Chapter 27 Destroying the Corpse and Covering Up the Evidence

That afternoon, Shinichi took Yuuki back to the forensic medical school.

As soon as we entered, Takagi rushed over and asked, "Kudo-kun, where did you guys go? We only saw a body when we got to the scene, and the line was always busy when we tried to call you..."

Shinichi, of course, didn't want to say that he had been drugged by the suspect, so he replied, "I encountered someone who looked like the criminal, but I didn't catch him."

"What?! You went to arrest criminals on your own?" Takagi exclaimed in shock. "Didn't we agree beforehand that you should let us know if you wanted to investigate anything? How come you went to the Shintani family without saying a word?"

Shinichi dodged the question and said, "It's a long story. What were the autopsy results?"

"Oh, Dr. Oda said the time of death was only one hour ago, so we should be able to get a more accurate result. However, the toxin analyzer is running very slowly, so we'll have to wait another three hours to get the report."

"Three hours?" Shinichi sighed silently. "Alright! Then we can only wait. Hopefully, this time it will be good news."

At this moment, Dr. Oda came out and asked with a smile, "Kudo-kun, Sakai-kun, you're here again? Have you eaten yet?"

The two boys greeted Oda politely, only then realizing that it was already past 3 p.m. and they hadn't had lunch yet.

“Then come eat with us!” Oda invited. “Ishiura and I are going to have lunch too.”

"Eating now?" Shinichi was a little surprised, then realized that the forensic doctors must have been busy with autopsies during the time he was kidnapped.

"As expected, this kind of work often means missing mealtimes."

Shinichi sighed silently.

There were still some edible items in the cafeteria, and with the bento boxes that Oda and Ishiura brought, there was enough food for the four of them.

During the meal, everyone inevitably started talking about food again, and unsurprisingly, "Inuya Neko" firmly occupied the center of the conversation.

"Why is this cat so popular?"

Shinichi took a bite of the fish balls that Dr. Oda had made according to Uncle Nyan's recipe and silently complained.

For some reason, Shinichi felt that he and Uncle Meow were incompatible, as it seemed that nothing good ever came up when Uncle Meow was mentioned.

Oda, Ishiura, and Yuuki were still chatting happily.

Shinichi, unable to contain his excitement, rushed to the testing department to wait for the results.

"Huh? Kudo-kun finished eating? Why are you sitting here? Aren't the results still more than two hours away?" Takagi asked in confusion as he passed by.

Shinichi seized the opportunity to probe for information from the police, asking, "Officer Takagi, do you have any leads on the father of the child in Ms. Horii's womb?"

Takagi honestly revealed everything: "We collected DNA from Ms. Horii's neighbors, landlord, and rental agent, but it was confirmed that none of them were related by blood. Senior Date guessed that it might be Shintani's, but the test results are not yet available."

"A middleman?" Shinichi keenly sensed a new suspect.

“Ms. Horii rented the apartment through an agency. When we first started investigating, he was very uncooperative, but he eventually confessed that he had rented the apartment to Ms. Horii at a high price and cheated her out of a lot of money. We found him quite suspicious, so we investigated him. However, based on the estimated time of death, the agency had a perfect alibi: many people in the park saw him exercising in the morning.”

Shinichi nodded silently, his mind starting to work again.

Takagi asked expectantly, "Kudo-kun, can you tell me what you've thought of?"

However, Shinichi replied with an innocent smile, "Officer Takagi, I really don't know anything!"

Left with no other choice, Takagi could only leave dejectedly.

Shinichi felt a little guilty upon seeing this, but he still insisted on working alone.

"I was scammed by a dishonest agency and now I'm unemployed."

"And to make matters worse, she got pregnant at this time, and now she can't find the father of the child no matter what she does."

Could this be a coincidence?

Shinichi had a vague idea of ​​a possibility, but currently lacked evidence.

More importantly, he still hasn't figured out the connection between Horii and Shintani's mysterious deaths, one after the other.

Shinichi fell into deep thought.

He began to recall everything related to those three years, every single detail.

"Did I make a mistake?"

"Or have we missed some crucial evidence?"

Just as Shinichi was deep in thought, a certain radar was suddenly triggered:

Accompanied by an unusually familiar scent, a doctor pushing a trolley walked past him.

This feeling is familiar.

Shinichi didn't know why he felt that the doctor resembled the blond man, even though they didn't look alike at all.

Is it because the scene is being recreated, a similar view of the setting sun at dusk?

Or is it because of the proximity and the similar sense of danger and mystery?

Or a more direct reason—

"Doctor, has the test results come out yet?" Shinichi jumped up and asked.

Two years ago, Shinichi narrowly escaped the criminal; this time, he won't make the same mistake again.

The doctor, pushing a trolley and wearing a white coat, turned around and asked with a blank look, "Little brother, are you calling me?"

This question is completely rhetorical: because at this moment, there were only the two of them in the corridor outside the testing room.

“Yes!” Shinichi stepped forward and asked, “It should take another half hour to get the results, right? What did the doctor take out of it this time?”

"Well, these are just some things that need to be distributed to various departments. I didn't take anything from them."

However, Shinichi persisted and began to search through the documents, attempting to find evidence.

"Little brother, don't move around!" the doctor hurriedly tried to stop him.

But Shinichi wouldn't listen. He firmly believed that his intuition was right.

Just as Shinichi and the doctor were struggling, Yuuki appeared.

"Kudo-senpai, so you've been here all along!"

Yuki ran over quickly.

Shinichi stopped what he was doing and asked, "Yuuki, what brings you here?"

"Brother Xiaofeng said the test results are out, but he can't see anything on his computer. There might be some system malfunction, so he asked me to come and get a paper report."

Yuuki's tone was quite relaxed, but Shinichi broke out in a cold sweat.

"Wasn't there supposed to be half an hour? How did it go by so fast?!"

"Brother Xiaofeng also found it strange, so he casually checked the progress and found that it was already over..."

Shinichi turned to look at the doctor pushing the trolley, only to find that the doctor had already quietly run far away.

Shinichi yelled angrily, "Stop! Don't run away!"

Seeing this, Yuuki hurriedly followed and asked, "Kudo-senpai, who is that person?"

"He stole the test results! Catch the thief!"

Shinichi's shout caused a commotion and alarmed everyone.

Compared to hospitals, forensic medicine colleges are very quiet places.

Because apart from doctors, there are generally no people who can speak, and forensic doctors are mostly taciturn when they are working.

Everyone rushed out to ask what was going on: "What thief? Where is he?"

Although the person was pushing a handcart, they were moving extremely fast.

He rushed to the elevator entrance in no time, but Xin quickly grabbed an aluminum can from the nearby trash can and kicked it at the man.

Although the elevator doors did not hit the target, they closed as the man dodged.

The fake doctor stared wide-eyed in disbelief and quickly turned the car around to take the stairs.

But how could Shinichi possibly let him go?

"Don't even think about running! Hand over the stuff!"

Shinichi rushed forward without hesitation, and he felt himself bump into the handcart.

It hurts!

The fake doctor seemed a bit anxious, charging around trying to shake off the troublesome kid, but Shinichi just wouldn't let go.

Yuuki saw this and shouted to help, but compared to Shinichi, he did lack athletic talent.

He intended to tackle the man, but the man nimbly dodged him.

That's not all. The key point is that Yuuki lost her balance, slipped, and rolled down the stairs!

Blood seeped out…

"Ouch, that hurts..."

The incident happened so suddenly that both Shinichi and the doctor were stunned by what they saw.

"Sakai!" Shinichi couldn't care less about the criminal at this moment. As soon as he loosened his grip, the man disappeared in a flash.

Between saving lives and arresting people, Shinichi chose the former.

Upon hearing the commotion, doctors and police officers rushed to the scene and immediately lifted Yuuki onto a stretcher.

Shinichi quickly said to Takagi, "That guy is driving a white RX-7 sports car, he can't have gone far! You must catch him!"

However, Ishiura's words shattered Shinichi's hopes: "Kudo-kun, I just checked the equipment. The toxin detection program didn't terminate properly, which means someone tampered with the equipment, and the test results haven't come out yet. Even if we catch the thief, it will be useless if he has already contaminated the body sample."

Shinichi stomped his feet in anger: "We absolutely must catch him! We can't let the criminal get away!"

Takagi was intimidated by Shinichi's imposing manner. He didn't dare ask why the criminal would definitely drive a white RX-7 and hurriedly went to the security office at the main gate to check.

Shinichi felt a little guilty when he went to the ward where Yuuki was temporarily treated.

As soon as Shinichi entered, he saw Dr. Oda examining Yuuki's injuries.

"There shouldn't be any fractures, just a superficial injury. It'll be fine soon!" Oda reassured her. "But just to be on the safe side, you should still go to the hospital for an X-ray! Let me apply some ointment for you first."

"Thank you, Dr. Oda," Yuuki said obediently.

These words gave Shinichi a moment of relief.

Oda took off Yuuki's pantyhose, and at that moment Shinichi noticed something on Yuuki's feet.

"Is this a birthmark?" Shinichi asked casually.

"Yes, my mom also said that babies with birthmarks won't get lost."

"Aren't you afraid... of getting lost?"

Oda gave a wry smile and asked softly, "How old is Yuuki this year?"

"I'm 16 years old! I'm a first-year high school student this year."

"Really? I didn't know a 16-year-old boy could grow this tall..."

Oda muttered to himself, as if he were sighing.

Shinichi was confused.

His instincts told him that something was wrong, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He just felt inexplicably superfluous in his presence.

Looking back, Officer Date, who had appeared behind him at some point, had a somewhat complicated expression.

Shinichi and Date exchanged a glance and went out together in perfect unison.

"Kudo, we couldn't find the kind of car you were talking about," Date suddenly said as they walked out the door.

"No? How is that possible?" Shinichi was taken aback.

However, Takagi, standing nearby, also stated with certainty that the forensic hospital has only one main entrance, usually with very little traffic, and that non-employees need to register to enter or exit.

The security guard at the gate claimed that he did not see any white sports car at all, and that no vehicles had entered or exited for nearly half an hour, nor did he see any suspicious persons.

"Could it be that the guy wasn't driving?" Shinichi pondered.

But the man kept pushing the cart until the very end, which means there must be something very important inside. It must be a body sample for testing. That thing was quite large. How could he have taken such a big thing away without a car?

Suddenly, Shinichi had an even bolder idea: "Could it be that that person hasn't left yet, but is hiding? Planning to sneak out after everyone has left work at night?"

This conjecture seemed highly probable, but Shinichi searched the forensic hospital from top to bottom and still couldn't find any trace of that person.

"If that person could disguise themselves like my mom, could they have already impersonated someone else?"

Shinichi carefully examined each face, but did not notice anything suspicious.

"Strange! Could it be that the person sprouted wings and flew away?"

Just as the new century was puzzled, bad news followed one after another.

"Dr. Shipu, the crematorium just called us and said that one of the three bodies delivered today was in an empty coffin," a staff member on duty said hurriedly as he ran over.

"Empty? The body is missing?" Shi Pu exclaimed in shock.

Shinichi immediately felt uneasy and hurriedly asked, "What about the other two?"

"Huh? The other two are still here; they've already been cremated."

Shinichi angrily shouted, "I'm asking whose the other two bodies are!!"

This time, Date and Takagi also realized what was happening: "Dr. Ishiura, quickly go and check if Ms. Horii and Mr. Shintani's bodies are still there?"

When everyone arrived at the morgue, they found that the three bodies that were supposed to be cremated that afternoon were still neatly displayed.

However, the bodies of Horii and Shintani had both disappeared.

The truth is now quite clear:

The thief first switched the body with another person, then hid in the last coffin and left without anyone noticing.

Without the body, there is no possibility of further autopsy and testing.

Now, the criminal has completely wiped out all the evidence.

"asshole!"