Conan’s Corpse Picker

The truck cab is too small, with only room for two people except the driver.

Jiang Xia gave up her seat to Toyama Kazuye, who was carrying a huge backpack. He got out of the car and climbed into the back of the truck. Together with two other people and a motorcycle, they sat in the room that was originally used for storage. place for goods.

The air is fresher than in the cab, but the metal base is a bit uncomfortable to sit on.

However, because there was a group of wild murderous energy next to him, the comfort level of this position in Jiang Xia's heart skyrocketed.

…

After adding three people and a motorcycle, the truck started again.

This time, considering how many people were sitting behind him, Takeda Yuzo drove a little slower than before.

Hattori Heiji leaned on the waist-high railing and looked at Jiang Xia who was in a good mood for some reason, then silently lowered his head and glanced at the continuously receding dirt road outside.

I thought that the car was not going very fast, so it was too late to jump out of the car now.

...Wait, what are you thinking about?

Hattori Heiji raised his hand and tapped his forehead to stop his dangerous thoughts.

...In fact, now that he has met Jiang Xia more often, he is gradually not as repulsive as when he first met him.

Especially last time on Furukawa's ship, Jiang Xia saved him from a veteran wanted criminal - if he was really attacked by the murderer and thrown into the sea at night, and no one saw him, he might change. It became a corpse floating in the sea. From this perspective, Jiang Xia can be regarded as his savior.

Moreover, people always adapt to the environment gradually.

It was the first time that Hattori Heiji saw Jiang Xia's speed of solving crimes as if reading from a script, and he felt unbelievable;

The second time, I didn’t feel like admitting defeat;

The third time, I firmly believe that I can do it.

After that, four, five, six, seven, eighty-nine times...

Antibodies gradually develop.

It's just that the previous conditioned reflex of "not wanting to investigate the case with Jiang Xia" still remains and has not subsided for the time being.

——Hattori Heiji analyzed his thoughts about jumping out of the car just like this, and felt that it was very inappropriate.

Avoiding is an unhealthy mentality. Maybe my parents are right: people must learn to face difficulties. He is still young and has many opportunities to practice and improve. Sooner or later he will be able to catch up with Jiang Xia's speed.

And no one likes to be disliked by others.

Every time he sees Jiang Xia, he turns away and leaves. This behavior may cause some invisible harm to Jiang Xia's mind, just like what He Ye and the two people in Tokyo said... Although he didn't see the harm. No matter where I am, I just feel that Jiang Xia lives a happier life than him most of the time... But in short, a person must be conscientious.

Hattori Heiji took a deep breath and temporarily suppressed the instinctive thought of "jumping out of the car".

And to show friendliness, he tried to talk to Jiang Xia: "Why are you here?"

Jiang Xia turned to look at him. Due to the abundant cases around Hattori Heiji, he always liked this Osaka gangster: "Like you, I received a letter of entrustment with 500,000 yen in cash, so I wanted to come and take a look."

With that said, he took out the letter paper he had collected before and gave Hattori Heiji a look.

Hattori Heiji's face turned dark when he heard this.

He took Jiang Xia's letter and muttered in his heart: Jiang Xia received 500,000? He only has 200,000... It's not that he's greedy for the commission fee, he's just a high school detective. Why is he so cheap?

Hattori Heiji felt a little subtle resentment in his heart.

However, after receiving the commission letter from Jiang Xia, this little emotion immediately dissipated.

——The letter Jiang Xia received was handwritten vertically, signed and sealed, and the wording was very cautious and polite. It looked like a very formal letter of authorization.

This was completely different from the one he had received.

His letter was typewritten, anonymous, and worded... There was no wording at all, just two murmuring sentences.

...If the same person hires detectives on the same day, it is certainly not necessary for one to sign and the other to write in a mysterious style.

If this happens, it means that the people who sent the letters of entrustment to him and Jiang Xia are two different people.

And this means...

No need to investigate the case with Jiang Xia!

The corners of Hattori Heiji's lips raised, but he quickly suppressed them as if nothing had happened.

He took out the commission letter he received, shook it towards Jiang Xia, cleared his throat, and said as if he was a little regretful:

"It seems that there are two families named 'Takeda' here. We have to investigate each one."

Jiang Xia silently glanced at Hattori Heiji, who seemed to have "I'm very happy!" written all over his body. He felt that the acting skills of this high school student detective were not up to par, whether in Kansai or Kanto.

However, he still looked at the paper Waving Hattori Heiji to show his dignity.

Compared with the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, the style of Hattori Heiji's letter is obviously different. There are only two sentences in it:

[Please arrive at the Takeda family at Gogu Peak before dusk next Saturday.

Otherwise, there will be live puppets that become bait for spiders]

Jiang Xia was silent for a moment.

In fact, compared to the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, he preferred the style of the notice letter in Hattori Heiji's hand - it was mysterious and seemed like many ghosts would pop up...

On the other side, Rob Taylor, who was also riding in the car, saw these two letters and came over curiously.

While reading Hattori Heiji's commission letter, he read it out smoothly as if he were learning a foreign language: "Become bait for spiders... Why do you feed spiders with live puppets?"

Takeda Yuzo, who was driving in front, had his windows open. The speed of the car is not fast, and the wind noise from both sides is not loud.

Not only did he hear Robert's confused murmur, but he also heard Hattori Heiji's regretful tone of voice, "Each one investigates his own affairs."

Feeling that the guest seemed to have misunderstood, Takeda Yuzo, who was cold-faced and warm-hearted, interjected:

"If the word 'spider' is mentioned in the letter, it should be referring to our family - something bad happened to my family before. People nearby said that we were cursed by the spider. They also said that if we don't want to be hung up inexplicably and... To kill, just don’t get close to the ‘Spider Mansion’… Humph, such a boring rumor.”

When Toyama and Ye heard the "curse", goosebumps appeared on their white and tender arms.

She quickly stroked her skin, using friction to generate heat to combat the coolness. She was half-comforting herself and half-convincingly saying, "There are no monsters or curses in this world! Someone must be doing something secretly. This time they invited detectives here for the same reason." Find out about this matter - with Jiangxia and Heiji here, we will be able to reveal the truth of the 'curse' immediately!"

Hattori Heiji:"……"

Is this "Takeda" also that "Takeda"?

...We can no longer investigate separately from Jiang Xia.

Also, why did He Ye put Jiang Xia's name in front of him? Don't we usually mention more familiar people first...

Hattori Heiji sat in the open car, silently tightening his coat, feeling a bit chilly in the mountain breeze.

Rob didn't notice the inexplicable depression of his fellow travelers. He touched his chin and asked doubtfully: "Why haven't I heard such rumors?"

"You came here three years ago, right? I remember that Misa took care of you after you were crushed by a collapsed rock." When Takeda Yuzo recalled this, he suddenly remembered something and his voice became lower, "No wonder you I’ve never heard of such rumors…”

Rob didn't dwell on the rumors anymore.

He smiled like a guest who came to visit his benefactor attentively and asked: "Speaking of Misa, how has she been these past few years?"

"..."

Takeda Yuzo held a cigarette in his mouth, remained silent for a moment, raised his hand and pointed out the window.

The four people in front of and behind the car were startled and looked at the direction at the same time.

According to normal development, they should have encountered "Misa" by chance on the roadside, so Takeda Yuzo pointed it out to them.

However, upon closer inspection, there was no one in that direction, not even a bird.

Just as I was wondering, I heard Takeda Yuzo say dryly:

"Look, does that mountain look like a sleeping puppet? In fact, this is one of the reasons why Puppet Peak got its name..."

Hattori Heiji:"……"

Toyama Kazuye: "..."

This topic was changed too bluntly...

...Did something happen to that "Misha"?

But Takeda Yuzo looked like he didn't want to say anything, so he probably wouldn't be able to ask for a while.

Hattori Heiji didn't speak any more and just made a mental note of this.

At present, he does not know what exactly the client wants him to investigate. The letter Jiang Xia received did not include the reason for the commission, so he could only write down all the suspicious things for later use.

Next to him, Jiang Xia turned his head meaningfully when Takeda Yuzo pointed at the "sleeping puppet", but his attention was not at all on the shapeless mountain.

He lowered his hand slightly and secretly touched the murderous aura that floated to his hand in the wind.

The murderous aura spread from Rob.

When mentioning "the United States and Saudi Arabia", this foreign friend's murderous intent was particularly strong. In addition, he was holding a fresh shikigami on his calf.

Although Rob was lost, had never heard of the legend, and looked like he had "not been back for three years."

But in Jiang Xia's impression, this foreigner had actually been at Puppet Peak for several days.

Three years ago, when Rob recovered from his injury and left Puppet Peak, he had already fallen in love with Takeda Misa, who took good care of him. He plans to learn Japanese well, take care of his own affairs, and then come back to fall in love happily.

As a result, after three years, I came back and found that Takeda Misa was dead.

——I heard that not long after he left, he suddenly hanged himself.

Rob knew that Misa's father, Takeda Shinichi, was very unkind to her, and felt that Misa must have been forced to die by her father. So after some investigation and it was discovered that Takeda Shinichi was selling drugs, he came up with a series of plans.

Rob first killed Takeda Shinichi's partner in drug trafficking and hung the man in the storage room. Then he stole a puppet filled with drugs and used it to threaten Takeda Shinichi, intending to trick him into the warehouse on the second floor, and then use a pre-arranged mechanism to kill the person and avenge Misa.

The commission letter Hattori Heiji received was actually written by Rob.

The chance encounter with the "lost brothers and sisters" just now was an artificial encounter - Rob planned to use this method to create the illusion that he was a "new arrival" and thereby eliminate his own suspicion.

…

The truck bumped along the mountain road for more than an hour, and a vast yard appeared in the distance.

The courtyard walls and houses here are made of exquisite materials and are strong, but they all look a bit old after being exposed to wind and sun for many years. At dusk, as the sun sets, the light dims, and the entire mansion exudes a spooky and eerie aura.

As the vehicle approached the Takeda family's house, Jiang Xia's bored eyes slowly stopped in that courtyard.

He stared for a moment, then looked down at the ghost beside him as if confirming.

The ghosts seemed to feel something, and they were picking up the sides of the car and staring at the Takeda family's yard.

The mermaid stared at it for a while, and then secretly hid the murderous ball in her arms. The cautious look reminded Jiang Xia of those happy housekeepers who hurriedly put away their precious figures before the naughty children came to visit.

...This kind of reaction seems to be really a ghost.

...But now that Hattori Heiji and Rob have just arrived, Takeda Shinichi should still be alive. Who dropped this ghost?

Jiang Xia was slightly confused for a while, then quickly thought about it.

No matter who dropped it, since he found it, it is his family's ghost...

He used the action of holding the frame of the car to poke a few ghosts who were still concentrating on sensing, and motioned them to catch the strange new ghosts... Well, please come and talk.

…

The truck soon drove into the Takeda's yard.

Along the way, although Hattori Heiji resisted asking Takeda Yuzo, he was very concerned about the "Misa" who made Takeda Yuzo abruptly change the subject. He planned to wait until he got to Takeda's house and find another person to ask about the situation.

After getting off the car and entering the "Spider Mansion", a group of people met a middle-aged woman with ordinary appearance and gentle temperament at the door of the house.

This is Takeda Yoko.

There are three brothers in the Takeda family - the current head of the family, Takeda Shinichi, the cultural man Takeda Ryuji who lives in the city, and the honest man Takeda Yuzo who just went to pick up Jiangxia and others.

Takeda Yoko is Takeda Ryuji's wife, and she is currently the only middle-aged woman in the family - the eldest's wife has passed away, and the third is still a bachelor.

Hearing Hattori Heiji ask about Takeda Misa, Yoko looked around and whispered: "Three years ago, she hanged herself in the puppet warehouse."

Jiang Xia sensed his own ghost running around chasing something more than ten meters away, as well as the vaguely sensed ghost fetus, and asked thoughtfully: "Suicide?"

"Yes." Takeda Yoko nervously mixed her hands together, thinking of the horrific corpse, and nodded in fear.

She looked at Jiang Xia and obviously recognized that he was a well-known detective. After suppressing her shock, she continued: "Not long after Mesa's death, my sister-in-law, Mesa's mother, was also hanged in the same place. ”

"the same place……"

Jiang Xia frowned and repeated her words, pretending to think seriously, but her mind was already elsewhere.

Next to him, Hattori Heiji, who was really thinking seriously, felt confused at this time.

Seeing that Takeda Yoko did not take the initiative to elaborate, he asked: "Why did they commit suicide?"

"I don't know." Takeda Yoko looked even more confused than Hattori Heiji, with a hint of fear, "And it's not just that. A few days ago, Mr. Negishi - the assistant of Brother Nobu - also passed away.

"He hanged himself in the storage room during the day when we were not at home..."