"Vermouth was no newcomer, and she had a skill like disguise. On top of that, she could contact The Boss directly... Anyway, her status in the organization should have been quite high." Conan pondered with a faint buzz in his head.
"But an operation planned by someone like her was easily taken over by someone else and turned into one link in another plan, while she herself ended up in such a miserable state... Who exactly was behind all this?"
Based on his limited understanding of the organization, Gin's figure soon surfaced in his mind.
But Conan quickly shook his head and ruled out that possibility. If it had been Gin, Haibara Ai should have been far more frightened when mentioning him. So that executive... could he have been someone Haibara had never actually encountered, someone she had only heard about by reputation? If so, her fear would indeed have been less intense.
While one detective was quietly pondering.
Beside him, Mouri Ran pulled Jiang Xia farther away and continued speaking at a distance where Conan could not eavesdrop. "It was already dark then, and there were a lot of people around Teacher Jodie when she was rescued, so I didn't get a very clear look. But I always felt... I always felt that she didn't look like someone who had just been locked underground. She looked more like she'd been locked up for a while."
"But if that's true..." Goosebumps rose on Mouri Ran's skin. "Then who exactly was the 'Teacher Jodie' we saw at school a few days ago?"
Jiang Xia knew what she was thinking and said disappointedly, "First of all, she definitely wasn't a ghost."
Mouri Ran let out a breath of relief.
Jiang Xia said, "There are plenty of other possibilities. Maybe the basement was