Chapter 4: Unknown Ritual
The group arrived at the entrance of the villa, and Mrs. Endo spoke first: "Around one o'clock that afternoon, classmate An Dong came to visit and said that Endo needed some materials, so he brought them over. At that time, he pushed a freezer and went directly to the ceremony room. The freezer at the back was not taken away by classmate An Dong, and was left in the ceremony room."
Yayoi Andong nodded in agreement. But he didn't know if what Mrs. Endo said was true. It was just that she had no reason to lie to him. It was too stupid.
A black-haired girl who looked like a high school student asked in confusion: "Freezer? What's in it?"
At the beginning, she was introduced as the daughter of Detective Maori Ran, so Yayoi Ando explained to Detective Maori, who had a family with her, "The ritual requires fresh animal organs and blood. I bought them this morning before coming here."
This is Endo's habit. Combined with the animal organs and sheep blood in the ritual room, it can be inferred that the things taken this time are similar. Although this time it was overnight, this abnormal situation should not be exposed to the detectives and the police.
A police officer named Gao Mu answered, "Yes, there are a lot of animal organs in the ritual room, most of which are from sheep, and a small amount are from chickens and pigs. All the blood samples that can be collected are also sheep blood. Because of the weather, they have been cleared by the identification department. We also checked An Dong's purchase records, and there is no problem. He purchased it at Makude Farm at 8 o'clock in the morning on April 3. The farm alone is two and a half hours away by car."
That is to say, even if Yayoi Andong arrived at the villa early, it would only be half past ten in the morning.
Thanatos didn't know what Andong Yayoi had planned at first, or whether he had any other means of dealing with the matter. But now, the body had disappeared completely.
He had already looked up the law and knew that in Japan, it was difficult to determine a murder case without a corpse, so as long as he didn't leave any obvious evidence, he would be fine.
Officer Takagi pointed to the surveillance camera at the end of the corridor and added, "We have also checked the surveillance camera. At 12:59 pm, An Dong left the corridor and turned between the ceremony room and the study room. At 1:00 pm, Professor Endo left the corridor. No one else came in or out until the three arrived at 5:28 pm, An Dong left at 5:29 pm, and the three left at 6:13 pm. By the way, this surveillance camera was purchased at Professor Endo's request, so it can only record images but not sound."
After all, everyone here knows the classic story of Sadako. It is normal for Professor Endo, a religious scholar, to avoid these things and not want any audio or video recordings.
Conan carefully wrote down the above time points, and everyone stood at the door of the ceremony room following the command of Officer Takagi.
At this time, the curtains of the ceremony room had been drawn open. The places where the blood was splashed had not been cleaned for several days and now exuded a foul stench. All the white candles were extinguished. Judging from the time, it should have been extinguished 3 hours after Andong Yayoi left, which should be the time when the police arrived after the first call. The weird paintings on the wall were still there, and there was a large black lump on the carpet under the feet, which was caused by blood coagulation that could not be cleaned.
In this strange atmosphere, a modern freezer about one cubic meter in size placed in the corner seemed out of place. Its plug had been unplugged and thrown aside, and it was no longer working.
Conan noticed that although the freezer was set to 5 degrees Celsius preservation mode, it could be refrigerated. This means that what Yayoi Antong brought might not be fresh blood and internal organs, but other frozen things. If it was ice, it could complete the delay of the mechanism or the corpse. Of course, this cannot explain why the corpse disappeared.
Officer Gao Mu said, "This room has been checked inside and out. There are no secret passages or rooms. We also found the original design drawings. This house is a finished product. There have been no changes or renovations."
Officer Takagi pointed to the only window in the room and said, "This room is designed to be used as a warehouse, so the window is relatively high, two meters from the ground and one meter from the ceiling. It's okay for one person to pass through, but it's difficult to carry someone out through the window without a ladder."
Conan glanced at the window and said, "Wow, a window this high, you can't usually clean it."
Hearing this, Detective Maori suddenly felt like Fukuzawa. He pointed at Officer Takagi and asked repeatedly: "Is there any dust on the window? Did you check? What did you find?"
Officer Takagi was startled by the questioning of Detective Mori, the former light of the police academy. He hurriedly flipped through the notebook in his hand before speaking: "Ah, this, we haven't checked it. Let's try to open it and see if it can be used."
Detective Maori turned to Mrs. Endo and asked, "Madam, is it convenient for me to borrow the ladder in your house?"
Yayoi Andong fell into a subtle silence as he watched this scene. He only walked through the door, not the window. Of course, he didn't know whether Yayoi Andong had walked through the window before. Conan secretly glanced at Yayoi Andong's expression, and seeing that he had no reaction, he knew that there was probably no gain. However, he couldn't give up the investigation just because of the suspect's expression. Maybe there were some details that the other party didn't notice.
Surprisingly, there were some traces of dust on the window that had been wiped off. But such slight traces could not have been caused by carrying an unconscious person through, but rather by passing through on his own. So rather than saying that he killed someone and dumped the body, it would be more accurate to say that Endo Shinzo left through this window himself.
Because if Endo leaves from the door, although there is no surveillance right after leaving the house, there is surveillance in the corridor. The corridor is only two steps away from the ceremony room, and opposite the ceremony room is the study room. Because Endo likes to listen to music, the study room has been treated with sound reduction. The windows are sealed and sound reduction materials are pasted. Therefore, Endo cannot leave from the corridor in front of the surveillance, so the only exit left is the window of the ceremony room.
The dust on the window proved that it had not passed through an unconscious person, so it could only be that Endo Shinzo left on his own initiative. If Endo Shinzo chose to leave the villa on his own and then encountered an accident outside the villa, then the so-called screams of Endo that they heard might just be a trick.
Soon Conan found new evidence to prove this illusion, a recorder placed on the desk in the study, and the content played in it was exactly the scream that Mrs. Endo and the others heard.
At this point, there are two inferences about this case. One is that this was a disappearance case directed and acted by Shinzo Endo himself. He modified the surveillance footage and pretended that he entered the room at one point. In fact, he did not enter the room at all, but had left the villa long ago. He just used a recorder to create the illusion that he was still in the villa.
2: Endo Shinzo planned to do something to create an alibi for himself, so he left through the window of the ceremony room. As a result, he met with some kind of accidental death or was murdered in the process.
But both of these inferences have doubts. First, the door of the study was closed, and the sound from the recorder in the study should not be heard by the people in the garden. Second, if Endo Shinzo was murdered, the surveillance was not modified. Then Ando Yayoi could only be his accomplice, and then killed Endo. But for what reason did Ando Yayoi stay in the ritual room? He could have left and killed Endo directly outside, letting the recorder play at the appointed time, so that no one would suspect him.
Conan has encountered many cases, but not many are as complicated as this one. Conan is already starting to have a headache.
At this time, Mrs. Endo contributed new information, "Actually, I sent people to look for my husband in the forest behind these two days. They said they found a car. That's why I asked you to come."
Officer Gao Mu was stunned for a moment after hearing this. His young and handsome face was full of speechless expression: "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"
Mrs. Endo looked embarrassed and hesitated, "Because this car may have nothing to do with this matter."
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