"As expected of Miwako, she knows every detail, and all my old tricks have been seen through."
"Get lost."
Aso laughed and cursed, then kicked his friend: "Do you believe I charge you a parking fee? Officer Sato's car is still parked in my parking space."
Uehara Katsumi, who turned to the left to avoid the kick, walked down the steps: "Whoever stops, you look for, I don't care."
"Are you embarrassed not to give it?"
"Do you have the nerve to ask for it?"
The two people walking and arguing on the steps attracted the attention of many people coming in and out.
Aso Minori, who was not as shameless as Katsuki Uehara, was the first to stop this fight that was destined to have no winner: "Okay, okay, stop wrangling here, what's for lunch, I'll treat you."
"I don't care, as long as you avoid places where couples gather together."
"I'm afraid there's only the children's playground - ah, no, my brother said yesterday that several girls asked him to have dinner today. I'm afraid the children's playground is not clean today, so you have to go to the kindergarten cafeteria."
Hearing this, Uehara Katsumi couldn't help but glance at him sideways: "Your brother?"
"The child of my adoptive parents has just entered junior high school this year."
"Then you have to be careful. Don't look back. Your brother brought you three pregnant siblings."
Aso Minori glanced up and down with disdain: "Listen to your tone, have you done this before?"
"If you continue to slander me, do you believe I'll treat you to pork chop rice for lunch?" Uehara Katsumi turned the car key with dead fish eyes. In the parking space not far away, a particularly eye-catching pink EVO parked quietly.
There.
Aso, who was not interested in pork cutlet rice, couldn't help but shake his head.
"Tsk, no matter how many times I see you, you are still so sexy in pink."
"This is magenta. Your elementary school art teacher will cry."
Katsumi Uehara, who buckled his seat belt after getting in the car, glanced at his mouth. He was about to continue without mercy when he was interrupted by a sudden ringtone from his suit pocket——
I took it out and saw that it was an unfamiliar number with no notes.
Aso, who knew the general idea, didn't say anything. He just sat quietly in his seat and looked at his friend who looked up.
"Hello?"
Confused, Katsuki Uehara pressed the answer button. Not long after, a weathered old voice came out from the receiver——
"It's hard to find your phone number, Officer Uehara."
"Director Ochiai?"
The moment he heard this voice, Katsuki Uehara's mind immediately thought of the old man who had retired from the studio next door to Conan.
"It looks like you didn't write down my phone number. One of the disadvantages of not taking notes, Officer Uehara."
"I usually don't remember the contact information of prisoners." Asano Minoru made a gesture of no problem, and Uehara Katsuki chuckled in response. It was unclear whether his tone was sarcastic or normal.
"At noon today, Officer Uehara, do you have time? I would like to treat you to a meal." The old director Ochiai, who didn't care about this, still had a cheerful attitude on the other end of the phone.
"Invite me to dinner?" Uehara Katsuki slowly turned the steering wheel after starting the car, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if he thought of something, his brows slightly raised and he changed his tone: "Of course."
"I'll wait for you at the Medieval Museum, Officer Uehara."
After hanging up the phone, Aso Minoru, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned to look at his thoughtful friend: "Prisoner?"
"I once arrested him and took him to the police station, but it was a pity that it was too late and he didn't get to eat pork chop rice."
Uehara Katsuki, who gradually figured out a result in his mind, pressed the music play button on the central control, looking a little satisfied: "You saved money on this lunch today, please pay for it next time."
"Reformed?"
"So, if my guess is true."
Playing music and driving in the car, after driving Aso Minori back to Miwa Central Hospital without any hindrance, Uehara Katsumi turned the car around and headed straight for the Medieval Museum.
Unlike at night when you can't see anything, the museum building looks magnificent and magnificent during the day, and the sense of medieval art that comes across is enough to show that the designer has really put a lot of thought into it.
Perhaps because it was noon, there were not many people in the museum. Uehara Katsumi, who walked in from the main entrance, was not in a hurry to call Director Ochiai, but looked at the items placed in the main hall with great interest.
Various paintings on display.
If I remember correctly, there should be a work called "Heavenly Punishment" in this exhibition area.
As one of the representative dramas in the early stages of Conan, Katsumi Uehara was deeply impressed by it.
Unfortunately, after going around several exhibition areas, he did not see this painting in his memory.
"Officer Uehara, are you also interested in medieval artwork?"
"I'm not interested, I can't afford the compensation, I'm just looking at it."
"Actually, not all of this art museum is filled with antiques."
The old man who appeared at the door of the B1 exhibition area at some unknown time was smiling and stroking his gray beard. He heard the implication and joked happily.
That night, Katsumi Uehara got the antique and then hurriedly inserted it back in his memory.
"My knowledge of medieval stuff is limited to the extracurricular books I read when I was a student. I don't have the artistic talent." Katsuki Uehara turned around and took a look at the old man in front of him——
Apparently he's in good spirits.
The well-tailored brown suit made him look several years younger.
The noncommittal old man smiled kindly: "But your respect for art is something that many people in this field never have."
"Why do I feel that there is something in your words, Director Ochiai?"
"I fired someone."
"Reducing the salary burden is good for an art museum like you."
"He stole things from the art museum and sold them, more than once."
Uehara Katsuki, who narrowed his eyes slightly, wiped the non-existent dust with his right hand on the booth nearest to him and blew out a breath: "You have to go to the Search Section 2, I'm from the Search Section 1."
"But the person who made me make up my mind to do this is you." The old man put his hands behind his back and said with a touch of relief in his smile, "Officer Uehara."
"It looks like your harvest is good." Looking up at the huge space structure around him, Uehara Katsumi said in a curious tone: "Have you found a new sponsor?"
"Thanks to you, I found lawyer Fei Yingli and asked her to help terminate the original acquisition contract of the art museum."
Looking at the artworks that looked like his own children around him, Director Ochiai smiled like a child who got candy, extremely happy: "Then, I relied on my own connections to find Mr. Suzuki Jirokichi, a shareholder of the Suzuki Foundation.
"Fortunately, Mr. Jiroyoshi Suzuki is interested in taking over the Medieval Museum."
"Congratulations, you got what you wanted." Uehara Katsumi raised his eyebrows and said congratulations.
"If it weren't for you, I would have been carried away by anger, Officer Uehara."
Already at an age when he was halfway into the coffin, he still almost made a big mistake out of anger. Now that the overall situation has been decided, Director Ochiai, who has regained his senses, looked a little lonely: "You saved this art museum.
Pavilion.”
"Can I assume that you are admitting that you are practicing how to kill someone by wearing armor and holding a knife in the middle of the night?" Uehara Katsuki chuckled after hearing this. Although the sentence was in question, there was no questioning tone.
Director Ochiai did not speak and fell into silence.
"Since you are fine, I will skip the lunch meal. I am allergic to artists." After confirming the condition of Director Ochiai with his own eyes, Uehara Katsumi put one hand in his pocket and walked out of the exhibition hall.
"Also, it is you who saves the museum, not me. As a police officer, I will only arrest you."