Rin followed the Detective Boys to the detached apartment they had mentioned.
The apartment looked quite elegant, and the nameplate on the door read 'Tanaka'.
Rin looked at the surname, quickly going through her memories, but it didn't seem to leave any particular impression.
It seemed this wasn't one of the cases from the original work that had left a deep impression on her.
To be safe, she pulled out her phone. "Regardless, let's call the police and let them handle it."
"Wait a minute, Rin-neechan!"
Ayumi quickly grabbed her hand.
"If we call the police now, and there's no body inside, we'll get scolded again!"
Mitsuhiko, looking like a little adult, chimed in. "That's right, we should confirm it first, find decisive evidence, and then call the police."
Genta was already rubbing his hands together, assessing the height of the courtyard wall: "Yeah, yeah! Let's sneak in first and check things out! This is a detective's essential lesson!"
Rin looked at the three eager children, her brows slightly furrowed. "Isn't it bad to trespass into someone else's yard?"
"It's fine!"
Genta and Mitsuhiko said in unison, their tones full of certainty,
"Conan and Uncle Mori do it all the time! For the sake of solving a case, the police will understand."
With that, without waiting for Rin to stop them again, the three children used their hands and feet to climb over the not-so-tall courtyard wall and slipped into the Tanaka family's yard.
Rin sighed helplessly, deciding to wait outside, feeling as if she were keeping watch for a criminal gang.
In the courtyard, there was a lush maple tree, its trunk conveniently close to the second-floor window.
Genta and Mitsuhiko, like two agile little monkeys, climbed up in a few movements and peered through the window.
"Ah--!!!"
After just one glance at the second-floor window, two piercing screams simultaneously came from the tree.
Genta and Mitsuhiko tumbled down from the tree, their faces pale, pointing at the second-floor window, their words barely coherent:
"Blood, blood! So much blood! A man is lying motionless in the bathtub! He must be dead."
Although Ayumi hadn't seen the body herself, her small face also turned pale with fright.
Seeing this, Rin no longer hesitated and immediately called Zhu Yuan. "Zhu Yuan, it's me, Rin. Beika Town, X Chome, X Ban-chi, Tanaka's house. The Detective Boys seem to have found a body..."
Ten minutes later, the sound of police sirens grew closer.
Zhu Yuan arrived at the scene with Qingyi and Seth.
"It's you guys again."
Zhu Yuan looked at the Detective Boys, rubbing her temples,
"Hmm? Conan isn't here? If it's just the three of you, are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
"Absolutely not!"
The three children spoke in unison, confidently assuring her,
"We saw it clearly, a man covered in blood was lying in the bathtub! And we've been watching the apartment entrance the whole time, absolutely no one went in or out! The body must still be inside!"
Seeing Zhu Yuan's skepticism, Genta crossed his arms indignantly.
"Officer Zhu Yuan, don't look down on us. Even without Conan, we're sure to run into a body!"
"That's not something to be proud of, is it?"
Zhu Yuan was a little speechless and stepped forward to ring the doorbell.
After a while, the door opened.
A man in a bathrobe, with wet hair and a look of deep fatigue on his face, appeared at the door, asking somewhat impatiently. "Who is it? What do you want?"
Zhu Yuan showed her badge. "Police. We received a report that there's a body in the bathroom of your house, and we need to come in and inspect."
"A body?"
Tanaka Kazuyoshi was stunned for a moment, then showed a wry smile,
"Officer, you must have made a mistake, right? I'm the only one in the house, and I just finished taking a bath.
The bathtub is filled with rose bath salts. Maybe because they're red, it made those people outside see things? Talking about blood and a body, it's too scary."
He stepped aside, with an air of someone who has nothing to hide.
"If you don't believe me, you can come in and search. My name is Tanaka Kazuyoshi, I'm a freelance writer. I stayed up all night working on a manuscript, and now I'm very sleepy and just want to sleep.
If you have any questions, you can wait for my brother to come back and ask him. He works at a securities company nearby and should be back soon."
With that, Tanaka Kazuyoshi himself went upstairs to the second floor.
Zhu Yuan motioned for Qingyi and Seth to enter the house and search.
So, the police began a thorough search of the house, leaving no part of the living room, kitchen, or bathroom untouched.
Even the wardrobes and refrigerator were opened one by one.
The Detective Boys also volunteered to help with the search, even picking up flower vases to examine them.
During the search, a well-dressed man in a suit, carrying a briefcase, returned.
His name was Tanaka Tomofumi, the owner of the house, and Tanaka Kazuyoshi was his older brother.
After learning about the situation from the police, he was very cooperative, voluntarily presenting his ID and work badge, allowing the police to inspect freely.
The search of the rooms continued.
Except for the brother's room, which hadn't been searched yet, all other places yielded nothing.
No bloodstains, no body, no abnormalities.
Just then, Genta accidentally knocked over a decorative ceramic vase in the living room.
Smash! The vase shattered into pieces.
"Ah! I'm sorry!" Genta apologized in a panic.
Almost simultaneously, an angry roar came from the brother's room on the second floor. "So noisy! Can you be quiet?! Are you going to let people sleep or not?!"
The roar startled everyone.
Tanaka Tomofumi quickly apologized. "I'm so sorry, my brother has a bad temper, especially when he hasn't woken up. Officers, as you can see, there's really nothing going on here.
You've searched everywhere except my brother's room. I'll take you to his room to take a look, please be quiet and don't disturb him.
My brother likes a minimalist style. In his room, besides a desk and a chair, there's only a bed. There's nowhere to hide anyone. You can see everything from the doorway."
With that, Tanaka Tomofumi turned to lead the police to his brother's room.
However, the moment his brother, Tanaka Tomofumi, turned around, Rin keenly noticed a small maple leaf falling from the hem of his perfectly pressed suit trousers.
This leaf awakened Rin's memory.
The case they encountered this time was the episode "The Vanished Corpse" from "Detective Conan."
In this episode, a murder did indeed occur.
The victim was the older brother, Tanaka Kazuyoshi, and the culprit was the younger brother, Tanaka Tomofumi.
After killing his brother, Tanaka Tomofumi disguised his brother's body as if he were sleeping at his desk.
Then, he himself impersonated his brother, wearing a bathrobe and pretending to have just finished showering, to deal with the police at the door.
Afterward, under the pretext of going upstairs to sleep, he returned to the second-floor room, quickly changed back into his suit, and then used the large tree outside the second-floor window to slip into the courtyard, pretending to have just returned home from work.
And that angry roar from the 'brother' just now was actually a prerecorded message.
All of it was to create the illusion that his brother was still alive!
Having figured out all of this, Rin smiled slightly. Taking advantage of everyone's inattention, she quietly pulled Qingyi, who was at the back of the group, and whispered a few words in her ear.
After listening, Qingyi showed a playful expression and quietly grumbled. "Rin, your idea is truly wicked... but I like it."