Chapter 1065: His Side is Too Slow
"Huh?" Mouri Ran was a bit confused by Chi Feichi's meaning. "Mr. Hozami?"
Chi Feichi didn't rush to explain, instead looking over at Hattori Heiji and Conan.
He liked to figure out problems on his own, but he disliked explaining, lecturing, and reasoning with others. It would take ages to talk, and he'd have to explain ten thousand whys.
So, could those two hurry up?
When the time comes, everyone will solve the case together. His side would just slack off a little, chime in with a couple of key points, and that would count as a draw.
Anyway, he wasn't going to either Takarazuka or Koshien. He had only offered to help Kazuha Toyama because he simply wanted to see Hattori Heiji get anxious.
Where this group of people ended up going was a matter for them to discuss among themselves.
Kazuha Toyama followed Chi Feichi's line of sight and saw Hattori Heiji, who was with Conan, going to find Inspector Megure. She hesitated for a moment. "Um... Brother Feichi, could you wait a little longer?"
Chi Feichi turned his head and looked at Kazuha Toyama.
"I'm sorry," Kazuha Toyama lowered her head and apologized in a low voice. "I hope you can wait for Heiji. He's too slow over there, and he might get upset later on. I don't mean anything else by it, we just need to be a little faster than them... It's just... It's just that Hattori is such a proud person, I..."
(╥﹏╥)
She didn't know what else to say.
"I understand."
Chi Feichi tore out the two pages from his notebook with the six-sided diagram of the building blocks.
"Ah..." Kazuha Toyama and Mouri Ran gasped softly.
"The three of us aren't deduction fanatics, so let's just give up," Chi Feichi said to Kazuha Toyama with a calm expression as he put the notebook, pen, and the two torn pages into his pocket, taking out his cigarette case at the same time. "If you really want to go to Takarazuka, just go cry to Hattori."
Overhearing the sound of paper tearing, Inspector Megure turned his head and quickly reminded him, "Brother Chi, don't smoke at the crime scene!"
"Sorry."
Chi Feichi took the opportunity to slip away and went outside for some air.
"Give up..." Kazuha Toyama watched Chi Feichi leave without hesitation and snapped back to her senses. "Ran, do you think Brother Feichi is angry?"
"I don't think so," Mouri Ran said uncertainly.
Even though she'd known him for so long, she still couldn't tell when Chi Feichi was angry and when he wasn't.
"Even you aren't sure?" Kazuha Toyama felt a headache coming on.
"What can I do? I've never seen Brother Feichi show an attitude like 'anger'. It feels like he never gets angry, but then again, it's impossible for someone to never get angry, so..." Mouri Ran smiled helplessly. "Besides, he's not the type to wear his anger on his face."
Kazuha Toyama subconsciously glanced at Hattori Heiji. "Heiji is more worry-free..."
Over there, Hattori Heiji withdrew his gaze from the doorway, squatted down in front of Conan, and asked in a low voice, "Hey, what do you think? Do you think Brother Feichi made a mistake interpreting the dying message and is in a bad mood, which is why he tore up the paper and ran out to smoke? Or rather..."
"It's also possible he already knows the truth and thinks it's pointless to stay here, so he went out for a smoke," Conan said with half-moon eyes. "That's not impossible. Besides, he's done it before—seeing through the truth without saying a word and just going off to the side to rest."
Hattori Heiji started laughing. "Idiot, it's only been a short while, how is that possible? Even if he deciphered the dying message, there are still a lot of weird things to figure out."
Conan nodded with a smile. "Exactly!"
Silence.
The two looked at each other, the smiles on their faces gradually turning into forced smiles, unable to speak.
Why did it still feel a bit uncertain?
In their minds, dark clouds gathered, and the Great Demon King laughed wantonly.
Outside the door, Chi Feichi reached the end of the corridor, lit the two pages with a lighter, used them to light his cigarette, and then casually tossed the burning paper by his feet.
The moment he started to interpret the dying message, he had already recalled the key to this part of the plot.
He recalled that the cipher involved looking at the opposite faces of the building blocks, recalled that the real murderer had intentionally placed the body behind the table, and recalled that the murderer tore off the June page of the wall calendar and was the tallest person...
With the clues accumulating to a certain point, it was hard not to remember. It also robbed him of much of the joy of deduction. He could even recall the motive for the crime: the deceased and Vice President Iwatomi had intentionally cut costs to produce unsafe children's toys for profit. Mr. Hozami couldn't stand their actions, which is why he killed the President and framed the Vice President. Unfortunately, his height, being taller than everyone else, became the key for the famous detectives to identify the murderer...
"Brother Feichi..."
Kazuha Toyama and Mouri Ran came out and walked to the end of the corridor. Seeing the mostly burnt but still-burning pages on the ground, they hesitated to speak.
By now, the sky had completely darkened, and the small sparks looked particularly conspicuous.
"You came out for some air too?" Chi Feichi asked.
Mouri Ran exchanged a glance with Kazuha Toyama. See, even following him out didn't help them figure out if Brother Feichi was angry.
Kazuha Toyama felt helpless. She stopped as she got closer. "I wanted to ask, are you angry? You worked so hard to help me, but I was the one who backed down first."
Chi Feichi said bluntly, "No."
"Th-Then that's good..." Kazuha Toyama fell silent for a moment, feeling like there was nothing left to say. The cold silence was quite awkward, so she turned to go back inside. "Well, I'm going to supervise Heiji and the others solving the case!"
"Me too," Mouri Ran quickly followed.
Chi Feichi watched the two go inside, his gaze fixed on the corridor. In his mind, he was reviewing the overall environment of the crime scene, searching for any details he might have overlooked at the beginning.
After knowing the outcome, it becomes easy to find the details one overlooked during observation and then summarize the patterns.
For example, which traces he tended to overlook, which he needed to correct next time; where the murderer left traces he hadn't noticed, which he could focus on inspecting next time; if he were the one committing the crime, how he would avoid leaving too many traces, or how to remedy them after they were left...
It was like checking for eavesdropping devices or transmitters after entering a room. An inexperienced person would feel at a loss, but people like them, who had installed, dismantled, considered, and summarized their experiences, could skillfully and quickly begin screening the area.
Additionally, based on the crime scene, he tried to analyze the personalities of the company president and the four employees, reconstruct what each person last touched, and the order in which they left on the day the holiday started...
This scene had so many traces left behind; it would be a waste not to use it to grind for experience.
Inside the room, Inspector Megure watched as Hattori Heiji and Conan huddled together whispering, while Chi Feichi, Mouri Ran, and Kazuha Toyama were doing the same, acting all secretive.
Kazuha Toyama had even asked him some strange questions, but she didn't tell Hattori Heiji, instead going over to Chi Feichi to mutter about them.
After pondering for a moment and still not understanding, he decided to ask Mori Kogoro directly.
"Brother Mori, what on earth is going on with you all today?"
"This..." Mori Kogoro scratched his head and laughed. "It's nothing! Hahaha..."
"Oh?" Inspector Megure leaned in, staring at Mori Kogoro, and asked in a low, serious voice, "Is that so?"
Mori Kogoro broke out in a sweat and froze.
"Inspector Megure?" Kazuha Toyama entered the room and looked doubtfully at the huddle of Inspector Megure and Mori Kogoro, then handed the photo in her hand back to Inspector Megure. "By the way, here's this photo back..."
Conan stood on his tiptoes to look from the side. "Is this a group photo of the President and the other four employees?"
"Yes, it is." Seeing that Conan wanted to look, Kazuha Toyama squatted down to let him see it first.
Hattori Heiji walked up behind Kazuha Toyama, bent over to look at the photo, and asked thoughtfully, "What did Brother Feichi ask you to get the photo for?"
"I don't know," Kazuha Toyama answered subconsciously. "He also had me ask Inspector Megure for the names and heights of the four employees, and if there was anything strange about their legs or feet..."
Mouri Ran kept trying to give Kazuha Toyama meaningful looks from the side.
Stop, stop, if she said all this now, Hattori would definitely know about their progress, and he'd realize Brother Feichi had already solved it.
Then, what would be the point of them specially discussing letting this round go with Chi Feichi?
Kazuha Toyama didn't receive Mouri Ran's frantic signals and continued, somewhat lost in thought, tapping her chin with her finger. "And whether the President had a habit of tearing off calendar pages in advance... anyway, they were very strange questions..."
Hattori Heiji's and Conan's expressions changed. They exchanged a look and ran towards the table.
"Eh?" Inspector Megure looked over in confusion.
Conan ran to the television, while Hattori Heiji ran to the spot with the outline of the human-shaped trace and lay down directly on it.
"How is it?" Conan asked.
Hattori Heiji looked under the table, where he could only see Conan's trouser legs and shoes, and started to laugh. "It really is like this! Then..."
Saying that, Hattori Heiji stood up again, glanced at the wall calendar, and ran with Conan toward the storage room next door.
Inspector Megure: "?"
What did he mean, "it really is like this"? Could he be clearer?
Soon, Hattori Heiji came out holding a torn-off calendar page. He walked over to Inspector Megure, asked the same questions Chi Feichi had Kazuha Toyama ask earlier, and after hearing Inspector Megure's reply, his eyes lit up and a confident smile appeared on his face. "Inspector Megure, could I ask you to have the four employees come here? I already know who the murderer is!"
"You already know who the murderer is?" Inspector Megure's eyes also lit up. He said seriously, "That's no problem. Before you arrived, I already had someone go and ask the four of them to come over. Calculating the time, they should be here soon."
Conan, following behind Hattori Heiji, reached out and tugged the hem of his clothes, reminding him, "The dying message..."
Hattori Heiji was stunned for a moment, then put a fist to his mouth and coughed dryly. "That didn't point to the real culprit anyway. I've already got a lead. I can solve it while we're waiting for them to arrive. Besides, it's obvious that the message should be..."
"So that's how it is," Kazuha Toyama said thoughtfully. "The dying message was 'Iwatomi', but the true culprit is Mr. Hozami. That's why Brother Feichi first wrote..."
Mouri Ran facepalmed. Why did they go through so much trouble to discuss this with Brother Feichi before...
Kazuha Toyama also sensed something was wrong and stopped, looking up at Hattori Heiji.
Hattori Heiji, still holding that page from the calendar, stood with Conan at the entrance to the storage room, one big and one small, their faces blank.
Heh, so they really had solved it over there...
The dying message, the true culprit, the method the culprit used, the strange suspicious points in this room...
They probably even know how to find the evidence, right?
"First wrote what? Kazuha," Inspector Megure pressed. "Also, the dying message is 'Iwatomi', but the true culprit is Mr. Hozami. What does that mean? Wasn't the dying message left by the deceased?"
"Ah..." Kazuha Toyama was at a loss for words and said to Inspector Megure with an innocent look, "I don't know."
She hadn't even had time to hear Brother Feichi's deduction, so she really didn't know what was going on.
Hattori Heiji: "..."
Damn it! I feel like I'm being mocked.
Conan: "..."
They know everything, yet they're deliberately pretending not to. So excessive.
(End of Chapter)