Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

Maori picked up a paintbrush and saw an obvious bite mark on one end of the pen, probably the result of biting the paintbrush while painting.

It’s true that the old man can’t use his hands anymore, but is he still drawing with his mouth?

Maori felt that there seemed to be some secret between the father-in-law and son-in-law and the master and apprentice.

Chapter 144: Cases between relatives are always such a headache

"What's wrong?" Xiao Ai also bent down and looked around the small studio.

"There's something fishy about this Ichikawa family. Kidd's warning letter must have been arranged by them themselves. I just don't know what their purpose is..."

Maori walked to the open safe next to him and saw a green landscape painting inside. The paint was still very new, and it must have been painted in the last few days.

The safe was not locked in time, and the painting tools were not put away. It seemed that the old man wanted to talk to Takera Ishikawa about something. Could it be about this painting?

After a pause, Maori quickly pulled Ai away.

The old man might come back to clean up at any time, and it would be difficult to explain if we were seen.

"So what?" Ai looked up at Maori.

"Go find Mr. Oikawa..."

In the combat living room, Nakamori Ginzo stared at the computer screen, looking at his watch from time to time, looking impatient, and did not react even when Maori came back.

"Too slow! What on earth is that guy doing? It's already been 10 minutes..."

"I've finished my inspection, officer!" Oikawa Takera's smiling voice came from the intercom, "You can turn on the surveillance camera..."

"Okay! Open it quickly!" Officer Nakamori stared at the surveillance screen impatiently and only breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that everything was normal.

"How is it?" Oikawa Takeyori appeared on the screen, "Can you see it?"

"Okay, get out of that room now!"

"OK……"

"Officer Nakamori," Mao Li wondered, "What are you doing? Is there something wrong with the surveillance?"

"What else could it be?" Nakamori Ginzo complained, "Isn't it because Ishikawa said he wanted to check the painting one last time, but he didn't want others to see it, so he asked to turn off the surveillance camera, saying that he didn't want outsiders to see his unfinished work..."

"Officer Nakamori..."

The corner of Maori's eye twitched, and he looked at Nakamori Ginzo as if he saw an idiot.

No wonder Kidd always fools me...

"Hey, what's with that look in your eyes?" Nakamori snorted, "I've already confirmed that he's not Kidd. Besides, the painting originally belonged to him. Can we still refuse it?"

"Bang!" The power in the villa suddenly tripped, the entire living room went dark, and the surveillance camera also lost its signal instantly.

"How could it be? There are still more than ten minutes left before the scheduled time!" Officer Nakamori looked around with a changed expression, turned on the flashlight and shouted, "Go find the switch, everyone else, follow me to the studio!!"

Maori's eyes darkened, he picked up Ai and followed Nakamori upstairs.

The matter really had nothing to do with Kaito, so what was the purpose? A famous painter wouldn't use his own paintings to cheat people out of money, right?

And this early power outage...

“Dad!” Outside the studio on the second floor, when Nakamori Chika arrived, Oikawa Takeyori was still banging on the door. “Dad, are you okay? Answer me now!”

"what happened?"

"The power went out after the old man went in..." the guard explained to Nakamori.

"Why did you let him into the studio?" Officer Nakamori scolded, "Can't the door be opened?"

"I just locked it," Oikawa Takeyori said anxiously, "I was planning to go look for you first, but suddenly there was a power outage..."

"Where's the key?"

"When I tried to open the door, I lost my grip and I don't know where it fell..."

"Damn it! Never mind, break the door open first!!"

Nakamori Jin's face was solemn. He gritted his teeth and banged on the door with the guard. When the door was slammed open, a strange sound attracted everyone's attention to the window. The pen holder fell down, and it seemed that someone had escaped.

Unlike Nakamori who rushed to the window in panic, Maori calmed down unusually quickly and reached out to grab Oikawa Takeyori in the dim light.

The sound of metal falling to the ground was heard, and Ikawa Takeyori turned back to look at Maori in astonishment: "What are you doing?"

Mao Li used his arms to control Oikawa Takeyori and said, "It must be what you want to do, Mr. Oikawa."

"what happened?"

Several flashlights shone on Maori and Ichikawa Takeyori. Nakamori Ginzo, who was upset when he found out that the painting was missing, turned pale and said, "Maori, what are you doing? The painting was stolen by Kid!"

"Let's leave Kidd's matter to the officer."

Maori looked at the empty easel and frowned slightly.

"This is no longer Kidd's problem..."

"what?"

The power was restored, the lights in the villa came on again, and the scene of the entire studio was clearly revealed. In addition to the open windows, the overturned pen holder, and the empty easel with a white cloth hanging on it, everyone also found Mr. Haruhito Kanhara lying on the other side.

"I just fainted..."

After Maori squatted beside the old man and checked him, he turned his attention to the open flip phone placed above the old man's chest, a dagger dropped beside the old man, a stun gun, and a walkie-talkie in the old man's pocket.

Maori's eyes narrowed slightly, and he turned back to look at Takeyori Ishikawa who was wiping the sweat off his face with a complicated expression.

Before reaching out to stop Oikawa, he noticed the reflection of the dagger. Oikawa's purpose was self-evident...

"Mr. Oikawa..."

"I, I just happened to pick up this knife," Oikawa Takeyori said stiffly, "because I accidentally stepped on it, so I picked it up to have a look..."

"Why are everyone running towards the window, but you are walking towards Mr. Kanhara?" Maori stood up and asked.

"What do you mean?" Iikawa asked angrily, "Do you think I want to kill my father? Are you kidding me?!"

Ginzo Nakamori frowned as he looked at the unconscious Kanhara Haruhito, then looked at Mori and the angry Iikawa Takeyori.

Although he really disliked Mori, Megure's helper, he had to admit that Mori was indeed an expert among experts in solving cases.

"Mori, Mr. Oikawa really had no reason to kill his father-in-law," said Officer Nakamori. "Besides, it was pitch dark here just now, and I couldn't see anything at all, not to mention that Mr. Kanhara was lying on the ground..."

After a pause, Officer Nakamori looked out the window with a headache: "When we broke into the room, we heard the sound of a pen holder falling down. Kidd must have escaped through the window. He must have electrocuted the old man... Hey, what's the situation outside?"

Officer Nakamori leaned out of the window and questioned the mobile team members below. Several mobile team members were already searching in the bushes just below the window.

"We only saw a lot of paintbrushes falling, but no human figures at all..."

"That's impossible. Even if I were to hang glider, it would be very conspicuous."

Officer Nakamori pounded the windowsill angrily.

"Damn it, that guy succeeded again!"

"Is Kid really here?" Maori looked around the studio. "It's not even the announced time yet, and this room..."

"It's an indisputable fact that Qinglan was stolen," Officer Nakamori looked up at the ceiling, "I'm afraid he was hiding in the ceiling compartment and pried open the air conditioning vent to enter the room when the power went out..."

"That's strange. Mr. Kanhara entered the room before the power outage. If he heard any noise, he would have made some noise, right? Besides, the intercom is also here..."

Maori turned to the sweaty Iikawa Takeyori and said, "Although I can ask Mr. Kanhara after he wakes up, I still want to understand the situation first. Mr. Oikawa, why did you lock Mr. Kanhara here alone?"

"There was nothing I could do," Oikawa swallowed, "When I wanted to go out, he came and said he didn't trust the police and Detective Maori, and he wanted to protect the painting himself... Dad is a very stubborn person, so I thought I had to find a police officer to convince him, so I locked the door and left for safety, but as soon as I left, the power went out..."

"Mr. Kanhara, are you really here to protect the painting?" Maori turned to the mobile team member guarding the door, "What happened at that time?"

"Ah, this," the mobile team member at the door pointed blankly at the second door and said, "Mr. Kanhara was standing silently in the corridor at that time, and then he went in from that side..."

"Mr. Kanhara?" the two guards at the second door asked. "When Mr. Ikawa finished his inspection and opened the door, he came over and said loudly, 'Didn't I tell you I have my own ideas?' Then Mr. Ikawa stayed in the studio with Mr. Kanhara for a minute or two..."

“Of course we tried to stop Mr. Kanhara from going in, but Mr. Ishikawa said it would only take a while. We didn’t expect Mr. Kanhara to stay in the studio alone and not come out…”

"About this," Oikawa Takera hurriedly explained, "Actually, my father came to me and told me to protect the painting myself..."

"We'll have to wait until Mr. Kanhara wakes up to confirm this," Maori said sharply, "and there's another question. You went out through the second door, but you were knocking on the first door just now..."

"I told you, I was going to look for the police, but there was a sudden power outage so I came back. I happened to be passing by there and going downstairs..."

"Inspector," a police officer reported, "the key has been found. It seems to have been kicked into the corner of the corridor..."

"Okay, my great detective Maori," Nakamori Ginzo was still thinking about Kid, "I have instructed the guards to hold on to the door handle tightly if there is a power outage, so Kid can only escape through the window. The most important thing now is to track him down and get the painting back quickly. If you really want to investigate, won't everything be clear when the old man wakes up?"

"That's right. I'm a world-renowned artist after all. How could I do something like murdering my father-in-law?"

Oikawa Takera looked at Maori gloomily and snorted, "Detective Maori, don't forget, I asked you to come here to deal with Kaito Kid and help me protect Qinglan. Now, you are suspicious of me... If Qinglan can't be found, I will tell the reporters outside about this!"

Maori remained silent and did not respond.

No matter what, Kanhara Haruhito and Iikawa Takeyori are master and apprentice, and father-in-law and son-in-law. I don’t know who they will speak for when they really wake up.

If his guess is correct, he will probably hide the truth for Oikawa...

By then, when he, a famous detective in Tokyo, faces two world-renowned artists, it will be difficult for him to explain the situation.

It's really troublesome to be involved in a case between relatives. I originally wanted to save people, but ended up getting into trouble...

But then again, there's no telling what impact causing trouble for one's client will have in the future. In the past, there have been negative rumors because clients have always been killed.

Outside the villa, as the news of Kaito Kid's success spread, the reporters became more and more excited. Takeyori Iikawa followed Officer Nakamori to deal with the restless reporters in front of the entrance, and soon only a few police officers were left in the studio.

Maori looked at Kanhara Haruhito who was helped to the chair, and his brows frowned even deeper.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Ai asked, "Is it difficult?"

"A little bit, but I will definitely solve the mystery and find the truth..."

Maori walked to the easel. Behind the easel was a row of cabinets, all locked. No one knew what was locked inside.

Recalling the situation at the time of the power outage, Mao Li looked at the window again.

The strange noise was heard when I broke into the room. It was really too much of a coincidence.

The first door, the easel and the window are all in a straight line, just like the Chinese character “工”.

I-shaped?

Mao Li came to his senses and looked at the layout of the studio again.

The camera was facing the easel, so it could only capture the area around the easel, but not the door or windows. The area below the camera where Kanhara Haruhito fainted was also a blind spot.

The second door that Kanhara Haruhito entered the room through was also a blind spot...

And the 10 minutes when the monitoring was suspended...

All of this was indeed planned by Ikawa. Those 10 minutes were definitely used to arrange the technique. The question is what technique was used.

Mori looked at the two guards standing by the first door, "Did you see anything strange when Mr. Oikawa came here to check?"

"strange things?"

The two guards looked at each other.

"It seems not. Mr. Oikawa asked us to secretly confirm whether the surveillance camera is really turned off..."

"Yes, I whispered to him after opening the door a crack..."

"Did you two go and confirm it?" Maori's eyebrows twitched.

"No, I went alone," the guard added, "After I confirmed it, I came back and knocked on the door twice as a signal... because we agreed that if we knocked once, it would mean that the surveillance was not turned off..."

"A code? He didn't open the door again?"

"Maybe he didn't want us to see the unfinished painting. When he asked us to do it, he also specifically told us not to look into the house and to listen to what he said directly..."

The two guards said helplessly: "However, even if we want to see, the door is only opened a little bit, and Mr. Ikawa's body blocks the inside, and we can only see the side of the easel from this angle..."

"I understand. Thank you."

Maori finished his questioning with a smile on his face.

Just as expected, Ikawa must have used this door to set up some kind of mechanism, so the window moved when he broke in, and the key must have been lost on purpose...

Outside the entrance of the villa, there were more reporters than when Mao Li first arrived, and they were even more frantic, with all their cameras aimed at Takeyori Ichikawa.

"I have a question for Mr. Oikawa. This time the painting was stolen by Kid. Will you paint another one? It's the last painting in the series, "Qinglan"..."

"This..." Oikawa Takeyori suddenly choked up, "Of course I won't draw it anymore, never again..."

The reporter was shocked: "But hasn't 'Qing Lan' been bought? I heard that the money has even been paid..."