Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 182 Conan in the Secret Room (Part 4)

"Why don't you just question the three people who came to the villa in the first place?" Amuro Toru suggested. "I think they're the only ones who could have a motive for murder."

Everyone turned their attention to Miss Momozono, Miss Umejima, and Mr. Takanashi.

"why is it like this?"

"Do you think the criminal is one of us three?"

Conan thought to himself: There is no doubt about this, but the key to the problem lies in that secret room.

How did the criminal manage to leave the room?

After questioning the three people in succession, everyone learned some important information.

Ms. Taoyuan and Ms. Meidao visited Mr. Ishikuri's room once before taking a shower and noticed that there was air conditioning in the room. Furthermore, the spare key to Mr. Ishikuri's room was missing last night.

Mr. Takanashi informed everyone that Mr. Ueyoshi, a member of their club, had died here this winter, buried under the snow. It was Mr. Ishikuri who had instigated Mr. Ueyoshi to jump into the two-foot-thick snow.

"Since yesterday was that melon's birthday, we all decided to get together to celebrate. After all, he had such a bad birthday last year," said Mr. Takanashi.

"Bad birthday?"

"Around this time last year, we all got together at this villa for a vacation. That day happened to be Guasheng's birthday. Ishikuri suggested that we give Guasheng a scare, so we climbed up the balcony to Guasheng's bedroom and fired a salute."

"Unexpectedly, the creature was so frightened that it actually started crying on the spot. Shi Li then filmed the melon growing and posted it online for everyone to view."

The acrobat clenched the ball in his hand after hearing this. "Isn't this a bit too much? Not everyone wants to be put online for entertainment."

Maori Kogoro put his hands on his hips and said, "I see. So, all of you have every intention of killing Mr. Ishikuri, right?"

Kogoro Mouri's statement was refuted by the three people. After all, no one wanted to be labeled a suspect like this.

After finishing the confession, Officer Yokomizo sat in his chair and thought, "No matter what tricks they used, no one except Mr. Takanashi could move the body of Mr. Ishiguri."

"But if they only move their upper body, a girl could do it too," Maori Kogoro reasoned. "They could knock the criminal down and close the door, or something like that."

However, this statement was refuted by Officer Yokomizo because the body was blocking the doorway with almost no space between the two.

The acrobat spoke up, "Could it be that some props were used to achieve this effect? ​​Like a rope, for example? Many circus acts use hidden ropes to help performers reach designated positions."

Maori Kogoro complained: "But even if we use a rope, it would be difficult to drag Mr. Ishikuri with his weight."

Then, Toru Amuro began to ask everyone if the three men had asked them to do anything.

Xiaolan and Sonoko said that Mr. Takanashi asked them to help take out the trash, and Miss Momozono asked them to help put the sports drinks in the freezer to freeze.

Maori Kogoro immediately became alert: "Could it be that she took this opportunity to hide the key in the drink?"

Sonoko retorted, "I didn't put any keys in there. After I finished my shower, she even took out the bottle of drink and gave me some. Oh, the drink was almost frozen. Oh, and she even said she would help re-roll the non-slip tape on the handles of our tennis rackets."

Xiaolan also nodded: "Yes, it was handed over to Miss Meidao at that time, and Mr. Mike also helped to replace the new string of the tennis racket."

Sonoko recalled the scene at that time: "Come to think of it, Mr. Mike didn't seem to let anyone touch his tennis balls. There was one each of red, white, and black. They were very different from ordinary tennis balls."

The acrobat quickly came over to explain, "Those three balls aren't standard tennis balls. They're little props I made from scrap tennis balls. I carry them around like talismans."

After saying that, the acrobat opened the black ball, and inside it was filled with some clay.

Amuro Toru frowned slightly. The black ball was filled with clay, but when he held the red ball, he clearly smelled a smell of gunpowder. It couldn't be that there was gunpowder inside.

As he spoke, he walked over with a curious look on his face. "Hey, do the three different colored balls have different contents? Can you open them all and take a look?"

The acrobat did not refuse and opened the red and white balls in turn, which contained charcoal powder and quartz sand respectively.

[Acrobat: Luckily I was prepared, otherwise it would have been terrible if he had discovered that the red ball was filled with gunpowder.]

[Explorer: Wait, did you get this stuffing from the library?]

[Night Watchman: Following the library incident, I'll give away the scraps left over from the incident to those in need, based on the principle of not wasting anything.]

[Puppeteer: No one will touch your mineral samples, so you can rest assured.]

[Explorer: It's not that I'm stingy, I'm just worried that if you guys just use something to experiment, you might end up causing a big mess for everyone.]

[Knight: Oh my god, what's going on in the room upstairs?]

[Air Force: It's bad. Florian was probably doing a combustion experiment and blew up his own room again.]

[Puppeteer: ...]

[Ms. Farrow: Damn it! Stop creating this financial burden!]

Amuro Toru was relieved to see that the balls did not contain any gunpowder. The acrobats cleaned up the tabletop that had been stained by various fillings.

After a while, the police in charge of the investigation came back and reported that no key was found in the discarded garbage bag. Similarly, the drinks in the freezer were frozen very solid and there was no way to hide the key.

However, the police did find that the tennis racket found under Mr. Ishikuri's body was bent in several places. Also, although the copper vase matched the wound on Mr. Ishikuri's head, it appeared to be filled with water.

Toru Amuro analyzed the time of death report given by the police and found that the three people in the villa had the opportunity to kill during that time period.

After listening to Amuro Toru's analysis, Maori Kogoro complained to Conan: "I said, did you see the criminal? Weren't you in the room the whole time?"

Conan was somewhat helpless: "I was soundly asleep at the time."

Xiaolan came over and said, "Then you don't remember that Sonoko and I came to the door of your room to call you."

"I might not have been awake yet."

Yuanzi recalled some details: "Come to think of it, I remember you said that the air conditioning in that room seemed to be quite sufficient."

Xiaolan nodded: "Yes, because I felt the cold air blowing out from my toes at that time."

Conan was shocked because the air conditioner in the room had been turned off when he woke up, so the cold air Xiaolan felt must be something else. Recalling the bending marks on the tennis racket, Conan felt that he had discovered the truth.