Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 241 The Neighbor at the Scene is My Ex-Boyfriend (Part 5)

"Of course, Dad hasn't finished writing the final ending yet, and I've only seen the beginning of the conflict. You can just come to my house to see the specific follow-up." The little girl ended the story happily.

Conan was also deeply moved by this story. The code names of the insects and the isolated ice field reminded him of the fight between insects for territory that the entomologist had described to him before.

Perhaps Uncle Orpheus got the inspiration from Aunt Merry's insect experiment, Conan thought. At the same time, Conan also noticed that he had thought the insect on the hairpin in the little girl's hand was a butterfly, but when he looked closely, he found that it was a moth.

Conan thought of something and asked, "Hey, Alice, does Aunt Merry usually use insects to refer to people?"

The little girl pinched her hairpin and replied, "Yes, but Aunt Mary only calls me that to people she's very familiar with. She used to call me Little Moth and said that although I'm brave, I still need protection."

Conan pondered for a moment. He remembered that the insects moths had been included in the research of entomologists before. Was this a coincidence? Or... could that experimental report be alluding to reality?

[Explorer: Honestly, aren't there a lot of people in our manor who like to use various nicknames to refer to others?]

[Reporter: Orpheus is one, and so is Pliny the Lady. Who else?]

[Spellcaster: Kevin Ayuso, who used various animals to refer to our group of people participating in the manor game.]

[Cowboy: Ahem, please forgive me for not having the specialized biological knowledge of some scholars, so the animals I used are all common on the grasslands.]

[First Mate: Your double standards are fully demonstrated at this moment.]

[Painter: I'll say nothing else, if you dare to do that again, I'll never let you go.]

On the other hand, Officer Takagi has completed the handwriting identification of the suicide note and confirmed that the note was indeed written by Chiyoko Itami herself.

Officer Yumei was a little bit incredulous: "Could it be that he was threatened by the prisoner and wrote it down voluntarily?"

"No, because if the notes were so sloppy, the criminal would have asked Ms. Chiyoko to rewrite them," Officer Takagi explained.

"Also, the supermarket's surveillance cameras showed the maid shopping multiple times, so she has an alibi."

Miss Sakurako breathed a sigh of relief after hearing what Officer Takagi said.

"However, the man who went shopping with her, Mr. Itami Naganobu, didn't appear on screen."

Mr. Itami could only helplessly explain again: "I already said I was in the smoking room, so the surveillance camera didn't capture me."

Haneda Hideyoshi then stepped forward and made his own statement: "So, the suspects are the man, the owner, and his son, who claimed to have come here and rang the doorbell, but when no one answered, he went outside to kill time and then returned. And then there's me, who was out at the time of the murder but refused to say where I was."

Officer Yumi was now unhappy: "How come you are so calm as if you are talking about someone else's business?"

"Don't be like this. I was planning to explain where I went later."

"What's wrong? You mean you can't say it in front of me?" Officer Yumi became aggressive. "You're not meeting a woman, are you? That must be it?"

Haneda Hideyoshi immediately retorted: "Really not, didn't I tell you that Yumimi is the only one in my heart?"

Officer Yumi grabbed Haneda Hideyoshi's collar with an unhappy look on her face: "Inspector Megure, why don't you just decide that this is the criminal! Put handcuffs on him right away!"

Even Inspector Megure couldn't stand it any longer: "But, Yumi, the matter hasn't been investigated thoroughly yet."

"Although there are some inexplicable things, when the master and the maid returned from shopping, they heard the door of this bedroom close. It turned out that the mistress had hanged herself in this bedroom."

"And since the suicide note at her feet was written by the hostess herself, we can only treat it as a suicide."

Conan stepped forward at this time: "A prepared step. That suicide note is something like that, right, Mr. Haneda?"

Haneda Hideyoshi reacted and nodded: "Yes."

Officer Yumi also reacted: "Oh, I remember, you just said that sentence, why did you say that? What did it mean?"

Haneda Hideyoshi, however, played dumb at this moment: "Oh, really? Did I really say that?"

However, Conan ignored the two people who were fighting again and continued to talk about his own reasoning: "First, you assume that a certain situation will occur. When that expected situation occurs, you will make a clever move. This is called a prepared move. I saw it on the Internet. It is a term used in chess."

[Little girl: The chess Conan mentioned is their shogi, right?]

[Entomologist: We're more used to playing chess here.]

[Madam Red: I hate playing chess, I've never tried it.]

[Cowboy: Speaking of which, I remember there was a Reversi game table in the residence. Come on, come on, let's play a game.]

[First Mate: I'll do it.]

[Perfumer: These two are incredible. They were arguing just now, and now they're playing together again.]

[Artist: Humph, when he's shaking his watch to save someone and gets hooked by Kevin, he'll start cursing again.]

[Red Butterfly: Is this the case of a tactical watch being punished by a tactical hook?]

After hearing what Conan said, Officer Yumi turned around and asked Haneda Hideyoshi: "Chess terms? How do you know all this?"

"Let's not talk about this for now. First explain why that suicide note was a prepared step." Inspector Megure stepped forward to bring the topic back on track.

Haneda Hideyoshi explained, "Don't you think the contents of that suicide note are strange? The part about the exam is especially strange."

"This son of this family is taking a written test for his driver's license. It shouldn't be the kind of difficult test that someone would write in a suicide note, worrying about him failing."

Mr. Itami explained, "My wife is a worrier. She's worried about my son, who's about to graduate from university, and can't find a job."

The little girl jumped in and asked, "Huh? So, finding a job should be more important than getting a driver's license, right? Then why is this lady not concerned about finding a job, but is instead worried about getting a driver's license?"

Haneda Hideyoshi smiled and said, "What the kid said does make sense. Mr. Jingjie is already a senior student now. If this suicide note was written four years ago to his son who was about to take the college entrance examination, then everything makes sense, doesn't it?"

"That does make sense." Inspector Megure and Officer Takagi responded.

"Four years ago, her niece, who will be seven this year, was only three years old at the time, and she also celebrated Shichigosan."

Ms. Sakurako also added: "My wife showed me the photos from that time, and she said at the time that you can't tell that this kimono is from 40 years ago."

"Could it be that this suicide note was really written four years ago?" Inspector Megure picked up the suicide note again and took a look at it.