Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 35: Suspicion lasted only a minute.
"Father!"

Anya ran over and hugged Xia Chuan's leg, then wriggled up to his shoulder.

“Little Anya, now you can speak, right? The police officer has done as you asked and invited Brother Xia Chuan in.”

Inspector Megure blushed slightly as he said this, feeling like a creepy old man trying to fool a child.

However, Anya's words left him no choice but to take them seriously.

She was the one who discovered the murderer in the previous diplomat's case.

As Anya just mentioned, besides discovering drugs, she also discovered other things.

Conan stared blankly at Anya, who was acting coquettishly towards Natsukawa. He had been trying to get some information out of Anya, but Anya seemed to have mastered the art of keeping silent, not uttering a single useful word.

"Ania smells like death in the elevator!"

Anya made a surprising statement.

The scene was silent for several seconds.

Even Xia Chuan was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped.

"It's right there in that elevator. We spotted it when we came up. It stinks!"

Anya pinched her nose and frowned, using the gesture to express her disgust at the smell.

"Really?" Conan rested his chin on his hand, looking thoughtful, and began to recall the smell in the elevator.

After thinking for a while, he did recall a strange smell in the elevator, which was especially noticeable when the elevator was going up.

But how does Anya know that it smells like a dead person based on this alone?

He learned a lot in Hawaii, including meeting many cadavers.
No, that's the smell of formaldehyde.

At this moment, Sato Miwako had already left the room to go to the elevator to check on the problem.

A minute later, she walked back and nodded to Inspector Megure. "There was indeed a foul smell in the elevator, but we can't be sure if it was a dead body or something."

Inspector Megure nodded, looked at Anya, forced a smile, and asked, "How did little Anya know this stench was from a corpse? Could it be..."

Inspector Megure's eyes involuntarily glanced at Natsukawa.

Could it be that Xia Chuan also hid a corpse in his house? Otherwise, how would Anya know what a corpse smells like?

“Because I’ve seen the carcasses of animals that have been dead for several days, and that’s the kind of stench I get!” Anya said matter-of-factly.

In fact, her heart was pounding at this point.

Lying feels so exciting!
The claim that she smelled the stench of a corpse was all made up.

She knew this because she overheard her father's thoughts last night, learning that there was a corpse on the top of the elevator in the Mika Library.

She hadn't paid much attention to it at first, but since her junior detective group happened to be at the library today and happened to find drugs, she decided to just tell them about the corpse.

Anyway, it wasn't my father who killed that person.

"I see."

Inspector Megure breathed a sigh of relief. If that was the case, the stench of decay in the elevator might not have come from humans; it could have been from animals or something similar.

“That smell must be coming from the top of the elevator; it’s stronger when the elevator is going up.” Xia Chuan then seized the opportunity to say, “I think we should still investigate. Isn’t Inspector Megure investigating the disappearance of employees at Beika Library? Perhaps there’s some connection.”

"Okay, Sato, go check the elevator control room on the fifth floor."

Sato Miwako nodded solemnly. She had a premonition that the smell likely came from Tamada Kazuo, whom they had been searching for all day, or from Tsugawa, the curator who could not be found today.

The staff and the librarian disappeared within three days of each other, and drugs were found in the library. There must be something wrong here.

"Ania, you're so cunning! How could you not tell us something so important!" (︿)
Ayumi stood with her hands on her hips and berated Anya, while Genta and Mitsuhiko looked indignant, feeling that Anya was becoming a bit like Conan.

Conan is the same way; he doesn't tell them anything, and even avoids them.

But thinking about it, they were indeed somewhat incompetent. Everyone got on the elevator together, so why didn't they notice this detail?

As juvenile detectives, their attention to detail is indeed lacking; it seems they need to work on it.

Conan, on the other hand, seemed somewhat melancholy.

He did smell the odor, and initially found it strange and wanted to investigate. However, after discovering drugs hidden inside unopened books in the children's book section, he forgot about the elevator incident.

If Anya hadn't brought it up again, he probably wouldn't have remembered it either.

Incidentally, it was Anya who discovered the drugs.

Unexpectedly, a six-year-old girl is so intelligent, almost as bright as he was when he was a child.

Conan narcissistically touched his nose.

Could it be that Anya was originally an adult, and like him, she was shrunk after taking the organization's drug?
He glanced at Anya furtively and found her looking at him with a smug expression.

A rigid stare.
Conan: Dead Fish Eyes
Conan transforms into beady-eyed.
Okay, Conan only doubted it for a minute before he dismissed it.

Anya doesn't act like an adult at all; she has the personality of a child, very childish. This kind of behavior is not something an adult can easily fake.

Soon, Miwako Sato rushed in, the hem of her business suit billowing as she ran, the clatter of her high heels sounding hurried. "Inspector Megure, come quick!"

"Ok!"

Inspector Megure nodded. After seeing Sato's expression, he had confirmed something. It seemed that Anya's words were not unfounded.

There is definitely something on the elevator.

And it is very likely, as Natsukawa said, that it was Tamada Kazuo's corpse.

"It stinks!"

As the juvenile detectives, who were about to leave, reached the glass door, they were overwhelmed by the stench of a corpse, nearly fainting from the stench.

Xia Chuan put Anya on the ground, closed the door behind him after leaving, and glanced at the five children locked in the children's book section: "You don't need to join in the fun. Just stay inside and read. I'll take you back when this is all over."

Ignoring the resentful group of teenage detectives, Xia Chuan said to the police officer beside him, "Please don't let the kids out. It smells too bad outside. If they see something they shouldn't, I'm afraid it will leave them with psychological trauma."

The officer patted his chest and nodded, indicating that he would take care of it; unless the glass door shattered, these children would definitely not be able to get out.

When Xia Chuan arrived at the elevator, the elevator doors were already open, and the elevator car was suspended inside, with only the top visible.

On that surface, the body of Tamada Kazuo lay silently on its back.

It looks the same as what Xia Chuan saw last night, but the smell is much stronger. Large patches of the corpse's skin are dark purplish-red. Yesterday, they were mostly spots, but now they are in large patches.

"It's definitely Tamada Kazuo."

Inspector Megure peered into the elevator and observed it carefully for a long time.

Two forensic personnel followed them inside, while the others watched from outside.

The main problem is that the elevator shaft is too small to accommodate too many people working inside, especially since Inspector Megure is quite bulky and takes up the space of two people.

"The cause of death was asphyxiation due to respiratory distress. There were obvious rope marks on the neck. The preliminary judgment is that he was attacked from behind, strangled, and then placed here."

The forensic team conducted a brief examination and came out. The cause of death was fairly conventional and nothing special. The only surprising thing was that the body was dumped on top of the elevator.

"It seems this was done by someone inside the library," Xia Chuan said, covering his nose.

With Conan absent, it's up to him to provide clues to Inspector Megure.

"Ah."

Inspector Megure nodded. "Tamada Kazuo didn't go home at all the night before last. After receiving his wife's report today, we reviewed the surveillance footage inside and outside the library. Tamada Kazuo entered the library the night before last and never came out. It's highly likely that someone inside the library took action."

(End of this chapter)