"If the killer isn't President Anton…"
Zhu Yuan turned her gaze to the other two suspects.
"Seth, then who do you think the killer is?"
As Zhu Yuan's gaze swept over them, Kurofuji and Nojiri, who had been standing together, quickly distanced themselves.
"It's him! It must be Nojiri! He failed to collect the debt, held a grudge, and attacked the President when he wasn't prepared! He has a history of violence!" Secretary Kurofuji pushed up his glasses and said with certainty.
Nojiri Masakawa flew into a rage and grabbed Kurofuji's collar.
"Nonsense! You bastard, are you trying to frame me? I think it's you who retaliated and killed him because Yamazaki owed you three months' salary!"
The two accused each other, spitting all over, and the scene became chaotic.
Seth's voice rang out again, interrupting their argument.
"Calm down, gentlemen. The killer is neither of you. The real killer… is the deceased lying on the ground, Yamazaki Naoto himself."
"What?!"
"Su… suicide?!"
"Officer Seth, have you also been infected by Officer Qing Yi?" Mouri Kogoro couldn't help but question again, pointing at Yamazaki's corpse, "President Yamazaki was stabbed eight times in the back! How could this possibly be suicide?!"
Conan rolled his eyes and, holding his voice-changing bowtie, continued.
"Normally, this would indeed be impossible. But with President Yamazaki's meticulous planning, it became possible."
"Everyone, please look. In this room, there are two obvious anomalies: one is the air conditioner running on heat even in midsummer, and the other is the water stains on the carpet, far exceeding the bloodstains."
"Combined with the victim's face-up posture, President Yamazaki's method of committing suicide to frame President Anton is already very clear."
Conan was about to deduce President Yamazaki's suicide method.
But suddenly, Officer Seth, whom he had anesthetized, staggered to his feet.
Conan was scared half to death and was about to give him another shot.
But before he could act.
Officer Seth, who had already stood up, sat back down on the sofa without any warning.
Only, compared to before, he had adopted a more comfortable position.
"Is the Doctor's anesthetic reliable or not?"
Conan muttered in his heart. Seeing no signs of Seth waking up again, he continued his deduction:
"Haha, never mind, I just got numb and changed my position. Let's continue now…"
"President Yamazaki prepared a large enough block of ice beforehand, with seven knife tips facing upwards and the handles frozen in the ice. Under the pretense of peeling fruit, after leaving President Anton's fingerprints on the last knife, Yamazaki also inserted this knife with the fingerprints into the ice block."
"Next, he carefully placed this ice block, filled with sharp knives, on the living room carpet. Then, he stood on the low table in the room, with his back to the knife tips, and jumped backward from the table… creating this 'homicide' scene."
"Ah?!" Ran opened her mouth in disbelief.
Everyone else present, except for Qing Yi, who was still leisurely drinking tea, all looked shocked.
Conan continued: "After that, President Yamazaki's back was filled with 8 knives. As the hot air from the air conditioner blew, the ice block serving as the base completely melted, creating the scene Detective Mouri saw when he entered the room."
"I guess President Yamazaki scheduled his meeting with Detective Mouri for that time because he wanted an additional witness to firmly establish President Anton as the killer."
"As for the evidence,"
Conan quietly twisted Seth's head from behind, making his head face the low table in the room.
"Please carefully examine the edge of that table's surface, especially the side facing away from where the ice block was placed. You should be able to find scuff marks or dust prints left by President Yamazaki's shoe soles, facing away from the table. This is proof of his jump."
"At the same time, the special Penetration traces (infiltration marks) formed by the ice-water mixture on the carpet can also corroborate this method."
Qing Yi then put down her thermos cup and slowly added, "That's right, Seth, you're quite a bit sharper today."
Anton was cleared, but he still found it very difficult to understand.
He looked at Yamazaki Naoto's corpse, his voice a little dry. "President Yamazaki committed suicide… just to frame me? Why? Do we have such a deep hatred between us?"
Secretary Kurofuji, wearing glasses, then stepped forward and said with a complex tone:
"I might be able to guess a little about this. President Yamazaki previously embezzled 100 million yen in company cash flow, causing the company to be unable to pay employee salaries."
"And precisely at this time, your Belobog Heavy Industries successfully won the bid, snatching away that large renovation project that our company was determined to get and that could have saved us…"
Secretary Kurofuji's voice lowered.
"The President, several times when he was drunk, gritted his teeth and said, 'Watching Belobog Heavy Industries make money is more painful than me losing money,' and said he was 'mad with jealousy'… I didn't expect him to retaliate in this way…"
The truth was revealed.
The case was drawing to a close.
Just then, the suite door was gently knocked on, then pushed open.
A man in a police uniform, wearing sunglasses, and with a somewhat lazy demeanor, walked in.
He scanned the scene, his gaze lingering on Inspector Zhu Yuan for a moment, and said in a magnetic voice: "Sorry, Inspector Zhu Yuan, I encountered a small problem on the way and arrived late. Has the case… already been solved?"
"Officer Matsuda!"
Mouri Ran exclaimed in surprise, recognizing the newcomer.
"You're Officer Matsuda Jinpei, right? I saw you on TV! The legendary hero who chose to sacrifice himself to save innocent people during the Beika City Shopping Center Ferris wheel bombing, and then miraculously survived!"
Jinpei Matsuda took off his sunglasses, revealing a handsome but somewhat cynical face.
"Oh? I didn't expect to have a little fan here. But I can't claim the title of a legendary hero, I just did what I believe a police officer should do."
"Speaking of which, when the bomb's countdown was almost zero, I was quite scared. Luckily, I had good fortune and managed to save my life in the end."
Seeing Ran's adoring gaze, Conan felt a little jealous and quickly rushed out to grab Ran's hand.
"So, Matsuda-niisan, how exactly did you survive back then?" Conan stood between the two, trying to shift the attention to himself.
Jinpei Matsuda smiled slightly, uncertainly: "Specifically… I can't say for sure. My last memories are very confused."
"I only vaguely remember… in the last moment before the explosion, it seemed like a gray-haired person suddenly rushed in and stuffed something very bitter, like an unripe orange, into my mouth."
"Then I didn't know anything. When I woke up again, I was already in a hospital bed."
He shrugged, "Maybe it was a hallucination before dying. I asked many colleagues later, and they all said they hadn't seen such a person."