The next morning, Ekoda Town, Bell Tower.
This was the location Kaitou Kid had openly named in his calling card.
The Bell Tower stood more than a dozen stories tall, and the clock installed at its summit had a diameter of several meters.
Even from the ground hundreds of meters away, one could clearly see the time displayed on the clock face above.
Judging from the calling card, Kaitou Kid's target was that giant clock.
Of course, according to the police analysis, what he was truly after should have been the large diamonds embedded in the clock hands.
To protect those diamonds—and, more importantly, to recover the dignity the police had lost before Kaitou Kid—the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department had pulled out all the stops this time:
Starting that morning, the Traffic Control Division had sealed off the roads near the Bell Tower, preventing outside vehicles from approaching.
Unmarked patrol cars from the Mobile Investigation Unit cruised back and forth on the ground, while helicopter formations from the Police Air Wing circled overhead.
Inside and outside the Bell Tower, as well as in the surrounding streets, officers from Investigation Division 2—some fully armed, others disguised in plain clothes—patrolled and stood guard.
This lineup was more than enough not just to catch a thief, but to deal with a "beautiful sight."
And at that very moment, inside the Bell Tower's ground-floor lobby—
The commander of this extravagant force, the inspector of Investigation Division 2's Intelligent Crime Investigation Section and Kaitou Kid's self-proclaimed archrival, Nakamori Ginzo, had run into something that made him absolutely furious:
"What?!"
"The higher-ups are sending some brat who came out of nowhere to jointly command this arrest operation with me?!"
Upon hearing the news, Inspector Nakamori trembled with rage.
"**Joint command? What the hell does joint command