Standing at the door of the room, Mira was there feeling bored, and Fang Zheng stepped forward to greet Mira, then handed her a piece of paper.
"Go to room A, ask these questions, and just record it with a tape recorder. You don’t have to worry about what he says, just make sure he answers the questions, simple, right?"
"Leave it to me!"
Mira was feeling a bit restless staying there, and upon hearing Fang Zheng’s task, she quickly perked up, glanced at the paper, and then ran off excitedly.
"Mr. Fang Zheng, aren’t those the questions we asked before?"
When Mira left, Ran glanced at the paper in her hand and noticed that most of the questions were the same ones they had previously asked the short man.
"This is called repeated questioning."
Fang Zheng withdrew his gaze and began to explain to Ran.
"If you only ask once, no one knows if it’s something the other person made up, so you need to repeat the questioning several times. Under such high-intensity repeated questioning, anyone with a guilty conscience will definitely reveal a flaw. Moreover, the important thing is, this can prevent the other party from retracting their confession in court."
"Retracting their confession in court?"
"It doesn’t happen often, but it’s not impossible."
Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders. In fact, many cases in Conan fit the criteria for a retracted confession in court. As police, as prosecutors, you need to nail a case down, which means ensuring every piece of evidence is flawlessly accurate. Unlike a detective, whose job is done once they find the real culprit, police still have to consider the arrest, court proceedings, and what happens after the trial.
Even if a suspect cries their heart out in front of Conan, once in court they could suddenly turn around and say they were coerced into confessing, and it wasn’t actually them, Conan wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
In addition, many of Conan’s cases wouldn’t succeed in court.
For instance, evidence found by Kogoro Mouri and Conan would be inadmissible because they lack the authority to enforce the law and there is a suspicion of evidence fabrication.
Or in closed-room scenarios like at the Blizzard Lodge, where the suspect sobs and admits guilt in front of everyone, but after the police arrest them, they turn around and say they only confessed under pressure. Japan has this tradition of collective bullying, and if the suspect’s statement isn’t recorded, regardless of what others say, it won’t hold up.
"...So you see, detectives and police are different."
Fang Zheng briefly explained to Ran the difference between the two.
"A detective’s job is done once they find the real culprit; they don’t concern themselves with what happens afterward. But police have to think about everything until the suspect is sentenced, so it’s all uncertain."
"I see..."
Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s explanation, Ran suddenly felt enlightened. Indeed, she noticed that when following Kogoro or Shinichi to solve cases, they rarely concerned themselves with whether the criminal was sentenced afterward, as it wasn’t within their jurisdiction, and it wouldn’t change anything even if they did care.
"Alright, let’s continue."
Fang Zheng briefly explained a few things, then pushed open the door to another room, smiling at the tall man in front of him.
The process was the same as when interrogating the short man: starting with name, occupation, and gender, then asking why they had rummaged through someone else’s room.
The tall man, like the short man, insisted he was looking for evidence of a crime.
Fang Zheng, the whole time, wore a warm smile, looking extremely calm, and then suddenly hit them with a question.
"What happened four years ago?"
Upon hearing this, the tall man’s expression changed drastically, and his gaping mouth couldn’t close again.
"You mentioned earlier that this is your second time here, and I confirmed with the innkeeper that you’ve only been to this lodge twice, once now, and once four years ago. Coincidentally, during your visit four years ago, an incident occurred. Due to an avalanche, the innkeeper’s husband and a tourist lost their lives. They found the innkeeper’s husband’s body, but the tourist’s body was never found."
Fang Zheng waved the accommodation record in the tall man’s face and then suddenly slammed it on the table with a "bang."
"Tell me! Did you kill him?!"
Fang Zheng’s shift was abrupt and without warning. One moment he was calmly reasoning with the other person, the next he was roaring angrily, startling not only the tall man but also Ran, who was taking notes nearby, who nearly jumped out of her chair.
The tall man indeed jumped up.
"No! We didn’t kill anyone!!"
"Didn’t you?"
Fang Zheng patted the records by his side.
"It’s clearly written here; at that time staying at Suido Manor were only you, those two young ladies, and their boyfriends. And during that time, an avalanche accident occurred. The innkeeper was buried alive alongside one male tourist while trying to save others. Although the innkeeper’s body was later found, the male tourist’s body wasn’t..."
At this, Fang Zheng squinted his eyes and looked coldly at the tall man.
"If it was just this, it could indeed be dismissed as an accident. But now, four years later, you appear here again, and this time Mr. Futakaku is murdered. Not only that, after knowing the other party was dead, you still ransack the victim’s room..."
Fang Zheng extended his hand and pointed at the table.
"These suspicious points all indicate you are involved in Mr. Futakaku’s death. Perhaps the death four years ago wasn’t an accident, but caused by you. Mr. Futakaku, as a photographer, may have taken incriminating evidence about you, so to prevent being discovered, you killed him and sought to destroy the evidence... Am I right?"
"No, no, we really didn’t kill anyone! It was just an accident..."
At this point, the tall man suddenly clamped his mouth shut, but for Fang Zheng, it was enough.
"Please."
"..."
Looking at Fang Zheng in front of him, the tall man was silent for a moment, finally sighed deeply, and revealed the truth.
"Alright, I’ll tell you... This is how it happened..."
According to the tall man, four years ago, they indeed came here hunting, and this was the situation at that time: Futakaku went out with his girlfriend’s brother to film, during which Futakaku’s girlfriend’s brother got injured, and the hotel owner’s husband, who was responsible for guiding them, went to help.
At that time, the two were hunting, and initially mistook the injured tourist for a beast, and shot at him. However, to their surprise, they didn’t hit him; instead, the gunfire triggered an avalanche, which caused the tragedy.
The photographer Futakaku, who was present, not only didn’t help save his girlfriend’s brother but instead filmed the whole process with his camera, and naturally, those two gunshots were recorded.
So after that, Futakaku contacted the two for blackmail, demanding money to buy back the videotape, with the meeting place set at Suido Manor. Thus, they came here.
Unexpectedly, before they met with Futakaku, the photographer was already dead. Fearing that the tape would be discovered by others, they broke into Futakaku and his girlfriend’s room to find the videotape.
Originally, the two thought it wasn’t a big deal, but didn’t expect there was actually a policeman among this group...
After the tall man confessed everything thoroughly, Fang Zheng also had Ran take notes, asked the other party to confirm, then sign and stamp. Subsequently, he took Ran to the room of the short fat man, had Mira interrogate the tall man again, asking him to repeat the situation, while he brought Ran to interrogate the short fat man once more.
After playing the interrogation record of the tall man, the short fat man also broke down immediately, decisively admitting their crime. At the same time, he again explained the events of four years ago to them, and all in all, the specifics didn’t differ at all from what the tall man said. Next, Fang Zheng also asked him to confirm his testimony and then sign and stamp. This case was thus considered wrapped up.
"Mr. Futakaku really wasn’t killed by them?"
Walking out of the room, Ran still found it unbelievable. After all, these two had strong motives for murder, and when she used to go out with Shinichi and Kogoro Mouri, among the cases they encountered, there were quite a few of such types of murder to destroy evidence and silence witnesses. Additionally, Mr. Futakaku clearly came here to blackmail them, so wanting to kill insiders for good wasn’t really that hard to understand.
"Maybe they had that idea, but didn’t get a chance to implement it."
Fang Zheng shrugged and looked at Ran.
"Then please call over Miss Amariya Ko."
"Miss Ko?"
"Yes, she’s the victim’s girlfriend and the sister of the person who died four years ago. It’s only right to tell her the truth."
Of course, the truth isn’t that simple.
In another room, Fang Zheng and Ran met the short-haired woman in the duo, Amariya Ko. After playing the interrogation videos of the tall man and the short fat man for her, Amariya Ko immediately broke into tears, crying relentlessly. Seeing this made Ran quite sad, but just as she was about to comfort her, Fang Zheng suddenly spoke coldly.
"Miss Amariya Ko, it was you who killed your boyfriend, Mr. Futakaku, wasn’t it?"
Hearing this, Ran was stunned, looking at Fang Zheng. Before she could say anything, Amariya Ko nodded.
"Yes, I was the one who killed him..."
This time, Ran was completely puzzled.
After this, Amariya Ko also confessed her crime. It turned out that the night before, while looking for clothes to change for her boyfriend, she inadvertently found the tape from four years ago. At that time, Amariya Ko thought it captured footage from their trip back then, so she took it out to view. However, she saw filmed scenes of her brother and the hotel owner’s husband being buried alive in the avalanche.
This made Amariya Ko extremely angry; her boyfriend didn’t try to save her brother, but cold-heartedly filmed the entire process. He even said, "Your sister will be mine." So Amariya Ko decided to kill him. The next day, she pretended to be worried about floating snow, went out to find Futakaku, and killed him. Later, Amariya Ko deliberately used a camera to take photos for disguising purposes.
However, even so, Amariya Ko thought the avalanche was merely an accident. Until now, she didn’t know it wasn’t truly an accident...
Fang Zheng silently recorded the whole interrogation process, then noted down, confirmed, signed, and stamped.
Job done.
And just as Fang Zheng and Ran walked out of the room, Conan eagerly ran over.
"Fang Zheng, Ran, listen to me, I figured out the culprit’s method! I also know who the culprit is!"
"Oh."
Fang Zheng nodded.
"No need to say, Miss Amariya Ko already confessed; the record is done."
".....Huh?"
Hearing this, Conan was dumbfounded.
He just figured out the key details, how come it’s wrapped up already?
So what about his deduction show?
"Then why don’t you tell us what’s going on with that piece of chocolate?"
Looking at Conan’s defeated expression, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but console him.
"Although Miss Amariya Ko admitted it was she who killed that person, she didn’t place the chocolate there. In fact, even Miss Amariya Ko herself doesn’t know why there was a piece of chocolate there... So, would you, our great detective, help us decipher that?"
"........."
Conan indicates he doesn’t feel like saying anything; he just wants to be quiet.
Don’t ask who is Quiet.

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