Chapter 422: The Ghostly Truth

"What! What! What's happening?! What's going on!"

"Why do I hear someone screaming in agony..."

"Come on, can you guys not make a fuss? I have to submit my thesis tomorrow..."

Accompanied by a piercing scream from outside the apartment, people who had just returned to their rooms hurriedly came out again.

After all, the scream outside was too loud, and they were afraid something might have happened at the entrance.

Naturally, those on the second floor, including Mr. Otonashi, Mouri Kogoro and others, heard the sound too. However, when they looked out from the second floor, they saw no sign of anyone.

"It seems... it came from the unfinished building opposite this apartment," Ran said uncertainly while leaning outside the window.

"Let's go and check it out!" Conan's expression turned serious. Thinking about the way Senichi went out, he seemed to realize something and quickly ran outside.

Following Conan's lead, Kogoro Mouri and others also ran downstairs.

When the group appeared at the entrance of the apartment, they saw Senichi leading a man with a swollen face, and his right arm was clearly hanging limp, indicating a dislocation.

Obviously, the earlier scream was because Senichi had dislocated the man's arm.

As they approached, the crowd saw the scar on the man's face and instinctively turned to look at the wanted poster posted on the utility pole.

"He... he is..."

"That murderer... the wanted criminal who burned the body!"

Although the man led by Senichi had bruises all over his face, the conspicuous scar and his villainous appearance were immediately recognized by the crowd after a closer look.

"How could it be... Detective Senichi, how did this fugitive end up here?" Ran asked in confusion.

"Because the floating red firelight in the opposite building is the glow from this guy's cigarette. As for the green silhouette, it's the light emitted by someone carrying a portable TV set," Senichi said, scanning the group with a playful look.

"Considering all the circumstances, the other person who hasn't been seen by witnesses is also here right now."

"What...!!"

"You're saying one of us is the criminal!?"

"How is that possible? Who is it!?"

Upon hearing Senichi's words, several people's expressions changed dramatically. No one could have imagined that they had been living under the same roof with a murderer for the past four years.

The chilling thought of this, just thinking about it, made their scalps tingle uncontrollably.

"So, do you want to speak up and save me some trouble, or do you want me to dig out your accomplice to accompany you?" Senichi looked at the man in front of him and said with a smile. "Think carefully. If you can identify your accomplice, it will be considered mitigating your sentence. I'll report it truthfully, and you might get a lighter punishment."

"Hmph..." The man, upon hearing Senichi's words, disdainfully snorted and turned his head to the side, evidently unwilling to cooperate.

"Oh? Well, that works too. I'll take this opportunity to solve the mystery of this haunted house and deal with your accomplice all at once."

"Accomplice!? Haunted house!?" Kogoro Mouri turned sharply to look at the four residents of the apartment. "Are you saying this haunted house was created by an unknown murderer!?"

"That's right." Senichi smiled and said, "We've already explained the principle of the sudden appearance of a female ghost on TV. It can be easily done with a remote control, and other phenomena are similar to this."

"What about the bright red blood?" Tsuyuhiko Botan asked puzzledly. "I saw it with my own eyes. There wasn't a drop of red water in the toilet tank."

"The principle is simple. I don't know if you noticed, but there's a strong smell of ammonia in the bathroom, and in the toilet tank, there's a faint scent of alcohol."

Senichi smiled and explained, "It's an experiment even elementary school students can do."

"Oh, I know!" Conan, with a childish tone, began to steal the spotlight. "It involves dissolving phenolphthalein in alcohol and mixing it with alkaline ammonia, which turns it red!"

"In other words, by adding alcohol containing phenolphthalein to the tank and ammonia to the toilet water, a chemical reaction occurs when you flush, turning the liquid red..."

After hearing the answer, Kogoro Mouri felt a bit embarrassed. After all, he had been frightened half to death by this elementary school student's tricks, making him even more annoyed at the culprit behind this.

"Wait a minute, I understand the principle you're talking about, but it might not go smoothly, right?" Tsuyuhiko Botan questioned. "The liquid produced by the combination of the two in your experiment has a slight pinkish color, which is quite different from the dark red blood. Moreover, it's not just one person who saw it wrong..."

"If it were placed in broad daylight, there would be no chance of mistaking it. However, it's evident that this dimly lit bathroom doesn't offer such favorable lighting conditions."

Senichi explained, "Coupled with the persistent rumors of haunting in this house, everyone subconsciously has a preconceived notion. So, when confronted with something mysterious, the brain instinctively tends to interpret it in a terrifying direction, a phenomenon commonly known as scaring oneself."

"But even so, urine should not be able to undergo a chemical reaction with the two substances you mentioned, right?"

Tsuyuhiko Botan, a graduate student, expressed some skepticism. "Ammonia in urine is acidic or neutral, not alkaline..."

"That's why they chose strongly scented ammonia as the reacting liquid."

Senichi tapped his nose and said, "It's a simple psychological issue. Sometimes, we tend to believe our sense of smell over what we see.

So, if ammonia is poured into the toilet beforehand, the strong odor makes people suspect the toilet is too dirty. In such a situation, you would flush it, and it becomes convenient for the culprit."

"What about the ghostly shadow we saw by the window earlier?"

Iwahisa Yotsuya, unwilling to believe that the "ghosts" he hoped for were just simple scientific principles, pointed to the window. "We all saw that ghostly shadow with our own eyes!"

"As for this, it's even simpler." Senichi pointed to the window. "That so-called ghost shadow is just an aggregation of male moths. They were attracted by the pheromones of female moths used by the insect repellent outside the window.

By sticking eyes and a mouth made of black paper on the outside of the window, from inside the house, it would naturally appear to be a ghostly shadow."

Pheromones are chemical compounds, specifically hormones, used to attract individuals of the opposite sex, colorless and odorless. As for this kind of commercially available insect-killing pheromone, some additional scents may be added to alert people that pesticides have been sprayed. Therefore, Senichi easily analyzed the tricks played by the other party.

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