Chapter 88 A fruitful journey

Mrs. Suzuki just came back. She took a few photos of the captain's room with her phone, quietly handed the phone to Conan, and said, "There are surveillance cameras in the captain's room. There are still the second mate and three crew members on duty. I can only take a few simple photos under the pretext of visiting."

Although there are two adults, Kazukage Yayoi and Oda Hiroshi, Mrs. Suzuki obviously trusts Conan more, who has had many dealings with the Suzuki family and has protected precious treasures from Kaito Kid many times.

Conan was stunned when he saw the phone being handed to him. After realizing that he was trusted, he happily thanked her: "Thank you, Aunt Suzuki."

Mrs. Suzuki gently touched Conan's head and quietly gave him a sign of encouragement, "Come on, Conan."

Conan took out his cell phone and took a photo of Mrs. Suzuki's phone. Then he returned the phone to Mrs. Suzuki and ran behind Morobushi Keimitsu to check the photos on the phone. Mrs. Suzuki was not modest. She really only had time to take a panoramic photo of the captain's room, a duty roster and a searchlight, a total of three photos.

The captain's room in the photo is very large, with six huge glass panels in front and a row of operating buttons and display screens under the glass. There are three seats in total, with three crew members sitting on them. They are all wearing beautiful white uniforms, hats and gloves, and sitting very straight. It seems that Mrs. Suzuki's visit under the pretext of a visit has put a lot of pressure on the crew members.

The duty roster is densely packed with planned and actual signatures. It can be seen that according to the original plan, First Officer Fukuyama was on duty from 9:00 last night to 5:00 the next day. But at 9:30, First Officer Fukuyama signed and left, at 10:12, Captain Mori signed and went to work, and at 4:25 the next day, Captain Mori signed off and was taken over by the second officer.

Noticing the photos in Conan's phone, Morobushi Keimitsu also squatted down, looked at the phone and said, "It seems that the worst possibility can be ruled out first. The murderer is not Captain Mori. He has a complete alibi. And Mrs. Suzuki also said that there are surveillance cameras in the captain's room and other crew members, so Captain Mori could not have killed Chef Kikuchi while on duty."

"Let's exclude Ms. Fumiyo and Captain Mori, who we know are related to the incident ten years ago. Maybe the motive is other reasons, such as conflicts between colleagues on the ship. After all, Chef Kikuchi has been working here for ten years, and there may be other conflicts. In the mouths of others, Chef Kikuchi doesn't sound like his emotional intelligence has improved much."

It is indeed possible. Conan fell into deep thought after hearing this.

[First of all, if there is a smell on the handkerchief, it is most likely something like hand cream as Kage Yayoi said. Chef Kikuchi is a chef and needs to touch food frequently with his hands. He definitely cannot use hand cream, so it is most likely left by the murderer.]

[Chef Kikuchi had no other enemies except for his conflict with Ms. Fumiyo among the guests. Moreover, he had lived on the ship for ten years and rarely got off the ship, which means that the murderer was most likely a colleague of Chef Kikuchi.]

[The people with the most conflicts of interest are the kitchen staff, but since everyone in the kitchen needs to cook food, it is impossible for them to use hand cream. ]

[Waiters often need to come into contact with water and detergents. To protect their hands, they may use hand cream, but they should not use hand cream with odors. If the odor is contaminated on the objects they touch, especially on the plates, bowls and chopsticks that may be eaten, there is a high probability that guests will complain. ]

[Apart from the chefs and waiters who Chef Kikuchi is likely to come into contact with, the only people who may be in contact with him are doctors. After all, everyone gets sick. However, doctors need to frequently use alcohol to disinfect their hands, so they should not use hand cream. Although some doctors will apply hand cream before putting on latex gloves, they should also clean their hands after taking off the gloves. ]

Wait, gloves. Why would Captain Mori be wearing a pair of gloves like this at the crime scene?

Conan suddenly looked up at the gloves on Captain Mori's hands. They were made of silk, exquisitely crafted, and made of fine materials. They looked very expensive. They should be at a banquet, holding a red wine glass, not here, holding a rope with corpse debris stuck on it.

Captain Mori rushed over from the captain's room at around 4 a.m. after being notified by Dr. Agasa. There was no reason for him to take the time to go back to the bedroom to get a pair of gloves. In other words, the gloves were originally on Captain Mori. But even if he attended the banquet first and was called to work, he wouldn't have to wear a pair of silk gloves while driving the ship, right? Isn't that a bit too upper-class?

Conan spoke in a delicate tone, "Um, Brother Hong, are crew members generally equipped with cotton gloves?"

Zhu Fu Jingguang took a look at the photo on his phone to confirm, "Hmm? Yes."

"Then why are Captain Mori's gloves made of silk?" Conan pointed at the gloves the captain was wearing. "Didn't he come here from the captain's room? There's no reason for him to change gloves, right?"

Hearing this, Zhu Fujingguang looked up at the captain, and then seemed to understand something, his face became extremely ugly, "Those are gloves used at banquets, they are expensive, and normal people would not use them at the crime scene. Unless... he can't take out the sailor gloves for work, and he can't take them off. But Captain Mori was called by the first mate to fix the lights, there is no reason for him not to wear gloves, if he really has mysophobia."

In other words, he had reasons for not being able to take out his gloves, such as blood staining them. As for why he couldn't take off his gloves, it was because his hands smelled of hand cream.

Conan pushed his glasses up, "Brother Hong, there should be a ball-peen hammer in the repair box. The diameter of that one is more than 5cm."

Zhu Fu Jingguang frowned and nodded, "You are right, he meets all the conditions. His motive may even be that he cannot accept Chef Kikuchi's departure, which should be a big trouble for the Victory Goddess. But Captain Mori has an alibi for Chef Kikuchi's death. Chef Kikuchi was killed by a single blow, and the time of death is estimated to be between 1 and 3 in the morning."

Kazukage Yayoi suddenly interrupted the conversation, holding his chin with his hand and squatting down with Morobushi Kagemitsu, "Huh? Who said that Chef Kikuchi died between 1 and 3 in the morning? That's not true."

Conan and Zhu Fu Jingguang were both stunned. Conan asked in confusion: "What? But isn't this the time of death that Doctor Nancun said?"

Did Dr. Nancun deliberately tell them the wrong time of death? Was Dr. Nancun the murderer or an accomplice?

Kazukage Yayoi tilted his head and looked at the two of them, complaining with a look of hopelessness: "Are you too trusting of the results given by the forensic doctor? But you have to know that Dr. Nancun's profession is not forensic medicine, and he is not as good as the professional doctors in the Metropolitan Police Department and the hospital. So the results he obtained are only based on his experience."

"Remember why he thought the second body died between 1 and 3 in the morning?"

"Because the first and second corpses ate the same food, and the second corpse's stomach contents took longer to digest than the first corpse, we can infer that the time of death was after the first corpse..."

Conan reacted and suddenly realized: "But all this is based on the premise that the two bodies are passengers. The passengers' meal time ends at 10 o'clock and digestion takes one to three hours, so the time of death of the first body is estimated to be between 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock in the morning of the next day."

"But in fact, the identity of the second corpse was the chef. He did not eat with the guests, but tasted all the food before the banquet began. Therefore, his time of death was much earlier than Dr. Nancun speculated. The guests began to take their seats at 6 o'clock, and the dinner officially started at 8 o'clock. Chef Kikuchi should have prepared most of the dishes before 6 o'clock, after all, he had to appear at the banquet after 8 o'clock."

"That is to say, four hours after 6:00 - 10:00, the time when Chef Kikuchi was originally scheduled to speak, he had already been killed, so he did not show up."

"First Officer Fukuyama left the captain's room at 9:30. It takes 15 minutes to get from the captain's room to the banquet hall. Captain Mori left the banquet hall at 9:45. The fastest time he could reach the captain's room was 10:00."

"That means he had at most 12 minutes to spare. If Captain Mori was really the murderer, then he most likely ran into Chef Kikuchi by chance on his way to fix the light, and a conflict ensued."

"Repairing the lights requires tools, and Captain Mori couldn't have brought these tools with him to the banquet. So he most likely met Chef Kikuchi when he returned to his room to get the tools. The captain's bedroom is on the 12th floor of the ship, just like the captain's room, so it was completely convenient."

"But if he met Chef Kikuchi outside the banquet hall, Captain Mori would not be able to deal with the body because there were people outside the banquet hall. So he most likely met Chef Kikuchi at the door of his own room. After all, it sounds reasonable to put the body directly in his room."

"Then a new question arises: who burned the body and why?"

Hearing Conan's question, Kazukage Yayoi chuckled, "Thank you, Conan, I understand."

Conan was so confused by the thanks, what? What did Kazukage Yayoi understand?

He Jing Yayoi smiled and waved his hands, "It's okay, burning the body is not important. Anyway, it is at most a crime of insulting a corpse, but Captain Mori is guilty of intentional homicide. What do you think? Do you want to expose him?" He Jing Yayoi reminded, "This is at sea. If you offend a captain and expose him, you may not end well."

Conan frowned and remained silent. What Jing Yayoi said made sense. They were at sea. It was too risky to expose the captain's crimes. It was like a detective walking into a village in the mountains and forests and saying he wanted to arrest the village chief. It was a bit suicidal.

"Perhaps we can propose to Uncle Suzuki to have him secretly notify the Coast Guard to come over. However, we are now heading towards South Korea, and it will take until the day after tomorrow to return to Japanese waters."

Kazukage Yayoi narrowed his eyes and thought for a while, "Maritime Guard? That's a good idea. I hope they can send a few hundred people the day after tomorrow."

Hmm? Conan looked at Kazukage Yayoi in disbelief. Hundreds of people? Was this an estimate based on the expectation that the entire ship would revolt?

Kazukage Yayoi patted Conan's head and said, "It's better to call so many people. Otherwise, I can't guarantee what the situation will be like."

There are 3175 people on the ship... Oh no, 3176 people. He can't guarantee how many of them will survive in the end.