Inspector Megure and Heiji said, flustered.
"Jin, the locked room trick Heiji deduced is perfect.
You saw us testing it on my pocket earlier."
"That's right, there's no flaw in my deduction!"
I smiled leisurely and pointed at Inspector Megure's pants.
"Hehe~ Check if the key really went in properly."
Heiji flipped Inspector Megure's pocket to check the key trick.
Then, although it went into the pocket, it hadn't gone into the coin pocket inside.
"No, this can't be... I definitely passed the fishing line through the coin pocket and pulled it out, so why didn't the key go inside there?"
"That's because Inspector Megure was sitting down."
"What?"
"Because you were sitting, the pocket was pressed, so there was less space for it to enter, and the fishing line came off the tape before the key could enter the coin pocket.
Besides, with a fat diplomat or someone like Inspector Megure, it's even worse!"
Heiji said, making excuses.
"But by any chance, even once in ten tries, it could happen by coincidence..."
"It would be the same no matter how many times you try.
Think carefully! What shape was the key inside the diplomat's coin pocket?"
Heiji thought for a moment and finally acknowledged my words.
"That's right.
It was definitely folded and inside.
There's no way it could go in like that with a fishing line..."
Heiji still couldn't accept it, so he held up the fishing line with a needle and asked.
"Then what is this? I found a fishing line with a needle in the living room!"
"That's a trap set by the culprit.
To frame the grandfather."
I showed the several fishing lines and needles I had collected while going around various rooms.
"This is what I found while going around several rooms.
Like it's begging to be found.
There were some in every room of this house."
"Wh-What..."
"This was because the culprit didn't know where the grandfather would go, so they hid them in multiple rooms."
Heiji finally realized his deduction was the culprit's trap, and asked me, frustrated.
"Then how did the culprit get out of this study? When we came in, it was a perfect locked room!"
"The culprit didn't get out of the locked room.
They entered with us and committed the murder."
Everyone was surprised at those words.
"That means the culprit is..."
"That's right.
The culprit is Madam, you!"
"Wh-What..."
"That can't be..."
Kogoro asked me.
"Then are you saying the victim was still alive until then?"
"Yes, the madam just made him sleep with medicine or something beforehand.
And she pretended to wake the victim and stabbed him with the poisoned needle.
On top of that, to prevent any groans or distorted expressions from being seen when stabbed by the poisoned needle, she even piled books next to him and played music."
At that moment, Heiji said as if denying my deduction.
"But when we entered, the madam didn't look like she was taking anything out.
Give proof that the madam did it!"
"You'll know if you look at the key the madam has.
She uses the same keychain as the victim."
At those words, Inspector Megure took the key out of the madam's bag and checked it.
Then, as I said, it was the same keychain, and that keychain was also split in half, with a groove dug in between that could fit a poisoned needle.
"No! This groove!?"
"That's right.
She must have put the poisoned needle in that groove.
She crafted the keychain so she could pull it out quickly as soon as she entered the room.
In other words, this grooved keychain is the decisive evidence that the madam is the culprit."
"But why would the madam kill her husband..."
"The answer to that is probably in this photo."
I showed the framed photo of the young diplomat couple in the study and said.
"Look here, doesn't the madam look a lot like someone?"
Inspector Megure looked closely at the photo and said in surprise.
"Ah! That's right! She looks exactly like Yukiko-san! How could this be?"
Then the madam finally gave up and started telling the whole story of the case.
"It's natural we look alike.
Yukiko is my daughter."
"What? What did you say!!!???"
"Yukiko is the daughter I had with my ex-husband.
My ex-husband was a diplomat who was framed for corruption 20 years ago and was socially ruined.
He died in prison 15 years ago.
Not knowing that the one who framed him was my current husband, I fell for his sweet words and ended up living with that evil man."
Inspector Megure seemed to remember that case.
"Ah~ I remember that case.
But whether it was a frame-up, you don't know, right?"
"I found out when my son brought Yukiko's photo saying he was going to marry her.
At first, I thought, even though she's a stranger, she really looks like me when I was young, but my husband saw that photo and opposed it terribly.
So I wondered why and pressed him, and he started confessing about framing my ex-husband.
And that was to get me."
"Then..."
"And that's when I also learned that Father (the grandfather) was involved."
Hearing that, the grandfather couldn't look at the madam and lowered his head and said.
"I'm sorry, child.
I must have lost my mind back then."
Hearing that, Inspector Megure seemed to understand the whole story of the case and said.
"I see... Feeling guilty about what you did in the past, you knew the trap the madam set but were trying to take the blame and become the culprit."
The madam looked at the grandfather with cold eyes, still unable to forgive him, and said.
"Regretting it now is useless.
He went to the afterlife with an unjust frame."
With those words, the police took the madam away.
As she was being taken away, the madam told her son to take care of his daughter.
'Then, would the children end up marrying each other?'
And so the case ended, and Ran, Kogoro, and Heiji came to praise me.
"Jin, you were so cool today."
"As expected of my son-in-law."
"There was another one besides Shinichi, next time I won't lose."
I pointed at Conan, who was being carried by everyone, and said.
"This case was solved by the boy detective Conan.
I just talked.
Right, Conan?"
"Ah~ uh... yeah..."
Conan tried to say something but just accepted it.
I decided to give this case to Conan.
Conan was definitely enthusiastic, pointing out evidence and reasoning even while being carried by me, so I couldn't ignore that effort.
"What? Really???"
"Yeah, Conan wanted to play detective, so this was possible because he found things here and there."
"Wow~ Conan, that's amazing?"
Ran praised Conan, but I started teasing him again, feeling playful.
"Our child is so smart.
I'm thinking of raising him as a detective."
At those words, Ran also laughed and said.
"Hehe! That's right.
He seems like he'll become a good detective."
"Ah! Really, are you going to keep doing this? Let's go home quickly."
And so I took Ran, Kogoro, and Conan home and was about to go home when Heiji kept following me.
"Aren't you going?"
"Ahahaha... Well, you see, I have nowhere to sleep, so let me stay over."
"Good grief, you came all the way here without booking a place to stay?"
"I came thinking only about Shinichi..."
I was about to just send him to a nearby motel, but I gave him one of the empty rooms at home.
Heiji was impressed seeing the size of our house.
"Wow~ You live really well.
It's similar in size to the diplomat's house today."
"Yeah, some of it I got from my parents, and some I earn as an onmyoji."
"Then your parents..."
"Yeah, they both passed away in a plane accident."
"Sorry, I asked something unnecessary."
"No, it's fine.
But let's eat first."
Come to think of it, Heiji was the first guest to sleep over at this house.
I made a meal for him, and Heiji ate it and was impressed again, saying it was delicious.
The next day, Heiji said he'd repay me when I come to Osaka later and left.
He seemed like a really good guy.
'Come to think of it, wasn't that guy's father the monster said to surpass Shinichi in deduction?'
In the Conan world, there are three monsters in terms of deduction ability, and one of them is Heiji's father, 'Hattori Heizo'.
'Well, I'll see him later.'
And so I sent Heiji off and went to school, and hearing Ran's story, Conan still hadn't recovered from his cold, so he was absent from school today.
'He struggled so much on my back, as expected... I should give him yuzu tea or something, even if it's not baijiu.'
Two weeks had passed since Heiji left.
Nothing special happened this time, and I just took care of rich people's work and lived.
My school life changed a bit, and now I was super close with Sonoko and Ran, so after school we went shopping together and ate delicious food together.
On top of that, since Ran's house wasn't far from mine, after class I gave her a ride on my bike to the office and went home.
But sometimes when Ran went to the market with me, the bike was too weak, so it couldn't handle the increased weight and wouldn't go, so I got mad and decided on a day to modify it.
I installed an electric motor, so when running fast it was as fast as a supercar, and I tuned the exterior using ready-made parts.
The bike cost 240,000 yen, but the tuning cost alone was 400,000 yen.
So now it had become a completely different bike.
'Whew~ Now I feel a bit refreshed.'
When I rode the modified bike to school, Ran saw it and said in surprise.
"Wow~ Is this that bike? It's totally different?"
"I did some tuning.
How is it?"
"The red color is so pretty."
"Right? Now that it's red, wouldn't it be three times faster?"
"Hehe~ Maybe it is."
Now it didn't lack power even when carrying Ran, and the ride comfort was definitely better.
Seeing Ran like it, I kind of regretted not doing it sooner.
After a long time, I visited the Mouri Detective Agency, and Kogoro was there with a very happy face.
"Oh~ Son-in-law, you're here?"
"Nice to see you.
But something good happened?"
"This time I got a request to appear as a guest on the TV program 'Let Me Tell You' on the broadcasting station.
Now it seems the world recognizes this Detective Mouri.
Hahahaha~"
'Ah~ The broadcasting station episode'
"Oh~ That's great.
If you appear on TV, it'll be good publicity and more clients will request you."
"Right? Hahahaha~"
Kogoro is about to die of happiness.
Ran and Conan are looking at such Kogoro with pathetic eyes.
"Brother! The yuzu tea you gave me last time, I drank it well.
Thanks to that tea, my cold got better quickly.
And it was tasty too."
"Really? That's good."
Lately, Conan has changed a bit, and maybe because we solved cases together and I took care of him when he had a cold, the feeling of wariness has somewhat disappeared and he seems to think of me as a good-natured rival.
I don't know if that's a good thing.
I decided to give a hint about this case for now.
"Hmm... But it's strange..."
Ran asked at my words.
"Huh? What is?"
"I keep having a bad feeling.
Are you all planning to go together when Detective Mouri goes to the broadcasting station?"
"Well... probably?"
"Really? So that's how it is..."
I sat at the table and pretended to do a reading for a moment.
Then Ran's expression turned bad.
"No way! Is there a murder case happening again this time?"
"I don't know well about that..."
At my words, Kogoro and Conan also started to focus and listen.
My readings had been so accurate that they couldn't ignore my words anymore.
"This case involves Detective Mouri's fortune for one year."
"What? Is that true?"
Kogoro asked back, surprised at those words.
"Yes, and what I see is a person dropping something below a window."
Kogoro seemed to want to remember my words firmly, so he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment and said.
"A person dropping something below a window... Got it.
I'll definitely remember."
With this much of a hint, even a 10-year-old could solve it, I thought.
"Conan, want to play Tekken with me after a long time?"
"Sure! I won't lose this time."
Of course, I completely crushed him this time too.
A few days later, the program where Detective Mouri was invited as a guest on Nichiuri Broadcasting Station started, and just like the original, the PD murder case happened.
But this time, maybe because I gave a hint, Kogoro seemed to have solved it well without Conan's help.
This case was a crime where a washed-up talent held a grudge against the PD and shot the PD who stuck his head out of a window from below, but people thought he was killed on the same floor and were confused.
'It's good he solved it well.'
And so, Kogoro appeared on TV solving the case and being interviewed, and the news showed him bragging ridiculously and laughing weirdly.
Seeing Kogoro's pathetic appearance, it felt like the one-year fortune I told him about would fly away.
The next day at school, Ran came to me and told me about what happened that day.
"Dad said to say thank you."
"I saw it on the news too.
I'm glad it was solved well."
Ran finished talking about the case, and then, as if it was hard to say something, she hesitated for a moment and then made a request to me.
"Um... And I decided to meet my mom after a long time, and when I mentioned you, she said she really wants to meet you..."
"Really?"