No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

However, no matter what, Kitahara Masaki couldn't talk about any secrets with Rum here. Kitahara Masaki first rubbed his temples with his left index finger, then rubbed his eyes, and finally pinched the bridge of his nose. The whole set of movements was smooth and fluid, making him look like a sleepy person.

However, Vermouth interpreted it as a coded message that "organization members are nearby." After understanding Kitahara Masaki's meaning, she began to talk about what she wanted for her birthday, acting like a girlfriend coaxing her boyfriend. The conversation was all pink and romantic, and it seemed like she was revealing a lot of information, but she didn't actually say anything.

Rum understood that his disguise was a joke to the two of them, so he didn't try to get close to them. This made Kitahara Masaki feel a little strange. If Rum wasn't here to investigate Yavin, was he here for Napoleon?

Kitahara Masaki and Vermouth were eating sushi when three more people came in. It was supposed to be a peaceful late-night snack, but just as he was about to pack two servings of sushi to take home for breakfast, a middle-aged woman barged in, her angry appearance drawing everyone's attention.

"Um—welcome, sir. May I ask—"

"A thief stole my bag from one of your store!"

As a result, she spat directly at Rum, making Kitahara Masaki's eyelids twitch.

Rum wiped his face and asked:

"Madam, you need evidence to make such claims. You came in and immediately accused our guest of being a thief. What exactly are you trying to do?"

The middle-aged woman shoved Rum away, nearly tearing off his blindfold. The sight made Vermouth, who was drinking beer, choke, and it took her a while to recover.

The middle-aged woman went to each guest's table and looked around. Then she went to the restroom in the restaurant and came out with a bag.

"That thief actually threw my bag into the toilet trash can!"

"what is going on?"

"Just recently, my small handbag was stolen while I was on the train. Since my phone and wallet were in it, I used the GPS on my spare phone to find your sushi restaurant!"

Although Rum's disguise was poor, he managed to appear very interested in the case and patiently asked:

"So when was your bag stolen?"

"It happened about an hour ago."

"So, shortly before Officer Kitahara and his men arrived, one of the people who came into our store after that was a thief!"

Rum's mention of "Inspector Kitahara" immediately drew everyone's attention back to Kitahara Masaki, who inwardly cursed Rum as a cunning old fox and had no choice but to reveal his identity to everyone.

"Oh! You must be that police officer. Then hurry up and help me find the thief! Most of the things in the bag are still there, but my Wanma Scroll is missing!"

Wanma Rolls? Anyone would be angry if such a large sum of money were stolen, but spitting on Rum might make those Wanma Rolls much hotter than you think.

"Ahem, ma'am, please explain the whole story first. If there are any clues that could help solve the case, please try your best to recall them. If the thief wiped away the fingerprints and hid the scroll elsewhere, then there is no evidence to prove who the thief is."

The older woman snorted and gave Kitahara Masaki a thumbs-up, but not as a thumbs-up gesture; instead, she showed him the wound on her hand.

"You don't need to worry about that! I injured my finger and it bled when I was struggling with the thief for the bag. I remember my thumb was pressed against the thief's right sleeve cuff. So the thief's sleeve cuff must have been stained with blood!"

So the person whose right sleeve was stained with blood is the criminal, which is indeed strong evidence.

Besides Kitahara Masaki's table, there are three other tables of people eating in the restaurant: a young man with dyed hair, a bald middle-aged man, and a female office lady.

It's another choice of three.

Can't Mihua just stay quiet for a while? Oh right, or we could just say Rum stole it. Isn't this guy, dressed in such a clumsy disguise, suspicious?

Chapter 331 Anxious Rum

Kitahara Masaki's eyes suddenly turned to Rum, and Rum, who was currently impersonating Wakita Kanenori, realized something upon noticing Kitahara Masaki's gaze and quickly said:

"I believe Officer Kitahara would never wrong an innocent person, so everyone just needs to show their right sleeve. It won't take much time."

After hearing this, Kitahara Masaki no longer had the chance to say that Rum was the culprit. Being too forceful would only cause trouble later.

The three customers complained about the trouble, but they still showed their cuffs, as none of them wanted to be mistaken for thieves. To be on the safe side, Kitahara Masaki had them show both their left and right cuffs, and found that all three cuffs were white and showed no signs of blood.

"How could there be none at all!"

The older woman refused to believe it and tried to go up and check it herself, but Kitahara Masaki stopped her. If she couldn't control herself and started making a scene, they would have to deal with another case.

Kitahara Masaki looked at the three men's cuffs and noticed they were all wet. However, it was impossible to completely remove the bloodstains with water. Since all three had been to the restroom, it was possible that each of them had somehow removed the bloodstains there.

"Hey, how much longer do I have to stay here?"

Seeing how anxious the young man with dyed hair was, the older woman immediately said:

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Do you mean you're carrying my 'Ten Thousand Horses Scroll'?"

"Just kidding, what's the point of real horse racing? This kind of horse racing is what makes a man's romance! And waiter, give me a Coke and a serving of pickled ginger, these are all free, right?"

After saying that, he took out his phone and opened the horse racing app, leaving the old lady speechless with shock.

A middle-aged man might order a new sushi, while a working woman might order an extra beer.

Kitahara Masaki then summoned Rum and asked:

What did these three guests each order?

"The young man with the dyed hair ordered a premium sushi, steamed egg custard, and a cola; the middle-aged man ordered a regular sushi, oolong tea, and a seasonal grilled fish; and the last lady is a regular customer, she ordered a whiskey soda, a seafood rice bowl, and always added extra wasabi to the sea urchin and salted salmon roe. So, Officer Kitahara, do you know who the thief is?"

The middle-aged woman on the side was already impatient and was almost about to shout that it should be served.

"Officer Kitahara, stop asking these pointless questions. Wouldn't it be faster to just search them? The police should be able to give them that kind of order, right?"

Kitahara Masaki completely ignored the noisy old lady and first looked at the young man with dyed hair who had ordered pickled ginger slices. Ginger contains protease that can break down proteins, and blood is also rich in protein. However, it is obviously impossible to wash away bloodstains with ginger juice, since the ginger juice will also get on the sleeves.

However, there's another food containing protease: radishes. Gently pat the blood-stained clothes on both sides with a handkerchief wrapped in white radish puree, then use a paper towel to absorb the blood. Repeat this process several times, and the stain will be completely removed. Unlike ginger, this method won't leave any color residue.

Kitahara Masaki discovered this method of wiping away bloodstains on the spot using his mobile phone. Therefore, the person who stole the Manma Roll should be the middle-aged man who ordered grilled fish, because the restaurant's grilled fish comes with grated white radish as a side dish.

After Kitahara Masaki explained the method he found on his phone, the middle-aged man quickly confessed under pressure, took out the Wanma Scroll from his pocket and returned it to the old woman. The rest of the matter was naturally left to the local police station, since it was just a minor matter.

However, Kitahara Masaki felt a bit tricky at this moment, not because of the boring theft case just now, but because Rum was now standing in front of him, and he really only had such a clumsy disguise.

This disguise is like a provocation to Kitahara Masaki, a shout of "Come and expose my disguise!" Perhaps what Rum really wants is for Kitahara Masaki to maintain his good cop persona and ask him—who are you really and why are you doing this disguise? Then he can naturally reveal his true identity to Kitahara Masaki, trying to test him further by showing his true colors.

Even if Kitahara Masaki doesn't ask, Rum will continue to maintain this disguise. He's willing to use himself as bait in order to catch the big fish as soon as possible. It seems that he is indeed an impatient person, an impatient person who doesn't want to wait even a little bit of time.

Rum was equally anxious. He was quite certain that there was a mole and a traitor within the Japanese branch. The disappearance of the Miyano sisters a few months ago, and the recent disappearance of Curaçao, were things that could not have been done without insiders.

In particular, regarding Curaçao's disappearance, Rum used his entire intelligence network and found that he could not find any trace of Curaçao at all. In other words, there were only two possibilities: either Curaçao was dead, or someone had hidden her, and hidden her very well.

This is a turbulent time for the organization, and even hounds of Gin's caliber are becoming increasingly scarce, so Rum has to take matters into his own hands.

The first people he personally probed were Yavin Yi, Vermouth, Bourbon, and Gil. These four were all operating in Tokyo and were essentially intelligence agents. Although they were all very capable, if there was a mole within their ranks, there was nothing that could be done.

What bothered him even more was that Gin seemed to be hiding something from him regarding the Curaçao affair, as if he were wary of something. He had to find out what this was. If Gin was the mole, then he would kill Gin; if Gin intended to become the organization's second-in-command, then he would kill him too. Of all the people in the Tokyo branch, Rum feared Gin the most, because Gin had connections, experience, and power, so Rum had always suspected him of wanting to become the second-in-command.

However, little did people know that Gin's vague and evasive statements were not for climbing the ranks, nor because he was an undercover agent, but simply because he suspected that Rum was the biggest mole.

Kitahara Masaki was naturally unaware of Rum's inner turmoil, but adhering to the principle of avoiding trouble, he did not inquire about Rum's disguise and left after solving the case.

Three days later, Rum personally sent an email to Kitahara Masaki, stating:

"Gather intelligence on 'Napoleon.' Time is money! Act fast!"

Chapter 332 Teacher Wakasa

"So, what are you planning to do this time?"

"If we give it to Rum too quickly, it might arouse his suspicion, so let's wait a bit longer."

"So how do you plan to carry out the operation to capture Napoleon?"

Kitahara Masaki tapped his index finger on the table, thinking about his plans.

"The problem now is that the plan to capture Napoleon must be devised by Rum himself, so that if Rum is captured, he will not be suspected too much."

"Arrested? Are you planning to capture Rum alive?"

"Of course, as the organization's second-in-command, he must know a lot of information about the BOSS. If we can pry information out of him—"

"It's best not to do that. Putting aside how difficult it is to capture him alive, the risks involved in capturing him are far greater than the risks of hiding Curaçao. I think the BOSS definitely has a way to track Rum's whereabouts."

Vermouth was shocked by Kitahara Masaki's bold move. She was sure that the BOSS would take precautions for Rum, such as implanting something like a transmitter in his arm.

"I guess Rum has several transmitters on him, which is why the BOSS made him the second-in-command and even gave him so much authority."

"Yes, it wouldn't make a difference if you hid him in a safe house."

"Then I think—we just need to disable the transmitter on his body for a while."

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

Just as Kitahara Masaki and Professor Agasa were discussing whether they could completely block the signal inside the car, Inspector Megure called again, saying that a murder had occurred in a high-rise apartment building.

"Doctor, we have another case. I'm counting on you for the signal blocking device I mentioned."

"No problem, Shinichi is probably there too."

When Kitahara Masaki arrived at the scene, the five kids were indeed there. Ai looked at Conan with a helpless expression, while Conan looked completely innocent.

"Hey, this case is clearly a murder, what does it have to do with me?"

"Did I say it had anything to do with you, detective? We haven't even finished dinner yet, and we still have to stay here."

After hearing Haibara's complaint, Kitahara Masaki asked:

"After you've eaten? Are you eating in one of the rooms nearby?"

"Yes, we came to Ms. Wakasa's house today to finish the props for the play. Suddenly, while we were eating, loud music started playing from the next room—which is here. When we came over and knocked on the door, we found it unlocked and then we saw two people lying in the living room. The woman was dead, and the man was just unconscious."

"I see."

Kitahara Masaki looked at a woman behind the children. This long-haired female teacher wearing glasses bowed to Kitahara Masaki and said:

“I’m Rumi Wakasa, the assistant homeroom teacher for these children. I never expected something like this to happen. Oh, by the way, officer, I also overheard the man of the house arguing with his girlfriend. He said they should calm down and talk things over tonight. His girlfriend even asked him to make paella.”

Kitahara Masaki nodded, then told the teacher to take the children home to finish their dinner first.

Upon entering the living room, one sees the male homeowner, whose face is covered with the words "I love you" written in an oil-based pen, making him look like a complete idiot.

"Takagi, tell me about what happened on the scene."

"Yes! The male owner of this house is Mr. Banno, and the deceased is his girlfriend, Ms. Iiyama. According to Mr. Banno, he was knocked unconscious by a woman whose appearance was obscured at the door. When he woke up, he found words written on his face, and Ms. Iiyama was lying next to him. We also found two Polaroid photos at the scene, one of Mr. Banno when he was unconscious, and the other of the photo taken when the mysterious woman wrote words on his face."

Takagi handed Kitahara Masaki two photos. The photo that showed the mysterious woman writing on Mr. Banno's face only showed her hand and proved nothing.

Where is the murder weapon?

"It was Mr. Banno's No. 5 golf club. The mysterious woman was also captured on the elevator's security camera, but because she was wearing a sun hat and sunglasses, we couldn't see her face clearly."

However, Kitahara Masaki didn't pay much attention to the mysterious woman, since this was a proof question, and it was obvious that this Mr. Banno was the murderer.

"Mr. Banno, didn't you say you were going to make seafood fried rice to make up? Why is there nothing in the fridge, and the table is empty too? Did you never intend to make it in the first place?"