Conan’s Corpse Picker

   Chapter 388 Strange ghosts have been added (joint chapter)

  The cab of the truck is too small, only enough for two people except the driver.

Jiang Xia gave up his seat to Yuan Shan and Ye, who were carrying huge backpacks. He got out of the car and slid into the back of the car. He sat with the other two people who were rubbing the car and a motorcycle. place for goods.

  The air is fresher than in the cab, but the metal base is a bit awkward to sit on.

   However, because of the wild murderous aura next to him, the comfort of this position in Jiang Xia's heart has skyrocketed.

  …

   After adding three people and a motorcycle, the truck started again.

   This time, taking into account how many people were sitting behind him, Takeda was driving a little slower than before.

   Hattori Heiji leaned against the waist-high railing, looked at Jiang Xia who was in a good mood for some reason, and then silently lowered his head and glanced at the dirt road that kept swept back outside.

   I thought that the speed of the car was not fast, but now it is too late to jump.

  …Wait, what are you thinking?

   Hattori Heiji raised his hand and tapped his forehead to stop his dangerous thoughts.

  ...In fact, now that he has met Jiang Xia a lot, he is gradually less repulsive than when he first met him.

Especially when he was on Furukawa University's boat last time, Jiang Xia also rescued him from a veteran wanted criminal. If he was really attacked and thrown into the sea by the murderer at that time, no one saw him at night, and he might change. Become a floating corpse in the sea. From this perspective, Jiang Xia can be regarded as his savior.

   Moreover, people always adapt gradually to the environment.

  It was the first time that Hattori saw Jiang Xia's speed of solving a crime like reading a script, and he just thought it was unbelievable;

   For the second time, I don’t feel very convinced;

   The third time, I firmly believe that I can do it.

   Further back, four, five, six, seven, eight or nine times...

   Slowly there are antibodies.

   It's just the conditioned reflex of "I don't want to investigate the case with Jiang Xia", which still survives and has not subsided for the time being.

  —— Hattori Heiji analyzed his mental process of wanting to jump from the car just like this, and felt that it was inappropriate.

  Avoidance is an unhealthy state of mind. Maybe my parents are right: people have to learn to face difficulties. He is still young, and he still has many opportunities to hone his progress. Sooner or later, he will be able to catch up with Jiang Xia's speed.

   And no one likes to be disliked by others.

Every time I see Jiang Xia, I turn my head and walk away. This kind of behavior may cause some invisible damage to Jiang Xia's mind, just like He Ye and the two in Tokyo said... Although he didn't see the damage. Where, I just think that Jiang Xia is happier than him most of the time... But in short, a person must be conscientious.

   Hattori Heiji took a deep breath and temporarily suppressed the instinctive thought of "jumping from the car".

   And to be friendly, try to talk to Jiang Xia: "Why are you here?"

   Jiang Xia turned to look at him. Due to the abundance of cases around Hattori Heiji, he was always very pleasing to the Osaka black leather: "Like you, I received a letter of entrustment with 500,000 yen in cash, so I wanted to come and have a look."

   After saying that, he took out the letter paper he had collected earlier and gave Hattori Heiji a look.

   Hattori Heiji heard the words, his face was very dark.

   He took Jiang Xia's letter and muttered in his heart: Jiang Xia received 500,000? He only has 200,000... It's not the commission fee from others, but he is also a high school detective. Why is he so cheap?

   Hattori Heiji had a subtle resentment in his heart.

   However, after taking the letter of entrustment handed over by Jiang Xia, this little emotion dissipated immediately.

  ——The letter Jiang Xia received was handwritten vertically, signed, and stamped. The wording was also very cautious and polite. No matter how you looked at it, it was a very formal letter of entrustment.

  This is very different from the one he received.

   His letter was machine-typed, anonymous, and worded... There was no wording at all, there were only two words that were whispered.

  ...If the same person invites the detective on the same day, of course, one does not have to be signed and the other written in a mysterious style.

   If this happens, it means that the letters of entrustment to him and Jiang Xia are two different people.

   And that means…

   You don't have to investigate the case with Jiang Xia!

   Hattori Heiji's mouth twitched, and he quickly pressed it down as if nothing had happened.

   He took out the letter of entrustment he had received, shook it towards Jiang Xia, cleared his throat, and said with a bit of regret:

   "It seems that there are two families with the surname 'Takeda' here, we have to check each one."

   Jiang Xia glanced silently as if "I'm very happy!" was written all over his body, but Heiji Hattori, who was about to shoot flowers from the top of his head, felt that whether it was Kansai or Kanto, the acting skills of this class of high school detectives were not up to standard.

   But he still glanced at the paper that Hattori Heiji was waving to save face.

  Compared with the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, Hattori Heiji’s letter is obviously different in style. There are only two sentences on it:

  [Please arrive at Takeda's house on Puppet Peak by dusk next Saturday

   Otherwise, there will be live puppets that will become spider bait]

   Jiang Xia was silent for a while.

   In fact, compared to the letter sent by Takeda Shinichi, he prefers this style of teaser letter in the hands of Hattori Heiji - it is a mystery, and it looks like a lot of ghosts will appear...

On the other side of   , Rob Taylor, who was also rubbing against the car, saw these two letters and came over curiously.

   While reading Hattori Heiji's letter of entrustment, he read it out like he was learning a foreign language: "Become bait for spiders... Why feed spiders with live puppets?"

   Takeda Yuzo, who was driving in front, had his windows open. The speed of the car is not fast, and the wind on both sides is not too loud.

   He not only heard Rob's doubtful murmurs, but also heard the regretful tone of Hattori Heiji's sentence "Each one's own".

   Feeling that the guest seemed to have misunderstood, Takeda Yuzo, who was cold-hearted, interjected:

"If the letter mentions 'spider', it should be referring to our house - something bad happened in my house before, and people nearby said that we were cursed by Lord Spider, and that if we didn't want to be hanged inexplicably and If you kill it, don't go near the 'Spider Mansion'... Hmph, boring rumors."

   Yuan Shan and Ye heard the "curse", and goose bumps appeared on Bai Nen's arms.

She quickly stroked her skin and used friction to generate heat against the cold. She said, half self-soothing and half confident: "There are no monsters and curses in this world! Someone must be secretly working on ghosts. This time they invited detectives to come, it should also be for the sake of Find out about this matter - with Jiang Xia and Heping, you will be able to expose the truth of the 'curse' right away!"

Hattori Heiji:"……"

   This "Takeda" is also another "Takeda"?

  ...Can't investigate separately from Jiang Xia.

   Also, why did He Ye put Jiang Xia's name before him? Don't people usually mention more familiar people first...

   Hattori Heiji sat in the convertible car, silently tightening his jacket, feeling a little cold from the mountain wind.

  Rob didn't notice the inexplicable depression of his companions. He touched his chin and asked, "Why haven't I heard such rumors?"

"You came here three years, right? I remember that after you were crushed by the collapsed rock that year, it was Misa who took care of you." Takeda Yuzo recalled this, suddenly remembered something, and his voice became lower, "No wonder you I've never heard of such a rumor..."

  Rob no longer bothered about the rumors.

   He smiled and asked like a guest who was attentive to visiting his benefactor: "Speaking of Misa, how has she been in the past few years?"

  “…”

   Takeda Yuzo took a cigarette and was silent for a moment, then raised his hand and pointed out the window.

   The four people in front of and behind the car were startled and looked at the directions at the same time.

  According to the normal development, this should have happened to meet "Misha" on the side of the road, so Takeda Yuzo will point them out.

   However, upon closer inspection, there was no one in that direction, not even a single bird.

   was wondering when he heard Takeda Isamu say dryly:

   "Look, doesn't that mountain look like a sleeping puppet? In fact, this is one of the reasons why Puppet Peak got its name..."

Hattori Heiji:"……"

   Yuan Shan and Ye: "..."

   This topic is too blunt...

  ... Did something happen to that "Misha"?

   But Takeda Yuzo didn't want to say anything, so he probably wouldn't be able to ask for a while.

   Hattori Heiji didn't speak any further, just wrote down this first.

   At present, he does not know exactly what the client wants him to investigate. In the letter Jiang Xia received, the reason for the entrustment was not written, so he could only write down all the suspicious things first and wait for it to be used later.

Beside   , although Jiang Xia also turned his head when Takeda Yusan pointed to the "sleeping puppet", his attention was completely off the hill that was actually shapeless.

   He lowered his hand slightly, and secretly touched the murderous aura that drifted to him with the wind.

  The murderous aura spread from Rob.

   When referring to "Misha", the murderousness of this foreign friend was particularly inflated. In addition, on his calf, he was also holding a fresh shikigami at this time.

   Although Rob was lost, he had never heard of the legend, and he looked like he "didn't come back for three years".

   But in Jiang Xia's impression, this foreigner has actually been at Puppet Peak for several days.

  Three years ago, when Rob left Puppet Peak after recovering from injury, he had fallen in love with Takeda Misa, who took good care of him. He plans to learn Japanese well, deal with his own affairs, and then come back to fall in love happily.

   After three years, I came back and saw that Takeda Misa was dead.

  ——I heard that he suddenly hanged himself not long after he left.

  Rob knew that Misa's father, Takeda Shin, treated her very badly, and felt that Misa must have been forced to death by her father. So after some investigation, it was found that Takeda Shinichi was involved in drug trafficking, and he came up with a series of plans.

   Rob first killed his partner who helped Takeda Shinichi to sell drugs and hung the man in the storage room. Then he stole a puppet loaded with drugs and used it to threaten Takeda Shinichi, intending to trick him into a warehouse on the second floor, and then use the pre-arranged mechanism to kill people and avenge Misa.

   The letter of entrustment that Hattori Heiji received was actually written by Rob.

   The chance encounter of "lost brothers and sisters" just now is more of a man-made encounter - Rob intends to use this method to create the illusion that he is "first here", and then eliminate his suspicions.

  …

  The truck bumped on the mountain road for more than an hour, and a vast yard appeared in the distance.

  The courtyard walls and houses here are made of exquisite materials, and the materials are strong, but after years of wind and sun, they look a little old. At dusk, the setting sun gradually fell, the light dimmed, and the whole mansion exuded a gloomy and eerie atmosphere.

   As the vehicle approached the Takeda family's house, Jiang Xia's bored swept eyes slowly stopped in the courtyard.

   He stared for a moment, then looked down at the ghost beside him as if confirming.

   Even the ghosts seemed to feel it. At this time, they were clinging to the edge of the car and staring at the yard of the Takeda family.

  The mermaid stared at it for a while, and secretly hid the murderous ball that was playing in his arms. His cautious demeanor reminded Jiang Xia of those happy houses that hurriedly put away the precious figures before the bear children came to visit.

  ... This kind of reaction, it seems that there is really a ghost.

  ...But now that Hattori Heiji and Rob have just arrived, Takeda Shinichi should still be alive. Who the **** dropped this?

   Jiang Xia was a little puzzled for a while, and then quickly thought about it.

   No matter who dropped it, since it was discovered by him, it is his ghost...

   He poked at a few ghosts who were still concentrating on sensing with the movement of the car frame, and motioned them to catch the unfamiliar new ghosts... Cough, please come and talk.

  …

The    truck soon pulled into the Takeda's yard.

   On the way, although Hattori Heiji held back and didn’t ask Takeda Yuzo, he was very concerned about the “Misha” who made Takeda Yuzo bluntly change the topic, and planned to wait until Takeda’s house and find another person to ask about the situation.

   got out of the car and entered the "Spider Mansion". At the door of the house, a group of people met a middle-aged woman with an ordinary appearance and a gentle temperament.

   This is Takeda Yoko.

   There are three brothers in the Takeda family - the current head of the family, Takeda Shinichi, the literate Takeda Ryuji who lives in the city, and the honest Takeda Yuzo who just went to pick up Jiangxia and others.

   Takeda Yoko is Takeda Ryuji's wife, and is currently the only middle-aged woman in the family - the eldest's wife has passed away, and the third is still a bachelor.

   Hearing Hattori Heiji asking about Takeda Misa, Yoko looked around and whispered, "Three years ago, she hanged herself in the puppet warehouse."

   Jiang Xia sensed the ghost of his own house who was chasing something scurrying around a dozen meters away, as well as the ghost child with a vague sense, and asked thoughtfully, "Suicide?"

   "Yeah." Takeda Yoko nervously cluttered her hands together, remembering the terrifying corpse, and nodded in fear.

She looked at Jiang Xia, and apparently recognized that this was a rather famous detective, she suppressed the shock and continued: "Not long after Meisha died, my sister-in-law, Meisha's mother, was also hanged in the same place. already."

"the same place……"

   Jiang Xia frowned and repeated her words, pretending to be thinking seriously, but her mind had drifted elsewhere.

Next to   , Hattori Heiji, who was really thinking about it, was only puzzled.

   Seeing that Takeda Yoko did not take the initiative to elaborate, he asked, "Why did they commit suicide?"

   "I don't know." Takeda Yoko looked even more confused than Hattori Heiji, with a hint of fear in her expression, "And it's not just that. A few days ago, Mr. Negishi - the assistant of Nobu's eldest brother - also passed away.

   "He hanged himself in the storage room while we were away during the day..."

   (end of this chapter)