Chapter 1004: The Elegant Lady

In the evening, the sky suddenly became gloomy, and it soon began to rain.

In the luxurious mansion of the Hoshina family, shrouded in gloomy rain, the second-floor hall was brightly lit at night, and a grand birthday party was being held.

Akaso Kaze held a wine glass, leisurely tasting the fine wine.

Conan stood silently on the side of the venue, his brows furrowing even tighter as he watched the lively party.

"Although it is said that the sender is likely in the banquet hall, I still haven't found anything. The lady wouldn't invite someone who holds a grudge against her here, would she?"

"I just heard that there was a murder in this villa, but it seems it was just an accident..."

"This way, I can't find anything at all."

Conan looked up and asked: "How can I find the sender this way?"

"That is your business."

Akaso Kaze smiled slightly, seemingly not in a hurry at all.

He was looking at Hoshina Rukako, the owner of the Hoshina family, in the middle of the crowd.

Although she was getting on in years, she still looked like an elegant lady.

It's just that her personality wasn't very good; she was strong and strict, and she was a person who cared quite a bit about time, even accurate to 0.5 seconds.

There were clocks everywhere in the villa, as if she regarded herself as a god controlling time.

In this world, there are really quite a few eccentric rich people.

"Who is the person who sent that letter? The Keeper of Time or something, could it be someone's prank?" Conan started muttering to himself again.

"Speaking of the Keeper of Time," Conan looked at Mrs. Hoshina, who frequently checked the time on her pocket watch, and said, "The lady herself, who is strict about time, is very much like the Keeper of Time..."

"Who would threaten themselves?"

Akaso Kaze couldn't help but laugh. His gaze swept over the guests near Mrs. Hoshina, the corners of his mouth curling up, revealing a smile.

Criminals and the like are easy to find.

All it takes is a prediction spell.

But the commission is not that simple to complete.

Mrs. Hoshina didn't seem to take the warning letter to heart; it was almost like a jewelry exhibition, constantly showing off the decorations on her body to the guests.

"The silver pocket watch from before was already very beautiful, but this gold pocket watch seems to suit the lady even better!" a female guest exclaimed.

"Hehe," Mrs. Hoshina smiled at the flattering female guest, "This is a unique one specially customized by a Swiss watchmaker..."

"Hmph."

A bald old man with a white beard and a cane passed by and said: "It's a pity for that watch from before, which was replaced on a whim by the owner and is gradually rusting in the drawer."

"You don't need to worry about that," Mrs. Hoshina glanced at the old man. "That watch is no longer by my side. Of course, broken watches should be thrown away."

At this moment, the lights in the banquet hall suddenly went out.

Conan, who had been paying attention to Mrs. Hoshina, had his face change drastically.

But before he could act, the butler pushed the birthday cake with lit candles into the venue.

It was just approaching 6 o'clock, accompanied by the sound of the birthday song.

Amidst the applause of the crowd, Mrs. Hoshina walked to the cake, opened her pocket watch to check the time, and blew out the candles in one breath as happily as a young girl.

But the most important villa bell did not ring at the same time, and Mrs. Hoshina's face changed instantly.

"What is going on?! The bell..."

"Ugh~!"

In the darkness, the woman's pupils dilated in horror.

Who is it?!

Hoshina family villa, second-floor banquet hall scene.

"So that's it. After the candles on the birthday cake were blown out and the room was pitch black, the owner of this mansion, Mrs. Hoshina, was stabbed in the chest by someone with a murder weapon."

After the forensic personnel finished collecting evidence, Megure squatted down next to the hostess's corpse, which had fallen by the cake cart.

You could see a large pool of blood on her chest, and her front was also covered with splashed bloodstains, with a blank space in the middle; it seemed the bloodstains had been blocked.

After a pause, Megure looked at the balcony with the open French windows behind.

"... A few seconds before the lights came on again, the murderer took the murder weapon and escaped from the inner courtyard through the balcony over there..."

"The key is the bloodstains splashed on the ground in front of the lady. The bloodstains were interrupted in the front. This is evidence that someone was standing here when the murder weapon was pulled out and was splashed with blood. However, among the guests at the scene, although some had a little blood splashed on them, no one was covered in blood."

Conan looked around the scene to reason through it.

"Moreover, there are bloodstains on the window frame and the balcony railing, so the culprit who was splashed with blood must have escaped through that window, that's for sure."

Megure said speechlessly, "You said it yourself, it has been raining until evening, and the ground is soaked. If the culprit jumped down from this second-floor balcony to escape, they should have left footprints, right? But look below, there is nothing in the courtyard."

"That's true..." Conan frowned slightly. "It started raining again. The weather forecast clearly said the rain would stop by evening."

Akaso Kaze stood by the balcony with his hands in his pockets, watching silently for a while before returning to the hall.

He was very leisurely.

Conan was thinking nervously.

The situation at the party could be roughly reconstructed. The problem was the way the murderer disappeared, as well as the murder weapon.

Another thing that was particularly concerning was the threatening letters sent continuously for several years.

Nothing happened in the previous years, but it just so happened that a murder occurred when they came this time.

And then there was the accident that happened here 4 years ago.

The deceased was a watchmaker, and it was also on the day of the birthday party. ===== CHAPTER 1006 =====