After saying goodbye to the maintenance man, Conan couldn't help but mutter to Jiang Xia: "I thought what the maintenance man saw would be the murderer, but judging from the time, it was 9:45, not long after the bride left the banquet hall - this
It was more than 30 minutes before the groom’s body was found!”
Jiang Xia nodded: "So the situation is already obvious, but to be on the safe side, let's go back first and see what clues Mr. Otaki and the others have collected."
…
The three of them returned to the banquet hall. Before they even entered, they heard a fierce quarrel coming from a distance.
I don’t know what my cousin said, but the groom’s sister said angrily: “We are all Xiaoyou’s relatives, how can we kill him!”
The cousin sneered: "Who doesn't know that you have always been worried about the stock split? - And your relationship with your brother is also very average. You must want to kill him and let your husband become the president of Hatakeyama Group!
"
"Nonsense! I don't lack the money." The groom's sister stared at her and said tit for tat:
"It's you, you always wanted to be his bride, but you didn't get it. Let me guess, did you get angry when you saw him get married, so you killed the bride. And Xiaoyou knew about it, and you wanted to erase it
For his own crimes, why don’t you just kill Xiaoyou as well? - If it weren’t for a relationship dispute, I really can’t think of anyone who would kill them both at the same time!”
"Humph, if you can say such things, I think you are crazy about wanting property!" The cousin slapped the table, "Xiaoyou died first, and you can't change this fact even if you repeat it ten thousand times.
——Those properties all belong to Ito, you poor guy can only squat down and pick up some soup!"
"you……!!"
"Okay, okay." Hattori Heiji walked in and couldn't stand listening anymore, "Calm down! If the noise continues, there will probably be another murder case in your house."
"!" The two women who were arguing and about to take action were startled at the same time, and then they remembered that the cruel murderer had not been caught yet.
They looked at each other warily, straightened their clothes, and sat back in silence.
At this time, the Otaki Police Department also came to the banquet hall. Behind him, in addition to a few subordinates, was a plain-looking man wearing a work hat and a slightly gloomy complexion.
The dry rice cat floating aside suddenly sneezed.
Jiang Xia glanced at it: Do you have a cold?
But soon, as a gust of wind brought the smell to the door, Jiang Xia's face changed slightly, and she understood the reason why the cat ghost was abnormal.
——He smelled a smell... of teething sticks.
If this place wasn't far away in Osaka, he would have suspected that some smart lost dog had a teething stick in its mouth and followed his scent all the way here.
The Otaki Police Department did not notice the detective's brief distraction.
Walking into the hall and seeing Jiang Xia also there, he smiled happily and said, "Thanks for the idea you just provided! - We checked the broken pieces of wood scattered on the path in the parking lot, and then found that its material was similar to that of the manor.
The wooden boxes used to store tools are exactly the same.
"Then I asked the housekeeper to take us to the warehouse to have a look, and sure enough we found a damaged wooden box inside.
"After asking the person in charge of the warehouse, he showed us the duty schedule - at the time of the groom's death, Mr. Yamaguchi happened to be passing there pushing a tool cart. In other words, the broken pieces of wood that fell near the crime scene,
It must have something to do with him!"
Jiang Xia looked at the strange-smelling guy in front of him: "...That's it. Then you have to ask him carefully."
As soon as he finished speaking, the gloomy man looked towards him, and the murderous aura around him became even stronger.
Jiang Xia turned to look at him, not knowing whether to be happy or worried for a moment.
But after taking a look at the curious Dry Cat, and then at Noah who was jumping around next to him, he remembered that this AI ghost was not picky about tastes and could even treat disinfectant as delicacies.
Everything became bright again.
Under his leisurely gaze, the Otaki Police Department flipped through their notebooks and began to question the newly brought back suspicious man.
Several family members nearby saw this and tentatively said: "Police Department, it's already very late. Since there is a suspect now, why not let us go back and rest first?"
Otaki Police Department came back to his senses and opened his mouth to say something. But before he agreed, a voice came first.
Jiang Xia: "Instead of going back in fear, it is better to find the real culprit now."
Several people were startled and looked at him suddenly: "Do you know who the murderer is?!"
Jiang Xia nodded and looked at the groom's sister: "What this lady said just now was right - among the two deceased, the first one to be killed was actually the bride."
"...Ah? Yes, is that so?" The groom's sister was in disbelief: She was just unwilling to have all her family's assets taken away by an outsider, so she kept forcing herself to believe this, but in fact, her reason agreed with her cousin
What I just said.
But now...Jiang Xia actually said that she was right?
"Bride?" Otaki Police Department was also stunned, "But I remember you said that the groom's body was found first, and then the gunshots were heard from the other side of the river!"
"That's right." Jiang Xia said calmly, "At that time, all of us heard the 'gunshot'."
The Otaki Police Department first wondered why this powerful detective said nonsense, but soon, listening to the accent in Jiang Xia's words, he gradually realized something.
This relatively sharp policeman had an idea: "Could it be..."
Jiang Xia agreed with his "could it be": "We only heard gunshots at that time, but no one saw the shooting scene - in fact, the gunshot was just a little trick used by the murderer to create an alibi.
“There was a body that had been shot dead in front of us, so when we heard the second gunshot, we all subconsciously thought that there was another shooting on the other side of the river.
"But in fact, another shooting case had already occurred before the groom died. Speaking of which-"
He suddenly asked the Otaki Police Department: "If you had to choose one word to describe the bride's death, what would you choose?"
Otaki Police Department scratched his bald head, and a few words flashed subconsciously in his mind: "Beautiful? Gorgeous?"
Jiang Xia nodded to this teachable police officer: "I have this impression because when she died in that simple wooden house, the bride was still wearing the gorgeous dress from the banquet.
"During the dinner, the bride looked very ugly and felt very uncomfortable - so uncomfortable that even though she was the protagonist of the wedding banquet, she had to leave the venue to rest.
"When such a person returns to her bedroom, she will immediately take off her tight clothes and have a good rest. But more than half an hour after she left the scene, the body we found was still wearing that dress.