It was Watanabe Yoshimi who screamed.
She stumbled into the living room, crashed into the doorway of the living room, and fell to the ground, needing to reach out to barely support herself, her pretty face already pale, "Katsuhiko, Katsuhiko he..."
"He's dead!"
In a somewhat harrowing panic, the room fell silent, and many a normal person's mind fell into an unprepared blankness and instinctively froze.
It was Mrs. Minagawa who was the first to rush out of the living room to the body.
Her face changed slightly as she let go of Minagawa Sasumu and stumbled in the direction of Watanabe Yoshimi, "Katsuhiko!"
The others then reacted and rushed out, shouting 'Minagawa' or 'Katsuhiko' at random, only Watanabe Yoshimi, who had already witnessed Minagawa Katsuhiko's body, was still sitting against the doorway, clutching the lapel of her coat and shedding tears, which fell from her pale face in droplets.
Ichijō Mirai didn't leave the living room, he stood up, walked to a place where he could see into the courtyard and looked away from the chaos in the distance.
Minagawa Katsuhiko was lying on the lawn, a box of unwrapped chocolates strewn around him, Mrs. Minagawa was bent over his body, weeping, and the others were either standing around at their wits' end or trying to pull her to her feet.
Minagawa Sasumu stood outside of the crowd, his face blankly staring at the death of his seemingly ill-tempered brother.
Another child of the same age was also outside the crowd, but instead of Minagawa Sasumu's childlike bewilderment, he was calm.
Conan crouched beside Mrs. Minagawa, ignoring all the commotion around him, looking down at the body, then at the scattered box of chocolates, and finally looking up, his eyes slid over several people in turn: Watanabe Yoshimi, Tanaka Naomichi, and Mrs. Minagawa.
He was very heavy.
This was a search for suspects, and it really did turn out to be three of the most suspicious suspects.
"A-"
Ichijō Mirai repeats his judgment silently: "-six or seven year old detective?"
Is this Japan, where detectives are prevalent? Even a child has the demeanor of a detective.
And if he's so perceptive at only 6 or 7 years old, smelling the case before it happens, trying to find out information, and locking up the suspect at the first opportunity after the case, then when he grows up, won't he become some Interpol officer with great endurance and chasing power, who never lets go of the culprits?
As a criminal, Ichijō Mirai looked at Conan several times, and then he felt relieved and happy: won't be able to chase him anyway.
Since he's not going to chase him, a good guy who's not wanted at all, there's no need to think about mowing the lawn for the time being.
In the distance, after reluctantly pulling Mrs. Minagawa to her feet, Suzuki Sonoko in the crowd began to look around, eventually finding Ichijō Mirai as she swept her eyes across the living room, turning her head and saying something hurriedly to Mouri Ran, she jogged over, "Mr. Mirai!"
"Aren't you a detective?"
She stood at the bottom of the steps in the living room and looked up, the apprehension and worry on her face was unmistakable, "This, the case..."
'Can you solve the case?'
Ichijō Mirai smiled, calming the somewhat flustered Suzuki Sonoko, "The first priority is to call the police first."
"Uh-huh!" Suzuki Sonoko nodded vigorously, "Ran is calling the police! Her father, who is also a detective, has solved a few murders recently, and will be coming along later."
"So now, what do we do?"
"Let's take Mrs. Minagawa and Sasumu into the living room first, so that they don't get too agitated Don't leave people around the body," Ichijō Mirai looked towards the piles of people gathered around the body in the courtyard, "In the beginning of the case, there are likely to be clues left by the murderer on the body, too many people leaning on the body could inadvertently destroy the clues, and will definitely damage the scene."
"Why don't we gather first and wait for the police to interrogate us separately."
These words are consistent with the identity of a detective.
If I didn't say those words, the police would become suspicious when they got the information that there was actually a detective present.
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes rounded a bit, "You mean, the murderer..."
Wasn't Watanabe Yoshimi the last person to have contact with the deceased?
She scanned over Watanabe Yoshimi, who was still sitting on his knees by the living room doorway, swallowed the words, nodded vigorously, and trotted back into the crowd.
After about two or three minutes, Minagawa Katsuhiko's body was silenced and continued to lie alone in the cold wind, and all the living people took their seats in the living room, looking at each other with some trepidation.
Having just seen the body, even the sushi and cake on the table were a bit uncomfortable.
A red-eyed Mrs. Minagawa was the first to speak, "I heard from Ms. Suzuki that you are a detective, Mr. Ichijō."
"May I ask, may I ask," she straightened her back, trying to suppress the wetness that came to her eyes, "the murderer, was it one of us?"
Ichijō Mirai smiled, "Of course."
At those words, the atmosphere in the living room stiffened to a degree.
The people in the parlor looked at each other again, and this time the fear deepened as a recent murderer was included in the crowd, and they all began to tense up unconsciously.
Silence descended again.
In the terrified silence, Conan sat next to Mouri Ran, his eyes swept over the others, and then swept over the calm Ichijō Mirai, and couldn't help but to speak: "Brother Ichijō, aren't you going to ask about the case?"
What's the point of sitting in silence, exchange of inquiries in order to obtain clues ah!
"I'm a detective, it's my duty to investigate the case," Ichijō Mirai smiled gently at Conan, "but the police didn't arrive."
"I'm sorry, I'm not sure how it is in Japan, but where I live, mostly the police take full ownership of the case, with detectives or others assisting and adding details."
Generally speaking, there are no 'detectives or others', and the only people in charge of a case would be the relevant people within the system, such as the police, forensic pathologists, and so on.
But Japan in the late 20th century...
Considering Japan's excellent international reputation for its autopsy rate and crime solving rate, Ichijō Mirai took a moment and readily relented: "If in Japan, detectives can start investigating a case before the police arrive, why don't we start by learning about the case now?"
Like a judge in a werewolf killing, he named the first speaker, "The young lady who witnessed Mr. Minagawa's murder."
Watanabe Yoshimi reacted for a moment, meeting Ichijō Mirai's eyes before realizing that he was referring to her, she nodded her head with a grudging effort, still a bit disoriented but able to get the words out, "Katsuhiko went out for a smoke, so I followed him out..."
"Because it's Valentine's Day, I..."
"I confessed."
She lowered her eyelashes and clenched her hand on the hem of her shirt, "Katsuhiko said yes and ate the chocolate I handed him, but just as he ate it, he suddenly covered his throat and collapsed as if he was poisoned."
"I- it really wasn't me, he agreed to my confession, how could I possibly want to kill him?!"