“That’s not quite right.” Heiji Hattori shook his head, looking awkward.
He might not believe in ghosts, but he only believed the police’s explanation about three-tenths.
Let’s be real, just the idea of a serial killer who could traverse five districts in an hour and murder over twenty people—
It was hard to convince anyone with a brain that it was true. Heiji Hattori believed it was a planned crime by a gang.
But, what’s with this little kid? Heiji Hattori frowned at Conan.
Heiji Hattori remembered that the last time they were at Spider Ridge, Conan didn’t believe in ghosts at all, just like himself, and believed that Izumi was a fraud.
How come now, this kid who seems smarter than he should be, is saying that the Slit-Mouthed Woman really exists?
Could it be… that there really are ghosts in the world?
Heiji Hattori unconsciously shuddered. That would be terrifying!
“Achoo—” Conan sneezed loudly.
He hadn’t slept all night, and the whole Slit-Mouthed Woman thing had hit him hard. Conan was really feeling down.
Heiji Hattori took out the bottle of baijiu he had brought and poured a cup, urging Conan to drink it.
“Got a cold? I just happen to have some miracle medicine with me. One drink and you’ll be good as new!”
Conan was probably delirious with fever and didn’t resist. He drank it all down, and became even more dizzy.
Izumi narrowed his eyes. He could sense a powerful energy, different from a ghost’s, colliding within Conan’s body.
It wasn’t something he could see, but rather a perception, a sense of energy fluctuations beyond the norm that he had developed after practicing Qi.
Could it be the effects of the medicine? Plus… that baijiu?
“Hattori-kun, you gave a child high-proof Chinese baijiu?” Izumi glanced at the bottle of liquor in Heiji Hattori’s hand.
“Ah, I almost forgot, you’re a Chinese, right, Izumi?” Heiji Hattori said carelessly.
“You, how could you give a kid alcohol?” Kogoro Mouri walked out from the inner room, glancing at the bottle with regret.
He mumbled, “It should have been left for me to drink!”
“What’s going on at this detective agency? I’ve been waiting outside for a while, and no one has come to greet me?” Kimiko Tsujimura entered, disgruntled.
“I apologize.” Ran Mori quickly apologized.
Hm? Izumi turned and looked at Kimiko Tsujimura.
Kimiko Tsujimura was about to get angry, but when she saw Izumi, she was startled and greeted him respectfully.
“Mr. Izumi.”
“Mrs. Tsujimura.” Izumi nodded slightly.
Kimiko Tsujimura’s husband, Ikunori Tsujimura, was a high-ranking diplomat who had once asked Izumi for help with a matter.
Seeing Izumi, Kimiko Tsujimura felt a bit apprehensive, but thinking about the rumors circulating about him within the circle, she quickly calmed down.
She then calmly told Kogoro Mouri about the purpose of her visit.
It turned out that Kimiko Tsujimura’s stepson, Takayoshi Tsujimura, had found a girlfriend that she didn’t like, and she wanted to ask Kogoro Mouri to investigate the girl, Sachiko Katsuki.
Ideally, she wanted to find out something wrong with the girl, so that Takayoshi Tsujimura would give up on this girlfriend.
That’s what Kimiko Tsujimura said, but—
Actually, the girl she hated was her own daughter from her previous marriage, and Kimiko Tsujimura herself knew about it.
The reason she asked Kogoro Mouri to investigate Sachiko Katsuki wasn’t to break them up, but to find a witness.
A witness who could prove that Kimiko Tsujimura couldn’t have possibly killed Ikunori Tsujimura!
“Just so happens, Mr. Tsujimura called a couple of days ago asking me to help arrange the feng shui in his study. If Mrs. Tsujimura doesn’t mind, I’ll go along too.”
Izumi raised an eyebrow, looking at Kimiko Tsujimura.
Feng shui was fine, but he could collect another soul!
“Of… of course, I wouldn’t mind, please, Mr. Izumi.” Kimiko Tsujimura’s expression stiffened involuntarily.
She could only pray that Izumi was as rumored, someone who only did their job and didn’t like to meddle in unnecessary things.
“I’ll go too!” Heiji Hattori stepped forward. “We’ll be in a better disguise if we have more people, pretending to be your guests.”
Kimiko Tsujimura, Izumi, Yu Shiya, Ran Mori, Kogoro Mouri, Heiji Hattori, and Conan who desperately wanted to go along too.
Finally, it was Izumi who drove his own car, plus the car Kimiko Tsujimura brought, to accommodate so many people to the Tsujimura residence.
…
When Izumi arrived at the Tsujimura residence, he saw Kimiko Tsujimura’s stepson, Takayoshi Tsujimura, walking down the stairs with his girlfriend.
Besides them, there was also Kimiko Tsujimura’s father-in-law, Toshimitsu Tsujimura, who was holding a painting of a large fish, claiming it was the fish he caught himself.
“Mom.” Sachiko Katsuki and Takayoshi Tsujimura greeted Kimiko Tsujimura with the same term.
This seemingly harmless address from all angles actually made Kimiko Tsujimura angry. “I am not your mom!”