Chapter 384

Conan's mind was not on the food at all; it was full of deduction and the case.

"Ah!"

The scream of the maid Hikaru Hihara suddenly broke the silence.

"What happened?!" Conan's eyes lit up immediately.

He smelled the scent of a case.

"N-not good!" Hikaru Hihara shouted loudly, "The Master, he..."

Tokiya Torakura's room was the last room on the right after turning from the dining room corridor. When everyone arrived, the maid was sitting slumped at the door, pointing into the room with a terrified expression.

"The Master, he seems to be dead!"

"Please," the Torakura family members who followed behind said with dissatisfaction, "Stop talking nonsense, will you? You know he's been using a coffin as a bed lately."

"N-no, it's not that!" The maid was still shaken, "When I opened the lid, there was a wooden stake bloody and stuck in the Master's chest!"

"A wooden stake?" Everyone was shocked, "Big brother's joke is a bit too much, isn't it?"

Nobunobu Torakura went up to check the closed Western-style Christian coffin, but the lid couldn't be opened for a while, as if it were firmly fixed from the inside.

"Is the lid locked?"

"No," the maid's eyes were filled with tears, "I opened it just now. The Master was wearing a black cloak, and he even showed sharp teeth, with a wooden stake stuck in his chest, and blood was flowing everywhere. How could this happen?"

Nobunobu Torakura tried again with force, but this time the lid was lifted easily. However, there was nothing inside the coffin, and there wasn't a trace of blood on the velvet lining.

Conan hurried to look inside and found bloodstains in the crevice on the other edge.

"How could this happen?" The maid looked at the empty interior of the coffin and said in disbelief, "The Master has disappeared!"

"Hey, hey," the eldest daughter of the Torakura family doubted, "Did you really see the Master? We don't have time to play jokes with you."

"I think what she said should be true. There are indeed bloodstains here."

Conan turned to look at the maid, "Have you been here the whole time?"

"Yes," the maid nodded repeatedly, "The Master was really inside, and no one came out!"

"How could this happen?" The Torakura family members couldn't help but panic, "Could it be that big brother really turned into a vampire?"

"That's not impossible," the eldest daughter of the Torakura family glanced at the coffin and said, "There is a rumor that our Torakura ancestors were possessed by vampires, and coupled with Tokiya's various strange behaviors recently, maybe he, too, was possessed by a vampire."

"Haha, just kidding, right? Just kidding."

The scene was filled with panic, and the atmosphere became somewhat eerie.

"That's right, big brother must be joking. Maybe he wants to test us. Since the invitation only said to discuss the inheritance issue after dinner, he should be coming out soon, right?"

"Maybe..."

The Torakura family members talked as they returned to the dining room, while Akaso Kaze and Conan remained at the scene.

Conan leaned his body into the coffin, reached out to touch the bottom, and finally lifted the velvet lining directly, revealing a sliding door underneath. The ground under the coffin also had a tunnel entrance that could be opened.

After pulling the floor tiles away, one could see a narrow staircase by the light.

Conan's eyes lit up immediately, "The case from half a year ago really has problems."

"Um, Mr. Kaze..." The maid Hikaru Hihara, who had run back, saw Conan checking the coffin and Akaso Kaze standing nearby, and said blankly from the outside: "D-dinner has gone cold. Do you want me to heat it up again?"

"In the end, big brother still didn't appear."

After dinner, the eldest daughter of the Torakura family suggested: "Why don't we take the photo first? Last year, it was also just when we were about to take it that Tokiya suddenly ran into the room."

"That's right," the remaining few said happily, "If everyone is making noise and having fun taking pictures, big brother might suddenly appear."

Akaso Kaze led Conan over, and the maid Hikaru Hihara behind them hesitated and bit her finger, still thinking about Conan flipping the coffin earlier.

"Um, Mr. Kaze, could you be..."

"Excuse me," Conan suddenly asked the Torakura family, "What are you doing?"

"We take photos to commemorate when the family gathers like this. It's been like this since three generations ago."

"Is that so?"

Conan's heart lit up.

This is perfect. He can go and investigate that secret passage; perhaps he can collect some clues.

The room for taking photos was in the collection display room. The maid Hikaru Hihara wanted to ask Akaso Kaze something, but was called over by the Torakura family to help take the photo.

"Hurry up," the eldest daughter of the Torakura family said with dissatisfaction, "What are you dawdling for?"

"C-coming!" The maid Hikaru Hihara ran over in a panic.

Conan saw that no one was paying attention and turned to leave.

Akaso Kaze also followed behind him.

Conan returned to the villa owner's room again. The position of the coffin had subtly changed. It looked normal, but Conan sensitively sensed that it was not in the same position as before.

To be precise, the coffin seemed closer to the wall.

Conan lifted the carpet on the side and indeed found the secret passage that was originally located under the coffin.

He entered the secret passage, went down the stairs, pushed open a movable door at the end, and found that the outside was a storage room. The secret door was disguised as a whole wall of storage cabinets.

So that's how it was. Half a year ago, the villa owner had created an alibi this way.

"But," he wondered, "why didn't the police discover it back then?"

"I'm afraid the position of the coffin was moved,"

Akaso Kaze looked at the secret passage and explained.

"The coffin was placed by the edge of the carpet. There were two gaps in the middle of the carpet blocked by tables and chairs. The middle part should be removable."

"Only by shortening the carpet artificially would the coffin appear above the secret passage. Conversely, if the carpet were lengthened, the secret passage would be hidden. If the police only moved the coffin, it would be easy to overlook."

Conan understood Akaso Kaze's analysis immediately and lowered his head to ponder: "In that case, is this incident also a trick by that owner?"

Akaso Kaze smiled without saying a word.

In the display room, all the Torakura family members except the villa owner gathered. The man with the crew cut set up the camera and directed the crowd:

"Nobunobu, lean a little toward the middle. Mina, lower your chin a little bit. Alright, big sister, how long are you going to fix your hair? It won't get any younger no matter how you fix it."

"Noisy!"

After getting ready, the man with the crew cut instructed the somewhat absent-minded maid Hikaru Hihara: "I'm going to line up too. You just help press this shutter button."

"Ah, okay."

The maid Hikaru Hihara was a bit afraid of dealing with these Torakura family members and stood timidly in front of the camera.

"Um, one, two..."

The eldest daughter of the Torakura family finally tidied her hair and tried her best to show a smile to the camera, but after waiting for a long time, she didn't see the maid take the photo, so she frowned and said: "What are you dawdling for again?! Hurry up!"

The maid pressed the shutter while trembling, and soon pointed fearfully behind the crowd: "M-Master! The Master appeared just now!"

"What? Stop joking."

"It's true! Right behind everyone, swaying, just like a ghost."

"Did something happen?" Akaso Kaze appeared at the door with Conan like a ghost. As soon as he spoke, the maid was frightened and let out a strange cry again.

"Please," the eldest daughter of the Torakura family said angrily to the maid, "Give it a rest, will you? Do you think Tokiya is a monster? Don't be so jumpy!"

"But..."

"I think we should split up and look again," the man with the crew cut looked at Akaso Kaze, packed up the camera, and said in a low voice, "If this continues, big brother will really be treated as a monster!"

"Damn it, what exactly does big brother want to do? It's time to discuss the inheritance issue, isn't it?"

The Torakura family swarmed out of the display room, and no one told Akaso Kaze what was going on. Fortunately, the maid Hikaru Hihara remained at the scene, her teeth still seeming to chatter.

"How could the Master..."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here. What happened to your Master?" Akaso Kaze asked softly.

"Just now when taking the photo," the maid Hikaru Hihara came back to her senses and said tremblingly, "I saw the Master suddenly behind everyone, but he disappeared after the photo was taken."

Conan looked in the direction the maid was pointing.

"Was it captured in the photo?"

"I don't know about that, the camera was taken away by Mr. Kishiji."

The maid Hikaru Hihara pinched her fingers and hugged her chest, leaning against Akaso Kaze with worry.

"Could something have happened to the Master? Was he possessed by a vampire?"

Conan fell into deep thought.

On one hand, he didn't quite understand what the ghost the maid mentioned was about, and on the other hand, he didn't quite understand the purpose of this villa owner.

Was it purely to scare everyone?