As the wind blew and his eyes caught it he couldn't help but let a smirk cross his face. Now all he needed was evidence, he dropped down next to the ride's track. "Shinichi, where are you going?" He heard the weak voice, worn from crying, croak out to him as he dropped down.
"I just have to check something, it's for evidence. I think I know who murdered him." The girl nodded and he continued on, he eventually came to the climb and ran up the stairs that ran parallel to the uprising tracks. As he came to the top step he took a greedy breath of air and looked around him...she was missing it so….he crouched down and pulled up something that was on the ground…candy wrapper.
We were on an uphill climb it might have flown away…if I'm correct the only chance it could still be here is if the hook caught on.
He shuffled around looking to see if it had caught on and as he finally gave up he saw a shine off the edge of the stairs…
It just had to catch on the piping underneath didn't it…?
As he came back with his prize in hand the gash that tore up the side of his coat, he sighed and mumbled to himself. "That was my best suit, I might have to call mom up again…but I hate asking her for favors." This time he sighed louder, more exasperated.
"At least I got it..." It was true the necklace he had painstakingly reached under the platform of the stairs to get, now hung in his hands, a few pearls were missing but he had managed to not damage it further and refrained from touching the pearls, as to not get his fingerprints on it.
He jumped back onto the platform and saw the police handcuffing a pleading girl and he raised an eyebrow, but then he saw the knife that hung out her bag that one of the officers was holding. "Stop Megure, she's telling the truth it wasn't her that killed the man." The man looked over puzzled at him.
"But Kudo-Kun we found a knife in her bag…" The man tried to reason. "It's a false piece of evidence inspector." The man looked over, once again puzzled. "There's some blood on it but she was sitting behind the victim, even if it was the case that she had the knife to her own accord." He looked over to the woman in question. "You didn't, did you Aiko-San?"
The woman nodded frantically. "It's not mine, I swear."
"See inspector…"
The man looked at him unimpressed. "Who are you? You're not Shinichi…" He laughed a little bit.
"It would be impossible for her to murder him anyway, she's not strong enough. Nothing against you…it's just I don't think that you'd have enough strength to, the force of the drop would've pushed you back into the seat…wouldn't it have, Aiko-San? Plus you were in a relationship with the victim, while that might have usually been the possible leverage I would say there's nothing wrong with it."
"Yes I loved him, I wouldn't kill him."
He turned his head and lifted his finger to point at another woman, one of her friends that had been accompanying her.
"That's right, because, Hitomi-San, it was you wasn't it." The woman gasped. "Why would I ha-" He turned back to her. "You were in a relationship before her weren't you, with the victim?"
"That's right Hitomi…you did have something with him a few years back didn't you…"
"I was in a seat before his how could I have killed him, and like you said the gravity would've pushed me back…"
He answered her question, prepared. "You're strong…well limber is a better way to put it. You're a gymnast correct?" He saw the confused look on the woman's face. "When the wind blew earlier, I could see under your skirt…um…sorry, but you had markings on your upper legs that indicated so, pole marks like that would be associated with the equipment that gymnasts use." He continued, ignoring the looks he got.
"You probably put something between you and the seat so you could push it up when you needed to you could've quickly crawled behind your row…" He took the necklace out of his pocket. "And you used this to kill him. It would've been easy, throw the hook on this end onto the railing on the side there and it would've pulled back with enough force to decapitate him, all while you held your feet to the back of your armrest, it was lucky enough for you, I was bending down…my guess is you were trying to go over Ayumi here originally."
He handed the necklace to the inspector.
"Checking for prints would be easy, and the blood that flew off from the wind you can check with the luminol…" He turned back to the girl and advanced towards her. "After all that it would've been relatively easy to just slip the knife in Aiko's bag wouldn't it…" He continued. "Those tear tracks were there not from after he died, they were from when you were killing him, a murderer shouldn't shed tears for their victims…there's no reasoning something as horrible as that, there's no justice in it."
"It was tears that hit my face when I was in the ride…wasn't it?"
She broke down.
"I didn't want to kill him…I loved him…I was still with him when he started dating you Aiko, so, where we had our first date, I killed him with the necklace he gave me"
The police hauled her away.
She didn't fight it, crying the whole way, but not fighting.
"Shinichi-Nii, you're really cool…" He looked over to see Ayumi standing there along with Genta and Mitsuhiko who were standing around her like guard dogs staring at him like he'd done something, he was about to ask what he'd done but his question was answered by the Ayumi.
"Shinichi-Nii, when I get older…will you marry me?"
He sighed
He felt the young girl cling onto his pants as he stumbled around trying to walk with the small pudgy hands dig into his shins, "Ran, help." But the girl just giggled. "I think it's sweet that she's clinging to you." Is what she said but he heard the message she was really trying to send.
You break that girl's heart and I'll go Kami-Ran-Kaze on you…
As to solve his problems he bent down and offered her to ride on his shoulders, she quickly agreed and clambered into his arms before he dropped her onto his shoulders and her feet dug into his shoulder as she propped up behind his head.
He felt the kids stares bore into him, well one the overweight one just groaned.
"I'm hungry…"
"But we had ice cream not that long ago Genta…"
"That doesn't change the fact that I'm hungry."
He sighed, and could almost feel his wallet lose weight as Ran turned back to him, a seemingly innocent smile on her face.
They walked over to the hamburger stand.
As he walked over to them fries, shakes and burgers piled in his arms he felt his arms grow sore from the simply immense amount of food(Genta's doing) that was piled in his arms and he let it tumble onto the table. He grabbed his empty cup.
"I'm going to go get a refill, kay'"
They nodded as he walked off, too busy, to truly consider his words, ravaging the packaged food and scarfing it down…I thought Mitsuhiko wasn't hungry….
He went over to the soft drink machine and filled his cup with Coca-Cola, till' he saw something in his peripheral vision. He went over quickly and set his drink down on their table.\
The two black men hurried down the alleyway.
"Hey guys, there's something I have to check out, I'll be back in a couple of minutes."
"Ok Shinichi…just don't run off…"
For some reason the others felt like they'd never see him again.
He ran over and tried to blend in with the shadows as he leaned around the side of the building, watching. The men, to his great suspicions were doing something illegal.
"How do I know you won't just kill me after I give the money to you?"
The man was pudgy and overweight, with a small mustache that laid on his lip, he held a large briefcase to his body and sounded as suspicious as one could be of the other.
The man was unlike the man, in the view that he wasn't pudgy but rather quite muscled and buff, with a large barrel chest, he also had no mustache, but he did have a large set of sunglasses perched on his nose and an old-fashioned fedora which shadowed over his face. He was lined with weapons that with Shinichi's trained eye bulged out from his coat. But to the regular eye they were probably well hidden.
He pulled out his phone and turned it to record.
"this is serious…"
The man in the sunglasses sighed. "Then Let's just trade at the same time…
"1"
The figure crept up behind him, black coat trailing.
"2"
He picked up a large pipe left on the ground, smirking.
"3"
He turned around but it was too late.
"4"
The figure swung down. "your little detective game's over kid."
"5"
The other barrel chested man was surprised as there was an oomph behind him and the other man there just grabbed the tapes and ran, dropping the money, the barrel-chested one groaned.
Suddenly Shinichi smelled cigarettes…damn it there was the second one…why couldn't I…ughhhh…my head.
He grabbed his head as he felt pain blossoming through it. He felt the faint trails blood run down his fingers, red lines running down.
"Oi, Aniki…" the barrel chested man spoke, a deep voice, rough. "Let the man go, we shouldn't shoot him anyway, there are still cops around, and they'll hear it. At-least I don't have my silencer, and I know you don't either." This time the silver haired man spoke.
His voice was rough, probably from cigarettes, but it was smooth at the same time…like a venomous snake waiting to pounce, poison dripping from its fangs, or a raven cawing in the graveyard, over dead ones…he sounded to Shinichi, like death.
"Well we can't shoot him."
"Stab him?"
"No…"
"Let's try that out."
"But it hasn't been tested before…"
"But it doesn't leave a trace, so it's a perfect crime."
He saw his phone get picked up and a small tap that reverberated in his ears signaled the man ending the recording, a couple more and he guessed the man was deleting it.
"Why not break it?"
"It'll just bring up more questions if it's broken."
He suddenly felt a hand pull his head up at a painful angle his neck stretching back. He heard some shuffling around and he saw the red and white flashes blur across his vison, two different sides…a pill, he felt it slide down his throat and the rush of water came soon after.
Pain, burning pain, agonizing…
I'm dying….am I?...
Aren't I?
Feels like it…
Like I'm being ripped from the inside out…
Poison…no…phantom…untraceable…
Phantom poison…
He tried to scream but his throat was extremely dry, burning, hotter and hotter. He convulsed violently… he tried to leave a dying message but the nerves in his hand didn't respond and his fingers only twitched.
I'm dying….
So why aren't I dead?
The bright flash of light filled his vision.
"Guys he's alive…"
There were three police officers around him.
"Are you ok little boy?"
Little boy…?
What…what happened I…I'm not dead?
"Little boy?"
His jacket sagged around him and he felt his now baggy trousers pool around his legs, big floppy shoes and socks fell around his feet…what the hell