Conan's grammatical investigator

Chapter 1347 Amanda's Death Message
The case of Hiroshi Haneda.

It is also known as the "Amanda case" in the United States.

When Toru Amuro was studying at the police academy, this case, which still has many doubts, was often assigned as a typical case for after-class analysis.

Therefore, Toru Amuro also knew a little about the circumstances of this case.

"If I remember correctly, there was a case in a hotel in Los Angeles, USA 17 years ago, but there were two deaths."

"The two victims were American capitalist Amanda Hughes and Japanese shogi player Hiroshi Haneda."

"The two had agreed to meet in the hotel, but when the hotel staff found their bodies, they were found in different rooms."

"The identity of the murderer remains a mystery, but most people suspect it was a political assassination because there were rumors at the time that Amanda Hughes would run for the next US president."

"And Haneda Hiroshi might have just seen the murderer's appearance, so he was chased into the room and silenced..."

This is the standard answer to the case analysis assignment assigned by the police academy, and Toru Amuro still remembers it.

However, Toru Amuro has always been skeptical about this standard answer.

After all, too little of the case has been made public, and without seeing the situation at the scene, no one can assert that the truth of the case is this.

Kuroda Bei nodded slightly, agreeing with Amuro Toru's statement.

"What you said is similar to the rumors that most people outside agree on."

"But what I'm going to talk about next is another perspective that not many people know about..."

Next, Kuroda Beibei recounted his experience 17 years ago.

At that time, Kuroda Bei received a secret order from his superiors and went to Los Angeles, USA for vacation under the pretext of taking a vacation, but in fact he was going to discuss cooperation matters with Amanda Hughes.

However, since Amanda Hughes is a hot topic in the United States, it is easy to arouse suspicion if a Japanese person is invited to the room for no reason.

So, Amanda Hughes designated a candidate to serve as a "front" for the two to meet.

This person is Hiroshi Haneda.

"Hiroshi Haneda is a good man."

"After hearing my request, he agreed without even thinking about it..."

"So, we flew to Los Angeles separately, and he went to meet Amanda first as Amanda's idol according to the time agreed in advance."

"While my colleagues and I were on vacation, we used Hiroshi Haneda to get in touch with Amanda."

"Of course, that colleague didn't know that I was carrying out another mission..."

Kuroda Bei stood on the bridge with his hands in his pockets, and a hint of reminiscence flashed in his one eye behind his sunglasses.

"At 5 o'clock that afternoon, Hiroshi Haneda went to Amanda's room to talk to her in detail."

"As for the content of their conversation, I don't know...but the content of their conversation is not important."

"According to the original plan, Amanda would meet with Hiroshi Haneda briefly, and then change to meet with me midway, so that the outside world would mistakenly believe that she would only meet with one Japanese person, Hiroshi Haneda."

"But while I was waiting to be summoned in the public restroom on the upper floor, two men in black attacked me."

"These two guys were well-trained. One of them tried to attract my attention by picking up something, while the other one was going to attack me from behind with a stun gun."

"But I discovered their intentions through the bathroom mirror, and I subdued these two men."

"At this point I realized something might have happened, and since Amanda hadn't called me, I went to the front desk and identified myself as a Japanese police officer, hoping to get Amanda's room number from the front desk."

"However, Japanese police do not have law enforcement powers in the United States, and the front desk staff refused to cooperate. I could only find out Amanda's room location through other means."

"But when I got to that room, I was still a step too late..."

"Amanda Hughes is no longer breathing. This is all that's left in the room."

As he spoke, Kuroda Bei raised his hand and took out a photo from the pocket of his suit jacket.

Qin Zhibo reached out to take the photo and found that it was not a photo of Amanda Hughes' body, but a photo taken sideways of a chessboard.

There is a chess piece called "Knight" in the middle of the chessboard, and both sides of the white chess piece are stained with bright red fingerprints.

Under the chess piece, there is a women's diamond-engraved watch, and the mirror of the watch is also left with a red mark.

"Is this... a message before death?"

Before Qin Zhibo could speak, Toru Amuro, who was looking over at him, spoke seriously.

In addition to seeing the survey points in the photos, Qin Zhibo also wanted to complain, why were there camera phones 17 years ago?

And it was captured so clearly...

Kuroda Bei nodded, "Yes, that was my first guess at the time."

“So I took this photo and then went looking for Hiroshi Haneda.”

"I knew Haneda Hiroshi's room number, but when I got to the room, I saw a group of men in black walking out of Haneda Hiroshi's room."

"After those men in black left, another man in black was left behind to deal with various traces in the room."

"After I knocked him down, I found Haneda Hiroshi's body in the room."

"The area around Haneda Hiroshi's body was quite messy, and I was interrupted by other things at the time, so I forgot to take a photo..."

"And the person who interrupted me was Amanda's personal bodyguard."

"It was a woman with great skills. She got out of the hidden space behind the bookcase by herself."

"She seemed to be unaware of what had just happened in the room, and she misunderstood that I had killed Hiroshi Haneda."

"I had no choice but to subdue her first and then put her into the suitcase left by the man in black, thinking of taking her out of the hotel first."

"But when they were going downstairs, the men in black returned to Haneda Hiroshi's room."

"After I drove away from the hotel, these lingering men in black drove after me."

"In order to avoid their pursuit, I was hit by a truck driving sideways at an intersection and had a serious car accident."

"After I regained consciousness, I asked the doctor who came to rescue me, and found out that the woman named 'Qianxiang' had disappeared long ago..."

"After that, I was in a coma in a hospital in the United States for nearly ten years, and it was only recently that I woke up."

"At first I seemed to be suspected of murder, but after learning that Amanda and I had an appointment to meet, and the testimony of the hotel doorman, I was cleared of suspicion."

Kuroda Heibei's memories come to an end for now.

Toru Amuro glanced sideways at Kuroda Heibei, and today he finally got to know this mysterious parachuted boss better.

When he received the order from above to go to Arkham Asylum in the United States to bring back a Japanese policeman, he couldn't help but feel puzzled.

Why would a Japanese policeman be treated as a mental patient in an American mental hospital?
It now seems that this may be a means for the relevant parties to mediate.

After all, Amanda Hughes is an important American figure, and it is definitely not as easy as Kuroda Beiwei said to completely eliminate the suspicion of murder.

Staying in a mental hospital for 17 years was actually a form of house arrest.

As for the case, Amuro Toru judged from the description of "men in black" that this was probably done by the organization. Although the organization does not have a unified dress code, most of the grassroots brothers and cadres will wear black clothes.

And since Kuroda Bei is now assigned by his superiors to investigate cases related to the organization, it means that his mission 17 years ago should also be related to this.

After listening to Kuroda Heibei's description, Qin Zhibo was quite impressed by the various uniforms he wore.

Two men in black tried to attack him in the bathroom, but he subdued them...

A man in black was cleaning the room and was subdued by him...

Amanda's bodyguard "Qian Xiang" mistook him for the murderer and was subdued by him...

This is not Kuroda Heibei, this is Kuroda Heiwang!

However, from his description, Qin Zhibo also learned a new situation.

That is, as early as 17 years ago, the Japanese police tried to cooperate with the FBI through the Nine Angels.

However, after this incident, it is estimated that the cooperation plan has been shelved.

"By the way, Amanda's bodyguards were knocked unconscious by someone unknown."

"When they woke up, they found themselves in the hotel's warehouse..."

Kuroda Bei made some additional explanations.

Qin Zhibo nodded in understanding, and then asked: "Except for the woman named 'Qian Xiang', right?"

"Yes."

Kuroda Bei adjusted his stance and asked in a deep voice, "And then? Can you decipher the message Amanda left before her death?"

The message that Kuroda Bei gave before his death was the photo he had just given.

In response to this, Qin Zhibo showed a confident smile.

"Well, it's almost there."

"Oh? I'd like to hear more about it." Kuroda Bei replied.

Qin Zhibo held the photo in his hand and stared at the investigation point on it.

【Secret Word Survey√】

【Survey……】

After a while, the investigation instructions appeared.

Qin Zhibo took a quick glance and found that the content was basically consistent with his own reasoning.

However, he was not in a hurry to reason. Instead, he turned to look at Amuro Toru and asked.

"Touzi, what do you think?"

Toru Amuro was stunned. He didn't expect that Qin Zhibo would be asked the question directly.

But it just so happened that he had just been observing this photo for a long time and already had some ideas in his mind.

"First, look at the mark on the watch. You can clearly see that it is a lip mark, left by lipstick."

"If it's a lipstick mark, you can associate it with the word lips, or the red color of lipstick..."

“But if you look closely at the diamond ring around the watch mirror, you can see that there is also red paint inside.”

"This means that Amanda once felt that the mark she left was not accurate enough, so she erased it and printed it again."

"If it's lips, it's easy to associate it with something as long as people see the lines on the lips, and this is especially true for lipstick..."

"In other words, what Amanda wanted to express was not lips or lipstick, but the mouth that must be composed of the upper and lower lips."

"If you look closely at the two lip prints, you can see that the corners of the mouth are not printed on either side."

"This should mean removing the two ends. That is, removing the first and last two letters of mouth, it becomes out."

"Add the word 'watch' to it and it becomes 'watch out', which means 'be careful'."

Amuro Toru's expression became more and more confident as he spoke, with a confident smile on his face, "But even so, I don't know what you want to express by 'be careful'?"

"But judging from the head of this chess piece, the horse's eyes are also printed with lipstick, perhaps as a reminder to pay attention to someone's eyes?"

"Who can you think of in this regard?"

Amuro Toru turned and looked at Kuroda Bei.

Kuroda Heibei was stunned and immediately thought of someone.

"Come to think of it, there was indeed a person with eyes that looked a little abnormal who passed by me..."

"Although I couldn't see clearly through the monocle, he has eyes as sharp as a snake."

Amuro Toru asked in confusion, "Snake's eyes?"

Kuroda Bei nodded and added: "But this is just my impression. I don't know who that person is or what his specific meaning is..."

Just as the two were thinking in this direction, Qin Zhibo interrupted them in time.

"So far, the reasoning is correct..."

Qin Zhibo nodded in approval, but then changed the subject, "But it's not perfect yet."

"not perfect?"

When Toru Amuro heard this, he immediately stopped smiling and asked, "Teacher, what's not perfect?"

Qin Zhibo did not answer immediately, but asked Kuroda Bingwei: "Let me ask Mr. Kuroda a question first. Does the female bodyguard named 'Qianxiang' wear glasses?"

Kuroda Bei was stunned for a moment and nodded.

"Yes, she does wear glasses...but what's wrong with that?"

Qin Zhibo's eyebrows moved slightly, he picked up the photo again and analyzed it.

"Look, both eyes of this chess piece, the knight, are marked with lipstick."

"From the state of Amanda's watch code when she left it, her thinking ability was not affected too much at the time, and she had thought through the message before her death very carefully."

"That is to say, if Amanda wanted to point to the man with the monocle that you saw, Mr. Kuroda, Amanda should leave a mark on the same side of the eye as the chess piece, the knight, according to the position of the monocle's lens."

"But the fact that Amanda left marks on both eyes means that this person has a problem with not just one eye, but both eyes..."

"Or it has nothing to do with the eyes themselves, it simply refers to a person wearing binoculars."

"Although I'm not sure who Amanda met that day, I don't think there were too many people. Wearing binoculars should be a distinguishing feature enough."

"Besides the bespectacled Haneda Hiroshi who has been confirmed dead, the only person I can think of is the female bodyguard 'Asaka' who escaped from the scene of the accident."

"That is, I think the true meaning of Amanda's message before her death is..."

"Be careful Asaka."