Chapter 1281 Cracking the Code

Detective White Horse: Is Kuroba a hidden reasoning genius?

Although Kuroba Kaito does not show any reasoning ability in his daily life, Detective Hakuba always feels that there seems to be some secret hidden in him.

Moreover, Kuroba Kaito is also the person he currently thinks is closest to Kaitou Kidd.

But having said that, this was the first time I noticed this——

That is Kuroba Kaito's face, so similar to Kudo Shinichi's face...

Detective Hakuba relayed Kuroba Kaito's reasoning to the police in Brightchester, who then notified the deceased's close relatives and friends to come over.

While waiting for the suspect to arrive, Conan conducted a second round of careful evidence collection at the scene.

Because he always felt that if the murderer had tortured the deceased, it might have been to get something from the deceased.

Conan took advantage of his height advantage to walk back and forth in the office, and he discovered something unusual.

The computer host is placed in the grid under the desk, and the dust on the base of the chassis looks like there are some scratches.

This indicates that someone has moved the chassis.

Conan ducked under the desk and looked at the side cover of the chassis with the light of a watch-type flashlight. He found that one of the four screws was not tightened very firmly.

Could it be...

If it were Japan, Conan would say "Ah, hey, that's really weird..."

But now in the UK, there is a mouth substitute beside me, so there is no need to pretend to be a child.

Conan climbed out of the desk, grabbed Kuroba Kaito's hand, and told him his discovery.

When Kuroba Kaito heard this, he pretended to cough slightly to attract the attention of Detective Hakuba and the police.

"Ahem..."

"Look at the mainframe of this computer. Maybe there is something missing in it."

Bai Ma Tan frowned. After hesitating for a few seconds, he motioned to the policeman next to him to do as he said.

The police took out the chassis and used a screwdriver to remove the chassis cover. They found that a key piece of hardware was missing from the host.

"The hard drive is missing..."

"Did the murderer take it away?"

The policemen murmured in confusion, and Conan raised his chin.

Is there any hidden secret in the hard drive?

Does this secret also have something to do with Kuroba Kaito's purpose of coming here?

…

After a while, a policeman came in and reported that the head of the Astronomy Institute and other researchers were here.

Conan, Kuroba Kaito, and Hakuba poked out the door and saw that there were quite a few people in the institute. There were more than a dozen people, which was far beyond the common configuration of choosing one of three.

However, according to usual practice, it should be possible to find the three most suspect people by investigating everyone's alibi...

The UK is the home ground of White Horse Detective, so he asked everyone some basic questions.

According to the answers from these people, the deceased Ingalls was 47 years old. His position was a secondary researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Brightchester, and he also graduated from the school's astronomy major.

He is somewhat withdrawn, has almost no social interaction, and has no family.

In daily life, most of the time is spent traveling between the Institute of Astronomy and the dormitory on campus of the University of Brightchester, leading a monotonous life between two points and one line.

Therefore, these colleagues currently in the Institute of Astronomy are almost all of Ingalls's connections.

"Then what he did in the research institute yesterday, does anyone know?" Baima asked.

A somewhat bald head of the institute introduced: "Ingels often works overtime at the institute to do research. As for what he studies..."

At this time, another brown-haired researcher raised his hand and said, "I know something about this. He is conducting unfinished research by his father..."

"Ingalls' father was also an astronomer, just an amateur."

"His father has always believed that the solar system is being pulled by some strong gravitational force. He once expressed his views in newspapers, but he attracted ridicule from many people."

"So Ingalls always wanted to prove his father right."

Detective Baima turned to look at the researcher and asked with some vigilance: "Who are you?"

The researcher replied: "My name is Burt Rowan, and I share the same office as Ingalls..."

As he spoke, Burt pointed to another desk two meters away from Ingalls's desk and said, "That's my desk."

Everyone looked back and noticed another desk in the room.

However, this desk was kept very clean, with all files put into drawers. There was only a computer covered with cloth on the table, making it look like no one was using it.

Bai Ma Tan smiled slightly, "So you know that the deceased had the habit of drinking coffee?"

"Yes." Bert nodded, "Drinking coffee should be Ingalls' only hobby besides research, but he doesn't pursue the ultimate taste of coffee. Instant coffee will do..."

Detective Bai Ma continued to ask: "Excuse me, where were you between 6 and 9 o'clock this morning? What were you doing?"

"I……"

Just as Bert was about to answer, he realized that he had been regarded as a suspect, and quickly defended: "Hey! I'm not the person who killed Ingalls!"

"And I stayed at home today until work time, and my wife is my witness!"

According to the law, if it is a major case, it is difficult for family members to testify.

However, seeing Bert's shocked look, Bai Ma Tan already believed his statement.

Bai Ma Tan smiled, patted Bert on the shoulder, and comforted him: "Please don't think too much, I'm just asking a routine question..."

"In fact, after investigating the scene of the deceased's death, we believe that the only person who can commit the crime here is someone who is usually familiar with the deceased, especially someone from the institute..."

"So now please ask the police to ask about your alibi during this time in the morning. Please cooperate with the investigation."

At the call of Bai Ma Tan, the police began to interrogate the people in the institute one by one.

And Conan held his chin and reasoned about the clues he had so far in his mind.

At present, the murderer's method is very clear, that is, taking advantage of the deceased's love of coffee, put sleeping pills in the pure water area of ​​the coffee machine.

After knocking the deceased unconscious, he went to the second floor to tie him up, tortured him about something, and then killed him with poison.

The only person who can achieve this method is someone who knows that the deceased loves coffee and has the key to the astronomical institute.

From these two points of view, the murderer should be someone in the institute.

As for the motive for the murder, the deceased seemed to be conducting some kind of major research that would shock the world.

If it could be proved that the solar system was indeed pulled by some kind of gravity, it would shock the world and even leave its name in history.

Maybe someone coveted the deceased's research results, so they tortured him and took the results away.

This motive is reasonable...

But the problem is that since it is a research result that shocked the world, it will be published in public sooner or later.

If it is published, wouldn't it expose the fact that he is the murderer?

But if the motive is not this, what other reasons are there for an astronomical researcher with a monotonous life to kill him?

While Hakuba and the police were interrogating the people in the institute and Conan was reasoning alone, Kuroba Kaito on the other side was not idle either.

Reasoning is not his strong point, but stealing is his professional field.

Since this person also has the habit of using straw paper to check calculations, he might have written down important research results somewhere...

Kuroba Kaito thought so.

So he quietly walked to Ingels' desk, slowly opened the drawer, and checked the contents.

There weren't many things in the first drawer, just a few chocolate candies, a few small bags of instant coffee, and small tools like scissors and tape.

He closed the first drawer gently and opened the second drawer.

There weren't many things in the second drawer either, just a diary that looked a bit old, with a newspaper underneath.

Kuroba Kaito's right hand turned into a black shadow, and he quickly put the diary into his arms, and then pretended nothing happened, and took out the newspaper underneath to look at it.

This was a yellowed old newspaper, and the news summary on the front page read like this -

"Is the solar system being dragged away?"

Six months ago, an amateur astronomer wrote a warning letter to us, saying that a planet might be very dangerously close to the earth.

The Royal Astronomer's evaluation of this was -

"Nonsense."

Now, the world's top astronomers are ready to agree to a public debate with the amateur astronomer.

Today we will tell you what the debate is about.

…

The newspaper summary seemed to be related to a debate. Judging from the publication date on the upper right corner of the newspaper, it was about 30 years ago.

The text below was difficult to recognize, and Kuroba Kaito could only put the newspaper back into the drawer.

At this moment, Conan walked behind Kuroba Kaito and asked faintly.

"What did you find?"

Kuroba Kaito's shoulders trembled like a thief who was caught, and he quickly scratched his head with a smile, "Haha, how is it possible?"

Conan squinted his eyes and looked at the "self" in front of him with a grin, and his mind was also a little confused.

This guy not only looks like himself, but also speaks like himself, and even his reaction to being caught is similar to himself.

Is this guy deliberately imitating himself, or is he like this?

Kuroba Kaito, who are you?

At this time, Conan's phone suddenly vibrated.

Buzz——

Conan subconsciously took out his phone, looked at the number, and found that it was Xiaolan calling.

Why call him at this time? Did he find a clue to crack the code in London?

"Moshimoshi."

"Shinichi? It's me, Xiaolan..."

Conan's face was shocked, and then he realized that Xiaolan was calling his other phone.

Conan has two phones, one for Conan and the other for Kudo Shinichi.

However, since the two phones are of the same model and the ringtones are both vibration, if you don't pay attention, you may still get them confused.

Not good!

Conan reacted and was about to use the bow voice changer to find a secluded place to talk, when a big hand stretched out from the side.

Turning his head, the owner of the big hand was Kuroba Kaito.

Kuroba Kaito showed a kind smile on his face and asked in a low voice: "Is it the call from that young lady?"

Conan nodded twice.

Kuroba Kaito: "So, do you need me to answer it?"

Conan thought for a moment and decided that it would be okay to let this person answer the phone. Anyway, he was currently playing himself.

"Don't talk nonsense..."

"Do not worry."

Kuroba Kaito picked up the phone and coughed lightly, "Cough... hello, Ran."

"It's me, Kudo Shinichi..."

On the other side of the phone, Mao Lilan was wondering because he heard Conan's voice on Shinichi's phone.

But then I thought about it, now that these two people were acting together, it wouldn't be strange to hear them.

"Shinichi, is Conan with you? How are you doing there?"

"Well, the little devil is right next to me. Our side... is going smoothly."

Kuroba Kaito glanced down at Conan, with a happy smile on his lips.

Conan could only roll his eyes at him, feeling unhappy about why he was called a kid even though he was obviously a little older than him.

"Xiaolan, why did you call me?" Kuroba Kaito asked.

"That's right, my father, doctor, and Zhenzun and I are currently at the London City Hall..."

On the other side, in front of the London City Hall, Mao Lilan was holding a phone in one hand and a scary skull toy in the other.

"City Hall? What are you doing there?" came a voice on the phone.

She said to "Kudo Shinichi" on the other side of the phone: "It was Zhenzun's mother who figured out the meaning of the codes. Those codes did not refer to a certain place, but each line represented a place."

"The 'boiled egg' mentioned in the third line is one of London's landmark buildings, the London City Hall that looks like an egg."

"When we got here, we found some skull toys on nearby benches and grass."

"The toy also says Mazarin Stone...'

Kuroba Kaito on the other side of the phone repeated doubtfully, "Mazarin Stone?"

Since Mazarin is a personal name, Kuroba Kaito doesn't know Sherlock Holmes well, so he doesn't understand the meaning.

When Conan next to him heard this, his eyes lit up and he immediately became alert.

"It's the Crown Jewels case..."

Kuroba Kaito glanced sideways at Conan, and at the same time, Maori Lan on the phone also said.

"Shinichi, I remember you told me about this case before, called the 'Crown Jewel Case'."

"Did the prisoner want to express something by writing this case on the toy?"

When Kuroba Kaito heard this, his mind was filled with questions.

What Crown Jewel case?

I'm pretty good at stealing a crown jewel...

As soon as the short Conan heard about Sherlock Holmes, he couldn't control his mood. He asked Kuroba Kaito for the phone back and used a bow-tie voice changer to change his voice.

"Xiaolan, can the head of that toy be detached?"

"Huh? I don't know..."

"You can give it a try, because Holmes said a very famous saying in this case - my mind is everything to me, and everything else is just an accessory."

Mao Lilan listened to this suggestion, twisted it a little with his hand, and sure enough, he pulled off the head of the toy skeleton.

Under the skull's head and inserted into the body's neck, a letter "T" suddenly appeared.

"ah!"

Mao Lilan exclaimed happily, "It's really opened!"

Mouri Kogoro and others next to him also looked at the toy in Mao Lilan's hand in disbelief.

Not far away, a figure hidden behind the wall was quietly watching them.