Parlor Tricks
"It's been an hour," sighed Kisaki Eri, turning her wrist to glance at her delicate gold watch. The Queen of the Courtroom glowered at the bespectacled boy beside her, who currently tucked his hands behind his head, leaned against the stainless steel wall, and stared at the elevator's ceiling. They had been trapped in one of the Hotel Lupin's five elevators for the space of that hour, ever since Eri had snatched the boy from investigating the severed head of the hotel manager. The former hotel manager.
Remembering this, Eri bent over Conan and glared. "Now do you see what happens when you meddle with the business of adults?"
Edogawa Conan snapped to attention and, backing away slowly, gave her a nervous laugh—then grumbled to himself. Of course not . . . the investigation had nothing to do with a shoddy elevator shaft. Damn this body! With you towering over me like that, it gives me the creeps.
Eri frowned at Conan's silence, yet settled on drumming her fingers against the sleeve of her royal blue suit as she checked her watch again. "The emergency crew said they would be here as soon as possible, but I suppose they've forgotten about us completely."
"Nah, they're just distracted."
Startled, both woman and child turned toward their companion, who had introduced himself earlier, with a bow, as Kuroba Kaito. In the opposite corner of the elevator splayed Kaito, a high school-age boy with mussed hair, smirking in amusement as he shuffled a deck of playing cards; spreading his hands wide, he sent the cards flying up, down, and around in ways that Conan doubted were physically possible. "They're too distracted by Kaitou Kid right now to worry about human beings trapped in a big phone booth—though you can try that emergency button again," he added, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't think they're there."
Conan rubbed his chin, recalling the strange coincidence of that evening. International Phantom Thief 1412, a.k.a. Kaitou Kid, had planned a heist of a wealthy financier's golden crystal. The Chiba family, who placed the crystal on display in the hotel's grand atrium, had called Nakamori, Megure, old man Mouri and many others to head off the threat. Little did they know of a neighboring family's murder threat and a head that was destined to be off. "Well, there's the murder . . . and with the Kid heist, by now they must be giving chase—"
"Oh, that? Kid already got away," Kaito said, taking the Jack of Diamonds and tossing it in the air; with a snap of his fingers, it disappeared—poof! Kaito chuckled. Pointing to the trail of smoke, he smirked and added, "Just like that."
This guy's good! Conan thought, blinking at the magic trick. Wait . . . .
From the start, Conan had noticed strange things about Kuroba Kaito. First, there was the undeniable fact that the boy looked like him, meaning the real him, Kudou Shin'ichi. Second, there was the strange feeling that Conan had seen Kaito someplace before. Then, there was the sharp gleam in Kaito's eye as he constantly surveyed his whereabouts. Conan knew he did it, himself, as did all detectives; but Kaito always glanced about subtly, with every flick of a card, like a magician waiting to perform his next sleight of hand—or escape.
Spreading his feet on the floor in a firm stance, Conan crossed his arms and demanded, "How would you know about Kid?"
Kaito paused mid-shuffle and gave Conan a blank stare. "Don't you know? I am Kid."
"W-wha?" Conan shrieked, while behind him invisible lightning bolts flashed in all directions. In that instant, Conan's sharp mind raced to comprehend how a teenager could be Kid, how Kid would somehow end up trapped in the same elevator as a lawyer and a detective, how Kid would be so cocky or stupid as to confess his identity—
Kaito pat Conan's head. "I'm just kidding, shorty!"
"Eh?"
"Ma'am," Kaito continued, turning to Eri while ruffling the blushing shorty's hair, "you've got to watch out for your son here. He takes playing detective way too seriously."
Suddenly, Eri giggled—the first laugh Conan had heard from her in awhile. "You're right about Conan," the lawyer said, wiping tears from the corners of her laughing eyes, "but he's not my son. Calling him that makes me feel much younger, however, so thank you."
"What? Impossible," Kaito said, rising to his feet in the cramped elevator. He reached behind his back and, with another loud poof, produced a rose; bowing again, he presented it to Eri and said, "You don't look a day over twenty five."
That's twelve years off, Conan thought, smoothing his ruffled hair back into place. If Kaito had nothing to do with Kid, he had a heck of a way of showing it. Eri now blushed uncontrollably, a fact that was obvious even from Conan's perspective, causing Kaito to grin with that charming, yet mischievous twinkle in his eye. There is only one truth, even about Kid . . . but either way, I can't wait to be done with this guy.