Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan. :(
Chapter 10
"Ne, Ran-chan!" Aya called, waving.
Ran paused. "Hai?"
"Will you please tell the guests to come over to Akie-san's room in 10 minutes?" Aya smiled sweetly, taking hold of Conan's wrist. "I'll be waiting for them there!"
"Aya-chan, masaka...?" Aoko gasped.
"Shh! Just hurry! I'm counting on you!"
As Aoko and Ran disappeared behind the corner to inform the guests with Jirokichi and Sagami, Kaito, Conan and Aya slipped back into the room.
"Now what?" Kaito asked, sitting on the bed.
"Aya will explain what happened!" Shinichi answered. "She'll reveal..."
"Chotto matte, tantei-san. I can piece in the clues, no problem. I'm pretty sure I have the evidence and motive and all. But to actually explain it? How in the world am I supposed to do that?"
"Aya, breath." Shinichi instructed.
She did.
"Now, it's easy and simple. You'll just have to begin from A-Z. The crimes scenes and the clues you've found, you explain what you assumed and what really happened and all that. Then you drop the bomb. Someone objects, you argue back with the evidence you have. You have it all covered. I know you can do it."
"Shin..." she looked at him doubtfully. "Please, you explain."
"No."
"But I—"
"No. And don't look at me like that!" he demanded. "You'll see it's a piece of cake! I'll bet you'll even like it!"
"Like hell!"
"You'll see!"
Kaito sighed. Oiy, oiy...
-.-
"Eh? You figured out who the murderer is?" everyone exclaimed, shocked.
"Honto, Aya-chan!" Sonoko said, eyes shining as she sat down on the bed with the other girls, as Aya stood before the desk in the room.
The latter folded her hands around her back, just so no one can see how hard they were shaking with nerves. She shot a look at Shinichi, promising him hell to pay with it, but he only grinned at her, nodding.
She took a deep breath. Keep calm. Keep calm. You can do it.
"Yes." She was surprised as to how much her voice was steady. Maybe she was stronger than she thought.
"The person who committed those three crimes is on this boat."
"W-Who is it?" Jouji asked.
"It's obviously him!" Mariko exclaimed.
"It's Takashi-san, isn't it?" Akie asked.
Aya's eyebrow twitched. I swear to God, if they say he's the murderer again, I'll punch each and everyone one of them in the face. And I don't care what that has to mean about me...
From the corner of her eye, she could see Shinichi hold in his laughter.
Maybe I should punch him too while I'm at it...
However, she kept calm. "Onegai. Don't be in such a rush. Before I say the murderer's name, let's look at the crimes."
Everyone blinked.
Shinichi smiled, nodding his approval as she shot him a look.
Aya took a deep breath.
"In the first one, Gozou-san was stabbed in his room that was locked up from the inside. Looking at the blood that was outside his room, Gozou-san was probably stabbed outside his room, ran inside, locked the door, and died. And then, there was that flower outside the room."
"That's right. Takashi had that flower on him." Akie hinted. "So the murderer was Takashi!"
Aya's eyebrow twitched, but forced her voice to stay calm and collected.
"But there's something strange about that, Akie-sama. Gozou-san was stabbed outside his room but there was no blood in the hallway."
"Now that you mentioned it, there wasn't." Sonoko gasped.
"The murderer probably did that so that we could find the body later." Jouji pointed out.
Aya smiled. "What I'm saying is that the flower was on the area where the blood was wiped up in the hallway. If the murderer had dropped the flower while fleeing after stabbing him, then I would understand that. But the murderer carefully wiped up the blood. The murderer would've have realized that it was on the floor."
Shinichi leaned back, crossing his arms. She's pretty good at this!
"If he or she had dropped it while wiping up the blood, he or she would have spotted it." Aya was continuing. "In other words, the murderer dropped the flower on purpose, which lead me to believe that he or she is trying to frame Takashi-san up, making it look like he did it."
The last sentence was said with a cold look to Akie's and Mariko's figures. Again, Shinichi stifled his laugh.
Everyone looked at the seventeen year old, shocked and astonished, not being able to utter a word.
"Next the second crime where Tatsuo-san was killed on the deck. There was no premeditation like the first crime with the dropped flower, or the third crime with the breaker."
Aya leaned against the desk, hands not shaking anymore, feeling the adrenaline shooting high in her body. She was starting to feel light-headed and giddy; and worse she liked the feeling, knowing that Shinichi was right.
She did enjoy it!
She smiled a bit wider. "If all three crimes were committed by the same person, I think that the second crime wasn't part of the murderer's plan. So why was Tatsuo-san killed?"
Shocked silence greeted her.
She sighed, reaching for something at the back of the desk. "The answer has to do with what's inside this case."
She represented the knives case that they have found in Jouji's room.
"That's my knives case!" Jouji exclaimed.
"Hai." Aya smiled. "I hope you don't mind me borrowing it for a minute." She opened it up, placing it on the desk.
"As you can see, two of them are missing." Aya explained. "One of them was found in the scene of the third crime. But what about the second knife?"
"Masaka...?" Ran gasped, eyes widening at an epiphany.
"Yes." Aya smiled at her. "What's important here is the two sounds that Conan-kun said he heard. The splash and the thud. The thud was most likely heard when Tatsuo-san was struck by the murderer. So what was that splash sound he heard right before this?"
"It's like you said." Aoko whispered, drawing the same epiphany.
"Yes, the possibility that the splash sound came from the second knife which went missing from this case!" Aya nodded at Aoko before turning her attention to the other family members.
"She's good." Haibara suddenly admitted.
"Yes. She's very good." Kaito nodded.
Shinichi smirked, satisfied with their comments.
"If Tatsuo-san happened to see that, then it does make sense that he would've been killed so that he couldn't tell anyone about it."
"But after the second crime, Takashi had disappeared from the storeroom!" Mariko objected.
"She's right. The most suspicious person is Takashi!" Akie insisted again.
Aya sighed. "No. That door was locked from the outside. Unless someone unlocks it from the outside, escaping is impossible."
"Then who..." Mariko choked.
"Who do you think opened it?" Akie demanded.
"The murderer." Aya replied.
Everyone gasped again.
"Tatsuo-san's murder was unplanned, and it happened while Takashi-san was still locked up." Aya chanced a glance at Shinichi, who nodded encouragingly.
"The murderer worked hard to make Takashi-san as a suspect, but this would actually prove his innocence." Aya smiled victoriously.
Natsue gasped. Ran reached over and took her hand, smiling at her happily.
"I told you." Ran whispered.
"That's why the murderer opened the door of the storeroom. It was to make it seem that Takashi-san could've also murdered Tatsuo-san."
"T-Then why did Takashi run away?" Mariko asked, breathless. Her head was beginning to spin.
"She's right! He has been missing the whole time!" Akie supported.
Aya closed her eyes and crossed her arms against her chest, taking a deep breath. She opened her sliverish-blue eyes.
"Let's have him explain that in person. Takashi-san," she called out softly. "Please stop hiding and come out."
"I-Is he actually here? In this room?" Jouji exclaimed, as everyone began to look around.
"Nani...?" Kaito whispered.
"Takashi-san!" Aya called out again, firmer this time.
There was a beat of silence before a squeaking noise was heard throughout the cold, silent room. The closet door opened wide and from it, stepped out Takashi himself, looking down at the floor, making everyone gap.
"Takashi-san." Natsue whispered, taking two steps towards him.
"Alright." Aya breathed. "Tell us what happened when you ran out of the storeroom."
"I-I thought something has happened to Natsue." He began, voice faint. "I couldn't stand doing nothing, so I've impulsively tried to leave. The door was unlocked, so I ran out. And when I got to the deck, I saw you all there. I knew I would be blamed again, so I hid in Akie-san's room, which happened to be opened. I've been in this closet the whole time."
"So, in the third crime when Ichirou-kun got stabbed, the actual murderer is someone else as well?" Jouji thought aloud, cupping his chin.
"Do you really think that?" Aya smiled.
"Then who the hell did it?" Mariko exploded at the teenager. "Why would they do this to Ichirou?"
"That's because the murderer made a big mistake."
"A mistake...?"
Aya nodded. "Hai. Opening the door of the storeroom, the murderer has planned to place the blame all on Takashi-san, but then it appeared that Takashi-san had an accomplice. The murderer, who has been safe up until that point, could've become a suspect. The murderer panicked and thought of a plan so that he'll not be a suspect anymore."
Kaito's eyes widened. Masaka...?
"That plan was the third crime, where Ichirou-san got stabbed in the bathroom." Aya said, giddiness taking over her mind now. "But with that third crime, the murderer dug his or her own grave. In that dark room, they shouldn't have been able to see Ichirou-san. Demo, the murderer was able to stab Ichirou-san accurately. What does that mean?"
"Aya..." Ran whispered, another epiphany dawning on her.
"In addition, the weapon was left at the scene of crime," Aya continued. "Unlike the first two crimes, the murderer didn't take the weapon with him in the third one. Iie, they weren't able to take the weapon." She shook her head.
"That's because..." she looked up. "...his leg was injured, and he couldn't move!"
Ichirou, who was sitting at a chair in the middle of his parents, gasped and his eyes widened.
Mariko gasped.
"T-Then that means..." Akie whispered.
"That's right," Aya whispered, sighing. "The person who stabbed his leg was Ichirou-san himself."
Ichirou's eyes widened even more.
"That means that the person who killed Gozou-san and Tatsuo-san was Ichirou-san. It can only be you!" Aya announced.
The black haired man shook all over, fist curled on his thighs.
"I-Ichirou!" Mariko whispered, shocked.
"He initiated the blackout because he didn't want to have to describe the attacker. If he said that he was stabbed by Takashi-san, then Ichirou-san would be deemed as a suspect in the off chance that Takashi-san was proven innocent."
Mariko marched up to Aya, angrily. "You're just guessing! Do you even have the evidence that Ichirou is the murderer?"
Aya kept her cool. "This is the evidence."
She fished a napkin from her pocket, showing the small black bread piece inside.
"It's this piece of bread that was lying next to Gozou-san's body in the first crime." Aya laid it down on the table.
"A piece of bread?" Mariko whispered.
"Ichirou-san is an art school student. He was also drawing on the deck of the ship right before Gozou-san was murdered. Bread crumbs are used as erasers when making sketches, and they fall into artists' sleeves quite often."
Aya gestured to the bread piece. "That bread piece fell off Ichirou-san's sleeve when he stabbed Gozou-san. That bread was on top of the blood. There are also traces of charcoal on this piece of bread. There's no mistake that Ichirou-san had dropped it."
"B-B-But he had no motive!" Mariko defended, voice shaking. "Ichirou has no reason to kill father!"
Aya closed her eyes, head hanging down towards the brown holder that was already placed on the table beforehand.
"I couldn't figure that out either until the end," she whispered, bangs hiding her eyes. "...until I found a certain something in Ichirou-san's room."
Ichirou choked on his breath, eyes widening even more. A certain something...?
Aya opened her eyes, holding the brown holder, and turning it around, revealing the pages. Natsue was drawn in charcoal on the white bag, laughing.
"This is his motive." She whispered.
"Why would the drawing be a motive?" Akie asked, taking the pictures from Aya's hand.
"I'm talking about what's in the drawing." Aya said, looking away again.
"But in the drawings..." Akie trailed off, opening page after page as Mariko came and stood beside her.
"Stop." Ichirou whispered.
Another page turned.
"Stop."
Another. And another. And another.
"Stop it!"
Akie's eyes widened. "Hey! The model for all this drawings is Natsue."
"Nani...?" Natsue whispered, stunned.
Ichirou lunged forward, taking the holder out of Akie's hand and hugging it to his chest, but the papers flew out scattering all around the floor, some flying around in the air, and landing before Aya's feet.
"I-Ichirou!" Mariko's voice shook. "Are you...?"
"That's right." Aya whispered, bending down and picking up the picture at her feet, looking at it sadly. "Ichirou-san is in love with Natsue-san."
Everyone gasped.
"I-Ichirou-san..." Natsue whispered, more shocked than ever.
"But I heard from Sagami-san that you had previously approached Gozou-san since you couldn't tell Natsue-san how you felt." Aya explained, looking at Ichirou who was still on his knees.
"That's right!" Ichirou exclaimed, eyes clenched close. "I asked him to let me marry Natsue-san. But he wouldn't even consider it. He said that there's no way he would give his precious Natsue to me! And then, soon after that, as if to spite me, Natsue-san and Takashi-san were to be married!"
A single tear rolled down his cheek.
"Then, grandfather said something about the drawing of Natsue that I was doing earlier yesterday..."
"Hurry up and give up on his dreams that he had no chance of fulfilling!"
"I couldn't forgive them. Grandfather, who refused to let me marry Natsue-san and Takashi-san who took Natsue-san away from me," he shook all over.
"I couldn't forgive them!"
Aya sighed, turning around and away from the people around.
"You okay?" Shinichi whispered, tugging at her jeans.
She smiled down at him, bangs covering her eyes. "I will be..."
-.-
"Takashi-san, do you still hate the Hatamoto family—grandfather and the rest of us?" Natsue found herself asking later that day, as she and her groom-to-be stood against the railing, looking out at the sinking sun.
"It's true that I'm the son of Zaiki Isao, the company president who committed suicide after his company was taken over. It's true that I got close to your grandfather because I was filled with anger. But, ever since I met you..."
Natsue touched his hand, smiling at him.
He smiled back.
From the upper deck, the four young 17 years old girls watched as the guys with Haibara looked over to the setting sun.
"They're so cute." Sonoko gushed.
"Hmm. I'm just glad that he wasn't the murderer." Aoko whispered.
"Yukatta." Ran nodded.
Aya looked on, smiling to herself, resting her chin on her palm.
This tragedy occurred because of the love which a bashful young man couldn't put in words. This ship is about to reach the pier of Koyakejima Island...
Aya looked ahead, sighing, seeing the faint outline of the island coming closer.
What else could go wrong...?
Note: Okay! Done with the case. Now, we move to the main issue again. :)