Hey! Love you guys for loving my story, that's all I have to say, really. I can die a happy woman now XD Okok, not yet coz this is not finished but you know what I mean, hehe. Enjoy you dear people! It's getting better and better!
Chapter eighteen – The Ceresa treasure
"Doesn't that look absolutely amazing?" An excited, female voice asked her partner.
"Yeah." A not so excited, male voice answered her. 'Just like the last fifteen objects.'
"Aren't you glad that we came here?" She smiled at him.
"Oh yeah." 'Are you kidding me???'
"Hihi, and we didn't even reach the main attraction yet." She was pointing at a small, open door with a sign next to it that displayed the famous treasure.
Shinichi looked at his overly excited fiancée, her beaming face, shining eyes and big smile… He couldn't help but smile along with her. No matter how much of a bore and a waste of time he thought this whole exposition thing was, seeing Ran so excited about something that it shone right through her and smile at him in the amazing and enchanting way that was hers…he was sure he would endure way more unpleasant and way more boring things than that.
They walked on and came to a large room with security guards everywhere. In the middle of it, there was a huge glass-cube with a reflector on its top. The casket was filled with Spanish coins, gold bars, jewelery, pearls, assorted silver, and gems in all kind of different colors and in the middle there was a white silk-pillow with a blood-red diamond on top.
"So this is it, huh?" Shinichi looked at the vitreous cube that contained the legendary Ceresa treasure.
"Yeah. Isn't it beautiful? Do you see the big, clear-red diamond in the middle? That's the famous Ceresa diamond. A very wealthy Spanish nobleman once ordered it from faraway Russia. It was a present for his wife, who he loved very much. He named it Ceresa, which means 'Cherry' in Spanish, because of the cherry-red lips of his beloved and because cherries were her favorite fruit. The value of this fist-size, round stone that you see there is incredible."
"What happened then?" Shinichi asked, almost hanging on her lips and on her sweet voice. She was really good at telling stories.
'I wonder if she'll tell stories to our kids as well.' He blushed involuntarily at his own thoughts, looking back from her face to the red gem. 'What a foolish thought!' he told himself. 'Of course she will! This is my sweet Ran we are talking about here.'
He smiled and stepped closer to her, wounding one arm tighter around her waist, keeping her close to him. Ran smiled back and leaned slightly towards him before she went on.
"This nobleman was the founder of a very successful tea company back then. He had two sons but it was the way people handled things back then: the first son got everything while the second son had to get by with what was left. After a particularly big fight, he took the diamond and the next ship to Egypt, where he wanted to make good money with his knowledge of tea and have a good life with the money that he'd get when selling the diamond.
"As his bad luck would have it, on the second night, a mighty sea-storm broke the ship and it sank. Only a few passengers survived and it will surprise you if I told you that our young lad found his way to a little boat where he now floated through the Middle Sea all alone. He was again lucky as a ship found him only one day later but then again not that lucky. The ship had been full of pirates and as they saw what he had in his bag, they killed him and took the Ceresa diamond with them.
"Nobody knows why they kept the name; maybe they liked it. But as they started a pirate fleet, it was well known and feared in the Middle Sea as the Ceresa fleet. The captain found a small cave, as I have already told you, and there they saved and increased their fortune until the British Crown messed with them. It was the time of the British Empire and they wouldn't put up with the pirates robbing their ships any longer. They destroyed their fleet and took the considerable fortune the pirates had gathered up to this point. You know the rest, I've told you before."
"Yeah. Man, what a story. Poor guy." Shinichi pulled back to look at her face, suddenly grinning. "You are a walking history book."
Ran giggled but didn't respond, only stick her tongue out to him. Shinichi chuckled. "Even like this you are cute. How do you do that?"
A brightly smiling Ran looked surprised at him, and then hugged Shinichi around the middle. "You are only saying that because you want to get out of here, admit it."
"Huh?" He managed to look completely surprised, shocked and innocent all at once.
"Oh come on, I've known you for you know exactly how long."
"Well, did I succeed?" A sweet and cute expression on his face caused Ran to giggle harder.
"All right. We'll walk through the rest quickly, ok? I only wanted to see this beautiful ensemble, anyway."
"Yes!" He held her tightly with one arm, delighted at these new prospects.
"But you have to treat me to an ice-cream."
"If I have to." He tried to look troubled then smiled and bent down to give the equally smiling girl in his arms a sweet kiss.
"As long as you don't want a diamond this big to match the color of your lips." He teased, tracing the contours of her lips with a finger.
Ran smiled at him and started walking ahead. "No, not now. For the wedding then." She turned to grin at Shinichi.
"Yeah." He chuckled before realizing what she had just said and his face fell. "What? Ran, you are kidding, right? Ran? Raaan!"
She giggled and kept walking, her hands at her backside.
---
The next morning, Shinichi walked into the kitchen, yawning and stretching his still sleeping limbs. The first thing he saw was Ran as she hovered over the breakfast and he couldn't help his smile.
"Morning." He walked up behind her and hugged her lightly, kissing her cheek.
Ran smiled. "Good morning." She gave him a quick kiss. "Slept well?"
"Oh yeah. Man, this all smells so good."
"I made breakfast." She told him almost proudly with childish delight.
"You are spoiling me, my dear."
He told her with dreamy expression. She giggled and pushed him down on a chair. "I'm almost finished."
Shinichi looked with warm expression after the humming girl, grinned to himself and opened the newspapers as suddenly his cell phone rang.
"Jeez, this early in the morning…" he groaned out and reached over for the phone. Ran only looked at him. "Yeah? Oh, Megure-keibu, good morning. What? No, not yet, why? Right now?… I see… yeah. Okay, I'll be there as soon as I can. Yes. Bye."
Ran walked up beside him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "You are going?"
"Yeah, I am sorry. He said it'd be important that I go there as soon as possible but why did he ask if I had read the newspaper yet?" He was already opening the papers and didn't have to look for long. He read along with the headline.
"'Famous Ceresa treasure stolen.
Kaito Kid appeared one day earlier
than his official announcement told to steal the infamous Ceresa treasure and left two policemen and one civilian behind, critically injured. One is fighting with his life in a hospital at this moment. All of Tokyo is asking: Did Kid go crazy?
Read more on page two and three'.
What the hell is going on?"
"It's the one that we saw yesterday in the museum, right?" Ran was looking over his shoulder at the picture in the newspaper.
Shinichi nodded. "I can't believe he injured people. As far as I know that has never happened before. And why would he steal it one day too early, too. That doesn't make any sense."
"Perhaps it was an accident? Or he did it by mistake?"
Shinichi had to grin. "No, nothing Kid does is by mistake. He is a professional, you know that and it's not his style at all. This is really strange." He looked back at the article and re-read it while already starting to brood over this new case.
Ran sighed. She knew this expression. It meant that nothing could catch his attention now. "Shinichi…" her tone of voice was definitely warning. Maybe that's why he looked up at her.
"Just to make myself clear, you won't leave this house without a proper breakfast." She announced and didn't even wait for his reply, simply walked over to the counter and finished with the breakfast that she then served.
"It's like we are already married!" Shinichi told her but his soft voice and smile on his face told clearly that he didn't think it was a bad thing.
Ran blushed none the less but allowed him to sling an arm around her waist as he pulled her closer and looked up at her while resting his head on her stomach. She laid a hand on top of his head. "That's good." She countered in a teasingly threatening voice. "Then you can start adjusting to the fact that you better do what I tell you, if you know what's good for you."
Shinichi grinned an askew grin to which she responded in kind. Then her features softened.
"Eat up, honey. I am sure you will solve this case and return the beautiful treasure." She kissed the top of his head. He held her tightly for another moment.
"I hope so."
Then he let go of her and started eating together with his beautiful wife to be, his mind still bugging him with one question.
'Why would Kid hurt people?'
---
Forty minutes later, he arrived at the Tokyo police department and was greeted by loud shouts that he had heard already from the moment on that he had entered the building.
"Are you trying to tell me my job?" a deep, male voice rang about the place.
"Why won't you listen to me?" a considerably younger, but not at all less determined, voice answered.
"I have been doing this since before you were even born!"
"Maybe that's too long."
"WHAT are you trying to tell me, kid?"
"What the evidence is telling. Didn't you look at the clock? Honestly. Not only was your "Kid" one day too early, nooo. The robbery started exactly two minutes and forty-six seconds later than the announced time. What does that tell us?"
"That you have too much free time?"
"No. With all due respect, you of all people should know the habits of Kid. He would never a) announce a robbery and act one day earlier, and b) come later than the announced time. And a very big c) he would never, not that I believe in the good side of that thief, but he would never hurt people; that's a fact. Especially not so many and so badly that they had to stay in the hospital. I hope you can follow. Consequently, what can we conclude from this facts?"
"That you are a wise-cracking, little…"
"What's going on?" Shinichi asked Megure, who was looking at the two with his arms crossed in front of his big stomach. Kogoro, who was standing next to Megure, had greeted Shinichi with a nod of his head, and then went back to watching the spectacle in front of them. Takagi was standing next to Kogoro and looked up as well when Shinichi entered, and greeted him happily.
"Kudo-kun, I am so glad to see you. They've been going on about this for an hour already." He turned and looked at the combatants: Nakamori, leader of the Kid investigation, and the young detective from England, Saguru Hakuba. "It's horrible. Saguru-kun has big doubts that it was Kid who stole the treasure yesterday. He told his deductions to his father who immediately mobilized the whole Tokyo police force and even called for help from Osaka, since the owner of the treasure is pressuring us for reinforcement."
"Osaka?" Shinichi tore his gaze away from the two fighting and looked at Megure. "Does that mean…?"
"That's right. It does mean exactly that." A voice, one familiar to Shinichi and Kogoro, made Hakuba and Nakamori stop arguing and all five pair of eyes turned to the three men who were entering the room.
"Hattori!" Shinichi looked at Heiji, one eyebrow arched and a slightly puzzled expression on his face.
"Hi Kudo. It's been a while." Heiji grinned stupidly at Shinichi and this grin he retorted.
"Yeah right, three days." They grinned.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, since most of Tokyo's police are on vacation or occupied with other cases and the rest of them are messing up, they called the Osaka headquarters for help. So we were sent to help you out with this case." He looked back at his father, Hattori Heizo, head of the Osaka police whom people, for a good reason, called "Heizo the devil" judging from the grim appearance that he had, of course only behind his back, and to Toyama Koichibucho, Kazuha's father who had, for years now, worked together with Heizo successfully.
Shinichi looked confused at Megure who shrugged his shoulders guiltily. "It was an order, what could I do?"
"But obviously a waste of time and money." Hakuba neared, tapping his trench-coat with both hands as if to dust it off. "It is clear that there is no flaw in my deductions, no matter what Nakamori-keibu here thinks." He looked with narrowed eyes at the older Inspector who glared back. "My deductions are based on solid facts."
"Well, why don't we start slow and tell the whole story to our guests?" Megure tried to save the situation, but Heizo interfered.
"We know what this is about by the articles in the newspapers. So, would you keep it short and stick to the important facts?" Heizo had an air that clearly told you to not mess with him and Megure, who was one head shorter than the Osaka police chief, was almost intimidated.
"O-of course. The head of the museum is threatening to force us to pay for the treasure if we cannot retrieve it and I don't need to mention that that would be a huge disaster and that there's no way we could afford it.
"We must retrieve the treasure and this fake Kid or not fake, that doesn't really matter. I don't have to repeat how urgent this is.
Aside from the Kid incident, we've increased cases of robberies and smuggling affairs going on. The details are all in your file-folders. We are suspecting a syndicate behind this, a very big fish but we couldn't lay our finger on the source yet. In any case, we need to find it otherwise there'll be coming up bad times for the Tokyo economy."
"What has been smuggled?" Hakuba asked Megure.
"W-well, at the border closest to China we were able to capture three containers that were meant for Tokyo. One was filled with stuffed toys, one with electronic toy animals and one was filled with sweets."
"Sweets?" The group looked astonished at Megure.
"Yeah, all kind of sweets with Hello Kitty faces, famous manga and comic characters and so on. It was really ridiculous. They were meant for Europe."
Nakamori was shaking his head. "Criminals who smuggle sweets…"
Kogoro was doing the same from the other side of the room. "Yeah, what happened to the good old drugs-smuggling?"
"Or alcohol, or cigarettes?" Nakamori went on.
"Nobody has any standards anymore." Kogoro finished.
Both men sighed out in unison, missing the good old times.
"We don't know what else they could be smuggling, that's why we have to catch them as soon as possible with close to no leads at all.
"The three people we were able to catch just won't talk. But one of them is stupid and he let something slip: that there are more somewhere here in Tokyo and they're about to go overseas soon. Thus our suspicion of the syndicate but we have neither definite location nor a name. All we know is that we have to find them and eliminate them." Megure made a dramatic pause. "Any questions?"
"How do you know these things were meant to come to Tokyo?" Heiji asked.
"It was on the delivery note."
"Do you suppose these smugglers have something to do with the stolen treasure or this fake Kid?" Shinichi asked Megure, everybody ignoring Nakamori who was protesting at the "fake Kid".
"We don't think so, but we cannot exclude this possibility for sure. Other than that, I wish you all good luck on your investigations and hope for a soon success."
"I'll do this my way," Kogoro announced, his usual self-sufficient "Sleeping Kogoro"-grin on his face. "And I think I already have a hot lead."
Shinichi couldn't help but doubt this.
"So will I. I've been after that thief for all my life and he never acted this wacky. I will catch him myself and knock some sense in his head. I'll make him pay and I definitely need no help for it!" Nakamori stood up tall as well.
"I'll work by myself as well, as usual. But…" Hakuba took out his golden watch from his pocket that was attached to a golden chain. "After I've had my tea, that is."
Heiji rolled his eyes at this.
"That's great. We have so many leads that it'd be indeed useful if all of us follow different ones. Tomorrow at 12 we'll all meet back here and compare notes. Until then, good luck to you all and feel free to call if you have any question left."
"I wonder which of our youngsters is going to catch Kid," Takagi mused to Megure in an excited voice.
"There's only ONE person who'll catch Kid and that's ME!!" Nakamori screamed at the shocked Takagi and stormed out the room.
Kogoro followed and waited a second longer on the door in case Shinichi might want to join him and his "hot lead" but as he didn't came he walked out. Hakuba excused himself and exited the room as well, followed by Megure and poor Takagi whose heart was still beating in record time.
Heizo took his things and turned to talk to Heiji.
"Let's get going, son. We should bring our stuff to the hotel first and then look at all the files again for clues."
Shinichi and Heiji shared a gaze and out of nowhere, both nodded.
"Dad, I'll go with Kudo. We'll do this our way."
Heizo fixed both young men with a critical look for quite some time. Then he turned and spoke a last time before disappearing with Toyama-senior.
"Do what you think is best." He really did not feel like arguing, especially since he knew how stubborn his son could be.
Like father, like son.
---
"Do you think this is really okay with your father?" Shinichi asked as he pushed the door to his house open.
"Yeah, don't worry. I rather not…face those two, him and my father, at the moment if I can help it. The flight to Tokyo was awkward enough, believe me. You saved me in there." Heiji answered, following him with his bag in one hand.
"Why? What happened?"
Heiji hesitated for a moment but found no reason to hold back. "Kazuha and I told our families about the engagement."
"When?"
"Today, actually…A little before I got the call from Otaki…" Heiji felt his head warm up as he looked away from his friend.
To his surprise, Shinichi did not tease him, simply nodded compassionately in understanding. "Now I understand."
'Must be the fact of being involved in a new case that keeps him down.' Heiji wondered.
"So they had no time to react in any way, right?"
"Exactly."
"Ah, don't worry, Hattori. I am sure everything will turn out for the best."
"Yeah, you are right, probably. Anyway, where will I be sleeping?"
"In one of our guest rooms. Come, I'll show you."
Shinichi lead Heiji up the stairs and to the room that was always prepared for guests.
"I hope it's okay."
"Yeah, it's fine, thanks." Heiji answered him as he looked around the well-lit room that contained a bed, a table, a closet, lamps…but all in all the furniture resembled the classic style of the rest of the house.
"Shinichi?" A feminine voice rang through the house. Shinichi walked to the door and stuck his head out.
"I'm here."
Ran came running up the stairs and talked on as she walked towards him with a smile.
"Here you are! I was just wondering if you have seen my bra. I've searched everywhere but I can't…" She stopped immediately as she had approached enough to see Heiji standing behind Shinichi.
Blushing, she turned to him. "Oh, Hattori-kun, welcome! I didn't hear you come."
Heiji grinned. "I noticed."
Ran blushed but chose to overplay her embarrassment. "It's great to see you again, even though it's been only three days. Didn't you bring Kazuha-chan with you?"
"No. I didn't want her to get involved with this case."
"I understand. That's really sweet of you. Well, we'll talk later. I'm going to go and get a few things so I can prepare dinner. I bet you two are starving already."
Both guys' faces immediately lit up in agreement. Ran chuckled. "I thought so. Detectives are predictable, aren't they?"
"Not true!" both guys answered immediately, turning to look at the other in shock. As they realized they had said it at the same time, they looked away from each other again. Ran only chuckled.
"Yeah, I see. Anyway, Shinichi, I need my b-bracelet, you know, the one from yesterday." She flushed, having said the last bit in a quiet voice.
Shinichi grinned. "The red one?" She blushed deeper as she nodded and thus, his grin widened.
"I think I've seen it in the bathroom, you know, on the heater."
"Right. Thanks." She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "See you later. Bye, Hattori-kun." She waved at Heiji and hurried to get away, cheeks still flustered.
An odd silence fell upon the two friends as they were, once again, alone. Suddenly, the almost audible grin from Heiji turned into laughter as he patted Shinichi on the shoulder.
"Man, you are a machine."
"Oh, shut up."