The Grammatical Investigator in Conan

"Keito Hotta is dead?"

Being too surprised, Qin Zhibo repeated the content on the phone.

This sentence also attracted Sera Masumi and Koshimizu Nanatsuki across the table. The two of them suppressed their smiles and cast concerned glances.

"Is it suicide?" Qin Zhibo asked.

"No...it can be confirmed that it was homicide, but the specific cause of death cannot be determined yet."

Mu Mu's tone paused, "...Brother Qin, you'd better come over and take a look."

"Where is the scene?"

"You should know exactly where it is in the hotel room where Keito Hotta is staying, right?"

"Yeah, I'll be there soon."

Qin Zhibo hung up the phone and immediately fell into thinking.

Since Megure contacted him and knew that he knew the location of Keito Hotta's hotel, it meant that they had already conducted a preliminary survey of the scene and had also contacted the Nichimai TV program team to understand the situation.

In this case, the police have not determined the cause of death, and it seems that the problem is indeed somewhat difficult.

At this time, Shiliang, who was sitting opposite, asked seriously: "Uncle Qin, what's going on?"

Qin Zhibo picked up the coat hanging on the back of the chair and explained, "Keito Hotta died in the hotel room. It was a homicide..."

"Kill him?"

Sera Masumi and Koshimi Nanatsuki's eyes widened with even more surprised expressions.

Keito Hotta was killed?

Could it be that the TV program broadcast in the evening caused him to be revenged by his enemies?

But just over an hour has passed, and the enemy seems to be a little more efficient in seeking revenge...

"Uncle Qin, wait a minute, let's go together too!"

Sera and Koshimi Nanatsuki put on their coats and prepared to follow.

Qin Zhibo glanced at the two of them, "You guys?"

"Don't underestimate us!"

"We are both detectives after all!"

Koshizui Nanatsuki also nodded seriously and agreed: "And this matter has something to do with us, so we should go to the scene and take a look."

Looking at Seriang and Yueshui who looked serious, Qin Zhibo thought about it for a while and couldn't find a reason to refute, so he could only agree.

…

The hotel where Keito Hotta stayed was on the other side of the Nippon TV building. Qin Zhibo drove to his destination in 15 minutes.

As soon as I entered the lobby on the first floor of the hotel, I saw that a large number of reporters had arrived and were trying their best to search for exclusive news.

Originally, if a low-level detective like Hotta Kaito died, so many people would not pay attention at all.

But he had just appeared on TV, and various newspapers were compiling tomorrow's news based on his perjury and burying corpses, when they suddenly received news of Hotta Keito's death.

Which newspaper wouldn't want to take a share of this kind of program effect that can be called a "top-notch contemporary newspaper"?

However, due to the obstruction from the police and the hotel, these reporters could not go up to disturb the investigation of the case. They could only wait for the people from the search section to come down, and then blocked them for interviews.

Qin Zhibo and the others went around to the staff elevator on the side of the hotel, and after identifying themselves, they went up without being discovered.

Taking the elevator to the floor of Keito Hotta's room, he saw that the corridor with a radius of 10 meters from the door had been cordoned off.

Takagi was standing next to the cordon. When he saw Qin Zhibo coming, he immediately raised the cordon to greet him.

"Mr. Qin, Officer Mu Mu is waiting in the room..."

Takagi glanced at the two girls behind Qin Zhibo. One was Shiliang, whom he had just met today, and was Qin Zhibo's disciple.

I don't know the other one.

"Mr. Qin, who is this?"

In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Qin Zhibo replied directly: "She is also my disciple."

Koshizui Nanatsuki didn't feel dissatisfied at all. He smiled and raised his hand and said hello, "Hello, my name is Koshizui Nanatsuki. Please give me your advice."

"ah?"

Takagi looked at the two female disciples following Qin Zhibo, both of whom were young and beautiful, and couldn't help but feel envious of the detective profession.

Of course, if you want this kind of treatment, you must also be at the level of a top detective.

Otherwise, like Hotta Keito, the end may be somewhat unpleasant.

"Officer Takagi, can we go in?"

Qin Zhibo's words interrupted the stunned Takagi, who quickly came to his senses and said, "Well, please follow me."

Under the leadership of Takagi, the three people passed through the heavily guarded corridor unimpeded and arrived at the murder scene.

As soon as he entered the room, Mu Mu was staring at the corpse in a daze with his hands behind his back.

And the body of Keito Hotta is even more unusual.

I saw Keito Hotta tied to a chair, his eyes widened, some drool dripping from the corner of his slightly opened mouth, and his head tilted to his left shoulder.

Now Keito Hotta has truly become the "soul detective" he dreamed of.

Such a way of death was obviously homicide.

The murderer was not hiding, but why did Mu Mu say he couldn't determine the way of death?

At this time, Mu Mu noticed someone coming from behind him and looked back, just in time to see Brother Qin, whom he was "thinking about day and night".

"Brother Qin, you are finally here..."

"Eh? Who are these two people at the back?"

Like Takagi, Megure also raised his own questions.

"They are my disciples." Qin Zhibo replied.

"Disciple?" Mumu was stunned for a moment, "But isn't your disciple the young man with golden hair from before?"

Megure was talking about Toru Amuro. Because Toru Amuro had been involved in several previous cases, he wrote them down.

Qin Zhibo smiled, "That's my eldest disciple, and the two of them are the second and third disciples..."

"By the way, where is the case going now?"

Qin Zhibo brought the topic back to the case, and Megure then signaled to Takagi next to him with his eyes.

Takagi took out the police manual in his arms and introduced it seriously.

It turned out that the police received the call at 6:50 in the evening.

The caller was the hotel staff, who found the body of Kaito Horita when they were replenishing the room supplies...

Qin Zhibo turned his head and glanced at the clock hanging in the room. It was 7:40 now.

The "Unsolved Cases" program was broadcast at 6:30 in the evening.

However, because Kaito Horita was worried about being blocked by reporters or police, he hurriedly left the TV station before the program was fully recorded.

That is to say, he was killed not long after the program was broadcast.

And judging from the luggage scattered on the bed and the half-packed luggage bag, he originally planned to run away.

Megure then introduced: "We have already seen the content of that program, so we immediately investigated the director of Nichimi TV."

"However, when the case happened, he was at the TV station dealing with the follow-up of the program. His colleagues testified throughout the process and he had sufficient proof of his absence."

"In addition, Kaito Horida had previously excavated a total of 5 bodies of missing persons, three of which have been identified, and one of them is the director's sister..."

Takagi took the police manual and continued: "The relatives of the other two bodies have just been investigated. One of the families is not in Tokyo now and does not meet the conditions for committing the crime."

"Although the other family is in Tokyo, they did not watch the evening program and did not know about Kaito Horida."

Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, "In other words, the possibility of revenge killing caused by the content of the program has been basically ruled out..."

Qin Zhibo walked to Kaito Horida's body, seemingly observing the body, but actually starting the automatic investigation.

[Corpse investigation√]

[Name of the deceased: Kaito Horita]

[Time of death: 1 hour ago]

[Cause of death: poisoning]

[Corpse investigation completed, character skills obtained: Art and Crafts (Performance)]

[Obtain duplicate skills, converted to 1000 proficiency of this skill]

Kaito Horita studied day and night how to make psychic communication look more realistic, and finally it was reflected at this moment.

With the help of this 1000 proficiency, Qin Zhibo's performance skill was successfully upgraded to level 3.

At the same time, the system's task prompt popped up.

[Side quest: Find out the murderer of this case]

[Task requirements: require the murderer to be found and captured alive]

[Task reward: 3000 general skill proficiency]

Qin Zhibo glanced at the task requirements and immediately realized that something was wrong.

This task is different from the previous case branches. Not only is there no time limit, but the murderer must be captured alive.

And the task reward is much higher than that of ordinary cases.

You should know that the general Blizzard Mountain Villa mode only has a reward of 1000.

Could it be that the murderer this time is very unusual?

At this moment, Nanatsuki Koshimizu stood behind Kaito Horita's body, looked at the back of Kaito Horita's head and said: "You can see bleeding spots at this position of the deceased. He must have suffered trauma before his death, right?"

Takagi looked at the position pointed by Nanatsuki Koshimizu and quickly introduced: "The forensic department has found that position, but it is not a fatal injury."

"The murderer should have knocked Mr. Horita unconscious from behind, and then tied him to a chair..."

"But other than that, no other injuries were found on the deceased."

The corpse investigation is not good at this point. It can only feedback the real cause of death, and other injuries are selectively ignored.

Qin Zhibo came behind the body, took a look at the injury on the back of Kaito Horita's head, and then looked at the half-packed luggage bag on the bed. A "Xiao Hei" automatically appeared in his mind and restored the process of the crime.

"The deceased was probably knocked unconscious by someone behind him while packing his luggage by the bed."

"From the position by the bed, the murderer must have been hiding in the closet in advance, just in time to attack the deceased from behind."

As soon as Qin Zhibo finished speaking, Sera Masumi raised her chin and analyzed seriously.

"The murderer knew that Kaito Horida would return to the hotel after recording the show, so he ambushed in the closet in advance."

"In this case, the murderer's motive for killing Kaito Horida has nothing to do with the broadcast of the show."

"And from the fact that Kaito Horida was tied up, the murderer did not kill him immediately, and it is possible that he asked something..."

Koshimizu Nanatsuki also said: "And the final method of killing is also somewhat suspicious..."

Although the result of the body investigation was poisoning, the specific poison used was not marked.

And the forensic department could not find any toxic reactions...

Qin Zhibo raised his chin, and a thoughtful look flashed in his eyes.

If it is possible that Horida Kaito was killed for some reason, there is another possibility.

That is, he once said that he knew the inside story of the Haneda Hiroshi case.

The Haneda Hiroshi case is an important case related to the organization. Horida Kaito's original plan was to discuss this case on TV, but he temporarily changed it to the Lavender Villa case.

Although from what he learned from Furukuri Sanpei, what Horida Kaito knew was not a big clue at all.

But the organization is likely to silence him out of caution.

If you think about it from this perspective, the poison used is easy to guess.

APTX-4869.

Only this thing can kill people invisible and cannot be detected by the police's toxicology test.

In this case, the murderer should be someone in the organization...

"Report!"

Suddenly, a policeman came to the door and reported, "Officer Megure, our staff at the hotel found the staff member who saw the appearance of the suspected murderer."

"What?!"

Mu Mu's face lit up, "Where are the others?"

The policeman stepped aside, and an elderly female cleaning lady appeared at the door.

"That's a man, with long black hair, wearing black clothes..."

"Because his hat was pulled down very low, I couldn't see his face clearly."

This vague introduction made Mu Mu, who was originally a little excited, immediately dwindle.

"this……"

"Then if you see that person again, will you still recognize him?"

"Ah?" The cleaning lady was stunned, then nodded after thinking for a few seconds, "I don't know, maybe I can try..."

The cleaning staff's ambiguous answers may even be regarded as invalid witnesses in court.

And even if I try to find a suspect now, I can't find one.

Faced with this kind of situation where he just ran away after committing a crime, Mu Mu felt a little acclimatized.

But Qin Zhibo already had some clues after listening to the cleaning lady's description.

With black hair and medium-long hair, Qin Zhibo first thought of that person.

Scotch!

Since Gin's death, Scotch seems to have taken over Gin's job, and assassination is naturally his job.

If this is the case, there is a way to confirm whether it is him or not.

All you have to do is ask Tohru Amuro to bring you an old photo of Scotch Whiskey and ask the cleaning lady to identify it.

But ordinary police officers like Megure cannot know about this matter.

"Officer Megure, since this case is not directly related to the content of the show, I don't have any good ideas."

"The only idea now is to investigate who Hotta Kai has offended during his lifetime. Of course, we can also start investigating from the people affected by his 'psychic technique'..."

"Then I'll take my leave now. Remember to contact me if there is any progress."

Qin Zhibo pointed out a conventional investigation line to Mu Mu, and then left the scene.

…

After leaving the hotel, Qin Zhibo drove Koshimizu Nanatsuki back to the apartment.

"Bye-Bye!"

"Bye~"

The two women parted reluctantly at the door of the apartment building.

Qin Zhibo sat in the car and waited until Shiliang returned to the car and sat in the passenger seat.

But just when he was about to send Sera home, a wise smile appeared on Sera's lips.

"Uncle Qin, this case should be related to that organization, right?"