Hearing the word "murder" directly from Kudo's mouth, Ran Mouri's eyes widened:
"Did they really kill Uchida?"
Kudo signaled her with his gaze not to get excited, then whispered in her ear:
"Right now, I only have a guess; I can't be completely certain yet."
"Don't act rashly, and don't clash with those two guys."
"Wait until I investigate further."
"Only by finding more clues can I confirm this guess."
Saying this, Kudo pretended to be conciliatory and quickly pulled Ran Mouri away from the two bullies.
Ran Mouri shot a slightly unwilling glance at Ishikawa, who still looked unashamed, then turned to Kudo and asked:
"How will Shinichi investigate?"
"Can I help?"
Even without using her fists, she instinctively wanted to contribute to this case.
"Don't worry," Shinichi Kudo said confidently, "Just leave the rest to me."
Without hesitation,
he turned around and slowly approached the old fire escape ladder welded to the outside wall of the department store building in the alley.
"Hey, you, what are you doing going over there?"
As soon as he saw Shinichi Kudo approaching the fire escape ladder, Ishikawa's expression immediately changed slightly.
He said with a gloomy face, blustering and threatening:
"Th-this is the crime scene, don't go running around randomly."
"Oh?"
Shinichi Kudo's steps did not slow down at all:
"I really couldn't tell."
"For a delinquent, you actually have the awareness to guard the scene for the police?"
"But didn't Uchida commit suicide?"
Perhaps having been educated by Shiho Miyano earlier, this Great Detective had learned to be sarcastic:
"For a suicide scene with no suspense at all, it shouldn't be a problem if I walk around casually, right?"
Ishikawa was severely choked up.
He stood there with a stiff face, wanting to say something, but ultimately stopped himself.
Kudo, without looking back, stepped onto the fire escape ladder and began climbing upward.
This ladder was already in terrible shape due to rust.
With every step he took on the treads, he could hear the alarming trembling of the ladder.
And the rusty guardrail handrail was even less usable; a slight push with his hand made it wobble as if it could fall off at any moment.
"Shinichi!"
Ran Mouri called out with some worries.
Come to think of it, when she and Shinichi were traveling in New York, they had once saved a guy who almost fell to his death from a broken guardrail on a similar old fire escape ladder.
Having had such a thrilling experience, she naturally felt uneasy about Kudo rashly climbing the ladder.
But Shinichi Kudo continued to walk upward with determination; his eyes were only focused.
Finally, he climbed to the highest point of the fire escape.
The department store building had six floors, but this fire escape ladder only reached the height of the fourth floor.
After climbing to the fourth floor, Shinichi Kudo tried to touch the iron door set into the building's exterior wall:
"As expected, this door is completely rusted shut."
"There's no way to get inside the building from here."
He thoughtfully stroked his chin lightly, then lowered his head to search carefully on the small platform at the top of the ladder.
However, Kudo did not find anything there.
He only got a close-up view of the gap in the guardrail here.
After slightly comparing the length and shape, he was even more certain that the section of the guardrail that had fallen near the corpse had broken off from here.
"Still not enough clues."
"It seems I need to look elsewhere."
With that thought, Shinichi Kudo quickly descended the ladder and returned to the ground of the alley.
His investigative actions further drew Ishikawa's attention:
"Hey, kid, can you stop it now??"
"Stop running around at the death scene, do you think you're some Detective?"
Ishikawa harshly scolded Shinichi Kudo like this.
But Kudo just let out a light laugh:
"Your intuition is quite accurate."
"I am indeed a Detective."
"Shinichi Kudo from Teitan High School, have you heard of me?"
"K-Kudo Shinichi?"
Hearing that name, Ishikawa's face turned slightly green.
Aoki, who had been silently looking down, suddenly looked up, his face extremely pale:
"You are that famous High School Detective?"
"Yes, that's right."
Shinichi Kudo nodded seriously, smiling very kindly.
Ishikawa and Aoki: "..."
The two of them mumbled, unable to speak, their expressions exceptionally vivid.
Shinichi Kudo ignored them and turned his head directly to look at Lin Xinyi:
Lin Xinyi was still squatting next to the deceased, closely observing the various injuries on the body surface.
"Mr. Lin Xinyi."
Shinichi Kudo spoke directly to Lin Xinyi, who had just touched the corpse, and asked:
"What is the deceased's body surface temperature? Is there any residual heat?"
"Oh?" Lin Xinyi raised an eyebrow.
He knew that although the way they found the problem might be different, this Great Detective had certainly also noticed something was wrong.
Asking about the body surface temperature was actually asking about the time of death.
If the deceased had just jumped off the building as they saw, the corpse would be fresh, and the body surface would definitely have residual heat.
But if the deceased had been thrown from upstairs after dying, having been dead for some time, the body surface heat would quickly dissipate into the environment, and it would not feel warm to the touch.
But this was merely the basic impression most people had of body temperature.
The actual situation often differed:
"The deceased's body is still warm, and there is residual heat on the body surface."
"But it's summer now, and the sun hasn't set, so the ambient temperature is relatively high."
Unlike the dawn when he first met Kudo, Tokyo was quite hot now:
"The higher the ambient temperature, the slower the body temperature drops."
"And when the body temperature drops to equal the ambient temperature, the temperature will hardly drop any further."
"The current ambient temperature is not much lower than body temperature, so relying only on the residual heat felt on the body surface by touch, it's impossible to accurately judge the deceased's time of death."
Shinichi Kudo quickly caught the implied meaning in his words:
"In other words, the deceased didn't necessarily die just now?"
"You can understand it that way."
Lin Xinyi nodded, and then prepared to share his own findings:
"Actually, I already—"
Before he could finish speaking, Shinichi Kudo interrupted him directly:
"I understand!"
It was unclear what exactly he understood.
He immediately turned around and said with confidence:
"Mr. Lin, please protect the scene."
"I'm going to check the department store next door first."
"Uh..." Lin Xinyi had a subtle expression, wanting to say something.
But Shinichi Kudo, as if competing in a race, hurried out.
"Wait!" Ishikawa's eyes flickered, and he followed closely: "I, I'll go with you."
"You want to follow?"
Shinichi Kudo's tone was very meaningful.
"That's right," Ishikawa said, bracing himself, "I, I'm also very interested in the Famous Detective and want to see how you handle a case."
"Sure, it's fine if you follow along and watch."
Shinichi Kudo shrugged, indicating he had no objection.
He continued forward, and Ishikawa followed behind him with a stiff expression.
"Hey Shinichi, I'm coming too!"
Looking at Ishikawa's strong and sturdy build, Ran Mouri also hurried to follow.
She couldn't feel at ease letting this suspected murderer follow next to Shinichi.
Thus, led by Shinichi Kudo, the three of them left the quiet alley together.
Before completely exiting the alley,
Shinichi Kudo suddenly stopped at the alley entrance, turned back, and said to Lin Xinyi with a sharp gaze:
"Mr. Lin Xinyi."
"Although it might not be appropriate to say this, this time might be a chance for us to compete again."
Lin Xinyi: "..."
He wasn't interested in competing with people over such matters.
But Shinichi Kudo had already quietly immersed himself in the excitement of facing a challenge:
"Let's use this opportunity to see who is better."
"I'll use my method of investigation, and you use yours. Let's see who can find the truth of this case first."
"Um..." Lin Xinyi hesitated to speak.
But the Great Detective Kudo had already disappeared around the end of the alley without looking back:
"See you later, I'm going to investigate first."
Ishikawa and Ran Mouri left, and only Lin Xinyi, the quietly watching Shiho Miyano, and the nervously trembling Aoki remained in the alley.
"Hmm."
"Forget it, it's fine if he goes to investigate more."
Watching Kudo's spirited receding figure, Lin Xinyi's expression was somewhat subtle:
"But speaking of which, what's there to compete over?"
"Can't this simple case be solved just by looking at the corpse?"
He muttered to himself, his tone quite helpless.
Then, Lin Xinyi stood up from beside the corpse and said calmly:
"Aoki."
"Huh?" Suddenly called out, Aoki jumped sharply.
He looked up and saw Lin Xinyi staring at him with a gaze as sharp as a knife:
"Still holding on with that kind of mindset?"
"Stop pretending. Come here and confess your guilt."