Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 262 Detective Level 4
"Are you sure?" Inspector Megure asked hesitantly. "This is no joke. If we're wrong..."

"Alright then, Inspector Megure."

Gao Mo accepted the mission.

“You continue your search as usual. I’ll find out the bomber’s real purpose.”

"But you are alone..."

"enough."

“I’ll go with Officer Matsuda,” Chiba said firmly. “I trust Officer Matsuda.”

“Alright, you all need to be careful,” Megure nodded solemnly. “I don’t want the tragedy of three years ago to repeat itself.”

"Ah."

Gao Mo removed his sunglasses to disguise himself, and then began to gather more information about his surroundings.

Because he absorbed Ye Caisan's criminal guidance, he could also be considered an expert in criminal psychology, especially in dealing with organized crime.

The bomber chose a very strategic location for the explosion, causing chaos but without disrupting the march.

The timing of the detonation was not actually when Chiba approached the car, but after the parade convoy had passed by.

The perpetrators were undoubtedly trying to divert the police's attention from the protests.

"Matsuda!"

After completing his assigned task, Sato ran over with Takagi. Seeing Gao Mo, who remained calm at the scene of the explosion, Sato felt as if he had returned to the past. The two Matsuda figures overlapped, and he could vaguely see the black-robed Grim Reaper holding a scythe.

The whole world turned gray.

"Officer Sato?" Takagi glanced at Sato, who was silent beside him, and was surprised to find that there seemed to be tears in the corners of Sato's eyes.

"I'm going to check out other places... I'll leave this place to you." Sato, still using the ends of his hair to cover his eyes, hurriedly lowered his head and walked away.

This was the first time Takagi had ever seen Sato in such a vulnerable state.

"Officer Sato, she..."

"She really has a hard time letting go of that." Shiratori's mood worsened.

Losing to Takagi seems much better than losing to a dead person.

“Matsuda,” Shiratori said, turning to Gao Mo, “I’m leaving this to you. Don’t become the next Matsuda.”

It sounded a bit convoluted, but Gao Mo nodded nonetheless: "Don't worry."

"But where do we even begin the investigation?" Chiba asked, chasing after Gao Mo. "We don't even know who planted the bomb. With so many people around, even if there are witnesses, we probably won't get any information."

“Go check the nearby trash cans and see if there are any discarded cameras,” Gao Mo said to Yuan Tai and his group, who were still troubled. “If the prisoner didn’t stay and instead took advantage of the riot to leave, he should have thrown them in the trash cans on the way to the nearby station.”

"Huh?" Chiba was completely confused, but he immediately got to work.

"Officer Matsuda?"

Yuan Tai and the others had been eavesdropping the whole time. When they saw Gao Mo approaching, their hearts skipped a beat, and they put on obedient smiles.

"Mitsuhiko's camera has been stolen, we're looking for it here..."

"Do you remember what we filmed?" Gao Mo asked the children, temporarily ignoring Sonoko's intense gaze.

Before figuring out the cause of Sonoko's death... no, before finding out the specific source of the trouble, he had been avoiding the girl as much as possible these past few days, planning to investigate properly once his detective persona was removed.

Because, according to the premonition, it seems to be related to him.

“I don’t remember,” Mitsuhiko said, pulling out a videotape. “But the footage is all here. Since there was only a small portion left on the tape, I managed to replace it with a new one before the camera was stolen…”

"Officer Matsuda!"

Chiba had only been gone a short while when he excitedly ran back.

"Found it! There really is a discarded camera, right in the trash can outside the station!"

"It's my camera!"

Mitsuhiko was stunned.

He had already resigned himself to his fate, but then the police found him and brought him back.

"That's amazing, how did you find it?"

"Officer Matsuda is amazing," Chiba said, his face beaming. "He's incredible! He said he'd be there, and he was there!"

Conan, standing behind, silently pursed his lips.

What's so impressive about that? It's just simple reasoning.

He was originally planning to look in the nearby trash cans as well.

But what exactly is Kido trying to do? Isn't he afraid of being exposed by impersonating a policeman?

"Let's take a look at the video first." Gao Mo put the videotape in Guang Yan's hand into the camera.

"The videotapes inside were taken?"

Conan stood on tiptoe to check, and when he discovered that Gao Mo was playing the video at high speed, his eye twitched again.

Hey, is this how you watch videos?
What can you see this way? You might miss some details.

“If that person took the videotape, either he was a crazy fan or he didn’t want to be filmed as a bomb-planting criminal,” Conan said in a mature tone, interjecting thoughtfully. “Because the police will definitely investigate the people who took the videotape afterward… If he finds out that he took a blank tape, he might come back.”

"What the prisoner is afraid of is not what was filmed, but what wasn't filmed. The videotapes that were taken away have probably been destroyed."

Gao Mo handed the camera to Chiba, interrupting Conan's deduction.

"There really wasn't anything useful on this videotape. It was a mess, and most of the time it was just showing legs."

Mitsuhiko blushed and explained, "Because I forgot to turn off the power, there was no filming in between..."

"It's alright. I roughly understand the prisoner's thoughts and real goal. I'll return the camera to you another day."

"What?" Conan, who was still wanting to watch the video more closely, looked completely bewildered.

No, he hasn't even figured it out yet, so how can he act like he knows everything?
Hey hey!

"It's a postal service vehicle. The postman who was supposed to come while you were filming never showed up."

Gao Mo turned his gaze to the mailbox by the roadside, and the mail delivery time marked on the mailbox was exactly the time when Mitsuhiko took the picture.

"The perpetrators were probably two groups; one group used the bombing to attract the police's attention, while the other hijacked the post office's mail collection vehicle."

"Officer Matsuda!"

Chiba's expression changed drastically after receiving a phone call.

"Another explosion has occurred over the parade convoy, this time at the intersection of Beika Municipal Park. Inspector Megure is mobilizing all nearby officers to the front of the parade route to apprehend the bomber!"

"here we go."

Gao Mo glanced at the time and quickly reviewed the Mihua map in his mind.

It's hard to say about the whole of Tokyo, but at least in the Beika and Beika areas, he can already build virtual reality maps—ever since Ai got the little motorcycle, he's been going to supermarkets in various places for discounts and raffles.

"There's a post office on the opposite side of the parade route. The mail collection truck usually returns to the post office at 4:30 pm. It's closed on weekends, so there aren't many staff on duty. And near the end of the month, the post office has a lot of cash..."

The streets around Gao Mo seemed to blur, and a large amount of data converged and combined to reconstruct the entire criminal plan of the group.

Under the simulation of the crime, plans appeared in his mind, as if he had really become the criminal who planned everything.

Not a very clever criminal plan, but it was very effective because of the case three years ago.

“Chiba,” Gao Mo’s expression returned to calm, “have Inspector Megure secretly mobilize a portion of the police force to infiltrate the nearby post office and tell them that the bomber’s real identity is a post office thief. They should be split into two groups now. If you want to catch the bomber, hide your identities and stake out the post office.”

"I understand!" Chiba's expression turned serious.

Conan, who had finally managed to get his hands on the recording, was stunned for a long time.

So sure?

It's just that the postman didn't show up. Without any concrete evidence, you're directly concluding that it's a post office thief? Aren't you afraid of making a mistake?

Yes, Kido must have known about the post office robbery from the beginning.

Impersonating a police officer is a way to more easily obtain intelligence.

Conan had a knowing look on his face.

You can't suddenly have a breakthrough and start dating in the Metropolitan Police Department.

……

Beika Municipal Park.

Just after dealing with the bombing incident, Megure received a call from Chiba. The deduction of the post office thief surprised everyone in the group.

"Officer, it's still uncertain whether there really is a post office thief, and the higher-ups are unlikely to agree to change the direction of the investigation..."

“I don’t think Matsuda would make assumptions lightly,” Inspector Megure struggled for a moment before quickly making a decision. “Shiratori, you guys continue leading the team to disperse the protesters. I’ll go meet up with Matsuda, just in case!”

"Are they really just a bunch of robbers?" Sato asked, looking dazed.

“We were indeed too sensitive. Matsuda saw things much better,” Megure nodded. “The other party may also be trying to imitate the bomber from three years ago, but we did not release the specific content of the fax, so this fax was very casual, and the bomb was also very simple. It’s completely different from the style of the previous bomber.”

Mika Post Office.

When Gao Mo received Megure's response, his gaze flickered slightly.

He had expected to spend a lot of time explaining.

After all, the safety of the protesters is far more important than the robbery of the post office. Regardless of whether the bomb explosion distracts the police, the top brass of the Metropolitan Police Department needs to prioritize the safety of the protesters.

Not to mention he couldn't produce any compelling evidence.

Having witnessed the disguised detectives infiltrate the post office, Gao Mo abandoned his plan to personally deal with the post office thief.

These post office thieves had a good idea, but they made the mistake of provoking the police by using a bombing case from three years ago.

It's important to know that the bombing didn't happen just 3 years ago; it actually occurred 7 years ago, and Matsuda Jinpei wasn't the only police officer who lost his life.

Gao Mo felt a slight pang of regret.

He actually quite wanted the bomber to resurface, not just this group of post office thieves.

Through Matsuda Jinpei's soul, he gradually came to feel a strong desire to end the bombing case, which reached its peak at the moment the explosion occurred today.

At 4:30 p.m., a mail collection vehicle was preparing to return to the post office. Instead of going to the back garage, it parked directly in front of the post office.

A group of post office thieves carefully got off the bus and followed the hostage postman into the post office.

Soon after, Takagi led his team to surround the mail truck and rescued the other bound postmen from inside. A group of police officers quickly poured out of the post office, and the post office thieves in the middle all raised their hands in confusion, completely unaware of what was going on.

"Wait a minute, aren't you guys over there with the parade convoy?"

"Where did all these police officers come from?"

"Stop arguing! Your actions have been seen through! Quickly tell us the whereabouts of the others!"

"Where are those guys who planted the bombs? Tell me now!"

Gao Mo put his sunglasses back on and got into the car that Chiba had driven to the side of the road.

It wasn't that he was being lazy and not participating in the arrest operation, but Inspector Megure and the others seemed to regard him as a pure detective expert—it's impossible for him to be both smart and skilled.

[Detective Level 3 - 4]

Huh?
Gao Mo paused slightly as he looked at the projected text that appeared before him.

[Talent: Driving Proficiency]

(End of this chapter)