Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator - Page 277
The voice of the junior Jiang Teng Daizo came clearly from the headset: "We found the target. He has no bodyguards with him, and he didn't talk to any suspicious people on the way."
Zhu Fu Jingguang asked again: "Senior Ishigami, where are you?"
Another voice said, "No."
This person spoke in a harsh tone, and others could tell he had a bad temper. Zhu Fu Jingguang was familiar with the other person's speaking style, and automatically translated it in his mind as "It's okay to live on that floor."
"I just left the banquet hall and there are already media reporters here. There are quite a few cameras on the scene."
Zhu Fu Jingguang walked towards the safe passage, being careful to avoid the surveillance cameras above on the way, and briefly explained the situation on his side.
He passed by the elevator, and several male guests happened to come out of the elevator. Zhu Fujingguang avoided them. Those men didn't pay any attention to him at all. One of them pinched his suit jacket and complained to his companions.
"The laundry service at this hotel is terrible. It was clean yesterday, but the cuffs I received today seem to be covered in dust and even have a slight smell..."
"You are a mysophobe, so why didn't we notice it?" the others laughed.
Zhu Fu Jingguang waited until they were far away before pushing the door and entering the safety passage on the side.
The first thing you see when you push open the door is a small compartment with two large trash cans, and then the door inside leads to the stairs. This area may be for guests to smoke.
There was no one in the stairwell at this time, and there was no other debris piled up. The fire safety work was done very well. Zhu Fujing walked slowly downstairs in the bright light of the incandescent lamp.
Swallowing mouth Shigehiko.
This congressman, who has been up and down in the political arena for many years, is the target of their public security this time.
Three weeks ago, someone anonymously sent a letter of complaint to the Metropolitan Police Department's Second Investigation Division, which specializes in economic crimes and election violations.
It said that Shigehiko Tsuchiguchi accepted bribes, protected criminal groups, and had a special account book. His secretary who died in a car accident not long ago couldn't stand it and wanted to turn himself in, but was killed.
The investigation was carried out by the Second Investigation Division, but they did not find any problems or the whistleblower. The matter was dropped.
——However, this is only on the surface. In fact, this case was transferred to the Public Security Bureau of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Public security officers are not like police officers. Police officers need evidence to arrest people, and they need a search warrant to search a house. Public security officers can use wiretapping and tracking methods. During a tracking, the public security officers found that Councillor Tunkou was secretly in contact with a gangster, and the account book was mentioned in the conversation.
They sent people to break into the house and hack into the computer, but found nothing. They speculated at the time that Congressman Tongkou either put such an important item in a safe or carried it on his person.
This beauty pageant was the first major event that Councilman Tunkou participated in after being investigated, so the police followed him and planned to secretly search his luggage during the councilman's activities.
They could have directly arrested and interrogated him, but...
——"I know that person. He is a former small leader of the Nican Society. I heard that Glenn took over this not-so-small underworld organization half a year ago. In this way, many new members came to the organization this year..."
This is a message sent back by an undercover public security agent who infiltrated the organization.
Glenn is Rum's confidant, and his actions are the actions of the organization. This congressman has contact with people related to the organization, so the public security has to act cautiously.
Zhu Fu Jingguang was lost in thought and walked up several floors without realizing it. At this moment, the voice of his junior came through his headphones again.
"Senior Zhufu, I just saw two participating girls talking to the staff. They received a threatening letter this morning. They didn't seem to call the police for such a serious matter. Should we..."
Zhu Fu Jingguang came back to his senses: "Don't worry about it."
Upon learning that Councillor Tunkou was coming to attend the event, the police checked the people involved in the event, especially the contestants, and found that they had nothing to do with the councillor.
Since it was an ordinary threatening letter targeting the competition rather than their target, they didn't need to care about it - if necessary, they even had to prevent the competition organizers from calling the police to avoid alerting the congressmen.
Ishigami snorted, "With this kind of undisciplined competition, who knows if those women have offended someone behind their backs?"
Jiang Teng was speechless: "Senior Ishigami, you wouldn't say that..."
Zhu Fu Jingguang had no interest in such topics.
He was about to interrupt their discussion when he suddenly heard a familiar male voice coming from the exit of the safety passage on this floor.
"…Right here. Our hotel just had a fire inspection this morning, so we won't leave any debris here."
“Does anyone usually come over?”
Upon hearing these words, Zhu Fu Jingguang was stunned.
He almost instinctively stepped aside, carefully leaning out his sight, and looked through the glass on the door at the person outside who followed the employee into the small cubicle outside.
"I'm not sure. Some guests may think that waiting for the elevator is too slow and take the stairs... Why are you asking this?"
Zhu Fu Gaoming, who had a mustache and a fair and gentle appearance, said, "I was entrusted by someone."
Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."
Why is his brother here? !
……
The contestant from Nagano Prefecture, who was sitting in the lounge on the 20th floor, suddenly sneezed.
After a brief introduction, Maori Kogoro roughly understood the situation: "I understand. Then may I ask if you have found any suspicious persons today?"
"The guy who manipulated the puppet was the most suspicious." Mrs. Shou said bluntly, "As soon as he arrived at the scene, he came to harass Hua Lian and wanted to take her out to talk to her alone. Fortunately, Meimei and I chased him away."
Maori Kogoro looked at the person in charge, who said helplessly: "The gentleman's name is Amano Shoichi. He is a world-class puppet performer we specially invited. He and Miss Hualian seem to be..."
Shou Hualian suddenly stood up and interrupted what he was about to say: "The snacks I ordered are here. The cake is made with my own secret recipe. I hope you like it."
A cart came in, and the young woman who had met Edogawa Conan once in the morning - Shou Hualian's sister and Mrs. Shou's eldest daughter Shou Meimei, came to the lounge with the pastry chef.
Maori Kogoro looked at the food and asked hesitantly, "Where are these made?"
"The kitchen on this floor." Shou Meimei said, "This hotel has banquet halls above the 20th floor. To prevent the food from being damaged due to long transportation distances, there is a kitchen on each floor."
Shou Hualian said: "Don't worry, Mr. Mao Li, this is for you to enjoy. I...we, the contestants, will not eat anything casually before the competition."
The pastry chef helped to divide the cake. Except for the three contestants, each person had a plate of cake and a cup of black tea in front of them.
Edogawa Conan took a bite, and the smell of alcohol spread in his mouth. After he swallowed it, he asked, "Sister Hualian, is this cake flavored with alcohol?"
"Yes." Shou Hualian smiled at him, "But only a little bit was used. It's okay for a kid like you to eat it."
Aoyagi noticed that the pastry chef next to him looked away awkwardly, lowered his head and took a bite, but didn't say much. Only when Miss White next to him looked over did he explain in a voice that only the two of them could hear:
"There's too much wine, at least three times the amount used to make ordinary desserts, and it's not the usual flavored wine, but a kind of sorghum wine from flower planting."
Neither Edogawa Conan nor Haibara Ai heard what he said and ate the cake without any precautions.
"Mr. Miura."
Shou Meimei hesitated and said to the person in charge: "In addition to Mr. Maori, have you hired other detectives? Just now when I passed the entrance of the banquet hall, I seemed to see another detective..."
Miura Daigo felt the gazes from Maori Kogoro and waved his hands quickly, "No, I only invited Mr. Maori! Maybe someone else invited him privately, or maybe you saw it wrong?"
Shou Meimei thought for a moment and said, "Well... when I called him, he didn't respond at all. Maybe I really recognized the wrong person."
She lowered her head and said no more. Edogawa Conan used his height advantage to see her expression, which seemed to be thoughtful.
Being recognized by others at a glance, could it be that the person she just saw was a famous detective?
……
at the same time.
At the hotel laundry service on the first floor, the supervisor was looking for someone: "Why are there only a few of you? Where's the new guy?"
One of them answered: "She went to deliver clothes to the guests on the 15th floor. The gentleman told us to deliver them to the door."
The foreman breathed a sigh of relief: "Just send it over. He's a congressman, there can't be any mistakes in the work..."
In the staff lounge not far away, Curacao, who had already returned, heard what they said. She was sure that they would not care about her whereabouts for a while, so she closed the door gently and left through the back door.
She turned on her cell phone and quickly called up a surveillance video that she had just noticed.
In front of the camera, a man with black hair and blue eyes flashed by.
"..."
Curacao sent a message to Rum with an expressionless face, then took back his phone.
Chapter 328 Conan: I, Kudo Shinichi, am coming back!
Edogawa Conan doesn't like sweets very much, so he put down the cake with wine in it after eating less than half of it.
However, Haibara Ai ate the whole plate slowly and even turned around to remind Professor Agasa not to eat too many alcoholic desserts and to be careful about his blood sugar and liver.
Maori Kogoro ate most of it out of courtesy. When he saw the others put down their plates, he stood up and said, "Then I'll go to the banquet hall to check. Is it convenient to go backstage?"
The person in charge nodded: "There are several rooms there. Just tell the staff over there and you can go in."
It would be easy to sneak in and do something tricky... Edogawa Conan muttered to himself.
Aoyagi Hiromitsu and Miss White also stood up to say goodbye. The FBI agent, who was acting as a translator today, said, "The competition will start in half an hour, so we won't bother the players any more."
As soon as these words were spoken, Dr. Agasa realized that these contestants needed to get dressed, and hurriedly left the room with the others.
The banquet hall where the competition was held was also on the 20th floor, and it could be reached by passing through the corridor and the elevator hall in the middle. The contestants would go to the backstage through another passage first, and they went directly to the main entrance.
Although Kogoro Mouri seems unreliable, he is actually quite clear about the social etiquette of adults. When he saw Aoyagi Akimichi accompanying important people from the United States, he only talked to a few other people.
"I'll go check backstage later. Doctor, please keep an eye on Conan and don't let this kid run around."
Edogawa Conan rolled his eyes and listened to Dr. Agasa's casual agreement, then turned his gaze to the corridor.
Suddenly, his attention was attracted by a painting on the wall.
The door of the banquet hall opened, and Aoyagi Akimitsu went in first with his female companion. Maori Kogoro went backstage, and Suzuki Sonoko went straight to chat with the employee of Suzuki Group who was responsible for the broadcast, the person in charge of the competition and several bigwigs who were invited.
Dr. Agasa was about to follow them in, but when he saw Edogawa Conan staring at a painting on the wall, he stopped and asked, "What's wrong?"
Haibara Ai had already seen the plain faces of several contestants in the lounge, and had been smelling the perfume for a long time, so she was not very interested in the upcoming wedding dress show.
She looked from the perspective of Edogawa Conan and quickly recognized the content of the painting.
"The Golden Apple of Discord."
As a science geek who believes in science, Dr. Agasa doesn't know much about various legends, but he does feel familiar with this name.
Edogawa Conan looked at the painting and quickly recalled the myth.
Legend has it that at a wedding banquet of a sea goddess, she invited all the gods except the goddess of discord, Eris, who held a grudge against her and sent a golden apple to the scene with the words: To the most beautiful goddess.
"Hera, who represents power; Athena, who symbolizes wisdom and victory; and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and desire. They all want the apple. It's a difficult choice between the three."
Huiyuan Ai said lightly: "It seems that even the noblest goddesses on the sacred mountain can't resist the temptation of 'the most beautiful'..."
Edogawa Conan sweatdropped, "Actually, they are all very beautiful. Such questions are just provocative. After all, everyone has different aesthetic tastes, and the most beautiful in their hearts will definitely not be the same."