"Excellent, I completely understand this method!"
The Great Detective, who had been pulled down from the cabinet by Officer Shiratori, was finally about to begin his deduction.
First, it was those thin lines tangled around the exercise bike's axle.
Conan struggled twice, then jumped from Shiratori's hands onto the floor. "That's strange, why is the end of this string tied in a dead knot?"
The Great Detective removed one end of the thin string from the exercise bike and showed it to everyone.
The loop tied at the end of the string was very small, about the thickness of a pinky finger, but it was a very strong dead knot.
"It really is like that. To say it's for packaging, it's truly strange." Officer Sato looked at the loop in her hand and nodded.
"Oh, that reminds me, about half a year ago, some friends' children came to play at our house. I remember they were right by this exercise bike at the time."
"Maybe it was their prank." Mr. Masuo suddenly clapped his hands, remembering this.
"In that case, there's nothing wrong with it…" Officer Sato didn't pay much attention to these thin lines.
"No matter how much we think about it, it's just wasted effort. Let's have the Mobile Investigation Unit start their work first," Officer Shiratori shook his head.
Regardless of how the culprit entered and committed the murder, the investigation must proceed.
"Team Leader Shiratori!" A police officer walked in, holding a photo album.
"A very strange photo album was found in the victim's room. Several photos inside were circled in red pen. Also, there are no signs of cash or other valuables being stolen!"
"Just as I thought, it's indeed not an ordinary thief or robber," Shiratori nodded after hearing the report.
"Th-this is just my wife's prank. I've tried to stop her from messing up photos before," Mr. Masuo smiled, quickly stepped forward, took the photo album from the officer's hands, and hugged it.
Just then, Officer Takagi, who had been silent, looked at the bookshelf, then at the exercise bike, and suddenly had a strange and bold idea.
"Please wait a moment. I'm guessing, just hypothesizing, what if the culprit fixed the knife to the very top shelf of the bookshelf with tape or something, and then tied the other end of the kite string to the axle of this exercise bike?"
Officer Takagi said, looking at Tsuneo for confirmation.
The mechanic smiled and said, "If that were the case, when two o'clock arrived, Mrs. Masuo, who exercises regularly every day, would sit on this exercise bike and start cycling."
"As the pedals are pushed, the axle rotates, the thin string slowly tightens, and in the end, with one final push, the bookshelf falls, and the knife would stab her."
Takagi nodded repeatedly as he listened.
That's right, that's exactly what I thought!
Just now, seeing Conan climb onto the bookshelf, he instantly had this idea.
Shiratori, Sato, and Mr. Masuo all showed surprised expressions upon hearing this deduction.
"This idea is certainly interesting, but would things really go so smoothly? First, how was that string fixed to the bookshelf with the knife? And wouldn't the victim feel the pedals becoming harder to push?" After his initial surprise, Officer Shiratori asked.
"What, you don't know?"
"Indoor exercise bikes like this are designed to gradually increase the user's resistance."
"The victim should be used to this feeling of suddenly becoming more strenuous."
Officer Sato seemed to agree strongly with this deduction and was very knowledgeable about such high-end exercise bikes.
"Actually, it doesn't matter if they're not used to it. Most people, when something stops working, will try to force it, and then find someone to repair it," Tsuneo said, as a mechanic, he had seen this situation many times.
Like children's pencil sharpeners, or those hand-cranked ice shavers.
Won't turn?
Then use more force!
"But when you found the body, the bookshelf hadn't fallen over, had it?"
"Besides, instead of going to all this trouble to set up such a complicated murder method here, wouldn't it be more convenient to ambush someone in a room and then strike at the right moment?"
Officer Shiratori felt that it was an unnecessary complication for those bank robbers to come and devise such a murder method.
"Only one person, only he had the reason and the ability to use this kind of murder," Takagi was silent for a moment, then said with a serious expression.
Conan and Tsuneo stood to the side, both silent, watching the scene unfold.
Actually, Takagi's perceptiveness was decent, but he was the kind of person who would go wherever you led him.
This guy occasionally had a moment of clarity.
"That is, Mr. Keizo Masuo, the victim's husband, who knew the victim's routine and exercise habits better than anyone, and was the first to enter the scene and upright the bookshelf!" Takagi extended his finger, pointing at the plump middle-aged man beside him.
"What are you talking about!" Keizo Masuo's face changed.
Sato also understood this point, and with a smile, she looked at him and said:
"That's right, no wonder you called from the Metropolitan Police Department, because you knew exactly when your wife would get on the exercise bike, and you could estimate the time the knife would stab her."
Mr. Masuo, who was on the phone with the police, listening to his wife's scream, thus created an alibi for himself.
"And when the three of us first entered the house, you immediately told us to go upstairs to look for someone, which was also very strange," Takagi nodded, continuing to point out suspicious details.
"I see, so you took advantage of us going upstairs to look for someone to restore the fallen bookshelf, right?" Officer Sato recalled his words at the time and indeed felt something fishy.
In the car, he kept saying that his wife felt someone lurking around their home, suggesting to us that the robbers might be foreigners, and so on.
"And that's not all. When he was in the Metropolitan Police Department office, within a short minute, he looked down to check his watch three times." Accompanied by the words, the Detective Boys appeared at the living room door.
That's right, this detail was discovered by Haibara and Conan.
But since you came all this way, can you at least give us a little sense of participation?
"…" Conan smiled speechlessly.
With so many police guarding the door, how did you guys manage to get in…
"Well, because they said they had important information," the officer who brought them in explained, looking at everyone's gazes.
Judging by your expressions, this information must be somewhat useful, right…
"It seems you really value time, Mr. Masuo?" Officer Sato wanted to hear what else Mr. Masuo had to say.
(End of chapter)
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