Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator - Page 287
But he soon confirmed that he had heard wrongly, because Aoyagi Binkou's voice was calmer than ever before, even...heavy.
……
Since this is a newly built hotel and it is the first time to host a competition, there are no decent equipment in the prop room. All the equipment used for the halftime show and the performances of the first two contestants are placed here.
Shigeo Yokomizo looked at the huge background board beside him and the spray paint can next to it, then looked at the corpse on the ground.
The deceased, Shou Meimei, whose identity has been confirmed, was found lying face up on the ground, wearing common office women's clothing, with messy hair scattered around her face and her wide-open eyes staring straight up into the sky.
He actually died with his eyes open.
Having seen so many corpses, Yokomizo Shigego was very calm: "What was the cause of death?"
"She was killed by a heavy blow to the back of the head. She died half an hour ago." The accompanying forensic doctor made a basic judgment, "The murder weapon...or the thing that killed her should be that wall."
"wall?"
Shigeo Yokomizo looked in the direction and saw only a few large cardboard boxes stacked up. He moved a few steps to the side and saw a red mark on the snow-white wall.
The prisoner should try to wipe it with a towel and spread it around, but the color will not disappear, but will expand the messy marks.
Yokomizo Shigego compared her injuries and said, "The deceased's head hit the wall... Could it be that she had an argument with someone and was pushed down by the other party?"
Looking at the messy erasure marks, it's obvious that this wasn't done by an experienced or premeditated person, but more like a crime of passion - like just pushing someone away during an argument.
This case is not difficult. Yokomizo Shigego turned to his men again and said, "Call the people who have been in and out of this room, and ask if anyone else heard the quarrel here."
"By the way, there's also that kid called Kudo Shinichi." He paused, then added a little irritably, "Bring him too."
Long before Shigeo Yokomizo came in, his men had already gone to look for the relevant personnel, and a few minutes later, some people entered the room.
Some of them were backstage staff, and the others were those that Shigego Yokomizo had seen in the venue a few minutes ago.
——One of the contestants, Osaka champion Kagami Kawada, puppeteer Shoichi Amano, and…
A pale-looking high school-age teenager walked in, and the police officer who brought him in offered him a hand to support him.
Yokomizo Shigego was very unhappy that a high school detective might enter the crime scene, but when he saw the other party's ugly face, he was still stunned for a moment: "What's wrong with you?"
Kawada Jingmei turned her head and her face turned pale when she saw his condition.
----
I’m really not good at writing detective stories (painful)…
Besides, I have to prepare for next year's exam, which is quite important... The updates will be slower, but don't worry, I won't stop.
Chapter 341 Cry, Kneel, and
The police officers present and the relevant personnel who were called in for questioning all looked at the teenager.
He raised his right hand and saw that the back of his hand near the base of the palm was swollen, and two small holes side by side were clearly visible, but no longer bleeding.
Hearing the police officer's question, the boy's hands trembled slightly, as if he wanted to make a fist, but he failed. His fingers could not be curled up at all.
"He was bitten by something."
The policeman who brought the teenager in explained, "When we found him, he was hiding in the bathroom, cleaning his wounds by himself. Not only was his hand unable to write, but his throat was also hoarse. Because he was mentally clear and it didn't look serious, we just..."
"Isn't this serious?!"
Veins popped out of Yokomizo Shigego's forehead. "How can someone who can't speak or write take a statement?! Hurry up and call the hotel's medical staff to check it out!"
His men were scolded and shrank their necks in anger, then pulled their men away.
The young man came quickly and left even faster. There was even a hint of unwillingness on his face when he was taken away. He tried to speak, but no words came out of his open mouth.
Kawada Kagami followed his back with a look of worry on her face, and Amano Shoichi's expression was also a little subtle.
"Is he really the famous high school detective?" Amano Shoichi said in surprise, "I saw him twice during the competition, and I thought he was an ordinary staff member at the time."
Yokomizo Shigego looked at him and asked, "Where did you see it?"
"Both times were backstage. One time was at the entrance of the contestant's rest room. He came out from inside. The other time was at the entrance of this prop room. I ran into him when I was leaving. He was following a foreign man..."
Amano Sho paused and recalled: "But the clothes were different both times."
Yokomizo Shigego's focus was not here. He stared at him sharply: "You were in the prop room at that time? How long have you been here?"
Amano Shoichi's face turned pale. "My performance was about to start, so I asked the staff to help me move the puppets I needed. I didn't stay for too long."
Yokomizo Shigego looked at his expression suspiciously, then turned around and looked around the room, and found no one with foreign appearance. He was about to ask his other men to continue looking outside, but at this moment, the door opened again.
A long-haired man of foreign appearance walked in.
"It was him." Amano Shouichi said, "The person I saw at that time was him."
"Mr. Aoyagi?" Kagami Kawada was stunned for a moment.
Aoyagi nodded politely to her, and Yokomizo recognized him as the bodyguard of a foreign judge. He watched him enter the room, walk to the pile of spray paint cans in the corner, and pick up the one at the front.
He looked at the mouth of the bottle, raised his hand and took out a small object from it, then calmly threw down a thunderbolt.
"I think I know who the murderer is in this case."
……
The banquet hall outside the venue.
"There was also a case backstage?"
Miss White came alone to the remaining police officer.
"Yes." The police officer from Nagano responded considerately in English, "Do you know any clues?"
"I'm one of the judges," she said simply.
"In addition to the contestants' appearance, figure and talent, the personal connotation and quality are also an important part of the screening of this beauty pageant. In order to see the contestants' true performance behind the scenes, I asked my male partner..."
She seemed to have some difficulty in uttering the word.
"I had him place cameras in the backstage lounge and prop room to see if they were arguing during the match or doing anything with their opponent's props."
"——If there was a crime there, those cameras might have captured the murderer."
Her calm words made the others look at her.
In the brief silence around them, the anxious voice of the person in charge not far away was particularly eye-catching: "Strange, why don't you answer the phone..."
……
Aoyagi Akimitsu is not a detective.
His intelligence and analytical ability are average, so it is better to bring all the suspects in front of him than to ask him to find clues - based on his intuition about their kind, he can guess almost exactly.
Moreover, this method of catching criminals based on intuition was not recognized by his colleagues, mainly his FBI colleagues, so his daily method of investigating cases was very simple, which was the method that all police officers would use.
Check surveillance.
In the small prop room, everyone was looking at a mobile phone, which was playing a video shot by a pinhole camera.
"So, sister had been dating Amano before? No wonder you looked so unhappy when he came to see me this morning."
The intact Shou Hualian stood in front of her biological sister Shou Meimei.
She was wearing a wedding dress, which must have happened around the time of the first game.
"Oh, don't be sad. I didn't know you were dating before. I just noticed that he kept coming to watch my games and often came backstage, so I jokingly asked him if he liked me, and he nodded. In fact, I have no interest in him..."
"Don't blame me. I only agreed to it because I was bored... I'm tired of him now and want to end it all with him. I can return him to you."
"But I'm not blaming you, sister. It's better to avoid dealing with such boring men in the future... If you delay your work for him again, mom will scold you."
The picture was a little blurry, but Shou Hualian's voice was clearly heard by everyone.
They didn't hear any apology in her words at all, not to mention the person involved who was at the scene at the time. After hearing what she said, Shou Meimei pounced on them angrily.
——Then Shou Hualian pushed hard when she grabbed her to get rid of her, and Shou Meimei let go of her hand. She lost her balance and hit the back of her head hard on the wall behind her.
Human life is so fragile, and she died just like that.
Shou Hualian saw her sister fall down, and at first she didn't take it seriously, until she didn't stand up for a long time, she began to panic, and then, the door was opened again...
Everyone saw the man on the screen and turned to look at Amano Shoichi.
Amano Shoichi's face changed slightly, but before he could say anything, Shou Hualian in the video grabbed him as if she saw a savior and begged him for help.
"Did you wipe the blood off the wall?" Yokomizo Shigego asked bluntly.
"It must be!" Kawada Jingmei said angrily, "Look at the time above, it's her turn to go on stage in ten minutes, she has no time to deal with it!"
In the video, Shou Hualian's face was filled with fear, and she begged Amano Shoichi pitifully. Outsiders could never imagine that such a seemingly weak woman would shine on the beauty pageant stage ten minutes later, without any sign of abnormality.
A staff member who had watched the first round of the game got goosebumps. He rubbed his arms quietly and looked at Shoichi Amano with strange eyes.
"…It was me." Amano Shouichi said dryly, "She asked me for help, and then she went to the competition, and I was left alone to deal with it…"
"We came to the prop room halfway and didn't see the body. Where did you put her?" Another staff member couldn't wait to watch the video and asked directly.
"In the box." Amano Shoichi whispered, "I was performing a puppet show, and all the props were placed here. I told you not to move the boxes at the bottom, so you didn't touch them. There was a smell of paint in the room at the time, so you didn't notice the smell of blood."
Yokomizo Shigego looked back at the large cardboard boxes, then compared them with Sumire's figure and confirmed that this was the truth.
"Then Shou Hualian's rope is..."
His tone was firm. A man had just killed someone and soon after he was in danger. He didn't believe that this was an accident or retribution.
The fist at Amano Shoichi's side gradually clenched.
"You broke it, too."
Aoyagi Akimichi paused the video and looked over.
puff.
Amano Shoichi fell to his knees.
"……it's me."
His voice trembled and tears flowed down his face. He did not make any excuses but simply admitted his crime.
"Why?" Kawada Jingmei was puzzled. "If you regretted it and didn't want to help, you could have called the police directly. Why did you kill her?"