On the other side, Shinichi Kudo walked hurriedly into the nearby department store building.
Ishikawa and Ran Mouri followed closely behind him, and under Kudo's lead, they quickly arrived at the rooftop on the sixth floor.
There was nothing on the rooftop, just some construction debris piled up casually.
Shinichi Kudo walked over to the pile of construction debris, squatted down, casually picked up a brick, and examined it closely in front of his eyes.
Seeing this scene, Ishikawa’s breathing became somewhat rapid.
But Shinichi Kudo quickly stood up:
“Let’s go, we’ll go check the monitoring downstairs.”
He had visited this mall with Ran before and knew that monitoring was installed here.
Just then, upon hearing that Shinichi Kudo was going to check the monitoring, Ishikawa’s expression relaxed instead:
“Right, this mall has monitoring.”
“That way we can see if Uchida came to jump off the building ‘alone’.”
He emphasized the words “alone,” which sounded rather like protesting too much.
“Yes, checking the monitoring will tell us.”
Shinichi Kudo responded noncommittally and led the way off the rooftop.
Soon, they returned to the first floor of the mall and arrived at the monitoring room.
Surveillance footage is generally not shown casually to just anyone.
But the reputation of Shinichi Kudo, the high school student Famous Detective, was even more useful than the police.
After flashing the title of this “Heisei Holmes,” the mall’s Security Personnel immediately adopted the demeanor of a Fanatic Fan and respectfully invited Shinichi Kudo into the monitoring room they were in charge of.
Thus, Shinichi Kudo very easily viewed the Surveillance Footage of all the mall’s Entrance and Exits.
And after watching it sped up for a while, in the surveillance footage from about five minutes ago—
“Look, Uchida came in alone!”
Pointing at the figure that appeared on the Surveillance Footage, Ishikawa said eagerly:
“And Aoki and I didn’t enter this mall at all today.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can keep watching, this monitoring definitely didn’t capture the two of us.”
”
Shinichi Kudo said nothing.
He just stared intently at the “Uchida” on the monitoring screen:
Due to the shooting angle and the obstruction from the Baseball cap, the face of this “Uchida” could not be seen at all.
But Shinichi Kudo showed no Emotion on his face whatsoever.
He just turned around and said to Ran in a Calm Tone:
“Let’s just go back.”
“There’s nothing more to investigate here.”
“Oh?”
Before Ran Mouri could speak, Ishikawa asked impatiently:
“You’re not investigating anymore?”
“Uchida’s Suicide, there really wasn’t any problem with it, right?”
”
Shinichi Kudo gave Ishikawa a deep look:
“Indeed, there’s no problem. We can go back to the Scene directly.”
“When the Police arrive, I will explain the Situation to them as a Witness.”
“Oh, is that so…”
Hearing this, Ishikawa immediately breathed a long sigh of relief.
“Th-then let’s just go back?”
He acted as if he couldn't wait for Kudo to leave this place, hurriedly nodding his head and walking back.
As Ishikawa took the lead walking ahead, Ran Mouri walked closer to Shinichi Kudo, somewhat concerned, and asked softly:
“Shinichi, are you telling the truth?”
“This is just a Suicide?”
“No, that was just a lie to stabilize him.”
Shinichi Kudo walked as if nothing was wrong, lowering his voice to tell Ran Mouri:
“I haven’t found conclusive evidence yet, so I can’t prove they are guilty.”
“However, I can basically confirm that this is a Murder Case.”
“It really is Murder after all…”
Ran Mouri was somewhat confused:
“But when Uchida appeared on the Rooftop, Ishikawa and Aoki were clearly with us.”
“Also, the monitoring showed Uchida’s figure too.”
“That’s simple.”
Shinichi Kudo said in a Calm Tone:
“Ran, think carefully, when ‘Uchida’ stood at the Edge of the Rooftop, could any of us clearly see his face?”
“The mall’s monitoring only captured his figure; his face was blocked by the Baseball cap.”
“Since his face couldn’t be seen from beginning to end, how can we be sure that guy was Uchida?”
“Uh…”
Ran Mouri was slightly stunned and asked in surprise:
“You mean, the Uchida we saw was actually the Murderer in a Disguise?”
“Ishikawa and Aoki, they have an Accomplice?”
“That’s right.”
Shinichi Kudo nodded:
“The real Uchida was probably already dead by then.”
“And that third murderer disguised himself as Uchida, walked into the mall, ascended to the sixth-floor Rooftop, and intentionally appeared before everyone.”
“At the same time, after he was in position, Ishikawa and Aoki intentionally shouted loudly on the opposite side of the Road to attract attention.”
“Once passersby all knew that someone named Uchida was going to jump off a building, the third person on the Rooftop made Uchida’s Corpse fall from a high place to the Ground, staging a scene of Suicide by Jumping.”
“This way, the Police would treat this Case as a simple Suicide.”
“Suicide Cases are never taken seriously…”
“The investigation would likely be hastily concluded.”
“So that’s how it was.”
Ran Mouri roughly understood the Truth.
But she quickly discovered a huge Loophole:
“But, something still feels wrong, right?”
“The monitoring only captured ‘Uchida’ entering alone.”
“If this Uchida was the murderer in Disguise, and the real Uchida was thrown down after he died…”
“Then how did the murderer bring Uchida’s Corpse up to the Rooftop?”
“The street is crowded, and the mall has monitoring. If they carried a Corpse around, wouldn’t they be discovered no matter what?”
Ran Mouri began to think carefully:
“Could it be that Uchida’s Corpse was already inside this department store building?”
“Was he murdered inside this mall?”
“That still doesn’t seem right…”
“The monitoring only captured ‘Uchida’ once, and it didn’t capture Ishikawa and Aoki entering the mall.”
“Moreover, there are so many people in this department store building; committing murder inside without being discovered should be very difficult.”
“Haha.”
Shinichi Kudo smiled slightly and replied:
“That’s the Small Trick Ishikawa and the others played.”
“Because the mall Entrance has monitoring, they used this to create evidence for themselves:”
“The monitoring proves that ‘Uchida’ only entered once today, and Ishikawa and Aoki never entered the mall.”
“If I’m not mistaken, the monitoring probably didn’t capture the third person entering the mall either—because the third person entered disguised as Uchida, and he had already been captured on camera under the identity of ‘Uchida’.”
“Since that’s the case, by using the Surveillance Footage…”
He lowered his voice and meticulously explained the murderer’s Thinking:
“All three of them have an Alibi of ‘never having entered the mall’.”
“Since that’s the case, the Police couldn’t suspect they killed Uchida inside the mall.”
“As for killing Uchida outside the mall and then bringing the Corpse into the department store building in full view of everyone, that would be even more impossible to achieve.”
“And after both these possibilities are Excluded…”
“The average person would only think that Uchida walked into the mall himself and ran to the Rooftop to commit Suicide by Jumping.”
“But the problem is…”
Kudo paused slightly and continued explaining:
“Who said Uchida’s Corpse must have fallen from the department store building’s Rooftop?”
“Recall carefully, after ‘Uchida’ appeared at the Rooftop Edge, why didn’t he just jump right there?”
“There was no one on the Sidewalk below him at that time; jumping down wouldn’t have hurt anyone else.”
“If he wanted to jump off a building, why didn’t he just jump from the side facing the Road?”
“Why go through the trouble of running to the side of the Rooftop to jump into that Alley?”
“Oh, right…”
Ran Mouri nodded thoughtfully.
“I felt something was Strange from that moment.”
“If we view this as a Suicide, then Uchida’s actions are somewhat illogical.”
Shinichi Kudo said in an Orderly manner:
“But if we view ‘Uchida’ as the murderer in Disguise, his strange actions become completely understandable.”
“He walked to the side facing the Road to act for the Witness to see.”
“And the reason he later let Uchida’s Corpse fall into the Alley from the side…”
“Is because the murderer had no other choice; he could only let the Deceased ‘fall’ into that Alley.”
“Because…”
“The Truth of the matter is…”
“Uchida’s Corpse never entered this department store building at all, nor was it transported to the Rooftop.”
“The Corpse was hidden in that Alley the entire time, never leaving.”
“Huh?”
Ran Mouri was completely confused by what she heard:
“The Corpse was in that Alley the whole time?”
“But we clearly heard the Sound of a Heavy Object falling.”
“And you just said that Uchida’s Corpse fell from a high place.”
“That’s simple.”
Shinichi Kudo meticulously explained his Thought:
“The murderer utilized that Fire escape ladder.”
“If I’m not mistaken, this unmanned Alley is the Primary crime scene, and also the place where they Bullied Uchida.”
“Because the Alley opens onto a busy Road, after realizing they had accidentally killed Uchida, those three Bullies couldn’t possibly take the Corpse out of the Alley.”
“So, they thought of using the only thing they could utilize in the Alley—”
“That Fire escape ladder.”
“The top of the Fire escape ladder is fully four stories high, and the Guardrail is extremely unstable.”
“So, the murderer directly transported the Corpse to the top of the ladder and leaned it against the rusty Guardrail.”
“Then, they walked out of the Alley.”
“Ishikawa and Aoki were responsible for waiting on the opposite side of the Road, while the third murderer disguised himself as Uchida and walked into the mall.”
“This third person ascended to the Rooftop and first performed the act of ‘Uchida jumping off a building’.”
“Then, the fake Uchida retreated from the Rooftop Edge and walked to the side of the Rooftop facing the Alley…”
“Finally, he improvised by picking up a few bricks from the construction debris piled on the Rooftop and throwing them down towards the Fire escape ladder directly below him.”
“I see now!”
Hearing this, Ran Mouri finally understood the final Answer:
“The bricks fell from the sixth-floor Rooftop, hitting the Corpse leaning against the Guardrail on the outer side of the fourth floor.”
“Because the Guardrail supporting the Corpse was already unstable, after being hit by several heavy bricks…”
“The Guardrail broke, and the Corpse fell from the fourth-floor Fire escape ladder.”
“This way, Uchida was staged to look like he committed Suicide by Jumping.”
“And Ishikawa and Aoki could use the Surveillance Video to prove they never entered the department store building, eliminating their criminal Suspicion, making the Investigator more inclined to believe Uchida died by Suicide.”
“That’s right.”
Shinichi Kudo nodded:
“Moreover, Ishikawa and Aoki deliberately talked about their Bullying near the Vending machine at that time.”
“This was actually an attempt to turn all of us into their Witness.”
“On one hand, it proves they were not at the Scene at the time of the incident; on the other hand, they could indirectly use our mouths to prove they had bullied the Deceased—”
“This way, even if traces left by them were found on the Deceased, they could use the excuse of physical contact occurring due to Bullying to prevent the evidence from pointing to Murder.”
“It’s just a pity…”
As he spoke, the Great Detective’s Corner of the mouth couldn’t help but show a Smile:
“Choosing us to be the Witness…”
“The murderer’s Luck is truly good.”