usatvline Chapter 459: Research on the Abyss (Part 9)
Chapter 459: Research on the Abyss (Part 9)
Conan and Sera Masumi, who have keen hearing, quickly trotted to the crime scene. Before Sera Masumi could squat down to analyze the scene, the second scream followed.
[Photographer: Philip, what kind of horrible student have you taught?]
[Wax Artist: I swear I didn't intentionally lead that person toward murder.]
[Dream Witch: Oh my, you got a double kill so quickly? Let me see what kind of person you are.]
[Yellow Lord: It seems someone has brought fungal silk into the venue. Those present, please be careful.]
[Lucky guy: Thanks for the reminder!]
Conan immediately rushed to the scene and saw another man strangled to death in a pile of empty cardboard boxes in the utility room. A ticket marked with the Leo astrological symbol was scattered next to the body. The person who screamed was a staff member who had come here to put away the debris with a cart.
"Isn't this Mr. Watanabe? He, he, I saw him buying some of Miss Yoko's peripherals half an hour ago." The frightened staff member said in horror, pointing at the corpse on the ground.
"Don't just stand there, call the police!" At Sera Masumi's reminder, someone at the scene finally came to their senses and started calling the police.
Inspector Megure arrived at the scene with a cavalcade of clattering police cars. Seeing Kogoro Mori present, this hardworking member of the Metropolitan Police Department couldn't help but silently grumble, "You plague god! Wherever you go, there's a murder! I never thought you'd even bother with your idol's concert!"
Despite all the complaints, Inspector Megure still began investigating the scene and collecting evidence as usual.
"The deceased are lighting designer Shinya Inoue and prop master Junsawa Watanabe. The causes of death are excessive blood loss and suffocation, respectively. Mr. Inoue died within an hour, while Mr. Watanabe died more than an hour later."
"No murder weapon was found at the scene. We don't know how the murderer managed to cut Mr. Inoue in half, and the rope used to strangle Mr. Watanabe has not been found either..."
Sera Masumi interrupted Inspector Megure and said, "No, the murder weapon that killed Mr. Inoue should be obvious."
Conan played along and said, "Oh, Mr. Inoue's body was found hanging in the vent. A monster must have bitten off Mr. Inoue's lower body while he was climbing the duct."
Mr. Inoue's body was badly damaged, his waist was almost crushed into pieces of flesh, the scene was quite horrific, and blood was still dripping from the vent when he was discovered.
"So it should be the fan blades that made Mr. Inoue's waist look like this. Are there any rotating blades in this vent?" Kogoro Mouri's brain turned around for once.
The director hurried over and said, "Yes, we have specially set up vents in the smoking room to suck away the smoke, and there are indeed fans inside."
"But no one in their right mind would think of crawling into a vent," Lucky scratched his head. "Could it be that the murderer wanted to hide the body, so they stuffed Mr. Inoue into the vent, and then the fan activated, slicing Mr. Inoue's waist?"
"If that's the case, the fan blades that served as the murder weapon should be found at the scene." Sera Masumi climbed up the ladder and looked at the ventilation duct that was empty with only some blood stains, expressing helplessness.
"And the weapon that strangled Mr. Watanabe was not a rope, but that thing." Sera Masumi suddenly pointed at Lucky.
Lucky was shocked and pointed at himself: "What? I'm the murder weapon? Oh no! I heard that the murder weapon will be confiscated. I won't stay in the Metropolitan Police Department for the rest of my life, will I? Wuwuwu, no!"
Conan immediately showed his half-moon eyes: Hey, hey, you are overacting, who would think of himself as a weapon?
Inspector Megure was speechless. "First of all, you are a person, not a weapon. Secondly, you are not long and narrow, how could you strangle someone to death? And with your small body, how could you possibly commit the crime alone?"
"Oh, that's right." Lucky pushed up his glasses. "What was the murder weapon?"
Sera Masumi, equally speechless, ran over to Lucky and removed the towel hanging from his neck. "The weapon used to strangle Mr. Watanabe was this type of towel. Since it can be tied around the head as a cheering bandana, it's not surprising that it could be used to strangle someone. The murderer might even have stacked several towels together for added strength."
"Anyway, we only need to check if there are any fibers on the deceased's neck that are similar to those on the towel to know whether this is the murder weapon."
"Next, let's look at the order in which the two individuals died. According to the autopsy report, Mr. Watanabe died first, followed by Mr. Inoue. However, we discovered Mr. Inoue's body first... and the ticket was left next to it."
The opera singer was pacing not far from the crowd, seemingly thinking about something. Conan saw her and approached her: "Ms. Sangria, have you found anything?"
"It's not really a discovery, it's just that when I saw the constellation symbols, I thought about the stories behind them."
"Mr. Inoue's is Capricorn. Legend has it that at a banquet of the gods, the monster Typhon suddenly appeared. To escape, the gods split into various animals. Only Pan, the shepherd god, escaped. Because his upper body remained on the shore while his lower body had already touched the river, he was transformed into a bizarre creature with the upper body of a goat and the lower body of a fish."
"Mr. Watanabe's Leo is probably more well-known. Its prototype is the Nemaean Lion, one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules. It has invulnerable fur, but in the end, it was strangled to death by Hercules."
"So I'm wondering if the way these two people died corresponds to the legends of the constellations. This might help us analyze the murderer's motive."
As expected of someone from the Oritis Manor, he knew all this mythological knowledge so well. Conan sighed inwardly. He felt that what the opera singer said made sense. Since the murderer left the tickets with the constellation symbols at the scene, it proved that the two cases were definitely premeditated.
Inspector Megure soon brought over the three suspects in the case, namely fashion designer Ms. Tsuruko Minegami, screenwriter Mr. Yota Shimada, and financial officer Ms. Kazumi Tani.
According to the police's questioning of the staff, these three people had more or less some conflicts with the two deceased.
Ms. Minaoue was harassed many times by the lighting designer Mr. Inoue, and she often walked around Mr. Watanabe while working, even though as a costume designer she should have communicated with the props master; Mr. Shimada often went against these two when arranging the script, as if he was maliciously increasing their workload; Ms. Tani and Mr. Watanabe had a big conflict, and it was said that Mr. Watanabe once reported that she had falsified financial statements in order to make money.
All three of them had legitimate reasons to attack the two men, but the real murderer was unknown. Conan looked them up and down. Miss Linghangi seemed unwell and coughed from time to time; Mr. Shimada looked nervous and sweaty; Miss Yanaka looked calm and showed no emotion.