Chapter Five: Bluster and Bluff

"Mr. Washinuma, would you mind explaining what these negatives are all about? You didn't snatch these from Ota and Yo, did you?" Shiraishi held a stack of negatives, his face as cold as still water as he stared down at Noboru Washinuma.

Due to his height, Shiraishi stood before Washinuma, completely blocking the light from the overhead cabin lamp. He loomed over the man, his face cast entirely in shadow.

*Gulp.*

Unable to withstand the pressure, Washinuma immediately stammered an explanation: "No! These are photos I took myself! They aren't very clear, but I thought they might be worth a few bucks... Tachikawa, you’ve seen the negatives Ota took before, right? Those were much clearer than these, weren't they?"

*Yes!*
*That’s right!*
*What kind of garbage did you take?*

Deep down, Shiraishi cursed him out...

Earlier, prompted by Shinichi’s suggestion, he had decided to temporarily keep the fact that "the negatives were already gone" a secret. He wanted to bluff these guys—mostly Edward—and had searched the luggage of the other two suspects in the process.

To his surprise, he found negatives in Washinuma's luggage!

Although they were just negatives, Shiraishi’s [Insight] allowed him to hold them up to the light and see them almost as clearly as finished photos; he could even perfectly distinguish the color variations.

However...

Shiraishi realized that while he could just barely make out the face of the American congressman, the woman's face was completely unrecognizable!

These negatives were useless for his purposes. That was why he had deliberately brought this up in front of Edward, hoping to bait him. At the same time...

"We didn't find negatives in anyone else's luggage. It's hard for us to believe your story," Shiraishi said pointedly.

"Huh? But..." Washinuma panicked instantly.

"How about this? Since you claim you took these, tell us exactly where and how you took them, and we’ll verify it later," Shiraishi said, feigning concern for the man.

Shinichi watched from the side, speechless.

He could see that Officer Shiraishi was aiming for the "scandal" rather than the murder case at hand, and Shiraishi had no intention of revealing the shredded pieces of film just yet.

Ignoring the murder case, Shiraishi dragged Washinuma aside to interrogate him.

Shinichi didn't realize the motive behind this; he assumed it was just internal police friction and didn't pay it much mind. Shiraishi’s actions actually played right into Shinichi’s hands. As this was his first murder case, he wanted to deduce the truth completely, rather than "solving" it based on a single piece of evidence or a lucky clue.

A detective—or rather, these "master reasoners"—solved cases very differently from the police.

Most master reasoners use deduction to reconstruct the sequence of events and force a confession, whereas the police don't necessarily need to know every single detail. For the police, solving a case isn't strictly about "deduction"—or rather, deduction is only the first step used to determine the direction of the investigation.

They don't need rigorous logic. They only need to establish a few possibilities, then conduct interviews and gather evidence along those paths. Once they have motives and evidence, they apply for search and arrest warrants. Through searches and interrogations, they gather more testimony and decisive evidence to form a chain of proof, which is then compiled into a "prosecution report."

The prosecutors then decide whether to file charges or send the report back with a dressing-down and demands for further investigation.

Therefore, a "master reasoner" is not necessarily a good criminal investigator, and vice versa. Master reasoners have essentially hyper-optimized the "determining the direction of investigation" phase, sometimes to a degree the police find overly reliant. Cases where Megure asks Kudo for help are usually those where the police are "clueless" and cannot even find a starting point.

Shinichi’s goal—or rather, his "hobby"—was clearly "deduction."

Because of this, Shinichi didn't bring up the key clue in Shiraishi’s pocket. Instead, his mind was entirely focused on how Tsumugi Amano had disposed of the murder weapon and fabricated her alibi. Given her relationship with the victim, drugging him wasn't strange, but the mystery lay in the missing weapon and the alibi!

Shiraishi, meanwhile, ignored the detective game. He kept grilling Washinuma while keeping a sharp eye on Edward nearby.

Just then...

*Ding-ding-ding.*

"Attention, passengers. Due to weather conditions, this flight will be diverted to land at Yokohama Airport in Kanagawa Prefecture. Our company will provide complimentary food and lodging and will arrange for your journey to resume as soon as possible. We ask for your patience..."

The announcement of the diversion echoed through the cabin. But...

After a brief moment of relief, Shiraishi’s heart tightened again. *Yokohama Airport?* Diverting to an airport on the east coast was normal, but...

The matter Shiraishi was investigating involved the Minister of Justice having ties to local organized crime in Kanagawa Prefecture. The "Metropolitan Police Department" where Shiraishi worked was, to put it plainly, the "Toto Police Headquarters," and they had no jurisdiction to investigate cases in Kanagawa. That was why he had to "hit the mountain to scare the tiger."

But now...

Landing me right in the enemy's den? Isn't that a bit too targeted?

A thought struck Shiraishi, and the corner of his mouth curled upward. He hadn't found any usable negatives, and in this situation, he had no way to force the other side to make a move!

If this emergency landing was indeed meant to target him...

Then that was even better!

They want to play rough? As long as they keep it "honorable" and don't break out the heavy artillery, Shiraishi was not one to back down!

*Gulp.*

Washinuma looked at the cold smirk on Officer Shiraishi’s face and, feeling even more nervous, began to confess everything!

...

As for Shinichi...

He was busy dismantling the alibi! According to the flight attendant's statement, she had gone to the restroom before the victim—but of course, that was just a "little trick."

"I see! I understand now... So that’s what that mark was... Ran! I need to ask you something!" Shinichi finally grasped the nature of the murder weapon.

There were security checks on airplanes; overly conspicuous weapons couldn't be brought on board.

The victim's wound must have been caused by the wire from her "bra," sharpened to a fine point!

However, being unfamiliar with such things, Shinichi still needed to consult Ran.

Ran’s face turned bright red, and she pushed him away. "W-what are you talking about! You pervert!"

"No... I'm just conducting a normal investigation... Could you please tell me..." Shinichi immediately tried to explain.

"Hey, what are you two doing?" Megure, seeing the "young couple" flirting, felt annoyed.

"No! Inspector Megure, I’ve figured out who the killer is!" Shinichi declared, his face beaming.

...

Tsumugi Amano had actually left traces long ago. Because the wire from her "bra" had been pulled out, she had scratched herself when moving around. In fact, even without Shinichi’s deduction, a thorough body search by a female officer upon landing would have uncovered it!

As for the "false alibi"...

Once the blood on the wire of the "bra" was confirmed, the flaws in her alibi would eventually be exposed through interrogation. Even without the alibi, the evidence of the hidden weapon was strong enough to bypass the flight attendant's testimony and send the case to the prosecutor—unless a lawyer could dig up the flight attendant's testimony again, which would then become a matter for the courtroom.

But with Shinichi there, things were certainly easier. He had cracked her method, using "deduction" to compensate for the lack of a formal "interrogation" phase.

"Wait, but Tsumugi doesn't have the negatives on her, does she?" Chikawa still couldn't believe her friend was a killer.

"About that..." Shinichi glanced at Shiraishi, who was glaring at him. He decided not to reveal that the negatives had been shredded and flushed down the drain.

Tsumugi Amano, no longer willing to put up a fight, confessed to the crime.

At the same time, Shinichi didn't forget to expose that Edward had tampered with the body. Shinichi knew that Edward actually understood Japanese.

As the plane landed at Yokohama Airport, Edward immediately called his embassy to demand bail. His crime wasn't serious—he had only moved the body.

As for the "scandalous negatives," he and the congressman were the victims of extortion. After all, the police couldn't regulate "lifestyle scandals."

"I'll be taking your negatives as evidence," Shiraishi said to Washinuma, leaving no room for argument.

"Huh? Oh... okay..." Washinuma didn't dare to protest.

Even if it wasn't related to the murder, he had indeed been planning to commit extortion.

Having secured a mountain of testimony from Washinuma and confiscated the "negatives," Shiraishi walked into the airline-arranged hotel with a look of feigned triumph.

Watching his expression, Edward was convinced that Shiraishi had truly obtained the key evidence.