Behind the Scope

Chapter 9: The Assassination of Kaitou Kid

Conan ruffled his hair in frustration after reading a bunch of news about the recent sniper case. The case became more complicated after the third sniper case with Yuudai Arata as the victim. The police and Interpol had to rearrange the list of suspects because they had to include Arata in their investigation. TMPD Division 2 had to work together with Division 1 after they had failed to capture Arata since he had been dead when they came to his home to arrest him. Yusaku had to go through another questioning session because everybody was curious in his relationship with Arata. The novelist claimed that he had nothing to do with the fraudster and to be exact, he did not even know him until now. Yusaku's statement turned the police into confusion. If they did not even know each other and had nothing to do with each other, then why did Arata die in the hands of a sniper, just like Yusaku's Interpol friend? Just like what would happen to Yusaku if he did not survive from the shot? Was their sniper case even related to each other?

Currently, the police were investigating Arata's background to find any clues about his murder with Detective Mouri's help, which meant actually they asked help from Conan without them knowing it. Yusaku was also helping them as much as he could. It had been two days since the murder occurred and today was the third day, but so far they had not gotten any significant progress, making the shrunken detective became depressed.

"Is it really that hard?" Ai asked out of nowhere. She had been watching Conan for a while with interest without the detective knowing.

"Yeah, maybe," Conan replied, then sighed. "I can make some assumptions, but without any proof, my assumptions will only be assumptions."

Both of them were in Agasa's house. Conan decided to stay there for a while to think about the case since he was not allowed to go with Kogoro to investigate. He had school today and Kogoro had been gone since morning. Waiting for Kogoro in the detective agency was just a waste of time, so the shrunken detective decided to kill time at the professor's house. Here he could discuss the case with Agasa and Haibara, perhaps even with his parents too who lived next door.

"Oh, so you have some assumptions? Mind to tell me, Tantei-san?" Ai smirked.

"Not at all," Conan smirked back. "Well, we don't know yet if Arata's case is related to my dad's case or not, so let's assume that their case is related to each other."

"Okay. So?"

"My dad claimed that he has nothing to do with Arata and only knows him recently, so another assumption: perhaps my dad doesn't know him and doesn't have anything to do with him, but Arata might know my dad and had something to do with him."

"What is this something that Arata had to do with your dad?"

"Right, that's the question," Conan nodded. "Judging by Division 2's report about Arata, that man is clearly a fraudster and has some accomplices and some of them, by the way, have been arrested by the police recently. Based on that information, I can assume that perhaps Arata had a wider network in criminal's world, which lead us to another possibility: Arata might know some criminals who were arrested by my dad and his Interpol friend."

"I see," Ai nodded. "Carry on, Kudo-kun."

"If he knew some criminals who were linked to my dad and his Interpol friend, it's possible he himself had a grudge against them. It's possible that he's the one who hired an assassin to kill my dad," Conan continued.

Ai frowned. "Wait, do you mean the sniper who almost killed your father was hired by Arata?"

"Yeah."

"But—hold on—are you assuming the same sniper killed Arata too?"

"Correct. That's my another assumption. The sniper probably killed him because the police had found out about his crime. The sniper didn't want Arata to reveal his or her involvement in his crime, so he or she had to kill him," Conan explained.