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Koharubiyori Private Club!
Kudo Yusaku arrived at Private Room 444, identified himself, and the club's manager immediately cooperated, clearing out the curious onlookers and sealing off the scene.
After that, he and Conan began collecting clues together.
About twenty minutes later, Inspector Megure Juzo arrived with his team. The moment he saw the two of them, his face lit up.
Everyone knew the rule of the Detective Conan world: any cop who stuck close to Conan saw their performance skyrocket.
Even the walking disaster known as Yamamura Misao had somehow clawed his way up from a low-ranking officer to a police inspector in Gunma Prefecture within half a year of meeting Conan.
"Kudo, my friend, find anything yet?" Megure asked eagerly.
He knew very well who the real MVP was and went straight to Kudo Yusaku for answers.
"All three victims were killed in an extremely short time," Yusaku said calmly. "The killer took them out in single, decisive strikes. The victim inside, Joseph Obama, had his carotid artery slit with a blade. The wound is deeper on the left and shallower on the right, which tells us the killer is right-handed."
"The other two victims were both shot in the heart. We found a shell casing at the scene. The one near the doorway came from one of the bodyguards' guns. The remaining two were fired by the killer."
"There's no murder weapon left behind. As for other traces like fingerprints, we'll have to wait until the full search is complete."
Yusaku's gaze settled on the bloodstained maid outfit on the table.
Everything pointed to a killer who was both bold and meticulous. After the murders, they had clearly cleaned up the scene. Finding solid evidence was going to be difficult.
"You knew the victim?" Megure asked, frowning as he looked at Joseph Obama's body.
"When we arrived at the club, we ran into Mr. Obama at the entrance," Conan answered. "He was the president of a foreign trade company. He even said he was a fan of Uncle Kudo and Aunt Yukiko."
"The other two victims were his bodyguards. At the time, they were also with the woman who discovered the bodies first."
With outsiders present, Conan had no choice but to call Yusaku "uncle" to keep his identity hidden.
"I see," Megure nodded. Then he blinked. "Hey, feels like someone's missing today. Where's that walking bad luck charm, Mouri? Didn't he come along?"
Every time Conan and Mouri Kogoro showed up together, a case followed. And it was almost always a murder.
If those two didn't keep solving cases for the police, Megure might honestly start suspecting them instead.
"Uncle Mouri got a job and left for Tottori Prefecture this morning," Conan replied quickly. "Inspector Megure, don't you think the victims' expressions are strange?"
He deliberately changed the subject, slipping in a subtle hint.
"They really are strange," Megure agreed.
Sato Miwako stepped forward, crouched beside Joseph Obama's body, and examined it closely before looking at the two bodyguards.
"This victim's eyes are wide open," she said. "He looks furious, like he was enraged right before he died."
"But the expressions on the two bodyguards are completely different. They look shocked, like they saw something unbelievable."
"Why such different reactions? If this was a robbery, their wallets and valuables are still here. If it was a revenge killing, then aside from the one shot fired by a bodyguard, there's no sign of a struggle."
The case was riddled with contradictions.
Among the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, Sato Miwako was considered top-tier. If even she couldn't explain the killer's motive, the other officers had no chance of spotting the problem.
"Officer Sato, there's shattered glass near the door," Conan said.
With Mouri Kogoro not around, Conan lacked his usual convenient mouthpiece. All he could do was guide the police with hints.
Yusaku watched Conan quietly. He didn't rush to share his own deductions. Instead, he deliberately gave his son the spotlight, partly to see whether Conan's reasoning skills had slipped.
"That's not glass," Sato said slowly. "It's a wine bottle."
Her eyes suddenly lit up.
"I get it now. This was a crime of revenge, and the killer knew the victims."
As soon as she said that, both Yusaku and Conan were taken aback.
They had already examined the scene and ruled out the possibility of a familiar perpetrator based on the clues.
Still, even the wisest minds could make mistakes.
Since Sato had a line of reasoning, Yusaku and Conan decided to hear her out. Maybe she'd stumble onto something useful.
"Officer Sato, do you know who the killer is?" Megure asked eagerly.
"Not for certain," she said, "but I'm pretty confident."
"The broken wine bottle by the door is the key. The killer likely murdered Joseph Obama first, then made up an excuse to call the two bodyguards into the room. When they let their guard down, the killer shot them."
She spoke with absolute confidence.
"And your evidence?" Megure asked.
"The broken wine bottle."
"?" Megure was completely lost.
"Here's my theory," Sato continued. "The killer used their trusted身份 to gain permission to enter the room and killed Joseph Obama while he was unprepared. However, Obama didn't die immediately. In his rage, he threw a wine bottle at the killer, but missed. The bottle shattered near the door."
"After that, the killer called the two bodyguards inside. When the killer drew a gun, one of the bodyguards realized something was wrong and fired back in panic, but missed."
"Judging from the disbelief still frozen on their faces, they never imagined the killer would actually go that far."
"Think about it. With two bodyguards stationed outside the door, who could slip into the room unnoticed except someone Obama trusted deeply, like a close friend or family member?"
Step by step, Sato reconstructed the crime based on the available clues.
With her reasoning, the killer's identity seemed almost within reach.
"So you're saying the woman who first discovered the bodies is the killer?" Megure asked, hands clasped behind his back.
"Criminals often return to the scene," Sato said carefully. "And the person who 'discovers' the crime often carries significant suspicion."
"Hm, that does make sense," Megure nodded. "Even if she isn't the killer, she's highly suspicious."
"Officer Sato, take charge of questioning her."
After a brief moment of thought, Megure decided to bring the woman in for interrogation.
"Wait!" Conan suddenly spoke up. "That big sister has nothing to do with the murders. Questioning her would just be a waste of time."
"Conan," Sato said seriously, stopping in her tracks, "did you notice something?"
Ever since Shinichi shrank into Conan, he had a habit of uncovering critical clues during investigations. Sato was long past being surprised.
At the same time, Yusaku rubbed his chin, staring intently at the two shell casings near Joseph Obama's body. In his mind, a familiar figure slowly surfaced.
Steven.
Could it really be him?
The first time Yusaku tested Steven, he had witnessed his unfathomable abilities. After careful consideration, Yusaku had concluded that among the club's staff, only Steven had the capability to kill three people in an instant.
Then another crucial detail hit him.
Yusaku and Conan had heard the scream and rushed to the scene in about five minutes. Steven had been with them the entire time. No matter how skilled he was, it should have been impossible to silently kill Joseph Obama and both bodyguards and return within the roughly ten minutes he'd supposedly spent in the restroom.
Unless he could teleport.
Of course, no matter how brilliant Yusaku was, he could never guess that Steven was a transmigrator backed by a system, essentially a walking bug in the Detective Conan world.
He couldn't teleport, but with mastery over countless skills and a body enhanced by the system, his speed already surpassed human limits.
"Officer Sato," Conan said, laying out his analysis, "aside from the shattered bottle and the three shell casings, there are no signs of a struggle in the room. Mr. Obama died from a severed carotid artery. With that kind of blood loss, he would've lost all ability to fight almost instantly. He couldn't have struggled with the killer."
"And the strange outfit on the table clearly shows that the big sister was playing a role-playing game with Mr. Obama. That proves they had a very close relationship."
"If she were the killer, she'd had plenty of chances to kill him. There was no reason to do it here and leave behind so many flaws. And the fear she showed when she saw the bodies wasn't an act. That alone proves her innocence."
"Besides, according to the forensic report, the time of death was less than an hour ago. During that time, she was in the club's storage room fetching props. The staff can confirm that."
Conan's reasoning effectively cleared the woman of suspicion.
"Then how did the killer get past the bodyguards and into the room?" Megure asked after thinking it over. "And how did they fire a gun without being noticed?"
Since it was murder, there had to be a killer.
With two bodyguards at the door, unless Joseph Obama trusted the person completely or personally allowed them in, no one should have been able to enter so easily.
That still pointed toward someone he knew.
"The killer probably disguised themselves as a staff member," Conan replied, "tricked the bodyguards, and got into the room. They then threatened Mr. Obama and forced him to call the bodyguards inside, killed the guards first, and finally slit Mr. Obama's throat with a blade."
"As for the gunshots, the guests invited to this club are all high-society types. Quite a few of them enjoy… private, intense games. Even if someone heard a gunshot, they'd probably assume it was part of some game."
"Based on the estimated time of death, the killer likely left the club long ago."
"Uncle Kudo," Conan added cutely, passing the responsibility along, "am I right?"
Megure, on the other hand, looked deeply troubled.
If they couldn't catch the killer, not only would his record suffer, but public pressure would be immense. Three murders were bound to cause panic if the news got out.
"You're not entirely right," Yusaku said at last, breaking his silence.
He felt Conan's performance was decent, but not quite there yet.
"If Mr. Obama had called the bodyguards into the room without warning, they wouldn't have had time to draw their guns. But one of them did fire a shot. That means the guards were on alert when they entered."
"I think that after the killer entered the room and prepared to act, Mr. Obama sensed something was wrong. He grabbed a wine bottle and pretended to fight back, but in reality, he deliberately smashed it against the door to warn the bodyguards outside."
"At the same moment he threw the bottle, he was killed. The two guards heard the noise, rushed in to check, and were then killed by the killer, who had already seized the initiative."
One of the intellectual giants of the Detective Conan world had just reconstructed the crime almost in full.
As Yusaku finished, new questions immediately surfaced.
"If Mr. Obama had time to throw the bottle, wouldn't it have been faster to call for help?" Megure asked.
"This club places extreme importance on guest privacy," Yusaku replied. "Not only are there no cameras, but the walls are made of special soundproof materials. Even if he screamed, people outside might not have heard him."
The explanation stunned Megure and the others. They decided to test it.
The experiment confirmed it.
"This place really is perfect for murder and shady business," Sato muttered.
"So, Kudo," Megure said, "do you already know who the killer is?"
The case was getting more and more tangled, and all Megure wanted was to catch the culprit as soon as possible.
"Inspector Megure," Yusaku said slowly, "after killing Mr. Obama, the killer used the clothes on the table to wipe the blood off the weapon instead of fleeing immediately. That shows a very calm mind. A killer like that rarely leaves obvious clues, but that doesn't mean there are none."
"Look at the two shell casings the killer left behind. They match the casings found in the parking lot during the Beika City murder case. They should've been fired from the same gun."
"Now all we need to do is retrieve the bullets from the two bodyguards' bodies and compare them. That will tell us whether the killer was trying to mislead us and give us a concrete lead to pursue."
Yusaku already had an answer in mind, but he still lacked hard evidence.
"Could it be…" Megure murmured, rubbing his chin.
The Beika City case involved FBI agent Jodie. Megure had heard from Okinawa officers that Jodie claimed her service weapon was stolen by Steven during the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department building bombing incident.
But a single statement wasn't enough to confirm that Steven had used that gun to kill someone. It was also possible that Jodie was framing him.
"Kudo," Megure said seriously, "I hope you'll give us your full support on this case."
Given Jodie's special status, Megure looked to Yusaku. With him involved, the FBI might be more willing to cooperate.
"Of course," Yusaku replied without hesitation.
While Yusaku and Conan worked tirelessly with the police, Steven was just as diligently taking care of Yukiko.
…
Meanwhile, at the Kudo residence!
"Mmm…"
Yukiko winced in pain and slowly opened her eyes. She froze for a second, then exploded in rage.
"You shameless bastard! What are you doing? Get away from me!"
Smack!
Steven backhanded her across the face, instantly silencing her.
"Stop yelling. At this point, you should be very clear about who's in control here."
"If you don't cooperate, then Mouri Ran will have to take your place."
Yukiko turned her head and saw Ran lying unconscious beside her. Panic flooded her instantly.
That was the girl she'd already decided would be her future daughter-in-law. How could she…
"You monster… don't touch Ran… I… I…" Her voice broke into sobs.
A tear slid down the corner of Yukiko's eye as she shut her eyes in despair.
"....."