Tang Ze Zhao's second time assisting at a murder scene, he was present as a piece of evidence.
Because of the severe damage he had caused to the scene, the arriving police had no choice but to put Tang Ze Zhao back where he had been and photograph him as evidence, blood splatters and all.
"Are you done?" Tang Ze Zhao asked, holding his hands up as he waited for the officers to finish taking pictures. "Can I clean myself up now?"
"We've finished documenting your part. Wipe your face." Inspector Megure handed Tang Ze Zhao a clean handkerchief, then silently looked toward the door set aside nearby. "Next time you use public facilities, remember to handle them carefully to avoid damaging them... Well, you were indeed rather unlucky."
Inspector Megure had seen plenty of detectives with a knack for attracting cases. But someone like Tang Ze Zhao, who had simply gone to the restroom, pulled off a door with one tug, and ended up splattered with blood, was still rather rare.
Tang Ze Zhao thanked him for his concern and silently wiped the dried blood from his chin.
"Tang Ze Zhao?" Ran Mouri's puzzled voice came from the doorway. "And Conan? Why are you two here?"
Conan had originally been quietly lurking by Tang Ze Zhao's feet, examining the corpse and murder weapon. Ran's voice snapped him back to his senses, and before he could awkwardly laugh it off, Tang Ze Zhao clapped a hand over his mouth.
"I came out for coffee, and Conan happened to come downstairs looking for me to read to him, so I brought him over here. You're at this shop too, Mouri? I didn't even notice when I came in." Tang Ze Zhao's acting was leagues beyond Conan's, and he smoothly made up the entire story.
"Ah, wasn't Ran here to meet Shinichi?" Conan's attention, which had been carried away by the murder, finally returned to the reason they had come. Knowing full well, he still asked, "Why isn't Shinichi here? If he were here, the case would be solved in no time!"
"Well..." Ran's expression stiffened, unsure whether she should say it outright.
"What are you all standing around here for?" A mature, intelligent female voice came from behind them. Ran turned around and saw a beautiful, capable-looking woman in professional attire walking up behind them.
She could not help but sigh in relief, breaking into a delighted smile. "Mom, you're here."
"It's been a long time, Ran." Eri Kisaki embraced her daughter, then turned to look at the scene inside the restroom. "There's been a murder?"
Tang Ze Zhao lowered his head to observe Conan's reaction.
What? Ran had come to meet Aunt Eri Kisaki today? So the important person she meant was Aunt Eri Kisaki?
Conan froze completely and could not help shrinking behind Tang Ze Zhao. Painful memories of being thoroughly scolded by Eri Kisaki during his childhood resurfaced. In an instant, he did not know where to put his hands or feet, and even his usual eager drive to investigate had withered away.
Over there, Eri Kisaki, who had briefly caught up with Inspector Megure, had already begun asking about the case.
"First of all, the killer definitely wasn't me." Tang Ze Zhao began with that innocent defense before describing what the original crime scene had likely looked like. "The victim's back should originally have been pressed tightly against the door. That's why the door wasn't locked when I found it, yet I still couldn't push it open."
"The victim was Yayoi Himeyo, twenty-four years old." Inspector Megure, who had never truly considered Tang Ze Zhao a suspect, smoothly recited the information from the investigation. "She died from a single stab straight through the heart. The killer struck decisively."
"There's a ligature mark on her neck." Conan, who had been snooping around for quite a while, crouched beside an officer and pointed at the corpse's neck. "The killer may have first strangled the victim unconscious with a rope, then stabbed her with the knife."
"What a vicious method." The officer beside him stared in shock.
"The victim's wallet was empty. If the motive was robbery, the killer probably didn't want their face to be seen." Inspector Megure pointed at the window behind the toilet in the stall. "My guess is that the killer climbed in through here, hid in the stall, and waited for someone to push the door open. Then they subdued the victim directly, took the money, and fled."
"Impossible." Before Conan could speak, Tang Ze Zhao shook his head. "I only pulled the door open, yet the blood even soaked my pant legs. If the killer committed the crime like that, they would definitely have gotten a lot of blood on themselves. And if they left through the window, there's no way it would be completely free of traces."
Eri Kisaki nodded in agreement. "They were careless enough to leave the murder weapon behind. The culprit couldn't possibly have had time to wipe the window clean so thoroughly."
"But then it doesn't make sense." The door that had suffered at Tang Ze Zhao's hands was lying nearby, and Inspector Megure pointed at it. "The door was tightly shut at the time, and the victim's body was blocking it. If the killer didn't leave through the window, how did they get out of the stall?"
"The answer is simple. From above." Eri Kisaki pointed at the gap above the neighboring stall.
"This gap?" Inspector Megure looked up, stroking his chin. "Isn't it a little too narrow? Could an adult get through?"
"Why not try it and find out?" Eri Kisaki had just been about to tell an officer to climb up and test it when Tang Ze Zhao walked to the adjacent stall, hooked his hands over the top edge of the door, and prepared to pull himself up.
"You'd better not go up there. Let go, let go." Inspector Megure grabbed Tang Ze Zhao by the back of his collar, still shaken. "Don't pull this one down too."
"I told you, I wasn't the one who pulled it down..." Tang Ze Zhao defended himself, then sighed helplessly and obediently stood aside to watch Inspector Megure call over an officer to test it.
"You really can get through, but probably only someone relatively slim." Inspector Megure, who absolutely could not have made it through, rubbed his stomach.
Tang Ze Zhao reminded him, "Then the killer wasn't an outside robber. They were someone from inside the shop, right?"
"That's right." Inspector Megure smoothly picked up the thread, his increasingly smooth cerebral cortex resting quite comfortably.
"Inspector Megure..." Tang Ze Zhao tilted his head.
"Then hurry and seal off the shop. We need to determine who came in earlier." Eri Kisaki also prompted him.
Inspector Megure suddenly understood what they meant and waved as he gave orders. "Right. Keep all the customers and staff present here. Does the shop have surveillance cameras? Check how many people came in."
"So the suspects are all of you who entered after the victim went into the restroom." Using the shop's surveillance footage, the people who had had an opportunity to commit the crime were quickly narrowed down. "Mr. Yuichi Ki, Mr. Jusan Tono, and the last person to discover the body, Mr. Tang Ze Zhao. In order, explain why you came to the shop and what you did while you were here."
Tang Ze Zhao looked at the people on either side of him and could not help lifting his chin and puffing out his chest, readying himself.
It was here. The three-choice setup had finally arrived.
Although Tang Ze Zhao looked like a suspect added in just to make up the numbers, he still felt strangely involved.
In a moment, he was going to give the killer a good beating and demand to know why they had left the victim in that stall with its precarious door.
Being a suspect was a minor issue. But getting him covered in blood and dirtying his new clothes had made Tang Ze Zhao very unhappy.
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