"You take Ai home later. I might be tied up today."
Cleared of suspicion after verification, Tsuneo borrowed white gloves from the forensics team. With Officer Megure's approval, he joined the case investigation.
"Ai?"
"I'm taking her home?"
"Wait…" Conan, eager for details, heard the call disconnect. He pocketed his earring phone, giving a strange look to the quiet girl standing nearby.
Tsuneo took payment from her family and now expects me to play bodyguard…?
What kind of case is he caught up in?
"There's a bunch of weird paintings under the bed!" The Teitan trio discovered several art-heavy pieces.
"Picasso," Ai said calmly.
"Yep, this one's a replica of Picasso's Weeping Woman!" Mitsuhiko nodded, recognizing the top painting.
"Van Gogh, Monet, Gauguin, Utrillo," Conan listed, eyeing the other works.
"Pretty cool, right? My brother was famous in his high school art club for mimicking famous painters," Nakadai, the client who'd lost his brother, said.
"He didn't get kidnapped to paint, did he?" Genta blurted out.
Mitsuhiko nodded seriously. "Could be. Maybe they're making him forge masterpieces to swap with the real ones."
"Nah, not quite. The composition's spot-on, but his colors and brushwork are way off. Not good enough for forgeries," Conan concluded after examining the paintings.
More striking than those was a sketch of Soseki Natsume.
"This one was drawn from a photo, so at the exhibit, everyone had questions about it," Nakadai said with a smile. "Only one weird woman praised it."
His brother's idol was Soseki Natsume, despite the sketch's flaws.
"Weird woman?" Conan's brow furrowed.
"Yeah, she wore a wide-brimmed hat and was dressed head-to-toe in black," Nakadai recalled.
A person in black?!
Soseki Natsume, like on the thousand-yen bill?!
Conan's reaction was sharp. He grabbed Nakadai's shoulders. "When did you meet her?!"
"Uh, maybe ten days ago."
…
Ai leaned against the wall, arms crossed, a faint smile flickering as she watched.
This detective hasn't fully grasped the Organization's style.
If they needed money, they wouldn't bother with such convoluted schemes.
…
"Officer Megure, we checked. The cleaning company called to reschedule for tomorrow due to a busy morning."
"And Mr. Asakawa was indeed sleeping in his office all morning—multiple witnesses confirm it."
"We pulled the call logs, but…" Officer Sato shook her head, clearly empty-handed.
"Has Mr. Asakawa's inventory of stolen items been completed?" Megure asked.
"Yes. Besides a few hundred thousand yen in cash, a watch, necklace… several valuable items are missing."
Tsuneo crouched, frowning at Mrs. Asakawa's hand, where a wedding ring once sat.
No murder weapon at the scene, no signs of rummaging, yet the house was stripped of valuables.
The first-floor doors and windows were locked, with no signs of tampering, yet the victim was struck in the back of the head and died in the study.
"A familiar face?" Megure muttered.
"Probably," Tsuneo said, standing and nodding.
"Oh! Tsuneo, old pal, got any theories?" Megure asked, turning to him.
"Just a few clues," Tsuneo said, walking to the study's wooden desk and pointing at a Teitan University design contest trophy. "Officer Megure, doesn't this seem oddly placed?"
"Now that you mention it…" Megure studied the trophy with Mr. Asakawa's name, sitting slightly askew, just five or six centimeters from the desk's edge.
Not likely to fall, but definitely off-kilter.
"And this," Tsuneo said, carefully pulling a photo album from the bookshelf behind the desk.
"Mr. Asakawa's university album?" Megure flipped through it, puzzled.
"I was careful when I took it down. This mark wasn't mine," Tsuneo said, pointing to the shelf where the album had been.
Even with regular cleaning, dust gathered. A faint trace showed the album had been moved.
"So, maybe one of Mr. Asakawa's university classmates was here?" Officer Sato deduced after a moment.
"Sharp!" Tsuneo snapped his fingers, glancing at a certain orange cat who'd just caught up.
Flipping through the album, checking the trophy—there's your lead!
"I'll start investigating!" Sato said, ready to stride off on her long legs.
"Hold on, one more thing," Tsuneo said, kneeling beside Mrs. Asakawa, lifting her arm to show the hand missing its wedding ring.
"Could it be…" Sato frowned, sensing something.
Megure blinked, his gaze darting between the repairman and his subordinate.
Are you two speaking in code or what?!
"Mr. Asakawa might not have noticed, so he didn't mention it, but this wedding ring was a simple silver band," Tsuneo said.
"I don't know the romantic story behind it, but its value was pretty low."
Tsuneo gently lowered Mrs. Asakawa's arm, sighing.
Another old client gone forever. A sad day.
Fully catching on, Officer Sato gave the repairman—still toting his tool bag at the crime scene—an odd look, took the album from Megure, and started her investigation.
"Officer Megure, I've got to pick up the kid," Tsuneo said, glancing at the darkening sky outside.
"Alright. I'll call you the moment we have results," Megure said, nodding, letting Tsuneo go.
…
Meanwhile.
A certain detective, connecting the person in black to the Soseki Natsume sketch, caught a whiff of the Black Organization and launched into a fervent chase.
Ai stood by, watching the whole thing, smiling silently…
(End of Chapter)
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