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Page 10

Kogoro Mouri shrank into a corner in melancholy.

Chu Ming bent down, looked at the water mark on the ground, touched a little with his hand and smelled it: it smelled like sea water.

Cheng Shi had also finished the autopsy. She stood up and said, "The time of death was 30 minutes to an hour ago. The cause of death should be suffocation. I think Mr. Kawashima must have drowned in the sea."

"Drowned?"

Cheng Shi shook his head: "Without an autopsy, I can't make a conclusion."

Conan turned around and said, "I think what Dr. Chengshi said is right. Look at the jacket on the beach, it should be Mr. Kawashima's! And from the door to the piano, there are traces of being dragged from the beach. There is also mud and sand on Mr. Kawashima's back. The doors and windows of this room have all been locked. The first few minutes of the tape should be blank..."

Chu Ming shook his head. This guy forgot his current identity when he encountered reasoning. You are just a child now... You are getting too proud, Conan.

Maori Kogoro was stunned: "When did this guy..."

Conan continued to talk: "I'm afraid that during the ritual, the criminal took Mr. Kawashima to the beach and drowned him, then moved the body into this room, locked the door, turned on the recorder, and walked out of the room to the corridor..."

Chu Ming secretly kicked him. Conan turned around and saw everyone's surprised eyes, and quickly added: "Really? Uncle."

Maori Kogoro stuttered twice and said, "Ah, yes, yes... yes, that's right."

Chu Ming looked at the two with interest. Maori Kogoro never interrupted Conan's reasoning during this process. Wasn't he surprised? A child actually had such rich reasoning knowledge... He took out a small notebook and wrote it down. Maori Kogoro's doubts +1.

After thinking for a while, Maori Kogoro added: "If the door of this room is locked, and we have been staying at the entrance just now, I judge that the criminal will return to the memorial site...which means the criminal is among you!"

Everyone was shocked and looked around, fearing that the criminal was right next to them.

"So did anyone notice when Mr. Kawashima left his seat during the ritual?"

Kuroiwa Tatsuji said, "I know that. He said he wanted to go to the bathroom."

"Then are there any other people who left their seats during the meal?"

“Who would pay attention to this kind of thing…”

"Has he ever offended anyone?"

"It's not that he's offended, but if he dies, the person who would be the happiest would probably be Mr. Shimizu, who was running for village chief with him!" Heiyan immediately started to criticize him.

Shimizu Masato was furious. He said, "You scheming old boy, I haven't said anything to you yet, but you've framed me first." So he also said, "What nonsense are you talking about... You are the same, aren't you, Kuroiwa Village Chief!"

The village chief's daughter added, "Yes, that's right. If someone hadn't secretly changed Mr. Kawashima's votes to their own, my father would have been elected long ago."

Seeing that several people were about to quarrel, Maori Kogoro hurried over to stop them: "Okay, okay, stop talking."

Conan stood aside, staring out the window: "But why did the criminal move the body to this room?"

"He probably wants to blame the murder case on the curse of the piano!" Chu Ming touched his chin, thoughtfully.

“When was this piano placed here?”

"This is the piano that Mr. Aso donated 15 years ago, and it has been here ever since. His name is engraved on the keyboard cover."

Chu Ming happened to be standing next to the piano, and upon hearing this he opened the lid of the piano.

——Under the lid was a piece of music score!

Chu Ming frowned and reached out to take out the music score. Maori Kogoro came over and took it: "Strange, I didn't see this thing when I looked at it during the day."

Just as everyone gathered around to watch curiously, Ken Nishimoto, who was standing nearby, suddenly started to have trembling hands, a look of fear on his face, and he screamed and ran out.

Chu Ming looked at his receding back, a hint of smile flashed across his eyes. Very good, the next victim will be scheduled soon.

"Who is that?" Kogoro Mouri was holding the music score. What was that thing that suddenly ran over?

Secretary Hirata said, "That's Mr. Nishimoto. He used to be quite powerful. He spent a lot of money on women, alcohol, and gambling. But after the death of the previous village chief two years ago, he seemed to be afraid of something and rarely went out..."

While everyone was exchanging clues, Xiaolan walked through the crowd breathlessly with an elderly policeman.

"The police... the police are here..."

"Lan, you're too slow!" Kogoro Mouri was a little dissatisfied.

Xiaolan felt a little aggrieved: "I can't do anything about it. He's not in the police station. I've been looking for him everywhere."

The policeman adjusted his hat and asked, "Why did you call me here in such a hurry?"

"Ah, it's Mr. Maori Kogoro."

"It's the famous——"

Kogoro Mori stared at him expectantly. As expected, there were people who had heard of his name.

"—space pilot?"

Chu Ming hid aside and couldn't help laughing.

Chapter 20 Why are you pulling my pants?

Because it was really too late, everyone put Kawashima Hideo's body aside and went back.

After leaving the community center, Cheng Shi and a few others walked together.

On the way, Cheng Shi said curiously: "Conan's reasoning is really surprising."

Xiaolan was proud of it: "Because this child loves to simulate detective games the most."

Chu Ming also interrupted and praised: "This child is very talented, he is a little genius! He will definitely be a famous detective who is not inferior to Kudo Shinichi in the future."

Conan felt embarrassed by their praise, and he touched his head and said with a smile: "No, I am just imitating my uncle. Because I have been learning how he works, and I want to be a famous detective like my uncle in the future!"

A pair of large hands suddenly pressed down on his head, pushing him down a few centimeters.

Maori Kogoro held Conan down with one hand and said, "Compared to me, he is still far behind."

Looking at Kogoro Mouri who was angrily rubbing Conan's dog head, and his subordinate Conan who looked desperate, Asai Narumi laughed like a silver bell.

"Then we'll say goodbye here. We're going to the hotel too."

"Okay, see you later. I hope you can solve the murder case soon, because I really don't want to do autopsy work anymore."

Chu Ming looked at Asai Chengmi, whose beautiful face was under the moonlight, and understood the hidden meaning of her words.

She wanted to avenge her father, but also hoped that Kogoro Mori could stop her as soon as possible. After all, the helplessness of her hands being stained with blood and becoming increasingly depraved made her despair.

But the only one who could hear her hidden meaning was Chu Ming, who knew the whole story. Maori Kogoro patted his chest and assured her, "No problem. All the cases handled by the famous detective Maori Kogoro are very simple!"

Conan laughed and said, "It's easy for me to say that. I still have a lot of puzzles to solve."

Suddenly he frowned and reached out to pull the corner of Chu Ming's clothes, but he couldn't reach it. He had to settle for the next best thing and pulled Chu Ming's pants.

Chu Ming was still thinking with his head down when he suddenly felt his pants falling down. He quickly reached out to pull them back and glared at the little detective: "What are you doing? Are you being a hooligan? Why are you pulling my pants all of a sudden?!"

Conan withdrew his hand in dismay: "Brother Chu Ming, the words 'beginning to disappear' in the content of that letter, could it be possible that this murderer will continue to kill people?"

Feeling that looking down at the little detective was not good for his cervical spine, Chu Ming chose to squat down again and look at Conan at eye level: "How do you understand it?"

Hearing their conversation, Kogoro Mouri quickly took out the notice letter and read it carefully under the dim street light.

"The so-called disappearance of shadows means being enveloped in light. And the light he referred to was the song he heard at the murder scene - "Moonlight"."

"It makes sense. The song that Mr. Keiji Aso played in the flames 12 years ago, the song that was played when the previous village chief died two years ago, and the song that was played when Mr. Kawashima died today were all Beethoven's sonata - Moonlight!" Kogoro Mouri affirmed Conan.

Chu Ming added: "So far, all the cases have occurred next to the piano. Why don't we go back and take a look at the piano!"

Maori Kogoro ran to the community center and said, "You guys go back to the hotel first, I'll go check it out!"

Chu Ming glanced at Conan and Xiaolan and suggested, "Let's go over and take a look. There's strength in numbers. Maybe we can find some clues!"

When he arrived at the community center, Kogoro Mouri had already asked the police to bring him a blanket, as if he was going to sleep with the corpse.

Seeing this, Chu Ming and Conan also volunteered.

"Really? You think it's abnormal, but you actually bring a child to sleep here for a night!" the policeman couldn't help but mutter.

Maori Kogoro was also a little speechless: "Didn't I tell you three to go back first? I can just watch here by myself!"

Chu Ming looked at Maori Kogoro, who was rarely serious, and secretly took out his notebook to make another note for him. This kind of feeling of becoming reliable immediately when encountering a big thing, is he wise but foolish? Or is he just pretending to be crazy?

Chu Ming looked around and saw that Kawashima Hideo's body had been placed in a body bag. He asked, "Who moved his body?"

The policeman had already walked to the door and was about to close it, but when he heard this, he poked his head in and said, "It's me. Even a Buddha would feel pity for him lying like that."

Maori Kogoro held his forehead helplessly: "It's really a headache. The scene hasn't been verified yet."

Conan climbed onto the piano stool, ready to look at the sheet music left by the murderer at the crime scene, but was surprised to find it was gone: "Hey, where's the sheet music? Why is it gone?"

Maori Kogoro was shocked and ran over to ask, "What?"

The policeman chuckled and said, "It's not gone. Look, it's right here with me!"

Looking at the policeman who kept destroying the crime scene, Kogoro Mouri was speechless.

Xiaolan ran over and took the sheet of music. She took a look at it and said in surprise: "Hey, this is the sheet of music for Moonlight."

Xiaolan put the music sheet on the music stand and tried to play it. Chu Ming held his chin and listened attentively.

Suddenly the music stopped and made a noise. Maori Kogoro couldn't help but say, "Why are you so clumsy all of a sudden? Play it properly!"

Xiaolan explained: "No, it's this score. The fourth section of the score is weird!"

The three of them quickly came forward to take a look. Maori Kogoro speculated: "If I'm not mistaken, this score may contain the message of Mr. Kawashima's death. The criminal may come back to get it!"

Cheng Shi's voice suddenly came from outside the door: "I went to the hotel to ask, and heard that you guys are still here. I came to get you some midnight snacks."

Chu Ming's eyes lit up, and he quickly ran over to take the bag, thanking him repeatedly: "Dr. Asai, you are really a little angel, thank you so much!" He was very hungry.

Several people sat cross-legged on the ground, put a towel under the corpse and started eating, chatting while eating.

Since it was Dr. Asai who performed the autopsy on the body of the previous village chief two years ago, Kogoro Mori asked him about the details of the autopsy.

"The village chief did die of a sudden heart attack, but his face was very tense at the time, as if he had seen something scary... and a window was open at the time."

Then she stood up, walked to the window, pointed at it and said, "This is the window."

Chu Ming looked at the figure that flashed by outside the window and shouted, "Who is it?!"

He jumped up, opened the window and flew out. Conan and Mouri Kogoro also hurriedly followed him out.

Although it was dark outside, Chu Ming, who had just been strengthened today, was able to follow the black shadow in front of him closely.

The black shadow was familiar with the terrain and swung left and right to try to shake Chu Ming off.

Seeing an alley ahead, Chu Ming pushed against the wall with one foot to leverage his strength and flipped forward. He then kicked the black shadow hard on the waist with his other foot, knocking him to the ground, and finally landed handsomely.

Maori Kogoro and Conan, who were chasing after him, ran over and held down the black shadow: "Why is it you!"