Coroner Ke Xue

What Conan said was absolutely correct, Mao Lilan had actually locked the real murderer in her heart.

She had already noticed something when she discovered that this series of footprints was not left by the murderer when he escaped:

First of all, this series of footprints can be confirmed to have been forged by someone in advance to confuse the public and mislead the direction of the investigation.

Then you can basically judge:

The person who forged this series of footprints in advance was the murderer himself.

Mao Lilan had previously determined by observing the characteristics of the footprints that the owner of this string of footprints was an adult woman.

The only adult women in the villa are:

Koko Yonehara, Minori Nakamura, Sonoko Suzuki, Ran Maori, Belmode.

Among these five people, only Yonehara and Nakamura were the ones who might have the motive to kill Mr. Sugiyama and could kill him this morning.

Previously, because Mihara Koko was also a victim, and physical evidence that was extremely unfavorable to her was found on Nakamura Minori, everyone subconsciously ignored Mihara-sensei from the list of suspects.

But now.

The footprints were confirmed to have been forged in advance.

The murderer most likely did not escape through the window, but stayed in the room.

The suspicion of Koko Yonehara is huge, and Minori Nakamura seems to have been deliberately framed.

"C-could it be... a mistake?"

"People cannot be generalized"

"Perhaps the murderer's running gait looks similar to that of an ordinary person?"

Mao Lilan's expression was extremely shaken.

She couldn't help but have such ridiculous thoughts pouring out of her mind to excuse the suspect.

Because she was too emotional, she instinctively did not want to believe that her beloved teacher Yonehara could be the murderer.

"Xiaolan, stop being naive."

"This series of footprints was forged by the murderer in advance."

Conan sighed helplessly, shattering Mao Lilan's last illusion:

"Do you still remember the pair of slippers you found that were left outside the door by the murderer?"

When Mao Lilan was chasing the murderer, he found that the murderer had left his slippers in the snow outside the door.

Everyone thinks that the murderer changed into a pair of slippers at the door so that no one would notice snow chips and water stains on his shoes after escaping into the house.

Conan noticed more from this detail:

"The act of changing into slippers is not strange in itself."

"But Xiaolan, have you ever thought about:"

"Why did the murderer throw the slippers he changed into outside into the snow?"

"You must know that the shoe rack for clean slippers is placed in the entrance. If you want to change into clean slippers, you must first open the door and walk a few steps inside."

"Why did the murderer take off his slippers outside the door, walk barefoot several steps into the door, and then put on clean slippers?"

"If the murderer really just escaped through the window through the snow, he would be safe as long as he put on clean slippers, and he wouldn't have to worry about the snowy footprints he left indoors after entering. Then he deliberately took off his slippers outside the door. What are you wearing shoes for? Are you afraid that the floor will be stained?"

"This" Mao Lilan's expression changed slightly.

She vaguely understood what Conan meant:

"The murderer did this because she didn't want to enter the villa wearing those slippers that had been worn on the snow."

"Because if you do that, those slippers stained with snow flakes will leave snow flakes footprints on the floor of the villa."

"There is heating in the villa, so the temperature is higher."

"If the snowflakes were just left, the snowflakes would definitely not have melted yet."

"If the footprints were forged and left in advance, the snowflakes would melt into water stains within a few minutes."

"And if we see indoor footprints, there are no snow flakes, only melted water stains."

"You will easily notice that these footprints were not left just now."

"so."

"In order not to be noticed by us, the murderer deliberately left his dirty slippers outside the door and was careful not to bring any snow flakes inside."

"It's freezing cold outside, and the snow flakes on the slippers won't melt. They look like they've just been abandoned."

"But the act of not having three hundred taels of silver here can actually prove it."

Mao Lilan reluctantly admitted the reality:

"The footprints were forged in advance, and the real murderer did not escape through the window."

"Ms. Minori Nakamura is not a murderer."

After eliminating Nakamura Minori, the only remaining suspect is Mihara Koko.

"The only thing that cannot be explained now is why Sonoko's confession mentioned that Teacher Mihara was lying on the ground in front of her when she entered, but the murderer attacked her from behind."

"Unless Yonehara-sensei knows the cloning technique, she can't"

"It seems incredible."

"That's why we ruled her out as a suspect in the first place."

"But Sherlock Holmes said: Eliminate all impossibilities, and whatever remains, no matter how unbelievable, must be the truth."

Conan's eyes became serious.

He used his wild imagination to guess the trick used by the murderer:

"This is a scam."

"Sonoko only glanced briefly at the time and saw Mr. Yonehara lying on the floor, and then he was attacked and lost consciousness."

"And in such a short period of time, she may not have time to confirm whether the person who fell in front of her is the real Teacher Yonehara."

"After all, in the room at the time:"

"Besides Sonoko and Yonehara-sensei, there is a third 'person', isn't there?"

"You mean" Mao Lilan couldn't help but shuddered: "It's the dead teacher Sugiyama?"

"That's right."

Conan boldly guessed:

"Teacher Yonehara probably made up the corpse to look like himself."

"This is easily done by dressing the body in your own clothes and covering the face with a wig."

"At first glance, Sonoko would definitely subconsciously think that it was Mr. Yonehara who had passed out."

Mr. Yonehara used to have short hair, but now he has long hair.

This couldn't help but attract Conan's attention.

Of course, Yonehara-sensei may have simply changed her appearance.

But before Mao Lilan could question, Conan continued:

"This speculation is indeed bizarre, and there is no evidence to support it."

"But it's also easy to verify."

"We just need to ask again whether Sonoko saw clearly the face of the so-called 'Mr. Yonehara' at that time."

"If you look at whether Mr. Mihara is wearing a wig, you can almost judge the feasibility of this trick."

"Once the feasibility is confirmed, coupled with the previous investigation and reasoning, the murderer can almost be confirmed."

By now, the facts of the case are very clear:

Teacher Yonehara first killed Teacher Sugiyama in the morning and hid the body under the bed.

Arriving at the villa at night, she hid the evidence in Minori Nakamura's down jacket in advance and forged her footprints in advance, creating the illusion that the murderer jumped out of the window and escaped.

Coupled with the trick to mislead Sonoko, this not only relieved Teacher Yonehara's suspicion, but also allowed Minori Nakamura to take the blame for her, becoming the number one suspect in everyone's eyes.

This can be said to be a very clever murder trick.

"However, I still feel like something is wrong."

Mao Lilan combed through the case from beginning to end, but frowned tightly:

The ruse is indeed clever.

But why would Yonehara-sensei go to all the trouble to use such a trick?

They made false traces, framed her, and risked exposure to perform such a painful trick.

Just to eliminate his own suspicion?

Why bother?

Wouldn't it be safer and less labor-intensive to dispose of the body secretly and destroy the evidence?

"Does she have a grudge against Teacher Nakamura?"

"So you want to kill Mr. Sugiyama and at the same time put Mr. Nakamura in jail?"

The more Mao Lilan thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong.

But Conan had already vaguely thought of something:

"Xiaolan, I think this is the purpose of Mr. Yonehara's acting in this play."

"I'm afraid it's to scare her next target out."

"Do you remember Mochizuki Minako's suicide case?"

"We discussed it when we were together before. The murderer was probably to avenge Minako, so Mr. Sugiyama took action."

"But now it seems that Mr. Sugiyama may not be the only person involved in Minako's death."

"But Teacher Yonehara doesn't know who the second person is."

"That's why she deliberately acted in such a drama."

"Using such a horrifying serial killing method, the name 'Minako' was left on the back of the hands of the three victims."

"The purpose is to deliberately create an atmosphere of terror and scare the 'second person' into revealing his true colors."

"And then."

Conan's reasoning is unconstrained and eclectic.

This is a nicer way of saying it.

To put it mildly, there is not enough evidence to support it.

But what I have to admit is that no matter how bold his imagination is, his reasoning can perfectly explain the details of the case:

"At that time, Mr. Shimoda had the biggest reaction."

"I noticed that when he exclaimed because of the name 'Minako', Yonehara-sensei looked at him strangely."

"So I guess she designed this drama to scare out the second murderer so that she could continue to commit crimes."

"Otherwise, there is really no reason for Mr. Yonehara to go to such great lengths to expose the existence of the corpse and let himself into Mr. Lin's sight in advance."

"You know, Mr. Lin is the management officer of the Metropolitan Police Department."

"Generally, the murderer has no time to hide in front of him. How can he take the initiative to stir up trouble?"

"Yes." Mao Lilan nodded.

If things are really as Conan guessed, Mr. Yonehara did this in order to scare the target and continue committing crimes.

Then, some doubts seem to be explained.

"I see!"

Mao Lilan suddenly realized something.

She finally noticed what had been making her feel wrong:

"It was Mr. Yonehara who blamed Mr. Nakamura!"

"If she really wanted to blame Teacher Nakamura, then she should not have hidden the rope in Teacher Nakamura's down jacket, nor should she have left fingerprints on the reagent bottle."

"Because as long as we identify whether there are any skin flakes from Sonoko on the rope and whether the fingerprints on the reagent bottle match Mr. Nakamura, we can prove whether Mr. Nakamura is the murderer."

"There is only one reagent bottle left with fingerprints wiped off, which makes it even more unclear."

"And Mr. Yonehara hid the rope and left fingerprints on the reagent bottles, so that shows."

Mao Lilan gradually guessed what Teacher Mihara was thinking:

"Mr. Yonehara never thought of actually blaming Mr. Nakamura."

"Putting the blame on Teacher Nakamura is just to temporarily push out a murderer and divert everyone's attention."

"According to her expectation, now that the 'murderers' have been caught, everyone will naturally relax their guard."

"At this time, she can take the opportunity to attack the second target."

"And this time."

"At this time, Teacher Nakamura, who is considered the murderer, is still under guard. If another person dies, the suspicion of her being the murderer will be eliminated."

She paused slightly and her tone became extremely serious:

"The conspiracy to frame Teacher Nakamura will definitely fail. Teacher Yonehara must know this."

"And not only did she do this, she also deliberately left ropes and fingerprints. These can clear Teacher Nakamura's innocence and prove that she is the murderer."

"Teacher Yonehara, this is equivalent to 'surrendering'."

"So even if Mr. Lin is here, she dares to continue committing crimes."

"Because Mr. Yonehara no longer cares whether he will be caught after killing someone."

Mao Lilan's face turned pale:

"She is determined to avenge Minako."

"at all costs."