Chapter 23 Kudo Shinichi’s Challenge
Hearing the word "murder" from Kudo's mouth with his own ears, Mao Lilan couldn't help but widen his eyes:
"Did they really kill Uchida-san?!"
But Kudo used his eyes to signal her not to show excitement, and then whispered in her ear:
"Now I just have a guess, I'm not completely sure yet."
"Don't act rashly yet, and don't conflict with those two guys."
"Wait until I investigate further."
"Only by finding more clues can I confirm this conjecture."
With that said, Kudo pretended to calm down the matter and quickly pulled Mao Lilan away from the two bullies.
Mao Lilan glanced at Ishikawa, who still looked unashamed, with a hint of reluctance, then turned to Kudo and said:
"How will Shinichi investigate?"
"Can I help?"
Even if she doesn't move her fists, she instinctively wants to contribute to the case.
"Don't worry." Kudo Shinichi said confidently, "Just leave it to me."
Said without hesitation
He turned around and slowly approached the old fire iron ladder located in the alley and welded to the outside of the department store wall.
"Hey, what are you doing there?"
As soon as he saw Kudo Shinichi approaching the fire escape, Ishikawa's expression changed slightly.
He said with a gloomy face and a stern look:
"This, this is a crime scene, please don't run around."
"oh?"
Kudo Shinichi's footsteps did not stop at all:
“I really can’t tell”
"As a bad boy, do you still have the consciousness to help the police guard the scene?"
"But didn't Uchida-san commit suicide?"
Perhaps because he was taught by Miyano Shiho before, this great detective has learned how to be yin and yang:
"There is no suspense in this kind of suicide scene, so there won't be any problem if I just walk around, right?"
"" Ishikawa was choked hard.
He looked stiff and wanted to say something, but in the end he stood there hesitant to speak.
Kudo, on the other hand, stepped onto the fire iron ladder without looking back and began to climb up the stairs.
This iron ladder has been rusted into disgrace.
When you step on the steps, you can hear the frightening trembling sound of the iron ladder every time you take a step up.
The rusty guardrail handrails were even more unusable. If they were propped up with hands, they would sway and fall off at any time.
"Shinichi!"
Mao Lilan shouted worriedly.
Speaking of which, when she and Shinichi were traveling in New York, they once rescued a guy who almost fell to death because the guardrail fell off on this old fire escape ladder.
Having had such a thrilling experience, she was naturally a little uneasy about Kudo who climbed up the iron ladder rashly.
But Kudo Shinichi was still moving upward resolutely, with only concentration in his eyes.
Finally, he climbed to the top of the fire stairs.
The department store has a total of six floors, but the fire staircase was only built to a height of four floors.
After climbing to the fourth floor, Kudo Shinichi tried to touch the iron door on the outer wall of the building:
"Sure enough, the door was completely rusted."
"You can't get inside the building from here."
He gently rubbed his chin thoughtfully, then lowered his head and searched carefully on the small platform at the top of the iron ladder.
But Kudo didn't find anything here.
He only observed the guardrail gap here from a close distance.
After a little comparison of the length and shape, he was more certain that the guardrail that fell next to the body fell off from here.
"Not enough clues"
"It seems I have to look elsewhere."
Thinking of this, Kudo Shinichi quickly walked down the stairs and returned to the ground in the alley.
And his investigative behavior further aroused Ishikawa's attention:
"Hey brat, can you please stop this?"
"Don't run around the death scene. Do you think you are some kind of detective?"
Ishikawa scolded Kudo Shinichi fiercely.
But Kudo laughed softly instead:
"Your intuition is very accurate."
"I am indeed a detective"
"Kudo Shinichi from Teidan Middle School, have you heard of him?"
"K-Kudo Shinichi?"
Hearing this name, Ishikawa's face turned a little green.
Aoki, who had been keeping his head down and silent, suddenly raised his head, his face extremely pale:
"Are you the famous high school detective?"
"Yeah, that's right."
Kudo Shinichi nodded seriously and smiled kindly.
Ishikawa, Aoki: ""
The two of them were murmuring and speechless, and their expressions were extremely wonderful.
Kudo Shinichi ignored them, but turned directly to look at Lin Shinichi:
Lin Xinyi was still squatting next to the deceased, carefully observing the various injuries on the surface of the body.
"Mr. Lin Xinyi."
Kudo Shinichi asked directly to Lin Shinichi, who had just touched the corpse:
"What's the surface temperature of the deceased's body? Is it hot?"
"Oh?" Lin Xinyi raised an eyebrow.
He knew that although the way to discover the problem might be different, the great detective must have noticed something was wrong.
Asking about the surface temperature of a corpse is actually asking about the time of death.
If the deceased had just jumped to his death as they saw, the body would still be fresh and there would definitely be residual warmth on the surface.
And if the deceased was thrown from a building after death, and has been dead for more than a period of time, the heat on the surface of the body will quickly escape into the environment, and it will not feel warm to the touch.
But this is actually most people’s basic impression of corpse temperature.
The reality is often different:
"The deceased's body was still hot, and there was residual warmth on the surface of the body."
"But it's summer now, it's not sunset yet, and the ambient temperature is relatively high."
Unlike the dawn when I first met Kudo, Tokyo is still relatively hot now:
"The higher the ambient temperature, the slower the body temperature decreases."
"And when the body temperature drops to equal the ambient temperature, the temperature will almost never drop again."
"The current ambient temperature is not much lower than the human body temperature. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately judge the time of death of the deceased if we only rely on the residual heat felt by touching the corpse surface."
And Kudo Shinichi quickly caught the implication in his words:
"In other words, the deceased may not have died just now?"
"That's understandable."
Lin Xin nodded, and as he spoke, he was ready to share his findings:
"Actually, I have"
Before he finished speaking, Kudo Shinichi interrupted him directly:
"I see!"
I don't know what he understood.
He turned around directly and said confidently:
"Mr. Lin, I will leave it to you to protect the scene."
"I'll go to the department store next to it first."
"Uh" Lin Xinyi wanted to say something with a subtle expression.
But Kudo Shinichi hurriedly walked out as if he was participating in a race with someone.
"Wait!" Ishikawa's eyes flickered and he followed closely: "I, I will go with you."
"You want to follow?"
Kudo Shinichi's tone was very meaningful.
"That's right," Ishikawa said bravely, "I'm also very interested in famous detectives and want to see how you handle cases."
"Okay, it's okay for you to follow and take a look."
Kudo Shinichi shrugged and expressed that he had no objection at all.
He continued to walk forward, and Ishikawa followed behind him with a stiff expression.
"That Shinichi, I'll go too!"
After looking at Ishikawa's strong and burly body, Mao Lilan also hurriedly followed.
She couldn't let this bully who was suspected of being a murderer follow Shinichi.
In this way, headed by Kudo Shinichi, the three of them left this quiet alley.
And before walking out of the alley completely
Kudo Shinichi suddenly stopped at the entrance of the alley, turned around, and said to Lin Shinichi with piercing eyes:
"Mr. Lin Xinyi."
"Although it's a bit bad to say this, this may be an opportunity for us to compete again."
Lin Xinyi: ""
He doesn't seem to be competitive with others on this kind of thing.
But Kudo Shinichi was already quietly immersed in the excitement of facing the challenge:
"Let us take this opportunity to compete."
"I will use my investigative methods and you will use yours to see who can find the truth of this case first."
"That" Lin Xinyi hesitated to speak.
But the great detective Kudo disappeared at the end of the alley without looking back:
"See you later, I'll go investigate first."
Ishikawa and Mao Lilan then left, leaving only Lin Xinyi in the alley, Miyano Shiho who was quietly watching the show, and Aoki who was so nervous that he started to tremble.
"Well"
"Forget it, he might as well go investigate more."
Looking at Kudo's high-spirited retreating back, Lin Xinyi's expression was a little subtle:
"But then again, what's the point of competing?"
"Wouldn't such a simple case be solved just by looking at the corpse?"
He talked to himself, his tone was very helpless.
Then, Lin Xinyi stood up from the body and said calmly:
"Aoki-san."
"Huh?" Aoki couldn't help but trembled when his name was suddenly called.
He raised his head and saw Lin Xinyi staring at him with a sharp, knife-like gaze:
"Can you still hold on to this mentality?"
"Stop pretending, come to me and confess your sins."