Chapter 3513 & 3525 [Case Closed] Requesting monthly votes (づど)
As she spoke, Ayumi Yoshida's eyes lit up: "I understand! Mr. Fukuchi just said that the reason he was wandering around outside during that time was to check if the vehicle was repaired."
"But if he's really worried that the car isn't fixed, he should test drive it in a more open area instead of driving it recklessly in a commercial street!"
Officer Takagi suddenly realized: "Indeed, especially since he said he wasn't a good driver, he shouldn't have gone to the shopping street to test drive in the rain."
"In fact, similar incidents have happened four times already, but we never noticed any suspicious vehicles repeatedly appearing in the surveillance footage—now it seems that this is because the murderer was a mechanic who could drive different vehicles on the street every day!"
The blond-haired man who had been eavesdropping froze. He looked at the curly-haired middle-aged man next to him, whom he had yelled at, and his legs trembled imperceptibly.
Jiang Xia patted him, and when he snapped out of his daze, she withdrew her hand and said, "Move your car. We need to check the keyhole on his car."
"Huh? Oh, okay." The arrogant blond guy seemed to revert to a simple college student, his nose ring drooping. He jogged back to his car, hurriedly drove it away, and then, without getting out, he gripped the steering wheel and pressed the accelerator, craning his neck to observe the situation outside in a wary posture as if he could speed away from a murderer in the rainy night at any moment.
The forensic officers, caught up in his startled behavior, also became uneasy. They first checked the distance between Jiang Xia and the curly-haired middle-aged man, making sure this detective, who liked to knock people down, could stomp on them at any moment, before taking out their tools and carefully crouching down beside the car door.
After setting up something to block out the light, they took out a reagent and sprayed it twice on the keyhole. The forensic officers took a closer look and were stunned: "Mr. Jiang Xia, there is no blood reaction on the keyhole."
Officer Sato, who was already prepared to make the arrest: "?!"
The group of children in the car: "???"
Ai Haibara was stunned: What's going on? Could it be that the culprit this time can really escape punishment?
Conan stroked his chin and snorted, "Just as I expected..."
Just as they were muttering to themselves, Jiang Xia walked up to the forensic officer and pointed to the driver's side door lock: "Take it off and let's take a look."
"Wait!" The middle-aged mechanic, who had been silent, suddenly couldn't sit still upon hearing this. He stood up abruptly, "What right do you have to take apart my car!"
Officer Sato noticed something was wrong: "What did you do to the door lock?"
"I didn't tamper with it at all!" the middle-aged man said firmly. "This is my client's car, don't even think about messing with it! — If you dare to dismantle my car, I'll sue you and you'll lose your jobs!"
Officer Takagi quickly ran over to smooth things over: "Don't be so hasty, let's talk things out—besides, we just want to open it up and take a look, we're not going to damage the car, this level of search is actually quite reasonable."
Several policemen surrounded the middle-aged man and tried to persuade him earnestly.
At the same time, with a click, the car door opened, and Conan slipped out of the car.
He walked across the parking lot and discreetly ran to the car. Just as he stopped, a hand reached out from the side, holding a screwdriver of the right size.
"..." Conan looked up following that hand and, unsurprisingly, saw Jiang Xia's face.
After a moment of silence, he said speechlessly, "...You're getting more and more comfortable using me."
"Kids have their advantages." Jiang Xia handed over a screwdriver, giving the mischievous child plenty of room to maneuver.
...
The middle-aged man realized something was wrong, but it was too late.
While he was arguing with the police, a first-grade student who appeared out of nowhere actually demonstrated stronger manual dexterity than the forensic officers, quickly disassembling the car lock's outer shell with a few clanging noises.
As the internal components were revealed, a conspicuous strip of yellow tape quickly came into view.
"This..." Officer Sato ran over and took a look, then exclaimed in surprise, "This isn't the original lock cylinder for the Fini RX-7; it was swapped from another car!"
“No wonder the test showed no bloodstains; you changed the lock directly.” She frowned at the middle-aged man with curly hair. “The reason you parked the car so close to the other cars was because you were worried that we would notice something was wrong when you opened or closed this door, right?”
"No...no!" The middle-aged man with curly hair wiped away a cold sweat and forced a smile. "When I was repairing the car before, I accidentally broke the lock, so I temporarily replaced it with this lock. I planned to fix it properly when the ordered parts arrived. You can't accuse me of being the murderer just because I replaced the lock on the car!"
Officer Sato snorted coldly: "Then let's use luminol reagent to check the keyhole next to the steering wheel—unlike the door lock, the keyhole there has a special seal, so it can't be replaced temporarily in a short time."
"..."
A suffocating silence ensued. The person being stared at clenched their fists and slowly lowered their head.
Officer Sato was wondering why the man hadn't collapsed to his knees when he heard the middle-aged man sigh and mutter, "Testing the keyhole is no better than testing the car key—as long as there's no blood on my original car key, it proves I'm not the murderer, right?"
Officer Sato paused, then said, "Where did you get the original car key? — The fact that you're on the suspect list means you can't produce the car key with the logo engraved on it."
The middle-aged man with curly hair snorted: "I was test driving the car when a policeman suddenly stopped me and asked if I had the original car key. I thought it was better to avoid trouble, so I said no... But who knew that the person you were looking for was someone who didn't have the key."
"???" Officer Sato was stunned: There's actually such a thing?
“I remember putting it in the armrest box.” The middle-aged man with curly hair opened the car door and got in. “That’s about it…heh.”
With a bang, he suddenly slammed the car door shut, then took out the spare key, inserted it into the switch, and started the engine.
A group of police officers belatedly realized something was wrong and rushed over, banging on the car windows.
"Haha! A bunch of idiots." The middle-aged man with curly hair smirked. He slammed on the gas pedal, but before he could, a hand reached out from the side, grabbed his key, and twisted and pulled it out.
A click, and then complete silence.
—The car, which was about to start, was nipped in the bud once again.
"??!"
The middle-aged man with curly hair turned his head sharply and realized that the other car door had been opened at some point.
Just as he had smoothly slipped into the car and smoothly started the engine, the high school detective had also smoothly leaned in from the other side and smoothly extinguished the engine.
...At the same time, it seemed that his hope of breaking out of the police station and flying far away was also extinguished.
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