Chapter 66 Gu Ze's Disappearance
It was a perfectly normal morning, and our eternal elementary school student, Conan Edogawa, for some unknown reason, didn't go to school again.
As if accompanied by cheerful and lighthearted classic background music, Conan Edogawa went to Professor Agasa's house as usual.
"Doctor, Doctor!" Before even reaching the door, Conan Edogawa's boyish voice rang out into the room.
The person sitting in the entryway changing shoes paused, put down what they were doing, and hurriedly went to open the door.
"Shinichi, what brings you here?"
Conan Edogawa glanced at the professor's shoes, which weren't fully on, and asked, "Professor, are you going out?"
"Xiaoze and I made plans to have dinner together. A new ramen shop recently opened nearby, and I heard it's really good."
Professor Agasa squatted down with his chubby body and put on the shoes that weren't on.
"Hey, Ozawa? When did you two become so close?" Conan Edogawa crossed his arms and looked at the flustered Professor Agasa with half-moon eyes.
"Ever since I shrunk, Ozawa often comes to bring me food. We've gotten to know each other over time, and he really has some unique insights into food." Professor Agasa paused for a moment, swallowing hard, imagining the delicious food he had eaten before.
“Shinichi, I know you have some issues with him, but Ozawa is actually a pretty good person. After all, he's our neighbor.”
As Agasa spoke, he casually reached into his pocket and realized that he seemed to have forgotten to bring his wallet.
"Oh no, where's my wallet?" Professor Agasa looked anxious. He had searched the first floor but still couldn't find it.
"No way, it's not lost, is it?"
"Doctor, when was the last time you used money?" Conan Edogawa asked as he helped search for the wallet.
"Oh, it seems to be in the pocket of an old piece of clothing."
Professor Agasa slapped his forehead and immediately ran upstairs to the second floor. Before going up, he said, "Shinichi, if Ozawa comes, tell him to wait a moment."
"Really." Conan Edogawa looked at the forgetful Agasa with some exasperation.
Five minutes later, Professor Agasa came down from upstairs.
"Thank goodness we found it. It would have been a real problem if it had been lost." He breathed a sigh of relief and saw Conan sitting obediently on the sofa.
"Huh? Hasn't the kid arrived yet?"
The clock ticked away, the minute hand passing the 12 mark.
"It's already 10 o'clock. I made an appointment with Ozawa to leave at 9:30. Why hasn't he come yet?" Professor Agasa scratched his head in confusion.
Conan's keen detective sense seemed to detect something strange. He said thoughtfully, "Let's go take a look."
Fortunately, Gu Ze's house was right next door, just a few steps away.
The villa remained unchanged, standing there quietly, no different from usual, except for the bunch of keys lying conspicuously against the wall.
"What's this?" Conan Edogawa picked it up, the bunch of keys jingling and clanging in his hand.
"Shinichi, here's a cell phone." Agasa showed Conan the cell phone he had found nearby.
“I recognize this phone; it looks like Ozawa’s.”
The phone's glass screen had cracks, caused by it falling from my hand and hitting a pebble.
The keys left at the door, the broken phone, Gu Ze who has disappeared without a trace...
Conan Edogawa immediately sensed something was wrong and shouted, "Doctor, call the police quickly! Gu Ze is in danger!"
(Conan's classic door-opening sound effect...)
When they received the news of Gu Ze's disappearance, Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji happened to be nearby. Without any delay, they sped to the villa's entrance.
"What's going on, Conan?" Matsuda Jinpei shouted as he ran towards Edogawa Conan and Professor Agasa.
Dr. Agasa briefly described what had just happened, and as he listened, Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda's expressions grew increasingly serious.
"Gu Ze has most likely been kidnapped, damn it!" Matsuda Jinpei slammed his hand on the iron gate's bars, causing it to shake.
"Hmm, there seem to be some signs of a struggle here." Kenji Hagiwara nodded, touching the marks on the wall.
Could it be related to that case of multiple disappearances? The thought flashed through both of their minds at the same time.
"Um, we can check the security camera footage at the entrance," Dr. Agasa said.
"Surveillance cameras! There are surveillance cameras at the entrance!" Conan looked at Agasa with delight.
“Yes, a week ago, Ozawa asked me to make and install a miniature surveillance camera.” Professor Agasa pointed to an inconspicuous brick on the wall.
If you don't look closely, you won't be able to see that there's a hole in the brick with a surveillance camera embedded in it.
Kenji Hagiwara leaned closer for a look in amazement. "Wow, this is so exquisitely made!"
"They must have filmed the scene when Gu Ze was kidnapped."
Conan Edogawa turned to Professor Agasa and asked, "Professor Agasa, you should be able to access the surveillance footage, right?"
Agasa chuckled sheepishly, "I'll give it a try."
He picked up the key, opened the door, and entered the villa. "The surveillance footage is backed up to the computer in real time. I remember it was the one in Ozawa's study."
Dr. Agasa led everyone into Gu Ze's house and easily made their way to the study on the second floor.
Fingers tapped on the keyboard, making a clattering sound.
Several people surrounded Professor Agasa, waiting solemnly for the surveillance footage to be played.
A few minutes later, they finished watching the account of Gu Ze's kidnapping the previous night.
“It’s that woman.” Matsuda Jinpei recognized Kuraki Koori at a glance. “It’s her, the woman who asked us for help yesterday.”
Seeing the two men and one woman's skillful kidnapping techniques, and the tranquilizer guns they had prepared, Conan Edogawa realized that this matter was not simple.
"Officer Hagiwara, Officer Matsuda, do you think this woman might be related to the recent cases of multiple disappearances?"
“Hmm, we can’t rule out that possibility.” Kenji Hagiwara pondered, “If that’s the case, then the case that Gu Ze is investigating is related to this case of multiple disappearances.”
"The surveillance camera only shows the license plate of this car from this angle. I hope it's not a fake license plate." Dr. Agasa zoomed in to show the license plate.
“I’ll contact the Ministry of Transportation and have them search for this car with all their might.” Kenji Hagiwara stared intently at the license plate number. “We have to rescue Gu Ze as soon as possible.”
To facilitate the investigation, Conan Edogawa and Professor Agasa followed Hagiwara and Matsuda to the Metropolitan Police Department.
"Officer Hagiwara, the Ministry of Transportation says the license plate on this vehicle is fake; they can't find any information about it at all," Officer Takagi said to the group, holding his notebook.
"But according to road surveillance footage, the car was heading towards the eastern suburbs."
"The eastern suburbs?" Conan Edogawa said thoughtfully.
“Yes, its last known location was at the entrance of the eastern tunnel,” Officer Takagi said, pointing to a spot on the map. “It was right at this tunnel entrance.”
"Have you checked the surveillance footage at this intersection? There's no trace of that car?" Kenji Hagiwara pointed to an intersection on the east side of the tunnel.
On the map, if you come out of that tunnel and drive along this main road, you will definitely pass the intersection that Kenji Hagiwara pointed out.
"No." Officer Takagi shook his head.
"This means that the kidnappers' car changed direction on this section of the road, and it is very likely that they turned into those rural roads without surveillance cameras." Matsuda Jinpei used a marker to draw from the tunnel entrance to the crossroads to mark this section of the road.
To get a better look at the map, Conan Edogawa leaned his head closer to observe.
"Then there are only three possibilities." He pointed to three points on the map, which were three small intersections on this main road.
“Yes!” Kenji Hagiwara nodded in agreement. “Kinjin, we can split into three groups and investigate each of these three routes separately.”
"good!"
Once the search plan was finalized, everyone quickly took action.
Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda split into two groups, each responsible for one of the two paths on the east side, while Conan Edogawa and Professor Agasa followed Inspector Takagi to the remaining path.
Several tens of minutes later, Conan Edogawa was riding in Professor Agasa's Beetle, traveling on the country road they had chosen.
Not far away are rolling hills, and at the foot of the mountains are well-arranged village buildings. The path is surrounded almost entirely by rice paddies, with occasional groves of trees.
"Shinichi, there's someone over there. We can go ask them; maybe they'll have some clues." Professor Agasa spotted a person sitting on the edge of a rice paddy on the right side of the road.
The man looked to be in his forties or fifties, wearing a cool vest and a sun hat, and appeared to be smoking.
"Uncle, Uncle!" Conan Edogawa jumped out of the car and ran towards the man like a lively and adorable neighborhood kid.
"What's wrong, kid?" The uncle stubbed out his cigarette on the ground.
"I just came to ask if you've ever seen a car like this?" Conan Edogawa held up a picture on his phone and showed it to the old man.
"Hiss—hmm—" The uncle frowned, squinted, and carefully examined the car in the picture.
"Oh! I recognize this car!"
"What! That's great!" Conan beamed with joy, though he hadn't actually had high hopes.
"This car passed by on this road last night when I was finishing work and heading home," the uncle recounted, lost in deep reminiscence.
"But unexpectedly, a young man rolled out of the trunk of that car! He rolled several times, ouch, it looked painful." The uncle couldn't help but shudder.
"Then what?"
"After the young man fell, the car stopped, and a man and a woman got out, saying they were his sister and brother. They then took him in the car and drove away."
Upon hearing this, Conan Edogawa swiped through pictures on his phone, "Uncle, is this what the person who rolled down looks like!"
"Yes, yes, that's what he looks like. He's quite handsome."
"And this woman, does she look like this?"
"Yes, yes, yes." The uncle nodded repeatedly, comparing the two photos with his memory. "I can guarantee that the people I saw yesterday were the ones in these two photos."
"How is this person? Do you sense anything is wrong?" Conan Edogawa asked, pointing to Gu Ze in the picture.
"Something's not right? There is something, because when the young man was grabbed by his sister and brother, he struggled a bit, but then immediately calmed down."
"I was going to ask him something, but his sister said that his brother was rebellious and wanted to run away from home, so I shouldn't get involved. After all, it's their family matter..." The uncle muttered to himself, but not a single word reached Conan's ears.
He hung his head, lost in endless thought...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
