In Detective Conan: Intercepting Miwako Sato at the Start

Page 126

He was the largest sake supplier for the "Sakura-tei" restaurant and had worked with Tomohisa Ishikawa for five years.

In the past three months, however, he has had several disputes with Tomohisa Ishikawa over payment settlement issues, and even slammed his fist on the table in public at a previous party.

"Mr. Torii, do you have an alibi for the period from noon to 1 p.m.?" Sato Miwako quickly found Torii Yuichi in the supplier's office.

The other person was checking the numbers in the ledger when he heard the question. He pushed up his reading glasses and frowned.

"Around noon to 1 p.m.?"

“I was attending a wine and spirits trade fair in Osaka. If my company hadn’t suddenly run into problems, I wouldn’t have come back early. The hotel’s surveillance footage, the trade fair’s attendance records, and my flight ticket records can all prove this.”

As Mr. Torii spoke, he took out the exhibition invitation and airline ticket from his drawer. "What, are you starting to suspect me about President Ishikawa's affair?"

"Although I had a conflict with him, it didn't amount to killing him."

Sato Miwako took the document and checked it, finding that the time matched. She then asked about the relationship between Ishikawa Tomohisa and Nishimura Tatsuya.

Mr. Torii paused for a moment, then smiled faintly and said, "You mean Tatsuya Nishimura? He's President Ishikawa's right-hand man, and I also think he's President Ishikawa's best friend."

“He’s quite resourceful, but sometimes he’s too eager for quick success. Last time I sent him a batch of ‘Dassai 2/3’, he asked me if I could give him a few more samples, saying he wanted to give them to his clients. I didn’t agree—that wine is very expensive.”

Miwako Sato wrote down Mr. Torii's testimony, but she was not at ease.

"However, I remember Mr. Ishikawa telling me that the sake served at their restaurant was brewed by him in the countryside of Tottori. I was fortunate enough to taste a cup, and it did indeed have a different flavor from the sake sold elsewhere."

Suddenly, Sato Miwako's cell phone, which was in her pocket, rang softly. Takada Yuuki's calm voice came from the other end of the line:

"Sato, go back to the warehouse first. I'm re-examining here and I've found some strange things. Mr. Torii shouldn't be a suspect. Please come back as soon as possible."

Sato Miwako nodded, then thanked Mr. Torii before hurrying toward the warehouse of the "Sakura-tei" Hotel.

When Sato Miwako arrived at the warehouse, she saw Takada Yuki squatting in front of the D-7 shelf, holding an ultraviolet lamp and shining it into the gap at the bottom of the shelf.

The sake boxes on the shelf were neatly arranged, except for the empty box with the character "酉" that was originally there. The labels on the other sake boxes were crooked, as if they had been moved in a hurry.

“Look here.” Yuuki Takada pointed to the spot illuminated by the ultraviolet light, where there was a faint fluorescent reaction in the gap. “The forensics department only checked the empty box before and didn’t pay attention to the bottom shelf. This should be bloodstains, but the amount is too small. We need to go back and test it.”

"Also, go check the inventory records. I just checked, and three bottles of 'Juyondai Ryusen' are missing from shelf D-7. This sake is top-tier among Japanese sakes, costing over 100,000 yen per bottle. Ishikawa wouldn't just move them around like that."

Sato Miwako immediately retrieved the warehouse inventory ledger and found that the last inventory check was last Monday, when there were still five bottles of "14th Generation Longquan", but now there are only two left.

Chapter 157 Tatsuya Nishimura Arrested

Only Tatsuya Nishimura and another administrator have access to the warehouse.

"Could it be that Tatsuya Nishimura took it?" Miwako Sato frowned. "But why would he take such an expensive bottle of wine? If it's to sell it for money, the risk is too great."

Yuki Takada stood up, walked to the security camera at the warehouse entrance, and looked up at the device that had been affected by the jammer.

“Perhaps it wasn’t for making money.” After a moment of contemplation, Yuki Takada said calmly, “Ishikawa Tomohisa was probably arguing with someone before he died, and the reason for the argument was probably these few bottles of wine.”

“Think about it, if Nishimura Tatsuya was just taking the alcohol, he wouldn’t have needed to kill someone, unless Ishikawa discovered his secret—for example, that he wasn’t taking real alcohol, but fake alcohol?”

This guess gave Sato a bright idea.

She immediately contacted the market supervision department and asked them to send someone to test the remaining two bottles of "Fourteenth Generation Longquan" in the warehouse.

Not long after, the test results came out—both bottles were counterfeit. The anti-counterfeiting labels on the bottles were fake, and the composition of the liquor was very different from the genuine product.

"So, Tatsuya Nishimura switched the real 'Juyondai Ryusen' with counterfeit liquor?"

Sato Miwako looked slightly surprised and asked in confusion, "But how dare he do this? President Ishikawa knows a lot about alcohol, he'll find out sooner or later."

Yuki Takada didn't say anything, but took out his phone and called his colleagues in the interrogation room, asking them to bring Toshiya Nishimura over.

Half an hour later, Nishimura Shun was also taken to the warehouse. When he saw the D-7 shelf, his body visibly trembled.

"Has your brother ever mentioned 'Fourteenth Generation Ryusen' to you?" Seeing this, Yuki Takada didn't beat around the bush and asked directly, his tone more serious than ever before.

Nishimura Shunya lowered his head, his hands tightly gripping the hem of his clothes. After a few seconds of silence, he whispered, "He mentioned it... Last Tuesday night, he asked me to help him move a box, saying it contained 'good stuff,' and asked me to deliver it to his car."

“I didn’t think much about it at the time, but now that I think about it, the size of that box was just enough to hold three bottles of sake.”

"Did he say where he was going to deliver the box?" Takada pressed.

"He didn't say... but when he came back that night, he smelled of alcohol and told me that it would be fine in a few days and not to worry." Nishimura Toshiya's voice trailed off.

"I only now realize that what he meant by 'it's nothing' was actually..."

Just then, Yuki Takada's phone rang; it was the Evidence Division calling again.

"Inspector Takada, we tested the bloodstains in the shelf gaps, and the DNA matched that of Tomohisa Ishikawa. In addition, on the inside of the empty box with the character '酉', besides Tomohisa Ishikawa's fingerprints, there was another person's fingerprint. After comparison, it was found to be Tatsuya Nishimura's!"

"We also found a small note in the inner compartment of the empty box that read 'Tottori-3', but we don't know what it means."

"Tottori?" Yuki Takada's eyes suddenly lit up.

Tottori Prefecture is a famous sake-producing region in Japan. When I was researching people with the character "bird" in their names, I could only think of people whose names contained the character "bird," but I didn't think of place names!

"Sato Miwako, immediately check Nishimura Tatsuya's recent travel records to see if he has been to Tottori Prefecture!"

Miwako Sato immediately turned on her computer and retrieved Tatsuya Nishimura's traffic records.

Sure enough, in the middle of last month, he bought a round-trip ticket to Tottori Prefecture and stayed for two days.

Even more strangely, while in Tottori Prefecture, he used an anonymous account to buy a batch of counterfeit "14th Generation Ryusen" anti-counterfeiting labels online, with the delivery address being an abandoned warehouse.

"That makes sense!"

Yuki Takada excitedly said, "Tatsuya Nishimura went to Tottori Prefecture to contact counterfeiters, buy fake 'Juyondai Ryusen' sake, and then switch it with the real sake in the warehouse! Tomohisa Ishikawa discovered this and wanted to expose him, so he killed him to cover it up!"

But one question remains unanswered—what exactly does that incomplete character for "bird" mean?

Yuuki Takada looked at the counterfeit liquor on the shelf and suddenly thought of something.

“Sato, go and look up what the most famous sake brand in Tottori Prefecture is.” Sato Miwako immediately searched and quickly found the answer: “It is indeed as Inspector Takada said, there is a niche brand called ‘Tori Sake Brewery’ over there.”

“Torii Sake Brewery…” Yuki Takada repeated the name, then suddenly clapped his hands. “That incomplete character for ‘torii’ might not refer to ‘bird’, but rather to ‘torii’!”

Before he died, Ishikawa Tomohisa wanted to write "torii," referring to the fake sake Nishimura Tatsuya bought from Torii Sake Brewery. However, he didn't finish it, leaving only the left side!

All the clues now point to Tatsuya Nishimura, but where is he now?

Yuki Takada immediately had someone retrieve surveillance footage from the "Sakura-tei" hotel and the area near Tatsuya Nishimura's house, and discovered that he had driven away from home yesterday afternoon, heading towards the suburbs.

"He might be trying to escape!" Yuki Takada picked up his walkie-talkie and ordered all the patrolling police officers: "Immediately seal off the highway entrances and exits in the suburbs and look for a white Toyota Camry with license plate number Tokyo 33-4567. The owner is Tatsuya Nishimura!"

Just as the police were searching for Tatsuya Nishimura with all their might, Toshiya Nishimura, who was standing to the side, suddenly remembered something.

“Officer…” He approached Yuuki Takada and said urgently, “My brother told me last week that he has a secret warehouse in the suburbs where he keeps ‘important things.’ The address seems to be… 3-12 Nishikubo-cho, Musashino-ku!”

Yuki Takada immediately took Miwako Sato and several police officers and drove to the secret warehouse.

The warehouse was located in an industrial park on the outskirts of the city, in a deserted area. Yuuki Takada told the police to get ready, then kicked open the warehouse door.

The warehouse was pitch black, except for a flashlight shining in one corner.

Yuki Takada slowly walked over and saw a man squatting on the ground, holding a wine box in his hand, seemingly destroying evidence—it was Tatsuya Nishimura!

"Tatsuya Nishimura, you're under arrest!" Yuki Takada shouted, and the police behind him immediately rushed forward and pinned Tatsuya Nishimura to the ground.

Tatsuya Nishimura struggled, shouting, "I didn't kill anyone! Tomohisa Ishikawa attacked first!"

Yuki Takada turned on the warehouse lights and saw more than a dozen fake "14th Generation Longquan" liquor boxes scattered on the ground, along with some counterfeit anti-counterfeiting labels and ledgers.

The ledger clearly records the amount of money Nishimura Tatsuya spent switching genuine liquor and selling counterfeit liquor, totaling tens of millions of yen.

"The evidence is conclusive now, and you still want to argue?" Yuki Takada picked up the ledger and threw it in front of Tatsuya Nishimura.

As Nishimura Tatsuya looked at the ledger, his face turned deathly pale, and all his previous arrogance vanished.

He slumped to the ground, slowly opened his mouth, and told the truth of the matter.

Chapter 158 The Story of Tatsuya Nishimura

Tatsuya Nishimura slightly raised his head, looked at the dark mass of police officers in front of him, and stepped forward to handcuff them.

Then, he told everyone the truth of the matter.

It turns out that Tatsuya Nishimura and the deceased Tomohisa Ishikawa were very good friends before this.

Originally, the Sakura-tei Hotel was jointly run by me and Tomohisa Ishikawa. I was mainly responsible for the hotel's finances, while he was mainly responsible for the hotel's operations.

Over the years of our collaboration, he and I have always shared the same understanding.

Therefore, the brewing recipe for the signature sake of the "Sakura-tei" restaurant—Juyondai Ryusen sake—has always been kept by Tomohisa Ishikawa.

I was too naive; I never imagined that Ishikawa Tomohisa would betray me.

Listening to his words, Yuki Takada said softly, "Is it possible that you took those bottles of alcohol and went to sell them, betraying Tomohisa Ishikawa?"

"Hmph." Tatsuya Nishimura snorted coldly, "These wines were originally a joint effort between him and me. I just helped to bring out their inherent value. What's wrong with that?"

When Nishimura Tatsuya was handcuffed, there was no panic in his eyes, only anger and relief after being betrayed.

Soon, Yuuki Takada took him back to the Metropolitan Police Department.

Arriving at the center of the Metropolitan Police Department's interrogation room, surrounded by a sea of ​​officers, his gaze passed over them, landing on a single point in the void, as if he could see a shadow of the past there.

Takada Yuuki pulled up a chair and sat down, opening his notebook. His tone was calm: "You just said Ishikawa Tomohisa betrayed you?"

Tatsuya Nishimura slightly raised his head, the handcuffs making a soft metallic clanging sound.

“Tomohisa and I were once as close as brothers.” Tatsuya Nishimura began slowly, then his voice suddenly became distant. “When we were twenty-two, we met at a sake brewing school. He was good at the craft, and I was good at finance. After graduation, we dreamed of opening our own restaurant and making the best sake in all of Japan.”

A moment of tenderness flashed in Nishimura Tatsuya's eyes as he softly recounted, "'Sakura-tei' was the name Ishikawa Tomohisa came up with. He said that cherry blossoms are fleeting and brilliant, while a pavilion is a place for people to linger and enjoy the present moment."

"Our restaurant should be like this—letting guests forget the passage of time while enjoying delicious food and wine."

Tatsuya Nishimura paused for a moment, then continued:

“For the first five years of starting the business, we were so poor that we shared a suit to negotiate deals. He was in charge of brewing and the kitchen, while I managed the accounts and purchasing. We slept on the hotel floor at night, discussing the future. At that time, ‘Fourteen Generations of Longquan’ was just an idea in a notebook.”

Yuki Takada raised an eyebrow: "The 14th generation Ryusen is a famous sake that is now extremely difficult to obtain."

“Yes,” Tatsuya Nishimura said with pride, “that was a masterpiece that we spent eight years perfecting…”

"Ishikawa Tomohisa inherited the family's brewing techniques, and then he brewed a fine product for me to taste. It was as pure as Longquan spring water. That's our child, our shared child..."

At this moment, Nishimura Tatsuya's face gradually darkened: "The restaurant became more and more successful, and our fourteenth generation Ryusen became famous. But Ishikawa Tomohisa changed; he became conservative and stubborn."

“I think we should expand production so that more people can taste this masterpiece. But he insisted on tradition, saying that the 14th generation Longquan is only for those who understand it, and the annual output should never exceed one hundred bottles.”

"So you're selling these drinks privately?" Yuuki Takada asked.