Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

Xiaolan already knew that Maori and Conan were going to wait together at the third floor staircase tonight, so she said worriedly: "Dad, Conan, if you are worried about Ms. Sufang getting into trouble, there should be a better way, right?"

"Yes, yes. They can forcefully investigate everyone in the villa or just let me be a bodyguard. But we are just guests. No matter how good the method is, it doesn't matter. We just need to do our best in this matter and have a clear conscience. Not to mention that Ms. Su Fang is willing to believe in psychics..."

As Maori said this, he shook his head slightly - whether it is helping others or doing good deeds, one cannot be "too full", otherwise it will be too much, and not only will he not get the gratitude of the other party (Sufang Hongzi), but he will also cause disgust.

……

Time passed little by little, and as the pendulum clock struck twelve o'clock midnight, the two doors of the Mask Hall were locked at the same time, and the east and west side rooms were completely separated.

Maori and Conan stayed in the dark near the stairs on the third floor, keeping an eye on them under the cover of night.

Almost everyone else had already rested, there was no sound in the corridor, and no one knew they were hiding here.

"It's so late, could it really be a prank?"

Maori yawned, looking tired.

Conan was also a little depressed, so he simply asked a question he had always had about Maori, "Uncle, why did you suddenly resign from the Metropolitan Police Department and choose to be a private detective? With your ability, you would definitely be more successful if you stayed in the Metropolitan Police Department..."

"What do you want to do by asking so many questions?"

Maori rolled his eyes at Conan in annoyance and said, "Children, stop asking questions about adult matters!"

"..."

Maori's answer made Conan feel helpless. He could only secretly make up his mind to investigate and inquire, and then his eyes returned to the stairs again.

(There’s no reason. The old man and I came here together, and with so many strange things happening, how could nothing happen?)

(Is this really just a prank?)

Just as Conan was thinking this -

"Shawbul's mask is gone!"

There was a sudden noise in the Masked Hall, which immediately attracted the attention of Maori and Conan, and even Haibara and Xiaolan who were sleeping in the room were awakened.

"what happened?"

"I don't know, something seems to have happened."

Maori took Conan to the locked masked hall, and while he was concentrating, a strange noise suddenly came from the third floor.

There were low screams and the sound of something falling...

The two men's eyes narrowed suddenly.

"Uncle, could it be... no way?"

On the third floor of the west wing, Sufang Hongzi's room was still locked tightly, but there was no response when Maori knocked on the door, and the air vents on the door made it impossible to see what was going on inside the room.

"Ms. Sufang!"

After Conan was picked up by Maori, he broke the air window and looked inside. In the dim light, he could only see Sufang Hongzi lying on the bed, surrounded by scattered Xiaobul masks and blood staining the bed red...

"Mr. Mori!"

The others hurried over, "How is it? Where's Ms. Su Fang?"

Mao Li, who had roughly understood Ms. Sufang's situation from Conan's reaction, said seriously: "Let's call an ambulance first and call the police."

"Uncle," Conan said anxiously, "Let me go in and open the door from the inside first!"

"Be careful."

After the glass fragments were cleaned off the air vent, it was just big enough for Conan, a little boy, to enter. In order to prevent Conan from getting scratched, Xiaolan carefully laid a tablecloth.

Watching Conan nimbly turn over and enter the house, Maori frowned tightly.

Why is this happening?

He and Conan had been guarding the stairs, making sure that no one was approaching Ms. Sufang's room.

And those masks, they were clearly locked in the mask room, why did they appear at the murder scene...

It’s really hell, he was killed like this.

……

In the early hours of the morning, Inspector Megure, who received a report, rushed to the villa. When he saw Maori, his face instantly fell.

"Really, Maori brother, why didn't you notify us immediately when you received the threatening letter?"

"There's nothing we can do about it, Officer Megure," Maori shrugged, "Because Ms. Sufang said that she often receives such threatening letters, so there's no need for us to make a fuss..."

Forensic personnel were still taking photos in the room, and the scattered masks remained in their original state.

Conan stood in a corner of the room, observing the scene with a frown.

According to the maid Honami, someone suddenly called her on the internal line, and then she found that all the Shambler masks in the mask room had disappeared.

Immediately afterwards, there was a strange noise coming from the third floor.

It should be the sound of Sufang Hongzi screaming and the masks scattering.

Someone killed Sufang Hongzi at that time, but the key problem was that the only door leading to Sufang Hongzi's room was locked, and no one approached.

Considering the structure of the east and west rooms, there is almost no possibility that someone from the west room committed the crime, but the people from the east room also cannot enter Sufang Hongzi's room because the door leading to the adjacent east room had been sealed with nails long ago.

The only problem is the fence above the door. If it is removed, it should be possible to get in and out. However, the police checked it just now and found that the fence cannot be removed. Even a hand cannot pass between each board...

"When you came here, this door was locked from the inside, right?" Officer Megure asked while standing at the door.

"Yes, and it was locked twice," Maori explained. "Conan and I were the first to arrive. When he broke the air vent glass and entered the room, we confirmed that Ms. Sufang had been killed."

"Two locks?"

"I heard that Ms. Su Fang always locks the door twice when she sleeps, one is the door lock, and the other is a separate padlock."

Officer Megure asked curiously, "Why do you need two locks?"

"According to her secretary, Ms. Inaba, when she asked the psychic to seal the mask curse, she gave several rules that Ms. Sufang must strictly follow. One of them was that there must be two locks on the door of the bedroom."

Mao Li said, "Officer Megure, Ms. Sufang seems to have been taking sleeping pills recently because of frequent insomnia. There are no signs of struggle on the body, which means she took sleeping pills today... In other words, this is an impossible closed room murder case."

"It's impossible to have a closed room murder case?"

"The door to the next door dormitory was sealed with nails a few years ago. The lattice wood on top is so thick that even an arm can't fit through. The two windows in the room are also sealed. There is nothing unusual. The only door that can be used for entry and exit is locked from the inside..."

Mao Li looked at the door lock, raised his elbow and said in a deep voice: "The murderer can't get in and out of this room. In previous locked room incidents, the door was mostly locked from the outside, but this time it is impossible to lock the padlock from the outside, and the most important thing is..."

"The most important thing?" Inspector Megure stared blankly at Maori, who suddenly stopped talking after whetting his appetite. "Come to think of it, Maori, brother, how come you and Conan were the first to arrive at the scene?"

"Because this kid and I have been guarding the stairs," Mao Li said solemnly, "Just in case, we moved to the west room, and have been keeping watch here since the Mask Hall was locked at midnight."

"What?" Officer Megure asked anxiously, "Did you find anything?"

"No, but I'm sure that no one has come near this place since then, and no one has come near the mask room." Maori shook his head and his gaze returned to the door connecting to the dormitory on the east side of the building next door.

Excluding preconceived influences, the uncertain situation lies in the east side of the house.

The four of them who originally lived on the second floor moved to the west room halfway through, leaving only Aikawa Touya and one of the twin maids, Honoka, living on the first floor.

Compared to the maid Honami, Mori suspects that the murderer is Aikawa Touya.

If you think about it carefully, it is very suspicious that the murderer made an internal call to Honami before the incident, as if he wanted her to confirm that the mask room was locked.

If he and Conan had not been guarding the stairs, everyone in the west room at that time would become a suspect. Thinking backwards, it is very likely that the murderer was in the east room.

The question is how the murderer did it...

"Captain!" A police officer returned to the scene, "We have searched the area around the house, and there are no signs of the murderer entering or leaving the snow nearby."

"Well," Inspector Megure had never encountered such a problem before, frowning and pondering, "The problem now is that the murderer can't even get in or out of this room. In addition, Brother Mori and Conan have been guarding the door, so no one can kill Ms. Sufang..."

"Uncle," Conan approached Maori stealthily, "Do you have any idea now?"

Mao Li turned his attention to the masks scattered at the scene and said with certainty, "The murderer is in the east room."

"The east room?" Conan exclaimed in surprise.

"Didn't you notice?" Maori laughed, "Why did the murderer call Honami before killing someone? The reason is very simple, that is, he needs a conclusive testimony."

"Testimony? Could it be that..."

Conan's expression changed greatly.

"That's right, the Mask Room was locked at the time of the incident, and the perpetrator was someone from the west room. This is the testimony.

"Now the two of us who have been staying at the stairs have become the most suspicious and the ones who can prove everyone's innocence. I wonder how the murderer would feel if he knew about this."

Maori's mouth corners slightly raised.

"However, after identifying the murderer, it is only a matter of time before the criminal method is cracked..."

……

In the restaurant on the first floor, all the residents of the villa gathered around the dining table, with different expressions on their faces. The twin maids also leaned against each other in fear.

"I have a few questions for you," Officer Megure asked. "The murder took place at around 2: in the morning. I would like to investigate and understand your actions at the time one by one..."

Maori and Conan stood next to Inspector Megure, their attention all on Aikawa Touya.

This super popular rock singer, who is as famous as Kimura Tatsuya, showed no abnormality on his face at this moment.

If there was any problem, it was that he was too calm. There was no sadness on his face due to the tragic death of the teacher. Instead, he looked like he was eager to get rid of suspicion.

"So Mr. Aikawa appeared after Ms. Sofang was killed?" After Inspector Megure finished his questioning, Mori looked at Aikawa Touya directly and decisively.

Lan Chuan said unhappily, "I was sleeping soundly in the room on the first floor, and then I heard their noises. I thought it would not be a big deal, but it got louder and louder. I was worried, so I went upstairs to check the situation."

Mao Li nodded: "So Mr. Aichuan didn't have an alibi at the time of the crime?"

"Hey, what do you mean?" Lan Chuan frowned and said dissatisfiedly, "Are you suspecting that I killed the teacher? Shouldn't Miss Inaba and the others be suspected more? When we got to the third floor, the others were much slower than me!"

Officer Megure turned to the people in the west room and asked, "Is what he said true?"

Minaho said anxiously, "I was woken up by Honami using the intercom, and then I took the key and went upstairs to help them open the door to the mask room."

Katagiri Masaki explained, "I had fallen asleep in my room, and was woken up by the noise outside. When I went to the corridor to check what was going on, I saw Minaho coming up to the second floor."

"I only checked the situation after hearing the sound of breaking glass."

"Come to think of it, Detective Maori and that kid were the first to arrive at the scene, right?"

"Conan and I were indeed the first to arrive at Ms. Sufang's door," Mao Li said calmly in front of everyone, "because we were both guarding the stairs the whole time."

Aichuan Dongya's expression changed slightly: "You guys..."

"That's right. Unless I am the murderer and I have bribed Conan, no one in the west room could have killed Ms. Sufang," Maori looked at Aikawa Toya and said, "Mr. Aikawa, were you really sleeping on the first floor when the crime happened?"

"Hey, hey," Lan Chuan said with a cold sweat, "Of course I slept on the first floor... And putting that aside, no one in the west room could kill the teacher, so how could I? How could I get to the teacher's room when I was in the east room? Not to mention that you and this kid were guarding there the whole time, the passage between the east and west rooms was locked."

"Yes," the maid Honoka nodded and helped to prove it, "Because I received an internal call from someone claiming to be the cursed mask user, I immediately went to check it out, and the mask room was indeed locked at that time."

Inspector Megure followed up, "Yes, Brother Mori, both the east and west doors of the Mask Hall were locked at the time. It is certain that Mr. Aikawa was in the east room when Ms. Sufang was murdered. How on earth could he have entered the west room before opening the door? Not to mention that he had to bypass you and kill Ms. Sufang before returning to the east room..."

Mao Li interrupted, "What if we don't need to go to the west room at all?"

"Huh?" Everyone in the villa looked at Maori in confusion.

"But only the rooms on the west side can enter the teacher's room..."

Mao Li shook his head: "Even if Conan and I weren't guarding the west room, we couldn't get in, and we didn't even need to enter the bedroom to kill Ms. Sufang."

"What did you say?"

Megure was shocked and asked, "Did the murderer not go in?"

"Humph," Aichuan Fuyuya sneered, "How can you kill someone without going into the dormitory? Detective Maori, even if you are a famous detective, you can't speak nonsense, right?"

Mao Li looked at Ai Kawan quietly, and said to everyone: "Detective Takagi should be ready, now everyone follow me to the third floor to take a look."

Chapter 86: A pretty simple theater version in those years - the fourteenth target!

On the third floor of the villa, the dormitory next to Sufang Hongzi is connected to the room on the east side.

After everyone walked into the room, they were surprised to see that the decoration was exactly the same as Sufang Hongzi's dormitory. Except for the difference in direction, it was almost no different from the crime scene.

Mao Li stood by the door that was sealed with nails and shouted to the other side: "Officer Takagi, we can start now."

"Yes!" Takagi's voice came from next door, and Officer Megure looked puzzled.

Although he was happy every time Maori helped him solve a case, it was a bit strange that he was ordering his men around in front of him without knowing anything about it...