Locking Suspects

After a thorough investigation and interviews, the police discovered that this Kentaro Gotanda had been at his workplace all day yesterday.

All of his colleagues could vouch for him on this point.

But Kobe Ichi still felt that something was amiss about this case.

So he retrieved the surveillance footage from the museum.

He played it once in front of Kentaro Gotanda.

"Do you have any connection to the person in this video?"

Upon seeing the footage, Kentaro Gotanda was completely stunned.

Because the person in the video looked exactly like him.

He even almost mistook it for himself.

But upon closer inspection, he noticed something was off.

The person in the video had a right hand, while he didn't.

This clearly wasn't him.

After a few seconds of shock, Kentaro Gotanda laughed bitterly.

"Officer, don't joke around, I..."

He paused, then suddenly removed his prosthetic hand and placed it on the table attached to the interrogation chair, continuing: "How could this possibly be me?"

Seeing this, Kobe Ichi stepped forward and picked up the prosthetic hand to examine it.

Made of silicone, without even any joints, it was completely incapable of movement.

After just a glance, Kobe Ichi put the prosthetic hand back down.

Returning to his seat, he continued questioning.

"Then... do you have a twin brother? The kind that looks exactly like you, that no one can tell apart."

Kentaro Gotanda shook his head again: "I'm an only child."

Hearing this, Kobe Ichi lost interest in continuing the questioning.

He stood up and left the interrogation room immediately.

No twin brother; a solid alibi for the entire day yesterday, making it impossible for him to have been at the museum; missing a right arm.

All signs indicated that he had found the wrong person.

The Kentaro Gotanda sitting in the interrogation room couldn't possibly be the thief who had emptied out the museum.

"Where exactly did things go wrong?" Kobe Ichi muttered to himself.

Was the surveillance footage faulty?

That's impossible.

The technical team had checked this footage; it hadn't been tampered with at all.

Moreover, the Bald Man could verify the authenticity of this footage, as he was present yesterday.

What the surveillance captured matched his description perfectly!

The more Kobe Ichi thought about it, the more confused he became.

Just as he walked out of the interrogation room, the Bald Man followed him.

Like Kobe Ichi, he was also bewildered at this moment.

Of course, neither of them chose to give up at this point.

No matter how difficult, they had to investigate, after all, this case involved some significant matters.

Kobe Ichi paced back and forth outside the interrogation room.

"From what we know now, Kentaro Gotanda is clearly not the thief, but the surveillance captured footage of him coming to the museum yesterday, and you saw this person with your own eyes."

"The timing doesn't match up, so the person who appeared at the museum yesterday must be someone else, someone who looks exactly like Kentaro Gotanda."

"Records show Kentaro Gotanda doesn't have a twin brother, and he confirmed this himself, so... this person must have used other methods to make himself look exactly like Kentaro Gotanda... is it possible it was makeup?"

Hearing Kobe Ichi's words, the Bald Man was visibly taken aback.

He knew that makeup could change a person's appearance.

Many people look completely different before and after applying makeup.

But to use makeup to transform oneself into another person, even fooling facial recognition technology... what kind of sorcery was this?

Seeing the Bald Man's expression, Kobe Ichi shrugged helplessly.

"This is the only reasonable explanation I can think of. I think we should stop fixating on this issue and continue investigating from the surveillance footage. Let's carefully review all the footage that captured him that day; we might be able to find some more clues."

...

After carefully reviewing yesterday's surveillance footage,

They mapped out the movement trajectory of the 'Kentaro Gotanda' captured on camera.

Yesterday at 11:08 AM, 'Kentaro Gotanda' walked out of the restroom.

Before 11:08 AM, the surveillance didn't capture any footage of 'Kentaro Gotanda' entering the restroom.

At 11:42 AM, after parting ways with the Bald Man, 'Kentaro Gotanda' entered the restroom again.

After 11:42 AM, the surveillance also didn't capture any footage of 'Kentaro Gotanda' leaving the restroom.

Looking at the movement trajectory,

'Kentaro Gotanda' first appeared out of thin air from the restroom.

Then he disappeared into the restroom.

This was clearly suspicious.

Kobe Ichi squinted at the several surveillance clips.

"The surveillance didn't capture him entering the restroom, but he came out from inside. It captured him entering the restroom, but didn't catch him coming out..."

At this point, Kobe Ichi had two theories in mind.

The next second, he looked at the Bald Man.

"Are there any windows in the museum's restrooms?"

Hearing this, the Bald Man immediately shook his head.

"No, there's only one door. The restroom's ventilation relies on the exhaust ducts on the ceiling."

There were no windows in the restroom.

So it was impossible to enter or exit through a window.

Thinking of this, Kobe Ichi continued to ask.

"Can a person fit through those exhaust ducts? Is it possible the thief escaped through the ventilation system?"

The Bald Man shook his head.

"Impossible. The museum's design took this into account from the beginning. Both ends of the exhaust ducts have welded iron meshes. Unless you have something like hydraulic cutters, you can't open them."

Hearing this, Kobe Ichi smiled slightly: "I see..."

The Bald Man's answer negated one of Kobe Ichi's theories.

Now there was only one theory left.

Kobe Ichi reviewed his second theory.

"I previously hypothesized that this thief's makeup skills might be exceptionally good, allowing him to transform himself to look exactly like someone else through makeup."

"With this assumption, everything becomes easier to explain. This thief came to the museum early yesterday, entered the restroom before 11:08 AM, applied makeup to look like Kentaro Gotanda, and then walked out of the restroom."

"During this time, he stole your police badge, impersonated the person on it to extract information about the museum's various security measures from the officers, then, still wearing Kentaro Gotanda's face, returned to the restroom after 11:42 AM."

"Afterwards, he removed his makeup in the restroom, changed his clothes, and left the restroom in his true appearance."

Before Kobe Ichi could continue, the Bald Man already knew what to do.

He immediately ordered: "Screen the surveillance footage. Find anyone who entered the restroom before 11:08 AM and came out after 11:42 AM."

The officers immediately complied.

...

After a period of screening and comparison, the results were in.

Only two people met the screening criteria.

"Sir, we've found them. These two people both entered the restroom before 11:08 AM and then came out after 11:42 AM."

Looking at the paused surveillance footage on the computer screen,

Kobe Ichi said, "It's definitely one of these two people."

At this point, the number of suspects had been narrowed down significantly.

Their next step was to make an arrest!