun. As long as we measure the gunpowder reaction, we can know who the murderer is.

Officer Otaki nodded. "Alright, we need to filter all the guests today first."

.......

Inside the hotel, the work of detecting gun smoke is in full swing.

Kogoro Mouri was not willing to be outdone. He felt that his guess was correct, so he caught a customer who had just finished the gun smoke reaction and asked him if his surname was Bando.

The result is naturally unsuccessful.

After more than an hour, the smoke detection work was completed, but disappointingly, no reaction was detected from the guests.

To this end, Hattori Heiji set his sights on the three owners of the 3K restaurant and asked Officer Otaki: "What about those three people?"

Officer Otaki said, "I just had someone check. Like the others, the three of them didn't show any reaction to the smoke."