20. Not Seeking Aesthetics in Death

There aren't many feminine elements in Yoko Okino's residence.

From the decoration to the furnishings, it looks like a very standard high-end apartment of this era, with nothing special about it.

The body in the living room had been moved out.

A white outline and a pool of blood that had just begun to oxidize and turn black were left at the scene, and in order to protect the scene, the messy furnishings in the living room were kept as they were.

"But it's really hot in this room. Do you always keep the temperature this high at home?"

Megure Juzo pulled at his collar to breathe.

He had only been in the room for two minutes and he was already sweating slightly under his hat.

Yoko Okino shook her head and said, "No, I usually don't set it this high, and I remember I should have turned off the air conditioner when I went out today."

"That's strange. It's impossible that the deceased turned up the air conditioner so high himself."

"Officer Megure, these are photos of the traces collected at the scene."

A police officer handed a freshly printed photo to Megure Juzo, who took it and took a quick look at it. He then turned to Hayashi Yoshiki and said, "Brother Hayashi, do you want to come over and take a look?"

"OK."

Hayashi Yoshiki took the photo.

Mouri Kogoro also came over, pinching his chin while observing and thinking.

As for Conan, he sneaked around the living room like a dog, trying to find any missing clues.

He had already observed all the traces taken by the police before they arrived, so it didn't matter if he didn't look at them.

This time, he really took the lead...

As he was thinking about it, he lay down in front of the sofa and accidentally found a pair of women's earrings under the gap of the sofa!

Got it!

Conan quickly got up and was about to alert the police of his new discovery, when he heard Hayashi Yoshiki holding a photo and asking the police:

"Excuse me, there were traces of water in this place before, right?"

"Yes, probably around this location." The policeman recording the scene squatted down near the outline of the body and pointed to a location nearby.

Hayashi Yoshiki walked over, observed the location carefully, and nodded after finding an obvious dent on the wooden floor next to it.

"Okay, so the stool next to the body has never been moved, right?"

"Yes, we only removed the body from the scene. Nothing else has changed."

"I see. The cause of death might be suicide."

"Ah?"

The sudden conclusion stunned everyone present, and they wondered if they had heard it wrong.

The person who reacted immediately was Maori Kogoro: "No, the cause of death was a knife wound in the back. How could it be suicide in this case?"

Mouri Kogoro's words and tone were very calm, without any sense of pride in them, as if he was simply giving advice to Hayashi Yoshiki... After all, in his eyes, this was Eri's nephew, and he had taken the initiative to recommend himself to Yoko Okino, so he was considered his family!

"I'm just telling what I thought."

"First, let's start with the puddle of water near the body of the deceased in the photo."

Hayashi Yoshiki took out the photo. From the photo, we can see that the water stains were quite large when the photo was taken, and they were also very conspicuous.

"Combined with the fact that the room's temperature was set too high, if we work backwards, the earlier form of the evaporated water marks should have been ice."

"Ice?!"

"Yes, and let's talk about this dent in the floor around the water stain."

Hayashi Yoshiki took out the next photo, pointed at the dent on it and said, "Let's consider it as a knock made by the handle of a kitchen knife... The deceased used this dent and ice to fix the kitchen knife before his death, with the tip of the knife facing upwards—"

The moment Hayashi Yoshiki said this, it was like a streak of lightning suddenly flashed through Conan's mind, making him immediately realize the method of this suicide case.

But why is the speed so fast! ?

Conan looked at Hayashi Yoshiki and opened his mouth subconsciously.

"And there's the stool next to the body. In this messy space, this is the only stool that's placed so neatly. The reason is that the deceased wanted to commit suicide. After placing the ice and the knife, he stood on the stool and violently dropped his back onto the tip of the knife."

"You definitely won't die on the spot after being stabbed by a knife."

"So he still had enough energy to struggle and turn over so that his back was facing upwards, in order to make it look like a homicide."

After Hayashi Yoshiki's inference, the people present were dumbfounded.

Except for Conan, most people thought it was a bit ridiculous, but looking at the traces at the scene, they couldn't bring themselves to refute it.

Finally, it was Mouri Ran who raised the biggest question in her mind: "But why did he use suicide as a way to frame Miss Yoko?"

"That is something I don't know."

Hayashi Yoshili responded softly.

His unusually exquisite beauty showed a smile, but it seemed that the smile was just out of habit: "I am more accustomed to shooting arrows first and then drawing the target. It's the same when solving a case. I first find out the method of committing the crime, and then slowly explore the motive and so on... Besides, I don't even know the name of the deceased now."

"…"

The people around looked at each other.

After a moment of silence, Yoko Okino finally couldn't help but speak: "Actually, his name is Akiyoshi Fujie."

"Ms. Yoko!?"

Yamagishi Sakae's face turned panicky.

Megure Juzo immediately frowned: "Didn't you say at the beginning that you didn't know this person?"

"…"

Yoko Okino lowered her head.

However, she soon chose to confess: the deceased, Akiyoshi Fujie, was her boyfriend when she was a student, and Yoko Okino had actually recognized him the moment she saw his body.

In response to her statement, Hayashi Yoshiki had only one thought: She is indeed an actress, and there was really no flaw when she pretended not to recognize him at the beginning.

"So after Mr. Akiyoshi asked Miss Yoko to reconcile and was rejected, he chose to commit suicide in anger and put the blame on her?"

Kogoro Mori made an inference.

But surprisingly, Yoko Okino shook her head: "No, he didn't get back together with me. This is the first time I met him after we broke up."

"Ah?"

"Hey, Uncle, I just saw a strange earring under the sofa."

Conan then took out the earrings he found under the sofa. When Yoko Okino saw them, she immediately recognized that they were the earrings of another idol, Ikezawa Yuko, who debuted at the same time as her.

So the police immediately summoned the other party to the scene.

When the somewhat arrogant Ikezawa Yuko arrived, the context of the matter became clear at once.

The manager Yamagishi Sakae's spare key disappeared, and it was actually stolen by Ikezawa Yuko. She was jealous of Yoko Okino's constant rise in career, and in order to suppress her, she frequently sneaked into Yoko Okino's residence, hoping to find some dirt on her at home.

And today, Yoko Okino's ex-boyfriend came to her house seeking a reconciliation. After he entered the house, he mistook Ikezawa Yuko's back for Yoko Okino. After he hugged her, Ikezawa Yuko struggled to break free and ran away. Therefore, out of love turning into hate, he chose to commit suicide and put the blame on her.

Then Yamagishi Sakae confessed:

"Actually... the reason why Akiyoshi Fujie broke up with you, Yoko, was because I told him."

"What?" Yoko Okino was a little bit unbelievable.

"Because Yoko's idol activities were on the rise at that time, if the relationship was discovered, it would be a devastating blow, so I went to his house and asked him to break up with you on the pretext of 'for Yoko's future'."

"…"

Yoko Okino looked at her agent intently.

"Why is this happening..."

The sentimental Mouri Ran felt sad. The empathetic Ran put herself in Akiyoshi Fujis's perspective and found that this was a tragedy caused by lies, misunderstandings and coincidences.

Mouri Kogoro sneered:

"Hmph, that sounds nice. If he left for Miss Yoko's future, why would he seek reconciliation now when Miss Yoko's career is at its peak... and even resort to such extreme means after failing?"

Whether being discovered in a relationship or being involved in a murder scandal, this would be a fatal blow to a popular idol.

"Dad...!"

Mouri Ran felt that her father's ideas were a bit extreme, but for a moment she didn't know how to refute them.

At this time, Conan turned his head and looked at Hayashi Yoshiki:

"Brother Hayashi, what do you think?"

"Me?"

Hayashi Yoshiki, who was taking out a pen and paper to write and draw, was stunned, as if he didn't expect to be asked about himself, but he still responded with a smile, "I personally think there is no need to criticize or praise the dead."

He does not seek aesthetics in death.