Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"Uh...okay..."

Sweat appeared on Maeda Satoshi's forehead. The famous detective Mori put a lot of pressure on him.

……

Room 1901, the room of Maeda Satoshi and Sayama Akiko. In order to find further evidence and clues that fit his logical chain of reasoning, Maori searched the whole room, and Conan was also jumping up and down in the room openly, writing and drawing in a small notebook.

Maori focused on checking the personal belongings of Maeda Satoshi and Sayama Akiko, and then looked at the balcony and the windows in the room.

He had a rough idea of ​​the layout of the room. Forget about the balcony. Although there was a window on the side that was right on the right-angled wall below the balcony on the 20th floor, it would be basically impossible for even karate champion Maeda Satoshi to come down from there. And according to Akiko Sayama's testimony, she had been watching TV in the room at the time.

Regardless of whether Sayama Akiko was lying, in this case, Maeda Satoshi's only possible escape route was to jump onto the balcony of someone else's room. But how did Maeda know that no one had locked the glass door of the balcony?

As Maori was thinking this—

"Huh? What kind of medicine is this?"

Officer Yokomizo, who was also searching, asked in confusion while holding a board of pills found in Sayama Akiko's pocket.

"These are my sleeping pills," Sayama Akiko replied, "I've been suffering from insomnia lately, so I always carry them with me..."

"Sleeping pills?" Mao Li looked at Maeda Satoshi and asked Sayama, "Were you really here watching TV at 10 o'clock when the crime happened?"

"Yeah," Sayama nodded, remembering, "By the way, I called the hotel front desk at that time."

"Is this so..."

After searching the room, Mao Li lit a cigarette and left Room 1901 thoughtfully. He always felt like he had reached a dead end.

Although it is completely logical that Maeda Satoshi is the Duke of Darkness who fought against Xiaolan, if we follow this point to sort out the case, there will be more doubts.

Because if Maeda was the murderer, why did he steal the Duke of Dark Night's clothes, and why did he appear outside the elevator on the 19th floor for no apparent reason and be seen by Xiaolan? And the murder method...

Chapter 32 Mao Li understands everything again

In the hotel corridor, Maori glanced at Conan, who was walking beside him and was also in deep thought, and felt inexplicably pressured.

Regardless of his status as a senior, or the identity of a "future father-in-law" that he himself does not want to admit, Maori must solve this case faster and better than Conan. Because only in this way can he, who is good at face, have the nerve to continue to command this kid in the future, or give him a slap from time to time according to his mood.

Therefore, Mao Li did not choose to follow the police to continue investigating other people's rooms, but returned to the origin of the incident, Room 2101 where the deceased Ehara Tokio stayed.

Although he is not like Conan, whose reasoning ability comes from a large amount of detective novel reading and his own talent, he has experience as a criminal police, which Conan does not have.

These experiences taught him that when a case is at a dead end, it is better to go back to the beginning, back to the scene...

Mao Li walked past the forensic officer who was still working in the room, went to the balcony of the room, and re-sorted out every aspect of the case in the cold wind.

At 10 pm, Ehara Tokio dressed as the Duke of Darkness fell on the bronze statue and died. Among the tour group members, Mr. Jincheng and his servant had been in the open-air restaurant, Kamijou Hideko was also with him, Konno Shiro said he was using the computer in the room, and Sayama Akiko was watching TV in the room.

Although the remaining Maeda Satoshi said that he left the top floor after 10 o'clock, he was the one who checked the time at that time, and he was also acting as the Duke of Darkness just now...

The question now is whether Maeda is the murderer of Jiang Yuan, how he escaped from the secret room, and why he stole the clothes of the Duke of Darkness from the morgue...

When these things were put together again, Maori... was totally confused!

"No, we can't get the truth with just these... What key piece of the puzzle is missing?"

Mao Li muttered to himself as he sat on the balcony with his back against the railing and lit another cigarette. The wind was strong on the balcony, making the smoke he exhaled completely unable to gather and disperse.

"call!"

The wind grew stronger, and suddenly a strange feeling came over Maori, as if something had been ignored by him and something was very wrong.

"……wind?"

"The wind seemed to be stronger than it is now... Is the wind this strong here at night?"

Maori returned to the room full of confusion, was stunned for a moment, then rushed to the railing and looked down.

The height of the 21st floor made Mao Li, who suffers from acrophobia, feel dizzy and his legs tremble. But in order to solve the case, he pinched his arm and bit his tongue, trying to use the pain to forcibly suppress his fear.

At that time, Jiang Yuan fell along the right-angled wall, and the location of the bronze statue was indeed right below the balcony...

But if he was pushed off the balcony, why wasn't he affected by the wind? Can a person really fall straight down in such a strong wind? !

The balcony was protruding outwards, and the wind on both sides was particularly strong. He remembered that the wind at the time of the incident was much stronger than it is now...

Jiang Yuan's body falling from a high altitude... Clothes and room cards scattered at the door of the secret room... White gloves stuck on the railing... The Duke of Darkness costume that someone else put on Jiang Yuan's body... And the strong wind...

Maori closed his eyes slightly, his brain began to work rapidly, and the three-dimensional structure diagram of the entire Princess Hotel slowly appeared in his mind.

He tried hard to recall the physics courses and mathematics knowledge of Teitan University that had once given him the most headaches. Then, based on this knowledge, he simulated the wind speed, direction, and height at the time of the incident, and finally showed the possible falling trajectory of Jiang Yuan after he was pushed off the balcony.

The point where it landed did not coincide with the bronze statue directly below, but deviated in the short time it left the balcony, and finally landed at a distance from the bronze statue...

The crime scene was not on the balcony of Jiang Yuan’s room!

Mao Li opened his eyes suddenly, and the room layout of Room 1901 of Maeda Satoshi, which he had just visited, immediately appeared in his mind... That's right! The window below the balcony window!

This is a place that fully meets the requirements! Because the right-angle wall is in the dead corner of the airflow, the strong wind can't reach it at all, so Jiang Yuan fell straight onto the statue! And looking up from below, it looks like he fell from the balcony! Combined with the gloves left between the balcony railings, it naturally gives people the illusion that Jiang Yuan really fell from the balcony!

Although I haven't seen the gross profit of other people's rooms, I don't think they will have the same effect...

The criminal is Maeda Satoshi?

No, if Akiko Sayama had called the front desk at 10 o'clock, she must have been in the room at that time...

A criminal partnership?

That's not right. The two testimonies conflict...

Maori's eyes flickered.

Why did Maeda Satoshi risk his life to steal the Duke of Darkness's clothes afterwards, and why did he happen to appear outside the elevator on the 19th floor and be seen by Conan and the others?

You have to know that the only people in the elevator at that time were Xiaolan and Conan, and the one who had just finished the interrogation...

Sayama Akiko?!

A flash of light suddenly flashed through Maori's mind, and he successfully connected all the clues into one line.

"That's all that's left!"

Maori turned around and looked at the anti-theft lock on the door that had been sawed off, and at this time the conversation of the forensic personnel in the corridor also reached his ears.

"This looks like a fragment of a security door latch."

"Is this Room 2101? Strange, there seems to be something in the front part..."

"Never mind. Just take it back for testing."

"May I see it?"

With his legs still trembling, he walked to the aisle holding on to the wall.

"Are you okay? Detective Maori."

The police officer looked at Mao Li worriedly, but still handed him the broken piece of the door bolt.

"It's okay, I'm just a little afraid of heights... This is scotch tape, I see."

Mao Li took a closer look, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a smile of understanding: "I understand everything!"

Chapter 33 Love is a difficult problem that makes people dizzy and confused

At the open-air restaurant on the third floor, Officer Yokomizo once again called all the members of the tour group (including Conan) to conduct another interrogation. However, the police officers did not find Akiko Sayama, and even Mori did not know where she went.

Conan frowned and looked around, then found Maeda Satoshi and asked, "Mr. Maeda, shouldn't Miss Akiko be with you?"

Maeda thought of Mao Li who was also absent, and said with a worried look on his face: "I don't know either. She went out after receiving a phone call before the police officer notified us to come over."

"He went out after answering a phone call?"

Conan thought about it.

……

The evening breeze was still blowing by the luxuriously decorated hotel swimming pool, so not many people were swimming here.

Mao Li lit a cigarette, turned his back to Sayama Akiko and said, "Ms. Sayama, I always thought the murderer was your fiancé Maeda Satoshi. After all, he was the only one in the entire tour group who had the skills to dodge the attack of my daughter Xiaolan. But I soon discovered that he was not in your room at the time of the crime."

Sayama Akiko's face turned pale. Although she had already guessed something when she was called in alone by the famous detective Mori, she still managed a smile and said, "Is there any problem?"

"I've asked the people at the restaurant,"

Maori continued, "At this time of year, there is a strong wind called Princess Wind that blows at night, and the wind gets stronger the higher you go... In this case, if a person wearing a cloak like the Duke of Darkness falls off the balcony, where will he land?"

Under Sayama Akiko's trembling eyes, Mao Li turned around, and his words became clearer and clearer in the wind: "That's right, it definitely won't fall on the bronze statue directly below... Now we understand why the murderer made Jiang Yuan's room into a secret room. The purpose is also to make people think that the first crime scene is on that balcony, right?

"Because everyone would take it for granted that the anti-theft door bolt cannot be fastened from the outside, and even if the locked room method is discovered, people would think that the murderer committed the crime after killing the person... But in fact, the murderer first built a locked room and then committed the crime from other places. The only possible place is Room 1901, your room..."

Mao Li's tone was not harsh, but it put considerable pressure on Sayama. She lowered her head silently with a stiff smile: "But, but..."

"Go and turn yourself in, Miss Sayama,"

Maori shook off the ash and said softly, "It's impossible to avoid the airflow and fall straight down from other rooms... And the reason why Mr. Maeda took the risk of dressing up as the Duke of Darkness was because he found out that you were the criminal, and he wanted to create an alibi for you, right? He who loves you more than himself is probably planning to take the blame for you..."

"That guy Acong..."

Sayama smiled bitterly, tears streaming down his face. "Mr. Maori... No, Detective Maori, when I first learned that you were also joining the tour group, I should have expected this result..."

……

At the open-air restaurant, when Maori followed Sayama, Maeda Satoshi, who had already realized that his fiancée was the murderer and that he would not be able to hide the fact for much longer, was making a final attempt:

"That's right! That's it!"

His voice spread far and wide, "That's how I pushed that man down the stairs! I did it all, I did it all by myself!"

"A Cong..."

Looking at Maeda Satoshi who was trying to take the blame for her, Sayama Akiko wiped the tears from her eyes and walked into the scene and said, "It's no longer necessary, Satoshi. I killed that guy Jiang Yuan. Detective Maori has already explained everything."

"uncle?"

Conan knew who the real murderer was because of Maeda Satoshi's self-exposure just now, and hurriedly looked around, but did not see Maori.

"Eh? Are you talking about the Maori detective?"

A waitress who was being questioned by Conan looked inside the hotel and said, "He just asked us for a glass of whiskey. He's probably...ah, right there!"

"whisky?"

Conan was stunned for a moment, and looked in the direction the waitress was looking, and sure enough, he saw Maori walking slowly towards him with a wine glass in his hand.

At the same time, Akiko Sayama was handcuffed by the police and passed by. Maeda Satoshi was also taken to the police car for obstructing the investigation.

"I will wait for you……"

Before getting into the car, Maeda Satoshi suddenly shouted to Sayama in a police car in front, "Akiko, I will wait for you... until you come back..."

Maori stood at the door of the hotel, quietly watching two police cars taking Maeda and Sayama away, then drank the whiskey in the glass.

"What will become of them?"

Xiaolan came to Maori's side and looked at the police car getting farther and farther away, and asked with mixed feelings.

"The judge should consider reducing the sentence as appropriate,"

Officer Yokomizo retracted his gaze and turned to Maori excitedly, "However, you are worthy of being the famous detective Maori. You solved this case beautifully. It is such an honor to be able to investigate the case with you this time!"

He then looked at Conan enthusiastically and said, "And I never thought that even the kids around you are so amazing! They will definitely be good candidates for becoming detectives and criminal police in the future!"

"No, no, thank you for the compliment, Officer Yokomizo. I'm also very happy to solve the case with you..."

Maori looked at Yokomizo's excitement and said politely while rubbing Conan's head hard, "As for this kid, he's still far from it!"

……

The next morning, all the police officers finished their investigation and left, and the members of the tour group also checked out of their rooms.

At the counter in the hotel lobby, Mao Li was paying the remaining half of the room fee for the three of them.

"It turns out there was no virus program at all,"

Mr. Jincheng walked to the counter with a smile, "I was thinking that I could teach that guy who used the computer virus recklessly a lesson."

As he spoke, the old man walked straight to Mao Li, suddenly took off his sunglasses and said, "Detective Mao Li, are you interested in taking my commission?"