Conan and Gin are both my brothers, what's wrong with meeting them once?

With this reasonable conjecture in mind, Kogoro Mouri immediately made a complete deduction.

In his deduction, the murderer, Shuichi Hamura, must have used the time he spent researching to descend a rope from Etsuko Torakura's room, which was directly above the collection room, to the collection room, take the wooden pegs from the collection room, and then return to Etsuko Torakura's room.

As for how to get to the study, it's simple: jump out of Etsuko Torakura's window, and you'll reach the top of the corridor leading to the study. Just walk along the top of the corridor and then jump off the roof of the study; killing Daisuke Torakura won't be difficult.

As for the footprint leading outside, it wasn't what they imagined—that someone from outside came in, killed someone, and then left. Rather, it was because the murderer knew there was an explosion outside and deliberately walked out of the study and then back—to give others the illusion that an outsider had committed the murder.

Even Conan thought this reasoning was reasonable.

But when they actually got to Torakura Etsuko's room, they discovered there wasn't even a single footprint at the top of the corridor...

"This..." Kogoro Mouri was completely stunned. "If we didn't go through the roof of this corridor, there was no way we could have escaped the sight of everyone in the living room. How did the murderer get to the study? Could it be... that the murderer is really an outsider?"

Conan frowned as he pondered, "If the culprit didn't go through the roof, how else could they have gotten to the study?"

Kudo Kazuma, having overheard a reasonable but not entirely Detective Conan-esque reasoning, immediately raised his hand upon hearing the self-doubting doubts expressed by Mouri Kogoro and his unfortunate older brother.

"Well, is it possible that the murderer simply walked right past everyone in broad daylight?"

Everyone was stunned: "What?"

Kazuma Kudo tilted his head: "I've been outside almost the whole time, so I can only make a simple deduction right now—since the murderer didn't take any strange passages, why couldn't he just walk right past everyone and go into the study?"

Conan had a lot of faith in his younger brother's unconventional approach.

After a moment's thought, his expression changed slightly, and he looked up at Tadokoro Toshiya: "Does that mean the murderer is...?"

“Yes.” Kudo Kazuma tilted his head. “The murderer should be the only person who actually went to Torakura Daisuke’s study after dinner, right, Mr. Tadokoro?”

He used the [Sound Bewitching] skill to ask, "You must be Daisuke Torakura's student, right? Why would you kill your own teacher? You know, even Mrs. Torakura didn't kill anyone."

Tadokoro Toshiya's expression changed, and he struggled to speak, "Because...because..."

“Because Tadokoro actually wrote all of Torakura-sensei’s hero-themed works in recent years,” explained Fumio Doi, editor-in-chief of the Horror Times. “I think perhaps Tadokoro didn’t want to continue.”

Through his explanation, everyone realized that Daisuke Torakura had long since run out of creative ideas.

Just then, Fumio Doi lost a lot of money in the stock market, and Daisuke Torakura took the opportunity of helping him pay off his debts to get him to send over articles that others had submitted to the Horror Times monthly magazine. This way, Daisuke Torakura would have new material to copy.

"Later, I couldn't accept him plagiarizing those submitted novels for so long, so..."

Kogoro Mouri immediately followed up: "Kill him?"

Fumio Doi's face darkened: "Who killed him? I only introduced Tadokoro to him! That's how I found out that Tadokoro ghostwrote all of Daisuke Torakura's heroic novels these past few years! Tadokoro must have been fed up with that guy too, so he killed him!"

Tadokoro Toshiya shook his head and said with a wry smile, "It was actually my own choice to ghostwrite for Torakura-sensei. I killed him for other reasons."

It turns out he has a younger sister who was born with a serious kidney problem. The family couldn't afford the medical expenses and hoped that his sister would die as soon as possible, so they didn't give her adequate treatment.

It was Torakura Daisuke who helped pay the medical bills, which is why he was willing to write the letter for him.

What he didn't expect was that, in order to keep him writing for her, Daisuke Torakura deliberately bribed the attending physician to give his sister only the bare minimum of treatment. This caused his sister's condition to worsen, and she died from the illness a year ago.

Daisuke Torakura and the doctor continued to conceal the truth, saying that they had transferred his sister to a better hospital so that he wouldn't have to visit her so often.

Until recently, Tadokoro Toshiya met a nurse who had cared for his sister. The nurse had been feeling guilty for a long time and came to tell him the truth.

At this point, tears welled up in Tadokoro's eyes.

"The nurse said that the little sister kept calling for her brother before she died..."

“If he had received proper treatment, this wouldn’t have happened. That’s why I killed Torakura Daisuke. Because I can’t forgive him, I simply can’t forgive him…”

Thinking of his vulnerable and helpless sister, Tadokoro Toshiya collapsed to his knees, tears streaming down his face. In the otherwise quiet room, only his heart-wrenching sobs could be heard…

Kazuma Kudo turned to look at Daisuke Torakura's body, which was still nailed to the cross.

This old man used the same methods on Etsuko Torakura, Fumio Doi, and Toshiya Tadokoro. He must have used the same coercive methods on the doctor in that organization as well.

He looked exactly like a vampire, and it was no wonder that he was eventually nailed to the cross.

The next morning, the police cleared the avalanche caused by the explosion and reopened the road. By the time they arrived at Villa Dessula and took away the murderer, Toshiya Tadokoro, it was already past 10 a.m.

Although it was Daisuke Torakura who initially asked Kogoro Mouri to investigate his wife's affair, his wife, Etsuko Torakura, ultimately helped to pay the one million yen.

In addition to the one million yen that Daisuke Torakura promised Kogoro Mori, she also gave Kazuma Edogawa one million yen for finding the real culprit.

After all, with Daisuke Torakura dead, all the money would be hers, so it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to express her gratitude to them.

After receiving the money, Ran insisted on depositing it in the bank—any money that wasn't deposited in time was used by Kogoro Mouri to gamble on horse races, which was unacceptable.

So after returning to Beika Town and returning the car, the four of them went to Beika Bank.

After depositing the money, Kogoro Mouri sighed repeatedly while looking at the bank's notice board.

Ran asked out of curiosity and learned that Kogoro Mouri had previously posted an advertisement here seeking tutors.

Conan's eyes widened immediately: "Uncle, you used to be a tutor?"

Xiaolan was even more curious: "I had no idea such a thing had ever happened..."

"There's nothing I can do. I married your mother when I was still in school, and I didn't have much money, so I had to work odd jobs to make a living."

Kudo Kazuma remarked with emotion, "So, Uncle and Aunt Eri had it tough back then too."

Conan chuckled and remarked, "I think the students being taught by Uncle are the ones who really have it tough."

With a loud "bang," Kogoro Mouri snorted, "What does this brat know? I used to be a very good tutor!"

"One of my students, whom I taught for three years, successfully got into the Faculty of Law at Jonan University. Her family lives in Beika Town now. If you don't believe me, we'll go find her right now!"

"Come on, come on, I'll take you to see her right now!"

Kazuma Kudo and Conan both gave each other half-moon eyes.

It seems this involves the issue of the older man's dignity again...

Hopefully, that student or her family won't suffer any misfortune because of the uncle's visit.