Disclaimer: Detective Conan is not mine. This fanfic is a translation.
Enjoy Reading!
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About half an hour passed before Hayasaka's phone rang. As she listened to what the caller said, a look of surprise spread across her face.
Noticing her undisguised reaction, Ritsu already knew the answer. As expected, Yumitani Kumateru, the medical professor, was a major suspect.
"Inspector, I've finished looking into what you asked…"
"Mm. He has a record of purchasing carbon monoxide, right?"
"H-How did you know?"
Seeing Hayasaka's eyes widen in shock, even instinctively covering her phone as if he had overheard the call, Ritsu sighed.
"If you don't want people to read your thoughts, learn to control your expressions."
"Like you, Inspector?"
"…"
Ritsu knew she was implying that he was expressionless. It wasn't that he lacked expressions, it was just tiring to make them, and he didn't like showing his emotions.
"Oh, right, Inspector, there's something else you definitely didn't guess!"
"What is it?"
Hayasaka flashed a smug little smile and boldly curled her finger at him, beckoning him closer.
Despite being older, she was surprisingly childish. Ritsu bent down and leaned in, asking patiently, "Can you say it now?"
At such close proximity, his handsome face made Hayasaka instinctively want to step back, only to find herself pressed against the car door. She blinked rapidly, trying to steady her racing heart, and whispered, "There are eyewitnesses who saw Yumitani injecting carbon monoxide into yoga balls. And there's more than one witness."
Still leaning close, Ritsu lowered his head in thought, unconsciously rotating the ring on his index finger with his thumb.
With eyewitness testimony, they could apply for a search warrant and an arrest warrant. Filling multiple yoga balls was likely part of an experiment, calculating how long it would take for carbon monoxide to fill the entire car and cause fatal poisoning.
After all, during the time of the incident, he had been working at the hospital. He had an alibi.
"That's quite signif—hmm?"
Ritsu noticed Hayasaka lowering her head, her face flushed bright red, her hands tightly clasped together.
"What's wrong? Sudden illness?"
"You're the one who's sick!"
"??"
Hayasaka quickly shifted aside, escaping the invisible pressure of his presence. Fanning her face, she asked, "Is there anything else you need me to do?"
"No."
Ritsu walked toward the black Toyota Lexus. Sitting in the driver's seat, Kumateru still looked dejected. It didn't seem like an act, he probably hadn't intended to kill his own son.
Ritsu knocked politely on the window. When Kumateru opened the door, he asked in a calm tone, "You've recently purchased carbon monoxide, haven't you?"
"!!"
A flicker of unease crossed Kumateru's face, but he quickly composed himself. "Yes, I have. You know my profession, I've been using it for experiments."
"My field overlaps somewhat with yours," Ritsu said. "So I'm curious, what kind of medical experiment requires injecting carbon monoxide into multiple yoga balls?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Seeing his stubborn denial, Ritsu remained unhurried. Leaning against the car door with arms crossed, he looked down at him and said slowly, "There are witnesses at the hospital who saw you injecting the carbon monoxide you purchased half a month ago into multiple yoga balls. Still going to deny it?"
"…Fine. I did fill yoga balls with carbon monoxide," Kumateru admitted with a smile. "But it was indeed for an experiment. I wanted to study how to treat animals with respiratory damage or poisoning. That requires carbon monoxide, there's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
A watertight excuse.
But from his expression and tone, Ritsu could tell. This man was extremely self-assured, even arrogant.
"That would require quite a few animals scheduled for euthanasia, wouldn't it?"
"Yes. What, Inspector, are you offering to provide them?"
Ritsu casually pointed at the car still within the police cordon. "If you like human experimentation so much, wouldn't animals be the wrong choice?"
"You… what do you mean?"
"Losing your only son must be painful."
"…."
Noticing the anger in Kumateru's eyes, Ritsu knew he was one step away from breaking him.
He stood up, paced a few steps, then said, "You didn't expect your carefully planned scheme would cost Yumitani Shiro his life too, did you?"
"As a doctor, you should know how painful carbon monoxide poisoning is. At first there's dizziness, headaches, and nausea. As time passes, it turns into chest tightness, tinnitus, and weakness in the limbs."
"Oh, right."
Ritsu glanced at the towel on the passenger seat, stained with a yellowish-brown fluid, and added, "You must have felt it when you held your son earlier. Loss of bladder and bowel control. He suffered quite a bit before he died."
"…That's enough."
Clenching his fists, Kumateru gritted his teeth. "Where's your evidence? If you can't produce it, stop saying this in front of me or I'll sue you!"
Threats like that, Ritsu had heard them all his life. He was long used to them.
Unfazed, he waved to Hayasaka, who was standing nearby, and pointed at the rear tire of the car.
"Check the rear tire. See if there's anything lodged in it."
"Got it."
Hayasaka crouched down and carefully examined the tire. Soon, she noticed something white stuck in the rubber grooves. After prying it out with a tool, she realized, it was an air plug.
"Inspector!!"
Taking the plug from her, Ritsu held it up calmly. "Recognize this?"
The moment Kumateru saw it, his face turned deathly pale. He scrambled out of the car and lunged toward Ritsu, trying to seize the crucial piece of evidence.
But Ritsu, well-versed in close combat, easily stepped back and drove a kick into his abdomen. Kumateru's head slammed against the car door, nearly knocking him out, and he collapsed to the ground.
"I noticed earlier, you kept fidgeting after arriving at the scene," Ritsu said. "When I learned the yoga ball's air plug was missing, I made a bold guess."
Crouching down, he placed the plug into an evidence bag right in front of Kumateru, then handed it to Hayasaka.
"I figured you were looking for it too. That's why I deliberately let you linger at the scene while having officers secretly search the area."
"Unfortunately, you forgot to check your own tire. Otherwise, it would've been hard to put handcuffs on you."
"…It's all that woman's fault."
"Hm?"
"If she hadn't suddenly insisted on taking Shiro camping at Mount Takao, he wouldn't have died!!!"
…In the end, he only cared about his son.
Ritsu had no interest in arguing further. He pulled out his handcuffs and arrested him, then glanced at the sedan still parked by the roadside.
He recalled the victim's background from earlier.
'You gave up studying abroad for your PhD to support your husband and raise your child… do you regret it?'
'Do you regret loving a man who ignored you and even killed you for the sake of his affair?'
"Sniff… sob…"
"??"
Ritsu turned his head in confusion and saw Hayasaka crying uncontrollably. He had no idea what had set her off.
He really couldn't keep up with this unpredictable subordinate.
"Why are you crying?"
"I feel sorry for Masako-san… She grew up in an orphanage, and even in death, no one shed a single tear for her."
"Isn't there someone?"
Hayasaka looked up in confusion, only to see Ritsu with a faint smile. In his usually cold gaze, she could, for once, feel warmth reflected back at her tear-streaked face.
"Aren't you crying for her? That's enough."
Such a gentle smile.
So that's what he looks like when he smiles…
'What the heck, saying something so heart-fluttering all of a sudden… what a jerk.'
Sometimes, unintentional charm isn't the most dangerous thing, falling for it on your own is.
Ritsu raised his wrist and checked the time. From taking the case to solving it, excluding the half hour spent traveling, the total time was two hours and twenty-nine minutes.
Not bad.
"Let's go."
"Where to?"
"Off work means going home."
"…Oh."