There was no deduction afterward. Conan had snatched the bowtie back, after all.
With Yimi's halting way of speaking, she probably would have exposed herself after another sentence or two...
No. She should have been exposed by the very first sentence! What was wrong with that police officer and that culprit?
"I'm sorry for trying to frame Mouri-san. He just happened to be there. Originally, I planned to drug her unconscious and make it look like suicide, but what kind of person commits suicide while someone else is in the room—and after ordering two portions of shredded-beef rice?"
Saku Norifumi smiled helplessly. Even after hearing the dead woman speak, he did not seem capable of feeling the slightest guilt toward her.
His motive was simple. The region threatened by a pollution lawsuit Lawyer Ritsuko was handling happened to be Saku Norifumi's own hometown.
"If a villager from that area murdered the lawyer in charge of the case, it would definitely leave a terrible impression on the presiding judge. I had originally planned to get both sides to settle as quickly as possible, then turn myself in and clear Mouri-san's name."
Kogoro appearing in Ritsuko's room had also been an accident as far as Saku was concerned. During the drinking session where Kogoro had angered Eri earlier, Ritsuko had deliberately kept pouring him drinks because she wanted to bring him back to her room and make it look as though they had had a drunken affair, all for Eri to see.
Ritsuko knew that no matter what she did, she could never surpass Eri. But she still wanted to stand above her. If she could not climb one step higher herself, then she would drag Eri one step lower, beginning by wrecking Eri's family and creating an emotional weakness she could exploit.
Even so, Saku Norifumi had indeed deliberately framed Mouri Kogoro. He had even deliberately made sure Kogoro left his fingerprints on the murder weapon.
"If she had taken the case simply to make a living or because it was her job, I would never have done something like this. But I knew she was making the villagers suffer for the sake of her reputation, just to surpass you. That was also why she took the dead-drunk Mouri-san back to her room."
Saku Norifumi gave a faint smile. He truly did have feelings for the woman in front of him, but now that he knew all this, there was no reason to keep hiding it and let a rift form in someone else's family.
"Th-Then I'm afraid you'll have to come with us." The rookie officer put handcuffs on him, carefully circling around the body bag as he walked.
This was terrifying. Could science even explain something like this? That was clearly a grudge lingering after death!
After confessing everything, however, Saku Norifumi felt much lighter inside. He even smiled faintly again as he looked toward the two little brats who had reappeared from who knew what corner and were arguing about something.
"Now that the truth is out, you children don't need to worry anymore," he even told them, despite being the one who had caused the whole thing and even made the children see the corpse.
Thinking about it now, how could there really be ghosts causing trouble? He had worked as a lawyer for so many years without ever encountering anything like that. Even so, after committing murder for the first time, his nerves had not been strong enough to withstand the pressure, and one prank had frightened a confession out of him.
Silently mocking his own cowardice, Saku Norifumi remembered the moment that had scared him—the strangely patterned cat...
Then his eyes landed on the shape of the cat ears on Yimi's hat.
The faint smile on his face froze.
Watching her colleague being taken away, Eri rubbed her temples. "Ran, do you have the MD player I bought you? If I don't listen to some music for a while, I probably won't be able to sleep tonight."
"I do." Ran handed the MD player to her.
Eri put on the earphones. "Why is there no sound?"
"Mom, you pressed the record button."
"Meow." Yimi tugged on Eri's clothes, fascinated by the device.
"You want to listen too?" Eri crouched down and handed her one earbud.
Yimi watched how Eri wore the earphones and tried stuffing them into the ears on either side of her head.
That did not feel quite right, so she tucked the earbuds inside her hat instead.
So amazing.
...
"LINGERING GRUDGE—DID THE DEAD VICTIM PERSONALLY IDENTIFY HER KILLER?"
The media really worked fast. The instant they smelled a story, it was somehow already in the paper the next day.
How could you people print something like this? Were you trying to make the public even more superstitious?
Conan slammed the newspaper onto the ground and glared at Yimi with a face full of resentment, completely unable to understand how a child's brain worked.
This was bad. Ran's suspicions about him had definitely deepened again. Last night she had even secretly searched through the clothes he had taken off while he was asleep—or pretending to be asleep.
Ran, however, had gone pale. She bent down and gently hugged Yimi's head. "That's so scary. There really are ghosts! Yimi, sleep with onee-san tonight, okay?"
"..."
Even if she said that, the fact that Ran had not said "Conan, sleep with onee-san tonight" meant she really did suspect him quite a bit. Of course, part of it was probably also because she wanted to use Yimi as an excuse to keep Eri here.
"Come on. How could ghosts possibly exist in this world?"
Kogoro lounged in a recliner with his legs crossed, leisurely basking in the sun. "If you ask me, that guy knew he couldn't hide it anymore, so he just confessed. That cop who said it was a ghost didn't look very reliable either."
Ran punched him on the head. "Dad, you haven't reflected on anything at all! If you hadn't been hanging all over Ritsuko-san, how would you ever have gotten dragged into it? Mom was the first person to believe you back then, and—and..."
She even prepared a wedding-anniversary gift for you.
Kogoro rubbed the bump on his head and looked at his daughter, who seemed to want to say something but stopped herself.
He stood up, deliberately putting impatience into his voice. "Fine, I get it. Where is she now?"
Ran hurriedly pointed him in a direction and watched him leave with anticipation.
Yimi wanted to run over and find Eri too, but Ran caught her in her arms. "No. You can't bother them right now."
"Why?"
"Because maybe the two of them can finally make up here."
"Y-Yo." Kogoro greeted Eri awkwardly, but Eri did not turn around.
His gaze darted everywhere except toward her, while his hands alternated between scratching his cheek and rubbing his head.
"Ran said you were the first one to believe me. Oh, and I'm already sick of Ran's cooking. Sometimes I really miss the food you make. I was thinking... maybe it's about time you came home. I can't take much more of this..."
Eri still ignored him.
Kogoro laughed awkwardly. "Right, and isn't today our wedding anniversary...?"
Then Kogoro noticed the earphones she was wearing.
He reached out and tapped her shoulder. "You weren't listening?"
He had finally worked up the courage to admit fault on his own.
Eri took off the earphones and looked at him blankly.
"Dad! Mom!"
Only after seeing the two of them finally interact did Ran bring the other two children over. She asked expectantly, "What were you talking about?"
With his daughter approaching, Kogoro hurriedly turned his face away and changed the subject. "Nothing. I was asking whether she'd seen any ghosts."
Eri sneered. "A great detective who believes in ghosts? Don't tell me your reputation is all you have."
"What did you say?!"
"Okay, okay, Dad..." Ran hurriedly tried to calm him down.
Yimi reached over and fiddled with Eri's earphones. "Yesterday you promised, to give me one thing."
Eri hugged her. "That's right. I almost forgot. Have you decided what you want? You can only choose one thing."
Ran's eyes lit up.
Could Yimi-chan use the pure wish of a child to bring Mom and Dad back together?
She was thinking too much.
Kitty simply followed her own desires and grabbed the MD player Eri had been using to listen to music.
A flash of panic crossed Eri's eyes. "Not this one. This is something I gave Ran-onee-san. I'll buy you one too, okay?"
But Yimi had already put the earphones over her human ears. "Why is it, Kogoro's voice?"
"What did you say?" Realizing something, Kogoro hurriedly snatched the MD player and listened himself.
He heard every word he had just said to Eri. She had accidentally pressed the record button again and had only been pretending to listen to music while ignoring him.