Chapter 870: End of Okiya Subaru's Observation Diary - No Results
"Yuya-kun, this is the foaming hot spring tablet you asked me to buy (it's a solid hot spring bath additive, a bit like an effervescent tablet that releases a lot of gas when put into water)"
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, Officer Takagi. Please do as I say from now on."
"no problem!"
Inspector Megure rolled his eyes and said, "Brother Kamiya is ordering my subordinates around again."
Forget it, I'll just forget it since you helped me solve the case.
"First of all..."
Under Yuya's command, Takagi Shigeru took an empty film box, poured about one-third of water into it, then put a foaming hot spring tablet the size of sugar into it, covered it with a lid, and finally placed the lid upside down on the table.
"Then just wait quietly for about three minutes."
Although everyone was a little confused, they all knew that this was part of the reasoning, so they all watched quietly.
Three minutes later.
With a "bang", the cylindrical film box flew high, hit the ceiling with a bang and fell to the ground, leaving only the lid on the table.
"Oh! What is this?!" Inspector Megure exclaimed, just like a student in class who saw his chemistry teacher performing a magical experiment.
Yuya explained: "When the hot spring tablets come into contact with water, they release a large amount of carbonic acid gas. After the gas fills the film box, the film box flies high like a rocket."
Fukui Yuki suddenly sniffed her nose and said, "It smells like grapefruit."
Yuya nodded, "Yes, I specifically asked Officer Takagi to pick out the same yuzu-scented hot spring tablets that the murderer used."
Fukui Yuki suddenly realized: "So, that's the bang I heard two or three times before?"
Yuya: "The murderer experimented here a few times first, and wanted to try to insert the murder weapon into the film canister and then fire it, and see if it could successfully penetrate the ceiling."
"You said the murder weapon?" Inspector Megure was very surprised. "But the murder weapon is a sharp object like an ice pick?"
Takagi Wataru also agreed: "No matter how good your reasoning is, it's impossible for something so heavy to fly to the ceiling, right?"
"But," Youya smiled faintly, "I'm afraid the inspector doesn't know that the needle of the hard metal dart can be removed, and it only weighs a dozen grams, so it's not difficult to make it fly."
"Moreover, the murderer glued clay on the film box to fix the needle, and then used a rolled-up poster to fix the direction, so that the murder weapon could reach the ceiling accurately."
"Is this so?" Inspector Megure thought about it and found that it was indeed feasible.
"Who is the murderer?" he asked again.
Yuya raised his hand and slowly pointed at someone in the crowd: "The murderer is the one who bought the darts and gave them as a gift to the victim... Kogure Monpei!"
Everyone's eyes fell on that person.
Kogure Wenping's face suddenly changed and he remained silent with an ugly expression.
You ignored him and continued, "If it was you, you would have had the chance to apply poison on the needle of the dart beforehand; and the only person who could have used this mechanism to launch the rocket was you, who was sitting next to the poster at the time."
"If my reasoning is correct, he should have deliberately lost the game of billiards or darts after the deceased was drunk and fell asleep, then returned to his seat and killed the person with a dart coated with poison, then removed the poisoned needle and replaced it with another dart needle that he had prepared in advance."
"Then wait until the three of them return to their seats. Just find a suitable excuse to divert the attention of the other two and set up the trap. You specifically suggested ordering a bottle of champagne, estimate the time in your mind, and open the cork at the same time as the launch. You can use the sound of the cork to cover the sound of the rocket launch."
"Finally, all you need to do is let the champagne spray on the bottom of the poster, and then you can wipe off the remaining foaming hot spring tablets on the table."
"I think there should still be some grapefruit scent left in the places where the poster got wet."
Inspector Megure quickly picked up the poster and smelled it, then said, "Indeed."
He immediately raised a question: "But wasn't the poster brought by Miss Kishibama Mika? How did the murderer know for sure that she would bring the poster?"
Yuya said, "This is the autographed poster that the victim has repeatedly asked for. It is very likely that Miss Kishi Mika will bring it to the party held to celebrate her birthday.
Even if she didn't buy the poster, he could have brought it himself for other reasons, also as a gift to the deceased. I think we might find an identical autographed poster prepared in advance in his car."
"As for the darts, when he gave the deceased the target, he probably guessed that given the deceased's personality, he would definitely use the excuse of wanting to play with them to get him to buy darts."
"In addition, the deceased was following the trend and creating his own blog recently, so he must have taken a lot of photos at the party to upload later. However, the deceased did not like to use digital cameras, so he must have bought a lot of film.
In this way, all the materials needed to make the mechanism will be complete."
"And all of this was told to me by the murder weapon stuck in the ceiling."
Yuya said as he slowly raised his head, and everyone else followed suit.
With careful observation, everyone clearly saw a dart needle quietly inserted in the ceiling.
Inspector Megure immediately raised a question: "There is only a needle on the ceiling. If it flew up, it means that the film box with clay stuck on it fell down. Didn't anyone see it?"
Yuya smiled faintly: "Of course, because at that time everyone's attention was attracted by the champagne and the chaotic scene. Even if they saw the fallen film box, they would just think it was dropped when wiping the table."
"By the way," Yuya took out the piece of clay he had just found on the sole of his shoe, "this is the clay that fell off the film box. I probably stepped on it accidentally when I rushed over to check on the deceased."
Of course, even if You didn't find the clay, when the police conducted a comprehensive search of the store, they should have discovered the dart needle stuck in the ceiling, right?
Should...right?
Faced with Yuya's impeccable reasoning and ironclad evidence, Kogure Monpei admitted his crime without any explanation.
The motive for the murder was to avenge a colleague who committed suicide due to oppression by the minister.
···
The case was solved successfully. Because it was late at night, everyone and Inspector Megure suggested taking the statement another day.
Anyway, this wasn't the first time this happened, so Inspector Megure agreed readily.
When they were about to part, Subaru Okiya suddenly assumed the posture of a teacher.
"I don't know why you guys are here at this club, but I don't recommend you come to a place like this."
Several people stared at Okiya Subaru in a daze. They couldn't tell him the reason why they followed him. They could only avoid his gaze with a guilty look.
Subaru Okiya seemed not to notice and said seriously: "You are still students. This kind of place is not suitable for you. There are too many people and it will be troublesome if you run into bad people. Especially you, Conan, you are still a child."
"I know. I'm sorry, Mr. Subaru!" Conan bent down and apologized loudly.
Yuya and the others also apologized.
Okiya Subaru nodded in satisfaction: "It's getting late, everyone should go home quickly."
Since it was not on her way, Masumi Sera went in another direction, while Sonoko Suzuki had already asked the family driver to pick her up in advance.
So, only Okiya Subaru, Yuya, Miyano Shiho, Conan and Mao Li Ran were left on the way.
Yuya and Conan fell a few steps behind, and the two huddled together and whispered, "This guy is addicted to playing the teacher, right?"
"So, is it true that the female boss has nothing to do with her?"
"I'm sure there isn't one. I asked around as a child, and it's just a relationship between the boss and a regular customer."
"Well, she told me the same thing, so it's probably just an acquaintance. So whose are the rubber bands and the cup with lipstick on it in your house?"
"I don't know. Is it possible that it really belongs to my mother?"
"Has your mother been home recently?"
"It seems not."
Just as Yuya and Conan were whispering to each other, Okiya Subaru suddenly turned around and shouted, "You two, what are you still hesitating about?"
"Here they come, here they come!" Yuya and Conan hurriedly chased after them.
Subaru Okiya turned around and continued walking forward. From an angle that no one else could see, the corners of his mouth slowly curled up into a smug arc.