Chapter 1038: Watching cartoons is also investigating a case

"I see," the old police officer narrowed his eyes even more, "from here to the victim's apartment, if you drive, it takes about an hour and a half in the morning traffic..."

"Watching TV together from 7 to 8 in the morning, followed by 6 hours of watching videotapes, almost watching together the whole time. In that case, the alibi is established."

The old police officer pondered for a while and said in a deep voice: "However, to be absolutely sure, let's look for it and see if there is the gray coat and black mountaineering backpack worn by the man the children saw."

Taking advantage of the few police officers checking separately, Conan put the 6-hour Kamen Rider videotape that Chiba mentioned into the machine and pressed play.

"Officer Chiba, did you record this videotape yourself too?" Conan asked.

"No," Chiba looked nervously at Genta and the others who were playing with figures, "It was given to me by Kato, saying it was a thank-you gift for letting him stay... Hey, you guys must not break them; these figures are very hard to get..."

"It really is Kamen Rider!" Genta and the others rushed to the TV excitedly, "And it's the first-generation Kamen Rider, so amazing!"

"The first generation looks very strange, but it's just good..."

"By the way," Akaso Kaze looked at the recording and asked, "Officer Chiba, do you know about Mr. Kato's situation? Motive and so on..."

"As for the motive, there is indeed one," Chiba recalled, "That guy was on a business trip abroad for a year until last month. As soon as he came back, he called me to ask if he could stay for a while...

"He said it was because his girlfriend he was living with was snatched away during that year, and he had nowhere to live. When he came here, he often complained, saying that he called every day while he was on a business trip, and kept writing letters back. Women are really hard to understand... but it's normal, after all, they were separated by distance."

"Hey, hey," Takagi, who was still checking nearby, looked at Chiba with a pale face, "R-Really?"

"What's wrong with you, Takagi?" Chiba asked strangely.

"A senior at the bureau told me today that I'm about to be dispatched to the Tottori Prefecture Joint Investigation Headquarters," Takagi's face was so ugly he was almost crying, "They said I'd be staying there for three years..."

"You're done for," Chiba looked at Takagi with some sympathy, "Three years is too long. However, it seems you didn't have a chance anyway..."

Conan lowered his eyelids and looked at Takagi and Chiba, who were chatting quietly about their feelings, and then looked at Akaso Kaze, who was holding Ayumi and watching Kamen Rider, suddenly feeling a bit tired.

"Hey, Akaso," Conan pulled Akaso Kaze over and asked puzzledly, "Are you here to investigate the case or watch Kamen Rider?"

"This is investigating the case."

Akaso Kaze smiled: "No matter what method is used, there are flaws. Since it's a method involving time, it must have confused Officer Chiba about the correct time, so..."

Akaso Kaze took the program schedule from the side and moved his finger to the second page.

"With only one VCR working, letting Officer Chiba watch TV and record at the same time... there can only be one possibility: the rebroadcast of 'Good Morning 7 o'clock' on cable TV at 9 o'clock..."

"Whoa! Kamen Kick!"

"Damn Kamen Rider!"

Ayumi and the others were watching with great interest in front of the TV, but at least they were a lot quieter.

"In other words," Takagi looked at Kato Akira outside and said in astonishment, "Chiba was watching the rebroadcast of Good Morning 7 o'clock at 9 o'clock?"

"Very likely."

"If it takes an hour and a half to drive from the scene to here, then after killing Mr. Nakamoto after 7 o'clock in the morning, returning here would be around 9 o'clock. Then waking Chiba up to watch TV together could create an alibi..."

Takagi muttered and pondered: "Chiba also said that the two of them had been drinking all night, and ended up sleeping in this living room. Maybe they drank to make Chiba oversleep in the morning. If Chiba, who was woken up, had a hangover, he might not have noticed he was watching a rebroadcast on cable TV..."

"No!" Chiba said helplessly, "I was indeed not fully awake in the morning, but wasn't the program recorded? And it was recorded together with the time display of the cooking program. The screen of the Good Morning 7 o'clock rebroadcast on cable TV didn't have the time display, because it was two hours late...

"And, we finished watching the program at 8 o'clock, then watched 6 hours of videotapes, and there was also the baseball game starting at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Until you guys came over, Kato had been by my side the whole time. The only time we weren't together was the 30 minutes when I went to take a bath. 30 minutes isn't enough to do anything..."

"Is it really not enough to do anything?" Akaso Kaze smiled, "30 minutes is enough to do a lot of things, like copying videotapes or something..."

"Copying videotapes?" Chiba looked at Akaso Kaze blankly.

"Officer Chiba, when did you go to take a bath?"

"It should have been around 11 o'clock, halfway through watching the Kamen Rider videotape..."