Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"They are the only three without alibis?" Mao Li was stunned. He barely looked at the area below the collarbones of the three people, and none of them matched the murderer in the photo.

"Well," Yokomizo coughed lightly and said to the three waitresses with his phone, "Can I check your bodies? I want to confirm whether you have a black mole on your chest like the female criminal photographed moments before Yaxia was killed..."

"What?" The long-haired waitress, Asaka Saegusa, looked at the photo on her phone and reacted strongly, "Do you want us to take off all our clothes here?"

"Ah, no... a female police officer will take you to another room..."

"That's fine, but please hurry up, we have other work to do!"

"it is good……"

"That's not necessary," Bessho Toshiko blushed and opened her collar, "Look, I don't have any moles..."

Chapter 164 The So-Called Mother

"Bessho?" The round-chinned waitress Kusano Mitsu looked at Bessho Toshiko in surprise.

"Forget it," Asaka Saegusa calmly opened her collar to reveal her fair chest, "It's nothing anyway, Kusano, don't dilly-dally, or you'll get suspicious."

"Well, that's fine."

Kusano Meijin also blushed and exposed her chest, revealing a black mole below her right collarbone.

"Ah!" Yokomizo glared, "Don't you have a mole on your chest?!"

"Please look carefully, officer," Kusano said dissatisfiedly, "My mole is on the right, opposite to the photo!"

“That’s true…”

"Officer," Saegusa Asaka interrupted, "if there's nothing else, we can get back to work!"

"Wait, wait a moment!" Yokogawa said anxiously, "We will have to take a statement later, please go to another room and wait..."

After the three waitresses left with a snort, Yokomizo's face turned bitter.

"The criminal can't be found at all... Was this photo really taken by Yaxia? Because of the backlight, the picture is not very clear, and the criminal's face is not in the picture..." Yokomizo said uncertainly, "Could it be that the criminal deliberately took the photo in order to create an alibi by tampering with the real time?"

"It's unlikely," Maori propped up his elbow and looked towards the bathroom. "The murderer tied a thin wire around Yaxia's neck, and it was obvious that he was strangling it with both hands. The only person who could have taken the photo was Yaxia herself, and the murderer's breasts were also photographed. If the murderer had designed it, she should have been dressed so that it would be impossible to tell whether she was a man or a woman..."

"This phone has been muted, so it won't make any sound when taking photos... Yaxia must have been planning to take the photos before being attacked."

"Secretly taking photos?" Yokomizo checked his phone carefully. "He was on the phone with someone 10 minutes before the photo was taken!"

Tokyo, Tokyo Publishing House, the phone rang repeatedly in the busy editorial office. A bald uncle picked up the phone: "What? Yaxia was killed?!"

"I'm Nagaizumiya, the editor-in-chief of Hot Weekly... Kamoshita often sends us some special materials. Today he called me twice. The second call was just after 11:. He said that the heroine of the special material was taking a bath in the bathroom in his room, and he would take a picture of her appearance with his mobile phone..."

"Really?" Yokogome said seriously, "The heroine of that special material is..."

"It was Atsuko, the woman who abandoned Kinukawa Kazuki at the door of the church. That woman seemed to have threatened Kinukawa Kazuki's office, saying that if they didn't pay 20 million, she would announce that Kazuki's father was a fugitive murderer... I don't know how Kamoshita got a clue, and he said he was going to scout the place where that woman was..."

Yokomizo couldn't help but look at Kinukawa Kazuki standing at the door, then hung up the phone and looked at Mori: "He said that this is what happened. Kamoshita might not have been sure who it was at first, so he tried to test the waitress here..."

"I see."

Mao Li just leaned over the phone and heard what was said on the other end. He frowned and turned to the little brat: "But I am sure of one thing, Wenzi is definitely not the murderer. I will find the real culprit."

"Atsuko isn't the murderer?" Yokomizo said in astonishment, "But wasn't Atsuko the one Kamoshita threatened?"

"Maybe," Maori checked the body of the duck again, "Still can't find the murder weapon?"

"Yeah, it seems like we have no choice but to search the entire hotel..."

……

Kinukawa Kazuki stood by with his hands hanging down, staring blankly at Mori as he devoted himself to the case and discussed seriously with Officer Yokomizo, and watching Mori make certain inferences.

"If the murder weapon was a thin wire, it must have been hidden, flushed down the drain, or burned directly. It's unlikely to be found. Perhaps it would be much easier to investigate the source of the murder weapon..."

Mao Li temporarily put aside the thought of the murder weapon and continued to observe the scene, noticing faint bloodstains on the shower head in the bathroom.

Putting the previous clues together, the murderer entered Yaxia's room 10 minutes before the crime and took a shower in the bathroom. He then tricked Yaxia into the bathroom, hit the back of her head with the shower head, and then took the opportunity to wrap a thin wire around her neck, but Yaxia secretly took a photo before the murder happened...

"Isn't this a movie starring Hui Hui?" Yokomizo picked up a videotape in front of the TV, "How did this come about?"

"That's the videotape that Mr. Kamoshita rented," the police officer explained. "It seems this hotel provides rental services to its guests..."

"That means Mr. Kamoshita watched this tonight, right?"

Yokomizo looked tense as he inserted the videotape into the player port.

"I wonder if there will be any clues..."

Mao Li started watching the video.

The movie was a horror film called "The Elementary School Stairs". Yokomizo's face changed instantly when he saw the strange scene on the screen, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"This... this movie looks scary..."

"Officer Yokomizo, are you scared?"

"How, how could..."

An hour and a half later, Yokomizo watched the end of the movie with chattering teeth, turned to Mao Liqiang and said with a smile: "Ha...haha, very interesting...but it seems there are no clues..."

Mao Li ignored Yokomizo's stiff smile and picked up the videotape box thoughtfully. He looked at the 94 minutes marked on it, and then looked at the movie that ended at 93 minutes.

"One minute less..."

"what?"

"Most movies have a beginning. At least they should show the film company and the main creators, right?" Mao Li tried to replay the video and said, "Mr. Kamoshita's videotape is one minute shorter than normal..."

Yokogawa asked confusedly, "What's going on?"

Mao Li placed the videotape box on the table, raised his eyelids and said with a serious look, "If the other videotapes are normal, then there is only one possibility. The murderer may have cut a one-minute long tape as a murder weapon. Just check if there are any signs of glue inside the videotape to find out."

"But the black line in the photo is as thin as a kite... Could it be twisted together?"

"It's not that troublesome. In fact, all you need to do is stretch the tape. Videotapes are very stretchable. It should be no problem to stretch a 1-minute length of 80 centimeters to more than 2 meters. It's more than enough to wrap around the duck's neck as a weapon. And because it's flammable, it's also easy to handle..."

Maori stood up and walked to the bathroom door.

"Also, the murderer placed Ya Xia's body in the bathtub so that it could wash away the magnetic powder left by the tape on Ya Xia's neck and avoid leaving any traces. The biggest problem now is..."

Maori's eyes swept across the wound on the back of Yaxia's head and turned to the shower head hanging on the wall. The clues in his mind seemed to be strung together by something and quickly flashed a bright line.

"The murderer was not wearing any clothes... probably to avoid the blood from the duck splashing on his clothes, so he went into the bathroom under the pretext of taking a shower..."

"Inspector!" A police officer came back with a test report and said, "The test results are out. The blood on the shower head matches the blood type of Duck. The murderer did use the shower head to knock the victim unconscious and then strangled him to death!"

Yokomizo cheered up and said, "Detective Mori, you are right! But even so, we still cannot identify the culprit..."

"I already know who the criminal is."

"Oh, I see...what?!"

Yokomizo paused, stared at Maori with his thick eyebrows wide open.

"Already know?"

"As long as you avoid preconceived ideas and start from the beginning, it will be easy to think clearly..."

Mao Li turned to the three waitresses who were brought over with him and raised his finger at their puzzled looks.

"Yes, if the spot in the photo is not a mole, everything makes sense... Miss Bessho Toshiko, the murderer is you!"

"Me?" The short-haired waitress turned pale. "Detective Mao, what are you talking about? I don't have a mole on my chest..."

"There is indeed no mole, but..."

Mao Li took Ya Xia's phone.

"The spot on the murderer's chest is not a mole either. It is the blood that splashed on his body when you hit him on the head with the shower head. It could easily be mistaken for a mole, but only when you saw the photo did you know clearly that it was a bloodstain that was not dealt with in time..."

"Wait a minute!" Saegusa Asaka stepped forward and said, "What right do you have to say that about Toshiko? Didn't she take the initiative to let you see her breasts?"

"That's the reason," Maori looked calmly at the silent Bessho Toshiko, "The blood on his chest was washed away when he entered the open-air bath, but the blood on his clothes was not dealt with. If they were really checked, it would be easy to be discovered. That's why he took the initiative to grab his collar and open his chest so that the police could confirm that he had no black mole and avoid the body search..."

"How, how could..."

Asaka Saegusa was speechless and looked at the short-haired waitress in confusion: "Toshiko..."

Yokomizo came back to his senses and with a serious face he lifted the left collar of the short-haired waitress:

"There is indeed a little blood on the inside of the kimono! It turned out to be you, Kazuki's mother Atsuko, who threatened Kazuki-kun's office and now killed Kamoshita's people... Do you have anything to say now?"

"I was just joking at first..."

The short-haired waitress bit her lip and lowered her head.

"Because the child she abandoned became famous, she sent postcards reluctantly... I wanted to separate Hehui from such a mother. Maybe it was jealousy because I can't have children..."

"Then..."

"Yes, I am not Hehui's mother, and Hehui's father is not a murderer. I did this just to prevent the agency from giving Hehui's mother's postcard to Hehui..."

The short-haired waitress turned her head away.

"But after a while, some money was actually deposited into my account. When I didn't know what to do, the guy called Yaxia came to me... I called this room to explain to him, but the guy laughed and said that even if it was fake, he could squeeze me dry...

"I'm really scared."

The short-haired waitress glanced at Asaka Saegusa from the corner of her eye.

"However, a woman's desire for a child... should be something you can understand..."

"We'll talk about the rest at the police station," Officer Yokomizo nodded in confusion and turned to Mori and said, "Then, Detective Mori, could you please stop by the police station to help take the statement?"

"No, I'm not the one who called the police anyway, and you all know the case," Mao Li looked at the little kid sleeping on the side, "and there's this kid who needs my care..."

"Uh, well, I'll contact you if you have anything."

"It's already half past three..."

Maori yawned, picked up the sleeping kid and followed him out of the crime scene.

What sin did I commit? Why am I either taking care of a little ghost or on my way to take care of a child recently?

The famous detective is almost becoming a babysitter...

Asaka Saegusa stopped at the aisle and silently watched Maori walk past her. When she looked at Kinukawa Kazuki, a hint of tenderness flashed in her eyes.

"You are Kazuki's mother, Atsuko, right?" Maori suddenly turned around.

"what?"

"This kid still remembers that when you held him, he fell asleep while looking at the black mole and listening to the sound of cutting vegetables. But he was wrong about one thing..." Mao Li said calmly, "Hehui was probably held in the church when he grew up, but most housewives don't hold their children while cooking. In fact, he was carried on your back at the time, which means that his real mother is you with the mole on the back of your neck..."

Asaka Saegusa's eyes dimmed: "I..."

"I'll explain to his agency," Mao Li said with a smile, "After being blackmailed, the agency stopped giving postcards to Kazuki, but they probably won't do that in the future. Keep writing. Even though this kid said he didn't like it, the fact that he made the postcard dirty and wrinkled is evidence that he kept reading it while crying. He must want to receive another postcard from you..."

"Xiaohe..."

Asaka Saegusa choked up as she watched Mori take Kinukawa Kazuki back to room 308, then turned her head away and wiped her eyes.

"Thank you, Detective Maori."

……

A few days later, Mao Li was still watching Yoko Okino's latest drama in the office of the agency when he suddenly received a commission from a little kid, a pink piggy bank in a cardboard box with a thank-you note on it.

"Ok?"

Maori's eyebrows twitched.

"Bang!" The pink pig was smashed, and a pile of scattered coins appeared in front of Mao Li. After counting, there were about five thousand yuan.

"..."

"Rich man?"

Maori's eyes twitched as he looked at the little kid who was performing with Okino Yoko on TV.

"So rich..." Maori gritted his teeth, "Not even enough to pay for the trip to Atami... This brat, I knew I shouldn't take on commissions from children!"

Xiao Ai, who was flipping through a fashion magazine on the sofa next to him, glanced at the profit of counting coins and the corners of her mouth curled up slightly.

……

As the summer vacation is approaching, Maori suddenly has a lot of work to do, but with the occasional help from Haibara and Conan, it is not too tiring. He tries to choose weekends for commissions that require traveling far away.