Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"what?"

"hurry up!"

Mao Li slammed the door without saying anything. Xiao Lan and the others who came over after hearing the noise asked in confusion, "What happened?"

"boom!"

The door was knocked open, and a hanging figure in the dim light came into Maori's sight.

Without bothering to respond to Xiaolan, Maori walked into the room solemnly to check the situation.

The hanging figure was indeed Chizuru Bizen herself, and her body was stiff, indicating that she had been dead for some time...

But when exactly is it?

Bizen Chizuru was fine when everyone left in the morning.

8:20 pm.

Several police cars stopped at the entrance of the hotel, and the detective Mito Koichi from Nagayoshi Prefecture led a team into the hotel to investigate.

"The deceased is the popular actress Chizuru Bizen, 30 years old. This time she was staying at this hotel with her husband Shiromoto Hidehiko..."

In Chizuru Bizen's room, the police officer reported from the on-site evidence collection room.

"The estimated time of death was between 1:2 and : p.m., and the victim died instantly due to the compression of the neck. When the witnesses came, the room was sealed. Not only was the door locked with an anti-theft lock, but even the doors and windows were locked from the inside."

Maori thought about checking the condition of the door lock. The safety lock fell off with unusual ease, and the entire thing, including the screws, fell to the ground. There were also messy scratches on the metal buckle.

It looks like the lock was removed and then the hand was put into the door gap from outside to install it. However, it was quite difficult to fix the screws with a screwdriver through the door gap, so there were a lot of scratches and the screws were not tightened.

In addition...

Maori's eyes swept over the barefoot body of Bizen Chizuru and the table used to set up the stage for hanging.

The forensic personnel did not find any toe marks, proving that Bizen Chizuru was hanged by someone.

In other words, this was most likely a homicide disguised as suicide.

But between 1:2 and 4:, the only people left in the hotel were him, the twin sisters, and Haibara, and everyone was watching TV in the lobby at the time.

Maori walked to the body and the only thing noticeable was a white mark on the skirt, like some kind of fine powder.

It shouldn't be something in the room, but traces left by the criminal moving the body?

The air conditioner in the room was not turned on, so the time of death determined by the police should be quite accurate. In this case, the person who stayed in the hotel could not have been the murderer, but the rest of the people also had alibis.

Xiaolan and her group went to the plateau on the top of the mountain, while Mr. Shiromoto and Miyabe went fishing at the lake at the foot of the mountain. Although Shiromoto returned to the hotel at 12:1 noon, he left at :.

Mori turned his gaze to the deceased's husband, Shiromoto.

And except for going upstairs at the beginning, he stayed in the hall to eat lunch with me.

In the hotel restaurant, after Shinobu Shimono and Xiaolan went out to pick up Manager Arimori who stayed on the mountaintop plateau, the police called everyone together for questioning.

Shiromoto explained, "I did come back at half past twelve. Although I went to Chizuru's room to check on her, she didn't respond when I knocked on the door, so I didn't bother her and went back to the hall to eat with Mr. Maori."

"That's right," Maori nodded and said in a deep voice, "Since Mr. Shiromoto went upstairs to see Ms. Chizuru at 12:, no one has gone upstairs from the stairs in the lobby. In other words, the murderer could only have entered the hotel through the emergency exit."

"Emergency exit?"

"The emergency entrances and exits are at the end of the corridors on each floor. They are equipped with automatic locks and can be easily opened from the inside, but you must have a master key to open them from the outside," explained Manager Arimori.

"So, the murderer is most likely Mr. Shiromoto."

Officer Mito looked directly at Shiromoto sternly.

Chapter 107: Gross Profit Opening Shop

"To return to the hotel from the mountain top plateau or the lake, you must pass the bridge across the valley. We have just asked the workers who are working on the bridge, and they said that the only car that passed through the bridge at noon and returned to the hotel was the one driven by you, Mr. Shiromoto."

"Wait a minute," Cheng Yuan said with a cold sweat, "I left the hotel at half past one, didn't I? And I don't have a master key..."

Mito shook his head: "Even if you don't have the master key, you can still enter the hotel through the emergency exit. When you went upstairs at 12: to test Ms. Chizuru's condition, you could have opened the door of the emergency exit from inside the hotel and put a small stone or something in it, so that the door would not close automatically.

"Then, at 1:, you pretended to leave the hotel, but entered the emergency exit from the outside. This way, there would be no problem in killing Ms. Chizuru and then leaving. Similarly, if you and Mr. Miyabe were accomplices, you could have had him hide in the trunk of the car beforehand, and took the opportunity to go upstairs to open the emergency exit and let him enter the hotel to kill people. This is also very possible."

"What words?!"

"You are simply slandering me, Mr. Policeman!"

"I heard that both of you had a dispute with the victim," Mito continued unmoved, "Mr. Shiromoto even lived in a separate room from the victim in front of everyone, and Mr. Miyabe was left aside by the victim..."

"That's nothing, right? How could someone be killed for something like this?" Shiromoto and Miyabe were very anxious and tried their best to refute Mito.

Mao Li stood aside without saying anything. He felt that the police officer's reasoning was indeed very likely.

Just because it's possible doesn't mean it's true.

Both of them had been bullied by the deceased Chizuru Bizen. Shiromoto had an argument with the deceased over divorce, and Miyabe was very distressed about his movie role. They had a motive for murder, but it was a bit far-fetched from the perspective of the method.

It is impossible for a planned murder to not even consider one's own alibi, or even make oneself the only one without an alibi.

Judging from the looks of Shiromoto and Miyabe, they don't seem that stupid.

Maori frowned.

It would not make sense if the two of them were not the murderers, because on the other side, Xiaolan and her group were on the top of the mountain from morning to night, so it was impossible for them to kill Bizen Chizuru from such a distance.

As for outsiders, unless someone has backed up the master key, otherwise...

"Huh?" Maori noticed a photo on the wall of the restaurant and was slightly stunned.

It was a photo of two men and one woman with a hang glider. The young man in the middle was Manager Arimori, and the girl next to him was the head chef Shinobu Komon.

"The ones in this photo are Manager Arimori and Miss Shinobu, right?"

"Yes," Yousen was stunned for a moment, then smiled, "In fact, we two used to be good friends in the hang gliding association. We used to hang glider on the nearby mountaintop plateau, but it's a pity that this place is overdeveloped now, so we can't do it like before."

Shinobu Shinobu followed with a lament, "We haven't glided for five years, and even the glider has been sitting in the rooftop warehouse gathering dust."

"Hang glider..."

Maori looked a little strange - when he saw the hang glider, he thought of Kuroba Kaito, who was elusive with his hidden hang glider. If it were him, he could easily return to the hotel even without going through the valley bridge.

After looking at Arimori, Maori approached Dr. Agasa and asked, "Doctor, is Manager Arimori really with you all the time?"

"Yes," Dr. Agasa nodded, "He only left for a few minutes around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, and he just went to the car to get his lunch box."

"Is that so?"

Mao Li put his hands in his trouser pockets and silently went upstairs to find the rooftop warehouse.

There wasn't a lot of dust, but there was a bag of the hang glider inside, and the bag was full of disassembled parts...

"Uncle," Conan suddenly walked to Maori's side, "Have you noticed a few suspicious points? The weather is so hot and humid, but the air conditioner in Ms. Chizuru's room is not turned on. And that white mark should have been left by the criminal when he was carrying the corpse..."

"The white marks were left by the criminals," Mao Li agreed. "Do you have any impression of them?"

"Mountain White Butterfly," Huiyuan leaned against the stairs with his arms folded, smoothing the hair beside his ears and said, "That should be the scale powder of the Mountain White Butterfly that is unique to this area."

"The scale powder of the mountain white butterfly? Could it be..." Conan was shocked and hurried to the rooftop of the hotel outside.

"what happened?"

Maori followed him outside.

The rooftop was quite wide at night, and with lights on both sides, it looked just like an airport taxiway.

"This place is quite suitable for hang gliding, but is there any problem with the scale powder of the mountain white butterfly?"

"The mountain white butterfly only lives on the plateau," Conan explained excitedly, "A white butterfly died on Manager Arimori's shoulder this morning, and the scale powder should have been left there at that time."

"I see. I did hear Xiaolan mention it before."

Maori walked to the top of Bizen Chizuru's room and found a clear mark of rope friction on the edge of the roof.

If the murderer is Manager Arimori, the question is how did he do it...

The hotel is located far below the top of the mountain. Even if one could fly down using a hang glider, there would be no way to fly back. Moreover, Manager Mori only had an alibi of a few minutes at the time of the incident.

Maori's brain was working fast, and the details of the scenes from morning to night flashed through his mind.

By the way, when I was leaving, Yousen stayed to check the doors and windows before handing me the master key and driving away in the hotel bus.

At night, when Xiaolan and the others returned to the hotel, only Yousen was left alone on the top of the mountain because of a bus engine failure. Because the bus could not be repaired, he called Shinobu Shinobu to pick him up.

This is Manager Arimori's schedule for the day...

"So that's how it is." A light flashed in Maori's mind, and he suddenly figured out all the puzzles.

Conan also showed a similar confident look as Maori, and even a bit of joy - finally, he finally caught up with Maori in the speed of solving cases...

……

In the hotel restaurant, Officer Mito had already made his own judgment after questioning.

"In any case, please come back to the police station with me, Mr. Shiromoto, Mr. Miyabe, and Mr. Mori who was in the lobby at the time of the incident for interrogation."

"I don't think that's necessary, officer."

Mao Li put his hands in his pockets and shrugged, "Because I not only know who the murderer is, but also know what method he used to commit the crime."

"This murderer has a pair of wings, and they are a pair of magical wings that can accomplish crimes that seem impossible at first glance. Yes, the murderer is you, Mr. Mitsuyuki Arimori."

"What?" Everyone in the restaurant looked at Mao Li with surprise.

"Mr. Maori, what are you talking about?" Arimori said with a cold sweat, "I played on the plateau with Xiaoshi and the others all day today!"

"That's right!" Zimenin said angrily, "How could Arimori be the murderer? This is absolutely impossible!"

“Sometimes the most impossible things are closer to the truth.”

Maori chuckled.

"Wait a minute, what's going on here?" Mito asked in confusion, "How could Mr. Arimori be the murderer? He didn't have time to commit the crime? And how could he kill people on the plateau?"

"This brings us to the hang glider," Maori said seriously, "Just now Miss Shinobu mentioned that there was a hang glider in the rooftop warehouse, so I went to take a look, and I happened to find traces of rope friction above Miss Chizuru's room on the rooftop."

"Really?" Mito shouted to the police officer, "Go check it out!"

"Yes!"

After his subordinates left, Mito looked at Maori as if he had come to his senses and said, "Could it be that Mr. Arimori used a hang glider to fly back to the hotel from the plateau, landed on the roof, used a rope to enter Miss Chizuru's room and kill her, and finally used a hang glider to fly back to the plateau?"

"What you said is impossible," Arimori complained, "The time I was separated from Shinobu and the others was only 4 or 5 minutes to get the lunch boxes from the car."

"Even for an experienced person, it would take at least 15 minutes just to assemble the hang glider. And it is almost impossible to fly back to the plateau from the hotel because of the wind direction and the height difference."

"Four or five minutes is enough to kill someone," Maori said calmly, "as long as Ms. Chizuru is by your side. Yes, when we set out in the morning, Mr. Arimori pretended to check the doors and windows and was the last one to drive away. In fact, he probably wanted to secretly get Ms. Chizuru on the bus and take her to the plateau area with the hang glider."

Mito was surprised and asked, "You mean, Miss Chizuru was not in her room from the beginning?"

"The fact that the air conditioner in Ms. Chizuru's room was not turned on and she had not come downstairs is proof of this," Maori continued. "Around 2 o'clock, Mr. Arimori used the excuse of getting a lunch box to strangle Ms. Chizuru who was sleeping in the bus in those few minutes. In the evening, he used the excuse of an engine problem to stay on the plateau. After that, he had plenty of time to assemble a hang glider and used it to bring Ms. Chizuru's body back to the hotel..."

"That's nonsense!" You Sen said angrily, "Then tell me, how am I going to get back to the plateau? I asked Xiao Shinobu to pick me up!"

"Yes!" Shinobu Shinobu helped, "When Xiaolan and I drove over, Yousen was still on the plateau."

"It was the car," Conan couldn't help but interrupt, "After Mr. Arimori arranged the scene to look like a suicide, he left through the emergency exit and waited for Miss Shinobu to drive back. Then he hid in the trunk of the car and called Miss Shinobu to pick him up at the plateau...right, Uncle Mori?"

"What?" Zi Mennin paused.

"That's right. Miss Shinobu drove back to the plateau without knowing it. All he had to do was wait until you and Xiaolan left the car, then get out of the trunk and appear in front of you, pretending to have been there the whole time."

Maori took over Conan's words.

"This is just your guess," Yousen gritted his teeth and said, "Is there any evidence that I am the murderer?"

"Mr. Arimori," Maori asked, "I heard from Xiaolan that a mountain white butterfly died on your shoulder, is that right?"

"So what?"

"Haven't you noticed yet? The white butterfly scale powder left on your shoulders has stained Miss Chizuru's skirt."

Mao Li walked slowly past Arimori, not wanting to continue the process of reasoning, and spoke in a low voice.

"There's just one thing I don't understand. Is this Ms. Chizuru's first time here? Why on earth do you want to kill her?"

Arimori lowered his head and stared at the ground. "In order to seek revenge, my brother Teruhiko went to Tokyo to attend university. He happened to meet Ms. Chizuru who was filming there. The simple-minded Teruhiko was fascinated by Ms. Chizuru's beauty, but Ms. Chizuru was just playing with him..."

"No, he just wanted to get my brother's money from the beginning, but he got tired of playing with my brother and quickly dumped him... Huiyan spent a lot of money on her. In order to win her back, he even mortgaged the restaurant left by my father to the bank without telling me..."

"Is this hotel mortgaged?"

"The ownership of the hotel is already in the hands of someone else. I am able to continue to work here as a manager entirely because of the boss's favor..."