"Because when I was getting my handkerchief, it slipped out of my pocket and fell on the floor," Katagiri Kaede hurriedly explained. "I just bent down to pick it up!"
"I was also just serving the dishes according to the rules at the time..." Eguchi Sachiko added.
"Inspector Megure!" An officer rushed through the door, subconsciously glancing at Chi Feichi sitting in the distance before walking up to Megure Juzo and whispering in his ear.
Feichi, who had been watching the commotion, instantly perked up. "It's here, it's here! Finally! They sure took their time!"
Chi Feichi: "..."
Waiting with my pet to become a criminal suspect... this is truly a rare experience...
As Megure Juzo listened, his expression gradually grew grave. He nodded to the reporting officer and walked over to Chi Feichi. "Brother Chi, may I ask what you discussed with Mr. Kikuhito and Butler Shigematsu before dinner?"
The dining room fell silent, and everyone looked at Chi Feichi in unison.
Hattori Heiji and Conan suddenly remembered what Chi Feichi had said earlier—
'I'm avoiding suspicion.'
Under everyone's gaze, Chi Feichi's expression remained calm. "I refuse to answer that question."
Megure Juzo said sternly, "A servant mentioned that after you left Mr. Kikuhito's room to come to the dining room for dinner, Butler Shigematsu asked him to clean up Mr. Kikuhito's room. He saw that the room was a mess, with ornaments smashed to pieces. If you had a dispute beforehand, then you have a motive for the crime. Although you couldn't reach the victim from where you were sitting, not clarifying the situation puts you at a disadvantage!"
"That's not possible," Morizono Yurie quickly interjected. "Feichi and Kikuhito get along very well. They... they..."
She suddenly recalled that it was indeed Chi Feichi who went to find Shigematsu Akio earlier, and she didn't know what to say.
Chi Feichi insisted, "I promised to keep it a secret."
Megure Juzo stared directly at Chi Feichi for a while, but finally compromised. "Alright, but if necessary, the police have the right to demand your cooperation in the investigation."
Chi Feichi nodded, indicating no problem.
Megure Juzo then looked at Eguchi Sachiko. "Ms. Eguchi Sachiko, I heard your daughter works at a research institute and conducted medicinal research on snake venom a year ago. Is that true?"
"Y-Yes!" Eguchi Sachiko admitted, then explained, "But after I divorced my ex-husband, my daughter has lived with her father. She only calls occasionally. We haven't been in contact for a long time."
"I understand!" Mouri Kogoro looked as if he had an epiphany. He looked seriously at the trio of suspects. "Mr. Chi has a motive for murder but no opportunity to act. Ms. Eguchi can obtain snake venom, and Miss Kaede can act as cover or the executor. This is actually a collaborative murder! The three of them made a pact to help each other kill the people they wanted dead!"
Chi Feichi: "..."
Hattori Heiji: "..."
Conan: "..."
That's some excellent imagination!
Megure Juzo looked at Mouri Kogoro speechlessly. "But Mr. Chi knows a lot about snake venom. Before this, he was also the one who determined there was a problem with the dosage injected. According to the information we got from the hospital, the amount of venom injected indeed doesn't match a snakebite. Since he could have disguised it as an accidental snakebite, why would he leave a flaw and make everyone suspect it was artificially injected?"
"Precisely to use that line of thinking of yours, Inspector Megure, to clear his own suspicion," Mouri Kogoro said. "To make us think that someone knowledgeable about snake venom wouldn't make such a mistake. But in fact, this is also a part of the plan to mislead us!"
Chi Feichi sighed with emotion. "It's a pity Mr. Mouri doesn't write detective novels."
"Brother Chi, detective novels aren't that easy to write, you know?" Conan immediately defended his father's profession. "To write an excellent work, you need logic. You need to write a reasonable final answer based on the clues already revealed."
Chi Feichi realized that saying that did somewhat wrong people like Kudo Yusaku. "Apologies."
"Oi, oi," Mouri Kogoro felt offended and stared at Conan with disdain. "What does a brat like you know? You talk as if you could write one!"
Conan chuckled dryly in his heart. Sorry, I can't write one, but my dad is a world-famous detective novelist, and I've read a lot of detective novels...
"Dad, Conan was just saying," Mouri Ran defended Conan.
Seeing the topic veer further and further off course, Megure Juzo rubbed his temples, getting a headache. "Leave matters unrelated to the case for later!"
Silence.
Everyone stared blankly at Megure Juzo, who had suddenly lost his temper.
After yelling, Megure Juzo regretted it a little. Quite a few of his subordinates were looking at him timidly. Would they misunderstand him as a short-tempered boss? He actually had a very good temper. "Ahem, let's focus on solving this case first."
"Yes!" The group of police officers responded immediately with serious expressions.
Megure Juzo: "..."
"Establishing an authoritative image occasionally is conducive to management," Chi Feichi summarized.
Megure Juzo: "..."
Don't wrong me, I didn't think that at all!
This kid Chi Feichi really is something. He doesn't say what he should, and talks nonsense about what he shouldn't, misleading everyone's opinion of him. I am not that kind of manipulative boss.
"Uh, but Miss Kaede has no reason to want to kill her own fiancé, right?" Takagi Wataru finally brought the conversation back on track. "Also, among the personal belongings of the three of them, there was nothing resembling snake fangs that could serve as a murder weapon..."
"The murder weapon is indeed a problem," Hattori Heiji whispered to Conan. "But Miss Kaede might not lack a motive. The atmosphere between her and Mr. Kikuhito is a bit strange. They don't seem like a couple about to get married; instead, they seem like... two people in the middle of a fight or cold war. You think so too, right, Kudo?"
No response.
Hattori Heiji looked up only to find Conan walking towards Chi Feichi with his head down in thought. He was speechless.
Is discussing the clues we have with me not good enough?
You just have to run to Chi Feichi...
However, after thinking about it, he followed. Asking Chi Feichi might be good; Chi Feichi had arrived more than a day earlier than them and might know some clues.
Conan walked up to Chi Feichi, tugged on his shirt, and asked softly with a blank expression, "Hey, the culprit is Ms. Eguchi, right?"
"Yeah," Chi Feichi confirmed.
Hattori Heiji: "..."
These two already know who the culprit is?
Isn't that a bit too fast? Are you kidding me!
"The culprit specifically chose snake venom to push suspicion onto you. First, you had a conflict with Mr. Kikuhito and Butler Shigematsu, and then a snake bit them. That makes it very plausible. When you said you were avoiding suspicion earlier, it was because you realized the culprit's intention. In that case, the other party must have known about your conflict with Butler Shigematsu and Mr. Kikuhito. Miss Kaede was with us the whole time, so she couldn't have known. That leaves only Ms. Eguchi," Conan analyzed, though he wasn't happy at all. After all, he hadn't deduced the culprit from clues, but rather from Chi Feichi's attitude. "When did you know Ms. Eguchi was the culprit?"
"At the moment the incident happened, I observed the expressions of the people around me," Chi Feichi said. "While others showed surprise on their faces, there was also confusion and bewilderment. Ms. Eguchi, however, only showed surprise."
"Just because of that?" Conan was somewhat disappointed. He thought Chi Feichi had grasped some clue.
In that situation, Chi Feichi still went to observe other people's expressions? What on earth goes through this guy's head...
"Knowing she's the culprit is useless if we don't know the murder weapon, let alone have evidence," Hattori Heiji tilted his head, secretly observing the items on the table. "To create the illusion of a snakebite, one first needs a cone-shaped object sharp at the front and wider at the back, like a snake fang. Then, something like a syringe is needed to inject the venom. Ms. Eguchi's personal belongings only included a phone and a handkerchief in her apron pocket. She must have hidden something else somewhere. But buying something resembling a snake fang isn't easy. The only things I can think of are pens or metal skewers..."
Chi Feichi asked Hattori Heiji, "How many types of cake piping tips do you know?"
"Cake piping tips? Why ask that? I don't know much about them; my mom doesn't make cream cakes often..." Hattori Heiji paused, his face instantly becoming grave. "Are there piping tips that look like snake fangs?"
"The most complete set of piping tips I've seen has a total of 108 pieces. The Morizono kitchen has quite a few. Although many have wide ends, there are also long, thin, and sharp ones," Chi Feichi reminded him. "Also, making cream cakes can involve using a piping bag."
"So that's it!" Conan understood immediately, stroking his chin to organize his thoughts. "Then, the crime process should be: first, prepare two long, thin piping tips. Seal the tip of a piping bag, fill it with snake venom, leave some air, and tie it tight. Then fit the piping tip onto the end. The items can be hidden in the apron and brought into the dining room. While we weren't paying attention, she fixed the piping tip to a corner of the serving cart and opened the seal at the tip of the bag. As she passed Butler Shigematsu, she let the piping tip pierce him, then pressed the piping bag with her foot to inject the snake venom into the wound."
"To do all this would take a very short time, and she wouldn't even need to bend down or squat when passing Butler Shigematsu," Hattori Heiji continued quickly. "After that, she continued pushing the cart past Butler Shigematsu. When serving Mr. Kikuhito, she bent down to get food from the lower shelf of the cart. Taking that opportunity, she retrieved the piping tip and bag. Then, using her body as a shield while leaning forward to place the dish on the table, blocking the view of Miss Kaede sitting to Kikuhito's right, she used her left hand at her side to stab the piping tip into Mr. Kikuhito's side, pressing the bag again to inject the venom..."
"Because the police will focus their search on syringes or cone-shaped objects, it's easy to overlook flat things," Conan looked at the serving cart. "After that, she just had to stuff the piping bag into the piping tip, flatten it, and wedge it onto the metal cart. If you don't look closely, it's hard to spot. It could be inside the rim of the lower shelf or near the wheels..."