You Came Too Late

Chapter 25: You Came Too Late

"That was how Ishikawa and the others committed the crime."

After explaining the murderer's trick, Kudo Shinichi gave his final conclusion:

"The only thing I'm missing now is the crucial evidence. I need to go back to that alley and search it carefully."

That was what he said, but he did not look particularly tense.

He had already seen through the method completely, so the evidence should not be difficult to find.

At this point, the case was ninety percent solved.

And compared to him,

Lin Xinyi should be slower.

After all, the only ability he had demonstrated so far was examining corpses. He probably could not see through the murderer's exoneration scheme, which had made use of the environment, could he?

"This time..."

As he thought about it, Kudo Shinichi immediately grew more confident.

"I should be the one who wins."

Thus, with Ishikawa leading the way, Kudo strode out of the Department Store in high spirits.

Kudo felt very secure now.

He believed that in this case, his detective skills definitely gave him a greater advantage than Lin Xinyi's forensic expertise.

Ishikawa also felt very secure now.

Even the great detective Kudo Shinichi had personally confirmed that this case was a simple suicide. Those incompetent Tokyo police officers certainly would not be able to do anything to him, the murderer.

Thus, with similar confidence in their hearts, the murderer and the great detective returned one after the other to the alley beside the Department Store.

Meanwhile, during the roughly ten minutes Kudo and the others had spent investigating, the swift-moving Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had already arrived at the scene.

Several police cars were parked on the road, while a few uniformed officers maintained order on the sidewalk.

The entrance to the deserted alley had been cordoned off with emergency police tape. A dense crowd of onlookers, drawn in by the case, stood outside the barricade.

"Make way."

Kudo Shinichi hurriedly squeezed his way to the police tape.

Ishikawa and Mouri Ran had followed him back to the scene as well.

The officers guarding the perimeter were about to stop the three of them, but as the Savior of the Japanese Police, Kudo Shinichi's face was the best pass there was.

Kudo Shinichi stepped past the tape and looked at the officer leading the operation.

Sure enough, it was his old friend and longtime collaborator.

"Inspector Megure!"

Kudo Shinichi greeted him warmly.

Now that the police were here, he could use the Forensics Division's resources to thoroughly search the scene and find the critical evidence that would complete the final piece of the puzzle.

Then, in this silent contest of deduction, he would achieve a true victory.

"Brother Kudo."

"You're here too?"

Inspector Megure looked mildly surprised, then inexplicably let out a sigh of relief.

"No wonder I ran into Mr. Lin Xinyi twice at crime scenes today."

"So it wasn't because of him..."

"With Brother Kudo around, everything makes sense."

One God of Death was enough.

If Lin Xinyi also caused people to die everywhere he went like Kudo did, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department would be under even greater pressure.

As an older middle-aged man, Inspector Megure was rather inclined to believe in this sort of mysticism.

"Ha ha..."

Kudo Shinichi automatically ignored Inspector Megure's jab.

Detectives were always drawn to cases. It was perfectly normal for people to misunderstand them.

He smiled and went straight to the point.

"Inspector Megure, I have some thoughts about this case."

"Uh..."

Inspector Megure's expression immediately became somewhat subtle.

"What?" Kudo Shinichi keenly caught the change in his expression. "Did something happen with this case?"

"Nothing exactly happened, it's just..."

It seemed to be the first time Inspector Megure had ever said something like this to Kudo, and his tone was very tactful.

"You came a little late..."

"The suspect has already confessed."

As he spoke, Inspector Megure pointed behind him.

Sure enough, Aoki, who had just been left in the alley, was now surrounded by several sturdy officers.

Handcuffed and being escorted toward a police car, he could not stop himself from crying out:

"I-Ishikawa killed him!"

"We were only accomplices! Only accomplices! You have to make that clear!"

Kudo Shinichi: "..."

I had only been gone for ten minutes. I still haven't found the key evidence, and the suspect has already confessed?

Did Lin Xinyi do this?

How was that possible? What method had he used?

At that thought, the great detective Kudo's competitive spirit was instantly crushed.

Beside him, Ishikawa's expression was even more spectacular.

"A-Aoki, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

"W-When did I ever kill anyone? You're the one who's gone crazy, don't drag me into it!"

Seeing Aoki expose the truth so mercilessly before the police, Ishikawa was completely dumbfounded.

My scheme even fooled a famous detective!

And now my accomplice is turning around and reporting me from behind my back?

Do you have any respect for my brain cells?!

"You bastard!"

"Shut your mouth already!"

He roared hysterically at Aoki, but that only drew the police's attention.

"Oh? So you're Ishikawa?"

The officers all turned toward him with unfriendly looks.

Ishikawa nervously shrank back, then finally yelled through gritted teeth.

"So what if I am?"

"Aoki has something wrong with his head. Does whatever he says become the truth?"

"I think you should hurry up and send him to a mental hospital!"

"If you want to say I'm the murderer, you need to produce evidence!"

"Exactly."

"Inspector Megure, what exactly is the evidence?"

For the first time ever, Kudo Shinichi spoke up on behalf of a criminal.

Because he also wanted to know what clue Lin Xinyi had used to discover the truth, and what evidence he had used to make Aoki obediently confess.

Surely he had not simply exploited Aoki's fragile mental state to bluff a confession out of him?

That would have taken no skill at all.

"Uh, well..."

Inspector Megure said frankly:

"We don't know either, because we only just arrived at the scene."

"When we got here, that fellow named Aoki was already kneeling before Brother Lin, repenting and crying that he was guilty."

"Before we even had a chance to say anything, he ran over sobbing and said he wanted to turn himself in. He even asked us to put handcuffs on him."

"As for the details of the case..."

"We haven't even had time to ask yet."

Kudo: "..."

Ishikawa: "..."

Neither of them knew what to say, while Ishikawa was trembling all over with rage.

Right now, he wanted to kill Aoki too.

That useless coward was truly going to ruin him.

"So there's no evidence at all, then?"

After a long silence, Ishikawa forcibly kept himself composed.

He stubbornly refused to budge, preparing for a desperate final struggle.

"Aoki's nonsense alone can't prove that I killed anyone."

"The police aren't going to believe a madman, are you? Surely not?"

"Uh..."

Inspector Megure was speechless for a moment, then could only turn a pleading gaze toward Lin Xinyi beside him.

"Brother Lin should be able to provide an answer to that."

As soon as he said that, Lin Xinyi became the center of attention.

The officers present and the gathered spectators all turned their eyes toward him.

Some people in the crowd even held cameras, eagerly taking pictures of him.

Meanwhile, the great detective Kudo Shinichi was being humiliatingly grouped among the utterly inconspicuous "onlookers."

"Fine, then let me waste a few more words."

Lin Xinyi stepped forward and calmly looked at Ishikawa, who stubbornly refused to confess.

Before Ishikawa could even say a few harsh words to bolster his own courage, Aoki, who had already obediently accepted the handcuffs, beat him to it and spoke in a trembling voice.

"I-Ishikawa, confess."

"That man is like some perverted peeping tom who secretly installed cameras in a women's changing room. I don't know how he did it, but he 'saw' everything we did!"

"We can't escape. We can't escape."

"If we confess now, it will at least count as surrendering ourselves, and the sentence might be reduced a little!"

"..."

Ishikawa's face turned green as he listened.

"Shut the hell up!"

"Surrender myself? I didn't kill anyone, so what the hell would I be surrendering for?!"

"Aoki, if you've gone crazy, go to a mental hospital. Don't run to the police and start biting people at random!"

Aoki fell silent after being shouted at.

But the look he gave Ishikawa was filled with despair.

And at that moment, Lin Xinyi, the center of everyone's attention, finally spoke again.

"Not turning yourself in is even better."

"Murder and evil deserve punishment."

"If scum like you were allowed to receive a lighter sentence just by surrendering, that would be far too regrettable."