Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

The old man was wearing a shirt, tie, a thick beard and glasses. He looked very friendly. He was the director of the cinema.

Movie theater owner.

"You have seen the situation inside, which is preparation for tomorrow's demolition."

"Really,"

The waitress said indignantly, "Can't we wait until tomorrow to start the work?"

“Hey, don’t say that,” a man chuckled, holding a cigarette in his mouth. “We were very accommodating and allowed you to continue operating until today. If the boss hadn’t asked us to wait until the opening anniversary of this cinema, this place would have been demolished long ago.”

The man's name was Zhang Tianzhengci, he was in his forties and looked somewhat menacing. He didn't look like a serious person, but more like a gangster.

The man walked past Maori and the others with a swagger, snorting and laughing, "This cinema only has so few customers on its last day of business. There's nothing to keep it open..."

"what are you doing?!"

A middle-aged man with a flat head suddenly rushed out and shouted, "Smoking is prohibited in the cinema! Don't remind me every time!"

"Hey, sorry sorry,"

Zhang Tian spat out the cigarette butt and stepped on it with his foot. "I'll be careful starting tomorrow. But then again, this place will become a pile of rubble tomorrow, hahahaha!"

"you!"

The middle-aged man with a flat head is called Gu Qiao, a projectionist at the cinema. He looked at Zhang Tian laughing and entering the screening room with a bad face, "Damn it! What an attitude!"

"Who is this guy?"

Maori asked curiously.

"Zhang Tian, ​​who is inspecting the demolition work, has been coming here every day recently, and every time he comes, he gets into an argument with some thugs after the show is over."

"Those thugs must have been hired by him. They deliberately caused a commotion here to damage our reputation and force us to close!" the waitress said angrily.

"Okay, okay, don't say anything nonsense,"

The boss obviously didn't want to discuss this issue any further. "Let's eat first. The next game is about to start."

"Oh, I forgot to buy lunch..."

……

In the screening room, the second film of the Godzilla series began. The man called Zhang Tian deliberately sat under the projection lights in the last row, and kept harassing others with a sly grin while puffing out cigarettes. The screening room, which was already empty to begin with, became even more crowded.

This guy……

Maori looked unhappy. Just looking at this kind of person made him feel uncomfortable. And just like the female victim in the bandage monster incident, the word "death" seemed to be written on her arrogant face.

……

“Wow wow wow wow——!”

The second movie had to be interrupted before it was over as urgent sirens sounded outside the theater.

"What happened?"

Officer Megure, a model worker in the police force who had just rested for a while, rushed to the screening room with a heavy face. He saw the victim hanging in front of the projection light window at a glance. The body was swinging continuously, which looked a bit scary.

"He's really dead..."

Mao Li frowned slightly - at first a black shadow suddenly appeared on the screen, and after turning on the lights, he found Zhang Tian's hanged body.

Just a moment ago, he was thinking that this man had a dead look on his face, which was a bit weird.

Officer Megure also found it strange. He looked at Maori speechlessly and said, "Brother Maori, explain to me why I always see you at the crime scene?"

"This is really just a coincidence, officer. I just happened to bring the kids here to watch a movie."

"is it?"

Inspector Megure rolled his eyes, expressing his strong doubt.

"Inspector Megure,"

Detective Takagi didn't know if he wanted to help Mao Li out, so he promptly reported to Megure, "The deceased's name is Zhang Tian Zhengci, he is 43 years old, and he is the owner of a nearby real estate agency. He bought this movie theater that was about to close down, and he seems to have owed a lot of money because of this."

Officer Megure nodded and asked everyone in a deep voice, "Did he really commit suicide by hanging himself during the movie screening?"

"No doubt about it,"

Mr. Gu Qiao, the projectionist, said angrily, "He actually chose to hang himself right in front of the projection window. At that time, both him and the rope were shown on the screen. I thought something was wrong, so I turned on the light to check..."

Maori stood nearby, examining the body thoughtfully.

He was a witness to what happened. It was indeed Zhang Tian who hanged himself at the time of the incident, and his shadow on the screen shook for a long time.

But to be honest, with Conan, himself, and all the members of the Junior Detective Team present at the scene, it was really hard for him to believe that it was a suicide...

Inspector Megure also did not treat it as a suicide case and continued to question everyone.

"We've told him several times, but he still smokes here and deliberately provokes customers," complained female employee Yuriko, "and he always sits in the last row, right in front of the projection window."

"Yes, the smoke from the cigarette caused a blur to appear on the screen..."

Maori looked back at the people in the cinema who were being questioned, and thought back to the time when the movie was being shown.

After Zhang Tian came, the movie scene was indeed strange. Not only did that guy smoke unscrupulously, he also drove away a couple who were watching the movie...

(Wait, I remember that time...)

Mao Li took a step back and looked at the projection window, feeling that something seemed to be wrong.

There are several projection windows, and there is also an observation window that is slightly higher. Now Zhang Tian’s body is hanging in front of the projection window on the far right.

If the murderer is the projectionist Mr. Furuhashi...

No, there is another problem that I just can't figure out. The black shadow suddenly appeared on the screen. No matter whether Zhang Tian committed suicide by hanging himself or someone else hung him up, the action should have been very obvious.

But when the black shadow appeared, it was hanging, just swaying back and forth, and the hanging process disappeared miraculously...

Chapter 68 Kudo Shinichi vs. Maori Kogoro!! (Subscribe!)

While Maori was thinking about it——

"Officer," a police officer reported, "according to the lady at the ticket office, these people were the only ones in the cinema at the time of the crime. In addition to Detective Maori and these children, there were only these four people."

The police officer pointed to the owner and several staff members standing aside.

It takes a lot of strength to hang Zhang Tian up. On the surface, the female employee Yuriko and the old and frail owner Muramatsu do not seem to be the murderer. The strong projectionist Gu Qiao is the most suspicious, and there is also a thin young man with glasses.

Maori turned his gaze to the guy with glasses.

He would not simply judge whether a person was suspicious based on his physique.

Although it is generally difficult for women, the elderly and skinny people to hang Zhang Tian, ​​this is only the general case. When Maori was still very confused, in the case of the Beika Art Museum that Conan solved on his behalf, the old director Ochiai was not only able to move flexibly in heavy armor, but also able to pick up a fat man with one hand and stab him into the wall with a sword.

In addition, in the bandage monster incident, the fat man's physique was also disguised by him.

"It is impossible for me to kill someone,"

Although no one has pointed out that he is a suspect, the guy with glasses is still very confident and took the initiative to hand over a digital camera to Inspector Megure, "I have a sufficient alibi. When Zhang Tian was hanged, I was at my position and took pictures."

"This is?"

Inspector Megure looked at a photo of a black shadow on the screen in surprise, "Is this the photo of the black shadow when it appeared?"

“Yes, I took the photo by chance.”

"happen?"

Inspector Megure asked suspiciously, "It would be easy to take pictures after you hang him, right?"

"You can tell by looking at the first few photos,"

The guy with glasses pointed at the digital camera and said, "Those are continuous images I took from the same angle. I didn't have time to kill anyone."

Inspector Megure still felt suspicious: "But isn't this too much of a coincidence? He took so many photos, it feels like it was intentional..."

"That's because I watched this movie in this place when I was a kid, and I came here specifically to reminisce about it."

"Can you give me a look?"

Maori took the digital camera and checked it.

There were quite a few photos, but unfortunately they were all taken from the screen. Even he and Conan who were sitting in the front row were included in the photos.

Looking at the photos taken at the time of the crime again, I feel that they are a lot blurrier than the previous ones. To be precise, the screen images in the photos are a lot blurrier, which is quite strange.

Could the culprit be the guy with glasses? Someone with an alibi in a murder case is not necessarily the murderer, and like Inspector Megure said, it's too much of a coincidence...

There is also the owner of Muramatsu. In the photo, the old man was photographed leaving the audience, just before the incident.

He remembered that the movie theater owner had been watching movies in the screening room, and seemed to be cherishing the last day when the cinema was closed...

"Muramatsu boss,"

Before Mao Li could ask any questions, Officer Megure pulled up the photo of the boss leaving his seat with a serious expression, "This photo shows you. Why did you leave in the middle of the meeting? Even if you went to the restroom, you should have gone to the other side, right?"

"Uh, this..."

Boss Muramatsu squinted his eyes and leaned closer to the camera, recalling, “At that time, I wanted to check the condition of the air conditioning in the machine room because the wind seemed to be a little stronger than usual and it suddenly became colder.”

"Is that right?"

Inspector Megure said suspiciously.

"It's true," Mitsuhiko helped explain, "I felt really cold at that time, so I went to the bathroom."

"Where is the air conditioning room?"

"At the end of the corridor outside."

"Well," Officer Megure looked outside, then turned to the remaining Yuriko and Furuhashi and asked, "What about you guys?"

"I was in the projection room with Yuriko at that time."

Guqiao explained.

"I bought a lunch box and made tea for Mr. Guqiao, and then the accident happened."

Yuriko nodded and followed suit.

"Anyway, it's impossible for anyone to have committed the crime. That guy must have committed suicide, right?"

"Let's go to the projection room first."

Inspector Megure looked at the thoughtful Maori, and did not jump to conclusions. He continued to follow Furuhashi's lead to the projection room.

Mao Li was about to catch up when he suddenly noticed a clear footprint on the back of the back seat, and there was a lot of cigarette ashes and cigarette butts underneath.

It seemed to be the seat where the victim Zhang Tian had sat before, but the seat was right in front of the observation window, not in front of the projection window.

This is strange. Shouldn’t Zhang Tian be sitting under the projection window?

He remembered that Zhang Tian was indeed sitting under the projection window at the time, otherwise smoking would not have affected the movie picture...

Maori's puzzled gazes all turned to the projectionist Guqiao.

Regardless of the specific reasons, Gu Qiao is too suspicious when it comes to the projection window. Although he was in the projection room at the time of the crime, he was actually closest to Zhang Tian because of the window, so it is possible that he did something wrong.

Even if the murderer is not Gu Qiao, he must be related to him...

To get to the projection room, you have to go through the stairs on the side of the counter corridor. Maori followed him into the messy lounge and then into the projection room, where he could see two projectors.

Maori moved closer to the projection window and the observation window and knocked on the window glass but found nothing unusual.

"The windows here are completely sealed and cannot be opened,"

Seeing Maori's inquiring look, Furuhashi smiled and explained to Officer Megure, "I was here when the shadow appeared, and Yuriko was in the lounge next door making tea for me. Is this a sufficient alibi?"

"What if Mr. Zhang Tian had been killed long ago?" Mao Li suddenly asked in the midst of everyone's suspicious gazes, "What if Mr. Zhang Tian was already hanging there before the black shadow appeared?"

"what?"

Gu Qiao was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "How is this possible? If it's like what you said, how could the black shadow appear at that time?"

"It's very simple," Conan checked the projector for a while and said in a childish tone, "If the tape is divided into two parts, the first half and the second half, it should be possible, right? Use the other projector to play the first half, and then switch to the other side for the second half."

"Yup!"

Inspector Megure suddenly realized, "This way, the first half can be broadcast normally without being affected by the corpse, and when it switches to the second half, the corpse will suddenly appear..."

"Some cinemas do use this projection method,"