Chapter 8: Theorizing and Revising

16:45

Ai was not happy. She was stuck in a room with the rest of the detective boys, she was beginning to cramp, her throat was hurting because she hadn't had any water in hours, and she had a feeling Conan wasn't aware they weren't missing. The last one was much more concerning than any of the rest. The kids however were also a problem. That made it that much harder for Conan to come rescue them as always tended to happen. She sighed and put her head down on the floor. All she could do was wait it out. Fortunately all of the kids were asleep, so she actually had some peace and quiet for once. How they could sleep while bound she didn't understand but she was grateful for it. She cringed as her head wound reminded her of its presence. She groaned quietly and looked around again.

No captor had shown up since they'd been here which Haibara found odd. She saw the camera in the top corner but beyond that saw nothing that actually showed a way out. She also had noticed a box in the far corner, but as she couldn't actually get to it, it did not interest her. She sighed again. She still had faith in Kudo.. but it didn't look good. Her phone was gone, as was her detective badge. He had no way to track her. She shifted a bit, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her head and closed her eyes waiting for sleep to claim her.

16:50

Conan was about a minute away from Ai's phone. He sighed and wondered what the hell she was doing so far away. He stopped outside of a coffee shop that was on the corner. He sighed and looked at the tracker one more time. She appeared to be… next to it? He paused. He shrugged and turned it off and entered the shop. He scanned around, and did not see her. He frowned and turned the tracker back on. She still hadn't moved. His eyes widened. He turned around and left, and sprinted over to the neighboring alley. He ran down it and came to a halt where she supposedly was. He looked around and found her phone smashed. He paled as he surveyed. There was a spray of blood along the wall, and a crowbar with the blood still on it. He cursed and whipped out his phone. As he dialed Agasa, he noticed something else about 20 feet away. It was a small black bag. He cautiously walked over and started opening it, holding his phone with his shoulder. "Hello?" said Agasa.

Conan paused in his work with the bag and answered. "Professor Haibara is gone. Her phone has been destroyed and I don't see another detective badge besides the one at the house." "Wait seriously?" asked Agasa. "Yeah but can you figure out where her badge is they aren't popping up on the-" He froze realizing the significance of those words. He stared at the bag and finished opening it. Out fell 4 twisted and broken detective badges. "Professor he has them all. The kids too." "WHAT? Shinichi this just went from bad to worst situation possible!" Conan started walking back towards his skateboard. "I know professor. I know. But this makes no sense at all. Why would he kidnap people already? That would be fourth on the list. This deliberately goes against his own list of the events. Why would-?" Conan stopped dead in his tracks. "Professor did you ever figure out which book in the series that poem was from?" "The Deltora one? Yeah it was book 4 but I don't get what that has to do with… Shinichi are you implying the first poem was just telling you which step was coming first?" "I'm afraid so professor." He noticed something else at the bottom of the bag.

"There's also another fucking note." "Another one?" Ages asked, surprised. "This asshole needs to lay off." he muttered. "No I think this is just his 'how to play' round professor." Conan sighed and began to read.

Across the hellish river

The man who falls in love

Street lamps show his face

From the hotel window

The woman he loves watches

Museum shows on her TV

Owner of the Hotel

Murder the man across the river

Conan stared at the piece of paper incredulously. "What. The. Fuck. Is this bullshit? Okay, okay." Conan whispered trying to reassure himself. "I have some time. Professor this is bad. This is clearly still the bomber which means I have about 20 hours to find the girls and hopefully let the police disarm the bomb. Otherwise they're dead along with who knows how many others. I'll talk to you later. Talk to the kids parents, I'm going to call the inspector and meet him at the hospital. I want to know how the hell that guy managed to get into Ran's room and plant the first two poems." Conan glanced around one last time, hung up and called Megure.

17:00

"Thank you Conan I'll see you there in 45 minutes." said Inspector Megure. He hung up and sighed, reclining in his chair. "Shiratori! We're leaving in 15!" he yelled across to the man across the room. "Also where the hell is Takagi?" "He said he was looking into something sir." Shiratori said coming up to him. "Also why are we leaving in 15? We could leave now and be there in 30." "I told conan 45 because we need to talk, come with me." They left the main room and entered a hall and passed a woman walking back the other way. "Actually.." Megure muttered. "Sato! You come as well." The woman in question turned around and glanced at Shiratori questioningly. Shiratori shrugged. He had no answers. The two officers followed Megure into a viewing area. The area behind the window was lit, but empty.

Megure sighed and adjusted his hat. He looked at both and then began. "Conan found another poem. We have people working on it. Also the rest of the detective boys have gone missing. Conan believes that they are currently with a bomb that is set to go in the 24 hours given to us by the bomber. When I pointed out the '4 lured away from their beds' was step 4, he told me the first poem was just a reference to book 4 of a book series, showing us that the fourth bombing area would happen first." He looked up at the two young officers before him. Shiratori had started taking notes, and Sato was hanging on his every word.

He looked back and forth between the two and looked at his watch. They still had 10 minutes before they had to leave to meet Conan. He rose his head and gazed at the wall for a moment and began to speak again. "Now what I say next stays strictly off books. Nobody else hears this capish? However I will be talking to Takagi about this as well." Both nodded and Shiratori put away his notebook. Megure looked up at the ceiling, and began to speak yet again. "This is the weirdest bombing case I've ever seen. The clues make no sense, the detective agency was bombed, and Ran is in the hospital. This has personal vendetta written all over it." He sighed again. This was where his theory became far-fetched. "And I think it's against Conan."