Conan Rick's Investigator

As the night was approaching, everyone was inevitably a little hungry.

So at Taketomi Masao's suggestion, everyone split up and searched the house to see if there was any food hidden, and also to check for any defensive gaps in the house.

He still couldn't forget Conan's tentative reasoning that someone else on the island was responsible.

Although Qin Zhibo wanted to say that the man who starved to death a year ago should have eaten all the edible things here, out of curiosity about Shimabukuro Keikazu's living environment on the island over the years, Qin Zhibo agreed.

A group of three, Mikiyasu Daito, Yoshitsugu Kume, and Shinro Ikema, searched the second floor, while the remaining four, Tomohiro Qin, Ran Mori, Conan, and Masao Taketomi, searched the first floor together.

Regarding Qin Zhibo's personnel arrangement, Taketomi Masao nodded in agreement. "That's right. After all, there are girls and children here, and Mr. Qin is the only one protecting them. If they are attacked, it will be troublesome."

Hearing this, Qin Zhibo was stunned for a moment, feeling that this uncle might be a little crazy.

Conan, who was standing lower down in slippers, gently stroked the watch-shaped anesthetic gun on his wrist, comforting himself that as long as he had this thing, he would be invincible in a 1v1 situation.

……

"So that's how it is, you know karate."

"Yes, I won the Metropolitan Competition some time ago."

Listening to Ran Maoli's impressive record, a drop of cold sweat dripped down the corner of Taketomi Masao's temple, and he sighed that one cannot judge a book by its cover.

However, Qin Zhibo, who was walking beside with a candlestick in his hand, knew that Mao Li Ran was a weak demon. As long as the environmental atmosphere was rendered just right, she would not be able to withstand any fright.

Once frightened, her fighting power will drop sharply to that of a little girl.

This is a bit like the cowardly lone wolf in Plants vs. Zombies...

Seeing that Ran Mouri was admired, Conan, who was walking next to her, felt a little proud.

Awesome, right? Humph... My wife!

While chatting casually, the three people and a "messenger from the underworld" searched to the door of the last room.

Qin Zhibo was the first to push open the door. Mao Lilan huddled weakly behind Qin Zhibo, with a worried frown on her face, which was a bit cute.

squeak--

When the door opened and candlelight shone into the dark room, Qin Zhibo immediately saw some clues about the room.

This room is the largest room on the entire first floor. The bed is made neatly, and the table and chairs slightly tilted at the right angle make the room more lively.

At this moment, Mao Lilan let out a slight scream.

"what……"

Conan quickly asked what was wrong, and Mao Lilan slowly raised her hand and pointed to the headboard, "There seems to be something on it..."

Qin Zhibo and Conan went over with candles to check and saw dense scratches on the wooden board at the head of the bed.

If you look closely, these scratches are slightly distorted versions of the Chinese character "正".

Hundreds of "正" characters are densely arranged, which is quite creepy in the dim environment.

Looking at these "positive" numbers, Qin Zhibo guessed that these should be the scales used by Shimabukuro Keikazu to measure the days he lived here.

Conan, standing by, immediately came to the same conclusion and said, "These should be used by someone living here to measure time, right?"

Could it be the man who was trapped here and starved to death a year ago?

Judging from the number of "正" characters, he has lived here for at least four years. But if that is the case, how could he suddenly starve to death?

Could it be that he felt there was no hope of escape, so he committed suicide in despair?

Conan held his chin up, looking at the "正" characters carved into his head as if thinking, while Qin Zhibo had already turned to the cabinet next to him and opened the drawers one by one.

The upper drawers were all empty, except for the last one, where Qin Zhibo found a photo frame.

The old wooden photo frame was a little moldy. The photo inside was a photo of a middle-aged man and woman. The man was the mayor of Jincheng Town who had hosted him yesterday.

Taketomi Masao walked over at this time and looked at the two people in the photo with a bit of nostalgia, "That's the mayor and his wife. They were still quite young back then..."

Qin Zhibo subconsciously removed the legs at the back of this old-fashioned photo frame and found another photo at the back.

The mayor of Jincheng is still in the photo, but the person in the photo has become a young beautiful woman with long black hair.

Black and straight!

Qin Zhibo's eyes narrowed, and he pointed at the long black hair above and asked, "Who is this woman?"

Taketomi Masao reacted for a moment and explained, "This is the mayor's only daughter, Miss Xiaodu. Back then, Xiaodu was beautiful and had a good temperament, and was sought after by many young people in the town."

"But I didn't expect that she was suddenly kidnapped five years ago, not long after Madam Jincheng died, and there has been no news of her since then..."

The one with long black hair... turned out to be the daughter of the mayor of Jincheng Town.

Now Qin Zhibo had some ideas sorted out. It turned out that this was the story of "You can be on guard day and night, but you can't guard against thieves in your own home."

Shimabukuro Keikazu had only seen the true faces of two bandits on this island, one of whom had long straight black hair.

If this girl with long black hair is the mayor's daughter, then everything makes sense.

Five years ago, she was kidnapped, but later in order to get money to treat her "mermaid disease", she took the initiative to join a gang of robbers and robbed her own house.

This is truly a filial daughter...

At this moment, Conan on the side also paused his research on the inscription of the word "正" and ran over to follow Qin Zhibo's reasoning progress.

"Uncle, aren't you a staff member of Kyushu TV? How do you know so much about what's happening here?"

Taketomi Masao was stunned for a moment, then replied in a deep voice, "Because my cousins were maids in the mayor's house at the time, but my cousin later died at the hands of that gang of robbers..."

"Actually, it's not just me. Ikema-san's mother and the mayor's wife are also sisters, so he and Miss Xiaodu should also be considered cousins."

Conan took the photo from Qin Zhibo, took a look at it, and asked, "Where is this magnificent city wall in the background of the photo? I don't think I've seen it before..."

Taketomi Masao was stunned for a moment, and secretly complained in his heart: There are so many things you haven't seen as a child...

However, he still couldn't refuse Conan's "answer to every question" and patiently explained, "That's not a city tower, but the mayor's house. At that time, Miss Xiaodu lived in it. She often ran around the house happily, feeling like a princess living in a castle."

Princess……!

Hearing the key words, Conan's brain got new material for reasoning.

Chapter 470: Prophet Qin Zhibo

Princess……

This word is not unfamiliar to Conan. The code he saw on the doorpost of the villa before was "Princess". Could it be that "Princess" refers to the body of Miss Xiaodu?

Miss Xiaodu's body is hidden somewhere on this island. Is the code used to indicate the hiding place?

At the same time, Qin Zhibo turned around and saw an investigation point on the door frame of the room behind him, and hurried over to check the situation.

On the door frame were some childish crayon-drawn letters: from top to bottom, "i," "ka," "wo"...

Qin Zhibo looked at the investigation point above and started the investigation.

【Secret Word Survey√】

[Ka means "mother", referring to Ura Castle, Matsumoto Castle, and I means "Chiyo brother", referring to Edo Castle, also known as "Chiyo Castle"]

"Judging from the different heights of these lines, they must have been drawn by Miss Xiaodu when she was a child, when she was comparing heights with someone."

Conan started to follow and reasoned calmly, while Qin Zhibo was already standing in front of the door frame, using his own height as a reference.

"Judging from their height, this 'ka' should be a female, and 'i' is a tall male..."

"Excuse me, Mr. Taketomi, is your cousin's last name Matsumoto?"

Qin Zhibo's sudden change of subject caught Taketomi Masao off guard. He nodded hesitantly, "Yes, my cousin's name is Matsumoto Yoshiko..."

Qin Zhibo's reasoning came true, which shocked Conan.

How did he guess Mr. Taketomi's cousin's last name?

Had he figured out the meaning of the nicknames on the doorframe?

This speed of reasoning...is unscientific!

Just then, a scream broke out from upstairs.

Everyone on the first floor quickly dropped what they were doing and ran to the second floor.

……

When I got to the second floor, I saw Kume Yoshitsugu sitting on the ground with a horrified expression, as if he was scared out of his wits.

Walking over and following his gaze, Qin Zhibo and Conan saw a portrait hanging on the wall. The model in the painting was Miss Xiaodu.

The young lady Xiaodu in the painting had a beauty that could make the moon and flowers ashamed, but she frightened Kume Yoshitsugu terribly.

"I think this painting should be painted by the mayor's wife. I've heard Jiazi say before that the mayor's wife has very high painting skills..."

Shinro Ikema, who was standing next to him, turned around and asked, "Who is Yoshiko?"

"She is my cousin and used to be a maid in the mayor's house..." Taketomi Masao replied.

"Oh?" Ikema Shinro showed an interested expression. "So, there are four people here who have some connection to the mayor's family..."

According to the revelation of Shinro Ikema, Qin Zhibo and Conan learned that Kume Yoshitsugu and Miss Koto have been classmates since junior high school and can be considered childhood sweethearts.

The mayor's wife is Nobuo Ikema's aunt.

Daito Mikiyasu and the mayor's wife were childhood sweethearts. He found out about this last year when he happened to meet her while visiting her grave.

"As for my mom, she said she doesn't remember, so I don't know if it's true..."

There was something ambiguous in Ikema Shinro's words, as if he was saying that Daito Mikiyasu was forcing his relationship with him.

"Of course. Your mother and the mayor's wife are quite different in age. It's normal that we haven't met."

Daito Mikiyasu responded leisurely, feeling relieved at the same time.

It doesn’t matter if this identity of mine is discovered, as long as it is not discovered that I have lived in this house.

But at this moment, Daito Mikiyasu saw Qin Zhibo coming over and measuring his height with his hands.

Daito Mikiyako: “?”

Daito Mikiyasu didn't understand what he meant, but Qin Zhibo had already identified the owner of the highest scale line on the door frame by comparing their heights.

At present, Daito Mikiyasu's height is most consistent with that scale line.

On the other side, Conan walked to the front of the portrait, turned on the watch-shaped flashlight, and wanted to observe the portrait closely, but unexpectedly saw a small sequin on the ground.

Conan bent down to pick up the sequin and found that it was a fish scale.

The base of the fish scales is transparent white, and the front end is a light gray-blue, which instantly reminds Conan of the fish scales found on the beach of the previous American island incident. It seems that these two are the same kind of scales.

Conan's eyes moved slightly, and an idea came to his mind.

Is it...

Is it popular for people here to eat fish with scales like this?

……

After the search was almost complete, everyone returned to the safe house.

As time gradually entered late at night, Mao Lilan continued to practice the "kowtow skill" in her seat, and finally fell asleep on the table.

Qin Zhibo leaned his hands on the table and looked around at the four people sitting there silently.

Judging from the information currently available, the murderer is most likely one of these four people.

However, the captain is still missing. Although according to the laws of science, he is most likely dead, I still have to find the body to see if there will be any turning point.

Thinking in his mind, Qin Zhibo took out the magic extractor and put it on his hand, preparing to use the locating spell to try to find the captain's current location.

Conan on the side also did not sleep, his brain was deducing the clues he had previously obtained.

Among them, Conan already knew the origin of the surname "Matsumoto". The pronunciation of "ka" is similar to "crow", and "Matsumoto Castle", one of the famous Japanese castles, is also called "Crow Castle".

According to this naming method, the second "Chiyo Brother" should refer to "Chiyo Castle", but Conan can't figure out the meaning other than that.

After all, it's a child's naming method. If it were a truly smart kid like Mitsuhiko, rather than a player like Conan who cheats by relying on experience, he might be able to figure out the meaning.

Just as Conan was thinking hard, he saw Qin Zhibo next to him take out a pair of gloves from his arms and put them on his hands.

After putting on the gloves, he clenched his hands again on the table and closed his eyes.

After a while, Qin Zhibo's eyes suddenly opened and he looked up towards the pier outside the villa.