"Valentine's Day is a holiday for lovers. Around this time, girls usually make chocolate for boys they like. Of course, boys they're close friends with may also receive 'obligation' chocolate."
Ran explained the meaning of the holiday to the two children.
Conan obviously knew all of that. He still remembered several people in class repeatedly sneaking glances at him. Only when he looked back did he realize they were all boys, and they were actually glancing toward Yimi's empty seat, apparently wondering whether the newly transferred girl would give anyone chocolate.
They were only seven or eight years old, yet somehow they were already that precocious.
But the place they were heading now wasn't somewhere they could casually talk about such leisurely topics. It was, after all, a murder scene.
The reason Sonoko was here was that the victim and a big guy he knew had struck up a conversation with Sonoko and Ran and invited them to a Valentine's party. Since the victim was handsome, Sonoko had agreed immediately.
In truth, though, the big guy was mainly interested in Ran. So when only Sonoko showed up, he was actually a little disappointed.
"Hey, hey, hey. Why did the glasses brat come too? And he even brought a girl with him." Sonoko bent down and stared at Yimi with the same dead-fish eyes as Mouri Kogoro.
She obviously didn't really think two tiny kids had any sort of relationship. But seeing even little children going out boy-and-girl together on Valentine's Day made her feel awful.
"You're this young and you already dyed your hair white? Doesn't your school care?"
Afraid Sonoko would start grabbing at Yimi and yank off her hat, Ran stepped between them and explained, "This is Yimi, my little sister. By the time I noticed, the two of them had hidden in the trunk and followed us here."
Both kids were remarkably proactive.
As for Ran, naturally she had come with Dad because she was worried Sonoko would be too frightened after witnessing a murder scene and wanted to comfort her.
A boy Sonoko had been planning to give chocolate to had suddenly been murdered. It had genuinely shaken her badly. Talking to Ran about unrelated things now was probably just her way of distracting herself.
"Little sister? Since when did you have a little sister? And your mom actually lets her dye her hair?"
"It's a long story."
"Speaking of which, Ran, you didn't come to the party. Were you off seeing your husband Shinichi?" Sonoko nudged Ran with her elbow.
Just hearing that made Ran angry. But then she remembered how much Sonoko liked Kaitou Kid, and since Ran herself wasn't entirely sure, she forced down her irritation for now.
While the two girls talked, Conan had already quietly slipped away.
The victim was Minagawa Katsuhiko, a medical student at Beika University and president of the tennis club. His family was fairly well-off too, and the house where he lived had a large yard.
The cause of death was poisoning. Specifically, he had gone out alone to smoke and suddenly collapsed.
More than one person had a motive. After getting drunk, the victim had forced another quiet, chubby young man present to perform for everyone, and he'd also gotten into an argument with a large man named Wakamatsu Toshihide and said several unpleasant things. In addition, the girl the victim liked had also had an opportunity to poison him.
"I've got it. The culprit is you, Yoshimi-san." Less than two minutes after arriving, Mouri Kogoro sternly pointed at the girl the victim had liked.
"The motive was a romantic dispute. You put poison in the chocolate. All we have to do is test the chocolate the victim left unfinished!"
"So this is detective work." Yimi, watching from the side, nodded seriously.
"Don't believe him. A detective's job isn't to name the culprit without any evidence." Conan explained this to the child, then glanced toward the kitchen and saw a woman still washing dishes even at a time like this.
Her son was beside her, repeatedly crying, "Mom, my tooth hurts!"
"Who's that auntie?"
"She's Minagawa's—the victim's—mother. Are you two Mouri-san's little brother and sister?" The conspicuously large man took the initiative to come greet them.
It was rather heartless, but seeing Minagawa die and thereby bring the girl he'd fallen for at first sight over here made him secretly a little pleased.
"His mother?" Conan put on a childish voice. "Mister, could you tell me what happened? My uncle is a really amazing detective."
"Hm? Sure." The big man stole a glance at Ran and hurried to put on a kid-friendly act.
The relationships at the scene were rather messy. Roughly speaking, he loved one girl, another girl loved him, and yet another girl had someone else who liked her.
As for the killer, anyone with half a brain could tell at a glance that it was the mother who was still washing dishes even after something like this happened. But what method she'd used obviously couldn't be learned just by listening to this not-too-bright big guy recount events.
If the woman wanted to kill someone, her only option seemed to be putting poison in the food. But after Conan questioned him more closely, he learned that when she handed out food, she apparently hadn't assigned specific portions to specific people... Or had she poisoned all the food?
Conan ran over to Sonoko, tugged on her clothes, and pointed at the culprit's second son. "Sonoko-onee-san, did that boy eat everything served at the party?"
"What are you doing playing detective, brat? But now that you mention it, I think I remember Minagawa-san didn't eat the cake because he hates sweets. That little boy wasn't allowed to eat it either because he has a cavity. But later, his mother still gave him one bite, and that's why he's been complaining that it hurts ever since, right?"
Sonoko stared with dead-fish eyes. "That little kid is just as naughty as you. He even snuck over to me and took a sip of my coffee."
As expected of Sonoko. In just a few sentences, she'd practically reconstructed the murder method for him.
All right, then.
After one final sweep of the scene to make sure his reasoning was airtight, Conan flipped open the cover of his Anesthetic Watch, turning it into a sight.
It had been invented by Professor Agasa, who was close to him and knew his true identity. The Anesthetic Needle it fired could knock an adult man unconscious on the spot.
Pew!
At the shot, Kogoro snapped to attention and immediately dropped unconscious onto the sofa in the most comfortable and perfectly posed position imaginable. Conan used the opportunity to hide behind the sofa and adjust the Bowtie Voice Changer disguised as his bowtie.
"I've finished checking things out, Inspector Megure. I know who the real culprit is."
"Mm?" Seeing Kogoro begin his deduction, Yimi leaned closer to observe carefully and was shocked to discover that his lips weren't moving at all.
"Earlier, I had Conan reconstruct the sequence of events and noted several suspicious points. Yoshimi-san certainly looks like the most likely culprit, but she actually had nothing to do with it. Meanwhile, Naomichi-san—the quiet, chubby young man—personally offered the victim one of his cigarettes before he went outside to smoke..."
Hearing that, Naomichi snorted. "Hmph. As expected of a great detective. That's right, I did it. I've hated him for a long time. He was always looking down on me, and he even hurt Kaori. So I put poison on the cigarette filter."
Conan: "..."
An unexpected bonus?
Conan continued, "But you aren't the real culprit. When I had Conan examine the scene earlier, he noticed that the victim pinched off the filter. He must normally smoke a brand without filters. You did put poison on it, but it never affected him."
Naomichi: "?"
"The real culprit is you, Katsuhiko's mother! You first put poison in the coffee, then put the antidote in the cake. You came up with this method because you knew the victim disliked sweets."
"Children don't like bitter coffee, so you chose to put the poison there. And if you were always against your younger son eating cake because of his cavity, why did you give him a bite after he'd drunk coffee? Also, the chocolate you switched in order to frame Yoshimi-san has already melted inside your clothes. No matter how much you wash, some poison will remain. Even if it isn't left on the cup, traces will still remain in the drain."
She cracked almost immediately. Looking down and seeing the dark stain on her clothes, she hugged her younger son, dropped to her knees, and confessed. "I had no other choice... I'm sorry, Yoshimi-san. I only thought of this method that day when I saw you buying chocolate..."
In short, Minagawa Katsuhiko wasn't her biological son. His parents had died seven years earlier, so she, as his aunt, had taken him in. Later, her husband's business failed, and he wanted to get his hands on Katsuhiko's property.
No matter how much she cried now, they were only crocodile tears.
Conan lowered the bowtie and raised his head.
He saw the white-haired girl who had followed him here standing in front of him with her hands behind her back, staring at him—and at the bowtie on his chest—with a "0v0" expression.
The sharp-eyed kitty reached out and pulled the Anesthetic Needle from Kogoro's neck.
"What are you doing?"
"Ahahaha, I'm Uncle Mouri's great assistant." Conan glanced left and right. Luckily, everyone was focused on the culprit, and no one else was looking this way.
"But the words just now, weren't you the one saying them?" Yimi pointed at Conan's bowtie.
She also raised the Anesthetic Needle. "Why did you attack him?"
Conan hurriedly explained, "This was just a prank. I accidentally hit Uncle."
Accidentally?
Yimi looked at Kogoro, then at the culprit.
How careless. He could hit the wrong person even from that angle.