Chapter 1484: The Height Difference Incident

On the afternoon of Friday, January 28, on the way to school at Didan High School.

After meeting Conan, Yamazaki, Mei Daiko, Sonoko, and Lan met Officer Takagi's car, so they came forward to watch.

Seeing Officer Takagi get off the car, Conan immediately ran up, "Officer Takagi, what are you doing here?"

"Oh, there is an incident that requires the assistance of the owner of this western restaurant in the investigation."

"Conan." Lan rushed to grab Conan, "Sorry, Officer Takagi."

Watching Police Officer Takagi take away a middle-aged man with a cast on his foot, everyone continued to go home. ...

Saturday, January 29, morning, Maori Detective Agency.

Officer Takagi came to look for Mori, "Mr. Mori, can you help me sort out an incident?"

"Of course." Mori said, and asked Ran to call Yamazaki.

"Is it the incident yesterday?" Conan was very excited, and there was another difficult incident.

"Yes." Officer Takagi replied. ...

The day before yesterday, that is, around six o'clock in the evening on Thursday, a small factory owner named Katsugoro Kitamura was killed in his office.

"It was already off work at that time, so the body of President Kitamura was only found the next day, that is, yesterday morning." Police officer Takagi said, "According to our investigation of the factory employees, President Kitamura stayed in the factory that night because he was in contact with a man named Meet the owner of Yuichi Minamida's western restaurant."

Lan asked, "Is that the western restaurant owner you took away yesterday?"

"Yes." Officer Takagi said, "It has been confirmed from President Kitamura's employees that the shop owner Nantian owes President Kitamura 3 million yen, and President Kitamura wants a piece of land from Shopkeeper Nantian, which is in Kitamura Next to the president’s workshop, so that the president of Beicun can expand the land area, and the light processing industry engaged in by the president of Beicun’s factory basically has no land pollution, and then he can find a way to convert the entire land from industrial land to Commercial land, or mixed-use land, can turn factories into shopping malls and make a fortune."

"This abacus is really good." Maori said, "But I also lost my life because of it."

"Yes, in this murder case, the suspect is clear, and the suspect's motive for killing the victim is also clear," Police Officer Takagi said with a wry smile, "But the method of committing the crime is a bit troublesome."

"What kind of method?" Conan asked.

"Using the height difference." Officer Takagi said, "For details, let's go to the scene and talk about it."

"Okay, let's go," Molly said. ...

The scene, the office of the president of Katsugoro Kitamura.

The white line representing the body indicated that someone died here, and there was a large pool of blood on the chest, which had turned black, and the smell of blood was still a bit pungent, as if a ghost was staying there.

"The owner of Yuichi Nantian is a person with a criminal record," Police Officer Takagi said. "About ten years ago, he was involved in a murder case. He was once regarded as an important suspect until the police caught the murderer."

Maori asked: "What is the connection between that incident and this incident?"

"At that time, the prosecutor had already prosecuted the Nantian shopkeeper, but the defense lawyer produced evidence. The angle of the wound on the victim's body proved that the Nantian shopkeeper's figure could not kill people from that angle, and we arrested him. In the end, the murderer proved this point." Officer Takagi said, "And this murder also took advantage of the height difference."

"What kind of height difference is that?" Conan asked.

"That's right, Mr. Yamazaki, please do me a favor."

Police officer Takagi took Yamazaki to move two dolls from outside, "These two dolls represent the president of Kitamura and the owner of Nantian. The height of president Kitamura is 166 cm, and the height of shopkeeper Nantian is 186 cm."

"The difference is twenty centimeters." Lan said.

"but,

President Kitamura's knife is at a very low angle," said Officer Takagi, "so low that only a person about 110 centimeters tall can stab him from that angle. "

"110 centimeters high?" Lan asked suspiciously, "That's only for children."

"That's easy," Maori said, "just a flick of the wrist, not a stab, but an upward thrust."

"President Kitamura was stabbed in the front, and he himself is a judo master. Shopkeeper Nantian doesn't know much about martial arts, and his foot was injured a week ago, and he is still wearing a plaster cast. We have already confirmed this." Officer Takagi said. , "So it is impossible for Nantian shopkeeper to attack President Kitamura from the front."

"Oh, that's interesting." Maori thought.

Yamazaki said: "Let's restore the scene."

"Is it the triangular ladder in the corner?" Conan said, "President Kitamura stands on it, and Mr. Nantian sits on the ground."

"That's right, that's it." Officer Takagi smiled, "Conan, you are really smart."

Looking at Maori's unfriendly eyes, Conan said with a dry smile, "This is all taught by Uncle Maori."

Police officer Takagi put the doll representing the president Katsugoro Kitamura on the triangular ladder, and let the doll representing the shop owner Yuichi Minamida sit on the ground in a sitting position.

Put a knife in the hand of the puppet representing Yuichi Nanda, representing the murder weapon, an ordinary kitchen knife.

"The situation at that time should be like this." Officer Takagi said.

"Now that it's clear," Maori asked, "what's the problem?"

"That's the evidence, Mr. Mori." Officer Takagi smiled wryly, "This scene is only guessed, and we have no evidence to prove this scene at all."

Maori asked: "This triangular ladder..."

"This is a substitute. The real one is in the Metropolitan Police Department. It was in the corner at the time. There was no blood or fingerprints on it, so we can't be sure that President Kitamura was killed standing on it." Officer Takagi said with a wry smile, "On the murderous knife." There is also no fingerprint of Shopkeeper Nantian, so we can only prove that Shopkeeper Nantian has been here, but there is no way to prove that Shopkeeper Nantian murdered President Kitamura here.”

"So that's the case." Mao Li smiled, "Then take out all the photos of the scene and see what else you find."

Police officer Takagi took out the photos of the scene, "President Katsugoro Kitamura wore a pair of glasses on his face, they were a pair of reading glasses, and he didn't wear shoes on his feet, so we thought he was climbing on the triangular ladder at that time. Looking at something, based on this speculation, the restoration of the scene was carried out.”

"Then what would he do standing on the ladder?" Lan looked at the ceiling.

"There are only lights on it, but we didn't find fingerprints." Officer Takagi said.

"That is to say, the murderer passed away afterwards." Mao Li said.

"The murderer should have also stepped on the triangular ladder," Conan said, "so the triangular ladder passed after that."

"There was an element of coincidence in this incident," Yamazaki said.

"How do you say that?" Officer Takagi asked.

"I don't know whether it was the luck of Mr. Yuichi Minamita or the misfortune of Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura. After Mr. Kitamura was stabbed on the triangular ladder, not a single drop of blood splashed on the ladder, nor did it fall on the ground. The blood dripping from everywhere." Yamazaki said, "This leads to the lack of an important link in this incident, that is, it is impossible to prove that Mr. Kitamura was attacked on the ladder, and there is no way to prove that Mr. Nantian was sitting on the ground. "

"It seems to be true," Lan said.

"That's right," Police Officer Takagi said with a wry smile, "That's why I want to ask Mr. Mori for help."

Yamazaki shook his head, and slipped away with the excuse that it was late and he was going home for dinner.

The job of a detective is to sort out the messy clues. It is not a fairy who is born out of nothing. Now there is nothing on the key evidence. No matter how many clues are found, it is not enough to prove anything. We can only start from the prisoner.

What we are now looking for is a psychologist. If this cannot break through the prisoner's defenses, it will be useless. Even if a prosecutor tries to prosecute the prisoner for the sake of justice, it will be useless, because any lawyer can argue that the evidence is insufficient. The breakthrough left the prosecutor speechless. ...

At noon, Miyamoto's house.

During Mei Daiko's breakfast and other people's lunch, Yamazaki talked about the incident between Kitamura Katsugoro and Minamida Yuichi.

"It sounds a bit weird." Mei Daizi laughed.

Miko Miyamoto thought for a while and asked: "What do you think is the reason why the knife was inserted into the chest but no blood splashed out, which can cause this result?"

Mei Daizi said: "There is no blood groove on the knife."

Yamazaki said: "The amount of bleeding at that moment, the oozing and splashing blood, happened to be absorbed by the tight underwear and loose coat that Mr. Kitamura Katsugoro was wearing, and at the same time Mr. Kitamura Katsugoro fell backwards, so a drop of blood None dripped onto the triangular ladder."

"There are two." Miko Miyamoto said, "There is one more."

Seeing that Yamazaki and Mei Daizi didn't think about it for a moment, Ichiro Miyamoto said, "Hands steady."

"By the way, it's a steady hand." Mei Daizi said, "If the knife doesn't move, there won't be more bleeding space."

"Do you still remember the entrance murder incident published in the newspaper a few days ago?" Miko Miyamoto said, "The blood of the deceased was splashed out, and the prisoner prepared two raincoats for this."

"Mr. Yuichi Nantian is the owner of a western restaurant, so he knows how to hold a knife, and he has made up his mind, so he does not show mercy or hesitation," Yamazaki imagined. At that time, Mr. Yuichi Minamida, who was sitting on the ground, suddenly got into trouble, and stabbed Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura in the chest above him with a knife. The bleeding from the knife was sucked away by Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura's clothes. Not a single drop of blood fell."

"Wait," Mei Daizi swallowed the food in her mouth, "If the prisoner prepared two raincoats in the previous incident, what did the prisoner prepare for this incident? As long as you find this, you should be able to solve the case."

"That's a good idea." Miko Miyamoto smiled, "However, in this incident, except for the murder, everything else has an element of coincidence."

"How could it be?" Mei Daizi said, "It should be that the prisoner tampered with the lamp, so the victim would climb the ladder."

"If the light doesn't turn on, do you have to fix it?" Miyamoto Miko said with a smile, "I remember that the chandelier in your bedroom is broken, and it usually takes a few days before you remember to ask someone to fix it."

"That's different." Mei Daizi said, "I have a desk lamp and a wall lamp."

"I think the same." Miko Miyamoto said, "Different from the incident published in the newspaper, in this incident, only the time of committing the crime is scheduled."

"Indeed, everything was calculated for killing the person who answered the door." Yamazaki said, "And there are many accidents and coincidences in this incident."

"I don't understand." Mei Daizi said.

Miko Miyamoto asked, "Do you know why the criminal committed the crime after get off work?"

"What?" Mei Daizi bit her chopsticks and thought, "Because it was only him and the victim at that time, because there was no one else after get off work."

"Very good." Miko Miyamoto asked, "And then?"

Mei Daizi thought for a while, "I don't understand."

"Then he has plenty of time to clean up the aftermath," Yamazaki said.

"That's right, he's the only one." Mei Daizi said.

"So, unlike killing at the door, Mr. Nantian Yuichi doesn't need to prepare anything at all. Just bring your determination, knife, and brain. No matter what the situation is after Mr. Kitamura Katsugoro is killed, he will have it all. It’s time to clean up the aftermath at night,” Yamazaki said, “The only thing to pay attention to is that if Mr. Kitamura Katsugoro cannot be killed with one knife, Mr. Nanada Yuichi will be in trouble, because he was already injured, so this knife, Mr. Nanada Yuichi It must have been envisioned many times, from various angles.”

"Well, that's true." Mei Daizi said, and then asked, "Wait, did his leg injury happen on purpose?"

"It shouldn't be, it should be just a coincidence." Yamazaki said, "Although being injured can make people relax their vigilance, being injured can also affect actions."

"There are so many coincidences." Mei Daizi said.

"If you lose your horse, you don't know it's a disaster." Miko Miyamoto said.

"The first coincidence of this incident is timing." Yamazaki said, "If Mr. Nantian Yuichi did the hands and feet on the lamp, it must be when Mr. Nanada Yuichi was alone in the office, that is to say, when Nanada When Mr. Yuichi went to see Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura, Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura asked Mr. Yuichi Minamida to wait for him in the office alone, and he was..."

"Check his workshop," Mei Daizi laughed, "just like our restaurant is closed."

"Mr. Yuichi Nantian happened to have experienced a murder related to the height difference. He must have a deep memory of that incident and never forget it when he was murdered on the spot." Yamazaki said, "So when he was alone in the office, he had an idea. Tricked the lighting to try and create a favorable situation."

"Understood, and coincidentally, the victim really went to fix the lamp," Mei Daizi said, "Oh, maybe he was the one who encouraged it."

"Then, Mr. Yuichi Minamita killed Mr. Katsugoro Kitamura with a single knife. Coincidentally, no blood dripped out, which saved a lot of things." Yamazaki said, "And because of this, there is no sufficient evidence for the whole incident. "

"Yeah, I understand now." Mei Daizi said. ...

In the evening, Mei Dai Restaurant.

Mori came over for a drink and brought new news about the incident by the way. Kitamura Katsugoro's employees said that he was very hands-on. If the lamps were broken, he usually fixed them by himself.

So it must have been Yuichi Minamida who broke the lamp, induced Katsugoro Kitamura to climb up the triangular ladder, and then gave him the knife.

Yamazaki is speechless. The important thing is not to prove whether Kitamura Katsugoro stepped on the triangular ladder to repair the lamps. What is important is to prove whether Kitamura Katsugoro was assassinated on the triangular ladder.

And as long as there is no blood on the triangular ladder, it cannot be determined that Katsugoro Kitamura was assassinated on the triangular ladder. ...