Sera Masaki stepped forward and looked at the skull pulled out from Mao Lilan's hand. After thinking for two seconds, he said seriously: "Is this the true meaning of the secret code left by the murderer?"
"There are certain letters hidden in the locations suggested by the code. Only by combining these letters can the meaning of the code be deciphered..."
After listening to Sera's analysis, Mouri Kogoro replied in a rough voice: "But, don't you also have a code that you can't analyze?"
"The code now has a total of seven sentences. If we look at each sentence as having a letter, there should be two more locations, right?"
The two sentences spoken by Kogoro Mori are the second sentence "I am a long-nosed magician who lives in the castle."
And the last sentence "End it all, pierce the snow-white back with two swords."
Sera Masumi also looked serious, because even Mary didn't know where these two sentences came from.
It may be a relatively unpopular location, or the prompt may not be based on the shape of the building.
At this time, Dr. Ali on the side squinted and comforted with a smile: "Anyway, you can walk through these certain places first. Maybe if you find 5 letters, it will be enough to guess the meaning..."
Mao Lilan echoed: "Yes! Yes!"
"Okay! That's the next stop!"
Sera Masumi was in high spirits and pointed to a cucumber-shaped building on the other side of the Thames River in the City of London.
That corresponds to the fourth line of the code: "In the end, just chewing the pickled cucumber is enough."
"let's go!"
Under Sera's leadership, the group walked away from the city hall.
And at the edge of the wall of the side entrance of the city hall about twenty meters away from them, Qin Zhibo was quietly watching them go away.
"call……"
Finally left.
Just 15 minutes ago, Qin Zhibo had just followed the guidance of the Searching Object Spell and arrived near the London City Hall, when he saw Mao Lilan and his party wandering at the door of the City Hall.
Three of them are relatively familiar, the Maori father and daughter, and Dr. A Li.
As for the short-haired girl, judging from the personal information floating above her head, her name is "Sera Masumi" and she should be Mari's daughter.
In other words, when he and Mary met at Baker Street yesterday, Masumi Sera said that the Japanese friends she met were actually Conan and his friends.
How could it be such a coincidence?
Sera Masumi and Conan and the others are friends. Did they go to the same junior high school in Japan before?
Moreover, this group of people did not look like they were traveling, because they all looked serious and did not take photos or check in.
The most important thing is that Conan and Kuroba Kaito are not here either.
Kuroba Kaito must have been called to Blychester by his own phone. Judging from the time, it has been a while since he arrived.
Conan should have gone with him.
But since Kuroba Kaito didn't call him back for so long, there was only one answer.
Then something happened.
No-prize guessing: When Conan visits a strange place, what is likely to happen?
Answer: People will die.
Thinking of this, Qin Zhibo touched his forehead regretfully.
I shouldn't have let Kuroba Kaito take Conan there!
I'm sorry!
Ingalls!
It was too late to mourn the passing of Ingalls, and next I had to warn Judy Hooper.
In fact, the time when the stars return to their positions is just auxiliary information. If you know it, you can at least make some mental preparations in advance.
But if you don’t know, it won’t have much impact.
Because as long as Pandora, the Stone of Life, is safe, the zoo organization will not be able to fulfill Nevlen Ka's reincarnation prophecy.
Qin Zhibo withdrew his thoughts and watched Maoli and his party disappear from sight before walking out of the hiding corner.
After passing the security check at the main entrance of London City Hall, Qin Zhibo entered the lobby on the first floor.
In order to reflect the British government's concept of "for the people", the first floor and top lobby of London City Hall are open to the general public and are called the "London Living Room".
Among them, some exhibitions are held on the first floor from time to time, such as painting exhibitions, photography exhibitions, etc.
The hall on the top floor often holds various forms of large-scale events and can accommodate up to 200 people.
There are no exhibitions in the lobby on the first floor today, and only ordinary tourists come here to hang out.
Qin Zhibo strolled through the lobby on the first floor, looked around, and soon found event posters in the lobby on the first floor and the top floor in front of the visitor elevator.
Two of the promotional posters are eye-catching.
One is a promotional poster for the comeback performance of the world's number one illusionist, Günter von Goldberg II.
Günter himself revealed half of his face, and a dark golden spider lay in the darkness of half of his face and half of the poster next to him.
The other is a performance by the famous British magic performing group, the Hooper Troupe. Judy Hooper shows off her grandfather's fire magic in the poster.
These two...
Qin Zhibo frowned slightly and muttered in his heart.
Günter von Goldberg II, although he is known as the world's best illusionist, is actually a killer of the zoo organization, codenamed "Spider".
However, Qin Zhibo knew that this man's real name was Edward Chandler, and he controlled an American technology company called "New World".
Spider went to Japan under the order of the organization and wanted to kill Kaitou Kidd, but instead he and Kuroba Kaito set up the plan, and was arrested by Detective White Horse.
Because Detective White Horse was also tracking "Spider" in Europe before, and suspected that he had fallen in love with the world's number one illusionist.
Unfortunately, on the way to the Metropolitan Police Department, Spider was rescued by a group of armed gangsters. At the same time, Günther von Goldberg II also issued an announcement to suspend the performance and disappeared for a while.
Now it seems that he has gotten rid of all suspicions and has come back again...
However, the venue for the comeback performance was actually chosen at the London City Hall. Could it be that he had already guessed that "Crimson Tears" was Pandora, the stone of life?
Qin Zhibo glanced at the bottom of the poster and saw that the two performances were at the same place, but at different times.
Günther von Goldberg II's illusion show is tonight.
The performance of the Hooper Troupe is tomorrow afternoon.
Although the performance times of the two are different and they should not run into each other, you still need to be careful.
It's just that the time tomorrow afternoon is not very good.
Qin Zhibo himself wants to "fish" with Mary, also in the afternoon.
It seems that the only option is to let Kuroba Kaito come over then...
Qin Zhibo withdrew his gaze, and just then the tourist elevator next to him opened and a group of people came out.
He took the elevator with other tourists and reached the top floor.
Currently, only a part of the top floor is open near the elevator. Visitors can overlook the London scenery outside through the glass curtain wall.
The lobby area inside is wrapped by wall panels, forming a separate area.
There is a sign on the front door saying "No one allowed to enter".
Qin Zhibo put on the magic extractor, closed his eyes, and confirmed again that Judy Hooper was inside now.
It's probably rehearsal time for the Hobo Thaumaturgy Troupe, and they're rehearsing a show inside.
No idlers allowed in?
Can the investigators be idle?
cannot.
So, Qin Zhibo opened the door in front of him.
…
University of Brightchester, Institute of Astronomy.
As for the case, after a period of questioning and investigation, all 17 members of the Institute of Astronomy were eliminated as suspects.
Since the working hours of the Astronomical Institute are at 9 o'clock in the morning, most researchers stay at home during this time in the morning, as their family members can testify.
There were also a very small number of people who went out to walk on the streets, but they did not come within the confines of the University of Brichester. There were other witnesses who could testify.
As a result, the investigation of the case instantly reached a deadlock.
Conan held his chin with one hand, and was surprised in his heart that this was the first time he encountered such a situation, that so many people actually had alibis.
If this were in Japan, there would be at least three people with no alibi...
And all three of them had issues with the deceased...
And one of them is the murderer...
In addition, the White Horse Detective also asked about interpersonal relationships.
The deceased Ingalls had a relatively withdrawn personality and basically did not have much contact with others, so he could not talk about having any quarrels with anyone.
Except for Bert, who was in the same office with him, even if they didn't speak to each other, they would never look up or down.
But Bert also has an alibi.
Detective Bai Ma looked at Bert and asked seriously: "Did you find anything unusual about the deceased some time before he was killed?"
"Any little thing can..."
Bert's expression was slightly condensed, as if he was thinking.
Suddenly, he seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes lit up.
"I remembered!"
"Just two days ago, a man came to see him!"
Hearing that the case seemed to be turning around, Conan and Kuroba Kaito over there quickly turned their heads and focused their attention here.
"What kind of person?" Baima asked.
A flash of memory flashed in Bert's eyes, "It's a woman..."
"At that time, Ingalls and the woman were talking downstairs. I just looked out the window on the second floor and was not sure what the woman looked like."
"But after Ingles came back, I asked him out of curiosity..."
"He said it was an old classmate of his."
old classmate?
The expressions of Detective White Horse and Conan were shocked at the same time, and they immediately identified him as a suspect in their minds.
Because if it is an old classmate with a relatively close relationship, it would fit the characteristic of knowing that the deceased had a habit of drinking coffee.
Detective Bai Ma seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw, with excitement in his eyes, "Then what? Did he tell us exactly when he was a classmate?"
Bert shook his head, "No...but when I looked out of the window, I heard the woman say that she hadn't been back here for a long time."
It’s been a while since I’ve been back here…it’s obvious I’ve been here before.
They are college classmates!
Detective White Horse and Conan immediately reacted in their minds. Detective White Horse waved his hand and asked his police officers to go to the school to investigate the list of Ingalls' classmates during college.
Watching the policemen leaving, Conan still had some doubts in his heart.
An old classmate whom I haven't seen for a long time should have no motive for murder.
It can’t be the motive of holding a grudge for decades, right?
Moreover, the murderer was obviously after the deceased’s hard drive, and he probably had nothing to do with an old classmate whom he hadn’t seen for a long time...
Unless the deceased lied?
That person is not his classmate, but someone else?
…
About half an hour later, the police obtained all the information about Ingalls' university days from the archives of the University of Brightchester.
Including information about his major classmates, class classmates, club classmates, etc.
There are hundreds of women in total.
Such a huge amount of work also made Conan speechless.
When will this investigation be completed?
Not to mention this huge number of people, these people would all be over 40 years old if they lived to this day, which is definitely very different from the information in the data.
Detective White Horse, who is often in the UK, is very accustomed to this method of investigating cases, asking the police to contact each person according to their phone number and address, and then confirm the alibi one by one.
This is not the work field of Conan and Kuroba Kaito. The two of them can only sit on the chairs aside and look at the numerous student materials in a daze.
During this period, Kuroba Kaito quietly took out the diary he had just brought from the drawer and looked through it.
It's said to be a diary, but nothing specific is actually recorded in it.
This is more like a notebook recording a nihilistic dream, telling the illusory dream things in the first person——
I often have a recurring dream on full moon nights.
I dreamed of the full moon rising from the sea, in the middle of the distant sea, and the reflection of the moon on the sea...
After a while, I realized that it was not the moon at all, but a big pale face looking into the sea.
So I panicked and found that I couldn't move at all.
The full moon seems to be pulling something deep in the ocean, trying to wake it up.
The panic swelled in my body, but it could not block my sight. It forced my sight to focus on the ocean.
Deep in the ocean, a city is sleeping.
When the stars are in their right place, the womb of the sea will tap gently on the ancient prison cell.
By then, its huge muscles will be trembling... looking forward to rebirth.
…
Kuroba Kaito looked at these empty words, and an inexplicable feeling of horror emerged in his mind.
These words may seem meaningless, but combined with the current time point, they have a different kind of fear.
It mentions the "full moon night", which seems to lead to the rebirth of something.
And when he first gained insight into the zoo organization's purpose of stealing gems, the bald leader of the organization also mentioned the "full moon night".
Full moon night...
While Kuroba Kaito was distracted in his thoughts, Conan, who was reading the information next to the policeman, suddenly shouted.
"Wait a moment!"
"this……"
Conan raised his hand and pointed to a piece of student information on the table, and said in surprise: "I saw this person on campus this morning!"
Baima's ears twitched and he immediately turned his head when he heard the sound.
"who is it?"
Conan pointed to the girl with glasses on the student profile.