Chapter 12: Did Conan Win?

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As expected, it’s not so easy to let you cheat; in the world of detective fiction, it’s impossible to solve a case so easily by just watching surveillance footage.

Without surveillance, at most the audience and readers might joke about it, but if they really watched the footage to solve the case, they’d all run away.

There were indeed obvious signs of lock-picking on the back door lock.

“Inspector, the safe in the manager’s room also shows signs of tampering, but it seems the intruder gave up without successfully opening it,” the forensic team reported a new finding.

This case was growing stranger by the minute.

If the culprit broke in to poison someone, why bother trying to open the safe?

If they weren’t there to poison, why stop halfway through picking the safe’s lock?

Which thief doesn’t scope out their target first? What’s the point of coming if you can’t open the safe?

“Well…” Yui Osaki spoke cautiously, “Actually, there’s nothing valuable in the safe. Mostly contracts and legal documents related to the restaurant.”

“Was anything stolen?” Kiichi asked again.

“No, because just before leaving yesterday, the revenue had been counted…”

What kind of dumb thief comes, fails to open the safe, and doesn’t even know there’s no money inside?

What exactly was their intention? Surely they weren’t stealing food?

It was obvious the person not only knew there was no surveillance last night but deliberately staged a break-in to disguise their true purpose of poisoning.

However, this time Kiichi couldn’t be sure if the target was the head chef or one of the two presidents.

Since they knew there was no surveillance last night, the possibility of an insider committing the crime was very high.

After some questioning:

Because they lived alone, there were three people last night without alibis.

Sous-chef Gota Imagawa, receptionist Yui Osaki, and waitress Waka Tsuchiya.

A classic choice of three.

Motives were also asked about. It fit the typical profile of victims in detective stories: the deceased verbally abused everyone indiscriminately, pursuing perfection obsessively. No one in the restaurant, from the sous-chef to the cleaners, escaped his scathing insults.

As for the two presidents...

They seemed to have no grudge against the three suspects. In fact, Hirohiro Otsuka was even considering opening another branch and letting Gota Imagawa become the head chef there.

However, according to Otsuka, this proposal was sternly rejected by Keiji Kinoshita, who insisted that Imagawa must not ruin the reputation of the restaurant, even if it meant changing the restaurant’s name.

“Because everyone would know I trained a failure!”

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Those were his exact words.

It seemed the head chef’s desire to turn himself into a signature dish had already overflowed, while President Sugiyama was probably just an unintended victim due to professional reasons.

“This isn’t a very complicated case,” Conan said a little disappointed; he had already figured out the culprit.

The killer didn’t use any flashy tricks, just took advantage of an empty moment to poison the victim. The only somewhat interesting detail was the use of fiberglass to simulate snakebite wounds.

But Kiichi remained silent.

Conan was delighted.

To make sure he hadn’t missed anything, he carefully reviewed his reasoning again.

However, he was a bit reluctant to use Sonoko as a tool in front of Kiichi.

Being discovered would be disastrous.

Clearly, at this moment Conan was far from becoming a master detective.

Moreover, he was still missing a decisive piece of evidence.

At that moment, Hirohiro Otsuka also returned.

“President Otsuka, may I ask you some questions?” Kiichi inquired.

“Of course,” Otsuka said with a slight frown but did not refuse.

“At lunch today, when you and President Sugiyama were eating, was it Sugiyama who suggested trying the chocolate balls?”

“No, I requested extra dishes to get closer to Keiji,” Otsuka shook his head.

Conan, hiding nearby and listening, was a bit confused about what Inspector Higashino was thinking.

“Another question: I heard from Mr. Imagawa that you planned to promote him to head chef at another restaurant?”

“Yes, that’s no secret; everyone at the restaurant already knows,” Otsuka sighed, “But I knew Keiji was a perfectionist; I just didn’t expect him to be so harsh.”

After a moment, he said in disbelief, “Inspector, are you suggesting...?”

Conan finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he was right, but such a killer, without any flashy methods and with ample time to commit the crime, made it hard to find suitable evidence at the scene.

Still, once they identified the culprit, the police could easily find evidence by searching his home carefully.

In that sense, he should count this as a win.

Then Kiichi also received news from the forensic department: the poison that killed the victim was indeed snake venom, sourced from the infamous king cobra.

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But that seemed not to matter much anymore.

“Sorry, President Otsuka, could you tell me more about promoting Mr. Imagawa?”

Conan felt something was off; Kiichi today was very different from before.

“There’s nothing more to say. After Keiji refused, I felt it was unfair to Imagawa, so I comforted him privately. Unexpectedly, Imagawa, being young and hot-headed, argued with Keiji on the spot, and soon the whole restaurant knew…” Otsuka seemed like a good boss, “Could it be that...”

“Pardon my curiosity, but could you tell me the location of the new restaurant you planned to open? You might not know, but I’m quite interested in various cuisines myself.”

“Uh…” Otsuka was taken aback, “There won’t be a new restaurant after all. I’m sorry.”

Kiichi nodded. “I see. Sorry for my rudeness.”

With that, he turned away.

“Take Gota Imagawa in for questioning,” he ordered. Then to Takagi, he said, “Apply for a search warrant. There must be evidence at his place he didn’t have time to deal with.”

Though no decisive evidence was found on the spot, when Takagi led the team to Imagawa’s home, he didn’t resist futilely any longer.

Things were as simple as they appeared.

He had long endured Kinoshita’s oppression. That old man only bullied juniors like them because of seniority and had forcibly kept him from becoming head chef. That was the final straw.

Coincidentally, the surveillance system was shut down last night for an upgrade.

Coincidentally, he had recently made friends with someone working at the zoo.

Coincidentally, nobody had ordered chocolate balls today.

As for the poisoning technique, he had learned it a few days ago watching a foreign detective drama recommended by the boss.

So, he struck last night.

Because the detective show featured imitating burglars, he did the same: though he had the key, he pretended to pick the lock and left marks, including on the safe.

Though, it all seemed so unnecessary.

Conan was satisfied.

Though he hadn’t caught the culprit himself and Kiichi didn’t need his reminders, he was pleased to have found the culprit first.