Ghost Detectives in the Detective World

Page 90

"Yes, I've taken care of my business. Miss Ayako, you should go and rest too."

"I just took a nap, but I'm not sleepy now."

Ayako shook her head: "Officer Matsuda, you've worked so hard for so long, shall I make you a cup of coffee?"

Matsuda initially wanted to refuse and tell her to stop being busy,

But looking at Ayako's expectant eyes, and remembering that he had already rejected her once,

If he refused now, he would inevitably hurt the girl's feelings, so he nodded.

"Officer Matsuda, please wait a moment!"

Ayako smiled happily and got up lightly to walk towards the kitchen.

"Let me help you,"

Matsuda thought for a moment; after all, someone had just died in this villa.

If Ayako were to be frightened by something else, that would be bad, so he followed her.

……

In a bedroom on the second floor

Ran and Conan have been asleep for a while now.

Suddenly, there was a loud knocking on the bedroom door.

Although the two had already gone to bed, so much had happened that day.

Ran and Conan obviously couldn't be sleeping too soundly.

Upon hearing the knock, the two opened their eyes simultaneously.

"Conan, who do you think is knocking on the door?"

Xiaolan huddled under the covers, only her bright eyes showing.

Through the gap between the two beds, she said in a trembling voice, "Could it be the ghost of Miss Chikako?"

"Ran-neechan, Sonoko-neechan only said that to scare you," Conan said helplessly.

After Matsuda interrogated Takahashi, Ayako and her two classmates showed little interest.

After all, one of their classmates died that night, and another became a murderer.

Hiroki Kakutani and Katsutoshi Ota returned to their rooms early.

Ayako sat in the corner of the sofa, lost in thought.

The remaining three—Sonoko, Ran, and Conan—were chatting idly.

Sonoko deliberately told Ran a ghost story, the gist of which was about a person who was dismembered and returned as a vengeful spirit to take revenge on the murderer.

This really scared Xiaolan.

Before going to sleep, she muttered to herself for a long time before finally managing to temporarily forget the ghost story and fall asleep.

But when she heard the knock on the door, she remembered that story again!

Conan yawned sleepily, got out of bed, and walked to the door.

"Who is it?" he asked impatiently.

"Me?" A low voice came from outside the door.

"Who are you?" Conan asked irritably.

"Kid! Open the door!" The voice outside the door instantly became impatient.

Conan instantly realized who was outside.

The only people who like to call him "brat" besides that bastard Matsuda are that stupid woman Sonoko!

With a sigh, Conan opened the bedroom door and looked speechlessly at Sonoko, who was lurking outside.

"It's so late, what's up, Sonoko-neechan?"

"The garden?" Xiaolan looked up at her friend.

"Xiao Lan, get up quickly!" Yuanzi urged in a low voice.

"What are you doing?" Xiaolan asked, putting on her coat and walking to the door.

"Let's catch them in the act!"

As she said this, Sonoko's eyes were filled with excitement.

Ran and Conan followed Sonoko suspiciously. The three of them tiptoed to the stairwell, took a few steps down, and saw what was happening on the first floor.

The living room on the first floor was dark, and only by the moonlight could two figures be vaguely seen sitting on the sofa talking.

"That's a pine tree..."

As soon as Ran opened her mouth, Sonoko quickly covered it.

"Shh!"

Sonoko put her index finger to her lips to signal for silence.

Xiao Lan instantly understood what she meant.

The two girls peered down at the scene with curious expressions.

Conan shook his head speechlessly, and was about to turn around and go back to his bedroom when he suddenly heard Ayako ask from downstairs,

"Officer Matsuda, how did you know Takahashi was suspicious?"

Conan instantly forgot his plan to go back to sleep and joined the eavesdropping team.

Conan had been puzzled by Ayako's question for a long time.

At the time, in the woods, although Matsuda said the body search was for everyone,

But regardless of his previous attitude, or the fact that he chose Takahashi first during the body search,

All of this undoubtedly shows that he had his eye on Takahashi for a long time.

This is something Conan simply can't understand; he's investigated the villa for so long and hasn't found anything.

Why did Matsuda immediately suspect Takahashi upon his arrival?

……

"Actually, I just thought he was a bit suspicious at the time, and I didn't think he was the murderer."

On the sofa, Matsuda looked at the girl beside him and said casually.

“Suspicious?” Ayako paused for a moment.

“Yes,” Matsuda nodded. “When I was climbing up the rope, I heard Conan shout, ‘Takahashi-nii, what are you doing?’ Think about it, where were you all at that time?”

"us……"

Ayako recalled, "We were all on the edge of a cliff, watching you with worry."

"Yes, when you saw me jump down with the rope, your first reaction was to come to the edge of the cliff to see if I was okay, but he ran to the wooden stake with the rope tied to it."

Matsuda racked his brains to come up with a reason.

"That was my first suspicion about him. Secondly, after I came up, I looked him over carefully and noticed that something was wrong with his stomach."

"abdomen?"

Ayako exclaimed in surprise, "Back then, Officer Matsuda already noticed that Takahashi's belly was fake?"

"I don't have that kind of ability,"

Matsuda laughed and said, "But in our department, there are also two fat guys. One is my superior, Inspector Megure, and the other is my subordinate, Chiba Kazunobu."

"Perhaps because I see them so often, the first thing that struck me when I saw Takahashi was that his weight seemed a bit off,"

Matsuda explained, "For example, a typical fat person is fat all over, including their hands and feet, but Takahashi's hands look quite slender compared to his big belly."

"Secondly, most people as fat as Takahashi have double chins, but Takahashi only has a large face, and his neck isn't as thick as other fat people..."

Chapter 111 Girl, don't cry, lend me some money.

"So there were so many suspicious points in his disguise."

Ayako nodded in sudden understanding, then said with a look of admiration,

"However, only someone as observant as Officer Matsuda could have noticed these things."

"This is probably an occupational hazard for criminal investigators,"

Matsuda chuckled twice and quickly changed the subject.

If Ayako keeps asking, he really won't be able to keep up the story.

"By the way, I heard from Sonoko that you once lamented that you misjudged Chikako Ikeda,"

Matsuda asked, "Ms. Ayako, did you also suspect that Chikako Ikeda plagiarized other people's work before?"

"Um,"

Ayako nodded: "Because the timing of Atsuko's suicide was too coincidental, it was exactly the day after Chikako won the award. At the time, I also thought it was just a coincidence."

"But recently, after Chikako's 'Blue Kingdom' was released, the delicate emotions shown in the film, compared with Chikako's strong and arrogant personality, made me feel a stronger sense of disharmony between the two."

Ayako sighed.

"So I organized this club reunion. Originally, I wanted to ask Chikako privately to find out the truth, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this."

By the end, Ayako's face was filled with guilt and self-blame.

"It's not your fault,"

Seeing that she was trembling with remorse, Matsuda gently took Ayako's hand.

“Takahashi has already said that after the release of ‘Blue Kingdom,’ he discovered that it was Chikako’s work that was plagiarized from Atsuko. So even if you hadn’t organized this party, Takahashi would have found an opportunity to kill Chikako Ikeda sooner or later.”

"maybe……"

Ayako gave a wry smile.