Chapter 162: The Scream from the Phone

"Speaking of which, I remember that Detective Senichi, you were supposed to be working together with Detective Sato..."

"Yes, that was the initial arrangement."

Facing Shiratori's question, Senichi nodded and explained, "But Dr. Agasa and I are acquainted, so I voluntarily exchanged tasks with Officer Takagi to handle their statements."

"I see, I remember that Officer Takagi was supposed to handle their reception..."

Upon hearing this, Shiratori nodded calmly. However, Senichi keenly noticed that Shiratori furrowed his brow after hearing his words.

But Senichi didn't find Shiratori's reaction strange.

After all, Shiratori still considers Sato Miwako as his childhood friend, so he naturally wouldn't allow the main love rival to escape.

While Senichi's excuse on the surface was to accommodate Conan and the others' statements, there were other reasons as well.

Helping Takagi was also one of the reasons.

After all, he and Takagi are old partners. Last time, he left early, so this time, teaming him up with Sato Miwako was a way of returning the favor.

But the more important reason was that it allowed Senichi to slack off and go with the flow~

Yes, that was Senichi's real purpose.

From the beginning, he had no intention of participating in this case and sharing the credit with his colleagues. After all, his case-solving frequency was too fast.

Like this robbery case, it was not very challenging. After a few days of investigation, they could wrap it up today or tomorrow. It didn't require much skill.

But it was still a major case, and everyone participating would receive some credit if it was solved.

You might think, Senichi is just one person, so it would look that bad if he participated?

That would be a bit exaggerated.

It would have been fine if it was when he first joined, but now his status was somewhat special. For the cases he participated in now, even if he didn't contribute much or stand out, he would still receive some credit.

After all, he was the "face" of the Metropolitan Police Department now.

The Public Relations Division had suffered from the criticism of the higher-ups, causing their hairlines to recede, so now they had a prominent figure to help establish their image.

And for the sake of their own interests in the Public Relations Division, they were starting to neglect others a little.

This way, it felt like a "face-saving project."

But it could be understood. If Senichi just played a supporting role in the case, who knows how the unscrupulous media would report it?

And from the surface, it seemed like Senichi was getting some credit, and they were doing the publicity, creating a win-win situation.

But this seemingly win-win situation was actually a sweet poison. Although tempting, it was harmful in the long run.

After all, claiming credit could easily offend people. While both sides benefited, there would naturally be someone who suffered losses.

Fortunately, Haruka was relatively tactful and specifically reminded Senichi. Otherwise, it would have been awkward for him to realize that he had taken credit from others.

So he simply chose not to participate. It also happened to assist Takagi, allowing him to leisurely go with the flow.

"Officer Shiratori!! The branch manager of the Beika Bank has arrived!"

Just as Senichi finished answering Shiratori's question and was preparing to leave with the kids, a uniformed officer led a middle-aged man with a small beard to the door.

"Ah, thank you for your hard work."

Shiratori thanked the officer and looked at the middle-aged man, saying, "Thank you for your assistance, Mr. Masuo."

"Phew... Finally made it..." Masuo looked at his watch and let out a sigh of relief.

"May I ask, did your wife not come with you?" Shiratori asked with some doubt when he saw that Masuo came alone.

"Ah, I had some business at the bank, so I asked her to meet directly at the Metropolitan Police Department," Masuo explained and asked, "Hasn't she arrived yet?"

"No, I haven't seen Mrs. Masuo," Shiratori nodded and said.

"That's strange..." Masuo raised his hand to look at his watch. "It's already this late; she couldn't still be sleeping, right..."

As he spoke, Masuo walked to the nearby landline and pointed at it, asking, "Can I borrow the phone? I need to contact my wife."

"Please go ahead," Shiratori nodded and gestured.

The middle-aged man dialed the phone and then raised his left hand to check the time.

"Hello~ This is the Masuo residence."

"It's me, Kayo. I'm at the Metropolitan Police Department." Masuo said and handed the phone to Officer Shiratori.

"Madam, Officer Takagi had some unexpected business, so I'm here to receive both of you," Officer Shiratori explained and asked, "May I ask where you are now?"

"Ah? 5 o'clock? But your husband said you were supposed to come together at 2 o'clock," Officer Shiratori found the words on the other end of the phone strange.

Upon hearing Officer Shiratori's words, Masuo quickly snatched the phone and said, "Are you still half-asleep? We agreed on it yesterday..."

Whether intentional or unintentional, when Masuo snatched the phone, his left hand pressed on the landline, activating the speakerphone.

The next moment, a horrified scream came directly from the phone, causing everyone to freeze.

Senichi was actually preparing to leave with Conan when the call was made, but the scream instinctively made him turn his head.

"Mrs. Masuo!! What's going on?!" Officer Shiratori snatched the phone and kept asking, but no matter how he called, he didn't hear any response.

"Sorry, please wait for me in the office," Senichi instructed the kids briefly and then immediately shouted to Officer Shiratori, "I'll go get the car. We'll go to Mr. Masuo's house immediately!"

On the way to find the car, Senichi felt a bit annoyed and slightly speechless.

He didn't expect that just by asking Conan to give a statement, he would unexpectedly encounter a case. It was really unpredictable...

Indeed, it was unpredictable.

After coming to this world, Senichi realized that the so-called "Conan case alarm" wasn't that reliable.

The so-called "alarm" was nothing more than the occurrence of a case whenever Conan appeared.

It's not entirely inaccurate, but this was the real world after all, with twenty-four hours in a day. It wasn't realistic to be on guard for a case every time Conan showed up.

In the anime, where they cut out the daily life and only focused on the cases, it naturally followed the "law" that a case would occur whenever Conan appeared.

But in reality, daily life took up more time, and cases were the smaller part.

After Senichi came to this world and spent some time with Conan, he became somewhat paranoid, fearing that a case would occur whenever they met.

But most of the time, nothing happened, like when they were doing the statements. They had done many statements with Conan before and nothing had happened.

Gradually, Senichi relaxed a bit. Otherwise, being on edge every time he saw Conan would lead to a nervous breakdown sooner or later.

But when a case suddenly occurred, it was inevitably annoying...

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