Chapter 29 Tragedy Reflected in Water
Air City Barber Shop is not very big. I pushed open the glass door with the sound of crisp wind chimes. On the left are three chairs, on which are placed a plastic apron, a pair of silicone gloves and plastic sleeves used by barbers. There are some cardboard boxes piled up next to the chairs. On the right is a reception desk, on which there are also cardboard boxes. Behind the reception desk is a display stand filled with sundries, including plants, picture albums, photo frames, medals and the like.
Next to the display stand is a long sofa that seats two people. In front of the sofa is a coffee table with some fashion magazines and a few half-empty plastic cups. Around the sofa, behind is the hair washing room, which has two hair washing beds and a cabinet in the corner filled with bottles and jars.
Mr. Morita threw away the plastic cups and poured them some tea. "Sorry, the store is being renovated recently, so it's a bit messy."
Inspector Megure pointed to the surveillance camera at the front desk and asked, "Can this be retrieved?"
Mr. Morita smiled awkwardly and shook his head, "No, the movers accidentally cut the wires a few days ago, and the new surveillance camera won't arrive until next week."
"Really? The surveillance breaks down when we need it." Inspector Megure complained.
"When I met Uncle Morita in the afternoon, you were moving boxes. Uncle, what were you moving at that time?" Conan asked curiously.
"It's nothing important, just some paper decorations. If you're interested, I can take you to see it." Seeing the police officer nod, Mr. Morita took them outside and opened the trunk of the van.
There were four 50cm*50cm cartons in two layers at the back of the car, which were tightly sealed with yellow tape. Mr. Morita took down the two cartons on the top and put them on the ground. He cut the tape with a utility knife and opened the box. Inside were some colorful paper ornaments and lanterns. A large number of unfolded ornaments filled the entire box.
Mr. Morita used a knife to open the two boxes in the car, which were also filled with colorful paper ornaments and lanterns. Mr. Morita explained, "I bought some decorations. Isn't it Children's Day recently (May 5 is Children's Day for boys), I want to take them to the kindergarten as holiday decorations for them."
"Is it your son? It seems that you love your son very much~" Officer Nagasawa said with a smile, "So many decorations must cost a lot of money, right?"
Mr. Morita smiled awkwardly, "Ah... yes, yes." Jinqiao Shimi looked at Mr. Morita in confusion, but as she was not very outgoing, she did not express her doubts out loud.
Seeing that the group returned to the barber shop without noticing anything unusual, Conan quietly returned to the car and put the two cartons aside. The cartons were filled with paper and were very light, so even a child like him could carry them. He opened the two cartons that Mr. Morita had put in the car and had not taken down, and carefully checked them. He found that they were also filled with paper lanterns, paper streamers and other decorations, and there was nothing unusual.
"Shouldn't it be?" If Mr. Morita was the murderer, and Wuzhang River was at least a 20-minute drive from the barber shop, it was impossible for Mr. Morita to leave the sight of the three customers for so long. Therefore, he could only have killed Miss Tomoka in the shop and then dumped the body into Wuzhang River. Then, these four cartons were highly suspicious. But he couldn't see any problem no matter how he looked at it, and Conan was puzzled.
But his legs were numb from squatting, so he had to stand up first. As a result, the blood circulation in his legs was blocked for a long time, causing his legs to become weak, and he fell headfirst into the cardboard box.
"Hiss, it's over." Conan tried to get up, but was tangled up in paper, so he quickly and carefully pulled it open. If there was any evidence in here that was destroyed by him, it would be over.
"Really? Why is it already opened? There's no packaging. You didn't buy it second-hand!" Conan was a little angry and was fighting with the paper. As a result, he kicked his legs and found that something seemed wrong. The middle of the two boxes seemed to have cardboard only on the top, and the bottom was empty. It was blocked by the full box of paper and could not be seen. Now he fell in and found it.
In other words, what looked like two small boxes of 50cm*50cm were actually a large box of 100cm*50cm. This size was enough to fit the body of Miss Tomouri, who was not very tall. However, how could they put Miss Tomouri's body in and out quickly and easily without being discovered by Miss Qianhe and Miss Jinqiao?
Conan carefully checked along the tape and found that the tape on the top of the box had two layers of marks cut by a knife. In other words, the tape was actually cut early on, and it was just a layer of tape to pretend to be wrapped in several layers.
These are just two boxes disguised as a trick. In fact, it is a big cover. As long as you put it over Miss Tomoka's body, the body will be hidden.
After understanding this, Conan understood all the tricks. However... he returned to the barber shop in deep thought. Uncle Maori went to the hospital, and he did not dare to anesthetize the policeman. The only option left was to deal with Jing Yasheng. So instead of pretending to be obedient and solving the case in front of the other party, it would be better to knock the other party out with an injection. In this way, Jing Yasheng would not remember anything, so naturally he would not be suspected.
Having made up his mind, Conan shot an anesthetic needle, which immediately put the extremely sleepy Kazukage Yayoi into a deep sleep.
Kazukage Yayoi was already in a wheelchair, so he didn't even have to worry about where he would fall after he passed out. Seeing that he had fallen asleep, Conan said in Kazukage Yayoi's voice: "Everyone, Conan just told me something. Can you listen to my analysis?"
"Oh? Did Kazuki find anything?" Inspector Megure was a little surprised. How come all these high school students are so talented in solving cases? Are the classes for high school students nowadays about criminal investigation, reasoning, and forensics? Otherwise, how can any high school student be able to speak so clearly?
"It's not that I discovered it yet, but since we are all in the barber shop, why don't we go through it from the beginning in the order of time? That will make it clearer, right? First of all, Miss Jinqiao, you met the owner, Miss Youli, at 3 pm, right?"
Jinqiao Zhimei was startled by the sudden looks from everyone, but she nodded hesitantly.
"What did you check to confirm the time?"
Jinqiao Zhimei thought for a moment and replied: "I was looking at my phone at the time."
"Then at 3:50, Miss Jinqiao, you and Mr. Morita entered the hair salon. How did you check the time?"
Jinqiao Zhimei smiled when she heard this, "It's the clock in the hair salon. When you lie down, you're facing it. It's hard not to see it."
"So you think you fell asleep at 4 o'clock, and you also looked at the clock in the hair salon?"
Jinqiao Zhimei nodded, "Of course."
"What if the time in the hair salon was fake? Miss Jinqiao, you thought you fell asleep at 4 o'clock, but you actually fell asleep at 3:40. Wouldn't Mr. Morita have time to commit the crime? For example, he could have drowned Miss Tomoka on the hair salon bed next to you."
Everyone's faces changed when they heard this, and Miss Jinqiao was even more frightened by her own imagination. Miss Qianhe interrupted at this time, "No, I clearly heard Mr. Morita talking to Tomomi when I entered the door."
"Ms. Qianhe, did you really hear Miss Jinqiao talking? Even if you did, a recorder could have done that. In fact, you never saw Miss Jinqiao awake. She was sleeping when you went in, wasn't that right? As for Miss Jinqiao, you didn't actually see Miss Qianhe before you went to bed, right? The reason you had the impression that Miss Qianhe came in after you fell asleep was because Miss Qianhe told you that later, right?"
Miss Jinqiao and Miss Qianhe thought about it and were speechless. Miss Jinqiao was confused at the time and didn't even remember whether she had spoken to Mr. Morita. Miss Qianhe just heard Mr. Morita say "Miss Jinqiao, Miss Qianhe is here, please wait a moment" but didn't actually see Miss Jinqiao at all.
It was Mr. Morita who later said something like, "How come Miss Jinqiao fell asleep so quickly? She was still awake when you came in." This made her subconsciously believe that Miss Jinqiao was still awake when she came in.
"Mr. Morita put sleeping pills in Ms. Kanebashi's drink and adjusted the clock in the hair salon. He made Ms. Kanebashi think that she arrived at the hair salon at 3:50 and fell asleep at 4. In fact, she entered the hair salon at 3:30 and fell asleep at 3:40. Then, during this time, Mr. Morita drowned Ms. Tomoka next to the sleeping Ms. Kanebashi, and covered her with a cardboard box and left her in the shop."
"Then when the real 4 o'clock came, Mr. Morita pretended to talk to Miss Kanebashi and left the hair salon to meet Miss Chihe. Under the pretext of looking for Miss Tomori, he moved Miss Tomori's body into the van and covered it with a cardboard box."
"When we found out we couldn't find the person, we asked Miss Qianhe to go in and wash her hair, then we called Miss Jinqiao together, and the three of us left the hair salon. At the end, we carried the remaining two cartons to the car, and while they were setting up food for the moon-watching party, we dumped the body into the river."
"As for the cardboard box, Conan has already discovered the problem inside."
"Yes! Uncle policeman, please follow me!" Conan shouted happily, and suddenly jumped out from somewhere. He ran to the car, opened the trunk, took out the box, and opened the two boxes underneath to show the police.
"Because our school has also been decorating for the holidays recently, I have seen teachers unpacking these boxes. Everything inside was neatly folded and packed in transparent bags. So I was wondering why these boxes were scattered, and some were even finished products. Wouldn't this take up a lot of space? Then I accidentally found this~"
Conan showed the clues he found to the police.
"I see, that does make sense. Using this method, it's easy to cover up the body from other people's sight. After all, no one would have thought that someone would be so bold as to put the body directly in the car. Mr. Morita, do you have anything to defend yourself?" Inspector Megure said seriously, his eyes signaling to Officer Nagasawa to prepare to arrest Mr. Morita.
"An excuse?" Mr. Morita frowned, his expression full of confusion. "I was just worried that the kindergarten teacher didn't have time, so I made these things in advance. As for the boxes, I just picked up a few from the recycling center. I saw that it was broken, so I wrapped it up with tape. This... can also catch me?"
"Ah... this..." Inspector Megure was dumbfounded. This, it sounds, makes sense. Inspector Megure glanced at Kazukage Yayoi for help.
Conan certainly had evidence. He continued in the voice of Yayoi Kage: "Mr. Morita, I have pointed you out because I have other evidence. The evidence is that in order to make Miss Tomoka appear to have drowned in the Gojo River, the water that drowned her must have been the water of the Gojo River. I believe that the autopsy report also shows this."
Seeing Inspector Megure nod, Conan continued: "The water in the sink was flushed away when you washed your hair, but when you hid Miss Tomoka's body, you couldn't deal with the water on Miss Tomoka's body. I just checked with Conan, there are still water stains inside the carton and on the trailer, which should be the water from the Gojo River. Mr. Morita, can you explain why there is water from the Gojo River on the carton and the trailer?"
"As for the more decisive evidence, Miss Youli's nails turned outward, which means that she had scratched something. If the police investigate, I believe they will find scratches on the shampoo bed that are consistent with Miss Youli's nails. How do you explain these?"
Inspector Megure nodded, "Go and ask the forensic department to investigate."
Mr. Morita smiled calmly, "You can check it out as you like. But as for the water, I remind you, who knows when it got contaminated. Don't forget, I jumped into the Wuzhang River."
In other words, it is reasonable that there is water from the Wuzhang River on the box and the trailer. Conan sighed. This man is really difficult to deal with. And even if there are scratches on the shampoo bed, it does not mean that Mr. Morita must have done it. It only proves that the crime scene was in the shampoo room.
Conan held his forehead with his hand in pain, thinking again and again, there must be something he had overlooked, what was it?
"Ms. Youli wasn't grabbing the bed. She was grabbing you."
What? !
Conan looked up suddenly, only to see Kazukage Yayoi, who should have been asleep, rubbing her eyes slowly and speaking incoherently: "Ms. Tomoki grabbed your arm at the time, so there are no scratches on the bed."
What?! How did Kazukage Yayoi wake up? When did she wake up?!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
