The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan

"It's also possible that you are too nervous, or... there may be some misunderstanding..."

"That's not what I meant." Sato Miwako, who was sitting in the driver's seat, shook her head solemnly. "It will be easier to find the safe if you know the location of the furniture in advance. In most homes, if the area is limited like an apartment, the safe will be placed in the living room. If you find out which room the bed is in and where the wardrobe is, you will have an 80% chance of finding it."

"Oh, but there are also questions like birthdays..." Masashi Emoto, who was stunned by the question, sat up straighter.

"It's because you're asking about birthdays that there's a problem." Takagi Shigeya, who also possesses the basic qualities of a police officer, denied it solemnly, "Many people like to use birthdays as passwords for various things. Asking for the birthdays of your entire family will be very helpful in not picking the lock and opening the safe."

"Yes, plus home safes, most people don't have much precautions, let alone wipe fingerprints, and many don't even lock their doors."

"Well, just bring a UV lamp or some aluminum powder or something..."

"No, you haven't mentioned the biggest problem yet." Conan, who was tucked in the corner of the back row, suddenly said, "It would be fine if he found the safe. The valuables he could find would be enough to satisfy the criminal's needs, but it would be a gain. But if by some chance he doesn't find it...you only have Kota in your house who is completely defenseless against him."

"Tsk..." Sato Miwako pursed her lips, obviously dissatisfied with the Emoto siblings' lack of basic quality of vigilance.

This can be said to be basic common sense and vigilance. To say that he was simply unprepared is actually a compliment to him.

If the citizens of Beika Town only had this kind of quality, the homicide rate would quadruple.

"It's enough to be vigilant that a stranger comes into contact with a child at home." Tang Ze, who was holding Conan, nodded and threw out a killer move, "If this is just a criminal who is looking for money and is scouting the area and making preparations, at least he won't hurt the child. If he encounters a pervert whose target is children, your brother would not have waited until now and would have been in danger two weeks ago."

If the child can still ignore it after being educated in advance, it may be that the child does not have enough understanding of the situation, or there may be problems with the child’s parents’ own education methods.

But if a 5-year-old child can run to other people's homes and accept food offered by strangers, this is not the child's problem at all, but the parent's problem.

——Even if those people may have some relationship with Masashi Emoto, how can the bad friends of one's cousin be considered acquaintances? This does not even include the issue of minors being abused by acquaintances.

"Hey..." Takagi Shigeru finally felt a little depressed and nervous when he saw Masashi Emoto. The atmosphere in the car was heavy. He glanced at Karasawa who was sitting there holding Conan, and changed the subject slightly, "By the way, why did you two leave with our car? Isn't Detective Maori's car bigger than ours?"

Kogoro Mouri usually drives the SUV whenever he goes out since he bought it. The interior space is much larger than their sedan.

Everyone was quite nervous when they just came out of the restaurant, and he didn't notice how these two kids got in during the chaos.

"Who can I blame?" Conan crossed his arms and looked at the two of them dimly. "Today, Uncle Maori brought me, Xiaolan, Brother Tangze, and classmate Hondou. There are five of us. Sister Yumi is also in our car now, so it's convenient to take care of her."

"Because we were drinking, Officer Chiba and Officer Takagi didn't drive here, only Officer Sato drove." Tang Ze reminded, "Xiao Lan is taking care of the drunk Miss Miyamoto, so I have to bring Conan here."

Among the group, Conan is just a pure child, so there is really no possibility of compressing the space.

"Well... although we have analyzed so much, maybe it is just a false alarm. There is no need to mobilize so many troops..." Takagi Shi scratched his hair, feeling a little embarrassed after realizing it belatedly.

No, the possibility of something going wrong is still very high. And...

Conan looked at Aya Emoto, who was anxiously tearing the hem of her skirt above her knees. He managed to suppress the urge to speak out more reasoning. He just looked up and winked at Tang Ze.

Tang Ze, who also possessed the basic vigilance qualities of a police officer, understood what he meant.

Moreover, if a kidnapping or injury case did occur, we cannot rule out the possibility that family members were involved in the crime.

It's not like there haven't been any rebellious sons who have conspired with outsiders to try to steal some money from home without anyone noticing...

The silence among the few people continued until they reached the downstairs of the Emoto family's house.

It was late at night, and the few lights in the apartment building cut out a small grid in the night, causing Masashi Emoto to breathe a sigh of relief instinctively.

"The lights are still on, it's not a big deal." He patted his nervous sister, "In fact, even if that person is a stranger, he didn't ask for any particularly important information, so nothing will happen..."

Aya Emoto clenched her palms and said nothing.

The worst guess came true after I opened the door.

"Your cousin is in my hands!

Prepare 1 million yen and contact you later!

If you call the police, I will kill him immediately!"

"It really turned out like this. Kidnapping case..." Sato Miwako clenched her fist and was about to smash it down hard, but Takagi Wataru grabbed her wrist.

"Don't get excited, Sato. The situation hasn't gotten too bad yet." Takagi Wataru comforted him, "At least, we are the police, right? We can contact the department now..."

"Hey! Don't say it!" Sato Miwako raised her voice, stopping Takagi Wataru from blurting out his subconscious response, "What if the criminal left a bug in the room?! You've been through that before, so be more vigilant!"

Conan, who was lying in front of the screen carefully checking the ransom letter, felt like he was shot in the back and silently turned around to look at Sato Miwako.

That’s right, the bug almost caused sparks to appear on his clothes.

After escaping danger that day, he went back and saw that the sweatshirt he was wearing that day had been rubbed against his abdomen and had become shiny, and he couldn't feel any fibers of the fabric.

"That was just..." Takagi Wataru opened his mouth to retort, but then he remembered the trio who had been playing with the bomb above his head for a long time, and he shut up quietly.

What should I say? Should I say that I was mainly acting as a camera that transmitted sound and did not have a recording function?

"Don't be so nervous." Seeing that the atmosphere between the two of them was not right, Maori Kogoro persuaded, "It is unlikely that a bug was installed. If that were the case, the criminal probably would not have left a message on the document on the desktop, but would have called directly."

"Yes, we made so much noise when we entered the room. If the criminal could hear it, he would have known that something was wrong with us." Hondou Eisuke, who was following behind him, echoed.

"…Why did you follow me?" Maori Kogoro glanced at him. "This is a kidnapping case. There's no need for anything like 'Sleeping Maori Kogoro'. If you want to see this, you'd better go back early. It's getting late. Children shouldn't hang around outside."

"Well, it's hard to say - um!" He was about to say something when Tang Ze, who was passing by behind him, covered his mouth.

Whether you are deliberately ignoring the atmosphere or you really don't know how to read it, don't criticize at this time. Man, the victims' families are watching.

If I beat you into a pig's head, your sister will come to trouble me.

"What Sato said makes sense. I'll go check if there are any other eavesdropping devices. If not, I'll contact Officer Megure and the others..." Takagi Shigeru stood up.

"Remember to call his private phone." Sato Miwako turned her head and reminded, "We can still understand that it is a friend who didn't drink enough at the party and followed them home to party. If we call the office phone in the hall directly, the situation may change. Officer Megure will understand our approach."

"I understand. It's great that we can save the family members from hesitating and delaying the time to call the police."

Watching Takagi Wataru hurriedly leave the study, Conan said: "In fact, the current situation is enough to infer who the possible criminal is. He may be someone that Brother Shi knows, right?"

"Yeah, that's right!" After breaking free from Tang Ze's weak arm, Hondou Eisuke immediately spoke up, "Mouri Kogoro is here! Maybe if you tell him some details, he can catch the kidnapper right away without waiting for him to find you! Last time, we solved a murder case with just a few words from the criminal when he fell into our trap!"

No, it was Goro Akechi who was exerting his strength...

Kogoro Mori's eyelids twitched and he glared at him unhappily.

Although this is the truth, the thing is, this is a kidnapping case.

The timeliness and tension of the case may sometimes be even greater than a murder case. If you say something wrong, the angry family members will lose control and you won't be able to do anything about it.

"Are you talking about the time when Kota was taken away by him?" Masashi Emoto exhaled and recalled, "That was on Saturday two weeks ago. Right, sister?"

"That's right, Kota didn't have classes at school, and he said in the morning that he wanted to go out and play. Since Kota usually only hangs out with other kids in the nearby park, I didn't stop him. As a result, he didn't come home until 8 o'clock in the evening." Aya Emoto took over the conversation and answered with a frown.

Maori Kogoro's expression fell. "8 o'clock?! The child came back so late. It's a pity that you two didn't call the police at that time."

Some even think that the situation is not serious... You are so careless.

"I almost called the police. I looked for him outside for a long time, and I forgot to bring my phone when I got home. I was ready to call the police. But Kota came back at that moment." Emoto Aya bit her nails and answered anxiously, "I was very relieved and angry at the same time. I asked him why he didn't come back and tell the family. He looked guilty and said he was wrong and would never do that again. He asked me not to tell his parents because they would worry... I didn't have the heart to say anything more to him."

At the end of the day, that’s a five-year-old child who did something wrong, and everyone will only think that the responsibility lies with the parents.

Most adults probably wouldn't have the heart to pursue the matter further if such a young child apologized so earnestly.

"I didn't expect that he would meet such a dangerous person. If I had known, I should have called the police at that time..."

"Well, he has long hair and a beard, so you can't see his face at all. You can say he doesn't care about his appearance, or you can say he's taking the opportunity to hide his true appearance so that Kota can't recognize him. Even if he sees him, he won't be exposed if he tells you back." Maori Kogoro touched his chin, "It's quite dangerous."

"The reason he took Kota away might be that there is no safe at home." Masashi Emoto added, "We don't have the habit of storing cash at home. All the money is in the bank account. The bank cards and deposit certificates are basically with us. There is nothing to steal at home."

"People who know you but are not familiar with your lifestyle may not know about this situation." Maori Kogoro nodded and asked as if he was investigating a kidnapping case. "Do you have a list of possible suspects? Although you said that you made a lot of phone calls to invite people to the party that day, so it is impossible to determine who it is through the phone calls, but the scope of this criminal is actually very small."

"First of all, you called him that day, but he didn't answer. Kota heard your voice because the landline recorded the call and then played it publicly, right?" Takagi Shigeru confirmed first.

"Secondly, when you made this call, Kota definitely didn't go home, which means that the time of the call was between noon and 8 o'clock in the evening." Sato Miwako nodded slowly.

"The most important thing is that this person was not present today." Conan pushed his glasses, "If he came to the social gathering, he definitely wouldn't have had time to rush to your house and take Kota away. We spent enough time driving."

After listening to the prerequisites given by the three of them, Masashi Emoto recalled and nodded slowly.

"If you say so..."

Before he finished speaking, Tang Ze turned his head and made a silent mouth shape.

“…There are indeed three such people.”

Look, what did he say? Standard, too standard.

"One is Rokuda, he was my childhood playmate, we played less together later, but we still have a good relationship. The second one is a junior in my high school, his name is Hikiyamon Shige, he is a bit of a weird otaku, we get along well, but he doesn't like to go out, so it's not surprising that he didn't come. The last one is a regular customer of the gym where I work, his name is Satsuka Yoshikane. I called one to invite him to come and play, and the other one, he hasn't been to our gym for a while, it was also a routine customer greeting..."

Masashi Emoto pointed out these three people with difficulty, and then immediately shook his head to deny it.

"However, the three of them are good people with good character. It is impossible for this to happen."