The Library Murder Case That Traumatized a Child / A Body on Top of the Elevator

Although Shizuka Sakaki felt that the library elevator was a bit too sensitive, she quickly apologized to everyone in the elevator and led Conan down the stairs.

Conan, however, looked at the elevator behind him with some confusion.

Even if the capacity is 7 people, the combined weight of Shizuka Sakaki and herself should only be about the weight of a normal adult male, right?

Conan wasn't thinking much about it at the moment. This library had been open since he was a child, perhaps because the elevator was old.

The library itself only has four floors, and they can walk up the stairs just as fast as they can take the elevator.

When they arrived at the library lobby on the first floor, they saw Inspector Megure and several other officers questioning the library staff.

When Inspector Megure saw Conan and Shizuka Sakaki, a smile appeared on his face, "Ms. Sakaki and Conan, are you here at the library to read today too?"

As he said this, he couldn't help but look behind Shizuka Sakaki, as if trying to find Jiang Hang's figure.

"Where's Brother Jiang Hang? Didn't he come with you?"

When Inspector Megure learned from Shizuka Sakaki that Jiang Hang hadn't come along, he seemed a little disappointed. "If Jiang Hang had helped, the missing person would surely have been found very quickly, right?"

Conan listened to Inspector Megure's words and a subtle expression appeared on his face. You've only just started the investigation, and you're already thinking of asking Jiang Hang for help?

"Inspector Megure, are you investigating a missing persons case?" he asked Inspector Megure curiously.

Inspector Megure nodded. He trusted Shizuka Sakaki and Conan quite a bit, and quickly gave Shizuka Sakaki a brief account of the case.

"The person who reported the case is the wife of a library employee. She called our police this afternoon to report that her husband, Tamada Kazuo, has not returned home for two days and she has been unable to contact him by phone since then."

According to the missing man's wife, her husband would call or text her every day after work, but that night, Tamada Kazuo did not contact her, so she suspected that her husband was taken away or murdered before he got off work.

Inspector Megure said this, he glanced at a middle-aged man who was still being questioned not far away.

"That's Tsugawa Shuji, the librarian of Beika Library. According to our investigation, Tamada Kazuo worked overtime two nights ago. So we are now questioning the employees who worked overtime two nights ago to find out when they noticed that Tamada Kazuo was missing that night."

Soon, the results of the inquiries from the employees who were working overtime and Director Tsugawa came out.

Director Tsugawa stated that he was busy organizing the newly arrived books that day and did not notice Tamada Kazuo's movements.

Several other employees also said they hadn't seen Tamada Kazuo since 8 p. m., but they didn't know exactly when Tamada Kazuo went missing.

"That means Tamada Kazuo may have disappeared after 8 PM, and the library staff didn't notice anything unusual..."

"It is possible that Tamada Kazuo left the library before 8 o'clock for some reason and disappeared as a result, or it is possible that he was killed by someone and his body was disposed of before that."

After speaking, Inspector Megure looked at Shizuka Sakaki with some anticipation. Perhaps he felt that as Jiang Hang's assistant, if Shizuka Sakaki could learn something from Jiang Hang, it would be helpful to their police investigation.

However, even Conan couldn't deduce anything of value from the current clues, let alone Shizuka Sakaki.

Under Inspector Megure's watchful eye, Shizuka Sakaki, after pondering for a while without coming up with anything, decisively chose to call Jiang Hang for off-site support.

Chapter 185: Chapter 183: The Library Murder Case— A Childhood Trauma

Shizuka Sakaki believes that Jiang Hang is currently in serious business negotiations with the head of Musashino Animation, accompanied by Koharu Yoshino.

But when she heard the sound of mahjong tiles coming from the other end of the phone, she knew she was completely wrong.

Jiang Hang is currently playing mahjong happily with Watanabe Jun, a producer at Musashino Animation, whom he has just met, at a small mahjong parlor near Musashino Animation.

As for the collaboration, he naturally left it to the professionals at the tokusatsu company to handle; talking about work is nothing compared to playing mahjong.

According to producer Watanabe, playing mahjong is a unique "diplomatic method" of their Musashino Animation, and Jiang Hang can call him anytime he wants to play mahjong.

Hearing that Shizuka Sakaki had come to him because of a case, Jiang Hang coughed lightly.

He glanced at the terrible hand he had, and then asked Koharu Yoshino to finish the game for him, saying that if he lost, it was on him, and if he won, they would split the winnings.

Stepping outside the mahjong parlor, Jiang Hang took a breath of fresh air and began to listen to the story of Shizuka Sakaki's disappearance.

Upon learning that the case had occurred at the Beika Library, Jiang Hang frowned.

"Someone has gone missing from the Beika Library?"

Having watched so many episodes of Conan as a child, he naturally wouldn't remember the typical cases, but the cases like the "Bandaged Man Murder Case, "the Library Murder Case," and the already occurred "Art Museum Murder Case" and "Moon Shadow Island Murder Case"—these early Conan cases left an extremely deep impression on Jiang Hang when he was a child.

Just as Jiang Hang had dragged Koharu Yoshino to the Beika Art Museum to investigate after learning about the rumors, Jiang Hang had also gone to the library to investigate after organizing the "Conan cases" he could still remember.

He also recalled the story of the library murder, which seemed to have occurred because an employee discovered that the librarian, who had left him with childhood trauma, was hiding drugs or guns in the library. The employee was then killed by the librarian, who then hid the body.

Jiang Hang had visited the library several times after the Art Museum Incident and after returning from Moon Shadow Island, intending to report any problems he found directly to Inspector Megure and his team.

But the library was still very clean at that time. He searched around with his Eagle Eye but found nothing suspicious. The librarian, although he had a monkey-like face, looked quite kind.

In addition, the art style of animation is definitely different from that of reality, so Jiang Hang, thinking he had come to the wrong place, did not spend too much more energy on this matter.

Unexpectedly, only a month has passed, and he has already heard from Shizuka Sakaki that the case has actually occurred.

Upon hearing that Conan was right beside her, Jiang Hang couldn't help but mentally complain that Conan's performance was as consistently solid as ever.

Although he already knew who the real culprit was when he heard about it over the phone, he naturally couldn't explain it clearly over the phone.

Jiang Hang glanced at Koharu Yoshino, who was taking over the mahjong game from him in the mahjong parlor.

I don't know when, but the originally bad hand of cards gradually became neat and tidy, and it was only one card away from being ready to win.

It seems he doesn't need to worry too much about things here.

"Then I'll come over now. What's the situation on your end?"

With that, he said goodbye to Koharu Yoshino and his newly acquainted mahjong partner Watanabe Jun, and then hurriedly left the mahjong parlor.

On the other end of the phone, Shizuka Sakaki continued, "The police search has just ended. They didn't find Tamada Kazuo's body in the art museum... Could it be that Mr. Tamada Kazuo was really lured out of the library and then murdered?"

With the rudimentary intelligence-gathering abilities she had acquired through training, Shizuka Sakaki instinctively sensed that something was amiss.

She covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to Jiang Hang, "I have a feeling that something is strange about this library, and some of the people who were questioned by the police definitely didn't tell the truth. What do you think, Jiang Hang?"

Hearing that Shizuka Sakaki sensed something was wrong, Jiang Hang's heart stirred.

He sat in his car, trying to give Shizuka Sakaki some hints.

"In that case, why don't you make a assumption? If your hunch is correct, and if Tamada Kazuo was killed in the library, then why would the murderer want to kill him?"

"And after killing him, where would the murderer hide the body to avoid being discovered by the police?"

Jiang Hang prompted Shizuka Sakaki little by little. "You just said that the police have searched all the places in the library where things could be hidden, such as the storage room, the restrooms, and even the bookshelves. So what other places do you think could be used to hide a body, and wouldn't be easy for anyone to think of?"

"Since you think the library is a bit strange, then try to find out what's odd before I get there."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Hang drove his 86 towards the library.

He felt he had given enough hints and hoped to receive good news from Shizuka Sakaki when he arrived at the library.

Inside the library, Shizuka Sakaki, who had just ended her call with Jiang Hang, told Inspector Megure what Jiang Hang had said on the phone.

Upon hearing that Jiang Hang was on his way, Inspector Megure, who had already moved the library search to other locations, stroked his chin and said, "It seems that Brother Jiang Hang thinks the body might still be hidden in the library?"

With that, he told the other police officers to search other places, while he stayed here to wait for Jiang Hang to arrive.

Conan couldn't help but ponder the hints Jiang Hang had given him.

Is this a place that could be used to hide a body, but one that wouldn't be easily noticed? And why would the murderer want to kill Tamada Kazuo in a library? Is there some other special secret hidden in this library?

Jiang Hang's suggestion was indeed a rather important clue in his view.

Just like Inspector Megure, Conan is currently pondering these questions while resting his chin on his hand.

Suddenly, as if he had just remembered something, he turned to Inspector Megure and asked, "Inspector Megure, which library did that missing uncle work for the other night?"

Inspector Megure paused for a moment, then opened the interrogation log in his hand. "Hmm... Director Tsugawa seems to have mentioned that Tamada Kazuo was in charge of the children's library before, but he was transferred to the historical documents library a week ago."

Chapter 186: Chapter 184: The Corpse Above the Elevator

According to Conan's theory, Tamada Kazuo was probably killed by someone in the library after he was transferred there and discovered something there.

Because the body was difficult to dispose of immediately, the perpetrator hid it in a secluded spot in the library to avoid police detection.

Of course, if Tamada Kazuo was lured out of the library and killed, that would be another possibility. But since the former possibility has not been ruled out, Conan will naturally prioritize the more likely one.

However, after he told Inspector Megure his thoughts, the police's subsequent investigation failed to find anything useful in the historical documents library.

Either the murderer has already cleared away the clues, or his deduction was flawed.

Conan frowned, deep in thought, trying to figure out if there were any other possibilities.

Meanwhile, Shizuka Sakaki is still thinking about where in the library there is a suitable place to hide things that won't be easily noticed.

She looked around the library, and when she looked up at the ceiling, she seemed to have an idea and shared her thoughts with Inspector Megure.

"Inspector Megure, do you think it's possible that the murderer hid the body in the ceiling after killing the person? The ceiling should be a pretty good hiding place, right?"

"The ceiling...that's certainly a possibility, but it would be quite troublesome to investigate," Inspector Megure said, while also sending his men to investigate the library's ceiling.

Conan, standing nearby, felt that the possibility of the murderer hiding the body in the ceiling was not very high.

Although the ceiling is a place that few people consider, hiding a body on the ceiling is not easy to do in the first place.

Meanwhile, it's only October, and if the body is left like this, it will probably start to smell by now, and the smell of blood is also a very important factor.

If the body were actually hidden in the ceiling, the smell in a public place like a library would likely increase the risk of discovery, so the perpetrator probably wouldn't make that choice.

But besides the ceiling, what else is suitable for hiding things?

Conan and Shizuka Sakaki continued to ponder this possibility.

Just then, Shizuka Sakaki's phone rang again.

Conan thought it was Jiang Hang calling, but it turned out to be Imai Midori calling.

"Shizuka- senpai, where are you right now? I saw a lot of police officers searching the library. Do you know what happened?"

Upon hearing about the missing person case at the library, Imai Midori couldn't help but exclaim in surprise on the other end of the phone, "Really? I'll come down right now!"

About a minute or two later, Imai Midori also quickly walked down the stairs.

As she walked towards Shizuka Sakaki's location, Imai Midori tidied her hair, which had become somewhat disheveled from rushing up the stairs.

"That's strange. The library elevator seems to be malfunctioning today. There are only seven people in the elevator, including me, but it still alerted me that it was overloaded. It was fine when I came to borrow books last week..." Imai Midori tidied her hair and complained to Shizuka Sakaki.

However, after Imai Midori brought this up, she suddenly noticed a change in the expressions of Shizuka Sakaki and Conan beside her.

"Midori, are you sure the library elevator was still working fine last week?" Shizuka Sakaki asked Imai Midori with a slightly excited expression.

Imai Midori was startled by Shizuka Sakaki's sudden excitement, but after seeing that not only Shizuka Sakaki and Conan, but also Inspector Megure was looking at her, Imai Midori nodded to confirm. "I often come to the library to borrow books, so I remember this. Also, I remember that the people who rode the elevator with me last time were a bit fatter than this time. Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case."

After hearing Imai Midori's words, Shizuka Sakaki let out a long sigh of relief.

"Inspector Megure, could you please investigate the area above the elevator? I think it's a very suspicious place."

Having obtained such important information from Imai Midori, Inspector Megure naturally wouldn't miss it.

Soon, the library's elevators were forcibly shut down by the police.

Inside the elevator control room, the library staff changed the elevator's operation to manual mode.

On the fourth floor of the library, as the elevator slowly ascended under manual control, the body of Tamada Kazuo gradually came into view.

Seeing the ferocious look on the other person's face before he died, Shizuka Sakaki and Imai Midori instinctively retreated behind the police.

Tamada Kazuo and burly man. His body was placed at the top of the elevator, which explains why this elevator, which already had a low capacity, was so prone to sounding the alarm.

After the body was discovered, the police immediately cordoned off the scene.

Based on a simple assessment, it can be preliminarily confirmed that Tamada Kazuo died the night before last, and the cause of death was that he was struck with a blunt object and then strangled to death by the inmate with a rope.

Even the rope used by the perpetrator to commit the crime is still hanging around Tamada Kazuo's neck.

As for the suspects, the men who worked overtime with Tamada Kazuo that night are naturally highly likely to be suspects.

At this point, we are only one step away from identifying the real culprit.

However, the murderer didn't seem to have much patience. When he learned that the police were going to investigate the elevator, he already had the idea of escaping.

When the police went to find the library staff who had just been questioned, they suddenly discovered that the Director Tsugawa, who had just been inside the library, had disappeared without a trace!

"What?! Tsugawa Shuji is missing! Find him immediately! I'm going to contact the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department right now!"

Upon receiving this information, Inspector Megure was already certain that the real culprit in this murder case was likely Tsugawa Shuji.

After all, the other employees stayed where they were and waited to be questioned by the police. Only the Director Tsugawa, suddenly disappeared, and now he can't even be reached by phone. Why would he do this if he didn't have something to hide?

Meanwhile, on the other side, Tsugawa Shuji, who had changed his clothes in the shortest amount of time and even put on a wig, was hurrying towards the parking lot not far away with his head down.

"Damn it, if it weren't for that woman, how could those policemen have discovered Yutian's body!"

At this moment, Tsugawa Shuji's face looked extremely ugly, as if he was thinking about how to take revenge on that woman after he escaped.