The vomiting eater came back with a pale face. Although the refrigerator door was closed, his face would become paler than before whenever he saw the refrigerator. However, the strong feeling of disgust still prompted him to look at the refrigerator again and again. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore, so he sat back in his original seat.
Hinata Hajime took a look and saw the man who was hated pressing his temple irritably. He was located just to the left in front of the chef's workbench.
Shifting his gaze back, Hinata Sou took another look at the corpse. Although he was lying on the ground, he could still see his hideous face. Blood was flowing from his mouth and nose. He should have died of poisoning. Of course, this was just a guess.
As for the arm in the refrigerator, judging by the thickness of the arm and the curvature of the knuckles, it should be a woman's arm. Since it was placed in the refrigerator, the time of death is not certain, but judging by the degree of frost, it has been in there for at least a whole day.
Two bodies, two murders.
Hinata Hajime turned around and left. He returned to the seat where he had just eaten. The other diners also returned in silence, waiting for the police to arrive. It seemed that everyone had a bad expression on their face.
"Let's not talk about the stuff in the refrigerator. The owner must have been poisoned." One of them said, "Hey, doctor, you should know more than us."
The doctor who checked the patient's pulse earlier had a grim expression on his face. "Based on the condition of death, it's possible."
What he said was not absolute, but it was enough to leave room for others' imagination.
The store owner was poisoned to death. This is a place for eating. No matter who poisoned the food, if the poison got into their food by mistake, they would be in great danger. They would have swallowed the poison and suffered the same fate as the store owner.
"Why don't we leave first? If we think about it this way, we are also victims!" one of them suggested.
"Are you stupid?" The people next to him looked at him with disdain. "Let's not talk about the fact that this place requires reservations. Everyone's identity information is there. In this airtight little restaurant, there are only a few of us. Even if we are not suspected, we still need to make a statement. You sneaked away, aren't you guilty?"
"I didn’t!"
"Alright, forget it." The pale-faced man in the middle closed his eyes and pressed his temples. "Wait for the police to come."
At this time, the people next to him looked at his hand pressing on his temple and asked, "Hey? Where are your gloves?"
"I vomited all over my hand. I was so disgusted that I threw it away." The person being questioned shook his head. "When will the police come? I want to go to the hospital for a check-up. I think there is something dirty in my stomach."
As if it was agreed upon, the door was opened as soon as the man finished speaking, and the police came in in an orderly manner. The person walking in front, Hinata Hajime, looked quite familiar. He was the officer Megure whom he had met before. Following behind him was Takagi Wataru, who had taken Hinata's statement before.
Inspector Megure looked at the body inside. He first confirmed with everyone present that no one had touched the body. After confirming this, he asked the technical department to go in and check and look for clues, while Inspector Megure stayed to interrogate the people at the scene.
"Huh?" When seeing Hinata Hajime, Inspector Megure looked at him in surprise, "Is that the...big Conan?"
Hinata Hajime twitched his lips, "Well, my name is Hinata Hajime."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Hinata!" Inspector Megure smiled apologetically, "Sorry, I just remember that your voice is very similar to that little kid Conan."
"Do you know each other?" The people around him looked at Hinata Hajime strangely, as if wondering who would know the police.
Inspector Megure shook his head and denied, "It was just a case. This person is a witness in that case. It happened a long time ago."
He expressed that he did not want to explore personal relationships, and the man did not continue asking. Soon a policeman came out and said something in front of Inspector Megure. After hearing what he said, Inspector Megure frowned instantly, and the next moment he waved his hand. The policeman went back to the kitchen, and Inspector Megure coughed lightly.
"Let's just do a simple inquiry. Can you tell me what you know?"
"Of course you can." The vomiting person covered his stomach. "I have a stomachache. I hope it can be over quickly. I don't have any stomach medicine."
The doctor looked at him, then took out a box of stomach medicine from his pocket and said, "I have some here. Do you want to take some?"
"Thank you so much." The man looked grateful and quickly swallowed the medicine.
Hinata Hajime leaned back in his chair and began to sort out the information he had.
The store manager died of poisoning, but the specific cause of the poisoning is still under investigation. However, the six of them had indeed been eating here the entire time, and none of them had left.
The person closest to the kitchen was the person who found the body. He looked a little impatient and had a bad personality. He was also the first person to run to the shop owner impatiently and finally found the body. The second person was the doctor, who also confirmed that the owner was dead. The third person was the person who vomited. He sat to the left of the chef. The fourth person and the third person knew each other and were also the people who spilled the ingredients.
Next up are the people who just questioned Hinata, and Hinata herself.
After conducting basic inquiries, Inspector Megure frowned. The main reason was that none of the six people present were suspects. They didn't even know the store owner and had no motive to commit a crime. But they were indeed the only ones here.
"We are very sorry, but we will conduct a body search on you for the time being," Officer Megure told them calmly, "We want to make sure that you have no illegal drugs on you."
"Huh? What do you mean? Do you think there is a murderer among us?" The person who found the body frowned and looked at Inspector Megure.
Inspector Megure was unmoved. "If you are telling the truth, and no one else came in or left, then yes, one of you must be the murderer."
Everyone was stunned for a moment.
Inspector Megure explained again, "We detected toxins on the deceased's hands. No one present was poisoned. That is to say, his hands were not poisoned when he was cooking for you. Instead, his hands were poisoned when he left here and entered the kitchen."
The manager of this store is a chef who doesn't like wearing gloves. When preparing ingredients, he will taste them himself to check their freshness.
So he was poisoned to death by the poison in his own hand.
"I knew that someone had knocked over the materials," the first man scoffed. "I think it was that person."
"Huh? It was just an accident!" The man stood up. "And what's wrong with spilling soy sauce? Have you ever accidentally knocked something over?"
"But the owner went to the kitchen because you knocked something over." The person next to Hinata Hajime spoke timidly.
The people who instantly became the target of criticism were all confused, "But I really didn't. My friend and I helped the store owner clean up. The materials didn't fall to the ground at all. It was the store owner who insisted on changing the materials."
"Please don't remind me of this." The person next to him looked painful, "I feel like vomiting when I think of fish."
The doctor sat on the chair and frowned slightly, "Stop arguing, just let the police search you and you'll know."
[It's all chaos in an instant.] Hinata Hajime muttered in his heart, [I don't know when Nanami will come back. I can't leave for a short time now. But this case may also be related to the Despair Incident. It should be beneficial for us to find the murderer.]
Kamizuru looked ahead calmly, "There is no surveillance here."
【well?】
[For the privacy of diners, there are no surveillance cameras here. There are only surveillance cameras outside the door and in the back kitchen, so the police cannot find any clues from inside. ]
【Doesn’t this look like a locked room murder case?】
【Um.】
There was no further conversation with Kamuzuru Izuru because Hinata Hajime had already been taken aside by the police and was searched. When Hinata Hajime came, he only brought change and a cell phone with him, and even left his ID at home. The police officer who was searching him looked at him helplessly, as if he did not expect that Hinata Hajime actually had so few things on him.
Just like that, after the body search, everyone returned to their dining area and the police found nothing.
"Look, I have nothing on me!" the man shouted unconvinced.
"Maybe you put the drug somewhere in advance, and the owner will be poisoned if he touches it."
"you!"
Inspector Megure stopped them from arguing, but he was really feeling troubled now, he even felt a little worried.
The woman's arm in the refrigerator has been sent for inspection. The owner had just died not long ago, so he wanted to close the case as soon as possible. It is true that there was no surveillance in the house, but there was surveillance outside the house. The police checked the surveillance and confirmed that no extra person went in and no stranger came out. There was no place to hide here.
The murderer must be among these people.
If only Brother Mori were here, the sleeping Kogoro would always find the best answer.
"Did you find out where the drugs came from?" Inspector Megure asked the person in charge of the inspection. The man shook his head and seemed puzzled.
It is true that the poison came from the hands of the store owner, but where did the poison come from?
They checked various locations, including various tools used by the store owner, but found nothing, and the murder case seemed to be at a stalemate.
"Could he have committed suicide?" The person next to Hinata Hajime groaned, "There's a person's arm in the refrigerator. He doesn't look like a normal person. Maybe he committed suicide out of guilt and wants to put the blame on us."
But this is impossible.
Hinata Sou raised his head, with peace in his green eyes.
At least when he was making the sushi, the owner did not want to die. He really liked cooking. His eyes were focused and serious. Even if it meant committing suicide, he would finish the meal.
【Think in reverse. 】
[Hmm?] Hinata Hajime was stunned for a moment, [Outflow?]
[You don't know who killed the other person, so you can think about how he died.] Kamiya Izuru said calmly, [Ask yourself, how would you kill a chef without being discovered by others? Since you can find the murderer in the class judgement, then there is no problem here.]
Hinata Hajime frowned subtly, "How did he die? He was definitely poisoned, but there must be something I overlooked."
[If the murderer didn't apply the poison in a certain place.] Hinata Hajime murmured, [After all, if it is applied in a certain place, there are still many variables. If the store owner doesn't touch it, but other diners touch it, then the diners will die. After all, this is a sushi shop, and it's hand-made sushi.]
[So...] Hinata Sou raised his head, [If it was him, he could have poisoned her in a way that no one would notice.]