The crime scene was located at 71, 2-Chome, Higashi-Ikebukuro, a traditional Japanese estate with an unmistakably old-fashioned elegance. One glance was enough to tell it belonged to a wealthy family.
Upon arriving, Ritsu didn't immediately head for the victim's body as he usually did. Instead, he swept his gaze across the scene before stopping on a little boy who bore a seventy-percent resemblance to Shinichi.
More accurately, the remaining thirty percent came from the black-rimmed glasses.
No wonder Ran hadn't recognized her childhood friend. The glasses really did change Shinichi's overall aura quite a bit.
Without showing any reaction, Ritsu withdrew his gaze and walked toward the victim.
Shinichi, or rather, Conan now, felt the urge to run over and reveal his true identity the moment he saw Ritsu appear.
But remembering what Professor Agasa had told him, he hesitated. Any organization capable of creating a drug like that was undoubtedly no ordinary criminal group.
If he recklessly dragged his teacher into this... What would he do if something happened afterward?
And besides, his teacher had a girlfriend. What would happen to her?
Conan shook his head and decided not to tell Ritsu that he was actually Shinichi.
Of course, Ritsu knew nothing of Conan's internal struggle. His attention was focused entirely on the strangely posed corpse before him.
The victim was slumped against a support pillar with a katana piercing his left chest. The heart had clearly sustained catastrophic damage.
A single fatal strike.
Instant death.
None of that was unusual.
What Ritsu couldn't understand was why the victim was holding the sword. He had studied kendo at the police academy and could immediately tell the grip was incorrect.
If the victim had no kendo experience or happened to be left-handed, the mistake would be understandable.
The problem was that he was neither.
Ritsu looked toward a framed photograph hanging on the wall.
Although bloodstains partially obscured the image, it was still clear that the victim held a sword with his right hand forward and left hand behind, indicating he was a right-handed practitioner with kendo experience.
'The killer deliberately made the victim die holding the sword... Was there some special purpose behind it?'
There wasn't enough information to answer that question yet. Moreover, there were far too many signs of struggle throughout the room.
Even the ceiling had been slashed.
It was obvious the killer had intentionally created the damage to conceal some crucial piece of evidence.
"Inspector! I've identified the victim!"
Takagi hurried over, notebook in hand, and began his usual report.
"The victim is Maru Denjiro, president of the Maru Group, age fifty. In addition to running the company, he was a well-known antique collector, so his social circle was fairly complicated."
An antique collector? That explained the number of expensive-looking items scattered throughout the room.
Ritsu's gaze settled on a damaged hanging scroll.
It looked like it was worth at least one or two million yen, if not ten million. That suggested money wasn't the killer's motive.
"Takagi, who discovered the body first?"
"Two household servants. Afterward, Kogoro-san and the others heard the scream and rushed over. The scene wasn't disturbed a second time."
"Find someone to help move the body down. I'll conduct the interviews."
"Understood, Inspector."
Leaving the crime scene, Ritsu was immediately approached by Kogoro. The detective rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"Onizawa-kun, we meet again."
"Good afternoon, Kogoro-san."
He turned toward Ran. "Mouri-san..."
Then he feigned surprise. "Hm? Is this little boy your younger brother?"
It had to be said, Ritsu's acting was flawless. Even his expression of mild surprise was perfectly executed. Not even the observant Shinichi noticed anything suspicious.
Ran waved her hands.
"No, he's staying with us temporarily. His name is Conan. He's the child of one of Professor Agasa's distant relatives."
The little boy immediately stepped forward.
"Hello, Mister! My name is Edogawa Conan! I'm six years old!"
His childish voice, combined with his pale-yellow knit cap, made him look even more like a kindergarten student.
For a moment, Ritsu imagined Shinichi speaking in that tone and nearly lost control of his expression.
He covered it with a cough.
Then he reached out and gently patted Conan's head.
"Conan, seeing something like that must have been scary, right? I happen to have some candy here. Want one?"
"Wow~ Milk candy! Thank you, Mister~~"
Speaking in the cutest voice imaginable while happily eating an overly sweet piece of candy, Conan's emotions were incredibly complicated.
Who could have imagined that in the span of a single day, his relationship with his teacher would become like this?
—"If you keep getting carried away and sticking your nose into cases, someday you're going to get yourself hurt."
Ran had been right all along.
If luck hadn't been on his side, if that man in black hadn't fed him a drug that produced an unexpected effect,
He would already be a corpse.
Ritsu shifted his attention to Kogoro.
"Kogoro-san, you arrived before the murder, correct? Did you see any suspicious individuals?"
Kogoro awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Well... Maru-san told me to wait in the main house, so I didn't see anyone suspicious."
"Onii-san!"
Conan called out through a mouthful of milk candy. "I saw a suspicious visitor."
Smiling, Ritsu crouched down to Conan's eye level. "Really? Can you tell me about it, Conan?"
"Of course!"
Conan did his best to sound innocent.
"The murdered uncle and that person went into the detached building together, and neither of them came back out. The back door of the detached building was open too, so that person must be the killer."
"He escaped through the back door after committing the crime!"
"I see."
Ritsu nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Conan. That's a very useful clue."
Just then, Takagi called out to him from inside. Ritsu returned to the crime scene.
"What is it?"
"Inspector, I found a notebook on the victim. And take a look at his back!"
Ritsu's eyes moved to the victim's body lying face-down on the floor.
A long, deep wound stretched across the victim's back. And it was clearly inflicted while he was still alive.
Which meant the killer had attacked him from behind before delivering the fatal blow.
"Give me the notebook."
Ritsu flipped through the notebook and discovered it was a schedule book used to record appointments.
Aside from Kogoro, three other people had meetings scheduled for that day,
> Suwa Yuji
> Akutsu Makoto
> Hatano Kazuya
"Takagi, bring all three of them here."
"Yes, sir!"
After sealing the notebook inside an evidence bag, Ritsu felt his nicotine cravings kick in. He lit a cigarette and began surveying the room again, trying to pinpoint the lingering sense of inconsistency that had been bothering him.
Eventually, his gaze stopped on a telephone resting atop the tatami floor. The phone cord stretched across the room to an outlet along the wall. The ceiling, walls, and floor had all suffered damage from the katana.
So why was the telephone completely untouched?
Even more strangely, there were intersecting slash marks on the floor beneath the cord, yet the cord itself remained perfectly intact.
Ritsu crouched down to examine the landline. To his surprise, there were three recorded voice messages. He extended a finger toward the playback button.
Then a sudden shout startled him so badly his hand slipped and slammed into the tatami instead.
"Aah! Who are you?!"
That was close.
If he'd accidentally pressed the delete button, things would have become troublesome.
Ritsu narrowed his eyes irritably and looked at the source of the interruption.
"Takagi... What exactly are you doing?"
----
bonus chap every 20 PS
read ahead on my p4tr3on @Siamus404