Detective Conan: Becoming a Tycoon in Tokyo! [39]

Conan froze.

Then, forcing himself to recover, he quickly assessed the situation.
Whether he’d tranquilized Sonoko or Inspector Megure didn’t matter—the deduction had to continue.

Adjusting his bowtie voice changer, he switched to Megure’s voice and cleared his throat.

“Actually,” ‘Inspector Megure’ said evenly, “Nagamune was right. Sayuri-san really did commit suicide.”

“What? Megure, you—!” Matsumoto Kiyonaga stared at him in disbelief.

A moment ago he’d been blocking every attempt to call it suicide—and now he agreed?
Just what was going on?

“Administrator,” ‘Inspector Megure’ went on calmly, “Sayuri-san voluntarily drank the lemon tea that contained sodium hydroxide.”

Every officer in the room straightened unconsciously.
Whatever else could be said about the MPD, their people weren’t cowards before power.
Forensic Officer Nagamune had already dared contradict the administrator to his face, and now Megure followed suit.

To Shōichi, that was very reassuring.
Truly admirable—an organization full of righteous men.

“Megure, you’d better have a damn good explanation,” Matsumoto growled.
If Megure was really using his daughter’s tragedy to curry favor with Shōichi, he would personally destroy him.

“Ahem… well,” ‘Inspector Megure’ improvised, “if Toshihiko-san was the one who put the sodium hydroxide in the can, perhaps Sayuri-san drank it willingly.”

“Me?” Toshihiko pointed at himself in shock.

“That’s right. Everyone, please look at the videotape Ran-san recorded—”

“Wait just a moment.”

Shōichi’s voice cut cleanly through the air.

He looked at Megure with faint amusement. “Inspector Megure, since you came in here, you haven’t even looked at that videotape. How exactly do you know there’s something on it?”

“Uh—”

Behind the chair, Conan’s face twisted in horror.

Damn it, I slipped up!

Matsumoto’s eyes turned dangerous.

So now even Megure was making up evidence to protect Shōichi?

No… maybe not entirely.
Maybe he had seen something before.

Matsumoto’s gaze flicked sharply toward Ran.

Mouri Kogoro was Shōichi’s personal detective, and his wife worked as Shōichi’s corporate lawyer. The entire family was tainted.
Any recording their daughter made couldn’t be trusted either.

Then he turned his glare on Shōichi again.

Why was the main suspect himself pointing out holes in reasoning meant to clear him?

“Ah, actually Conan-kun told me,” ‘Inspector Megure’ stammered hastily. “He saw something strange in the video!”

“I suspect you saw it yourself,” Matsumoto said coldly.

Conan’s pulse jumped. Exposed?

But Matsumoto’s next words confused him even more.

“Not now,” the administrator said icily. “You watched it before the wedding, didn’t you?”

What?

Conan blinked behind the chair. He had no idea what Matsumoto was talking about.

“Administrator, what are you saying?” Megure mumbled sleepily, still half under the tranquilizer’s effect.

“You know exactly what I’m saying!” Matsumoto snapped, fury boiling over.

The MPD had already rotted.
First that bootlicking forensic officer, now even a veteran inspector siding with Shōichi.

Completely at a loss, Conan decided to drop the argument and act.
He grabbed the remote and hit play.

The footage flickered to life on the monitor.

It showed Sayuri holding a can of lemon tea—then, amid the chatter, setting it down by mistake and picking up Sonoko’s can instead.

The lemon tea that poisoned her hadn’t been hers to begin with.

Only three people had touched Sonoko’s can: Sayuri, Sonoko herself, and Toshihiko.

Sonoko obviously had no reason to poison herself—leaving only Toshihiko.

“Speak! Was it you!?” Matsumoto roared, seizing Toshihiko by the collar.

Toshihiko clenched his jaw, then shoved Matsumoto away. “Yes! It was me!”

He didn’t even try to hide it.

“Did Shōichi order you to do it?” Matsumoto shouted, trembling with rage.

He didn’t like his son-in-law much, but he knew Toshihiko wasn’t the kind to commit murder without cause.
The only explanation had to be Shōichi’s influence.

“It has nothing to do with Shōichi,” Toshihiko said firmly.

But the moment he remembered Shōichi’s teasing remark—‘I’ll bring a wedding gift next time you get married’—hesitation flickered across his face.

Matsumoto saw it instantly, his killing intent thick as smoke.

Sensing it, Shōichi quietly stepped behind Haibara.

Then Toshihiko took a deep breath and spoke again. “Twenty years ago…”

And the truth spilled out.

Two decades earlier, Toshihiko’s mother had died in a car chase led by Matsumoto Kiyonaga.
He had begged for help, but Matsumoto had never even looked his way. He’d watched his mother die in his arms.

Ever since, he’d lived with that memory—and one day decided Matsumoto would taste the same agony.

He courted Sayuri only to make her father suffer.

“That woman was such a fool!” Toshihiko shouted bitterly. “She never realized everything I did was for revenge!”

Haibara’s eyes darkened.

It was too familiar.
Her sister, Akemi—used by the man she loved, Akai Shūichi, until her death.

Different names, same cruelty.

She swatted away the two hands resting gently on her shoulders.
Don’t comfort me. You’re the one who killed my sister.

But Shōichi just patted her head lightly. “Don’t be sad,” he murmured. “There’s still one more twist.”

And sure enough—

Sayuri’s best friend suddenly stepped forward and slapped Toshihiko across the face.

“You don’t know anything!” she cried. “When Sayuri started dating you, she told me you looked just like her first love, so she asked me to investigate you!”

“She found out about that tragedy twenty years ago—and realized you were the same boy. She knew you were her first love!”

“Sayuri probably drank that lemon tea on purpose—she knew it was poisoned!”

“Sayuri… she…” Haibara whispered, stunned.

Another reversal.

She glanced sideways at Shōichi, suspicion flashing in her eyes.

How could he always know every twist before it happened?
Was he really just an observer… or the puppeteer behind it all?

No matter how the truth turned and twisted, one thing for Haibara would never change—nothing could ever undo her sister’s death.

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This is a fan translation of 柯南：我在东京当财阀 by 倒霉的菜狗. Rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!