"Eh? You said we don't need to worry about manpower?"
Upon hearing Senichi's words, Sato Miwako and Takagi exchanged glances, a bit puzzled.
"What's going on?" Sato Miwako couldn't help but ask, "Is there some good solution?"
"No, no. In such a large Tropical Land, the best way to find someone is through public announcement. However, if we don't want to tip our hand, we can't use that method. A more systematic search is the best approach."
Senichi chuckled as he spoke, "And this method naturally calls for a large number of people. Fortunately, today we can really use this method..."
Saying that, Senichi took out his phone and dialed Shiratori's number.
Soon, Shiratori's slightly sleepy words came from the mobile phone, "Detective Senichi? Is there something wrong?"
"Are you in the Tropical Land?" Senichi didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
"Haha... Detective Senichi, what are you talking about..." Shiratori lost most of his drowsiness after hearing Senichi's words, and was ready to continue dodging the issue. "I'm currently in the middle of handing over things with Dr. Agasa..."
"Alright, spare me those dodgy words. Send your people over here; we have an urgent matter."
Senichi directly interrupted Shiratori's words. "Detective Takagi's bag and the drug dealer's bag were mistakenly swapped. Now we have a kilogram of drugs in our hands."
"What?!" Shiratori, upon hearing Senichi's words, instantly sat up from lying down. The slight drowsiness that had left also completely disappeared. "Detective Senichi, are you serious!?"
"It's true!"
Senichi said without any patience, "Hurry and send your people over. I've already narrowed down the suspect to four individuals. Have the people nearby come over, and the others head straight to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Also, get the commemorative photos taken with Takagi and the kids developed."
"I got it, see you in a bit!" Shiratori didn't care about the disrupted plans for the date from before; now everything had to take a back seat for the case.
After that, Senichi waved his hand to the group, leaving them in bewilderment due to the overwhelming information from his phone call.
Following a brief silence, a group of fierce-looking men in Tropical Land uniforms stood up and converged from all directions as if receiving a signal.
"..."
Sato Miwako was so shocked that she couldn't find words. She pointed at the familiar and unfamiliar colleagues around, still unsure about what was happening. Trembling, she said, "You... you all..."
"Hehe, we just received information about the drug dealer," Fukui, who was acting as the lookout, said with a friendly smile. "Just didn't expect it would be our fortunate encounter with Miss Sato."
"Who would believe that..."
Takagi couldn't help but want to sarcastically comment, but the moment he uttered the first two words, the sharp gazes of the group of men fell on him like "evil spirits devouring people."
"Haha... Is that so?" Officer Takagi, who was forced to surrender under the "force," scratched his head and smiled awkwardly. "What a coincidence..."
Sato Miwako sighed helplessly, rolled her eyes at Takagi and said, "You confidently claimed there wouldn't be any problems..."
What more could Officer Takagi say in response to that besides giving a wry smile?
"Well, you could say it's a blessing in disguise," Senichi comforted and patted Takagi on the shoulder. "At least now we have so many people, all thanks to you two."
"Thinking about it that way..." Sato Miwako's expression was a bit strange, but in the end, she accepted the reality and quickly shifted her focus. "We shouldn't delay any longer; let's head to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."
Earlier, through Shiratori's walkie-talkie, they already knew the situation from him. Hearing Sato Miwako bringing up the main issue, the detectives present all became serious and quickly prepared to depart.
A large group of people heading towards the same destination would still attract attention, so to avoid unnecessary trouble, the group split up and headed towards their destination separately.
Upon arrival, the detectives who had gathered early distributed a stack of photos to everyone.
"The photos are here; besides Takagi, Sato, and the kids, the rest are these five people."
Senichi pointed at an unfamiliar child in the back. "This child in the second-to-last row can be ruled out. Our targets are these four individuals."
"We'll split into groups for the search!" Several impulsive detectives were eager to start, but Senichi quickly stopped them.
"Don't be in such a hurry. Sharpening the knife won't delay the cutting of firewood. If we can further narrow down the suspect, it could save us a lot of time."
Saying this, Senichi turned to Takagi and said, "Hand me the bag."
Seeing this, Takagi and a few others familiar with Senichi already knew what he was going to do next.
After opening the backpack, Senichi closed his eyes and activated his super-smell. He took a deep breath, and various scents from the items flowed into his nasal passages, categorized one by one by his brain.
"There's no residual scent of cosmetics and perfume in the backpack, so we can basically rule out the females among the four.
Additionally, there's the smell of maintenance oil on this sports towel, suggesting that the owner of this backpack is likely someone who plays baseball."
Senichi opened his eyes, unfolding the towel while organizing the information.
"Eh? The smell of maintenance oil?"
Ayumi leaned in to sniff the towel and said, "Ah, that's true! This morning, Uncle Mouri had the same smelly smell when he was maintaining his baseball glove."
"So, the culprit is a baseball player?" Mitsuhiko exclaimed with excitement upon hearing this.
"Ah! It's that big brother with the cap!" Genta, hearing Mitsuhiko's words, couldn't help but shout, "I saw him making a pitching motion at the ride!"
Genta extended his right hand and demonstrated, saying, "He's definitely playing baseball!"
"That sounds a bit too certain..." Takagi scratched his head on the side, "Shouldn't we double-check to be sure?"
"That guy with glasses can be ruled out; he probably plays golf." Mitsuhiko pointed to the man sitting next to Genta in the photo. "I saw him making a golf swing."
"And the brother sitting with this big sister should be playing soccer!" Conan pointed to the photo and smiled.
"Huh? Was he kicking something?" Sato Miwako asked.
"No, it's because he has a special tan mark on his legs. Soccer players tend to wear slightly shorter socks, which exposes a bit of shin guard," Conan, knowledgeable about soccer, once again excluded the suspect.
With the testimony of these kids, the suspect among the four was instantly identified!