"Brother Maori, you said that Akutagawa Ichimoto died suddenly because he took quinidine, but how did the criminal manage to change the medicine bottle?"
On the third floor of the Akutagawa family villa, after listening to Maori Kogoro's reasoning, Megure Jusan questioned:
"Unless the criminal is someone closest to Akutagawa, it would be impossible to replace the medicine bottle quietly!"
All of a sudden, everyone's attention was focused on the butler.
From beginning to end, the person who has been with Akutagawa Ichimoto is this elderly butler. He is responsible for Akutagawa Ichimoto's food and daily life and is the most suspicious.
"I have served the Akutagawa family for decades and watched the young master grow up. Why would I do such an unjust thing?"
Seeing that everyone doubted him, the butler immediately said:
"Let's not even mention that I have no motive to kill the young master. I spend every day with the young master and have countless opportunities to do it. I could have created an accident when the young master was traveling. Why would I have to go to so much trouble to plan a sudden death?"
"Let's take a step back. I knew that the famous detective Maori Kogoro was going to visit you today, but I chose today to do it. This doesn't make sense, does it?"
Reasonable and well-founded.
The detectives from the Investigation Division 1 looked at each other, unable to find any point to refute.
These days, not only are criminals getting smarter, but even suspects have learned to find excuses to clear themselves of suspicion...
"That's right! Butler Takeda would never harm my husband!"
Ogawa Reiko said with a firm tone:
"Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand!"
"Ms. Reiko, don't worry. No one said that Butler Takeda is the murderer..."
Megure Juzo quickly jumped out to act as peacemaker, downplaying the inevitable conflict between the detective and the suspect.
If there were no police to act as a buffer zone, who knows how many people would hate the detective profession.
After all, not every detective is as good as Makoto Sakaki, Conan, Yusaku Kudo and others.
There will always be times when errors of judgement are made.
"Mr. Maori, how can you be sure that the criminal replaced the medicine bottle?"
Standing in the back, Takagi Wataru saw the opportunity and interrupted:
"Your previous reasoning was based on the assumption that someone replaced the medicine bottle. But if no one replaced the medicine bottle, then your reasoning would naturally not hold true!"
Sudden death is not something that can be decided by an individual. It often comes very suddenly and is difficult to prevent.
Otherwise it would not be called sudden death.
"I've thought about this a long time ago."
Maori Kogoro said expressionlessly:
"The forensics class just checked the medicine bottle. There should be fingerprint residue on it."
"Well..."
Detective Tomi looked through the records:
"Only the bottles of blood pressure medicine and penicillin V potassium tablets had fingerprints of Akutagawa Ichimoto, Ogawa Reiko, and Takeda Butler. There were no fingerprints on the painkiller bottles that appeared later."
Maori Kogoro grinned:
"As expected, Inspector Megure, now you should understand why I am sure that the criminal replaced the medicine bottle."
"not understand."
Megure Jusan shook his head blankly.
"It was the prisoner who wiped off the fingerprints on the bottle!"
Conan shouted:
"At noon today, Akutagawa Ichimoto took painkillers and penicillin V potassium tablets, which means he must have touched the medicine bottles. Since there are fingerprints left on the bottles of antihypertensive drugs and penicillin V potassium tablets, it proves that Akutagawa Ichimoto is not so mysophobic that he has to wipe the bottles after taking the medicine!"
"If that's the case, why aren't there any fingerprints of Akutagawa on the painkiller bottle? Someone must have wiped them off when they replaced the bottle!"
"Ah! Yes!"
His eyes suddenly brightened, and Megure Jusan suddenly realized:
"In the process of changing the bottle, the criminal will inevitably leave fingerprints. In order to prevent his identity from being exposed, he must clean up the traces! That's why you concluded that the medicine bottle has been replaced!"
"Yes."
Maori Kogoro nodded, looking confident:
"And the person who was able to change the medicine bottle when Akutagawa was least prepared must be the person closest to him! Am I right, Ms. Reiko..."
Swish!
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Ogawa Reiko's expression changed slightly:
"Detective Maori, how could I be the criminal? Wasn't I in the office with you when my husband died?"
"Even if you say that my husband died suddenly because of taking medicine, and there is no need for the murderer to be present, my husband takes medicine at a fixed time. I am not at home at noon, and I have never left the office. How could I have changed the medicine bottle?"
"Yes, brother Maori, the staff of the office can prove that Ogawa Reiko arrived at the office at 10 am and never left. Akutagawa Ichimoto took the medicine at around 12 noon. How could she have committed the crime?"
Megure Jusan was confused and felt that this was impossible.
Reiko Ogawa definitely has an alibi, and it cannot be faked.
When he woke up in the morning, Akutagawa took antihypertensive medicine, but the bottle of the medicine had not been changed and it still contained those pills, which meant that there was no problem with the medicine.
The real problem was the painkiller that Akutagawa took at noon.
But when Akutagawa Ichimoto took the medicine at noon, Ogawa Reiko was no longer at home. Even if she changed the painkillers when she got the medicine in the morning, it was impossible for her to change the bottle back.
There must be something wrong somewhere.
"What if it wasn't Ms. Reiko herself who replaced the medicine bottle?"
Maori Kogoro said:
"This way, the prisoners can form a perfect coordination."
"Are you saying that someone is secretly colluding with Reiko Ogawa?"
Megure Juzo was shocked, and immediately remembered that Akutagawa Ichimoto had commissioned Mori Kogoro to investigate Ogawa Reiko's affair, and he immediately connected the two things together.
If Ogawa Reiko and her lover were colluding, the two would cooperate with each other, one would replace the painkillers with quinidine, and the other would replace quinidine back with painkillers....
Crimes can indeed be committed.
but....
"Butler Takeda, besides Brother Mori and his friends, are there any other people visiting the villa today?"
"...No."
"That means the criminal may have sneaked in?"
While pondering, Megure Jusan remembered that he had seen a surveillance camera in the villa yard:
"The police want to retrieve the villa's video footage from today. Please take us there."
"The security camera is broken."
Butler Takeda suddenly said:
“It is currently under repair.”
"What a coincidence?"
Megure Jusan frowned and had to change his plan:
"Takagi, go retrieve the street video footage from the Ministry of Transportation. Sato, take the forensic team to conduct a fingerprint and footprint inspection of the villa. If you find any different fingerprints, report it immediately!"
"yes!"
"Wait a moment!"
Seeing this scene, Butler Takeda couldn't sit still anymore and immediately stopped him:
"You can't do this!"
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