Second chapter of the day !
Chapter 2 : Message
"- But ya weren' the best then... " Heiji pointed out with a bored look. "I was even faster than ya, it's just that I wanted ta tell the cops directly, if I had called like ya, I would have been first...
- That's just a bunch of 'if'..." Conan mocked with a little smile. "Let's admit it, never mind us, our fathers were the best...
- Yea... Could be fun ta have them challenge one day, East against West all over again !
- They'd solve it so fast we wouldn't have enough time to see who's the best...
- It's hard fer me ta admit it but, yea... I guess we can both still improve !" The Osakan agreed with a sad smile.
"- Still gettin' along quite well, eh ?" Kazuha commented as she approached the pair to put a cup of tea in front of each.
"- Thank you, Kazuha-neechan. Oh, Ran-neechan, are you alright ?" The bespectacled detective asked when he noticed she was just behind the Osakan.
"- As good as new !" The girl confirmed, before displaying a gentle smile when she saw the boy was eyeing with concern the bandage around her head.
"- You sure ?
- Don't worry, Boy, that's just a scratch, that's a doctor telling you..." Yamato answered when he joined them and noticed the child's frown.
The small detective's frown slightly changed from concern to boredom, never really enjoying being called a 'Boy'.
"- Can we go home now then ?" He innocently asked, eager to get rid of the too familiar medic.
"- Ah, apparently, we'll have ta wait a bit, some of the group left with it for some shopping..." Kazuha objected.
"- Yes, sorry about that, I thought Hikari-san and Ren would already been back but..." The blue-eyed man confirmed.
"- There's nothing to be sorry of... Let's have our drink in the meanwhile !" Ran proposed, taking a seat near Conan.
o.O.o
"- So ya're all doctors ?!" Kazuha wondered as she looked at the group that was now in the living room.
"- Yea, we met during our studies in a medicine faculty..." Meiko explained with a smile at the girl's surprise.
"- Explains the big house..." Heiji observed, keeping his voice low to be heard only by Conan.
"- Yea, we'd better think once again about taking detective as a profession... " The boy retorted, an ironic smile on the face as his eyes laid on the large room they were in.
Considering its size, he could guess the lodge was wide, clearly oversized for the small group they were with, with at least two rooms for each as it was a three-storey building. And with its emplacement, so close to the slopes, it was clearly not the cheapest one around.
"- And you, what bring you here ? The place is great but not really well-known..." Yamato was wondering when the boys listened to the main conversation again.
"- Oh, I won a contest in a mall...
- So you're not always unlucky ?" Taichi joked, a taunting smile on the face as he looked at the long-haired.
"- Nah, on the contrary, Ran-chan is usually pretty lucky..." Kazuha confirmed with a small giggle. "Don't challenge her with a deck o' cards !"
"- Yea, haha... They're too young fer ya guys, it's illegal..." The Osakan muttered once again, bored to see the two guys were laughing at his childhood friend's comment.
Conan, despite the fact he was also annoyed, couldn't stop a snort when he saw his best friend's face. The dark-skinned finally lightened up as all heard the front door open, meaning the two last ones of the group, the ones who took the car, were back.
"- At last..." Heiji sighed as he got up with a sneeze, already ready to leave.
"- What a crappy weather..." The male newcomer, a handsome black-haired man, commented with a bored face, heading straight to the fireplace. "Even last time in Russia, it wasn't that b...
- Hey, stop reminiscing and help me with the bags, Ren-kun !" A female voice complained from the entrance.
The man only grumbled as an answer, so Yamato and Meiko got up to help the last girl.
"- Coming, Hikari-chan!" Taichi also announced, joining the group. "Come and warm yourself by the fireplace, we'll look after that !
- Thanks ! Oh, we had guests ?" The woman, a calm looking blue-eyed, commented as she entered the living room
"- Yea, Yamato, you know... " Nanako shrugged with a smile of connivance.
"- Haha, got it... Nice to meet you, I'm Takaishi Hikari."
After they exchanged courtesies, the last man finally introduced himself as Ishida Ren, a surgeon.
"- Wow, that snow piled up so much since we came back !" Yamato concluded with a chill as the three of them came back into the main room. "Sorry guys, the trip back will be quite long..." He apologized to the two detectives and their girls.
"- As long as we reach the hotel..." The detective of the West shrugged as he stepped to the entrance, eager to get rid of all those men around the girls.
"- I'm not sure that's safe..." Meiko worried as she shook her head. "Look at how much it piled up, you'll have a hard time to get the car through all that snow.
- They don't plan it to stop before the end of the night..." Ryo observed, getting his head out of his book.
"- Uh, I wouldn't want Yamato-san to be stuck in a snow storm because of us" Ran commented with a grimace, knowing she'd feel pretty guilty if anything happened to him after he helped them so much.
"- Why wouldn't you all stay for the night ?" Nanako proposed with a smile. "We got enough rooms and food for everyone and you'll be able to leave on your skis tomorrow morning !
- We wouldn't want ta disturb ya..." Kazuha pointed out with embarrassment.
"- Oh, come on ! And like this, I'll be able to challenge Ran-san's luck with cards !" Taichi exclaimed with an enthusiastic smile.
"- That's...
- Ah, please don't say no ! I'll team up with you, he always wins, I want to see him lose at least once..." Yamato pledged before Ran could even start her negative answer.
"- That's settled then !" Meiko smiled before getting up. "I guess I'll be starting to prepare the dinner.
- I'll help !" Kazuha firmly volunteered.
"- So will I, just let me call my father first, he stayed at the hotel, I have to warn him we won't be coming back..." The Tokyoite girl explained as she took out her phone.
"- Oh joy..." Conan sighed, to be heard only by Heiji, as he understood he'll have to be careful the whole night not to have any of those rich Casanovas too close to Ran.
"- Same here..." Heiji agreed after another sneeze with the same look of boredom at the doctors.
o.O.o
Later in the evening, the girls were enjoying one of the facilities of the lodge, a wide room with a bath large enough for five persons to sit in without being cramped.
"- But still, that place is so crazy..." Kazuha commented, turning back to Ran after having watched dreamishly the snow piling up on the other side of the window.
"- Yea, a bit lost but it really has its charm.
- Better than the hotel at least ! Ah, by the way, have ya been able ta contact Kogoro-jiisan ?
- Barely, the snow is probably blocking the signal... But I think he understood, I just hope Otou-san won't be drinking all night long while I'm not here to watch him..." The long-haired girl sighed, more than aware that her father was perfectly able to do it.
"- Maa, at least, he won't annoy anyone, he's got two wide rooms just fer him !" Kazuha observed, trying to cheer up her friend who was already darkening, probably a bit concerned about her father.
The girl shook her head and smiled, brushing away her concerns. "That's about what we have here, have you seen how long is that hallway ? And there's another floor !
- Yea, can't imagine how much it could cost... Not something we could afford and probably never will !
- Good thing you got that accident then" Ran soflty laughed with a taunting smirk.
"- Uh, don't remind me, I'm pretty, pretty sorry, Ran-chan...
- Forget it, that's just a bump !
- But...
- Ah, you don't want to make me angry so no 'but's !
- 'kay..." The Osakan agreed, exchanging a smile with her friend.
That smile quickly disapeared when a yell suddenly echoed into the house.
o.O.o
"- So, nothin' really fun lately?
- If by 'fun', you mean a bunch of dead bodies, nah, nothing, it's a bit calm nowadays..." Conan admitted from his bed with a little sigh.
"-An' yer friends in black?
- Nothing...
- Tsk, be honest fer once, Kudô..." The Osakan scolded with serious eyes. "Don' be so stubborn, the Professor told me ya've been investin' a lot about them those last weeks... I could help, why do ya always keep those things quiet...
- Because they're MY things," Conan snapped to a disapproving Heiji, "I don't need you to meddle with...
- Why ? " The detective of the West argued, getting on his feet to come closer to the boy. "Ya trust me, do ya?
- Of course, Hattori, but...
- There's always a 'but' with ya..."
"- Kyyyaaaa !"
Both boys turned their heads to the room's door, tensing as their detective's senses awoke with a start.
"- That was... Takeno-san?" Conan guessed as he got up from his bed.
"- 'think... Let's go !"
The two friends rushed to the hallway, adrenaline running through their bodies as they ran to the floor below, not knowing what they'd be facing.
They quickly noticed where the yell had been coming from, as Nanako was on her knees in front of an opened door. The girl looked shocked and she buried her head in Yamato's shoulder when he crouched by her side.
Ryo, the not-talkative one, was looking with a disgusted face at what was inside the room to finally decide to step in.
"- Don' !" Heiji ordered as he came close enough to see what was in.
"- But we need to check if he's still...
- Look at him, there's nothin' ta check... The only thin' we can do now is ta keep everythin' in order while we wait fer the police ta arrive..." The Osakan sighed, his eyes still on the body.
"- The police ?" Ryo wondered, still uneasy with the teenager's firm orders.
"- No need ta be a cop ta see that's clearly a murder..." He dully concluded, finally turning to look at the dark haired, to see Hikari and Meiko were arriving.
"- Who's been...
- Ishida-san." Conan answered, looking up at the one who just spoke, Meiko.
"- Someone call the police" The detective of the West ordered as the last one, Taichi, arrived. "An' if any o' ya got a camera, I'd need it.
- I'm on it" The man proposed, guessing by the dark faces and Nanako's sobs something serious happened.
"- But who are you?" Hikari wondered with a disbelieving look at the teen.
"- Hattori Heiji. High-school detective. The small guy here is my assistant, Edogawa Conan" He announced as he patted the bespectacled child at his side.
"- Explains the comment about the vitals..." Yamato observed, eyeing with curiosity the dark-skinned.
"- That's it. Could any o' ya bring us two pairs o' gloves ? We'll be investigatin' a bit while waitin' fer the police.
- That's nothing a little child should see..."
Heiji shrugged at Shibe's comment. "He'll be alright." He answered before following the boy who was already inside.
"- The hell..." Conan said between his teeth.
"- Same here..." The Osakan agreed, also clenching his teeth to keep his stomach where it belonged.
"- Heiji ?
- Kazuha, don' come here ! "
But it was already too late and both girls, still wrapped in towels as they rushed directly from the bath, hugged each other with a horrified yell as they saw the crime scene.
"- Come here girls, there's nothing for you to see..." Meiko said, grabbing Ran's arm to move the two female friends from the door, barely having a glimpse at the room with a disgusted face.
"- Let's find you some cloth, you'll catch a cold like this..." Hikari added, understanding the detectives would be better without them.
"- Thanks..." Heiji muttered as he exchanged a nod with her.
Their attention back on the room, the boys took their handkerchieves out and approached the body.
Both detectives were used to dead bodies and crime scenes but this one was one of the most violent they ever saw.
"- If that's not rage, I wonder what it is..." The bespectacled child said with irony.
"- A psychopath ? Though, ta that level, we would have noticed the guy, he'd be runnin' amok an' yellin' in the hallways...
- Clearly."
The room was a mess... A lot of things had been smashed to the floor and were lying around, half drenched with the victim's blood, Ishida Ren's. The formerly pretty looking man was now covered with scarlet, mostly near the neck area where a large gash was what made Heiji confident about the fact he was dead.
The detective of the West approached the victim while the small boy was looking for any clue around him among the numerous items lying on the floor.
"- He's been hit on the back o' the head..." The dark-skinned observed as he noticed some blood in the former doctor's hair. Resuming his examination, he took the man's hand. "We finished eatin' two hours ago an' his skin is still pretty hot... I'd say it happened less than one hour ago, so between 10 an' 11 p.m. ... We'll have ta check everyone's alibi back then. Ya listenin', Kudô ?
- Hattori...
- Yea ?
- We got to solve that case fast or he won't be the only one..." Conan darkly concluded.
Heiji looked at him with surprise and his eyes fell on what the boy was staring at.
A large message was written on the wall, the blood clearly visible on the clear wood from the wainscot.
"You bunch had no mercy in killing Mina. Don't expect me to show any either. "