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

"So you just let him get away like that?! Mr. Kitagawa, what can I say about you? How can you do this to Uncle Mori, who had such high hopes for you?!"

"Hey, why don't you listen to me?"

Kitagawa Isao was so angry he laughed. "Didn't I already say that Robert had a knife? I was with Ai and Kazuha with me at the time. If something had happened, would you have said I didn't protect them?"

Hattori Heiji was momentarily taken aback by these words, but after recovering, he still spoke with righteous indignation:

"I don't care about any of that. The suspect was lost here, so you have to take responsibility for finding him!"

His unreasonable and argumentative behavior thoroughly enraged Kitagawa Isao.

After Kitagawa Isao called Hattori Heiji to ask someone from the Takeda family to come and pick them up, Hattori Heiji followed Takeda Yuzo to Takeda Misa's grave and immediately gave him a severe scolding.

Kitagawa Isao had never suffered such an injustice before.

Even Ai Haibara had never scolded him like this before.

You have to understand that although quite a bit of time has passed, he has only just started learning martial arts!

Can this be tolerated?

And just like that, with a 'thud,' Hattori Heiji was pinned to the ground...

After Hattori Heiji got up from the ground, he carefully considered his tone and spoke in a slightly softer voice, but his reprimand was not diminished.

Fortunately, Kazuha Toyama finally couldn't stand it anymore. Just as Heiji Hattori was about to anger Isao Kitagawa once again, she hurriedly stepped forward and pulled Heiji Hattori aside.

"Heiji, don't be so unreasonable, Mr. Kitagawa... He really did it for us. Robert was holding a knife, and Ai was with us too. If something had really happened... In short, Mr. Kitagawa had no choice. Your words are hurting him too much!"

"What the hell..."

Hattori Heiji was so angry he almost swore. Before this trip, he had heard Edogawa Conan mention that Kitagawa Isao was said to be extremely skilled, and even Scorpion with a pistol couldn't do anything to him.

result……

Heiji Hattori simply couldn't believe that a foreigner with a knife could escape from his clutches.

But there's nothing he can do even if he doesn't believe it. He has no evidence right now, and Kazuha Toyama and Ai Haibara are on Kitagawa Isao's side, occasionally speaking up to explain what happened back then.

Faced with this situation of fighting alone, Hattori Heiji really had no temper and could only sigh and accept the reality.

However, one thing at a time, his indifference to Kitagawa Isao letting the suspect go does not mean he can sit idly by and watch Robert escape right under his nose.

So after contacting Officer Ōtaki by phone, the Osaka Prefectural Police contacted the Tottori Prefectural Police, preparing to lay a trap for Robert.

In Hattori Heiji's view, a foreign fugitive has very limited options, such as airplanes or Shinkansen. As long as he can place his men in time, catching him is a piece of cake.

That's why he wasn't too worried...

……

However, the next morning, after they had rested well at the Takeda family's house, a phone call from Officer Ōtaki completely broke Hattori Heiji's defenses.

"What did you say?! Inspector Ōtaki, Robert is missing? No, what are the Tottori Prefecture police doing? I've already given you his physical description, and they still let him get away?!"

"Heiji, calm down."

Officer Ōtaki sounded a little embarrassed on the phone, but he still forced himself to continue, "It seems that the foreigner named Robert has someone picking him up. Although traffic police saw his car drive into Tottori Prefecture, we have sent people to investigate hotels, train stations, and even guesthouses and bars, but we still haven't found anything."

Officer Ōtaki was right. He had barely slept a wink all night after arriving in Tottori Prefecture, spending the entire night conducting investigations with the Tottori Prefectural Police.

But now, Robert seems to have vanished into thin air; no matter how hard they try, they can't find a single clue.

This made Officer Otaki suspicious. He worried that the traffic policeman might have said such things to mislead him in order to take credit.

However, Heiji Hattori did not think that way.

He knew that a mere traffic policeman wouldn't have the guts to do that, and the fact that Robert disappeared in Tottori Prefecture meant that someone was there to meet him.

They might be ordinary residents, or they might be some underground forces...

After finding the person, they hid them, leaving the police with no way to do anything about it.

In fact, they are truly powerless to change the current situation.

We can't just shut down the entire Tottori Prefecture because of one murderer, can we?

Moreover, Robert is a foreigner, and if things escalate and involve the embassy, ​​the outcome will be beyond his control...

Thinking of this, Hattori Heiji gritted his teeth, finally sighed, and suggested that Inspector Otaki issue an arrest warrant, while secretly withdrawing all the police officers who were investigating.

They were neither prepared for a protracted war nor capable of holding out against the forces behind Robert.

Tottori Prefecture is not part of Kansai. It's already asking too much of him to get Inspector Ohtaki to intervene. If this drags on any longer, there's no guarantee that the Tottori Prefectural Police won't have any complaints.

He could not afford the consequences.

Therefore, Heiji Hattori could only temporarily place his hopes on the Tottori Prefectural Police. After hanging up the phone, he went out to wash up for a while and then came to the living room to have breakfast.

Although Shinichi Takeda had already died by this time, Heiji Hattori, as an important detective who solved the mystery, still held a high position in the Takeda family. Ryuji Takeda and Yuzo Takeda both held him in high esteem.

They even suggested that if Hattori Heiji was willing, he could stay at the Takeda residence for a few more days so that they could fulfill their duties as hosts.

However, Hattori Heiji was in a very bad mood at the time, so he naturally had no such idea.

As for Kitagawa Isao and the others, they were all eager to go home and rest. So after breakfast, Takeda Yuzo drove them to Osaka Prefecture.

By the time we arrived, it was almost noon.

Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha said a brief goodbye and hurriedly returned home, clearly to discuss the follow-up arrangements with Hattori Heizo.

Kitagawa Isao didn't care about what happened afterward, so after watching the two of them leave, he took Haibara Ai's hand and quickly boarded the Shinkansen back to Tokyo.