Conan’s Corpse Picker

Half an hour later.

Jiang Xia was filled with strange experiences. After concluding the entrustment discussion, he opened Mrs. Tokura's bedroom door in a daze.

Then he caught Suzuki Sonoko who was eavesdropping on the bedroom door.

Suzuki Sonoko waved her arms and stood up straight again with an embarrassed smile: "Well, I, let me ask you if you want to drink tea. The rosemary brewed by Mr. Tadokoro is particularly delicious!"

...Although she tried her best to listen, the door was made of thick material and was surrounded by rubber door seals, so Suzuki Sonoko couldn't hear anything clearly. I could only vaguely feel Toru Amuro talking inside, and there was no strange movement in the room.

Etsuko Tokura glanced at her, tilted her head uncomfortably, and wrapped her shawl.

…

The four people walked downstairs with their own thoughts.

Jiang Xia was walking on the steps leading to the first floor when her eyes suddenly moved and she found that there were more people in the crowd...

A fresh shikigami.

Jiang Xia: "..."

...Before, when he heard that this villa was related to vampires, he once thought that if a vampire ghost appeared in the villa, then his air force puppet would have a replacement outfit, and he could use the foggy dog ​​in winter and the vampire in the summer - foggy dog. The pair of big fluffy wings and the thick, simple shape make it look weirdly hot in summer. The vampire wings are quite smooth and look very cool...

However, it turns out that he thought too much.

"..."

Forget it, the flying unit already has a fog dog anyway, and the puppet can't feel the heat. At most, it can psychologically warm the people who see it.

Jiang Xia quickly figured it out and returned to a calm state of mind.

He sat on the sofa next to the coffee table, took the new tea from Toshiya Tadokoro, and joined the queue to play poker.

As long as Mao Lilan is not around, good cards will basically go to him.

Generally speaking, in Jiang Xia's opinion, playing cards is a good entertainment activity that soothes the mood.

…

After winning until midnight, opposite Jiang Xia, Ikumi Gunada, who had a stronger desire to win, could not sit still at first.

She pressed down a bunch of bad cards, and at the same time took off a pile of punishment notes stuck to her head, and glanced at the watch nonchalantly: "It's 12 o'clock, get ready to sleep. I have something else to do tomorrow."

Except for Suzuki Sonoko, who was not paying attention to the cards, others also took advantage of the chaos to throw the cards into the pile, took off the notes, stood up and echoed: "It is true that going to bed too late is not good for your health."

Suzuki Ayako gathered the cards and wanted to ask Tadokoro Toshiya where they should be placed.

When he turned around, he found that Tadokoro had been dialing next to the landline. Thinking about it carefully, he seemed to have dialed several times.

Toru Amuro also noticed the situation. He suddenly smelled something abnormal in this action: "What's wrong?"

Tadokoro Toshiya put down the receiver in confusion: "At this time, the teacher usually orders midnight snacks. But today he never called, and he didn't answer my call..."

Editor-in-chief Doi frowned: "Maybe he fell asleep directly after drinking. He fell asleep deeply when he drank... Let's go over and take a look."

Hamura Shuichi pushed up his pince-nez: "Is this good? If you rush over and disturb his writing ideas, he will curse."

Editor-in-Chief Doi shook his head: "I remember that because of those collections, there was no heating equipment in the study room, and that room was right in the air vent. With today's extreme weather, I ignored the possibility of something happening and just went to take a look."

Tadokoro Toshiya hesitated for a moment and nodded.

Jiang Xia watched several people enter the corridor.

Then he picked up the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea.

Just after holding it to warm my hands for a while, there was a faint noise in the corridor connected to the study. It seemed that several people were talking in low voices, followed closely by the knocking on the door that became heavier and heavier.

As a working detective on the surface, Jiang Xia stood up alertly and walked over to check the situation.

Amuro Toru, Suzuki Sonoko and Suzuki Ayako also quickly followed.

Gunda Ikumi was already planning to take a rest, but at this moment she stopped going upstairs, looked back, and smelled an unusual smell.

So he walked back and joined the team.

…

Soon, everyone walked through the corridor and gathered at the door of the study.

The thick soundproof door makes a muffled sound when slapped, which is very high-quality.

However, after knocking for a long time, no one came to open the door.

"...Maybe he fell asleep after being drunk."

Etsuko Tokura remembered the structure of the study and pointed to a door next to it: "Opposite the study door, there is a floor-to-ceiling window that can be opened. It is next to the cliff and no one can come up, so it is usually not locked... Go around the balcony and call him."

Jiang Xia nodded and opened the door on the side.

Daisuke Tokura's study is an octagonal room that protrudes independently and is built on the cliff. Together with the corridor, it is shaped like an octagonal lollipop with a stick segment connected to the living room.

The door on the side leads to the open-air balcony surrounding the study.

As soon as the door opened, the cold wind and snow swept in. Looking down, the circular balcony was covered with snow. The snow was flat and there were no footprints on it.

However, after walking along the circular balcony to the floor-to-ceiling window facing the study door, a group of people were slightly startled.

——The floor-to-ceiling windows were wide open, and there were messy footprints in front of the windows. The wind blew into the room, and the scarlet curtains fluttered, giving people an unpleasant feeling that "something happened" for no reason.

Amuro Toru's heart skipped a beat and he stepped forward quickly.

He ran to the window and looked inside the room through the open floor-to-ceiling window, his pupils dilated rapidly - the study was dark, and the only light was the old projector.

The old machine made a slight noise when it was running. It was dragged to the door by an unknown person. The cone-shaped light emitted from the port was no longer facing the movie screen, but changed its direction, illuminating the area next to the wall. A cross used to burn vampires.

The old light spots are flickering. In the weird light, you can see a man with his arms spread out and tied to a blood-stained cross, like a vampire specimen waiting to be burned - Daisuke Torakura's eyes widened, and there was a pain deeply embedded in his heart. A thick wooden nail. Judging from the depth of the wooden nail, the person was undoubtedly dead.

"..."

Toru Amuro looked at the corpse and fell silent for a moment.

The others realized something was wrong from his reaction and hurried over to look into the room.

Immediately afterwards, there were screams one after another from the group of people.

Toru Amuro backed away a little silently.

While everyone else's attention was focused on that horrific corpse, he silently took out the dice from his pocket, looked at them over and over, and illuminated them with a flashlight.

...There's nothing wrong with it no matter how you look at it, it's just an ordinary dice, not tampered with.

The road he and Jiang Xia took when traveling was indeed a random road, and the people they met were also random acquaintances.

...Is it really a matter of the physical nature of the incident?