White Horse Detective: Is Kuroyu a hidden reasoning genius?

Although Kuroba Kaito does not show any reasoning ability in his daily life, Detective Hakuba always feels that there seems to be some secret hidden in him.

Moreover, Kuroba Kaito is also the person he currently thinks is closest to Kaitou Kidd.

But having said that, this was the first time I noticed this——

That is Kuroba Kaito's face, so similar to Kudo Shinichi's face...

Detective Hakuba relayed Kuroba Kaito's reasoning to the police in Brightchester, who then notified the deceased's close relatives and friends to come over.

While waiting for the suspect to arrive, Conan conducted a second round of careful evidence collection at the scene.

Because he always felt that if the murderer had tortured the deceased, it might have been to get something from the deceased.

Conan took advantage of his height advantage to walk back and forth in the office, and he discovered something unusual.

The computer host is placed in the grid under the desk, and the dust on the base of the chassis looks like there are some scratches.

This means someone has moved the case.

Conan ducked under the desk, looked at the side cover of the case with the light of a watch-type flashlight, and found that one of the four screws was not tightened very firmly.

Could it be...

If it were in Japan, Conan would say "Ah, hey, that's really weird..."

But now in the UK, I have my own mouthpiece next to me, so I don’t need to act like a kid anymore.

Conan climbed out of his desk, grabbed Kuroba Kaito's hand, and told him his discovery.

When Kuroba Kaito heard this, he pretended to cough slightly to attract the attention of Detective Hakuba and the police.

"Ahem..."

"Look at the mainframe of this computer. Maybe there is something missing in it."

Detective Bai Ma frowned, and after hesitating for a few seconds, he motioned to the policeman next to him to do as he said.

The police took out the chassis and used a screwdriver to remove the chassis cover. They found that a key piece of hardware was indeed missing from the host.

"The hard drive is missing..."

"Did the murderer take it away?"

The policemen murmured in confusion, and Conan raised his chin.

Is there any hidden secret inside the hard drive?

Does this secret also have something to do with Kuroba Kaito’s purpose of coming here?

…

After a while, a policeman came in at the door and reported that the person in charge of the Institute of Astronomy and other researchers were here.

Conan, Kuroba Kaito, and Hakuba leaned out the door and saw that there were quite a few people in the institute. There were more than a dozen people, which was far beyond the common configuration of choosing one of three.

However, according to usual practice, it should be possible to find the three most suspect people by investigating everyone's alibi...

The UK is the home ground of White Horse Detective, so he asked everyone some basic questions.

According to the answers from these people, the deceased Ingalls was 47 years old. His position was a secondary researcher at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Brightchester, and he also graduated from the school's astronomy major.

He is somewhat withdrawn, has almost no social interaction, and has no family.

In daily life, I spend most of my time commuting between the Institute of Astronomy and the campus dormitory of the University of Brightchester, living a monotonous life between two points and one line.

Therefore, these colleagues currently in the Institute of Astronomy are almost all of Ingalls's connections.

"Then what he did in the research institute yesterday, does anyone know?" Baima asked.

A somewhat bald head of the institute introduced: "Ingels often works overtime at the institute to do research. As for what he studies..."

At this time, another brown-haired researcher raised his hand and said, "I know something about this. He is conducting unfinished research by his father..."

"Ingalls's father was also an astronomer, just an amateur."

"His father has always believed that the solar system is being pulled by some powerful gravitational force. He once expressed his views in newspapers, but he attracted ridicule from many people."

"So Ingalls always wanted to prove his father right."

Detective Baima turned to look at the researcher and asked with some vigilance: "Who are you?"

The researcher replied: "My name is Burt Rowan, and I share the same office as Ingalls..."

As he spoke, Burt pointed to another desk two meters away from Ingalls's desk and said, "That's my desk."

Everyone looked back and noticed another desk in the room.

However, this desk was kept very clean, with all files put into drawers, and there was only a computer covered with cloth on the table, making it look like no one was using it.

Bai Ma Tan smiled slightly, "So you know that the deceased had the habit of drinking coffee?"

"Yes." Bert nodded, "Drinking coffee should be Ingalls's only hobby besides research, but he doesn't pursue the ultimate taste of coffee. Instant coffee will do..."

Detective Bai Ma continued to ask: "Excuse me, where were you between 6 and 9 o'clock this morning? What were you doing?"

"I……"

Just as Bert was about to answer, he realized that he had been regarded as a suspect and quickly defended: "Hey! I'm not the person who killed Ingalls!"

"And I stayed at home today until work time, and my wife testified for me!"

According to the law, if it is a major case, it is difficult for family members to testify.

But seeing Bert's shocked eyes, Detective White Horse already believed his statement.

Bai Ma Tan smiled, patted Bert's shoulder, and comforted: "Please don't think too much, I'm just making a routine inquiry..."

"In fact, after investigating the death scene of the deceased, we believe that the only people who can commit crimes here are people who are familiar with the deceased, especially people from the research institute..."

"So now, please ask the police to ask about your alibi during this time in the morning, and please cooperate with the investigation."

At Detective Baima's greeting, the police began to interrogate people from the institute one-on-one.

Conan, on the other hand, held his chin up, reasoning through the clues he had learned so far in his mind.

At present, the murderer's method is very clear, which is to take advantage of the deceased's love for drinking coffee and put sleeping pills in the pure water area of ​​the coffee machine.

After the deceased was stunned, he went to the second floor to tie him up, tortured him about the contents, and then killed him with poison.

The only people who can realize this technique are those who know that the deceased loved to drink coffee and those who have the key to the astronomical institute.

Judging from these two points, the murderer should be someone from the research institute.

As for the motive for the murder, the deceased seemed to be conducting major research on some earth-shattering motive.

If it can be proven that the solar system is indeed pulled by some kind of gravity, it should shock the world and even leave its own name in history.

Maybe someone coveted the deceased's research results, so he tortured him and took the results away.

This motive makes sense...

But the problem is that since it is a research result that shocks the world, it will be published in public sooner or later.

If he published it, wouldn't that expose him as the murderer?

But if this is not the motive, is there any other reason for someone to kill an astronomy researcher who lives a monotonous life?

While Detective Hakuba and the police were interrogating people in the institute and Conan was reasoning alone, Kuroba Kaito on the other side was not idle either.

Reasoning is not his strong point, but taking advantage of others is his area of ​​expertise.

Since this person also has the habit of checking calculations with papyrus, he might record important research results somewhere...

This is what Kuroba Kaito thinks.

So he quietly walked to Ingalls' desk, slowly opened the drawer, and checked the contents.

There are not many things in the drawer on the first floor, just a few pieces of chocolate candies, a few small bags of instant coffee, and small tools such as scissors and tape.

He gently closed the first drawer and opened the second drawer.

There are very few things in the drawer on the second floor. There is a diary that looks to be quite old, with a newspaper underneath.

Kuroba Kaito's right hand turned into a black shadow, and he put the diary into his arms with lightning speed. Then, pretending that nothing happened, he took out the newspaper lying underneath and read it.

This is a yellowed old newspaper. The news summary of the front page news reads like this -

"Is the solar system being dragged along?"

Six months ago, an amateur astronomer wrote us a warning letter, saying that a planet might be dangerously close to the Earth.

The Astronomer Royal’s evaluation of this is this-

"Nonsense."

Now, the world's top astronomers are ready to agree to a public debate with the amateur astronomer.

Today we will tell you what the debate is about.

…

The newspaper excerpt appears to be related to a debate, and judging from the publication date in the upper right corner of the newspaper, it was about 30 years ago.
To be continued...