Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 221 Golden Rose Theater (Part 9)

The moment he heard the scream, Conan immediately ran out of the box and rushed to the stage. He was accompanied by Kogoro Mouri, Toru Amuro, as well as the novelist and composer.

Maori Kogoro ran to the front of the stage and said, "Is this a stage accident? Call an ambulance!"

The composer even ran directly onto the stage, pushing aside the dancers and prospectors who were blocking his way: "Auntie!"

However, Conan, who was the first to reach Madam Red, shouted immediately after checking her: "Don't move! She... Madam Mary, is dead."

"Impossible!" The composer immediately knelt down beside Madam Red and called out softly.

"Aunt, I'm Frederick, your nephew. Wake up..."

No matter how the composer called out or gently shook Madame Red's shoulders, she did not respond.

The seeping blood stained the composer's white gloves. He raised his hands in a daze, looking at the distorted red, as if he saw the red markings on his own body.

The composer scratched the stage floor in pain, leaving several red finger marks, and then burst into hysterical crying.

[Explorer: Oh my god, that's so realistic.]

[Dancer: Is this your acting prowess?]

[Novelist: It's a bit of a spoiler, but Frederick, your tears are going to get all over Lady Mary's skirt.]

[Madam Red: Anyway, this dress has so much blood on it, I have to wash it when I get home.]

[Crazy Eyes: I'm currently researching fully automatic washing machines, so we don't have to wash our clothes ourselves when we get them dirty during filming.]

[Professor: Why not just research a self-fading pigment? That way it could replace plasma and leave no marks.]

[Painter: I feel like if this stuff is discovered, I'll be the first victim. Someone will definitely mix it into my paint!]

[Jack: Isn't it good to use real ingredients? Why do we have to research substitutes?]

[Wax Artist: Shut up!]

Inspector Megure arrived late, and with the assistance of the police, the ordinary audience members were evacuated to another room for questioning. The only ones left on the stage were Kogoro Mouri, Toru Amuro, Conan, the novelist, the composer, and later the gardener, the doctor, and the mercenary.

The little girl went straight to the box where Xiaolan and the others were, where the three kids were still having a passionate discussion.

Yuan Tai: "Why did Aunt Mary suddenly fall from such a high place?"

Mitsuhiko: "It doesn't seem like a simple stage accident."

Ayumi: "Wow, uncle Frederick must be very sad."

Although the three little ones have witnessed many deaths with Conan, the impact of seeing someone related to them die in front of them is completely different from seeing the corpse of a stranger.

Sonoko and Xiaolan were chatting: "That elevator looks like it's as high as two or three stories, but if you really fall down, there won't be no chance of rescue, right?"

"Maybe he had a head injury and was bleeding profusely?" Ran looked at Conan and the others busy on the stage from the box. "If this is really a murder, I hope the real culprit can be found as soon as possible."

After listening to Officer Takagi's report, Inspector Megure on the stage roughly understood what had happened. The police also found that the elevator on the stage had indeed been tampered with, and the mechanism that controlled the descent was stuck, so the elevator could not descend normally.

Maori Kogoro smiled confidently: "So the person who tampered with the elevator is the murderer, Inspector Megure, please call all the members of this troupe here."

Soon, all the members of the Golden Rose Troupe arrived. Conan saw Jack's tall figure and was almost scared to death.

Kogoro Mouri first asked if the elevator might have fallen into disrepair, which was refuted by Crazy Eyes.

"I'm the director of this troupe. The theater here was funded by the Suzuki Group, with investment from the Melodi family. The stage props and mechanisms were all meticulously designed by the Melodi family. I even checked them a few days ago, and there are no technical issues."

"So that means the murderer did it within the past two days!" Maori Kogoro pinched his chin. "When was your troupe's last rehearsal?"

The knight hadn't taken off his armor yet. "We rehearsed it before tonight's performance, but we didn't use the lift."

Conan noticed that the knight, the psychologist and the patient were secretly surrounding Jack, and seemed to be on guard against this opponent at all times.

The surveyor said: "The last time the elevator was used was probably two days ago. That was Lady Mary's last rehearsal."

The dancer nodded repeatedly: "Yes, the elevator was still working well back then."

Spider offered a different opinion: "But, Violetta saw the lady practicing on the platform last night. Violetta had just finished making handkerchiefs that day, and when she passed by the stage, she saw a figure on the platform. It was the lady singing. Oh, that singing was so beautiful~"

Maori Kogoro was stunned for a moment: "Oh, so the last person to use the elevator was the deceased himself?"

Conan's inner thoughts: No, Sister Valletta was walking on her stomach, and looking up from the bottom of the stage, she couldn't see who was on the lift, so the person she saw was most likely not the real Lady Mary.

As expected, the acrobat refuted Spider: "That wasn't Lady Mary practicing at all, it was Zelle. She was secretly practicing to catch up with our leading actress! I passed by the stage that day, and I knew it was Zelle's singing the moment I heard it. It was a poor imitation of Lady Mary!"

Inspector Megure immediately turned to the dancer: "Ms. Margaretha, is this true? Did you really practice on the lift last night?"

The dancer looked at everyone and turned their eyes to herself. She said timidly, "Yes, I did practice on the lift last night, but I don't know if there was any problem with the lift at that time!"

Maori Kogoro smiled confidently: "Huh, then the truth of this case is clear, Miss Margaretha Zelay, you are the murderer of Madam Mary!"

"You imitated Lady Mary's singing last night to create an alibi for yourself, and you tampered with the elevator so that Lady Mary would be thrown to her death during the performance without any preparation. All this is because you were jealous of her position as the leading actress, and you wanted to kill her and take her place!"

"No! I didn't, it wasn't me!" The dancer panicked and backed away. "A lot of people could have tampered with the elevator! I'm not the only one with a motive to kill!"

Conan was originally still thinking about the possibility that the dancer was the murderer, but when he heard that there seemed to be a hidden story behind this, he immediately pricked up his ears and listened carefully.

Then, the dancer pointed at the acrobat first and said, "Mike, why can't it be you who wants to pin this crime on me? You still suspect me of being the murderer of the Moon River Massacre! But I didn't do anything at all, not now, and not in the past!"

The acrobat frowned. "I don't need to kill anyone just to confirm whether you are the murderer. Don't be so unreasonable! But what is certain is that you lie all the time, Natalie."