The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

Chapter 1172 Marriage is like this

"The deceased, Mr. Zhou Tenghaogui, was 34 years old and the president of an IT company. He could be considered a successful businessman. The explosion and fire were caused by the cigarette he was holding..."

It’s a bit strange to use the word “finally”, but the reality is that the police who came are finally not the ones they are familiar with.

Due to the particularity of the case, the person who came this time was Inspector Yumio from the Arson Investigation Section 1 of the Metropolitan Police Department's Investigation Division 1 - by the way, Megure Juzo was from the Assault Investigation Section 3 - and he was also Kogoro Mouri's former boss.

Of course, maintaining the fine tradition of the Search Unit, he arrived quickly.

Although he said that it was because of a suspected wildfire recently and they were investigating the surrounding woodlands for signs of illegal activities, Tang Ze couldn't help but feel that this was probably a characteristic of the Tokyo police...

"The cigarette in his mouth?" Conan couldn't help but feel a little strange after hearing his words and asked.

"Yes, the plastic barrel of gasoline in the garage fell over, and the whole garage was filled with gasoline vapor. At a time like this, any open flame can be very dangerous." Inspector Yumio turned his head to look at the innocent face of the elementary school student and frowned. "Why, he wasn't smoking when you met him?"

Although he didn't know why they were only here to be witnesses, Gong Chang felt that they were young kids who were more here to join in the fun. They wanted to squat here with him to look at the wreckage of a fire where the smell was very subtle and there was a charred corpse lying there. Gong Chang didn't hide anything and just treated them as a few young witnesses who wanted to add some information.

"No. He opened the car window and stuck his head out, and there was no smell of smoke in the car." Conan answered the other party's question.

"Yeah, that's impossible!" The woman who had been standing by crying also shouted, "Haogui clearly told me he quit smoking! Because I hate the smell of cigarettes, he said he would quit smoking for me!"

After she finished speaking, she cried even louder, even louder than the mournful low cry just now.

Conan couldn't help but look at the woman who was even louder than before.

It's hard to say whether she was more saddened by the death of this wealthy man or by the fact that he had tricked her into quitting smoking...

"Excuse me, who are you...?" Gong Chang's expression was equally subtle, but he still stood up and asked politely.

"She is Mr. Shuto's fiancée, Miss Yinlin Ena." The others standing on both sides of her answered for her.

"We're Zhou Teng's friends and employees, and we often come here to party on weekends." The man supporting Ena Ginbayashi, wearing a rather flamboyant suit, took the initiative to explain to the police, "Zhou Teng said he had something to announce tonight, so he called us here again..."

"It's wedding news. He was planning to announce it..." Ginlin Ena didn't care about her makeup and wiped away the tears that kept falling from her eyes. "We decided on the date for the wedding and were going to announce it to you today. I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it... Why would it be like this... Wuwu..."

Yumio made a strange expression, looked at Asai Narumi and others who were being pulled away by other police officers for questioning and claimed to be passing doctors, and shook his head.

It was impossible for the deceased to speak, and no one at the scene talked about what kind of person he was in his lifetime.

But through this group of friends and his fiancée's attitude, he could already roughly judge what kind of guy this was.

His death was a bit pitiful, but because he deceived his fiancée and ended up killing himself, I felt a sense of karma and retribution...

"We did find fragments of a marriage application with your and Mr. Shuto's names and seals on the body. That's definitely true," Inspector Yuminaga stated flatly. "But if you were to quit smoking, I was definitely lying, wasn't I?"

“…Huh?” Yinlin Ena’s eyes widened.

"Although it had been burned to charcoal, a large number of cigarette butts were found in the ashtray of the vehicle. Burnt cigarette butts and a whole pack of unopened cigarettes and a lighter were also found next to the body..."

Gong Chang tried his best to control his language, but his words still revealed a hint of disdain.

He didn't do what he promised his fiancée, and coincidentally, he ended up killing himself.

We can't say that he is so despicable, but this really deserves the name of "you reap what you sow".

After hearing what he said, Yinlin Huina covered her chest and her breathing suddenly became much more intense.

"How could that be? The last time I spoke to him on the phone, I confirmed with him again and again that he didn't smoke..."

It seemed that she could not accept that her fiancé had lost his life because of such a lie, and Yin Lin Huina's emotions were obviously fluctuating.

"I understand how you feel, Miss Yinlin, but I hope you can calm down. When was the last phone call you mentioned?"

Asai Narimi, who was responding to the inquiries, just exchanged a silent glance with Matsuda Jinpei.

No, compared to this, her current emotions are more about acting, right?

Or rather, a sense of relief.

Yinlin Huina was still immersed in her emotions. The men and women standing beside her looked at each other and took the initiative to take over the conversation.

"About an hour ago. Mr. Shuto called and said, 'I'm coming over right now.' It was quite noisy outside, and Ena was on speakerphone. She did remind Mr. Shuto not to smoke again, saying, 'If you don't quit smoking honestly, then forget about the marriage.'"

"Are you sure it's Zhou Tenghaogui himself calling?" Inspector Yumio nodded and confirmed again.

"Well, yes, everyone heard it. I even went up to him and said, 'We've made a lot of delicious food, remember to come with an empty stomach,' and he responded and said he was looking forward to it." The woman who took over also looked very emotional.

Inspector Gongchang recorded these contents and adjusted his judgment of the deceased in his mind again.

He wasn't a good person, addicted to pleasure, but he was indeed a generous and wealthy man. This kind of victim definitely had enemies, but they certainly weren't many.

Money cannot buy sincere feelings, but at least it can buy real regret and tears at the funeral. No matter whether they miss the person himself or the wealth that has nothing to do with them after his death, it is not a big loss.

Thinking of this, Inspector Yumio signaled his subordinates to come and clean up the scene.

"It seems Mr. Shuto lied about quitting smoking, and he paid a heavy price for it," Inspector Yuminaga concluded, "What an unfortunate accident."

Considering the identity of the deceased and the dramatic way of death, perhaps the media will be interested in this.

However, it would be good if this could serve as some kind of publicity and warning for quitting smoking.

"No, that's not necessarily true."

After observing the scene, Conan stood up and shook his head to deny Inspector Yuminaga's statement.

"Why do you say that?" Inspector Yumio turned his head and looked at the brazen kid for a while. He slowly began to feel that he looked familiar. "Wait a minute, are you from Megure's group..."

"Ahem." Dr. Agasa coughed twice, not letting the inspector finish the rest of his words - although he also felt that Shinichi's inseparable physique from the case was a bit outrageous, "He met us before going up the mountain and talked to us. Not only was he not smoking at the time, but even I, who was very close to his car window, did not smell any smoke. If he had smoked a lot in the car, he shouldn't have been able to cover it up so thoroughly, right?"

From the time he drove away to the time the explosion occurred, it was only about ten minutes.

It is said that he smoked the cigarette later. What kind of smoker can smoke out an ashtray of cigarette butts in such a short time?

"Besides, you think he got out of the car with a cigarette in his mouth, or even lit one when he got out. It's very unreasonable that one thing can't be found, right?" Conan pointed to the spot where the officer had placed the number plate. "They're all whole packs of unopened cigarettes. What about the opened pack?"

Inspector Yumio looked at the officers from the Forensic Department.

"Inspector, we didn't find anything like that in the car or the garage. Although we can't rule out the possibility of it being burned..."

"Well, the whole pack of cigarettes has been preserved and is in perfect shape. It doesn't make sense that there would be no trace of burns after it was opened." Inspector Yuminaga agreed with Conan's statement.

"As for getting out of the car to light a cigarette, the gasoline vapor in the garage was so thick that it could be ignited by a cigarette. How bad of a cold must he have to not be able to smell the gasoline, and how dare he stand by the car to light a cigarette?" Conan put forward another hypothesis, denying the other possibility mentioned by Inspector Yumio.

"His fiancée doesn't want to smell the smoke, he can't quit smoking, and doesn't want to lose his wife, so he smokes secretly in the garage. It's reasonable for him not to care about so many things. This is marriage." Inspector Yumio retorted.

This is so lifelike.

Several children, without prior agreement, cast sympathetic glances at him, as if he were an old man in a midlife crisis.

Conan's mouth twitched. "Then it's even more unreasonable that there's no opened cigarettes. He doesn't have any cigarette cases or anything like that on him, right?"

"No. I wouldn't dare bring it. My fiancée would find out too easily."

"Yeah, so this doesn't explain where the cigarette butt that caused the fire came from." Conan tried his best to show a cute smile like a child. "In this case, shouldn't we consider someone's plan? For example, the cigarette butts, cigarettes and lighters were placed here in advance by someone else. In order to find a reasonable explanation for the fire..."

"Conan, what you mean is..." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya clenched his fists a little excitedly.

"That is to say, this is not an accident, but a murder." Conan said this in a childish tone.

Standing on the side, looking up and down at Ena Ginbayashi, assessing whether she still had any shadows, Tang Ze couldn't help but turn his eyes and look at Conan.

He understood the logic, and such innocent words from children could sometimes have miraculous effects at the crime scene.

If an adult says this, the police may easily think that he is looking for trouble. If a child speaks so unscrupulously, even if the police do not agree, they will not be able to say anything, which can pave the way for their next statement.

But no matter how you look at it, it's still a bit embarrassing to see a cute child talking in a childish voice with a smile on his face in such a burnt-out place.

Our Beika Town's mental state is indeed ahead of the times.

Ginbayashi Ena, who had stopped crying, raised her head, revealing her pitiful face, her nose and eyes red from crying. She sniffed and pretended to be strong before continuing, "It's also possible that he destroyed the packaging on the way. If it was his last cigarette, he wouldn't keep the box. He would often crumple the empty box into a ball and throw it out the car window..."

"You mean, if we expand the search area, we might find the cigarette box he threw away along the way?" Inspector Gong Chang looked at her. "The old man said he hadn't smoked yet at the foot of the mountain, which means the cigarette box might have been thrown on the road up the mountain..."

Although the road up the mountain is quite winding, it is not particularly long.

That being said, this is a complex mountain forest, after all, where the police dogs' sense of smell is easily disturbed. Expanding the search radius by just a few hundred meters will increase the workload exponentially...

"After all, if he was deliberately lying, we wouldn't know when the cigarette box was disposed of in advance." Yin Lin Huina lowered her head and sighed, "Just to deceive me, he really went too far..."

Conan looked at Ena Ginbayashi's drooping face and interrupted her: "Sister, you thought that Mr. Zhou Teng had indeed quit smoking, right? You just contradicted the police so loudly."

"Yes, yes..." Yinlin Huina looked at the little boy who kept contradicting her and pinched her sleeve nervously. "The police officer told me that he was still lying to me. I, I was also very sad... But, but Haogui, it's already..."

Conan made a surprised expression and tapped his palm.

"In other words, if you've discovered that Mr. Zhou Teng is secretly smoking without telling you, all you have to do is overturn an oil drum in the garage and wait for him to arrive and take out his cigarettes to smoke. Then, just..."

This sentence has a strong flavor of accusation, almost saying directly that Ginbayashi Ena is the murderer who arranged all this.

However, according to logic, the person who knows Zhou Tenghaogui's character and behavior so well and can set up such a killing plan should indeed be someone close to him.

...If this really was a murder.

The young people standing next to Ena Ginbayashi obviously sympathized with this woman who had just lost her lover, and were a little dissatisfied with Conan's words.

"What are you talking about, kid? He's still smoking secretly, and we don't even know about it. It's normal for Ena to think that way!"

"Yeah, ever since he announced he was going to quit smoking, no one has seen him touch a cigarette!"

Conan's smile remained impeccable.

Before he could refute these people, Inspector Gong Chang next to him suddenly muttered something.

"So, is this one of those 'if you lie to me, I'll blow you up' schemes? Ugh, that's really cruel. But, considering what a married woman says, it seems to make sense..."

Conan, who had no intention of exerting any effort in this direction, said: "..."

Hey, what on earth has happened to your marriage? Don't suddenly accept ghost story logic, Mr. Inspector...