Man, this is taking a while to redo...but I'm glad to be doing it. Run-on sentences. Run-on sentences EVERYWHERE.
Well, the fact that the police are asking for Kaitou Kid to turn himself in for questioning as a person of interest in a murder case is all over the radio and television still...could I have really done it? Again?
He let out a high-pitched, tight laugh before quickly calming himself back down with a series of deep, relaxing breaths. He was amazed that he had to all appearances gotten away yet again with pinning the murder of a guard on a thief, albeit Kaitou Kid was significantly more liked by the general populace and far more high-profile than the first victim of his framing- who was currently sitting in a British prison somewhere protesting his innocence to this day. He was in fact still trying to fully process the realization that he had most likely actually done it again as his head spun with happiness and disbelief at his luck.
The first time he'd been working in concert with the thief (though that thief hadn't known it- he'd been very careful of that, masking his identity fully during their interactions) instead of the guard, and the guard's death in England had been a completely unplanned event that had veered towards near-disaster before righting itself. Only the fact that the thief had completely panicked after the shooting and run down the street, fake statue they had planned to replace the real one with in his hand, had saved his hide that first time as far as he was concerned. This time, he had concluded that Kuromaru's death was going to be an unfortunate necessity back from the beginning of their contact, but that was beside the point.
He still recalled seeing the ghostly, white-clad figure of Kaitou Kid out of the corner of his eye that night, the expert thief skulking around quietly in the general area of the still-closed wing that housed the incoming jewel exhibit. The thief had no doubt been planning out one of his spectacular, magic show-like heists for his wild fan club, and it had seemed to him at the time like something was giving him a helping hand in his mission, whatever or whoever that something was.
Inspiration, though unoriginal, had instantly struck like lightning as he decided to take advantage of the opportunity- killing two birds with one stone. A way to simultaneously eliminate Kuromaru Akagi, who knew his identity and face, while sending the police off after another thief, one who this time would have absolutely no connection to him and the mission he was trying to accomplish- leaving him free to pursue his goal without hinderment. And Kuromaru had been suckered right in, helping to set up his own homicide.
"Hey! Who's there?"
"No one but a phantom." That voice, that young, sure voice so filled with confidence and bravado had responded, echoing through the empty halls as he had snuck up behind the thief while Kaitou Kid was distracted by Kuromaru...
"What the hell is this?" Ten minutes later, whipping out the handheld pistol and staring down a wide-eyed Kuromaru Akagi over the body of the now unconsious and beaten Kid after 'borrowing' his uniform, stepping towards the guard before firing to be sure that the cameras would catch 'Kaitou Kid' in the act of murder. "You promised me-"
"I promised you nothing." He muttered this sourly to the memories of the previous evening as he slowly opened his eyes, got up from his seat and walked over to his suitcase, which contained the precious Buddha that he had gone to such lengths to acquire nestled alongside its three jade brethren . Four down, twelve to go, he thought disgustedly. And he hadn't even begun to start in on the rest of them, much less the largest piece...Two lions, two zebras, four children, four books, four clocks and sixteen Buddahs...
He pulled out the piece of paper he always carried around with him in his coat pocket, though it was so well-worn with age that he really shouldn't have carried it around. Not that he really needed to carry it, either, since it had been thoroughly memorized so long ago, after the story had been passed down from his father with the careful instructions to continue the search if he wanted to. His father had totally ceased looking well over forty years ago, when he had needed the stability of a career-minded job to help support his new family, and never looked back- never resumed the frustrating search he had started.
My first employer was eccentric, that's true, but I'm certain there's something there in what he said to me before he died...I wrote it down. No one would listen to me at the time because I was so young...
After nearly ten years of searching, he had only managed to actually get his hands on four of the figures, though he had leads on several more in the other sets. There were times when he fully understood why his father had simply given up. It was as if the figures had been deliberately scattered so that they could never be reassembled and made public- like someone knew the secret that they held and didn't want it let out for the world to see. But he considered himself as doing that same world a public service, the one thing which drove him even to the dark depths of murder in his mission.
The puzzle of how to safely extract the precious contents the statues were holding was a whole separate issue. There had to be some trick that would result in the cargo not being damaged, and he was determined to discover this trick as well, not wanting to damage what he had spent so much time and money tracking down. He carefully extracted one of the jade Buddahs and held it in his hands after unwrapping it. Bah, there is absolutely no obvious trigger or latch. Could he really have just-? No, what he encased them with is pretty valuable, too. I can't see him wanting them destroyed...
"What is THAT question supposed to mean?" demanded Kaito after Shinichi had asked it, the thief's eyes filled with the fire of indignation and his chest swelled with anger.
"I didn't mean to make you angry. But it's a question that would help if you answered," responded the bespectacled tantei. "I just figured since you're a thief, maybe you'd know-"
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm just a little bit different from your garden-variety purse snatcher in my motivation and methods." Kaito snapped this as he cut the detective's reply off, the embers of his temper being prodded and poked by the pain coarsing throughout his body. "I only steal jewels and gems, and I return them when I'm done." The anger faded from his eyes and posture as he thudded back down onto the couch with a whimper. "I have absolutely no idea why someone would want a statue like that anyhow, or what it was doing in that exhibit. I mean, it looked like something you'd pick up at a Buddhist temple gift shop, not something that belonged in a museum, if you want my honest opinion."
"Yeah. I did a little diggin' on that statue, by the way," commented Heiji, who had helped Jii walk Kaito back to his own house after stopping by police headquarters and making sure that the police weren't off on the wrong scent. He'd left after becoming satisfied during his half an hour visit that they had their private doubts about Kid's guilt now even if they were still publicly calling on him to turn himself in. "Seems that it was part of a set of sixteen that were made for a really rich American guy back in the early 1900s. He never let the things out of his sight until he died in 1940s during World War II, from what I could find on it in the library."
"So were they donated to museums after his death or something like that?" inquired Shinichi, beginning to take notes down.
"Well that's what I can't seem to pin down exactly, which is buggin' me. It seems like they were sorta scattered to at least two or three different countries, primarily here in Japan, England and the United States. No one knows if this was at the direction of the will or anythin', they just sorta started poppin' up everywhere shortly after the guy passed away. The relatives didn't seem too bothered by them vanishin' either, which I also find weird."
"That's odd. You would think that the guy would have wanted to keep them together if he loved them so much," commented Kaito with a shrug. "Or maybe his survivors just didn't care and decided to let them go."
"Yeah, dunno about that one. Also dunno what the big deal is and why someone had to die for it. There are sixteen of the things, after all, even if they're mostly lost."
"Well, we need to figure it out. Because I'm sure that whatever the reason behind the theft was will lead us to the real killer," replied Shinichi firmly, earning a nod from both other boys. "And we at least know that the police won't be hounding Kaitou Kid quite as badly now that they have the possibility in their minds that someone else was wearing the uniform, even though he's still way up there on the suspect list."
"Don't remind me," the magician groaned, the thought of being a murderer not sitting well at all with him. "I wish I could remember anything more...It's a blank after entering the museum. Talking to Jii seemed to jog my memory some, though. I remember telling him that I was going to the museum and going there, I even remember busting in through the air vents. But I still can't remember anything from actually entering the museum till I woke up in his house with the snot beat out of me and this goose egg," he explained while pointing at the lump on his head.
They finished the conversation just in time for Aoko to knock on the door and demand to begin her ministrations, so the pair of detectives left after making plans to meet up at Kaito's house the next morning.
"My old man's not gonna like me missin' a day of school, but I think he'll understand. Kazuha already said she'll Email me the homework assignments for tomorrow, too, so no worries there," commented Heiji with a shrug.
"You came prepared," smirked his fellow tantei. "I saw you already had an overnight bag packed when you arrived this morning. Something at school tomorrow you wanted to get out of?" he added with a knowing grin.
Heiji was just winding up to pitch an angry protest back- that five miles they were due to run in P.E. was just fine with him, really!- when his phone rang, the caller a number he didn't recognize. "This is Hattori Heiji," he answered in a slightly puzzled tone as he placed the phone to his ear. "Oh, yeah, I remember you- from the Detective Koshien thing. Hakuba Saguru, right?" Shinichi blinked when he heard the name, then remembered that the three had exchanged phone numbers after the ordeal. "Yeah, actually I'm workin' on the Kaitou Kid murder case with the kid with the glasses," he added after listening for a few moments in a serious tone. "Yeah, I know Kid didn't do it. I found some evidence that-" His face grew shocked. "A case like this in England?"
What? That's right- Hakuba spends a lot of time in England, if I remember right. He must have stumbled on to something...Shinichi listened much more closely to the conversation, even though he knew Heiji would fill him in afterwards.
"Meet you at your hotel's cafe tomorrow afternoon? I suppose I can, if you don't mind me bringing Conan." A final pause. "Alright then, meet you there," Heiji finished before madly scrambling for a receipt in his pocket and a pen to write the hotel's name down with.
"So what's up, Hattori? That sounded like an interesting conversation."
"Remember Hakuba Saguru, the blonde guy from that whole Detective Koshien mess? Well apparently he found a murder case in England that happened last year that's real similar to this one- statue stolen, dead guard. An' he's convinced that Kid got set up, just like he thinks that the thief in this other older case got framed. We're meetin' tomorrow afternoon at this hotel; he called me from a plane's phone. Apparently he's flying over from England right now."