Summary: Com'on. It was Chris fricking VINEYARD. I dare you to say you wouldn't let her in on a cold night. I just didn't notice the stench of blood and gunpowder until it was too late. You don't blame me, do you?
Beta Reader: Lured by the Song of Sirens
A Guest in the Night
Chapter 1 – La Femme Fatale
Bitter cold fog obscured the world outside, and made the house feel warm and private. Kaito liked nights like this. The fog had a way of absorbing sound, making it more peaceful. It was a good time for getting that blasted studying done for midterms.
He had just brewed himself a cup of soothing herbal tea, when the quiet was shattered by the doorbell. That ought to be Aoko, with snacks and her study sheets. She wrote her own for math, and they were way better than the ones handed out by the teachers. With that in mind, he threw aside his tea and skipped to the door.
"Hello Ao-" The name died on his lips. This was NOT Aoko. This was a drop-dead gorgeous busty blonde with smoky grey eyes like flecks of silver in the sparse light.
The foreigner smiled and reached towards his face. "You must be Kaito," she said in perfect Japanese.
Kaito blinked, his words caught in his throat.
"I'm a friend, or rather, my mother was a friend of your parents. My mother's name was Sharon Vineyard, and I'm Chris Vineyard."
His jaw clapped like a dying fish's. "Ummm..." he stuttered. "W-Why... What can I do for you?"
She hefted a heavy dufflebag that was weighing down her shoulder, settling it on her wide hip, her muscular thighs visible through her tight black pants. "I'm in a bind, and need a place to stay for the night. May I?"
Kaito blushed. "Come in! I'll call my mom."
"Of course, of course." She slipped through the door and set down her bag as though it carried a baby. "Thank you," she said rolling her shoulders and stretching her arms.
Shaking, Kaito skittered into the kitchen and pulled out his phone. Aoko was going to flip when she met the movie star! He tapped his foot while waiting for his mom to pick up. She didn't. Oh yeah, it'd be the middle of the night over there. He put his cell back in his pocket without leaving a message.
"What did your mother say?" Ms. Vineyard's voice came from the entry of the kitchen. Her bag was back on her shoulder.
"It's fine. She didn't object." She hadn't affirmed it either, but this was Chris Vineyard. How often does a beautiful actress ask to spend the night?
"Wonderful! Thank you so much!" Her voice was deathly sexy. "May I take a shower? It's been a long day," she mewed.
"Of course! The guest bedroom is up here, and the bathroom is down the hall on the right." He showed the way.
Crap. The bed was missing sheets. "Sorry," he scanned the room. "I'll go get bedding for you."
"Don't worry about it. Take your time," she replied, smiling as wide as Yorik in Hamlet's hand. "I know I'm being a pain, and I really don't want to cause you any trouble."
"It's nothing!" Kaito ran out of the room and down the stairs to where the linen cabinets were. It had been years since they'd had any guests overnight... ones that weren't Aoko anyways, and she was more like family than a guest. It took a while to find the sheets that would fit that bed, a double. When he puffed up the stairs, she'd already started her shower. Aoko was going to be so impressed when she met this famous foreign movie star! He entered the guestroom and made the bed. The dufflebag she'd been hefting earlier was open, and empty by the side of the bed. Nothing left but the remains of a dirty sheet. As he nudged it out of the way, he noticed something odd. A smell that he'd only smelt a few times before, all in times when his pulse filled his ears with a roar like the sea. Gunpowder and blood.
He didn't stop and think. Instead, he ran to the bathroom to see if she was injured. He burst through the door, yelling, "Ms. Vineyard, are you alright?" The scene that greeted him didn't compute.
She was still fully dressed, a black, long sleeved shirt rolled up to her elbows. By her feet was a set of children's pajamas, made stiff with semi-dried blood and the remains of something thicker that Kaito didn't want to speculate on. In her hands was a bar of soap and a washcloth, which she had been using on a small child, laid out with care in the bath tub, covered in blood to the extent that he couldn't make out the child's features. He froze, trying to process the scene before him.
The woman, whoever she was, took this moment of indecision and sprang towards him like a predator, sinking something sharp into his side and pinning him to the floor in one, swift movement. His fight or flight response kicked in, and he thrashed, throwing her off him. Stumbling, he raced to the bathroom door, then down the hall, and down the stairs... but that was as far as his legs would take him. They felt numb, weak, like he had run a mile in those few seconds. Cursing he tried to crawl, but it was no use. Soon his arms had become useless lumps of flesh. He lay on the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
The stairs squeaked behind him, then feet were at his side. He couldn't even turn his head to look at her. He didn't have to.
His attacker turned him over gently, and closed his eyes with her thumbs, smiling that billion-dollar smile. She gathered his limp body in her arms, smothering him against her bosom. She reeked of blood and gunpowder. Why hadn't he picked up on that sooner? "Sorry Kaito, I wish you had given me another choice..." she trailed off, lost in another thought. "I'd really rather not kill you. It'd make your fans sad. By the way," her voice shifted, and he felt a wave of rage and nausea wash over him. "You did a wonderful job on the Bell Tree Express. Even fooled me," in his father's voice. "Of course, when I saw my target still alive and kicking, I knew what had happened, but that doesn't change the fact that you achieved something incredible, fooling Touichi's best student. You're a worthy successor."
Who the hell was this person? How did she know who he was? Did she have something to do with Dad's death?
The woman laid him down on the floor of the bathroom, not letting his body fall heavily to the ground. Steam condensed on him, slowly sticking his clothing to his skin. Meanwhile she lifted the blood-covered child out of the bathtub; some of the water splashed on Kaito's face. Then she gathered Kaito up in her arms again, and with a grunt of effort, moved him from the floor to the bathtub, again not letting his body become bruised in the process. She bound his wrists and hung them off of the shower-head, letting his shoulders rest on the rim of the bathtub, and his head rest on the wall, to keep him from injury. Then she duct-taped his hands into fists, so he wouldn't be able to use his fingers. She bound his ankles together, and tied them to the towel wrack on the opposite wall, making him straighten his legs. When the drug wore off, he still wouldn't be able to move. Above him, the shower started again, soaking his clothes.
A warm, heavy weight was laid on his chest. He could feel the child's breath on his bare neck. At least the kid was still alive. She resumed washing the blood off. Maybe the child wasn't injured, just drugged, like he was. That must be why she'd had that sedative handy. Why was she doing this? Why was there a little kid covered in blood? Who was the kid? How did she know what that brat had blackmailed him into – wait, what had she said earlier: she'd referred to the woman, whom he'd disguised himself as, as her target. If she was one of Conan's badguys, did that mean-
The doorbell scattered his thoughts. Aoko. His mind buzzed with terror for her.
"Oh, that's right, you were expecting someone else, weren't you?" the woman said. Her hands groped through his pockets and pulled out his phone. "Let's see... It's a name that starts with Ao... Found you!" Kaito held his breath. He could faintly hear her voice on the other end.
"Why aren't you letting me in? It's freezing out here!"
His own voice answered. "Sorry Aoko, can I take a rain-check? I kinda got sick all over myself. … No, you don't want to see this, or smell it. I'm taking a shower. See you tomorrow? … If I'm feeling better by then… Don't worry about that; Mom's scheduled to be coming home tomorrow; she can take care of me. Thanks though! Bye!"
In those 30 seconds, he would have given anything to have been able to scream, but all that he managed was to speed up his breathing.
Washing the kid seemed to take hours. He was gaining use of his arms and legs again, and the strain of being bound made them ache. His muscles begged to move. He didn't dare try to though, fearing she might drug him again. Finally, the child was lifted off of him. The woman left, but he could still hear the soft words she spoke to the child in English. This made Kaito rethink his 'little kid is Edogawa Conan' theory. The kid was too young to have studied English, and in the brief glance he'd gotten of the kid, he couldn't tell if the kid was a foreigner like his captor or not, but it seemed likely. So, same bad guys, different target. If he could get free, he'd have to go to Conan and let him know that his one of his train-bombing bad guys was washing a bloody child off in a phantom thief's bathtub. Being one of them, she must be a cold-blooded killer, one that had used his dad to get better at her craft. He yanked at his bindings, trying to pull himself upright, free, anything. Water splashed on the floor. All he achieved was making the rope cut into his wrists and ankles, and an amused laugh from his captor, when she re-entered the room.
"Good morning."
Had she thought she'd knocked him out? Maybe it had been enough for that child, but Kaito's body-mass and the little time she had to react probably threw off her dosage calculations. "What do you want with me?" Kaito croaked.
"Well, I wanted to spend the night in your house, and clean up after a rather... wet night."
He shuddered. The water was losing heat.
"What are you going to do to me?" he asked.
She didn't answer. Instead, she pulled a syringe and a bottle out of her pocket.
That does function as an answer, Kaito decided. "What are you going to do to me after you knock me out?"
He flinched as the needle broke the sensitive skin on his exposed underarm. Time was running out. He shouted, thrashed, and pulled at his bonds, splashing her with the filthy water.
"Shushhh... shhhhhh..." she said, her hand lingering on his neck. His pulse fluttered against her palm like a struggling butterfly, easily crushed. "I'm saving your life."
"Bullshit!" Kaito hissed. The numbness was spreading again. Her face looked like he was gazing at it through an empty, dirty water glass. The light in the room seemed to fade. He felt her other hand softly push his eyelids shut. Somewhere far away he heard her say, "Sweet dreams," as he slipped into unconsciousness.
