The three of them arrived at the Beika Art Museum, bought their tickets, and went inside for a look.
"There's hardly anyone here," Ran observed as they entered the deserted hall.
Inside the massive exhibition space, not including the staff, there were fewer than ten visitors.
"I told you it was a tourist trap, but you wouldn't believe me," Shinichi said, exasperated.
"Well, we didn't have anywhere else to go! It's nice to just walk around," Ran replied, before turning to Shiraishi Kai. "Right, Shiraishi?"
"Mmm," Shiraishi responded, his attention caught by two men arguing intensely in the distance. One was an old man with a long beard, the other a pot-bellied, middle-aged man.
As expected, the former was likely Curator Ochiai, and the latter was the owner, Mr. Manaka.
The gist of their argument was that Mr. Manaka was breaking his promise. After buying the Beika Art Museum, he wasn't planning to keep it as a museum but intended to convert it into a hotel. Curator Ochiai was protesting vehemently.
Mr. Manaka declared the protest was invalid.
...
As they argued, Shiraishi recalled Curator Ochiai's murder method—donning a heavy suit of medieval armor weighing dozens of pounds, then single-handedly lifting the 180-pound Mr. Manaka and impaling him against the wall with a sword.
So old, yet so strong...
While Shiraishi was lost in thought, Ran spoke up, a little embarrassed. "Shinichi, Shiraishi... um, I need to use the restroom. You two can go ahead and look around."
With that, she hurried off to find the restroom.
Shinichi muttered under his breath, "That's what you get for eating so much."
With nothing better to do, Shiraishi decided to tease Shinichi. "Hey, Shinichi, want to make a bet?"
"A bet? What about?" Shinichi's interest was piqued. "Betting on when Ran gets back? Sure!"
"Betting on how long a girl takes in the restroom? You're kind of a creep, you know that?" Shiraishi gave him a deadpan look.
Leave it to a shonen protagonist to have a slightly pervy side.
"Uh..." Shinichi was caught off guard and rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Th-that's not what we're betting on?"
"Of course not!" Shiraishi turned his head towards Curator Ochiai and Mr. Manaka. "Let's bet on whether the curator will kill that owner."
"Huh?" The mention of murder immediately snapped Shinichi to attention. He had also overheard their loud argument.
"No way, absolutely not!" Shinichi shook his head firmly. "Why would the curator kill the owner over something like that?"
"Besides, the owner bought the museum with his own money!"
"He can do whatever he wants with it."
Shiraishi chuckled at his response. "Then let's make a wager. Loser buys dinner. I bet the curator will kill him."
"Fine!" Shinichi was certain the curator wouldn't commit murder for such a reason. It wasn't even the curator's museum to begin with. He then paused, looking at Shiraishi strangely. "Shiraishi, what makes you think the curator would kill someone?"
"A hunch," Shiraishi said, offering a simple excuse. "You know what I do; I deal with criminals all the time... I can tell. The look in the curator's eyes is the same as theirs."
"His eyes? You can tell from that?" Shinichi turned to observe Curator Ochiai more closely. "His eyes are squinted shut. How can you even see them?"
"He opened them a moment ago," Shiraishi said, covering his tracks.
"...I have a feeling you're just making this up." Shinichi gave him a suspicious look but had no proof.
As they were chatting, Curator Ochiai and Mr. Manaka went their separate ways.
"See, they've left," Shiraishi pointed out. "I'm guessing... Curator Ochiai is about to make his move."
Shinichi thought his friend was just spouting nonsense out of boredom and decided to play along.
"For someone as old as the curator to murder Mr. Manaka, a direct confrontation is out of the question. The age difference is too great."
"The best way would be poison! The second best would be a sneak attack!"
"But even a sneak attack is unlikely to succeed. The curator is old. If he doesn't succeed in one go, the other man would react quickly."
Shiraishi shook his head in disagreement. "I don't agree. Why wouldn't a direct confrontation work?"
"Firearms are so advanced these days. A simple handgun would allow the curator to kill the owner easily!"
"Take the Kahr CM9 compact pistol, for example. Its total length is only 138mm, and it weighs just 397 grams with an empty magazine. Even an old man could use it with ease!"
Shinichi immediately retorted, "Handguns are loud! The moment you fire, everyone will know a murder happened!"
"With poison, you can do it without anyone knowing!"
"If you handle it well, no one will ever know it was you!"
Shiraishi smiled. "Who's going to stick around to check things out after hearing a gunshot?"
"Hey! I wouldn't run. I'd go take a look!" Shinichi said, using himself as an example.
Shiraishi replied, "Then you'd get shot too, and no one would ever know."
"How many bullets can one handgun hold? Can you shoot every single witness?" Shinichi pressed on.
...
As their debate heated up, Ran returned.
Seeing them so engrossed in conversation, she asked curiously, "What are you two talking about? You look so happy."
Shiraishi said, "We're deciding what to have for dinner."
"Yeah, yeah, I think ramen sounds pretty good," Shinichi quickly added, nodding.
He didn't dare let Ran know they were discussing murder.
"It's still early. Isn't it a bit too soon to be talking about dinner?" Ran checked the time. "We should hurry up and go see that medieval armor!"
"Maybe we'll actually see it move!"
Her face was filled with anticipation.
"Do you really still think the armor will move on its own?" Shinichi said, exasperated that she hadn't come to her senses.
"Let's go check it out. We're already here," Shiraishi said, thinking the time was about right.
Enough time had passed; Curator Ochiai had probably already done the deed.
"Shiraishi is right, we're already here! We can't have come for nothing! Let's go!" Ran said, enthusiastically heading towards the "Chamber of Hell" exhibit.
However, on their way, they encountered a "No Entry" sign.
"Aw... we can't go in," Ran said, greatly disappointed.
"Strange... that sign wasn't here before." Shinichi's brow furrowed, and a bad feeling crept over him.
His detective's intuition told him something was wrong.
Looking around and seeing no staff paying attention, Shinichi slipped past the sign. "Let's go in and check it out anyway!"
"Shinichi, I think we should just forget it," Ran tried to persuade him, but saw he had no intention of stopping.
"Next time we come, this place might be demolished. Let's go!" Shiraishi patted Ran's shoulder, gesturing for her to follow. He added reassuringly, "Just walk behind me... If we see that moving armor, you can hide behind me!"
His words put Ran at ease, and she nodded, walking behind him.
The three walked a short distance and arrived at the entrance to the Chamber of Hell exhibit.
Shinichi went in first. After a few steps, he froze. He stared at Mr. Manaka, impaled against the wall by a sword, his face instantly changing.
He quickly turned back and yelled, "Ran, don't look!"
"Huh? What's wrong?" Hearing his urgency only made Ran more curious. She took two steps forward to see.
When she saw the scene clearly, she stopped in her tracks, her face filled with panic, and let out a piercing scream.
-------
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