"Co to think of it, I rember there was a detective who always showed up on TV news."
Sonoko recalled having seen sothing like that in the news when she was looking into stories about the thief.
A male detective with a mustache and a short haircut. But the impression he left wasn't great. He always appeared behind the thief but never managed to catch him.
Sonoko couldn't rember the detective's na. Even when she was looking into the thief, it was only a casual search. She only picked up the general details.
But now, the daughter of that detective seed to be standing right in front of her.
In this situation, that detective really did resemble Uncle Mouri a bit... Because of how similar Nakamori Aoko and Ran looked, Sonoko subconsciously started comparing Uncle Mouri to that mustached detective. Overall, the resemblance was quite strong.
She had a vague idea now why soone who looked like Ran would suddenly show up again… Sonoko figured it had sothing to do with both parents looking alike, which led to this current situation.
"Yes, that detective who often appears in the news is my dad."
Aoko was clearly happy that soone rembered her father. At least it ant that his efforts weren't completely overlooked.
But the downside was that her father was always in the spotlight as the detective getting played by the Phantom Thief Kid.
He obviously worked so hard and almost caught the thief every ti, yet the thief always slipped away.
"I was thinking, maybe there's a reason the detective never caught the thief... Maybe even the thief has his own reasons for acting like this."
Just as Aoko's expression began to fall, Ren cut in.
"As Miss Nakamori said, your father has been leading the effort to catch the thief. He's had the most direct contact with him. I believe your father may already have a good idea of the thief's identity. The reason he hasn't caught him might be because he's trying to do so through gentler ans."
"Miss Nakamori, think about it carefully. No thief could constantly stay ahead of police intelligence. No matter how skilled he is in disguise, it should be impossible to keep up with the police's real-ti updates."
"Then how is it that this thief is always one step ahead of the police?"
"There has to be a reason."
"!?"
Aoko's eyes widened.
Indeed, every ti the thief struck, he sohow seed to know the police's plans in advance. No matter how strong his intelligence-gathering ability was, it couldn't possibly cover everything in real ti.
And now that she thought about it, every ti her father nearly caught the thief, it was because he'd temporarily changed the strategy last minute.
So the thief's actions weren't luck.
"You an, the thief is always by my father's side?"
Aoko reacted imdiately.
"No. More precisely, the thief may always be by your side, Miss Nakamori."
Ren pointed directly to the heart of the matter.
"That thief made a na for himself in the West 20 years ago. No matter how young he was back then, he must have been around 20. Now it's 20 years later. He'd be a 40-year-old man. With age, his skills should've only grown more stable. There's no way he'd allow himself to almost get caught by a detective multiple tis."
"Miss Nakamori, you should know, detectives in the West are even authorized to open fire. So, why has this experienced thief's success rate dropped after 20 years?"
With Ren's guidance, Aoko suddenly understood.
"Because the thief now isn't the sa one from 20 years ago!"
"Exactly."
Ren smiled faintly.
"If the thief isn't so middle-aged man, then the only one who could take on his na and stir up this much trouble must be his successor."
"Maybe even his son."
"That would place the thief in a particular age range. Most likely a high school or college student. Definitely no older than 20."
"And if the thief can accurately access so much of the police's operational information, then he's either soone within the tropolitan Police Departnt, or soone very close to the detective in the Second Investigation Division. But being a direct insider is highly unlikely."
"I believe that organizing a sting operation like this wouldn't be a solo task. It requires thorough personnel planning. The thief couldn't possibly juggle being both an internal officer and a thief."
"Also, the detectives in the Second Division would be highly aware of the risk of internal leaks. So they would keep plans confidential up until the very last mont. Even if there were a mole, they wouldn't have ti to leak a hastily decided plan."
"So, there's a much simpler source for this information."
Following Ren's gaze, Aoko slowly pointed at herself, a complicated look on her face.
"Miss Nakamori made a few comnts earlier after learning about Sonoko's identity. And clearly, you care deeply about your father. I think that sotis, even unconscious remarks are enough to serve as clues."
Ren then shifted the topic back to Aoko.
"I believe your father may have already started to suspect soone. He might even be intentionally leaking false information through you to verify his suspicions."
"When catching an international thief, no one really talks about using gentle thods. A single bullet to the thigh would be enough to reveal their identity. But your father hasn't done that. That probably ans he doesn't want to catch the thief that way."
"…"
Aoko's expression darkened slightly.
If she followed that line of thought, she could already think of soone.
Looking back carefully, there were a few tis when the information she heard on the news didn't quite match what her father had told her before. And those were exactly the tis her father nearly caught the thief.
Kaito… are you really… the thief?
Aoko didn't want that to be the answer.
But now… she couldn't stop thinking about the possibility.
(To be continued.)
***
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