No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

"That's it. Just keep Kitahara Masaki calm and don't do anything unnecessary. That policeman's intuition is better than ours, and besides, from your description, I know that he doesn't care about the rules at all. It's a good thing he became a policeman."

"Really? He'll thank the security guard who opened the door for us, and he'll also thank the convenience store clerk."

"Does that matter? What matters is that he knows we illegally entered the country! He also knows we're mortal enemies with the Black Organization! These two things alone are enough to make him—well, we're going to move into the rooms he lent us tomorrow. I only agreed to this to keep him calm, otherwise if he directly reports our situation to the police, my identity will be completely exposed."

And so, the worried mother watched as her confident daughter went out to solve the case.

Kitahara Masaki, who had already driven over, had Sera Masumi sit in the passenger seat and then immediately headed to a law firm.

"Officer Kitahara, what do we do now? The bartender has been caught red-handed. Could it be that the real culprit left behind some evidence?"

"Hehe, no, even that anonymous call to the police was made through someone else's phone, not to mention the victim's room was cleaned up completely. We don't have any clues to tell which of the other two suspects is the real culprit."

"Hmm—we can apply for a search warrant to inspect those two people's homes! Ah, no, that won't work either. This murderer is so careful; she must have already dealt with all the evidence that could prove she was the murderer. Sigh—what a pity. If only there were security cameras in the building where the victim who drowned in her own home was found."

Kitahara Masaki slammed on the brakes and stopped at the side of the road.

"Wouldn't it be better if there were surveillance cameras?"

"Yes, it would be great if there were surveillance cameras."

"Then—let's set up a trap. We'll visit people who have a grudge against the other two suspects, and have them act out a scene for us—saying they actually filmed the suspects committing the crime. That way, the real culprit will definitely get upset and make a move against him!"

Kitahara Masaki, reminded by Sera, thought of using entrapment; a few 'white lies' should be enough to lure the criminals in.

Chapter 278 Can you dress up as a delinquent girl?

Then Kitahara Masaki's fishing plan went very smoothly. The real culprit was the secretary Tsuda. After being 'blackmailed' by a fabricated video, she planned to repeat her old trick, take water from a nearby ditch, go to the house of the person she wanted to kill, electrocute him, and then make it look like he had accidentally drowned.

Unfortunately, when she arrived at the door with that set of equipment, she was met by the police from the First Investigation Division, who caught her red-handed. This also opened Sera Masumi's eyes. Although entrapment is illegal, under Kitahara Masaki's coordination, it became clear that the real culprit had misunderstood someone else's intentions and planned to kill them. This made the real culprit's situation in court even more unfavorable, and for a moment even the judge was unsure whether the person in front of him was a witness or a lawyer.

Just as Kitahara Masaki was dominating the courtroom, Sera Masumi took the opportunity to sneak into the Mouri Detective Agency, where she happened to run into Hattori Heiji, who had come to Tokyo to see Conan. Coincidentally, a murder had also occurred nearby. Thinking that it was better to be lucky than early, Sera immediately suggested, "Let's see who has the stronger reasoning ability, the East or the West." Having had several encounters with Conan before, Sera believed that he was likely Kudo Shinichi, and suggested that Conan contact Kudo and act as Kudo Shinichi's proxy.

The two, completely unsuspecting in front of the high school girl, immediately agreed, and neither of them saw Sera Masumi's smile after her scheme succeeded.

Thus, even though Kitahara Masaki was trying to delay Sera's investigation of Conan, he never imagined that a high school boy's desire to impress the girl he liked could override his reason.

After the murder case was solved, Kitahara Masaki listened to Conan's retelling and gave him a sharp chop to the neck before remarking that even a straightforward girl like Sera could be cunning.

"Brother Kitahara, is there something wrong with this case?"

"Heh, I don't want to talk to you, you love idiot."

Kitahara Masaki has now made Haibara and Conan's relationship just a normal 'classmate' relationship. The two spend most of their time together at school. Moreover, Haibara has changed her appearance with Vermouth's help and will not be noticed by others for the time being.

Moreover, it's inevitable that Conan is being targeted by Sera; this guy always seems to be targeted by all sorts of people, which is probably one of the laws of Conan studies.

----------------

Several more days passed. During this time, Kitahara Masaki took Sera Masumi to solve cases everywhere. Even though she was a high school student who had practiced Taekwondo, she was exhausted from Kitahara Masaki's antics. After finishing her afternoon case-solving work each day, she would go straight home to rest.

Mary Akai also realized Kitahara Masaki's true purpose—to prevent Sera from investigating other matters—which made her begin to suspect that Kitahara Masaki might know some information they wanted.

However, besides wanting Sera Masumi to have no time to investigate Conan, Kitahara Masaki also wanted to take her around to see if he could lure out Akai Shuichi, who was definitely still in Tokyo.

However, after finishing his work for the day, around 9 PM, he suddenly received a call from Inspector Megure, saying that a child had been kidnapped. Kitahara Masaki, who couldn't stand idly by in the face of such a case, rushed back to the Metropolitan Police Department.

"Takagi, tell me the details of the case directly."

"Okay! Elementary school lets out at 4 PM, and fifth-grader Nagata Hiroto still hasn't come home. His parents went to the police station at 8 PM to inquire, and soon after, the kidnappers called, demanding a ransom of 300 million yen. Although Nagata Hiroto's father is unemployed, his mother runs a jewelry company that exports overseas, so the kidnappers must have targeted that. The crime scene is in Okuho Town, and the current investigation headquarters is located at the local police station. I'd appreciate it if you could go there and take charge!"

Just as Kitahara Masaki arrived at the investigation headquarters with his belongings, Inspector Megure and Koshimizu Nanatsuki were already waiting for him there.

"Brother Kitahara, you'll be in charge of the rescue operation. I hope you don't find it too much trouble."

“It concerns a fifth-grade child. If I were to refuse, I might as well take off this police uniform right away.”

"Haha! So I'm counting on you for this case. The hostage's parents are also in there."

Kitahara Masaki nodded, first comforting the hostage's parents for a few words before immediately starting to arrange the search. Knowing the hostage's usual route to and from school meant that the perpetrator must have thoroughly investigated the hostage's situation and understood the hostage's family circumstances before carrying out this kidnapping.

The prisoner must know that the hostage's parents are preparing the ransom, so the time for the ransom payment should be announced tomorrow. After all, the location for the ransom payment will be announced and someone will be sent there immediately, otherwise the prisoner will face a large police presence.

So after sending out several detectives to investigate the hostage family's social situation, Kitahara Masaki began to rest, because the phone call would definitely come tomorrow, and now was the time for the criminals to prepare the ransom for the hostage's parents.

As Kitahara Masaki had predicted, the kidnappers called the following afternoon:

"Hey! Is the money ready?"

The person who answered the phone was naturally the hostage's mother.

"It's almost done! Can I hear Hiroto's voice?"

"There is a coin locker at 3-12-5 Suidobashi, Chiyoda Ward. Put the money in the locker before 4:00 AM tomorrow. The key is on top of the locker. After putting the money in, lock it and put the key back in its original place. The hostage's mother will deliver the money. If a transmitter or something similar is installed, I will kill the hostage immediately."

After stating his demands, the prisoner immediately hung up the phone, completely seizing control. The cybersecurity officer immediately stood up and said:

"The source of the signal was on a driveway in Saitama Prefecture, and there were no surveillance cameras around."

Knowing where the culprit made the call, Kitahara Masaki naturally needed someone to investigate, even though the chances of catching him were slim.

"Go find Inspector Ogino, who worked with us last time. I remember she's a prefectural police officer in Saitama Prefecture. Everyone else, expand the search area. The fact that the criminal went to such a far place to make a phone call means he must have a way to move quickly, so he was probably driving. Quickly cooperate with the Saitama Prefectural Police to investigate suspicious vehicles!"

Knowing the location of the ransom transaction in advance makes it easier for the police to set up defenses.

Kitahara Masaki quickly formulated a defense plan after looking at the map. After instructing the police officers, he still needed to explain the plan to the hostage's parents.

"Please note that if you want to drive to the transaction location, you must go through Asahi Street or Koume Street. Only after turning off these two streets will you see the lockers for delivering the ransom. Therefore, we will have people stationed on these two streets and near the lockers. Please rest assured."

After telling the two worried parents about his plan, Kitahara Masaki stared at the map in deep thought, feeling that something was amiss.

Standing to the side, Nanatsuki Koshimizu asked:

"Inspector Kitahara, is there a problem with this place?"

"This place is crowded with all sorts of people, and the surrounding geography is complicated. It's normal for the prisoners to ask for the ransom to be paid in such an easy place to escape. But what I didn't expect was that the prisoners actually gave us a day. Doesn't that mean we have a long time to set up defenses?"

Kitahara Masaki tapped the table with his index finger, then turned to see Koshimizu Nanatsuki, whose face looked no different from that of a high school student, and asked:

Would you pretend to be a delinquent girl?

Chapter 279 The Traitor is Actually the Hostage's Parents

The next day, which happened to be Saturday, Kitahara Maki asked Sera Masumi to come and help.

"Yueshui, take Shiliang with you to the lockers. You two should put on that kind of delinquent makeup first, and it would be best to disguise yourselves as drug addicts."

"Are we supposed to pretend to be people buying medicine? And would anyone actually use those lockers for drug transactions?"

Sera was intrigued by this and didn't mind pretending to be a drug-addicted delinquent at all.

"Of course there are. Section Four has arrested several groups of people like this recently. It's fortunate that you two were there this time, otherwise the other police officers really wouldn't have been able to get this close."

When the two turned around, they saw a group of men with fierce eyes. Takagi and Chiba were the kind-looking ones among them.

After assigning the two women to monitor the area near the lockers, Kitahara Maki still felt it wasn't secure enough. The location was complex, and although there were only two main roads, the nearby alleys could be difficult to navigate if the criminals could escape quickly.

So he called Vermouth, who happened to be free that day. Kitahara Masaki asked her to take Conan and pretend to be mother and son, and to walk around the buildings and alleys near the lockers to see if there were any loopholes in his security plan.

Conan readily agreed, as he was more than happy to participate in the police investigation in this way. Vermouth was also very interested in the little brat Conan. She had previously seen through Haibara's identity as Shiho Miyano, and through logical deduction, she deduced that this brat named Conan was very likely Shinichi Kudo, who always appeared in the newspapers. In other words, this brat was actually Yukiko's son.

Vermouth followed behind Conan, silently watching the kid's performance. Conan was also very helpful, running around in this place with several buildings. He quickly located an apartment building near the lockers. There was a maintenance notice posted on the door of the building, which specified when the automatic door would be maintained. The maintenance time was around 4 pm, the day the ransom was to be paid.

Upon seeing the notice, Vermouth immediately used her acting skills to pretend to be a guest visiting the residents, and got the building manager to open the door for them. After entering the apartment building, they discovered that the back door of the building led to a small alley, which in turn led to a main road.

Realizing the prisoner might escape through this route, Vermouth immediately dialed Kitahara Masaki's number and asked:

Have you deployed police cars on Xueyuan East Street?

"No, but we have arrangements on Asahi Street in front of the Academy East Street."

"Here's the thing, there's an apartment building near the lockers. Just go through the back door of that building and you'll be taken directly to East College Street. It's not hard to hail a taxi on that street. And there's a notice posted in front of the building saying the automatic access control system is being repaired between 3 PM and 5 PM. That means the prisoner who got the money around 4 PM—"

"You can escape through there! I understand. I'll send officers to that building right now. You all need to leave immediately."

Kitahara Masaki immediately notified the police officers at the scene about the building, and he told the hostage's parents not to rush to deliver the ransom. The hostage's mother originally planned to deliver the ransom at 3 o'clock, but now the deployment plan needed to be changed, so Kitahara Masaki asked Mrs. Nagata to wait a while.

Why should I wait?

"Don't worry, we have just discovered what appears to be the escape route used by the criminal. We will immediately send officers to that location to set up defenses. As long as the criminal escapes through there, we will definitely be able to catch him!"

Mr. Nagata then asked in confusion:

"What kind of passage are you talking about? Aren't police cars already blocking two main roads?"

"Here's the thing, there's an apartment building with a back door that leads to the third main road, and there's a notice that was just posted today."

After explaining the situation to the parents of the two hostages, Kitahara Masaki returned to his command post and awaited reports from his subordinates.

After that, Conan didn't find any more suspicious buildings, so Kitahara Masaki told Mrs. Nagata to leave immediately, and the ransom was successfully placed at 3:45.

Koshimizu Nanatsuki and Sera Masumi appeared near the lockers, chatting and laughing while holding milk tea. Their clothes and wigs made them look exactly like two delinquent girls.

However, to Kitahara Masaki's dismay, it was already 4 p.m., but no one had come to collect the ransom. Just when everyone was getting impatient for the prisoner, the prisoner suddenly made a phone call to Mrs. Nagata, leaving only the words "transaction canceled" before hanging up.

This was unbelievable to all the police officers, including Kitahara Masaki. It could be said that only Koshimizu Nanatsuki and Sera Masumi were near the lockers, while the rest of the police force was deployed at the intersection and the back door of the building. If the criminal went to get the money, he would at most see two delinquent girls, and those menacing-looking uncles would definitely not be around.

According to the subsequent investigation by the cybersecurity department, the perpetrator was indeed near the locker when he called, but he still didn't come to collect the money. Kitahara Masaki then investigated the repair notice about the building and learned from the surveillance footage that it was posted that morning by a person wearing a hat and mask and dressed in repairman's clothes. Apart from being able to tell that he was male, there were no other clues.

Kitahara Masaki sat in his office chair, deep in thought, reviewing what went wrong with the ransom delivery operation—the biggest problem, of course, was the building itself, because Kitahara Masaki himself was unfamiliar with the layout, so it was unavoidable that the criminals took advantage of this...

Wait a minute, so the criminals were acting according to the police's initial deployment plan, but the deal was canceled after their escape route was blocked!

In other words—there's a mole!

At the time, only a few officers on the scene and the hostage's parents knew that the police deployment plan had been changed at the last minute, and the officers who were notified to change the surveillance location were a pair of red team partners - Takagi and Chiba.

So the only person who could have told the kidnappers that the police were temporarily keeping watch over the building was the hostage's parents!

In a flash, Kitahara Masaki immediately instructed Takagi to apply for a search warrant from the court. The target of the search was naturally the cell phone records of the hostage's parents, the Nagata couple.

However, just as Kitahara Masaki had predicted, Mr. Nagata was actually connected to the kidnappers, as the text message records showed that he had sent a message to an unknown number about the police deployment plan.

Having obtained the decisive evidence, Kitahara Masaki naturally went to Mr. Nagata and had to question him in person why he had done this!

Chapter 280 How did my sister become the police who came to arrest me?

"Actually, I felt something was off from the beginning. In these kinds of kidnapping cases, perpetrators usually specify the location and method of ransom delivery on the spot to reduce their own risk. But in this case, the perpetrators specifically informed us of the delivery time and location a day in advance. Isn't that as if they were deliberately trying to give us, the police, a heads-up? But if the perpetrators know the deployment plan, they can devise countermeasures against the police's deployment. That's right, even if that building's repair notice was posted on the day the ransom was paid, it was a countermeasure devised by the kidnappers after they received the deployment plan yesterday to ensure a successful escape."

Kitahara Masaki arrived at the Nagata couple's house, and to calm himself down, he slowly recounted what had happened.

"But how did the criminal know about the police deployment?"