BXBX NOVEL Chapter 186: The Suspect
"Yup! The door was unlocked, but it wouldn\'t open so I peeked from above to confirm it," Conan said.
"The victim is Himeno Yayoi, a 24-years-old freeter..." Megure looked at the dead body. "She had a knife thrust right into her heart. How horrible..." He shook his head.
"Sir! Inspector!" One of the police suddenly said, "The victim\'s neck shows faint signs of strangulation."
They looked at the faint mark on the victim\'s neck.
"Could it be that she was strangled and then stabbed postmortem?"
"No, if she was stabbed postmortem, there wouldn\'t be such a blood spatter pattern..." Megure shook his head. "I guess the culprit only strangled to knock her out, then stabbed her chest with a knife, pulled it out and caused her to die from the blood loss." He wrinkled his eyebrow and said, "It seems reasonable to think so..."
"Ho-how horrid..."
"I guess the witness was nervous from the having been witnessed. It\'s the work of a thief who was after her money.."
"An open stall\'s door and window.."
"Her belongings spread around along with the murderer weapon.."
"An empty wallet.."
"And the victim body blocking the door...."
"The victim got in the window, lurked inside and waited for someone to come in. They attacked Himeno-san who happened to come in, killed her from behind, stole her money, and fled through the window in a rush. That must be what happens," Megure told everyone his conclusion.
"Now, let\'s search for the culprit!!" Megure told everyone until Conan said something.
"Wait a minute, inspector!!"
"Huh?"
Conan pointed his finger at the window, "Look at the window! Isn\'t it too clean?"
"Hmm? Can\'t it be? Isn\'t it better for the bathroom to be clean?" Megure said.
"That\'s not what I mean!!" Conan shook his head.
"It\'s just like what the boy said, Assistant Inspector Megure, oh, you\'re an inspector now," she said.
Megure and Conan turned their heads at the same time.
"Yo-you\'re lawyer Kisaki!!" Megure was surprised but he was more surprised to see him, "YUUKI!! What are you doing here?"
Eri and Yuuki came to the murder scene.
"I can\'t go home, Inspector Megure," Yuuki said with a helpless smile.
Megure shook his head and also felt helpless. They needed to solve this case before letting everyone to go back.
"I\'m going to assist you," Eri said.
They talked about what they did in this cafe and then continued to talk about the case.
"Given the amount of blood the victim had lost, the culprit should have blood splatters on them! And yet the window they used to flee doesn\'t even have a single drop on it! This is unnatural, no matter how you look at it..." Eri said.
"B-but it could also be that they cleaned it off when they fled," he said.
Eri shook her head, "Do you think a culprit who leaves the weapon on the scene and runs off would do that? They left the weapon here because they couldn\'t bring it back with them," Eri adjusted her glasses, "Yes, the culprit is an insider, someone among the clients. They made it like the work of an outsider and simply went back to their seats afterward..."
Her analysis startled everyone.
"Isn\'t that what you want to talk about, boy?" Eri looked at Conan.
Conan gulped his saliva and hid behind Yuuki.
"But, Kisaki-san, the door blocked by the body, and there were no traces of it having been moved either and the adjacent stall has no window."
"How did they get out of the stall without using the window?" Megure was confused.
"There is a way out," Eri said while looking upward, "Above."
Megure looked upward and saw, "The gap? You mean, the gap?" He pointed his finger at the gap, "No way an a.d.u.l.t could fit through that." The gap was too small for a big man to enter.
"You! Please try climbing up there!" Eri said while pointing her finger at Yuuki.
"Me? Do you want me to climb there?" Yuuki twitched his lips.
"Yes! Do it! In the adjacent stall to avoid messing up the crime scene, hurry up and do it!!" Eri was serious.
Yuuki sighed and did what she said. He climbed up and tried to enter the gap but he could only barely enter.
"See!" Eri said with a satisfied smile.
Yuuki felt that Eri\'s personality was a bit like Utaha. He missed her right now. He wanted to touch those beautiful legs along with Yukana and Ranko.
"But if the culprit had blood splattered on them, they would\'ve left the mark when they climbed the stall!" Megure rebutted.
"Those two are separate issues." Eri shook her head, "Unlike the outsider who needs to flee. The insider must make it look like the work of an outsider, or else they will be suspected! They must have a trick to avoid leaving any traces when climbing over the stalls.."
"There is also water to wipe off the blood and toilet paper to wipe it out," Eri said.
"B-but what if someone comes in?" Megure confused.
"There is a lock on the entrance door of this restroom, if you lock the door, this will become a locked room and as such, you wouldn\'t know what anyone did here! ALRIGHT, THE INSPECTOR!! THE CULPRIT IS STILL IN THE STORE!! FIND THEM NOW AND RELEASE THE INNOCENT PEOPLE, WILL YOU!!" Eri shouted.
"Y-yes!!" Megure looked at his subordinates, "HEY INVESTIGATE WHICH CUSTOMERS CAME IN BEFORE THE AND AFTER THE VICTIM!!"
"Ah, I know who it is!" Conan then pointed his finger at each of the customers.
The big man, the person with stubble, the smug bro with his hair tied, then Conan pointed his finger at the only woman.
"This auntie too!" Conan said startled everyone.
Yuuki got a headache since Eri also became the culprit of this case.
"Don\'t worry, I know you\'re not the culprit," Yuuki tapped her shoulder.
Eri snorted at him, "Don\'t worry about me!" She looked away.
Yuuki rubbed his nose wondering why this woman was mad at him.