Koichi Nishihara returned backstage after Akikawa Kyousuke was taken out of the Empire Theatre on a stretcher.
As soon as he returned behind the stage, he saw Okino Yoko kneeling on the ground with her head lowered.
Looking at Okino Yoko's lost expression, Nishihara Koichi's cheek twitched slightly, and a flame called jealousy ignited in his heart.
He found it a bit incredible.
Okino Yoko actually had such strong negative emotions because of Akikawa Kyousuke.
However, the jealousy in Nishihara Koichi's heart only lasted a few seconds, because he believed that it would take no more than a day.
The scandal of the murder of Wonderful's new artist, Akikawa Kyousuke, would be all over the major news sections.
Koichi Nishihara felt that his actions were thorough.
First, the deceased he chose as a reference was actually a stranger whose name he couldn't even mention.
In this way, he had no contact with the deceased.
Secondly, regarding the method, he wore full protective clothing, a motorcycle helmet, and gloves during both attacks.
It would be impossible for Akikawa Kyousuke to recognize him.
Even if Akikawa Kyousuke woke up early and managed to escape, only his fingerprints would be left on the rope used as the murder weapon.
Moreover, Akikawa Kyousuke's uniform, the only British student uniform in the entire Empire Theatre, was also stained with the blood of the deceased inside and out.
It's basically inevitable that Akikawa Kyousuke would be identified as the murderer.
Let's take it a step further.
Even if Mouri Kogoro is as powerful as rumored and suspects that someone else committed the crime, he definitely couldn't suspect him.
After all, within such a short time, the police had no way to determine the exact time of death of the deceased.
The time he arranged for the discovery of the deceased was after his appearance in the fourth act.
And he already had an alibi by the middle of the third act.
In other words, he had a perfect alibi during this period.
As for the person he entrusted to deliver the message to Akikawa Kyousuke and the cleaner who was willing to go to the laundry, they had never seen him before.
Even if the police found those two people, there would be no suspicion cast on him.
"I have no connection with the deceased nor with the murder weapon."
"I even have the most perfect alibi in the world."
"So the culprit can only be Akikawa Kyousuke!"
Nishihara Koichi thought confidently to himself.
——
In the laundry room.
Megure Juzo sent the police to interrogate the people backstage one by one.
While asking if anyone had delivered a message to Akikawa Kyousuke, requesting him to go to the laundry to get his hat, he also asked if anyone had any conflict with Akikawa Kyousuke or the deceased.
"Alright, only two things remain: to determine the murder weapon and establish the alibi timeframe to confirm with the suspect later on," Mumu Juzo said.
With white gloves, Sera Masumi reached out and pinched the deceased's chin, preparing to check once again if there were strangulation marks on the deceased's neck.
However, as soon as Sera Masumi slightly moved the deceased's head, the deceased's jaw instantly broke like a fragile block, and a large pool of blood poured out from the dislocated mouth of the deceased.
Several younger police officers in the room couldn't help covering their mouths.
"The deceased's entire jaw was broken," Sera Masumi said.
"Why would that be? I remember it takes a lot of strength to break the jaw of an adult man, right?" Mouri Kogoro said, puzzled.
"In general, there's only one reason for a broken jaw," Sera Masumi began,
"to forcibly close or open the dead person's stiff mouth."
"Assuming the deceased's mouth was open at the time of death, if rigor mortis set in, the deceased's mouth would no longer be able to close."
"In this case, if the murderer needs to close the deceased's mouth for some reason, the only option is to break the jaw."
"But the deceased hasn't shown signs of rigor mortis yet, so there shouldn't be a problem with being unable to close or open the mouth."
Mouri Kogoro asked, doubtfully.
"Then there's only one explanation: that the murderer broke the deceased's jaw solely for the purpose of inflicting torture."
"Several things point to this."
Sera Masumi pointed to the lower jaw of the deceased and said, "If a person's jaw is broken while they're still alive, their cheeks will swell quickly within a short period."
"Since there's no sign of swelling on the deceased's cheeks, it means the jaw was broken after death."
"At the same time, I discovered that the deceased's tongue was cut and the muscles inside the deceased's mouth still showed signs of contraction and spasms."
"This also indicates that the deceased's tongue was cruelly abused while alive, and the jaw was broken without any reason after death."
"Clearly, the murderer took pleasure in torture and did not regard the deceased as a human being at all."
"Even after death, they continued to abuse the body."
Sera's plain words once again sent chills down everyone in the room.
"This was a premeditated murder, and it was an extremely cruel one!"
Megure Juzo looked serious and spoke in a deep voice.
The possibility of a spur-of-the-moment murder had been entirely ruled out.
And its nature was far worse than ordinary premeditated murder.
"We can't let a murderer like this remain at large. They must be severely punished!"
Chiba and Shin also had anger on their faces.
"The murder weapon should be just as Akikawa said, a black rope, right?"
Mouri Kogoro guessed.
"No, not a rope!" Conan directly rejected Mouri Kogoro's reasoning, causing Mouri Kogoro to once again show a look of anger.
Then, Conan pointed to the strangulation marks on the deceased's neck.
"Look, if the murder weapon were a rope, wouldn't we be able to see fibers and remnants of the rope around the strangulation marks?"
"But there are clearly no rope fragments left on the deceased's neck."
"Could it be a rope that doesn't leave fibers?" Chiba Kazuno guessed.
"No, no matter what kind of rope it is, it would be impossible for it to leave those marks on the deceased's fingers," Conan said, lifting the man's hand.
Everyone could see that there were several horizontal cuts on the deceased's fingertips, as if scraped by a knife, long and thin wounds.
"If a person is being strangled with a rope, they would definitely grab the rope around their neck with both hands and try to fight back, right?"
Sera Masumi took over the conversation again.
Megure Juzo, Mouri Kogoro, and the others nodded.
"In this case, there would usually be scratch marks on the victim's fingertips, and there should be rope fragments and fibers on the deceased's fingers as well."
"However, no rope remnants were seen among the deceased's fingers, and the wounds on the fingertips didn't match those left by scratching a rope."
"This proves that the murder weapon wasn't just a rope."
"But what could leave a mark that looks like it was scratched by a knife?"
Mumu Juzo was puzzled and muttered to himself.
"If such a sharp object was really used as a rope, the same scars should appear on the deceased's neck."
"How strange."
Mouri Kogoro was also puzzled.
"It's simple."
Seeing the confused police officers, Sera Masumi chuckled, once again attracting everyone's attention.
"Like toothpicks, a single toothpick breaks easily, but when many are pressed together, they're strong enough."
"At the same time, you still risk scratching your arm because of the toothpick's sharpness."
"The object used as the murder weapon also has this kind of property."
"And it's something we encounter every day, present in all of us."
"Everyone has it?"
Mouri Kogoro felt around his body but couldn't find anything sharp, capable of scratching fingertips, or usable as a rope.
When he finally gave up and looked at Sera Masumi, he saw the handsome tomboy detective curling the short, wavy hair around her ears with her slender fingers.
"That's right, hair."
"A single hair strand certainly isn't strong enough to hurt someone, but when countless hairs are twisted together, they become as strong as a rope."
"Hair doesn't leave crumbs or wounds between the fingers."
"If you grab the hair around your neck with both hands and struggle, the tiny hairs act like blades, cutting the skin on the fingertips and leaving long, thin wounds."
As Sera Masumi explained, she stopped curling her hair with her hands.
"The murderer has been identified as a man."
"So the murder weapon we're looking for is a fairly long, black wig!"
---
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(End of chapter)