Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"Oh? No signs of hesitation? Then I think it was suicide. Maybe someone replaced the real thing. However, this was an absolutely secret room at the time of the crime. It must be suicide no matter how you look at it. Is there a spare key to this room?"

"Apart from Madam's own key, the only one I have is this one," the housekeeper responded.

"Well, the key to the room was found in Mrs. Ayane's nightgown pocket. It seems there is no other possibility..."

"Ding!" Suddenly, a clear piano sound interrupted Inspector Megure. The brisk rhythm like flowing water made everyone in the room feel refreshed.

Yuga Kyosuke looked at Maori who was playing the piano in the room in surprise.

"DEFGAB," Maori stopped his fingers and the notes stopped abruptly, "The order of the letters is the scale, so after G it's not H but A."

"what?"

"If the murderer was a musician, he would definitely arrange it this way, right?"

"So..." Xiaolan said in astonishment, "If the next letter is B, then people with B in their names..."

"It's Jinqu Hongsheng," the housekeeper pushed her glasses calmly, "Am I the next one? Come to think of it, when I first came here, the master did say, 'If you were also a member of our family, it would be a complete scale'..."

"Did I say that?" Old man Diao Yilang seemed to be unconcerned about anything else. He just stared at his Stradivarius violin and coughed from time to time.

"In any case," Officer Megure said solemnly, "we still need to investigate further. Please stay in your rooms, with the officers of course."

Maori closed the piano lid and saw old man Choichiro leave first, so he hurriedly called out to Shitara Renki.

"Ms. Renxi," Maori asked carefully, "Why do Mrs. Ayane and your grandfather share separate rooms?"

"Because grandpa was a heavy smoker, he only quit smoking now because he got lung cancer, and grandma hated the smell of cigarettes, so it has been like this for a long time..."

"If your grandfather passes away, who will inherit Stradivari?"

"Well, grandma and grandpa Gensaburo are both gone, so it should be me, right? Although grandpa said that he would put it in his coffin and take it away..." Shitara Renxi looked at Yuga Kyosuke who was being questioned by Inspector Megure on the other side, "But I think the Stradivarius is more suitable to be handed over to uncle Kyosuke."

"Oh, I see. Thank you."

Mori withdrew his gaze from Haga Kyosuke and turned his eyes to the open window.

Not even close...

After a pause, Maori walked past the many police officers and returned to the room downstairs with Conan.

"Uncle," Conan asked as he walked, "Did you find anything? That secret room..."

"First of all, we can be sure that both incidents were man-made. The first was a fire, and the second was a suicide by jumping off a building. Both involved a closed room. Plus, there are connections with the past few cases. As long as we catch these, we will definitely find the murderer..."

Maori walked to the table where they were sitting before and asked Conan: "Do you remember what Yuga Kyosuke did at that time?"

"I remember it," Conan asked doubtfully, "Uncle, do you suspect Mr. Kyosuke?"

"He's the only one closest to the window, and above here is Mrs. Ayane's room."

"Mr. Xiangfu brought up the violin just as the clock struck twelve," Conan walked into the room from outside, walked to the window and opened it while recalling, "and then he started playing..."

"stop!"

Maori called Conan and followed him to the window.

"Why did he have to open the window?"

"Ms. Renxi said that it was always like this when the Requiem was played, because the old lady and Mr. Choichiro's room were upstairs, so they could also hear it upstairs..." Conan held his chin and said, "But I also think it's too coincidental. Just when he was playing, there was a noise and then the old lady jumped off the building..."

"You also heard strange noises at that time, right?"

"Yes, that's why everyone looked out the window..."

"It was at that time," Mao Li continued while staring out the window, "Afterwards, I still remember that Miss Renxi hid in Yuga Xiangsuke's arms and cried, and we left here soon."

Conan nodded after thinking about it, "At that time, Mr. Kyosuke asked the butler to call an ambulance, and Xiaolan and I followed them..."

"That means that at that time, the only ones left here were Yuga Kyosuke and the crying Ms. Renxi."

The clues in Maori's mind seemed to gradually connect together. He closed his eyes and stood by the windowsill. His brain was working rapidly and all the details appeared in his mind.

Every move of Hanega Kyosuke that he saw was reproduced in its entirety.

"All puzzles have been solved..."

"Eh?" Conan came back to his senses.

……

The Fat Lady's room on the third floor.

"It seems that the only explanation is suicide," Officer Megure said, looking at the door. "This room has only two entrances, but the storage room is locked from this side. Only Mrs. Ayane and the housekeeper have the key to the door. Mrs. Ayane, who was in the secret room, climbed onto the windowsill by stepping on a chair and jumped out. No matter how you think about it, it's suicide..."

"Isn't there a third entrance?" Maori and Conan walked into the room together, "The window is always open..."

"Brother Maori," Officer Megure said in embarrassment, "Are you saying that someone went in and out through the window? We have just checked it and there are no suspicious signs on it!"

"What if we ask Mrs. Ayane to go out by herself?" Maori said with a smile.

Inspector Megure realized something instantly and asked excitedly: "Have you solved the mystery of the secret room, Brother Maori?!"

"In short, before solving the mystery, we first need to bring the four suspects here, and also bring the Stradivarius, because that violin is the key to solving the case."

……

"Do you know who the criminal is?"

Kyosuke Hanega was called back to the third floor along with everyone else. When he saw Mori and Conan staying next to Inspector Megure, there was some confusion on his face.

"Still a serial killer?"

"Yes, in the past two years, Mr. Gensaburo and Mrs. Ayane who were murdered today were all done by the same criminal... and although they all looked like accidents or even suicides, they were all designed by the murderer."

"But," Mr. Choichiro asked, holding the violin in his hands, "Why do we need this Stradivarius to solve the mystery? Do you know who replaced the violin?"

"Yes, but before we start reasoning, I want to play a song with this violin as a prelude to solving the mystery to cheer you up."

Maori laughed.

"Prelude?"

"May I?"

"Hey!" Choichiro said angrily, "What do you think of my Stradivarius?"

"That's right! What are you going to do if an amateur like you breaks it?"

The housekeeper couldn't help but scold him, but Yuga Kyosuke next to her advised kindly: "Just let him try it, uncle, maybe Mr. Maori knows who replaced the piano..."

Conan stood by and watched quietly as Kyosuke Hanega took the violin and wanted to give it to Mori.

He knew what Maori was planning. If there was anyone who most wanted Maori to meet Stradivari, it was undoubtedly the murderer himself, because Maori's fingerprints were also a key clue in the police investigation.

If the violin was switched before Mori played it, the suspects would undoubtedly be Haga Kyosuke and Shitara Renki, because no one could fool a musical genius like Haga Kyosuke. If the violin was switched after Mori left his fingerprints, the murderer must have hoped to muddy the waters and let Mori touch the real thing, making it impossible to judge the time.

Conan looked coldly at Yuga Kyosuke who had a gentle smile.

"Mr. Mori," Yuga Kyosuke walked up and handed the Stradivarius to Mori, "Let's listen to it..."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Kyosuke," Maori said in a flat voice, "Even if you succeed in getting my fingerprints on it, it's useless. You may not know that it wasn't just me who touched the violin at that time, but also Xiaolan."

"Eh?" Yuga Kyosuke froze.

"The violin was first calibrated by you, Mr. Xiangfu, in this room, and then handed over to Miss Lianxi. After she showed it to me, the annex happened to catch fire, so the violin was taken to the storage room by the butler Jinqu..."

Mao Li said to himself: "The people who have the opportunity to switch the violin are you, Mr. Kyosuke, Ms. Renxi, the housekeeper Jinqu, and Mr. Choichiro who can enter and leave the storage room freely. But no matter who it is, after knowing that I played the violin, they will definitely find a way to let me touch the current violin again..."

The butler interrupted, "It's also possible that the piano was switched before the tuning. Master Xiangfu just..."

"Will a musical genius with absolute pitch not be able to distinguish between real and fake music when tuning?" Mao Li said seriously, "Mr. Kyosuke, if you are willing to admit that you can't tell the difference, I have nothing to say."

Yuga Kyosuke held the violin in silence.

"But," Shitara Renxi said anxiously, "even if Uncle Xiangsuke replaced the Stradivarius, we can't say that Uncle Xiangsuke is the murderer. Wasn't Uncle Xiangsuke with us when grandma was in trouble?"

"That's true," Officer Megure looked at Maori hesitantly, "When Mrs. Ayane jumped off the building, this was a secret room. And the room where Gensaburo's room caught fire earlier was also a secret room, wasn't it?"

"It's just the murderer's trick."

Maori glanced at Conan who was hiding behind him and said, "The fire scene is definitely not a secret room."

"It's not a secret room?" Inspector Megure pointed at Mori, "It wasn't you, Mori, and Mr. Kyosuke who pushed the door open..."

"I just followed and knocked on the door. It was Kyosuke who said the door was locked."

Mao Li took out the twisted lock with a handkerchief and said, "This is the door on the door frame of Mr. Gensaburo's room. You can tell by looking at this... Only the upper hole of the buttonhole is twisted. If it was knocked open while locked, the lower buttonhole would definitely be deformed..."

"Generally speaking, for a door with a door handle on top and a safety lock on the bottom, the buckle hole on the bottom should be deformed, which means the door was not locked at the time."

"But," Xiaolan asked curiously, "the door was locked when we went in..."

"Because Mr. Xiangfu locked the door, and after he and I broke open the door, everyone's attention was focused on the room, and they didn't pay any attention to these things..."

"What about Mrs. Ayane's room?" Inspector Megure glanced at the silent Yuga Kyosuke, "This was a secret room at the time, and Mr. Kyosuke was playing the violin in the room downstairs..."

"That's why we brought the Stradivarius here," Maori said calmly, "At that time, Mr. Kyosuke's performance was the key."

Inspector Megure's chubby face twitched: "Brother Mori, are you saying that Mr. Kyosuke used the Requiem to make Mrs. Ayane jump off the building? This kind of thing is too..."

"What if Requiem is just an introduction?"

Maori went forward and closed the two windows.

"This should be the situation at the time of the crime. What would happen if Mrs. Ayane found out that the violin she thought was the real one was a fake by the bed, got angry and broke the violin, and then suddenly heard the music played by the real Stradivarius coming from the window?"

"A real... Stradivarius?"

"Yes, the violin that Mr. Kyosuke was using at the time was not his usual violin, but a Stradivarius that was swapped."

When everyone heard Maori's explanation, they all showed surprised expressions. They never expected that Yuga Kyosuke would be so bold.

"Uncle Kyosuke..."

"No, that's not right," Officer Megure responded, "Brother Mori, even if this is the case, Mrs. Ayane wouldn't just jump off the building, right?"

"This is where the murderer's trick comes in," Maori looked up at the window frame and said, "In fact, if you check the window, you'll find that there should still be traces of something being fixed with tape. In fact, there's a small pointed object that fell off next to Mrs. Ayane's body. That's the tip of the baton fixed to the window..."

"It's true!" Inspector Megure carefully checked the window glass above and found that there were indeed faint traces of tape left.

"At the fire scene, Genzaburo's two symphony batons were not found. Only the empty boxes were left," Maori continued. "I think the murderer must have brought them here."

"But what does this have to do with Mrs. Xuanyin jumping off the building?"

"Besides the tip of the baton, a piece of the violin bridge also fell off downstairs..."

Maori paused and turned to look at Yuga Kyosuke.

Chapter 153 The Strongest Vault

"Mr. Kyosuke fixed the batons stolen from Mr. Genzaburo on the left and right windows, and hung another Stradivari replica outside the window with a rope. As long as it is hung at the intersection of the two batons, the violin will move away when the window is opened, and finally fall with the broken tip of the baton..."

"And the violin?"

"It was hidden in the room downstairs. Because it was tied with a rope, the violin did not fall downstairs, but only hit the wall next to the window downstairs. Then it was collected by Mr. Xiangfu. The baton was also tied with a rope and retrieved from downstairs..."

Maori looked at Yuga Kyosuke quietly.

"Unfortunately, because Miss Lian Xi was crying beside you the whole time, you didn't have the chance to wipe off the fingerprints, nor did you have time to hide somewhere else..."

"You're lying!" Shitara Renki said anxiously, "How could Uncle Kyosuke be a murderer? Wasn't it Uncle Kyosuke who rescued grandma during the fire? Why is he..."

"That's because of the dissonance," Maori interrupted. "When playing the piano, if you press two adjacent notes at the same time, it will be quite awkward. For someone with absolute pitch, it should be particularly jarring, right?"

"It's indeed an annoying sound," Yuga Kyosuke suddenly smiled softly, "Discordant sounds are unbearable for musicians..."

"You saved them just to prevent them from getting killed at the same time?" Officer Megure shouted, "What do you think of human life?!"

"You can ask Uncle Choichiro about this as well," Yuga Kyosuke glanced at the half-dead old man, "30 years ago, he caused my father to be seriously injured. Not only did he not call an ambulance, he also directed a robbery scene. In the end, my mother died while taking care of her. It was this old man who committed these crimes."

"30 years ago..."

"Of course I have completely forgotten about it, but two years ago when I came to tune the Stradivari for his birthday party, the tone and touch were exactly the same as the violin my father gave me when I was a child, so I asked Aunt Yongmei, and she was so scared that she told me everything..."

"Really?" Old man Tiaoyilang raised his eyelids and coughed with difficulty, "It was you who killed Yongmei two years ago."

"She did fall to her death after stepping on the wrong stairs," Yuga Kyosuke snorted, "and there was also a surrendered person who accidentally fell to his death from the balcony. I think this is simply a revelation from God to me. Starting from my mother Chinami, including those who are still alive, it just happens to start from C and end at C. But when I heard that the old man who was originally the last to die had a serious illness and was dying, I started to get a little anxious..."

"Master Xiangsuke," the housekeeper lowered her head, "Is it me who started working here 30 years ago because I failed to figure out that thing?"

"No," Hanega Kyosuke laughed, "In German, it's after CDEFGA..."

"It's H at the end, right?" Mao Li stood aside with his arms folded. "If you want to commit suicide, you'd better save your energy."