Corpse collector in Conan

"But..." The eldest sister-in-law gritted her teeth, "But it was already very late when my husband went to the audio-visual room, and the snow stopped not long after that. If he really went to the wing room later, the new snow would not have had time to cover his footprints - so he must have been in the audio-visual room the whole time! The murderer killed him and forced him to change into armor to frame him!"

Police: “Hmm…” This seems to make sense…

Neither Daimon Ryolang nor his sister-in-law could convince the other for a moment. Seeing this, the old lady beside them shook her head helplessly:

“You are all wrong, this is really the curse of the vengeful spirit - in fact, at midnight last night, I saw with my own eyes a warrior in armor walking step by step from the wing room towards the main house.

"That huge body, and the way it staggers like a ghost... I will never mistake it. That is General Xiuyou from five hundred years ago!"

Policemen: “…” This also sounds… No, no, no, this is the only thing that is absolutely impossible - even if someone really passed through the yard at that time, it must not be the ghost of an old wronged person, but the murderer wearing armor disguised as a wronged ghost.

They were about to correct him, but Jiang Xia considerately followed the old man's words and started chatting: "Does the wronged soul have any weapon in his hand?"

The old lady recalled carefully: "He was facing my window at the time. I only remember that his left hand did not hold a knife. As for his right hand... maybe he did not hold it, or maybe he did, but it was blocked by his body and I could not see it."

Officer Sato didn't know why Jiang Xia asked this, but he still wrote down the details provided by the old lady in his notebook one by one.

She flipped through the content she had memorized before and said with a headache:

"The biggest problem now is that before we arrived at the scene, there was only one set of footprints in the yard, extending from the wing to the main house - that is, either the murderer has the ability to fly over the snow without leaving footprints, or the murderer had already ambushed in the wing before the snow stopped.

"If it's the latter, everyone in the house has an alibi. But on the other hand, I just looked around the house, and there were no footprints in the yard that showed anyone escaping from these two rooms to the outside... Could it be that the murderer is hiding in some corner of the house?"

Just as he was about to go to the house with two colleagues to search, Jiang Xia shook his head before taking action, helping them cut a large chunk of their workload: "This is actually easy to explain - it snowed last night, and the crime happened not long after the snow stopped, so the snow was still very soft.

"The murderer first walked from the main house to the wing room normally, and after killing the people, he put on his armor and walked back slowly step by step, following the footsteps he left when he came.

“That suit of armor was very heavy, and the boots were much larger than the average person’s shoes. So after putting on the armor, the murderer’s second footprints, in terms of depth and width, could easily cover up his first footprints.

"That's why the old lady felt that the armor's steps were as strange as a ghost - the murderer couldn't walk randomly, but had to make sure that every step was aligned with his previous footprints."

Officer Sato followed Jiang Xia's words and recalled the scene of walking on the snow in his mind. He immediately realized that the detective was right.

The complicated problem that made her think for a while was solved so smoothly.

"That..." Officer Gao Mu saw Jiang Xia easily cracked a secret room in the snow, and raised his hand eagerly, "Actually, I also have a question - did the second victim commit suicide?"

If it was suicide, things would be simple: the second murder was of course a crime, and the murderer of the first murder must also be the eldest son, just like the legendary General Xiuyou who killed someone and then committed suicide.

Unfortunately, Jiang Xia shook his head: "Do you remember the positions of the murderous knife and the deceased after we opened the door of the audio-visual room?"

Officer Takagi: “!”

Of course he had not forgotten the shocking scene just now.

As far as I can remember, the blood-stained knife fell not far behind the door, but the body was very close to the inside.

...A person who was going to stab himself in the throat didn't seem to have the need or the energy to throw the knife so far. In other words, was this another case of suicide in a closed room?

Officer Shiratori sensed something was wrong. He looked at Jiang Xia and asked, "Do you already know who the murderer is?"

Curacao held the teacup and looked up at him.

After a moment, the organizational cadre who really hoped that his clingy colleague would be laid off withdrew his gaze with great regret: "..." It seems that the "already" in the concept of this policeman is far from the actual "already"... Alas, I thought I could see the scene of Uzo's car rollover, but according to the current situation, this so-called elite policeman seems to be no different from ordinary policemen.

Sure enough, when asked the key question, Uzo didn't change his expression at all. He just nodded like a confident detective and said, "I roughly know, but it will take some time to verify the hypothesis."

Officer Shiratori suddenly became curious, but did not ask more questions: although he occasionally had the urge to lie down like Gao Mu and wait for the answer, but now his beloved goddess was right next to him, he could not show his weakness. While Jiang Xia was still silent, he quickly recalled the various clues he had just seen and tried to connect them together.

Conan caught a glimpse of his expression, and after a moment's shock, he smiled as if he had seen through too much: I really should call Hattori over, and then have him become sworn brothers with the current Officer Shiratori...

Just as I was thinking about it, I heard footsteps in the corridor.

Two high school girls helped the maid of the Daimon family to bring in a fairly hearty breakfast and placed it on the low dining table.

Suzuki Sonoko put down the tray, quickly poured herself a cup of barley tea at just the right temperature, and gulped down a large piece of toast with the tea.

Then she wiped her mouth generously and said with a tone as if she had come back to life: "I'm starving! Fortunately, there is a microwave in the kitchen. I don't have to bother to light a fire. Everything is ready in a few seconds."

Jiang Xia nodded and looked around: "Everyone is here, let's start looking for the murderer now."

Suzuki Sonoko: “?!”

How come the reasoning started in the time it takes to heat up breakfast? It doesn’t seem to be played like this on TV—the pretty detective assistant hasn’t had time to play a key role yet!

However, her curiosity about this case quickly overwhelmed her career ambition.

A high school girl who was absent from class began to catch up: "The murderer is not the one who died in the audio-visual room?"

Jiang Xia nodded and briefly filled in the blanks for her: "The murderer first went to the wing room and killed President Daimon, then put on his armor, followed his own footsteps back to the main house, and went to the audio-visual room to kill another Mr. Daimon."

————

Thanks to the big guys for the [monthly tickets] (σ≧▽≦)σ.