Inspector Megure was startled by the pieced-together message. "Could he be locked up somewhere, forced to use this method to secretly ask the outside world for help? ...That makes sense. I remember Mr. Niimi has many fanatical fans. The Editorial Department even called the police before, saying someone had threatened to burn this place down.
"Also, we can't rule out some lawless criminal eyeing Mr. Niimi's royalties, kidnapping and imprisoning him to make him work. That way, they get to read the novels and collect the royalties... Hiss, that's killing two birds with one stone."
Hearing this, the editor couldn't help quietly interjecting, "But we haven't paid out the royalties yet—Mr. Niimi said he wanted us to transfer them after the whole series was finished."
Nearby, Conan silently dialed a number, but no one answered on the other end.
Conan eyed his phone suspiciously. "..." Pick up already. Why wasn't he answering? Did that Hattori guy not trust his brother?
As he kept dialing, he couldn't help secretly feeling relieved: fortunately, he had also already noticed everything Jiang Xia had just mentioned.
More puzzling than that were the second and third lines of dialogue—they seemingly could no longer be solved using "the apex of 1/2" as the key. Solving them that way produced a strange line that made no sense at all.
"'I ta ka i he am here now, Shiro re no the place culprit wa...' What is this supposed to be?"
I wanted to call Hattori and discuss it, but that guy sure hid fast. Conan snorted inwardly. But he's underestimating me. I'll keep calling until he picks up today.
Thinking that, he switched numbers and began secretly calling Hattori Heiji's home landline—mobile phones could easily be set to do not disturb, but landlines weren't so simple.
Of