The famous criminal in Conan's world

They saw a bottle!

The bottle was very small, probably only as big as a film box of a camera, and the body of the bottle was made of plastic.

The cap of the bottle was made of metal, and it was not a push-on type, but needed to be twisted and turned to open. There was also a small"o"-shaped ring on the top of the bottle cap, as if it was for the bottle to be put on something.

At this time, the cap was twisted and locked.

And the most important thing, what Inspector Megure wanted everyone to see was not the bottle, but - there was a key in the bottle!

Although the bottle was small, if it were smaller, now it would be safely placed in the bottle.

"The door of this hotel is very unique. It cannot be locked by itself. In other words, the door can only be locked with a key or by locking it from inside."

Inspector Megure said in a deep voice

"So, this, this is..............？"

Shiratori Renzaburo asked in shock.

"That's right,"

Inspector Megure confirmed their thoughts.

"This is the key to the door of President Murakami's room!"

Bai Masong raised his eyebrows.

"are you sure?"

"There's nothing wrong with that,"

Officer Megure explained.

"They have a very good sense of on-site protection. I came here and took out the key myself and tried it. It matches the door. This is the key to the room!"

"In addition to this key and the key in the manager's hand, is there no other spare key for this room?"

Bai Masong asked the manager directly.

If there are other spare keys, this room cannot be a secret room, so this is the first question Bai Masong should ask.

"Ah, yes, our hotel rooms have only two keys."

The manager replied

"Then, Manager, do you always carry your keys with you?"

Sato Miwako asked. This is another possibility, that the manager's keys were stolen.

However, the manager shook his head.

"I have my keys with me all day."

"Is it possible that someone stole the key several days in advance, made a backup, and then put it back?"

Shiratori Renzaburo then proposed a hypothesis.

But the manager shook his head again.

"That shouldn't be the case. These four guests just checked in today.................."

Everyone understood what the manager meant.

Since the deceased moved in today, no one knew which room he would stay in.

"After all, we have five or six suites of the same style in our hotel."

After the manager finished speaking, he completely stopped everyone's idea of having an extra key.

However, since there was no extra key, how did the murderer lock the door after he went out?

This question has now appeared in everyone's mind.

Bai Masong became interested. This case was indeed a typical closed-room murder case.

Moreover, he looked around and his eyes were focused on the bottle containing the key.

Just based on this, it was already more complicated than the closed-room murder in the bathroom!

Thinking of this, Bai Masong began his investigation.

The first thing he saw was the window. In addition to the door, the window is also a common trick in closed rooms. In this room, there was no window in the living room, and only the bedroom had a sliding window.

The window was very large, extending from the floor to the ceiling. Coincidentally, it was in a straight line with the bedroom door and the body lying on the ground. However

, although the window was very large, it was in the form of a lattice window, that is, it was composed of grids, but each of its grids was very small.

Bai Masong looked at the window, then looked at the key in the bottle on the ground, thinking about something.

"Don't look, the grid is smaller than the key, the key can't pass through the grid window."

The short-haired woman seemed to see Bai Masong's thoughts and spoke first.

Bai Masong turned his head and looked over.

The short-haired woman smiled at Bai Masong and said,

"Before the police arrived, I had already checked the manager's spare key against the window, and it didn't work."

She added,

"The manager's spare key is the same as the original key."

After listening to the short-haired woman's words, Bai Masong gave up thinking about the window and walked to the outside of the living room door.

He lowered his head, leaned over, and looked under the door.

However, before looking under the door, Bai Masong first looked at the surrounding blankets.

The floor of the hotel was covered with blankets, and the blankets were divided by the rooms and corridors.

The carpets in the corridor were relatively high, about seven centimeters, and the carpets in the rooms were very low, only about one centimeter high.

After looking at the blankets, Bai Masong looked under the door and found a small gap under the door.

Bai Masong looked at the gap in front of him and thought of the plastic bottle in the bedroom.

He wanted to know if the plastic bottle could pass through the gap, so he immediately thought of picking up the plastic bottle and trying it.

At this time, it was the short-haired woman again. She stopped Bai Masong,

"No need to try, the bottles are sold in the hotel. I have tried the same bottle before you came."

"It's very difficult, or almost impossible to put the bottle in."

Bai Masong's thoughts were interrupted, so he could only think from another direction.

He thought for a while and asked the short-haired woman again,

"Have you ever thought about putting the key from the outside into the bottle?"

The short-haired woman shrugged and said helplessly,

"I have thought about this problem. Just put the key in the bottle and use something like silk thread to do it, but.................."

"But I couldn't screw the bottle cap on.

Bai Masong took over the woman's words.

"Indeed." The short-haired woman said.

Bai Masong turned to the door again, looked at the lock inside the door, and said lightly,

"The door lock inside the door also needs a key to lock it."

The short-haired woman quickly followed Bai Masong's thoughts and said,

"Therefore, it is impossible to put the key in the plastic bottle first and then lock the door with a mechanism such as a silk thread."

""Yes." Bai Masong nodded.

The two of them asked and answered, almost ignoring the others present. Of course, the others couldn't keep up with their thinking. For some reason, Sato Miwako looked at them and felt a little jealous. She asked the short-haired woman,

"Madam, I wonder if you are............"

The short-haired woman smiled and scratched her head embarrassedly.

"I forgot to introduce myself to the police officers. My name is Nanatsuki Koshimizu and I’m from Fukuoka."