"That's right! Exactly!" Hotogi Kenji pushed up his glasses again.
Hattori, beside him, raised his question. "Though it was only for an instant, why did the car suddenly accelerate midway?"
"Ah?" Hotogi Kenji was speechless.
"I told you it was suicide. You guys read too many detective novels!" Mouri looked like he had said it all along and they just didn't believe him.
"And there's another strange thing. The car emitted a windy sound at the time, clearly not the sound of the engine," Hattori continued.
"Ah, that must have been the air conditioning! It must have been off at first and then turned on automatically when the car started," Tsugawa Ikuo said.
Toda Maria thought for a moment and said, "Indeed, the weather here has been unusually hot recently. The air conditioning was on the whole way when we arrived."
Mouri suggested, "Anyway, the body can't be recovered now. We'd better call the police quickly and wait in the house."
You revealed a playful smile, watching Conan and Hattori, who had collided while searching for clues. "It seems Hattori has begun to suspect Conan. Hmm, interesting. This trip was definitely not in vain!"
"My... my phone is broken!"
"Who did this?"
When everyone entered Kanetani's room, they discovered that all the phones Kanetani had collected had been smashed.
"The first edition is also gone!" Iwai Hitomi, who had inspected the room, suddenly exclaimed.
"Damn it! This is my brand new phone! I'll make this guy pay for this!" You said through gritted teeth, seeing his new phone ruined by the mastermind.
"Hey! You, what time is it now? You're still worried about your phone!" Conan complained to You.
"Damn it! I can't take it! I'm taking another car and leaving this hellhole!" Fujisawa Toshiaki said furiously.
"It's no use. The gasoline in the tank of the car in the garage has all been leaked, and the battery is dead. That car can't move at all now!" Hattori brought bad news back from the garage.
"H-how can this be?" Ran could hardly believe it.
"Hmph hmph! Just as I expected, Kanetani was murdered, wasn't he?" Hotogi Kenji seized the moment to prove his previous deduction correct.
"Hmph!" Mouri glanced at him disdainfully, not speaking.
"The car suddenly accelerating should have been when You accidentally stepped on the accelerator while breaking the window and pulling Kanetani out." Hattori glanced at the phone fragments on the ground. "However, from him smashing the phones, isolating us, disabling the car, and trapping us here, it seems the murderer still wants to continue this insane killing spree!"
"Who is the murderer? Is it among us?"
"You said a lot of bad things about Kanetani yesterday. Could it be you?" Everyone speculated who the murderer was.
"Alright, stop making wild guesses. That will only make the murderer more smug! We should investigate properly!" You said loudly. Hearing You's words, everyone began to calm down.
Upon learning from Iwai Hitomi that Kanetani's whereabouts for the entire day were unknown, Mouri was troubled. "Damn it, he was unseen all day. We don't know when he was killed, and his body fell off a cliff."
Tsugawa Ikuo pointed at the anti-theft camera on the wall and said to Mouri, "There's an anti-theft camera in the room, isn't there? Maybe we can find something!"
Iwai Hitomi shook her head and told everyone the truth, "Sorry, those things are all fake. They're fake anti-theft cameras installed every year to prevent cheating."
"Fake?" Mouri felt like he had been played.
At this moment, Hattori spoke up, "But we can still find out when the killer put Kanetani into the car and started it. A body gradually stiffens 30 minutes after death and softens 40 hours after death. However, if it's in a high-temperature place, this time will be shortened to 24 to 30 hours. As for the high temperature, You already mentioned it. So I think the sound I heard earlier must have been the sound of the heater."
"And the last time we saw Kanetani was around ten o'clock on the first night we arrived. So I deduce that the killer probably killed him after Kanetani left, then placed him in the car and secured him, then turned on the heater, and finally covered the dashboard with a blanket to prevent anyone approaching the car from seeing the heater was on."
"This way, when the time came, the body would soften, the brakes would release, and the car would drive itself. The car suddenly accelerating was because You broke the window and pulled the body, so any of us could be the killer!"
"..." Everyone fell silent.
"Hey!" Oki Ayako walked up to Hattori. "Then have you found any evidence that can prove who the killer is?"
Hattori shook his head. "Unfortunately, I haven't found any yet."
"Oh, hahahaha!" Oki Ayako suddenly burst into laughter. "I already know who the killer is and I have the decisive evidence! I'll give you ten minutes to think! If you don't want me to say your name, you'd better confess yourself first!" With that, she left the hall.
"Don't be reckless! Going alone, the killer will..." Hotogi Kenji quickly chased after her.
🚨 Note : Consider to Support this Story on Patreon.com/Flokixy to access +300 advance Chapters and To Support The Daily Update