Conan Rick's Investigator

The Blue Parrot Bar closed again, and Qin Zhibo had no choice but to go up and knock on the door.

clap clap-

Click.

The door was unlocked from the inside, and it was Terai Konosuke who came to open the door.

"The young master is inside..."

Terai Huang Zhibo led Qin Zhibo into the bar. Kuroba Kaito was standing next to the pool table with his chin held high, looking at the pool table silently.

On the spacious pool table, a huge portrait of the Moon Thief lay quietly on the table.

"Hey..." Qin Zhibo's brain reacted for a moment, "Isn't this the painting in your house? Why did you take it down?"

Kuroba Kaito pleaded seriously, "Can you still contact that museum director from last time?"

"I want him to scan the painting thoroughly..."

Chapter 577 Maori, such a pitiful detective...

Ever since discovering that "The Phantom Thief Under the Moon" might be a double-layer painting, Kuroba Kaito has been discussing with Terai Konosuke to find a way to find out what is painted underneath.

Not only the Phantom Thief Lady, but even Terai Konosuke, who knew Kuroba Toichi earlier than Kuroba Chikage, had never heard of the painter "Pickman" who created this painting.

Therefore, Terai Konosuke was also very curious about the bottom of the painting.

If you want to get to the next layer of the painting, you should be able to do it with a state-of-the-art X-ray scanner.

Initially, Kuroba Kaito asked Terai Konosuke to buy one on the market, intending to restore the layer underneath the painting in the simplest way.

But this isn't cooking; the simplest methods often produce the worst results.

Under the operation of two amateurs, Kuroba Kaito and Terai Kōnosuke, X-ray scanning could only restore some relatively simple repetitive compositions.

For example: the moon.

Now Kuroba Kaito can confirm that the next level of the Moon Thief also has a moon drawn in almost the same position.

The rest of the image, including the color of the paint, is completely invisible.

Professional problems should be left to professionals to solve. Kuroba Kaito thought of the "mysterious friend" whom he had asked Terai Konosuke for help, who was the scientist who often helped him DIY props.

However, Terai Yosuke said that his scientist friend had gone abroad and had no schedule.

Moreover, the Phantom Thief Under the Moon in this painting is Kuroba Toichi wearing Kaito Kid's clothes. Anyone with a little imagination can guess that Kuroba Toichi is Kaito Kid.

If this scientist friend knew that most of the props he made were used to commit crimes, the cooperation would definitely fall through, and he might even call the police.

"My friend has a strong sense of justice..." Terai Konosuke commented.

This is indeed a challenge for Kuroba Kaito, as he has to find professionals in professional fields and also people who don't have a strong sense of justice.

Between the two gatherings, Kuroba Kaito thought of the only candidate, the director of the Medieval Art Museum, Matsumoto Ryohei.

Although the last time was to prevent the gems at his own gem exhibition from being stolen, Matsumoto Ryohei still chose to make a deal with himself, the "Kaito Kid".

Of course, it was hosted by Qin Zhibo.

So this time, Kuroba Kaito still wants to ask Qin Zhibo to host it to see if he can achieve this cooperation.

"I understand what you mean. You just want me to be your lobbyist and ask Matsumoto to scan this painting for you."

Kuroba Kaito nodded repeatedly, his eyes full of anticipation.

"Of course you can, but I'm afraid you have to meet some of his conditions..."

Qin Zhibo didn't feel that he didn't have enough face to convince Matsumoto Ryohei to help, but it would be better for both parties to get along with each other on the premise of "win-win cooperation".

Kuroba Kaito also thought of this. After all, this is related to the secret of Kaito Kid's true identity, so it would be better to have some interests tied to it.

When there is a bond of interest, it is equivalent to knowing the other party's secrets, which is fair.

"I can help him steal something, as long as it's not too excessive..."

Stealing things is Kuroba Kaito's forte.

Although most things are returned after being played with for a few times, it is still acceptable to steal some things that are not too reprehensible to your conscience.

In fact, the tradition of the Heiyu family is not to "return what you steal", but to let the treasure flow to where it should go.

Sometimes the treasure will be returned to the owner, sometimes it will be sent back to the museum of the country where it was lost, and sometimes it will flow into Hei Yu's own pocket...

Qin Zhibo thought about it and felt that this condition was reasonable.

"Okay then, I'll help you contact Matsumoto and see what he thinks..."

"By the way, please take a look at this letter."

As he spoke, Qin Zhibo took out the envelope that was actually signed "KID" and handed it to Kuroba Kaito.

Kuroba Kaito read the letter over and over again, with a look of surprise and anger in his eyes.

"What on earth is this guy trying to do? Why is he pretending to be me to send out invitations?"

"And this 'Twilight Mansion' happened to be the prey I had recently set my sights on. Before I could even make a move, he offered himself to me..."

Qin Zhibo took the letter back from Kuroba Kaito, reviewed it again, and analyzed: "I may not be the only one who received this invitation letter."

"Look, the gold-stamped font on the letter paper is a computer font, but the name on the envelope is handwritten with a brush."

"This suggests that multiple copies of the same invitation were made, but the name on each invitation envelope was different, so it was handwritten."

After listening to the analysis, Kuroba Kaito and Terai Kōnosuke felt that there was some truth in it and nodded.

Kuroba Kaito continued Qin Zhibo's reasoning and analyzed, "If the content of the invitation letters is the same, then the beginning of the letter will all be 'I admire your wisdom'..."

"So, the other invited guests are also detectives like you?"

Detective culture is very popular in this world, and the intelligence equivalent to a detective generally refers to other detectives.

"It's possible..."

Qin Zhibo nodded, and the image of a certain Death God elementary school student unconsciously appeared in his mind.

Meanwhile, Kuroba Kaito smiled, as if to say, "Oh, a certain ant!" and confidently said, "A gathering of famous detectives. Even if it's not for the treasure, I'd be very interested in going..."

Before Kuroba Kaito could finish his words, Terai Konosuke next to him raised an objection.

"I object!"

"Master, there are too many detectives there. If you are caught, how can I explain to my wife?"

"Don't worry..." Kuroba Kaito waved his hand indifferently, and then looked at Qin Zhibo's face with interest.

"I have a perfect identity as a cover. As long as I use Uncle Qin's face, no one will suspect me, right?"

Kuroba Kaito made a plaster model of Qin Zhibo's face a long time ago, just for this day!

However, just as Kuroba Kaito was feeling smug about his foresight, Qin Zhibo shook his finger righteously and sternly.

"No! No! No!"

"I want to go to this Twilight Pavilion myself, so you should find another way."

"No...it's about finding another 'face' for him."

"But how would I know which other famous detective has received the invitation?" Kuroba Kaito spread his hands, looking embarrassed.

Qin Zhibo smiled slightly and consoled her, "I do have a possible candidate in mind. I'll go confirm it tomorrow..."

……

The next day at noon, Qin Zhibo came out of the Maori Detective Agency and also found out the information he wanted.

As Qin Zhibo guessed, Kogoro Mouri also received an invitation.

All the reasoning was the same as what he and Kuroba Kaito had guessed, and the remaining invited guests should also be detectives.

In this way, maybe some familiar faces will appear...

"Hey?"

"I've found out that Maori Kogoro has also been invited, and his family of three is planning to go."

"Well, get ready."

After hanging up the phone, Kuroba Kaito immediately began to prepare the human skin mask happily.

In Kaito Kidd's secret base, Kuroba Kaito looked at one plaster head after another, and hesitated for a moment between pretending to be Mori Ran or Mori Kogoro.

I played Mao Lilan last time, but being a girl is a bit troublesome...

"It's up to you!"

As he said this, Kuroba Kaito carried out the plaster head of Ginzo Nakamori.

……

Two days later, the date marked on the invitation letter finally arrived.

In order to save on fares and avoid unnecessary waste, Qin Zhibo decided to take a ride in Mao Li's family's car that day.

Kogoro Mouri was a little dissatisfied with Qin Zhibo's behavior of taking advantage of him, and he kept grumbling about it.

This confirmed to Qin Zhibo that the current Maori Kogoro must be the real one.

However, Mao Lilan thought this was a good idea. Everyone could keep each other company on the road and chat together.

This time, with a check for 200 million yen from the host of the dinner, Kogoro Mouri did not skimp and directly rented his ideal car, a Toyota Crown.

The white Toyota Crown drove from morning to afternoon, from Tokyo to the suburbs, and changed drivers twice along the way.

At dusk, when the sun was about to sink behind the mountain, the group finally arrived at the mountainous area where the Dusk Pavilion was located.

puff--

Suddenly, the sound of a tire exploding was heard, waking up everyone who was drowsy in the car.

The car started to shake, and Kogoro Mouri quickly stabilized the steering wheel and stopped the car on the side of the road.

Qin Zhibo and Maori Kogoro got out of the car at the same time to check and found that the rear tire was flat.

However, Qin Zhibo looked more carefully and saw an extremely sharp cut on the tire and a playing card dropped into a ditch not far away.

Qin Zhibo: "..."

"What bad luck..."

Kogoro Mouri opened the trunk helplessly and looked inside. It was empty.

"There's no spare tire in the car, damn it!"

Kogoro Mouri was so angry that he slammed the trunk shut. At this moment, Conan sent another prompt.

"Uncle! There's a gas station right up ahead!"

Following this childlike instruction, Maori Kogoro excitedly revealed a look full of wisdom and said happily: "This is what they call a new hope after a dark period! Hehe..."

Kogoro Mouri walked forward with his hands in his pockets, and Qin Zhibo quickly followed.

"Let me go and have a look too."

……

The two arrived at the gas station, and the only person in the entire gas station was a young employee from the convenience store.

"Hello, I have a flat tire and need it fixed. Can you do that?"

The employee immediately looked up and smiled, "No problem! Don't look at my youth, my tire repair skills are quite good."

The young employee raised his head and happened to meet Qin Zhibo's eyes, feeling a little uneasy.

Because he was Kuroba Kaito who had been waiting here for a long time.

After learning the departure time of the Maori family from Qin Zhibo and roughly estimating the time required for the journey, he chose to set up an ambush at the gas station here.

Just now, when he saw a white Toyota Crown coming from afar, he first used a special poker gun to shoot the rubber tire, and then while Kogoro Mouri was checking the condition of the tire, he quickly ran over and pretended to be a gas station employee.

At this moment, Qin Zhibo looked at the harmless face of Kuroba Kaito and felt helpless.

So he was waiting here to make his move...