Hotaru's first case part 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan or its characters. I only own Hotaru, my OC.
Time: 8:00 pm
"Well, here it is. Welcome to my humble abode." Yamaguchi guided them to the front gates.
'Oi oi, is he mocking us?' Shinichi thought as he stared at the oversized mansion.
'I wonder if they have candy..." Hotaru pondered. Her hand, entwined with Shinichi's, felt warm.
"Come on in Monsieurs." The line of maids nudged them gently to the 'humble abode'.
The Kudo siblings were introduced with a dining room filled with foie gras, caviar, blue cheese, spaghetti, escargot, and a la mode, fish and chips, fried rice, sashimi, sushi...
"Onii-San, it smells so good doesn't it?" Hotaru looked ready to pounce on the food.
"Yeah." If Shinichi was hungry, he did not show it. Instead his grip on her tightened.
"What time did we last ate, Onii-San?"
"..I forgot." Hotaru giggled at that. Shinichi gave her a semi-annoyed glance to which softened at the sight of her face.
They all sat in silence, eating whatever that was on their plate, with the occasional outbursts of Yamaguchi. Strangely he kept on glancing at the clock and while they were talking, he suddenly interupted saying that he needed to go to the bathroom. He came back and by 8:30 he blurted out again,
"It seems my wife is not down yet. How peculiar. She's usually all bluff when it comes to food."
There were no comments made by Hotaru. She didn't care either way.
'That fat woman's probably munching on chips right now in her room'
On the contrary, Shinichi seemed a bit worried. Grabbing his sister's hand he whispered
"We should go check up on her." Hotaru raised a sardonic eyebrow.
"You can go. I don't really care about her."
"If I am going, then you're coming with me. Did you forget about that?" Despite what he was saying Hotaru was more concerned about his warm breathe brushing over her reddening face.
"F-fine."
They tiptoed up the stairs, hand in hand, until Shinichi found Tano's room. The door was locked. He knocked at it, twice.
"Tano-sama, are you in there? You're husband wants to speak with you."
There was no answer.
"Onii-San, is she asleep?"
Something was wrong, and he could feel it. Knocking the door again, he noticed that it was severely damaged. The door seemed chipped and hallow. His suspicion rose again.
"Tano-sama is something wrong?"
"Why isn't she answering, Onii-San?" Hotaru was growing frantic.
"I don't know. Stay back Imouto." He pushed her behind him. Getting ready, he braced himself for what was to come next.
"What are you gonna do..?" Hotaru gave a surprise yelp as he ran and slammed the door down. A strong smell immediately hit her nose.
'Cyanide!'
"Onii-San, get out! There's cyanide-!"
"Go and get Yamaguchi, tell him to call the police!" Shinichi said while he covered his nose and mouth.
"W-what? Why? What about Tano-sama?"
"She's dead, now hurry up!" He tried to scan the body until he found blood red dots underneath the body along with a bloody arrow beneath it.
'Dying message!"
"Tano-sama is dead?! B-but..that's just.." He turned around to see Hotaru still standing there in shock.
"What are you doing?! Go and get Yamaguchi!"
"She seemed to have recovered slightly and ran down. Moments later Hotaru ran back up again, with a tearful Yamaguchi behind her.
"Did you phone them?" He demanded. Both nodded anxiously.
"Tano! Is my wife alright?" Shinichi solemnly shook his head.
"She was killed in this locked room...how was that possible?"
"She's DEAD?!"
"Yes, and for a long time too. The autopsy should provide an accurate number though."
Hotaru felt faint. Tano died a long time ago...and they didn't even NOTICE.
"Anyway, Hotaru, you should go an pack your luggage."
Pack her luggage? What did he mean by that?
"I don't understand.."
"This case had turned to murder. It's dangerous for you to even-"
"No! I want to stay here!" She found herself talking back.
"This is not a choice. I'm calling the Professor." He turned to reach for a nearby phone.
"Onii-San, I don't want to leave you! The police are going to have to interrogate me too, you know. So it is useless for me to go-" she tugged on his pants.
"What are they going to ask you anyway? You can't see anything!"
All was motionless and quiet. Hotaru suddenly turned cold at what he had just said and it made Shinichi regret it. A lot.
"What I was meant to say was, that I would have liked to stay with you throughout the duration of this...case. Is that so hard for you to agree?"
"Imouto..I didn't mean that.."
She ignored him and turned to the door. " I'll go and wait until the police arrives." Strutting past her brother and Yamaguchi, she bumped onto the wall accidentally. Angrily brushing herself off, she hurried to the other direction.
/
"Tano Yuki, age 34, married to Yamaguchi Tora, age 45, was found in her room dead. The cause of death is most likely cyanide poisoning in gaseous form. Time of death, between 5:30-6:00." Inspector Megure recited the report from the autopsy.
"There were dots and an arrow beneath the victim's body, which I'd say would be some sort of dying message." Shinichi added.
"Oh! Kudo-kun! What are you doing here!" The inspector turned around and waved at him.
"I was asked to privately investigate Yamaguchi's wife by Yamaguchi himself. During 5:30, Yamaguchi, myself, and Hotaru took a walk around Shinjuku where we met Tano Yuki for the first time there."
"Hotaru-chan? I've haven't seem her in years! Where is she anyways?" He looked around.
"I'm here, sir." A cool voice unlike one froma normal four year old would say. Looking down he saw a little girl walking over to him.
"Hotaru-chan! Do you remember me?" He held out his hand to her. She did not take it.
"Sir, do you remember that I am blind? I can't see your hand." Hotaru explained in a clipped voice. Suddenly he felt awkward and slowly placed his hand away.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry." He laughed nervously. "Uh..moving on, Kudo-kun, based on what you saw what can you deduce from this?
"There is a window that is tightly glued shut. It may have been closed postmortem. I don't think we're allowed in that room unless all the cyanide's been evaporated off, but I can say that the culprit must have used that window to his advantage. There are dots and an arrow below pointing from left to right..."
While Hotaru's brother spoke to the Inspector, she walked over to the body and gently touched the red dots. They were dry. Running her finger through it she pondered. Why did the culprit glue the windows? And most importantly, Why use cyanide in gas form, when he could use something less dangerous and timely? It didn't make sense. She ran her fingers idly through the dots.
'They feel like they can be used as Braille. I wonder if it works too. Let's see...T.Y English. Ah..that doesn't make sense, especially with the arrow under that. Hmmm...oh well...'
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" She jumped when she heard Inspector Megure's booming voice. He looked like an ox ready for a rodeo. Smoke was coming out of his nose.
"Ah...Gomen I was going my fingers over the dying message..."
"WHICH WAS EVIDENCE!"
"I didn't have things to read in Braille sir, so I decided to read the dying message thingy.."
"Wait, what?" It was Shinichi's voice this time.
"..and it said 'T.Y English' and that didn't make a lot of sense ah..sumanai *Megure-Keibu."
"What did the dying message say Imouto?" Shinichi demanded, pushing past the inspector (who looked annoyed) and then grabbing her shoulders. She flinched at the sudden force. He softened his grasp but kept his voice firm. "What did it say?" He asked again.
"Ano..uh..'T.Y English'."
"That's all?"
"Hai, Onii-San." Suddenly it all became clear to him. 'T.Y English' had a deeper meaning. Tano-sama wasn't as stupid as he thought.
"Onii-San, um...my shoulders hurt a little.." He realized that he was squeezing her shoulders too hard. Shinichi dropped his hands to her waist and held her tightly in his arms.
"Thank you, Imouto, you've gave me a big clue to help solve this case." He whispered in her ear.
"Onii-San.."
"And I'm sorry about before, okay? Onii-San will make it up for you."
"It's okay. I'm not mad anymore." She pulled away slightly and reached up to kiss his cheek. It was the first from his sister. Sweet and shy rather than his mother's ones where they were always lipstick filled and slightly slobbery.
"Onii-San, I'm not mad anymore because I want to be happy when I hear your deduction show, in live." She smiled at him.
He smirked "alright, I'll give you a deduction show, after I find the evidence." Pecking her cheek, he ran to the only place to find the evidence: the bathroom.
/
"Kudo-kun, what is the meaning of this? Have you found out the person who killed my wife?" Yamaguchi asked huffily.
"Yes, Kudo-kun, tell us why do you need us to be here, outside of Tano's room?" Inspector Megure added.
"Just a minute sir, I need to find the right props." Called Shinichi from the bath room.
"Props? Why props Onii-San?" Hotaru asked.
"Props for this deduction show, ofcourse."
Shinichi finally came out, with a can of silicone, a mask often found in the dentist office, a large bag, a spay can, and a knife.
"Kudo-kun, why do you need those items?"
"First is the spray can. The culprit most likely used this can to put the cyanide in. In which case, this can will still contain traces of cyanide. The can will need to be placed in a large bag such as this one, to not cause the bottle to be disturbed in any way. Next the culprit sprayed the room with the cyanide. He sprayed just enough for the unfortunate person such as Tano-sama to die as soon as she inhaled enough of the smoke. Cyanide in gaseous form, also known as hydrogen cyanide is highly toxic and can be transmitted by inhalation. The amount used to kill would be around 277 ppm of cyanide to which can cause death within minutes. He would need to get the victim out of the house and back as -sama would leave the house by 5:30 and return home from that distance by 5:40. That way he can get an alibi, saying that the person died as soon as she went home and with us as the witnesses. His method of doing so would be to displease her in some way, leaving her to sulk in her room. She would mostly like realized that she was being poisoned until it was too late."
"But, what about the windows? She could've left them open?" Inspector Megure questioned. Yamaguchi stiffened.
"That brings me to this point, before the victim can home, the culprits had already siliconed or glued the windows shut. As seen here." He motioned to the glued windows. "And Tano-sama would have again, inhaled too much cynide to have the strength to open the windows anyway. But look here, the culprit made a mistake. He forgot to bring the bag, which contained traces of cyanide since it was in the room while he sprayed it. So he went back to the bathroom, which has a window latch above, to move to Tano-sama's bedroom veranda. Bringing a knife with him, he would stick the knife through the glued part of the window and cut the glue off. He would wear a mask to stop him from inhaling the cyanide and discard the bag. Lastly, he'll re-glue the windows and discard whatever he has left."
"So, who committed the murder?" The Inspector pressed on.
"There's only one truth behind all of this. And it all comes from the dying message!"
"What!" The Inspector cried as he and Yamaguchi glared down at the message.
"Tano-sama has taught in schools for the Blind. It is safe to say that she knows enough Braille to conduct this message.
Below says the words 'T.Y English' and an arrow underneath pointing from left to right. T.Y are the initials for Tora Yamaguchi!"
Yamaguchi glared at Shinichi. "I do not understand what you are saying! T.Y can also be the initials of my wife! It also works more like that too! My initials are Y.T Yamaguchi Tora! Hers is T.Y Tano Yuki! So there!"
"The fact that it is written T.Y further proves my point. She writes the word English next to it. And in English, the first name comes first! She even drew an arrow from left to right to not cause confusion. So by reading from left to right in English, T.Y is you, Tora Yamaguchi, the culprit!"
"My wife could be mention many others who happen to have the same initials as this. Show me concrete proof!" Shinichi stared in silence.
"What is this? You can't do it? Some detective you are.." He smiled smugly.
"Where is your black bag Yamaguchi?"
Yamaguchi stopped in his tracks.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Where is your black bag? The one you said that you were going to put away, before you were going on a walk with us?"
"I well...uh..." Hotaru listened in awe as her brother reduced the man to bits and pieces.
"Inspector Megure. We found the black bag that Yamaguchi-sama had in his posession. Inside are traces of cyanide and his fingerprints."
"Uh, good work men. Now Yamaguchi, what do you have to say about this?"
"..." Yamaguchi was surprisingly silent.
"Why don't we go to the station." The inspector motioned some officers to handcuff him. Yamaguchi however, backed away.
"It was..her fault." He confessed.
"What did you mean?" Shinichi asked cautiously.
" I call you in, to find out is she was having an affair. But.. Just moments after, I was sended pictures from the post, from an anonymous sender, pictures of my wife in an intercourse with one of my clients!"
Hotaru gave a small gasp and clung herself to Shinichi, who patted her head comfortingly.
"And that's not all! When I asked her about it, she admitted to them all! She even said that some were even more pleasuring than me! Me! Her husband! I had to get rid of her. And to make that worse, the company, the Yamaguchi corporation is getting bankrupt. We needed quick cash. Tano came from a family of aristocrats. Money was always there for her. So..I took her out of my life, out of my problems..."
Hotaru gripped tighter. And that's when Shinichi spoke up,
"What's the difference? In the end, she still plans to have the last word. She stopped you from succeeding and placed you lower than you already are. And Murder...Murder can't solve anything.."
Yamaguchi dipped his head sadly as the cop took him away.
/
"Well Kudo-kun! Just as expected of you to deduct this case as thorough as can be. Your father will be proud!"
Inspector Megure laughed, slapping poor Shinichi on the back.
"Uh, thank you Inspector." He said, straightening himself back up.
"And don't forget to take care of your sister!"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, Goodbye then!"
They watched as the Inspector drove away to the station in the patrol car. Shinichi turned around and smiled to Hotaru.
"We should be going too." He bended over and kissed her forehead softly.
"Ne ne, Onii-San."
"Hmm?" He mumbled.
"How do you do it?"
"Do what?"
"How do you concentrate on a case like it's just another body. Tano-sama was just here this afternoon...and then she was gone..."
Shinichi opened his eyes and looked solemnly at Hotaru for a moment. Turning away, he sighed.
"I suppose..I don't know. I try not to think about them personally, just until the case is finished."
"Does it get easier over time?" She nudged his head with the touch of his hand. He faced her again, and said,
"No, it doesn't. Each case has a different person, different setting, different experience..but you know what?"
"What?"
"People like you are so special..you remind me that there still some good people in this world." He picked her up and carried her back to the hotel.
"Onii-San."
"Yeah, what?"
"You remind me too."
