Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 956 Crime Lover

"What are you talking about, little kids..."

"Oh, Dad has received a new commission. The fee is very high, but the client looks a little strange." Raising the invitation letter in her hand, Mao Lilan handed it to Conan.

"Another invitation letter. Hmm, that's weird. It's also weird that they specifically ask Mr. Mori to bring the Junior Detective Team. Normal clients wouldn't do that, would they?" Conan, who was no longer interested in this kind of thing, looked at it casually. When he saw the content at the end of the letter, he finally widened his eyes, "Hey, wait a minute, this number...?!"

"Hush!" Mao Lilan raised her finger and whispered, "It's nearly ten times the price of an ordinary commission...but the letter didn't clearly state what needs to be investigated...so it's very strange."

You know, Kogoro Mouri has long been a top detective in the Tokyo detective world, not only in terms of reputation, but also in terms of price.

Giving a tenfold premium on this basis is already unusual enough, coupled with such vague explanation lines...

"It sounds like a very troublesome matter." Conan immediately understood what she meant.

"He's so rich, but he still has so many strange and special requests. Either he's a rich man with lots of free time and is ready to spend some money on some fun, or it's probably a very tricky matter." Maori Kogoro stroked his mustache disdainfully. "Rich people have a lot of troubles. It's never an easy job for a private detective who specializes in taking commissions from rich people."

In this world, human power and desire often complement each other, and the former is always inseparable from money.

The commissions related to them are always inevitably involved in some complicated entanglements, or the matters themselves have strong confidentiality requirements, and then there is the matter of voluntary price increase...

"Rather than inviting kids to play, it's more like asking us to bring a group of 'hostages'." Maori Kogoro rolled his eyes, feeling that he was looked down upon and was quite unhappy. "Am I the kind of guy who is greedy for money?"

"Well, we don't know the situation yet, so we can't make such malicious assumptions about others." Shaking her head, Mao Lilan still gave some leeway, "Maybe the other party really needs everyone in the Junior Detective Team to do something."

"Hmph, I hope so..."

Conan studied the invitation in his hand, thoughtfully.

He didn't have any idea about the amount of money. Even if he accepted the commission, the money would not fall into his hands.

He just couldn't help but think about what case a similar invitation had brought last time.

Thinking of this, he secretly took out his cell phone, ran to the window, and secretly sent out several emails while Kogoro Mouri was still discussing with Ran Mouri.

The replies came quickly, and almost everyone he asked gave a definite answer in a very short time.

After quickly flipping through it, Conan understood everything and raised his head to say, "Why not just give this contact a call and ask them what they think. If they insist on bringing the Junior Detective Team with them, I can talk to Professor Agasa."

Since they were going to pick up the Junior Detective League, there was certainly no need to use the excuse that the client asked to take the children with them. The invitation from Dr. Agasa, a kind old man who often took children out traveling, sounded much more natural.

"…Is there any reason why you have to go? If it's because of the amount of money, dad's work has been going well recently..." Mao Lilan was a little confused, but she still gave him a way out.

Conan just smiled and said, "Since the other party is so sincere, there's nothing wrong with going to see what's going on, right?"

As for the reason? Of course...

----

"Another commission in Tokyo." Hattori Heiji looked at the contents of the envelope and sighed deeply, "I've been in Tokyo for so many days. If I keep having to refill my meals, I might as well transfer to Tokyo..."

This time he came to Tokyo following the Suzuki Group case, but the investigation was not going well, and he is not in a very good mood now.

He was unable to stop the actions of Kaito Kidd in his territory, and he was also unable to stop the hunt for Kaito Kidd, and the hunt for the hunter who hunted Kaito Kidd...

This sounds a bit confusing, but in short, in this phantom thief incident that happened in Osaka, he only played the role of an atmosphere group from beginning to end.

Apart from following Conan around and paying for a few meals for Tang Ze and others, he basically played no decisive role.

Not willing to accept this, he heard that there were other cases in the art museum, so he volunteered, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to continue to participate in solving the subsequent cases.

If I can't catch Kaito Kidd, can I catch you, Scoobbin, whose identity and appearance have been exposed?

——After all, this happened in Osaka, so he didn’t overstep the line.

As a result, before he could figure out the truth of the matter, he had just received the entry and exit records of Scott Bin shared with him by the police when he received a notice from the Suzuki Group claiming that the exhibits had been recovered and the investigation could be concluded.

"Although the police believe that Scobin did it this time, we all know that she couldn't have the time to do such a thing. It is estimated that the thief is someone else. Seeing that the police search target is not him, he contacted the Suzuki Group again, extorted some ransom privately, and returned the things." Bai Ma Tan looked at the letter in his hand that was exactly the same as the one from Kaito Kid, and answered casually without much care, "It is not easy to turn such a conspicuous thing into cash, it is better to negotiate directly with the Suzuki Group."

"That's true..." Hattori Heiji exhaled, "Scoopin is active in our sight almost every day. On the day of the banquet, she was busy going to the dock to snipe Kidd, and there was no way she could make it to the art museum. The real criminal is someone else."

"Her fate may be much more miserable than those who died at her hands." Hakuba raised his eyes, his brown-red pupils glowing slightly under the sunlight, and with the smile on his lips, Hattori Heiji had the illusion that he saw Akechi Goro for a moment. "What I'm investigating is very dangerous. If her identity is really exposed to certain people, she will regret not confessing her crime the first time she saw me."

"…What you said is a bit too scary." Hattori Heiji's mouth twitched.

"Crime is terrible, but there are always more terrifying things than this." Bai Ma shrugged, not interested in continuing the conversation. "Anyway, this theft case has nothing to do with Scobin. I have no intention of continuing to investigate."

Detective Bai Ma is not very interested in theft cases, especially theft cases targeting wealthy people.

It's not that this is not a crime, but compared to other cases, unless it's like Kaito Kid, where the theft techniques are so varied that it can arouse his curiosity to find out the truth, other cases of this type are often not complicated, but involve many interest chains, which are neither interesting nor the truth is often disgusting.

If possible, Baibatan still wants to be a detective who pursues the truth and social justice and can be of some help to the world.

Just like Osaka this time, he was not attracted by the Egg of Memory, but followed in her footsteps after his intelligence network was triggered by the appearance of Scobin.

And now, the attraction of this invitation is much greater than any stolen precious treasure.

"It's this letter." Without further elaborating on these questions, Bai Ma explored and used practical actions to prove which case was more interesting. He pinched the folded card between two fingers and turned it towards the light a few times. "This is a handwritten letter. It doesn't use carbon ink, and the paper used is also very exquisite. It's definitely not something you can buy at a roadside stationery store."

Hattori Heiji's attention was immediately diverted. He imitated Hakuba's movements and studied the paper as well, and soon discovered some clues.

"You're right. You can see the special watermark when you hold it up to the light." Hattori Heiji nodded slowly. "This is a specially customized paper."

"And it's probably that kind of special handmade paper, which has a special supply channel." Putting down the card, Bai Ma Tan picked up the envelope on the side, "The situation of the envelope is a little different."

"Well, the paper used is also very fine, but this is obviously a special envelope produced in batches. Hotel? Souvenirs from a scenic spot? Or, some specific institutions will use it?" Hattori Heiji followed his reasoning.

"I vote for the hotel. The paper is all brand new, it doesn't look like it has been used very often."

"It's normal for someone who is paid so much to use custom-made stationery to write an invitation, but for the hotel..."

"Long-term rental? Some business people do have similar habits."

"It's possible..."

"Look at his handwriting. It's very steady. There's basically no difference between your letter and the one I gave you."

"You want to say that he is emotionally stable? By the way, why did he give you more than I did? Can we treat each other differently like this?"

"I wonder if someone else copied it. If more than one invitation letter like this was sent out, it would be too tiring to copy each one manually."

"That makes sense. Rich people always have housekeepers or secretaries to do the work for them..."

The two detectives ignored the pile of documents and reports on the table and began to study the two envelopes and their contents.

After a lot of reasoning, Bai Ma Tan finally raised his head.

He glanced at the pile of information that no one was interested in and suddenly laughed.

"It seems like a detective gathering that no one can miss." Hakuba pointed to the new materials on the side that were obtained from their trip to Osaka. "Do you think Akechi-kun will receive the same commission?"

"...Of course they will." Hattori Heiji waved the things in his hand, "Just like what the Suzuki family is thinking, since they are not short of money anyway, why not find the most expensive one."

"And Akechi almost never refuses commissions from wealthy people." Bai Ma twitched his lips. "Instead of giving any clear information, he casts a wide net to look for famous detectives? Now I am indeed a little curious about the client's situation."

----

"What else could it be? A psychopath."

In response to his teammates' questions, Tang Ze remained unshakable and answered decisively.

"What's wrong? You just saw a request and you know it?" Matsuda Jinpei had just come up to help Morobushi Keimitsu hold back Tang Ze who was obviously in a state of anxiety. Hearing this, he made a strange expression and said, "I know that your cognitive ability is close to a miracle, but this is a bit too miraculous."

Just by looking at the invitation letter that was completely a riddle, without knowing the name of the client or the content of the commission, how could one match the accurate information so quickly...

"Why haven't you uprooted that organization yet?" Matsuda Jinpei asked sincerely, "Don't you like it?"

Even Karasawa, who had a stern face and was sentencing Ito Suehiko in his heart, couldn't help but glance at Matsuda Jinpei when he heard this.

What else could it be? Because the spoiler wasn’t written!

Of course, this kind of thing cannot be said directly, so Tang Ze just casually said: "Organizations are different from ordinary people. They have their own defense system in terms of understanding the world. It's not like you haven't seen it before."

"Hmm..." Jinpei Matsuda touched his chin and didn't say whether he believed it or not. He just silently exchanged glances with his friends.

Tang Ze's tone doesn't sound like that at all...

"In short, the person who invited me is a psychopath." Tang Ze shook the envelope and said unhappily, "If you really want to talk about his situation, he is just bored."

Everyone knows that Tang Ze is a very unforgiving person with a tongue.

But compared to a direct scolding or angrily, Tang Ze would generally choose a more tactful method, such as using sarcasm, making indirect accusations, hiding a needle in a cotton ball, or hiding a knife in a smile...

It was rare for him to scold someone in such a confident tone, and this time, even Asai Narimi, who had not originally intended to stop him and was watching the show from the side, raised his eyebrows and became curious.

"Let me put it simply. This client should be called Ito Suehiko, a, um, crime enthusiast." Tang Ze couldn't help but reveal a hint of disgust when he thought of his deeds.

"What does a crime lover mean?" Zhu Fujingguang stroked his chin. "Is he the kind of person who worships criminals? So he invited the detective with no good intentions?"

"It means he's really bad, pure amateur level."

Tang Ze first pointed at himself, then pointed at several well-known outlaws in the Phantom Thieves.

"crime."

Then he shook the letter in his hand again.

"Crime lover."

I mean the kind who are both bad at playing and love to have fun, who have too much money and eat too much, and have too much free time to do anything so they want to sing praises of suffering and feel the poetic and romantic life, and then they snipe at a motionless corpse, seven shots to outline the human body...

Ito Suehiko might still think that he is Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, full of poetry, deconstruction, surrealism, romance and rebellion...

In fact, he almost finished it.

(End of this chapter)