Chapter 721 Screening Hole

————It is possible that Masaji Zhang Tian committed suicide, but it is somewhat unlikely.

Kizuki Hotaru's eyes swept over Inspector Megure and Officer Chiba, who looked as if they had suddenly realized something, and she immediately felt a little worried about the ability of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division's criminals. She shook her head slightly.

"If the deceased really committed suicide, then there is absolutely no need for him to commit suicide here."

"Everywhere in the cinema is messy. This is because today is the last day of the cinema's operation. Tomorrow, the cinema will be completely taken over by Zhang Tianzheng. Therefore, the staff have lost the idea of cleaning."

"Well, now we just need to look at the condition of the scaffolding to find out where the problem lies."

The young prosecutor took a pair of white gloves from the forensic police officer next to her.

She was not afraid of the atmosphere at the crime scene at all. She led a group of police officers towards the scaffolding next to the noose. She just touched the side of the scaffolding with her fingers, and everyone realized that something was wrong.

Dust appeared on the fingertips of the white gloves.

In other words, the scaffolding was not actually cleaned and was rarely used, otherwise there would be no dust on the scaffolding. However, the ladder openings of the scaffolding were very clean.

"The deceased must have died of suicide, not homicide."

"I don't think that if the deceased committed suicide, the body could wipe off the dust and shoe prints on the ladders of the scaffolding while hanging in the air. Therefore, the person who wiped off the shoe prints can only be the murderer without a doubt."

Gui Yueying held her left cheek with her hand, as if she was thinking.

"The murderer probably did this to ensure that the shoe prints left by him when he went up and down the scaffolding would not be discovered. However, this just proves that this case is definitely homicide, not suicide."

"But it's not too arbitrary to conclude that the murderer is Dean Muramatsu based on just one photo."

In her sight, everything around her began to change.

The photos taken by Iide Teruhito's digital camera were enough for Kizuki Hotaru to re-enact the scene. Although she was still standing inside the theater after the incident, the surroundings had become what they were before the incident.

The deceased, Zhang Tianzheng, was sitting directly below the projection hole, just as the witness Furuhashi Nin mentioned.

He lit a cigarette, looking quite comfortable, with his feet propped up on the seat in front of him, watching the movie being projected on the screen.

And Akio Muramatsu, who is now identified by Kogoro Mori as the murderer, is sitting in the front seat.

Toshiyuki Iide, who took these photos, stood in the back row. He picked up the camera, pointed it at the movie screen, and placed his finger on the shutter button, as if he could press the shutter button to take the photo at any time.

Gui Yueying turned sideways and walked towards the door.

The police officers who were originally blocking the way gave way one after another, and even Kogoro Mouri became interested and wanted to see what this young female prosecutor who had once confronted the hedgehog-headed lawyer in the court was going to do.

She moved slowly down the corridor.

And under Guiyueying's thinking, the corridor has already taken on the appearance before the incident————

Furuhashi Ninja was sitting in the projection room, while Yuriko Tomoka was in the lounge. Although neither of them could see what was going on inside the theater, they could see the situation at each other's location and could serve as each other's alibi.

Gui Yueying's gaze turned to the shop opposite the cinema.

The viewer who had just talked to Conan Edogawa was drinking something there at this moment, and was chatting with the store owner, and did not leave.

"…Because the case seems to be different from what Mr. Guqiao said."

She turned her head to look at Gu Qiao Nian and then spoke. It seemed as if everything inside the theater began to flow as her words followed.

First, the film inside the theater started playing at an accelerated speed, then Iide Toshiyuki adjusted his position from time to time and pressed the shutter, and then Muramatsu Akio stood up and walked towards the built-in air-conditioning control room at the back of the theater.

Finally, it was Zhang Tian Zhengji who was originally sitting at the back of the theater's viewing seats, but was hung up and strangled by a dark shadow.

Hearing Gui Yueying's voice, Gu Qiao Nian said with some surprise.

"What's different from what I said?"

He went over all the testimonies he had mentioned in his mind, but found nothing wrong.

But Gui Yueying took the camera, adjusted the photo inside, then turned the camera over, pointed it at Gu Qiao Nian, and spoke softly.

"Mr. Furuhashi said the deceased was sitting right under the projection hole and smoking."

"Then the rising smoke must have caused the image projected from the projection holes onto the screen to become partially blurred, but none of the photos Mr. Ide took showed such a situation."

"This seems to indicate that the deceased's position before death was not what Mr. Guqiao said."

Before Gu Qiao Nian could refute, Maori Kogoro spoke first in a strange way.

"So what? Isn't it normal to misremember where the deceased sat?"

"If it were me, I would probably just remember that the deceased sat near these seats in the last row. After all, the deceased had a conflict with the theater staff. Why would I deliberately remember his seat?"

"————You don't need to remember the location of the deceased, you only need to remember the location of the projection hole."

The young prosecutor said in a firm voice.

"Because the deceased often came to the theater to cause trouble, violated the theater's rules more than once, smoked, and intimidated other moviegoers. He would sit under the projection hole to smoke in order to use the smoke to affect the projection effect."

“So the deceased must be sitting directly below the projection hole.”

"But the condition of the photos shows that the position of the deceased is different from the normal situation... Moreover, if we switch to the first photo of the first movie, the movie being shown is obviously interfered by smoke."

Gui Yueying entered the cinema again, stood a little further away, and saw the whole picture of the projection hole clearly————

There are three projection holes on it, and the one currently in use is the one on the far right, which is also the one behind the deceased's body.

"The projection holes were switched manually. The first and second movies were not mapped to the same projection hole."

"From the photos, we can confirm that..."

In the sight of the young prosecutor, the image reflected on the screen changed rapidly.

Just like a slide show, all the contents on the screen in the photos were turning one after another, until the titles of two movies appeared on the screen at the same time in her sight, each occupying half of the screen.

“…the clarity changes between the first film and the second film.”

"This is because the focal length has changed. The positions of the middle projection hole and the right projection hole are different, and the clarity of the projection is also different. This is the problem..."

(End of this chapter)

previouscatalognext