Chapter 94

No one would have thought that a small mistake when they secretly gathered together to cook the books would lead to the largest and most serious corruption case in the history of the welfare home.

And now, even Kogoro Mori, who has been absent, can see that this corruption case that lasted for three years is obviously related to the Sakai poisoning case that occurred in another staff dormitory.

"So, the deceased Sakai was also a member of your corruption gang? And you poisoned him to death because of a conflict between you and Sakai?"

Kogoro Mori looked angrily at the three people in front of him who had become murder suspects.

The teachers and students of the welfare home were even more shocked by the discussion. No one had expected that there would be such a hidden story behind Sakai's death.

However, at this moment, Kitajima Shinichi, who had been silent just now, suddenly interrupted everyone's analysis, met Maori Kogoro's angry gaze without fear, and said in a very calm manner:

"Please don't say that, Mr. Maori. I admit that we did conspire to embezzle donations to the welfare home in private, but you can't just rely on this to link Sakai's death to us.

After all, strictly speaking, if anything happened to any of the four of us, the police would be called, and then there would be a risk that what we had done would be exposed, which is something we absolutely did not want to see.

So the murderer who killed Sakai couldn't possibly be one of us three."

Kitajima Shinichi's rebuttal was so powerful and so consistent with the public's perception that Kogoro Mori's anger was like a basin of cold water poured over his head. For a moment, he actually felt that what he said made a lot of sense.

Ms. Arimori, who was almost in a hysterical state, looked up at Kitajima Shinichi in surprise when she heard his words, as if she had never expected that the other party would actually speak up for her.

She had been in a situation of being accused and suspected from the beginning, but suddenly someone spoke up for her. Even though the person who said it was not for her, Ms. Arimori almost cried for joy.

"But what about the tiny sequins on Ms. Arimori's dress? They are exactly the same type of sequins found at the crime scene. It can't be just a coincidence, right?"

The person who spoke was the female police officer who had just checked Ms. Arimori's clothes. Her consideration was entirely based on the existing evidence, and it was reasonable both from a procedural and logical point of view, but Ms. Arimori immediately glared at her angrily, as if she was an innocent suspect deliberately framed by the female police officer.

At this time, the police officer who had been checking the public trash cans at the welfare home came back with a bag of evidence and reported to Dateko:

"Inspector Date, we did not find any toxic waste in the trash can, but we did find this."

The evidence bag contained a popular prank toy among young people, and it was a disposable one, which was basically thrown away after use. What caught people's attention was that the surface of the prank toy was covered with a thick layer of fine glitter, which was exactly the sequins found at the crime scene.

Everyone immediately became excited. If nothing unexpected happened, the prank snake toy must be the source of the sequins. And the real murderer who poisoned Sakai must have come into contact with the prank snake toy, or with the person who was pranked by the prank snake toy, and thus got the sequins from that person.

"Ah, isn't this the prank snake toy that Kyoichiro bought after working a day at the gift shop? How did it end up in the trash?"

Among the crowd of onlookers, some older children immediately cried out in surprise.

Upon hearing this, the teachers who were also watching immediately found the child named Kyoichiro and questioned him carefully.

Kyoichiro was a child who looked a little shy. He was suddenly stared at by so many people that he was flustered even when speaking. He had to control himself from crying on the spot and answered in a low voice with his head down:

"I worked part-time in a gift shop after school the day before yesterday to exchange gifts. I wanted to give it to Mr. Bei Dao as a thank-you gift. I wanted to thank him for saving me in time when I almost fell off the rockery."

Hagiwara Kenji came to Kyoichiro and squatted down. He used the child-coaxing skills he had honed on Xiaozhi and Xiaoxing for seven years to calm Kyoichiro down with just a few words. Then he asked:

"The gift you got was this prank snake toy that sprays out glittering sequins?"

Kyoichiro nodded and said:

"That's it. And I gave it to Mr. Bei Dao yesterday."

Shinichi Kitajima, who was surrounded by a group of police officers, was panicked for a moment. He seemed to want to explain immediately, but was frozen in place by a glare from Ko Ida. He opened his mouth but dared not say a word.

Hagiwara Kenji continued to ask:

"So do you know where Mr. Bei Dao used this toy later?"

When this topic was brought up, Kyoichiro's face immediately showed the innocent smile of a satisfied child. He pointed to the staff dormitory behind the police and said happily:

"I know this! I sent the toys directly to Teacher Bei Dao's dormitory yesterday at noon. The teacher opened it on the spot, and then there was a 'bang' sound, and fireworks exploded everywhere. It was so beautiful!"

Conan's mouth twitched when he heard this. In order to thank the teacher, he gave the teacher a prank toy, and then filled the teacher's dormitory with firework debris. Is this really gratitude rather than persecution?

But I didn’t expect that Kitajima Shinichi actually saved Kyoichiro at the rockery?

Kenji Hagiwara smiled, praised Kyoichiro a few words and left in a hurry, while Kou Date immediately asked the forensic department to re-check the traces left in the dormitory.

Conan approached Kyoichiro and asked quietly:

"Kyoichiro-san, how did Mr. Kitajima save you?"

Facing Conan, who was obviously a child, Kyoichiro finally relaxed a little. He replied with a boastful tone:

"Of course I went to climb the rockery, but halfway up I stepped on a loose rock and nearly fell down. Fortunately, Mr. Bei Dao suddenly appeared and caught me. He said that the rock was very dangerous and told me not to play near it again. Then he immediately built a fence around the rock."

Conan was stunned. Isn't the stone surrounded by the guardrail the one that is close to the lawn on the side of the rockery?

He immediately asked:

"When did that happen?"

Kyoichiro thought about it and said uncertainly:

"About a month? I'm not sure. But since then I've always wanted to work part-time to earn money to buy gifts, but because I was young, no store would hire me. Later, the boss of the gift shop was the nicest and agreed to give me a prank toy as a gift if I worked for a day."

Conan lowered his head and thought, the rockery and the lawn are close together, it seems that Kitajima Shinichi walked through the path in the middle of the lawn, and his real purpose might be the rockery, and he has obviously been there more than once. But why would he do this?

On the other hand, the forensic department also quickly came to the conclusion that although Kitajima Shinichi's dormitory had been cleaned up, there were still a lot of sequins left in some gaps that were not usually noticed. Anyone who stayed in this room for a long time might accidentally stick these pieces on their body.

When Ms. Arimori heard this, she immediately grabbed a life-saving straw and shouted at the female police officer:

"Did you hear that? These damn sequins on me were just accidentally stuck on me. They have nothing to do with the sequins at the crime scene!"

The female police officer was not to be outdone and said:

"But we can't rule out the possibility that you accidentally rubbed it against something and got the sequins stuck on your clothes, and then accidentally dropped them on the scene while you were poisoning!"

Ms. Arimori's face immediately turned ashen with anger.

However, Date Ko's attention was on Kitajima and Inoue. Their suit jackets were spotless, with no visible traces of sequins.

Kenji Hagiwara observed the workmanship and wrinkles of their coats and suggested:

"Why not ask them to take off their suit jackets and see? After all, this kind of high-end suit would be taken off and hung in the closet when indoors, right? Even if it stays on for a long time, the sequins will only stick to the shirt."

Then, after the two of them took off their suit jackets, they indeed discovered tiny sparkling sequins on their shirts.

"The evidence is now clear. The prank toy was thrown directly into the trash can after being used in Bei Dao's room. Therefore, the sequins dropped at the crime scene could only have been brought from this room.

From yesterday afternoon until the body was found, only the three of you were in this room. Therefore, the murderer who poisoned Sakai is among you three!"

Inoue immediately retorted:

"This is impossible! Sakai and we have a mutually beneficial relationship. Our cooperation has always been stable. There is no need to kill him!"

However, Ida Hang reached out and took out an evidence bag containing train tickets from the evidence and said to him:

"Before today, your cooperation may have been going smoothly. But unexpectedly, an incident occurred, causing Sakai to suddenly decide to terminate the cooperation with you, and hurriedly bought a ticket, planning to leave here this morning.

It is for this reason that one of you finally decided to kill him and immediately took action. "

As he spoke, he picked up the suicide note left at the crime scene and continued:

"For the murderer, since his accomplices are going to stop cooperating, killing them to silence them is indeed a common choice to prevent the news from leaking out. Leaving a suicide note can also pretend that the deceased committed suicide.

But why did the murderer let the deceased bear the crime of four people alone and claimed that he had embezzled all the donations? Because the murderer had reasons to do so.

The murderer knew that if he didn’t make Sakai a scapegoat, their misappropriation of donations over the past three years would inevitably be exposed.”

Someone in the crowd couldn't help but ask:

"They have been doing this secretly for three years without being discovered. What on earth caused them to be exposed?"

Date Kou looked in the direction of Hoshikawa Kazuaki with a complicated expression. It was not until Hoshikawa Kazuaki helplessly mouthed "I'm fine" to him that Date Kou finally felt relieved and said to the crowd:

"Because they didn't get the news until yesterday. Something very special is going to happen today. The person who has been silently donating a huge amount of money to the welfare home for three years will return to the welfare home to attend the party today."

The author has something to say:

Thank you to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2022-08-28 23:26:57~2022-08-29 15:58:54~

Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution: 1 bottle of an ugly little bamboo;

Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!