Conan: The Self-cultivation of Fake Wine

"He hasn't contacted me for so many years. I thought he must be very busy and he must have become a famous chef. So I prepared the knife for him, thinking that one day when he comes back to see me, I will give the knife to him."

"Because of this thought, I would sharpen the knife from time to time. But I think last night was probably the last time I sharpened the knife for him again."

As she spoke, Tanaka Iwae's tears began to fall again.

Lu Ren didn't say anything else. He handed a handkerchief to Tanaka Yihe Jiang and turned away, giving the sad old man some time alone.

The story is okay, but unfortunately it doesn't help the case progress much.

Tanaka Ihejiang did not stay in the bedroom last night, but in the kitchen on the first floor.

As for why she came out the latest, it was probably because she put the knife away first and then ran out of the room.

It also cleared her of the possibility of shielding a criminal.

But the murder weapon still has not been found.

Apart from this fish-killing knife, Tanaka Ihei did not hide the existence of other knives.

However, no blood reaction was detected on these knives.

In other words, the murder weapon used by the murderer should have been his own.

However, Inoue and Tanaka's testimonies were very consistent in this regard. They did not bring any sharp weapons when they came.

Considering that one of them must be lying, the testimony should be changed to -

[One of them secretly hid a sharp weapon and never showed it to the other.]

But is this possible?

If this is true, then the murderer must be Shota Tanaka.

According to the original plan, the three of them would drive around here and then return to Tokyo.

We came to the mountains to stay overnight because Shota Tanaka deliberately got lost and drove here.

He was the only one among the three who knew the final destination of this trip. He was also the only one who could have prepared a sharp weapon in advance and chosen this place to kill Akane Ota.

Compared to Tanaka who was well prepared, Inoue was undoubtedly much more passive. If he wanted to kill Akane Oba here, it could only be a spur of the moment decision.

But if he acted on impulse, where did he get the weapon?

Could he really be the kind of guy who carries a sharp weapon with him and never shows it to anyone?

He is just a gigolo, not a professional killer or assassin.

The possibility is so small that it can be ignored.

Even if he really did this, he really hid a weapon that no one else knew about.

That also requires facing a problem.

Where did the murder weapon end up? Why couldn't the police find it?

Hiding the weapon in advance is relatively easy, regardless of whether you can understand it or not.

But after the incident, the murder weapon was hidden so well that more than 20 police officers inside and outside the house could not find any trace.

how did you do that?

Just as Lu Ren was lost in thought, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a small figure approaching him quietly out of the corner of his eye.

Lu Ren turned around, smiled and rubbed the newcomer's head, "Xiao Ai, why are you here? Are you hungry? I have some food in the trunk, take it and share it with everyone."

"Not hungry yet. We just found a hammer when we were searching the forest. I was wondering if it would help solve the case."

hammer?

"Did you hand it over to the police?"

"Ah."

Lu Ren immediately took Huiyuan to find Yamamura Cao and told him about the hammer.

"I have checked with Tanaka Iwae about the hammer. It is the hammer she put in the storage box, but I don't know why it fell into the forest."

A hammer that had inexplicably fallen in the forest.

Then it can be basically confirmed that the murderer stole it.

But why didn't he steal a sharp weapon, but a hammer instead?

"On that hammer..."

"Yes, it has been tested." Shancuncao knew what Lu Ren wanted to say, "There was no blood reaction on the hammer, and the fingerprints were only from Tanaka Yihejiang."

"What about the storage box? The tool box that originally held the hammer. Check if there are any other fingerprints on the box."

"Do we have to check that, too?" Shancuncao was instinctively reluctant. "Fingerprint extraction and inspection is a very troublesome task. Besides, there was only a hammer in the toolbox, no other sharp tools. A hammer can't make such a big cut on a person's neck."

"Let's check it out."

Seeing that Lu Ren insisted, Shancuncao didn't say anything else. He and the police officers under him gave a few instructions, asking them to do as Lu Ren said.

After a while, Shancun Cao was a little surprised when he learned the results of the identification.

"In addition to Tanaka Iwae's fingerprints, there are also Inoue Toshihiro's fingerprints on the storage toolbox. This is really strange. Could he be the murderer? But a hammer is not a sharp weapon."

Lu Ren heaved a sigh of relief after learning the result. He finally caught the killer's flaw.

During the previous body search, the police did not find any sharp weapons on the two gigolos, nor did they find any gloves.

During the subsequent search, no bloodstained gloves were found.

The victim's carotid artery was cut, and judging by the amount of bleeding, if the murderer really wore gloves when committing the crime, it would be difficult to guarantee that there would be no blood stains on the gloves.

If this is true, it will be even more difficult to hide the items afterwards. The gloves and sharp weapons used in the crime must be hidden for a short period of time, and the police must not find them.

This difficulty is quite high.

Lu Ren is more inclined to believe that the murderer committed the crime with a weapon in his bare hands.

Since he didn't wear gloves when he killed people, then if we expand our thinking, it is very likely that he didn't wear gloves before!

As for why there were no fingerprints of the murderer on the hammer.

That was probably because the murderer put his hand into his sleeve and was holding the hammer through his clothes.

Since the murderer was holding the hammer through his clothes, could it be that he was also working through his clothes when he was looking for the hammer and opening the storage toolbox?

It is actually possible for Shota Tanaka to do this.

As he has lived here since he was a child, he should know the location of the toolbox and could have put his hands into his sleeves from the beginning, trying not to leave fingerprints.

But as a stranger, Inoue didn't know the location of the toolbox, so he must have searched for it.

Lu Ren found it hard to believe that the murderer had remained vigilant and careful not to leave fingerprints throughout the entire search process.

Again, the murderer's method of killing is actually very crude.

If they had not approached and moved the body without protection after the death of the deceased, both of them would have been covered with a large amount of the deceased's blood.

The case didn't have to be so complicated.

Just look at who has blood on them.

It is impossible for the murderer to change the clothes he wore when committing the crime in a short period of time.

Fortunately, it’s not too late to find the murderer now.

Since there were Inoue's fingerprints on the storage toolbox, it meant that he was the one who took the hammer.

The fact that the hammer was left in the forest proved that he had left the cabin and walked into the forest with the hammer last night.

This is inconsistent with his own testimony.

Inoue claimed that he only went downstairs to the toilet and had never left the cabin before he heard the screams.

However, the evidence is still weak and may not be enough to convict him.

Inoue stayed up late at night and ran into the forest with a hammer. He must have his own purpose.

And his action is definitely related to the murder case.

Lu Ren thought for a moment and decided to go to the scene to take a look in person.

"Xiao Ai, do you remember where you found the hammer?"

"Yeah. I made a mark there."

"Good! You did a great job." Lu Ren rubbed Huiyuan's head, "Let's go over and take a look now."

Several people followed Huibara and quickly walked to the place she had marked earlier.

This place is quite far from the cabin, and I don’t know how Huibara and the others found this place before.

Lu Ren sighed for a moment and started the appraisal directly.

With the help of the plug-in, he soon discovered some things nearby that did not belong to this forest.

Those are some tiny pieces of obsidian, and they are only found in this fixed area.

Hammer plus obsidian fragments.

A bold and absurd idea came to Lu Ren's mind. He spread out his palm and showed the fragments he found to the others, "Could the murderer have used a hammer to knock out a stone knife?"

Conan was the first to confirm Lu Ren's statement, "This is a fragment of obsidian. Obsidian has the properties of glass. When it is broken, the cross-section is like a shell and is very sharp. Some people now use it to make obsidian knives."

It really is...

The murder weapon is made of obsidian, and now the task is to find it.

Lu Ren determined the next task, but did not set off immediately. Instead, he tried to start profiling.

[Hammer, Obsidian Fragment]

[Clues collection completed, backtracking started. 】

Time is reversed.

A few minutes later, Lu Ren rubbed his eyebrows.

"The murder weapon was indeed an obsidian knife. Tanaka Iwae's family kept fish, and the rockery in the fish tank was made of obsidian. The murderer brought it out last night and used a hammer to make a part of the obsidian into a knife."

"After he killed the person, he threw the obsidian knife back into the fish tank. The murder weapon is still in there, stained with the victim's blood and the murderer's fingerprints."

After hearing what Lu Ren said, Conan suddenly reacted.

No wonder he always felt something was wrong before, but couldn't put his finger on it for a moment.

Now he knew that what was wrong was the water level in the fish tank which was obviously too low.

If you don't add enough water and the water level is too low, the fish will have less space to move around in. If you keep many fish in a fish tank, the space will become more crowded.

So most people would choose to add as much water as possible.

However, there was obviously too little water in Tanaka's fish tank, especially since there were twelve fish in it!

As for the reason for the sudden drop in water level, it was very simple. The murderer took part of the rockery as a weapon.

As the fish tank became less full, the water level naturally dropped. Unfortunately, he didn't notice this before Lu Ren figured out the truth. Otherwise, he would have been faster than Lu Ren...

"Conan, go tell Officer Yamamura about this discovery. We'll go back to the car and wait for you."

Even though his physical fitness had improved through taking drugs, the experience of using skill profiling was still not much better. Lu Ren just wanted to be quiet now.

"oh oh."

After some time, Conan returned to the car and shared his new gossip with Lu Ren.

"The old woman gave the fish-killing knife with a red handle to her grandson, Tanaka Shouta."

"So they recognized each other?"

"No. They are still pretending not to know each other."

Then Conan imitated the conversation between the two people at that time.

Tanaka Iwae: "Do you know a man named Tanaka Shota? He's a chef in Tokyo."

Tanaka Shota: “I don’t know him…”

"Then can I ask you a favor?"

"You say."

"This is a photo of that child." Tanaka Iwae showed the photo on the table to Tanaka Shota, "If you can meet that child in Tokyo, please help me tell him a message."