As Takato finished speaking, he suddenly thought of something. Shinichi Kudo, who had been about to go in and take a look, also stopped his original intention. Simultaneously, they both went to the room's window, opened it, and climbed out!
They arrived at the wall directly opposite the bookshelf in the room. From outside, this was exactly the back of the house, and this wall was also thickened, so it could accommodate that passage leading to the underground.
"So that's it!"
"That's what happened!"
Takato and Shinichi Kudo said similar things at the same time, then exchanged a smile, but quickly fell into thought.
Back in the room, Suzuki Sonoko had already come out of the basement, so Takato and Shinichi Kudo walked into the passage.
The passage left after the bookshelf was moved was as wide as a door. Inside were wooden stairs. After descending, the two saw that the basement was not very large, probably only about ten square meters, and less than two meters high. It was an empty room with almost nothing in it—except for a bed!
Very abruptly, there was a bed in this basement!
"How did you find this room?"
Takato asked Shinichi Kudo beside him.
"It's very obvious, because other than the upstairs bedroom where you've already set up a bed, only this room looks like it's been cleaned."
Shinichi Kudo said. Takato hadn't looked closely at this point, as Shinichi Kudo and his two companions had arrived just when he was planning to thoroughly investigate the villa.
"It seems there are no other clues. How about we go up first?"
Takato suggested.
"It looks like it. Let's go up and analyze the current clues first."
Shinichi Kudo agreed.
Back in the living room, they sat back in their original positions. Ran asked, "Do you know what's going on, Conan!"
"Yeah, why is there a secret basement there! I even fell down."
Suzuki Sonoko said, troubled.
"I've generally figured out why this villa has been making strange noises for a year, and how outsiders have been entering and exiting it."
Shinichi Kudo said.
"But there's absolutely no clue as to the purpose of doing this."
Takato echoed.
Ran and Suzuki Sonoko, who were beside them, both looked bewildered by their conversation.
"Then tell me, why has this villa been making strange noises for the past year?"
Ran inquired.
"Ah, that matter, it's actually very simple. I understood it when Detective Akechi said, 'This basement is not on the villa's floor plan.'"
Shinichi Kudo said, then looked at Takato.
"Indeed. Since it doesn't exist on the floor plan but actually does, then obviously someone deliberately dug it out. So it's easy to understand why strange noises have been coming from here for nearly a year—because these were the sounds made by digging the basement!"
Takato explained.
"Once you understand that, it's easy to understand how outsiders entered this villa."
Shinichi Kudo said, pausing, then showed a puzzled expression, "But if that's the case, the whole thing becomes very difficult to understand."
"Yeah, secretly digging a basement in someone else's house or something, it's really hard to understand."
Suzuki Sonoko agreed, "But what does that have to do with why outsiders could get in?"
"After all, Mr. Akechi's key can open the door normally, so the lock hasn't been changed. Then how did they get in?"
Ran also expressed the same confusion.
"Idiot! You already know outsiders dug a basement in this villa, so do you still need to think about how they got in?"
Shinichi Kudo explained somewhat exasperatedly, "Of course, they just smashed the wall to get in!"
This conclusion startled the two Female students present.
"Smash... smash the wall!"
"That's right, look at the location of this basement entrance, it's in the outer wall of the house. To build such an entrance after the villa was built, the only way is to smash the wall first! Since they smashed the wall, it's not surprising that outsiders could get in! They just needed to repair the wall after the basement was completed!"
Takato said.
"Moreover, the wall's location is precisely at the back of the villa, surrounded by a fence. Construction there wouldn't be visible to outsiders. Combined with the fact that the strange noises only occurred at night, meaning the people digging the basement worked at night, then even fewer people would discover it."
Shinichi Kudo added.
"But what is the purpose of secretly smashing the wall of someone else's villa, digging a basement, and then repairing the wall?"
Ran asked, confused.
"Exactly, that's what we currently can't figure out. What's the point of going to such great lengths, spending nearly a year digging a basement in an uninhabited villa?"
Shinichi Kudo fell into thought.
"The only clue seems to be that bed placed in the basement."
Takato explained.
"A bed, what's so special about that? It must be for the people who dug the basement to sleep on."
Suzuki Sonoko said.
"But don't you think it's strange? If they needed to sleep, why put the bed in the basement? After all, the entire villa is accessible, so it would be better to put the bed inside the villa."
"What's more, this bed was clearly put in after the basement had already been dug."
Shinichi Kudo said, then Takato added a sentence. Suzuki Sonoko, hearing what they said, couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed about her previous statement.
"Ah? If you put it that way, it is indeed very strange."
"But it's clear that this bed isn't there for no reason."
Shinichi Kudo said, then shook his head vigorously, "No, if you really want to say it, from digging the basement to placing the bed, this whole thing couldn't be for no reason. It's like..."
"To satisfy some need, they had no choice but to do it."
Shinichi Kudo seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment, while Takato supplied this sentence.
"Right! That's exactly the feeling!"
Shinichi Kudo agreed.
"But that's pretty much the same as saying nothing."
Ran said with a helpless smile, "After all, no one would be so bored as to do something so meaningless."
"In other words, doing this itself should have a very significant meaning, so significant that they would spend nearly a year and a lot of wealth to do it."
Shinichi Kudo changed his line of thought because of Ran's words, while Takato, who was still thinking, then seemed to have thought of something and spoke.
"Let's not talk about the basement for now. Just looking at that bed, who do you think it was prepared for?"
"Eh?"
Ran and Suzuki Sonoko looked confused, but Shinichi Kudo seemed to have been enlightened.
"That's right, let's not talk about the purpose of the basement for now, but if it's just this bed, it's clearly prepared for someone!"