Silhouettes of Mischief: Phantom Thief vs. Detective

Chapter 1: The Beginning

*Beep beep* The alarm woke up the detective at 6:30 AM. He sleepily turned off the alarm and stood up to get ready for the day. After stumbling tiredly to the bathroom to shower and get woken up, the phone rang. The word 'uncle' flashed across the phone screen, as he answered, "H-hello?"

"Hello Shuichi." His uncle replied warmly.

"W-why are you calling right n-now uncle?" Shuichi asked nervously.

"It's about the case," his uncle sighed.

O-oh, the P-phantom Thief case?" Shuichi asked anxiously.

"Yes, we have a new clue, you'll need to look at it." His uncle said. Shuichi sighed. The Phantom Thief case, the most confusing case the detective agency had ever encountered. The Phantom Thief left mysterious riddles on cards. The cards were a light cream color, with a black rose to symbolize mystery, next to it was the mask of the Phantom. Sometimes they were left at the crime scenes, sometimes they showed up at the agency or even people's houses. "O-okay, I'll come d-down to the office, a-and look at it" He hangs up the phone after saying goodbye. He places a hand on his forehead, pushing his hair out of the way. He leans against the wall and sighs, "I r-really wish I wasn't so nervous on phone calls and around p-people."
After a moment, he realized he still needed a quick shower and something to eat.

*After showering and grabbing a granola bar he rushed to get to the agency taking the elevator and quickly walking to the building*

He arrives at the building and looks up at it, while it looks new at first glance, upon further inspection one might be able to spot small cracks and imperfections. Nonetheless it never got any less exciting for Shuichi to see. He pulls open the glass door and steps into the air conditioned building. The lady at the desk greets him with a smile as he walks to his uncle's office. The inside of the building has white walls and brown floors matching the brown doors. Shuichi gets to his uncle's office, his job title on a plate outside, 'Detective'. He knocks on the door and is immediately answered, "Come in!" He opens the door revealing his uncle's office that he has known for years. His uncle looks up from his computer and smiles at him, "Hello Shuichi, I'm glad you came so quickly"

Shuichi adjusts his hat because it was a habit and replies, "I o-only live within walking d-distance uncle"

"I know that Shuichi, now please come look at this card that we received." He says holding the card up with a smile.

Shuichi walks over to the desk and takes the card gently, he looks it over, 'Phantom Thief' is written on the back of the card in cursive. As he flips the card over it sparkles in the light, on the other side is similar handwriting. "It's a r-riddle?" Shuichi asked seriously.
"Yes we believe so, even though it looks like a poem as well, it is a riddle" His uncle said.

Shuichi read the words written on the card.
In a place that holds many things to see

Many old treasures for me

I'll steal things of great value

I'll bet I won't be caught by you

-Phantom Thief

"W-what do you think it means?" Shuichi asked.

"We think it could be a lot of places, but most likely some kind of exhibition because of the 'old treasures' part of the clue." His Uncle replied.

"So a m-museum?" Shuichi pondered.
"Perhaps, the issue is what museum, the clue doesn't say anything about which one and there are more than one in this city." His uncle answered.

"M-maybe a museum with old j-jewels?" Shuichi wondered

"That's a good place to start Shuichi, let's look at all the museums that have old jewels." His uncle stated.

Shuichi looked at the card again as his uncle searched the web, he flipped the card over and something caught his eye, along the edges of the card were numbers. A lot of 0's and 1's, binary code he realized and pulled out his phone to check the numbers with a binary code decoder. The numbers were, '00110001 00110000 00111010 00110000 00110000 00100000 01010000 01001101' and the decoder showed that it meant 10:00 PM. He wondered if there was more binary code, so he flipped the card once again to see just a few more numbers, the numbers were, '00110011 00110110 00100000 01010000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01101100 00100000 01001100 01100001 01101110 01100101' and putting those through the decoder revealed a street name, '36 Pearl Lane'. Which helped a lot since there were only 2 museums on that street, Shuichi was glad they had a lead but was still worried about it being a trick.

"Uncle?" Shuichi said, interrupting the sounds of keyboard typing and mouse clicks.

"Yes?" His uncle replied.
"I found s-some binary code along the edges of the c-card, It says, 36 Pearl Lane and 10:00 PM according to a d-decoder online."
"Oh wow Shuichi, that's a great find, I probably didn't see it because it's small numbers on a card, great detective work." His uncle praised.

"T-thank you, I'm g-glad I could help." Shuichi said

"Now this street has two museums on it, The Vault of Gold and le Musée des Fortunes." His uncle noted.

"W-which one could it b-be?" Shuichi asked.

"It could be either one, it's a 50/50 chance, so we should probably split up so at least one of us might see the thief." His uncle stated.

"B-but how would we know f-for sure?" Shuichi asked nervously.

"We can use radios to keep each other updated on the situation at the museum we are at." His uncle reassured.

"A-alright then, I w-will go to the Vault of Gold m-museum." Shuichi decided.

"Okay then, let's go" His uncle said standing up.

They both walk out of the room and to the reception desk to inform the desk lady that they would be going to the museums on the case and would be keeping in touch by radio. They take two other people with them as they get into cars and drive to the locations. The sky is darkening when they are driving and by the time they arrived it was almost 2 hours before the time of the robbery. They got ready to perform a radio check, after getting out of the car and hiding near some bushes. The radio crackles to life.

"Hello? Can you hear me okay?" Shuichi hears through the radio.

"Yes I c-can hear y-you. Can you h-hear me?" Shuichi said, speaking into the radio.

"I can hear you, alright now it's time to keep a lookout for anything and anyone suspicious" Shuichi hears.

"A-alright," He replied into it.

They spread out to see more of the building. They kept a watch on the building not seeing anything out of the ordinary, soon it was close to 10:00 it would start soon. Shuichi thought he saw something like a cape flying in the breeze for a moment and went to tell his uncle over the radio. But when he pushed the button, he discovered that the radio wasn't working.