Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 1114 Suspicious Foreigners

"Doctor's weird inventions can actually be sold..."

Conan, who didn't understand what Haibara Ai was referring to, just thought that the doctor had sold some strange thing like the colorful bomb again, and sighed like this.

Dr. Agasa is definitely a gifted genius in many aspects.

Whether it is the anesthesia watch, his multifunctional glasses, or the strong shoulder straps, they all fully demonstrate Dr. Agasa's ability in materials science and emerging technologies.

Although they had always had a good relationship, perhaps due to his limited knowledge of Dr. Agasa, and having heard his parents mention that Dr. Agasa would make custom props for some magicians, Kudo Shinichi had always regarded him as the kind of mysterious old neighbor who would talk nonsense and claim that he was doing scientific research when he had some personal hobby...

As expected, the thinking process of a genius is always different from that of a normal scientific researcher, so the road to monetization and fame is naturally extremely difficult.

"What's useless to some people might be a life-saving treasure to others. How do you say that?" Huiyuan Ai recalled the tone of the person describing it, Tang Ze, and imitated it, saying, "Garbage is just a resource placed in the wrong place, right?"

I always feel that she is secretly saying that the doctor's invention is garbage. Conan feels that this kind of weird tone is familiar: "..."

The two people's whispering went unnoticed by the children, whose attention had been drawn to the delicious food. The three of them seemed to be immersed in a state of happiness and joy.

“There are so many delicious foods!”

“You can choose whatever you want!”

"There's a fish bag, and lots of meat and snacks..."

The three children quickly found the place to collect their plates without any instruction. They didn't care about the people following behind them and rushed out after finding their seats.

Looking at their carefree backs, Conan's expression couldn't help but relax.

After facing such a dangerous and treacherous struggle, looking at the carefree daily life of these children again, I always feel like I have returned from hell to the world.

“It’s nice to come to a place like this once in a while.”

"Yo, you speak so softly, Kudo. That's really unlike you."

"Hey……"

The two were joking around, and Dr. Agasa, who was looking at each child with a smile, heard the sound of brakes coming from the door behind him. He turned his head and saw a familiar, but seemingly unlucky, car parked at the door...

"A police car? Coming to this hotel?"

Following his gaze, Conan also saw the police car parked not far away. Not only that, he also caught a glimpse of the figure getting out of the car.

"Officer Takagi?"

"Hey, is that Conan?"

Takagi Wataru, with a serious expression, had just taken a few steps when he saw a small figure rushing out of the door. He looked around reflexively and saw that besides Conan, there were only other children who looked like elementary school students. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s okay, it’s just that Conan’s words... No, that’s not right either.

"Ah? A murder?!"

"Sh-sh—!"

Takagi Shigeru quickly raised his fingers twice to stop the child in front of him from spreading more keywords.

Even if the frequency of various murders in Beika Town is indeed quite high, that is not a reason to speak loudly in public when investigating a case.

"It hasn't been officially announced yet! We can't say that, or we'll alert the enemy. We're still investigating." After pacifying the two most boisterous children, Takagi lowered his voice, "Things have been pretty turbulent lately. We can't create any more panic."

"What's going on recently?" The children, who were completely unaware of this, were still holding their plates in their hands and just looked at each other blankly.

Conan vaguely knew what he was referring to and looked away awkwardly.

It's hard to say how both sides have been doing during the past few days of the FBI and the organization's quarrel, but the Metropolitan Police Department is definitely very busy.

Whether it was the numerous safety incidents that occurred in Haido Town, or the subsequent thrilling road chase, plus the true and false mystery of Akai Shuichi's death, in a corner where no one cared, I don't know how many days the Investigation Section had been working overtime...

"...So, who was murdered?" Conan cleared his throat and brought the topic back to those things.

"It was the president who rented the 39th floor of this hotel to open an overseas artist agency," Takagi Shigeru replied with a serious expression. "The first person to discover it was his secretary. Unable to contact him, the secretary went to his office and found the president sitting in a chair covered in blood. Furthermore, he had multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body..."

"Oh, I see..." Conan nodded suddenly and understood where Takagi Wataru's solemn expression came from.

An artist agency specializing in overseas business has been involved in a shooting again. In addition, a high proportion of foreigners have been found among the criminals or victims in various situations that have occurred recently. The Metropolitan Police Department is probably worried that this is another matter with far-reaching implications and wants to handle it in a low-key manner.

"Where's the suspect? Since they're specifically contacting overseas artists, then the contact person should be easier to find." Haibara Ai touched her chin. "Normally, even if they're from a visa-free country, they'd need basic entry and exit records and work details, right? That's what agencies like theirs do."

"That's the problem." Takagi Wataru patted his head. "According to the person who first discovered this, the president's secretary, the president has arranged an interview today with a new person who is said to have great potential. Because the president discovered this promising young talent on the street, the secretary has no specific information about the person, not even basic information like name and gender."

"So, the secretary was the one who reported the case a while ago?" Conan reacted.

After all, it was a murder case, so it was very rare that only Takagi Shigeru was sent to deal with the case. This could only mean that Takagi Shigeru happened to be nearby and was the first to arrive after receiving the notification.

"Yes, just two or three minutes ago. The crime was committed not long ago, probably just one or two minutes before."

"Is the time so precise?"

"Because the person who reported the case was sorting documents in the warehouse two floors down, the president called her and asked her to go look for it. A minute later, when she called again to report the results, no one answered."

Conan turned his head and exchanged glances with his friends behind him, whose mouths were covered with food crumbs.

It doesn't sound like a complicated case, and it shouldn't take too much time. But since we've already made plans to go out today...

"In other words, the murder happened just a few minutes ago?" Kojima Genta's eyes suddenly lit up, with sauce still on the corner of his mouth.

"In other words, the murderer didn't even leave the hotel!" Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko slammed his palm, "Then this is a great opportunity for us to show our skills!"

"Hey, hey, you guys," Dr. Agasa held his forehead, "I finally invited you to dinner..."

"It's okay. Isn't this meal ticket limited to the dining period? It doesn't say you can't come in or out, right?"

"That's right. And if we solve a case for the hotel, it would be a big help to the hotel. They should waive the cost of our meal!"

The three people, who were in good spirits again, quickly became excited, leaving Takagi Wataru scratching his head in confusion.

"Still in the hotel? How did you infer that?"

"You also said that the murder happened on the 39th floor. There are only three elevators in the hotel area of ​​this hotel. Unless the criminal is a Phantom Thief of Hearts who dares to jump down from more than 40 floors..." Haibara Ai said with a smile on her lips.

"Ahem!" Conan interrupted her teasing and continued, "One elevator is under maintenance, and one is out of order. Look at the last elevator..."

Conan pointed in the direction of the corridor.

A crowd of people was crowded around the only elevator. The scene was not noisy, but one could tell with the naked eye that it was very difficult for so many people to go up and down the stairs in one elevator. The hotel was now completely congested.

"There's only one elevator left in working order, and everyone's waiting for it. Plus, there's a food court on the top floor of the hotel, so the elevators going down from the top floor are easily full, making it almost impossible for them to stop midway." Conan pointed at the hotel floor annotations above his head and deduced easily, "39th floor, just like Huibara said, it takes a long time to get in and out by stairs. With such a short time, the criminal is likely still in the hotel and trapped upstairs."

"I see." Takagi Shigeru nodded in agreement with his inference. "The murderer was armed with a gun and had just fired, so there must be some marks on his body. I guess he wouldn't dare walk directly into a crowded elevator."

"Yeah. Either they're going up a few floors to the food court on the top floor, or they're hiding in a toilet, or they're sweating profusely trying to escape using the stairs..." Conan smiled confidently, "If they're a foreigner who can speak Japanese, or a foreigner who can become an entertainer, it shouldn't be hard to find them, right?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"When you discovered the body, were you sure there was no one else in the room or the nearby corridor?"

"Yes, I'm sure there's no one else."

"What does the president want you to find?"

"Looking for old employee files. They're all artist files from 10 years ago, and there's a lot of them. I called again to confirm if there was any content I needed to screen, but no one answered the phone. It went straight to the automatic recording..."

The young woman standing in front of the door had light freckles on her face and her light brown hair was tied in a ponytail. She was twisting her fingers nervously.

No explanation is needed, you can tell at a glance that he looks like a foreigner, and a very typical white person.

She may not be particularly beautiful among white people, but she is indeed refreshing among Asian faces.

Megure Jusan carefully studied the notes in his hand for a moment, frowning as he pondered, "Are you sure your president has a new interview plan for today and hasn't told anyone? That's too strange. If even the secretary doesn't know, wouldn't it be difficult for others to even get in for the interview?"

"No, our office is in the hotel. Even though it takes up an entire floor, there's always a lot of people coming in and out." Irina shook her head slightly. "As for the identities of the interviewees, the president didn't tell me. It's his habit to not let anyone know the names of the interviewees or contact them before the contract is finalized. Maybe it's due to some business concerns. I was the same way back then."

"Are you also an artist at the agency?" Megure Jusan asked, looking at Irina's figure.

"Yes, yes, doesn't it look very different?" Irina nervously adjusted her clothes. "I am indeed an artist who signed an agreement with the company. However, my Japanese is not very good. I can hold a conversation, but I am not very good at reading or writing, and I can only half understand the documents. So the president asked me to work as a secretary for a while to get used to the language environment here..."

This was said very tactfully, but the detectives present were all shrewd and quickly understood the deeper meaning behind her words.

She signed an artist contract, but works as a secretary in a company, which doesn't look easy, otherwise there wouldn't be such obvious sadness on the girl's face.

Looking back at the usual methods and ways this president uses to sign contracts, he won’t even disclose the specific identity information of the person he finds.

Not to mention what Irina said, that she couldn't even understand Japanese...

This means that each of their contracts is confidential, the prices and treatment vary, and there may be some unfair terms. When the parties sign the contract, it is very likely that they do not understand what they have written.

In order to cover up this practice, the deceased was unwilling to let them communicate with each other before the final decision was made and people were lured in, for fear that they would realize the problem after communicating.

In addition, this is a company that specializes in overseas artist business and negotiations. I believe that many of the jobs they deal with are not entirely domestic, and the smell of trickery is overflowing.

"Yeah, that's the kind of business they do." Megure Jusan nodded, not commenting on the other party's suspected operation of defrauding foreigners - since they were already dead, it seemed too late to condemn their business ethics - he could only point at the paper helplessly, "There's no information at all, not even whether the other party is a man or a woman. Finding the culprit is going to be difficult."

But then again, if someone deliberately didn't leave any records in advance in order to harm others, and ended up dying in the incident without even identifying a suspect, how can that not be considered harming others and ultimately harming themselves?

"Police department!"

Before Megure Jusan could express his feelings and the investigation plan he was thinking about, Takagi Wataru's powerful voice came from the door.

"We found two suspicious foreigners who speak fluent Japanese!"

"Suspicious foreigner?"

"Inspector, we found it too!"

The office door was pushed open. Megure Jusan looked at the person who came in through the open door and was stunned.

"Tang Zejun? Oh, and..."

"Sorry, I didn't hear you clearly." Amuro Toru, with a subtle smile on his face, squinted his eyes and asked in a very gentle, yet somewhat gnashing voice, "Who are you calling a foreigner?"

(End of this chapter)