Ke Xue: I picked up a bottle of sherry at the beginning.

When I asked the last house, I knocked on the door a few times and a middle-aged lady came out.

The woman was elderly, dressed in a suit and skirt, with kind eyes and a bit of weight on her shoulders. She wore a bright and beautiful lawyer's badge on her chest, which reflected a beautiful red in the sunlight.

"Hmm? Are you looking for Mr. Kusukawa?"

Ito Misari pushed her gold-rimmed glasses, smiled, and stroked the Siamese cat in her arms. "He's definitely here with me. No wonder he said he was in a hurry to get back when I asked him to stay. Turns out he had other guests scheduled. Come in, I'll make you some tea."

Hattori Heiji looked at her and frowned.

—The man at the Haido Detective Agency said Kusukawa had been missing for two or three days. He and Toyama Kazuha had been investigating, and all the signs supported this.

Soon, Hattori Heiji's suspicious gaze transformed into a defiant smile. He followed through the door: Based on experience, Kusukawa was likely killed by this woman. And anything done leaves traces. Perhaps this house contains physical evidence of the woman's murder. All he had to do was find it and deduce the details...

With a "click", the door closed behind Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha.

Immediately afterwards, Hattori Heiji felt a chill on the side of his head and a pistol was pressed against him.

——There were two strong men hiding behind the door. Just wait for them to come in and catch them in the trap.

Ito Misari stopped and turned around to look at them. Her kind smile had disappeared, leaving only a gloomy sneer on her face:

"Oh, that Kusukawa guy really has a backup plan. Luckily, he only found a fledgling idiot to help him—cuff these two fearless brats and take them to the attic. I remember this dark-skinned guy was also a detective and was even featured in the newspapers..."

As she spoke, Ito Misari walked up to Hattori Heiji and looked him over like a tool:

"Kushu left a riddle. The answer is a seven-digit code. Since you're a detective, you should be good at solving puzzles—solve it. Otherwise, you and your friends will never have to leave this house again."

Hattori Heiji caught a glimpse of the dark cold light of the gun from the corner of his eye, cold sweat slid down his back, and the corners of his eyes twitched slightly.

Wait, this isn't the normal procedure for solving a case! (Actually, this is the normal procedure.)

……

Since Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha came to Tokyo, they have lost contact. Hattori Shizuka, who cares about her son and her designated future daughter-in-law, is naturally worried.

Heiji and Kazuha couldn't get through to them on the phone, so they thought of asking Heizo for help, but Heizo didn't take it seriously at all.

So, Shizuka Hattori naturally thought of Shiraizumi Masu. Although Shizuka Hattori had made up her mind not to meet Shiraizumi Masu again, now was an extraordinary time and she had to act accordingly.

The next day, Hattori Shizuka still couldn't contact Heiji and Kazuha, so she immediately chose to fly to Tokyo to ask Shiraizumi Masu for help.

When Bai Quanyi heard that Jinghua from the Ministry of Personnel was coming, he ran to the airport to pick her up. Bai Quanyi was extremely happy that his beautiful aunt Jinghua was coming to Tokyo.

In the crowd, Shiraizumi immediately spotted Hattori Shizuka, still as graceful, elegant, and dignified as ever. Her hair was tied up, she was wearing a purple kimono and wooden clogs, and she was walking towards Shiraizumi.

"Aunt Jinghua, I'm so glad to see you. I missed you."

Shiraizumi Mashi couldn't wait to give Hattori Shizuka a hug.

"Mr. Bai, don't say such embarrassing things." Hattori Shizuka was still a little uncomfortable in front of Shiraizumi Mashi, especially in public.

"What happened? Aunt Jinghua." Baiquan Yi let go of Hattori Jinghua and asked.

"It's about Heiji and Kazuha. Sorry to bother you 603, Haku-kun."

"Aunt Jinghua, your business is my business. I will definitely help you with all my strength." Bai Quanyi stretched out his hand and clasped his fingers with Hattori Jinghua. Hattori Jinghua hesitated for a moment, but still did not refuse Bai Quanyi. After all, she had something to ask for.

"Well, Kazuha's father, Toyama Ginjiro, once had a subordinate named Kusukawa Taro. That person has now resigned and is working at the Haido Detective Agency. Kusukawa Taro wrote an email to Toyama Ginjiro, saying he had something important to discuss with him, but he hasn't heard from him since. Heiji and Kazuha went to contact Kusukawa Taro on Toyama Ginjiro's behalf to inquire about the situation. However, since they arrived in Tokyo yesterday, there has been no news from them. I'm very worried, so I thought of asking Haku-kun for help.

"I see, Aunt Jinghua, don't worry, I'll accompany you to find Heiji and Kazuha now."

Bai Quanyi said with concern.

When Hattori Shizuka heard what Shirazumi Masu said, she felt warm in her heart. Shirazumi Masu really cared about her.

Shiraizumi Mashi brought Hattori Shizuka to the Kusukawa office in Haido, but the door of the office was closed and Taro Kusukawa was not inside.

Shiraizumi Masu made a phone call and asked Inspector Megure for the address of Taro Kusukawa's house.

Located at 4-chome, Haido-cho, there is Hatoso 202.

4-chome is not far from the office.

Soon, Shiraizumi Masu and Hattori Shizuka walked to Haido-cho 4-chome, where there was Hatoso 202.

108. Searching for Heiji and Kazuha

Youjiuzhuang is a two-story apartment building with an old style. It has no unit door and can be reached by taking the outdoor stairs on the side.

"202... This is the room, right?"

Bai Quanyi stopped at the door of one of the houses.

There was a note on the door with ugly handwriting on it.

Bai Quanyi pressed the doorbell. No one came to open the door until the doorbell stopped ringing.

"It's already past noon, was something delayed?" Hattori Shizuka couldn't help but feel a little worried.

Shiraizumi glanced at the corner of the door. "It's possible that Mr. Kusukawa never returned, and Hattori and the others followed the trail and disappeared together." He pointed to the tape on the corner of the door. It was affixed to the inconspicuous lower right corner, one end attached to the door frame, the other to the door itself. If someone broke in while the owner was away, it would tear, leaving a trace of the door being open.

At this point, one end of the tape has already fallen off, and...

"There's a lot of dust on the tape." Hattori Shizuka also began to feel uneasy. "Mr. Kusukawa probably left and never came back. Heiji and Kazuha discovered some clues together, followed them... and then disappeared together."

"Hmm." Bai Quanyi turned the door handle and found that the closed door was not locked. "The door is not locked, let's go in and take a look."

There was no one in the house, so Shiraizumi Masu and Hattori Shizuka went in and observed the surroundings, trying to find some clues.

"Someone used a pencil to scribble on a note here, but accidentally went beyond the mark and drew on the table." Bai Quanyi picked up the notepad on the table and compared it with the mark on the table. The sizes were exactly the same.

It must have been Heiji who discovered that Mr. Kusukawa had written something on a notepad, but the notepad with the writing on it had been torn off, so he wanted to see what Mr. Kusukawa had written by looking at the imprint on the next piece of paper... It's an ancient yet commonly used method."

As he spoke, Bai Quanyi also picked up the pencil and followed suit.

Taro Kusukawa habitually wrote with great force, and the traces of his words actually covered two sheets of paper.

By smearing the pencil evenly like this, the words written by the owner of the note gradually appeared on the paper.

Kenbashi Town, Ito.

There were some scattered numbers below, which looked like a phone number, but after all, there was a piece of paper in between, so the scribbles were unclear and unrecognizable.

"They should be going here." Bai Quanyi shook the painted paper.

"Great, let's go check it out. Although we can't see the number clearly, at least we have the name and area." Hattori Shizuka said happily.

"Ito" isn't a particularly uncommon surname. After a quick stroll around Kenbashi-cho, I spotted two houses with "Ito" plaques on their doors.

The two knocked on a number of doors but were unable to find Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha.

Finally, the two arrived at the door of an exquisite detached house.

"Two high school students speaking Osaka dialect?"

The owner, holding a well-behaved Siamese cat, listened attentively to their words. She pondered for a moment and shook her head regretfully, "I'm sorry, I haven't seen anyone like that—but I was out for a while, so maybe they came at that time and just missed it."

When Shiraizumi Mashi was talking to the woman, Hattori Shizuka's gaze gradually fell on the woman's chest.

There was a beautiful golden badge, very small, like a blooming sunflower. In the middle of it was engraved a scale pattern - this was the badge symbolizing the lawyer's identity, and the back was engraved with a number, making it unique.

"Excuse me..." Hattori Shizuka looked her up and down for a while and asked, "Are you lawyer Ito Misari?"

Ito Misari didn't expect someone to recognize her. She was stunned for a moment before nodding: "It's me, who are you...?"

"Oh... I saw an interview with you on TV. Your commission fees are very low, and you've helped a lot of people in need."

"This is what I should do." Ito Misa laughed.

Hattori Shizuka then asked, "Lawyer Ito, do you know of anyone around here with the same last name as you who is suspicious?"

Ito Misari's heart skipped a beat, and she thought that these two people were most likely Hattori Heiji's companions, and they came to find him.

Misari Ito pretended to think, then gently answered Hattori Shizuka's question, "Let me think about it... Oh, by the way, there's an abandoned building with an 'Ito' sign hanging near the elementary school to the north. I heard that every night, homeless people would come in and out of it, and occasionally you could hear children shouting."

"Thank you. Let's go over and take a look." said Shizuka Hattori.

Hattori Shizuka thought she had obtained useful information, and couldn't wait to drag Shiraizumi Masu to the place indicated by Lawyer Ito.

After seeing the two off, Ito Misari returned to the house carrying the cat and breathed a sigh of relief.

The Siamese cat struggled in her arms. Ito Misari petted the cat and put it on the ground: "Mom is still very busy now. I will play with you later."

As she spoke, she went up the stairs to the second floor, found the hidden attic door on the ceiling, and hooked it with force.

A staircase descended silently.

Ito Misari followed it and climbed up to the attic. Halfway up, she suddenly felt an itch on her calf. Something passed by her and went straight upwards.

"Um!?"

Ito Misari was startled and looked over with murderous intent, only to see a cat that had sneaked into the house at some point.

The cat was completely black, with only four white paws. It quickly climbed to the top of the stairs, peeked into the attic, then slipped into the attic and quickly disappeared into the corner.

Ito Misari: "... Turns out it's just a cat."

She breathed a sigh of relief. While the attic was rather secluded and shouldn't have been accessible to strangers...or even cats, Ito Misari knew how difficult cats were to catch. Making too much noise would be disastrous.

Besides, it's just a cat, so I don't think it can cause any harm. And the cat looks pretty cute...

After thinking for a moment, Ito Misari decided to ignore it and concentrate on dealing with the situation at hand.

She climbed up to the attic, closed the door behind her, looked at the people in the attic, and slowly revealed a gloomy sneer.

——The attic is quite spacious overall.

But at this time, with the addition of Ito Misari, there were a total of six people squeezed inside, which suddenly seemed extremely depressing.

The six people were obviously divided into two groups.

Among the victims, a middle-aged man lay motionless on the ground, seemingly dead, while two young high school students sat back to back on the ground, their hands cuffed together.

Next to them, two men with ferocious faces were holding guns and were in charge of guarding them.

——A few hours ago, Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha followed Kusukawa Taro's trail and found their way here. As soon as they entered the room, they were held at gunpoint and forced into the attic.

At this time, Toyama Kazuha's clothes were still neat, but Hattori Heiji was too good at attracting hatred and looked a little dusty.

When he found someone coming upstairs, Hattori Heiji gritted his teeth and glared at Ito Misari, seeming very angry at this unsportsmanlike criminal.

Ito Misari glanced at him and said with a mocking smile: "Oh, how come the handsome Kansai boy is in such a state after I just left for a while?"

Her younger brother quickly explained, "Just now, when you were talking to those people in the yard, this guy actually tried to call for help outside, and I could only punch him twice."

"Tsk tsk, how rude! Look at this face. It'll probably be swollen like a pig's head tomorrow. But..." Ito Misari touched Hattori Heiji's face and spoke with pity. Suddenly, her tone darkened and turned threatening. "Detective boy, I've given you a day and a night. Have you solved the mystery?"

Hattori Heiji has already solved the problem, but he dare not tell the woman (the king's good friend). If he tells the woman, it means that he is of no use and will be dead!

"I'll get it done soon, please give me a little more time." Hattori Heiji tried to buy time, waiting for someone to rescue him. He knew his mother cared about him very much, and if she couldn't contact him, she would definitely find a way to find him.

Ito Misari said with a gloomy face: "If you can't solve the mystery today, I will kill you!"

Ito Misari kicked the corpse of the middle-aged man beside her, looked down at him, and said with disgust: "That bastard Kusukawa really knows how to make trouble for me. He left this kind of mysterious puzzle as the answer to the mystery of the bank vault... Fortunately, a detective came to my door.

Ito Misari pointed her gun at Hattori Heiji and said, "You detectives should be good at solving mysteries—if you can't solve this mystery before dark today, I will kill you!"

Outside the door, Shizuka Hattori held Shirazumi's hand and headed towards the place indicated by the woman, but found that Shirazumi was not leaving.

"Haku-kun, why don't you leave? Heiji and Kazuha are in danger. We can't delay any longer."

"has a problem."

"Eh? What did you say, Bai Jun?" Hattori Shizuka was confused.

"I mean, there's something wrong with Lawyer Ito!" Bai Quanyi said coldly.

109.He Ye: What is the relationship between Aunt Jinghua and Bai Jun?

The doorbell rang again. Ito Misari went down to the first floor entrance and looked out through the peephole. It was the same two people again.

She took a deep breath, opened the door, and put on a gentle smile: "Why are you here again? What's the matter?"

Shiraizumi Masu said, "Lawyer Ito. We thought it was a little strange, so we wanted to come back and take another look."

"Brother, what's strange about this?" asked Ito Misari.

Baiquan Yizhi said, "Someone watered the flowers on the street nearby, and the water flowed outside. When we first came here, when you opened the door, I saw a lot of mud stains on the floor of your entrance... Someone was at your house today, right? Why did you say you were the only one home?"

"We did have some guests here before—I'm a lawyer, so I'm quite busy," the woman said with a smile. "But since they didn't have an appointment, we just exchanged a few words at the entrance, and then they left."

Bai Quanyi said: "Is that so... But, some shoe prints seem to only go inwards, without any traces of going back out——"

Ito Misari's face immediately darkened, but it was only a fleeting look as she continued to defend herself, "These are my own shoe prints—didn't I tell you I went out before?"