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

"What does Mr. Kitagawa mean by that? I don't quite understand."

Robert nearly fell to the ground when Kitagawa Isao suddenly slapped him on the shoulder. Fortunately, he quickly recovered and pretended to be confused, trying to fool the situation.

However, how could such a little trick escape Kitagawa Isao's eyes?

Having outwitted Ai Haibara for so long, Robert's clumsy acting skills are really no match for the little guy.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Isao's face revealed a cold smile:

"Heh, it's alright if you don't understand. Mr. Robert has come all the way to Japan. I'm just curious why you would come to the outskirts of Tottori Prefecture. If there were really beautiful scenery in such a remote and impoverished place, the local residents would have developed it long ago, right? How could it be your turn, a foreigner, to discover it?"

"This……"

"And another thing, you and Shinichi Takeda only met a few times three years ago. Why would he go to the warehouse alone when a murder has just occurred just because of something you said? Doesn't he know that a murder has just happened at the warehouse?"

"Me too..."

“Most importantly, after Mr. Robert left for three years and returned, he only met Shinichi Takeda and Akio Negishi. He didn’t meet the two little girls, Mr. Ryuji, or Mr. Yuzo. I would like to ask, if Mr. Robert met Shinichi Takeda, that would be fine, but Akio Negishi was just an outsider. Why did you meet him and then kill him?”

"Well..."

Terrified by Kitagawa Isao's relentless questioning, Robert's face turned ashen, and his forehead was already drenched in sweat. However, he had no time to wipe it away; his mind raced as he hastily began to fabricate an excuse.

"It's like this, when I came that day, none of the Takeda family members were home, only Negishi Akio was there. I chatted with him for a bit, and Negishi Akio spoke rudely to Misa, so that's why..."

Robert's voice trailed off, and he realized that this reason was not only unconvincing to Kitagawa Isao, but even he himself was starting to doubt it.

yes……

According to his theory, this should be considered a violent murder, but how could such a meticulously planned scene be arranged in such a short time?

They even used Misa's death and the legend of the Takeda family as excuses, which seems full of loopholes no matter how you look at it!

For a moment, Robert opened his mouth, but in the end, he couldn't say a word.

Just then, Kitagawa Isao's phone rang. He took out his phone, glanced at it, and then handed it to Robert.

"Look, Heiji Hattori has already called me. Shinichi Takeda's body should have been found by now. Mr. Robert, your time is running out. If you don't confess soon, I don't know what the son of the Osaka Prefectural Police Chief will say to you when you get back to the Takeda residence..."

"This, Mr. Kitagawa, I... no, alas..."

After a long struggle in his eyes, Robert finally sighed, lowered his head, and slowly spoke:

"Actually, I didn't want to do this either. I... I was coerced. Mr. Kitagawa, please keep this a secret after I tell you, otherwise my parents might be killed. Please!"

Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Isao pondered for a moment and said, "Okay, I won't tell a third person. Go ahead and tell me."

With this assurance, although Robert was still not entirely at ease, he had a reason to convince himself.

So he sighed and slowly began to speak:

“I am indeed a photographer, but I had never left the United States three years ago. At that time, I was focused on taking news photos in the city and sending them to newspapers, just like Peter Parker. But... for some reason, my photos only earned me a meager salary, which made it difficult for me to make ends meet in New York.”

"Until one day, after returning home from photographing a fire scene, a man in black came to my apartment with photos I had just sent out. He said that some of the photos I took should not have been there and that he wanted to buy my negatives for a fee."

"It was only then that I realized that I had unintentionally captured a person in black moving around at the fire scene in my photo..."

"He said he was a CIA agent who was on a classified mission, but because of me, he almost got exposed to the public eye..."

"He originally intended to kill me to silence me, but seeing that my filming skills were not bad, he took me to meet his superior... From then on, I became an unofficial member of the CIA."

Upon hearing this, Kitagawa Isao's eyes sharpened.

The Federal Central Intelligence Agency, also known as the CIA, is the same agency that Rena Mizunashi later worked for.

He hadn't expected that the CIA agents' reach had extended so far, but... Robert was really unlucky.

Just because he took a photo of the fire scene, he ended up being recruited as an unofficial CIA employee...

However, that's not necessarily true. It's possible that he was already being watched by the CIA before that photo was taken, and that he himself didn't even realize it was a photo. Perhaps the agent in black switched it with a pre-prepared photo to deliberately intimidate him...

Well, if it's the CIA, it's not surprising that something like this would happen.

First, they falsely accuse them of crimes without any basis, and then they suddenly offer to help them do things to atone for their sins. This is a classic tactic that secret agents love to use.

Thinking of this, Kitagawa Isao couldn't help but nod silently.

But Robert continued speaking:

“Mr. Kitagawa, do you know? I’ve never seen so much money in my life. Just by helping them take some photos of the countryside in Japan, they can earn tens of thousands of dollars… I sent all that money home, which not only paid off the mortgage but also covered my sister’s tuition.”

"All I had to do was take some photos for them... Later, they sent me to Tottori Prefecture to contact a man named Shinichi Takeda, but I encountered a mudslide on my way there. If Misa hadn't saved me, I probably would have..."

"Actually, I didn't know what Mr. Shinichi did at first. It wasn't until I came to the Takeda family that I learned that Shinichi Takeda was dealing drugs... But it's really nothing. You might find it strange, but where we're from, these things are like cigarettes to you. It's a very normal thing..."