"So, you're telling me she hired you because some suspicious character had been prowling around the house at night... and then she tried to cancel the request?" Inspector Yumitsu muttered, rubbing his chin as he processed the information.
The first part of the story was standard enough. Even Mrs. Morozumi wanting to call off the investigation wasn't particularly strange. And the "Feng Shui Master" turned out to be her husband's old college classmate—certainly a neat, if scandalous, little triangle.
However, the image of three grown men and a primary school student huddling under a living room window to eavesdrop was, frankly, absurd.
"Whatever the case, I'll need all of you to leave your footprints with the forensics team for elimination purposes," Yumitsu said, massaging his temples. He had enough work to do without filtering through the clumsy tracks of amateur sleuths.
Kogoro nodded sheepishly and continued detailing everything they had observed from the afternoon until they left the scene. Excluding Mr. Morozumi himself, three distinct people had visited the villa that day.
"We can probably rule out Mr. Morozumi and the Feng Shui master as suspects, right?" Heiji said, crossing his arms in thought.
According to the neighborhood boy's testimony, the shadow of the red horse appeared after 7:30 PM. By that time, the two men had long since left to go drinking. They had departed around 7:20 PM, and the detective group had started their own return trip to Beika around 7:25 PM. Within that narrow five-minute window, the arsonist had struck. The timing was almost too perfect.
"Do you guys think the culprit put that red horse there on purpose?" Tsuneo asked, his eyes fixed on the high transom window.
He looked at the height of the opening. Even at his height, reaching up to place a figurine precisely in that narrow slit would be a stretch. It felt forced, almost staged.
"On purpose?" Conan's brow furrowed. His mind, as sharp as ever, began to whirl through the possibilities.
"Well, that fortune-teller sister and the salesman are definitely the most suspicious," Kogoro added with a firm nod. "Whether it was intentional or not, they're the only ones left without a clear account of their time."
"Speaking of the sister, there's an entire floor dedicated to fortune-tellers in the building in front of Haido Station," Yumitsu provided. "If she's a professional, she'll likely be there."
The group didn't waste a moment, piling back into the car and racing to the station before the businesses closed for the night.
"What did you say?!" Keiko Gondo, dressed in elaborate, flowing robes that made her look like a high-ranking sorceress, let out a shrill cry. "Ryoko... Ryoko is dead?!"
She collapsed into her chair, burying her face in her hands and wailing. She claimed she had actually foreseen a 'calamity of fire' for her sister and had warned her to be careful, but Ryoko had refused to listen.
"Our father's funeral arrangements aren't even finished yet... Why is everyone leaving me?!" she sobbed.
"It's the Star of Solitude," Tsuneo remarked casually, nodding as if he were reading a divine chart. "The Cursed Star of Solitude. It strikes down parents, ruins siblings, and brings misery to anyone who dares get close. A truly tragic fate."
He gave the "sorceress" a look of mock pity. Beside him, Yumitsu gave him a 'not now' glance. The floor was indeed filled with these booths—small, curtained-off cubicles where various charlatans practiced their trades.
Kogoro cleared his throat, ignoring the supernatural commentary. "Ahem. Excuse me, but where exactly were you at 7:30 this evening?"
"I was right here," Keiko replied, dabbing at her eyes. Her heavy makeup had begun to smear, making her look less like a mystic and more like a ghost. "Ask the man in the next booth. He'll tell you."
The elderly man in the neighboring stall, who was currently fiddling with a handful of bamboo divination sticks, looked up and nodded. "That's right. Our contracts with the landlord specify that we can only start our business here from 7:30 PM onwards. We were both here setting up at that time."
"I see. I'm very sorry for your loss," Yumitsu said. He signaled for the group to follow him as they exited the building.
With that alibi, the sister who had come to beg for money was effectively crossed off the list.
"That only leaves the salesman," Kogoro noted. "But that guy seemed so timid... would he really have the guts to commit arson and murder?"
"Do you remember his description?" Yumitsu asked.
"He was about 1.6 meters tall, wearing round-framed glasses. In his forties, a bit on the portly side," Heiji recited.
"He probably runs an antique shop," Tsuneo added. "From the way he was handing out catalogs to drum up business, his shop is likely somewhere in this neighborhood."
"In my opinion," Tsuneo continued, "even those with alibis shouldn't be completely ruled out yet. This feels like a puzzle with missing pieces."
As the group followed Yumitsu back to the police station, the inspector seemed lost in thought, as if the description of the salesman had struck a chord.
Inside the station, the detectives finally got a look at the most crucial evidence.
"These are the four red horses recovered from the various arson scenes," Yumitsu said, gesturing to the table.
Four evidence bags were lined up, each containing a palm-sized red horse figurine.
"I had to pull a few strings with my colleagues in Forensics just to borrow these," Yumitsu added.
"Why is the horse from the first scene burned so much worse than the others?" Heiji asked, leaning in. The first horse was charred almost beyond recognition, looking far more damaged than the subsequent three.
"And only this one has a base," Conan pointed out, his eyes narrowing.
Tsuneo picked up the bag containing the first horse. Under the soot on the base, he could faintly discern a single kanji character engraved in the center: Rabbit (兔).
"The Red Hare," Tsuneo whispered.
"The what?" Kogoro looked at the blackened figurine with disbelief. "You mean the legendary horse from Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"
He touched the bag. The material felt sturdy—some kind of heat-resistant resin or ceramic. It was surprisingly durable.
"It seems so," Heiji mused. "But why leave these specific horses? What does it signify?"
"No, there's something else," Tsuneo said, running his finger over the back of the first horse through the plastic bag. He felt a distinct protrusion on its spine. "This one had something on its back originally. The other three don't have this feature."
"Guan... Guan Yu?!" Heiji and Conan shouted in unison.
Tsuneo winced and stepped away from the two shouting detectives.
"Think about it," Heiji continued, his excitement building. "That timid salesman becomes even more suspicious now. Guan Yu is worshipped as a god of war, but also as a god of wealth and business prosperity. That salesman mentioned he had a gift in a box for the victim that would 'guarantee business success'..."
The size of the catalog boxes they had seen earlier was more than enough to hold a figurine of this size.
"If we don't move fast, he might slip away!" Conan said, looking urgently at Inspector Yumitsu.
"Well..." Yumitsu remained silent for a long moment. Then, he reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a photograph. "The man you saw today... was it this man?"
In the photo was a portly, middle-aged man with round-framed glasses and a nervous, shrinking expression. It was the salesman.
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