It's That Man!

"In short, don't tell anyone about this yet."

Takagi gave a briefing, then stood up and went back to his own business. "If Inspector Megure finds out that I was the one who leaked this information, it will be disastrous. Besides, the Inspector should have already spoken to Advisor Fujino. With the Advisor's abilities, you don't need to worry too much about Detective Mouri."

"Ah, I understand."

Conan nodded, saw Takagi off, and his expression turned somewhat gloomy.

On the day of the bus hijacking, he remembered Haibara saying that there was a strange guy wearing a knitted hat...

The man was present during the bus robbery and when the foreigner was kidnapped...

Moreover, he vaguely sensed that someone had been watching him recently.

A figure wearing a knitted hat and with dark green eyes flashed through Conan's mind.

It's that man!

"What were you two whispering about just now?"

Ai Haibara noticed the two who had been whispering earlier, walked over, glanced at Takagi was heading to the screening room, looked speechlessly at Conan's expressive face, and asked in confusion.

"Nothing!"

Conan waved his hand. "It's just some stuff related to the case!"

He felt that he couldn't tell Haibara about this for the time being.

If I told Haibara, it would probably cause unnecessary tension.

"I think you were implying something in your words, weren't you?"

"Aren't you the same?"

Fujino didn't pay attention to the two bickering, but took advantage of the fact that no one was looking and slowly followed them into the screening room.

"Let me see if I can find any clues..."

A glint of light flashed in Fujino's eyes as he began to observe and gather clues at the crime scene.

[Izuki Reiko] [A seemingly arrogant, domineering, and greedy fat woman] [Suspected of being killed by a vase] [Had conflicts of interest with several people in the apartment before her death]

[Fragments of vases nearby—the romantic carnations on the body, still dripping wet] [The videotape that was just removed] [The remote control on the right—it seems the deceased had a habit of using the remote to eject the videotape]...

Fujino glanced around, then suddenly noticed something. He squatted down, picked up a shard of the vase, examined it closely, and lightly touched the frame of his glasses to retrieve the video footage from when he entered the room.

"So that's how it is..."

After a brief silence, Fujino murmured something.

He slowly stood up and glanced at the shelf on top of the TV cabinet in front of him.

I walked up and pulled back the curtain, and there were rows of video cameras in my eyes.

One of the video recorders was equipped with a timer.

Fujino reached out and activated the timer.

Suddenly, the screen of a video recorder next to them lit up, and a videotape was placed in front of the video recorder.

Fujino glanced at the videotape, his eyes narrowing slightly, and then thought to himself, "This guy seems to have been using those kids as pawns all along."

"Fujino?"

Conan suddenly ran into the screening room, slammed on the brakes, and was momentarily surprised when he saw Fujino.

"So you found it after all?"

Conan glanced at the thoughtful Fujino and murmured something.

Looks like you're a step behind again.

Ai Haibara walked over from behind, glanced at Fujino, and casually made a teasing remark to Conan.

"Ugh, so long-winded..."

Conan clicked his tongue in exasperation.

He's already seen it... no need to finish him off!

"Fujino- kun, he...?"

At this moment, Ooka Momiji also came over and was slightly taken aback when she saw the back view that suddenly became somewhat subtle.

"Now it's his turn."

Ai Haibara crossed her arms and said calmly, "Our Great Detective has already seen through the fog."

"Brother Fujino, have you found any new clues?"

At this moment, Inspector Juzo Megure brought Hideo Hōda Hideno to the screening room and saw Fujino standing next to the corpse, deep in thought. He asked in confusion.

When Hōda Hideno saw Fujino lift the curtain on the top shelf, his face turned deathly pale, and he couldn't help but swallow hard.

"Inspector Megure, you've come at the perfect time."

Fujino turned around and looked at Juzo Megure: "I already know who the murderer is."

"Oh... Oh!"

Juzo Megure was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, but once he came to his senses, he was overjoyed.

Fujino is going to do another deduction!

Instinctively, he asked, "Brother, who is the murderer?"

"I think the murderer..."

Fujino glanced at Hōda Hideno beside him. "It must be you, Mr. Masuda?"

"Well?"

Megure was surprised by this. "But just now Fujino- kun, you said that Masada didn't have time to commit the crime?"

"That's right!"

Hōda Hideno nodded repeatedly and looked at Conan: "I was with that little boy at the time, how could I have had time to commit a crime?"

"This is just your plan to create an alibi."

It should be said that from the moment you hired the detective to look for the watch, you were already planning this alibi.

Hōda Hideno Fujino a cold look. "It's strange that you specifically asked a detective to help you find your watch."

The moisture in the sandwiches you made for us proves that you prepared the bread in advance.

Ms. Tsukino will be coming today. Prepare the money you need to repay, the videotape you need to find, and have Conan and Ayumi deliver sandwiches. Then find the watch in the restroom.

All of this, when put together, was part of your plan—to create an alibi.

As she spoke, Fujino looked at Ooka Momiji and said, "Momiji, you said that the sound of the vase breaking was very crisp, and the sound of running and the sound of the door closing were very muffled, is that right?"

"Um."

Ooka Momiji nodded obediently. "Those two voices were definitely strange. The voices sounded muffled and the direction was vague, it was like..."

"It's like it was recorded."

Fujino picked up the thread and deduced, "Mr. Masuda, you recorded those two voices beforehand and put them in the video recorder on top. Then you placed the vase filled with water in front of you. Just to be safe, you also put a videotape under the vase to prevent the Murder Plan from failing due to insufficient force when the videotape popped out."

Crouching down, Fujino inserted Sakura Sanjuro's videotape into the VCR at the foot of the corpse. "When carrying out the Murder Plan, he specifically told Ms. Tsukino to take the videotape back after watching it, because she often comes here to watch movies, so you know that she has a habit of using the remote control to eject the videotape after watching a movie."

"Using this habit, you use some method to link the overhead video camera with the bottom video camera via remote control. As soon as she presses the remote control, the vase on top will smash hard on her head."

As he spoke, Fujino stood up and looked at Hōda Hideno again. "When the videotape on the top of the camera comes into contact with a foreign object, it retracts after a brief contact and the audio content inside will be played. The timer on the next camera is set to automatically cut off the power after a certain period of time to avoid arousing suspicion from the police."

"It's like this."

Fujino took out the remote control and pressed the rewind button.

"Kata!"

The videotape below and the videotape on the top were ejected at the same time. He reached out and caught the falling videotape. "This is your method of murder."