Conan: No, why aren't you following the script?

Inspector Megure found it somewhat unbelievable. Based on his decades of experience in handling cases, the first thing kidnappers do after taking hostages is to contact the hostages' families.

Firstly, this is to make demands, whether it's a ransom or specific matters, which must be communicated with the hostage's family via extortion calls, in order to ensure the transaction can proceed smoothly.

Secondly, the kidnappers contacted the family members as soon as possible to reassure them and prevent them from calling the police in a panic.

No criminal would be foolish enough to make things more difficult for themselves; for kidnappers, money or other matters are always their primary objectives.

How to successfully obtain what they want is what kidnappers should be considering. If they delay too long and the family members notice something is wrong and contact the Metropolitan Police Department, the kidnappers' plan will most likely fall through.

Generally speaking, if a kidnapping case is to be carried out, the perpetrators will usually proceed in four stages.

The first stage involves scouting, finding a suitable target, and observing the environment suitable for taking action. This is considered the preliminary work in a kidnapping case, and it usually takes 3-7 days of observation to develop an accurate action plan.

The second stage, the kidnapping, requires the perpetrators to swiftly and cleanly abduct the hostage, assuming the reconnaissance goes smoothly. During this process, they must avoid causing a disturbance or attracting attention. Most importantly, they must prevent the hostage from calling for help or leaving any clues. If this stage is successfully completed, the kidnapping can be considered 70% done.

The third stage of extortion is essentially a race against time. Every second counts in notifying the hostage's family to prevent complications and avoid them calling the police in desperation. The location of the transaction and the ransom must be communicated to the family as soon as possible to facilitate their fundraising or to complete the transaction.

Moreover, if the action is swift enough to notify the family before they can react, it can not only deter them and make them lose the courage to call the police, but also give you the opportunity to take complete control and facilitate the smooth progress of the final stage.

And these four stages, which are the most important parts of the transaction...

Just like the last 1% of downloading a movie, this step is often the most crucial in kidnapping cases, and it's also the best stage for criminals to showcase their intelligence.

To avoid being ambushed by the police, kidnappers in India have trained monkeys to retrieve ransoms, and similar cases have occurred in Southern Europe where trained birds of prey have taken ransoms.

The ransom could be placed in a car, with the bottom actually sawed open and connected to a sewer; the ransom could be thrown into a turbulent river, using the complex terrain to evade police pursuit; or the ransom could be exchanged for gold bars, which could then be dissolved in a special liquid, and then a method could be found to remove the liquid...

It can be said that in this final ransom transaction, kidnappers from all over the world will stop at nothing. In order to successfully complete the transaction, they are often more imaginative than the best screenwriters in the world, making full use of environment, biology, chemistry, and even astronomy and engineering.

However, the most crucial factor is that they hold the lives of the hostages in their hands. The police are often hesitant to act, and dare not take action when necessary. In fact, in order to protect the hostages, they may choose to let the kidnappers live at critical moments.

This is one of the reasons why kidnapping cases are considered the most difficult cases for the police to solve. In most cases, the clearance rate for kidnapping cases is among the lowest for major crimes.

It is precisely because of the complexity of kidnapping cases, which often involve high-IQ crimes, and the difficulty in finding commonalities between each case, that Inspector Megure and Inspector Takagi, among others, have significant disagreements regarding the fact that the kidnappers have not yet made a ransom demand...

They both felt there must be something fishy about this, but neither could convince the other.

Some believe the perpetrator was deliberately creating a fuss, while others think he was trying to build up tension among the family members.

Another new police officer, who had only recently joined the force, suggested that the hostage might have already been killed by the criminals, which resulted in Inspector Megure roaring at him.

"Idiot! Have you ever seen a criminal kill their hostage before even trying to extort money? Even if something went wrong during the kidnapping, why would the criminal go through the trouble of disposing of the body? Don't you know that the most troublesome part of a murder case is dealing with the body? Even a newbie isn't this stupid, so calm down!"

"Yes, sorry!"

Almost brought to tears by Inspector Megure's roar, the rookie policewoman named Natsukawa Moku immediately nodded vigorously, her eyes brimming with tears.

However, Inspector Megure had no time to pay attention to the newcomer. After giving a haughty snort, he quickly threw himself back into the tense and exciting discussion, wanting to figure out what the kidnappers were really up to.

Seeing this, the newcomer Xia Chuan could only sniff and quietly run to the restroom by herself.

She is a criminal police officer, and although she is still a rookie, she cannot easily expose her vulnerability in front of her seniors and detectives.

This is a very cruel thing. Although Inspector Megure was just dealing with the case and not the person, this domineering style of handling cases is a consistent practice of the Metropolitan Police Department. Almost every new recruit has been reprimanded by their superiors without any words.

Xia Chuan should have gotten used to this by now.

When Kitagawa Isao saw the policewoman, who was still wearing a flower petal hair clip, run to the restroom, he hesitated for a moment and then followed her. He happened to see her alone in front of the mirror, quietly wiping away her tears with a tissue.

“Inspector Megure didn’t mean it. I know him very well; he’s an upright and kind person. Although these veteran officers tend to be a bit rough, I believe that if you ever encounter danger while on a case, he will stand up for you without hesitation. So…”

"It's okay, I... I know..."

Hearing the voice, Xia Chuanmo hurriedly turned around, wiped her eyes, and forced a smile at Kitagawa Xun. "We newcomers have all heard about Inspector Megure's personality. He looks rough on the outside, but he is very sensitive on the inside. Many seniors have received care from Inspector Megure. This has been widely known in our First Investigation Division for a long time."

"Well, it's good that you understand that. After all, you're a newcomer, so you just need to accumulate more experience."

"Yes! Thank you, thank you so much, Mr. Kitagawa! I'm much better now!!"