Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"Yes, it's the first edition of Sherlock Holmes' first published work, Conan Doyle's famous work - A Study in Scarlet!"

"Wow!"

All the Sherlock Holmes fans couldn't take their eyes off the book. They all looked at the first edition of the collection displayed by the boss with envy. Even Maori and Huiyuan, who were not Sherlock Holmes fans, looked very interested. Only Xiaolan didn't react much, and she looked confused:

“Is this book valuable?”

"Xiaolan... Sister, this book is not just precious or not, it's super precious!"

Conan explained, "For Sherlock Holmes fans, such as Shinichi, this is a rare and valuable book. If it were put up for auction, the starting price would be at least 100 million..."

"Can I take part in the quiz, too?"

After calculating the funding gap for his "big plan", Mao Li turned to Boss Jingu with a serious face and asked.

"sure,"

Boss Jingu was surprised and said, "But Detective Maori, you still have to fill out a test paper before that. It's 1000 questions about Sherlock Holmes..."

Mao Li was stunned: "1000 questions?!"

"Yes, the purpose is to let everyone prove how much they admire Sherlock Holmes."

Boss Jingu nodded as if to say, "I think it's necessary," and asked the waitress to distribute the test papers to everyone. "The deadline for submitting the papers is before dinner tomorrow, and only those with a total score of 990 or above can participate in the reasoning quiz."

"Of course, for the sake of caution, please hand over your cell phones and reference books to the waiter. We don't want anyone to cheat!"

……

In the hotel room, Maori looked at the surveillance camera in the corner, scratched his head and continued to fill out the test paper.

This activity was really strict. Not only did they take away the mobile phones, but they also installed surveillance and eavesdropping devices in the room, completely eliminating the possibility of cheating...

"What is Sherlock Holmes best at... reasoning? What is the name of Dr. Watson's wife..."

Looking at the questions on the test paper, Mao Li deeply felt the malice of Boss Jingu.

Maybe a true Sherlock Holmes fan could clearly answer the question of what is the name of Dr. Watson's wife, but for someone like me who just wants to give it a try, it is absolutely impossible. And these are just the first few simple questions. The following 900 questions seem to be getting more and more difficult.

For example, question 700: Please sort the clues that Sherlock Holmes often uses, such as "handwritten notes, bloodstains, footprints on the floor, dogs, cigarette ash, codes/passwords", from high to low in order of frequency...

1000 questions, you have to answer 990 or more correctly to pass - such a strict standard made Mao Li, who barely answered 99 questions in half a day, begin to doubt whether Mr. Jingu had no expectation that anyone could pass. But when he looked at the Conan contestant next to him, he found that a true Sherlock Holmes fanatic could do such an exaggerated thing...

"Question 240: It is determined that Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty fell into the valley together on a certain date... May 1891, 5. What? It's actually very simple! It's just like an elementary school student!"

Conan was lying on the floor in his pajamas, rubbing his two raised feet from time to time. He looked particularly relaxed and answered more than two hundred questions in the blink of an eye.

"Next... please write down the code that appears in "Dancing Portrait" correctly... It's not difficult at all, this is Mr. Jingu's question!"

Xiaolan sat up tiredly and looked at Conan and Maori dazedly:

"Conan, Dad, you guys haven't slept yet? It's already four o'clock..."

"I don't think they will fall asleep until they finish answering the questions, Sister Xiaolan."

Huibara, who was sleeping in the same bed with Xiaolan, spoke without opening her eyes. She was not asleep either - the room was quite hot, but Boss Jingu did not install air conditioning, only a surveillance camera.

"No, I give up!"

Mao Li barely answered the 100th question, then threw the test paper and pen aside, "Conan, keep going! Whether uncle can get the book or not depends on you!"

"No problem! I'm sure I can pass!"

Conan was so absorbed in doing the test paper that he didn't notice Maori's words that meant to "rob" him directly. He happily filled in the answers while saying, "It's great to be able to participate in this event!"

……

The next day, Maori didn't eat lunch with everyone until noon with dark circles under his eyes.

Since he was answering questions until after four o'clock and the weather was hot, he didn't get a good night's sleep.

On the contrary, the other Sherlock Holmes fans all looked quite energetic, especially Conan. Although he also had dark circles under his eyes, he gave people the feeling that he could stay for another three days and three nights.

"You should be able to finish it, right?"

Maori asked curiously.

Conan grinned: "I should be able to answer all of them correctly!"

Maori honestly shut up and stopped talking - he asked Conan if he could finish it, but this guy said he could do everything right, which was too bullying...

……

It was dinner time, and Mao Li, who had adjusted his mentality, enjoyed a luxurious meal with Huiyuan and Xiaolan. This hotel had some problems, except that there was no air conditioning and TV in the room, but the food was pretty good. If you just treat it as a trip, it is worth it.

“So full…”

Xiaolan touched her belly happily - she had the typical physique that would not gain weight no matter how much she ate.

Huibara glanced at Xiaolan, a flash of envy in her eyes, and then she continued to eat her salad with her head down expressionlessly.

"But why haven't I seen the innkeeper yet?"

The rest of the group saw that it was almost half past nine and shouted to the waitress in dissatisfaction, "Hurry up and ask him to come out and grade these test papers for us!"

"But... our boss asked me to entertain you all until he comes in after dinner."

The waitress was embarrassed.

"Well, let's wait a while. The boss might be preparing some activities."

Everyone drank tea and waited for Boss Jingu to show up, but there was no movement until after twelve o'clock.

Maori was sleeping on the table when he was suddenly awakened by a loud noise.

"hateful!"

A middle-aged man slammed the table and stood up, saying, "I can't stand it anymore! I want to go back to my room and sleep!"

"Mr. Fujisawa!"

"Sure enough, the rumor is true," a fat lady next to him said unhappily, "People say that giving away the first edition book is a big scam. They deliberately make the questions difficult every time so that no one can pass. The purpose is just to show off the book to everyone... Excuse me, I have to go back to my room to rest."

"Then I'll go back to bed too, Ai?"

Maori yawned, and Haibara stood up with him. Some members of the group left despite the waiter's dissuasion.

After Maori and others went back to their rooms to sleep, there were only a few people left in the restaurant in a blink of an eye. Only the man with glasses and his female companion, two college students, stayed. Xiaolan accompanied Conan and continued to wait for the boss.

"Humph,"

The man with glasses chuckled at the waitress and said, "Those who left first are considered to have given up, right?"

"This one……"

The waitress had no idea what Boss Jingu was thinking and could only stay by his side quietly.

……

In the second half of the night, around 3:30, Maori heard a loud explosion in a daze, followed by a loud noise.

"What happened?"

Maori put on his clothes and walked out of the room. When the others heard the noise, they also came out and rushed towards the direction of the explosion in confusion.

"What? Boss Jingu is dead?"

On the cliff in front of the hotel, Mao Li gathered with the others and looked down at the fire burning among the rocks. He was used to encountering incidents when he went out, but the murder of Mr. Jingu still made him furious.

The Conan contestant was on the verge of victory and would soon get the precious first edition book worth at least 100 million, but the boss who was the judge and the distributor died...

The murderer is so abominable! Did he attack the dealer just because he saw someone was about to win?

"What happened?"

"Boss Jingu dressed up as Sherlock Holmes," Conan said with an unpleasant expression, "Just now, the car and the people fell down right in front of me..."

"I think this could be murder," the man with glasses chuckled and said to everyone, "I saw him fall off the cliff. The car was going very slowly at the time. All they had to do was knock the boss unconscious or kill him first, get him into the car, and then shift the gear to forward, so the car would move forward automatically."

The man with glasses pointed to the garage confidently and said, "The murderer may have made all the arrangements in the garage in advance. In other words, the murderer is among those of you who are not in the restaurant."

"But," Conan asked, "the car suddenly accelerated in the middle, what happened?"

"Ah, this..."

The man with glasses was speechless.

"I think it's just suicide," the middle-aged man snorted and lit a cigarette, "What's going on? Suicide and dressed up as Sherlock Holmes..."

"How could it be suicide?!"

Mao Li looked coldly at the several Sherlock Holmes fans who were grumbling: "Boss Jingu definitely doesn't look like someone who would commit suicide..."

"Oh?"

The man with glasses joked, "Great Detective, do you have any advice? Why don't you explain why the car accelerated?"

Maori looked at the crime scene in silence, without any negative emotions due to the childish provocation of the man with glasses - as a qualified detective, he had to be absolutely rational at a time when he hadn't even figured out the clues of the case.

There are plenty of opportunities to slap a clown like the man with glasses in the face!

Chapter 62: I told you not to walk alone and not to be mysterious, why didn’t you listen?

In the darkness of night, the flames from the car explosion under the cliff had gone out, leaving only thick smoke.

Maori and Conan squatted beside the tire tracks to check, and asked the latter:

"Did you find any problem just now?"

There is no way to investigate the car and the body, so Maori can only ask Conan, one of the witnesses.

Conan checked the road conditions intently and said thoughtfully, "Before the car fell, a strange sound similar to the sound of wind came from inside, not the sound of the engine. If the air conditioner was turned on, there should be traces of water dripping on the ground... but I can't find any..."

"Strange sound..."

Maori looked at the tire marks carefully. Although he couldn't buy a fixed car because of his work as a detective, he had rich experience in driving cars and had some knowledge of car-related things.

“Are there any other strange things?”

"If there was anything odd, it was that the dashboard was covered with a blanket."

Conan recalled.

"A blanket?"

Mao Li was even more certain that Mr. Jingu did not commit suicide - no one would deliberately cover the dashboard with a blanket when driving to commit suicide.

After all, the dashboard is not like other places in the car that the driver cannot notice. Anyone who drives will definitely pay attention to the dashboard.

However, if it was not suicide, the sudden acceleration of the car is indeed inexplicable. I wonder what method the murderer used with this blanket.

"What did Boss Jingu look like at that time?"

Maori continued to ask, he must know more details, so that he can simulate the criminal's methods. Fortunately, there is a detective like Conan who has a strong instant memory among the witnesses, and the other party can capture many things.

"We chased the car when we saw it heading towards the cliff... At that time, Boss Jingu was holding the steering wheel, so he should not be unconscious. I think he might have been killed beforehand and left in a state of rigor mortis."

"I agree with your point of view,"

Mao Li took a deep breath and glanced at the people beside him with a stern look, "No matter what, the murderer is one of us, there is no doubt about that."

"So should we go back to the hotel and call the police?"

Huiyuan suggested.

"But the boss took away all the phones..."

"The phones are in the boss' room!" the waitress explained.

Maori followed everyone back to the hotel.

There were a total of 7 people present, including him and Conan, including the waitress.

The man with glasses and his female companion are two college students, Kento Toju and Ayako Ooki, in addition there are middle-aged man Fujisawa who works as a station attendant, librarian Nanako Shimizu, high school physical education teacher Ikuo Kawazu, chubby female astrologer Maria Toda, and finally the waitress Hitomi Iwai.

Among these people, the bespectacled man Jukento, Ooki Ayako, and the waitress were all in the restaurant with Conan at the time of the incident. They have alibis and are also witnesses, but it is not impossible that they committed the crime.

After all, the murderer might deliberately create an alibi...

……

“All the phones are broken!”