A/N: I know this chapter is very late. But guess what? I'm making up for it (sort of) by having it be twice as long! It's just over 13,000 words, so let's pretend it's really two 6,500 word chapters, okay? ^_^
I didn't actually have much writing time this month. We shall blame my daughter's science fair project. Fortunately, I have Thanksgiving weekend all to myself, so this chapter comes to you courtesy of three days of uninterrupted writing time.
I'm honestly not sure how December is going to treat me. But I will be optimistic and try to get a normal chapter out in a decent amount of time.
Thank you all for reading, faving, following and reviewing! I honestly would not have the stamina to keep this up if it were not for those of you who take the time to let me know what you think. I love you guys. :)
The Case of the Missing Detective
File 10: Cruel Realities
Mouri Kogoro was not a man who turned down media attention. Ever. It was his personal philosophy that any and all media exposure was a good thing, because being on tv led to wonderful things. It led to jobs, which led to money. It led to being recognized and being invited to parties attended by high ranking politicians and celebrities. It led to personal guest appearances on Yoko Okino's television show, which, in his opinion, was pretty much the pinnacle of success.
But after a night of non-stop interviews with reporters from every single tv station and news outlet in the greater Tokyo area, he was seriously starting to re-think his policy.
The same questions, over and over. Who do you think was behind the kidnapping? Tell us about your cases, Sleeping Kogoro. Any recent ones that might lead to a vendetta against you? Any old ones that might have resulted in someone finally breaking and lashing out in revenge?
And he answered the questions. At first, he recounted cases in detail, as if he were telling some fantastic adventure story. But as the night wore on, that quickly wore thin. Not for the reporters, who were eating it up, but for him. Because he knew something that they didn't. Something he wasn't about to tell them.
There was no possible way that the brat's kidnapping had anything to do with him. Because the kidnapper had captured Ran. The bastard had tied her up and had her at his mercy... and then he had left her behind.
Kogoro knew that anyone who was out to seriously hurt him or get revenge would have taken Ran and left the brat. It was that simple.
Megure-keibu had kept Ran's involvement out of the press release, and for that he was grateful. Ran had already been through so much, and he didn't want these vultures of the press any where near her. And if keeping the press attention on himself was what he had to do to keep her safe and out of the public eye, then he would damn well do it, no matter how bone tired he was.
The reporters had stayed, interviewing him into the early morning hours. The hospital administrator - most likely in an attempt to court some kind of favorable press coverage in the face of this public relations disaster - had set up a comfortable room in the administration offices for the interviews to take place.
It was close to three am when things started to finally wind down to the point where Kogoro finally had a hope of escaping this circus and going home. The doctor in charge of Agasa-hakase's surgery - which had apparently gone well, to his relief - told him that Ran had left hours earlier, with the Osaka brat promising to walk her home safely. He was grateful for that, but he was anxious to see to Ran's well-being himself.
Then, just after three am, the police announced that the kidnapper had been identified. His name was Kenko Naito, and he was a mercenary for hire, wanted by Interpol not only for kidnapping, but for gun and drug smuggling and assassination. This news whipped the reporters back into a feeding frenzy, and any hope he had of going home any time soon was lost in that moment.
How do you feel about this new development? What enemies do you have with the connections to hire a mercenary? Tell us what this all means, Great Detective Sleeping Kogoro!
And he bluffed and played at being wise and knowledgeable. He put forth several plausible theories that the reporters latched on to like leeches.
But in reality he had no idea what it meant. Other than that someone, somewhere, had wanted to kidnap the brat very badly. And he had no idea why. Yes, though he loathed to admit it, the kid was remarkably clever. Yes, he was considered a prodigy. But that alone explained nothing.
Somehow, the brat had gotten into some kind of trouble that he knew nothing about. That was a problem, because if he wanted to have any hope of finding the kid, he needed to know what that trouble was. And right now, the only person he could think of who might possibly know more about the kid than he did was currently recovering from surgery in the intensive care unit.
When Agasa-hakase regained consciousness and was finally allowed visitors, Kogoro had a lot of questions for him.
It was close to seven am when the second wave of frenzied reporters finally started dispersing, and by that time, Kogoro was desperately hoping for a chance to live up to his nickname. But not until he got home and could check on Ran.
In the meantime, while the last of the tv reporters were packing up their equipment, he was going to lean back in this rather comfortable chair that the hospital administrator provided for him, and ease his aching back.
And he was sure that no one would mind if he closed his tired, burning eyes for a moment. Just a moment to regroup so that he could walk home.
Just a moment...
Mitsuhiko's parents never gave him a ride to school.
His usual morning routine consisted of waking up to the sound of his Kamen Yaiba alarm clock at 6 am, getting dressed, brushing his hair and washing his face, and then joining his parents and older sister for breakfast.
At breakfast, his parents would discuss their plans for the day and enquire after him and his sister. And if, in his after-school plans, he mentioned his fellow Shounen Tantei-dan, then they would inevitably caution him to be careful and not get into trouble. And he would assure them that yes he would, and no he wouldn't, and be silently grateful that they both remained ignorant of just how many times the Shounen Tantei-dan had been in real, mortal danger.
After breakfast, his parents would both leave for their teaching jobs, and he would brush his teeth and then either read a book or watch morning cartoons until it was time to leave for school. He would meet Ayumi-chan and Genta-kun at their usual corner and they would walk the rest of the way to school together and meet up with Haibara-san and Conan-kun at the Teitan Elementary School entrance. It was the same routine almost every morning.
But this morning, at breakfast, the routine had been utterly destroyed when his parents grimly informed him that, the previous night, Agasa-hakase had been shot and was in the Intensive Care Unit at Beika General, that Conan-kun had been kidnapped from the same hospital, and that both crimes had been perpetrated by an internationally-wanted criminal-for-hire who was still at large.
They also informed him that they had spoken with both Ayumi-chan's and Genta-kun's parents, and that all Shounen Tantei-dan activities were suspended until further notice.
And that is why Mitsuhiko's mother had found a substitute professor for her first class of the day and was currently driving him to school, lecturing him on the perils of stranger danger.
Mitsuhiko did his best to pay attention, answering when his mother asked him a question, nodding when appropriate... but it was all stuff he already knew, and he couldn't really focus on what she was saying anyway - not when he was still reeling from her morning announcement.
He still couldn't believe it. Agasa-hakase, shot, and Conan-kun kidnapped. His first anxious, horrified thought upon hearing the news immediately had been for Ayumi-chan and Haibara-san. Ayumi-chan would be devastated, he knew. He wondered if she found out last night, or if she was finding out this morning, just like him. And Haibara-san... Agasa-hakase was her guardian. What would she do, with him in the hospital? Was she all by herself with nobody to take care of her?
And Conan-kun. Kidnapped. He was still trying to wrap his brain around the concept. How had anyone managed to kidnap Conan-kun right out of the hospital? He was so smart, and he always seemed to be one step ahead of the bad guys. Plus he had all those cool gadgets that the professor made for him. And still, someone managed to get the better of him?
As usual, Mitsuhiko found his thoughts about Conan-kun to be a convoluted, confusing mixture of admiration and envy, and he sighed. And now, on top of that, there was fear. Fear for what might be happening to Conan-kun. Fear that he might not be found.
And then there was his own uncharitable hope that, with Conan-kun missing, the girls would turn to him during this crisis.
It wasn't nice, and he hated himself a little for feeling that way, but he couldn't help it. It was hard not to be jealous. Until Conan-kun had shown up a few months ago, he had been generally accepted as being the smartest, most capable kid in class. And, as he knew all too well, Ayumi-chan liked smart.
But Conan-kun was more than just smart. He was incredibly brave, too. Mitsuhiko noticed how, whenever the Shounen Tantei-dan were in danger, Conan-kun would always place himself between them and whatever or whoever was threatening them. He was smallest in stature, but biggest in courage.
And Mitsuhiko almost always, without fail, followed Conan-kun's lead. But then, how could he not? Conan-kun was the one who always saw the connections that everyone, even adults, missed. He was the one who inevitably solved the mysteries they found. And he was the one who always found a way to save them whenever they got into serious trouble - even if he got hurt in the process, like when those robbers shot him in the cave.
For months now, Mitsuhiko felt like he was standing in the immense shadow of a boy who was almost a full head shorter than him. It was hard not to be a little resentful.
And yet, in spite of all of that, he also found it impossible to dislike Conan-kun. Because, while Conan-kun was sometimes impatient with him and the other kids in a way that usually only adults were, he was also generous and sincere in his appreciation when they were able to notice a clue first, or help him in any way. Getting praise from Conan-kun for being clever was always high praise indeed, and it never failed to make Mitsuhiko feel proud.
Conan-kun wasn't stingy with his encyclopedic knowledge, either. He always answered Mitsuhiko's questions, and taught him amazing things about detective work, forensics, first aid... pretty much anything Mitsuhiko wanted to know about.
And when Conan-kun was being brave in the face of danger, it helped him to feel brave too. Once, when he had asked Conan-kun how he could be so brave when things were so scary, Conan-kun had said, "Being brave isn't the lack of fear, Mitsuhiko-kun. It's doing what you know is right, like standing up for yourself or someone else, even when you're afraid. Especially when you're afraid."
Conan-kun was probably being very brave right now. He was probably busy figuring out a way to escape from his kidnapper, if he hadn't managed to do so already. And if Conan-kun was being brave, then he needed to be brave too, because right now he was really afraid. Envious he might be of Conan-kun's amazing intellect... but Conan-kun was more than just the smartest kid he knew. Conan-kun was one of his very best friends. And the thought that he might never see him again because he had been taken by some crazy kidnapper was too scary to think about.
His mother pulled the car up next to the elementary school, and he could see Ayumi-chan and Genta-kun waiting for him just through the gate... but his mother wasn't finished with him yet.
If you see a strange man approach you, run away, find a teacher or a police officer, she said, for probably the sixth time since leaving the house. Come straight home after school. Do not, absolutely do not think about playing detective with your friends and trying to solve the mystery of Conan-kun's kidnapping, it's too dangerous, it's beyond you, leave it to the police.
Yes, Okaa-sama. I will, Okaa-sama. I won't, Okaa-sama. Please excuse me, I'm going to be late, Okaa-sama.
She finally, reluctantly let him get out of the car, and he all but sprinted through the school gates to his friends.
As he approached, he was unsurprised to see that Ayumi-chan had been crying. Her eyes were red, her face was wet, and her chin was trembling. Mitsuhiko's heart broke for her, even as that small, traitorous and slightly irrational part of him wondered if she would cry for him that way if he had been the one kidnapped.
"Good morning," he said, though his voice said that it was anything but.
Genta-kun frowned, looking over Mitsuhiko's shoulder. "If your mom drove you to school, you gotta know about Conan-kun and Agasa-hakase, right?"
Mitsuhiko nodded. "I'm afraid so."
Genta-kun crossed his massive arms over his chest, a severe expression settling on his broad face. "This sucks," he said. "Me and Ayumi-chan have been grounded from being detectives and trying to find Conan-kun."
"I have as well," Mitsuhiko said glumly. "And my mother told me that we can't visit Hakase until he's feeling better."
Ayumi-chan sniffled. "Just like when Conan-kun was shot," she said. "We couldn't visit him for days."
Mitsuhiko nodded. And that reminded him... He bit his lip and looked around, hoping to catch sight of a familiar head of strawberry-blonde hair. "Have either of you seen Haibara-san yet?"
"Nuh-uh," said Genta-kun. "But I thought she would be at the hospital with Hakase, since she's like his daughter."
"Oh, I hope so," said Ayumi-chan. "I hate to think of her being at home all alone."
"I'm not sure that being at the hospital all alone is much better," said Mitsuhiko, pulling out his phone. "I'll call her and make sure she's okay."
The other two watched him anxiously as he held his phone to his ear, listening to it ring. The call went to voicemail, and he frowned. "I'm going to call the hospital," he said, looking up the number on his phone and dialing Beika General's patient services. A woman answered, and he asked her if Haibara Ai was there, since her guardian, Agasa Hiroshi, was in ICU. The woman put him on hold for a minute, then came back on the line and told him that Haibara-san had apparently gone home the night before.
"So she is home all alone," Ayumi-chan said. "That's terrible! We should go and at least make sure she's okay."
Mitsuhiko looked at his watch. "We don't have time to get there and back before school starts. Maybe we could check on her after school? Oh, wait," he said, remembering his mother's instructions to come straight home. He sighed, feeling despondent. "I forgot, I can't."
"Me neither," said Genta-kun. "Hey," he said, his expression lighting up. "What if we went over there during lunch?"
Mitsuhiko blinked at him. "Are you seriously suggesting skipping lunch?" he said, incredulously.
"Not skipping," Genta-kun said, apparently offended at the very idea. "We could eat along the way."
Mitsuhiko frowned. "My mother says that it's very rude to be seen eating while walking down the street," he said. "Only foreign tourists who don't know any better do that. And besides, we're not supposed to leave school grounds until school is out."
Genta-kun glowered at him. "Look, do you want to find out if Haibara-san is okay or not?"
"Of course I do," Mitsuhiko said, irritated, "but if we get caught sneaking out during lunch, we'll be in a lot of trouble."
"So let's not get caught," said Ayumi-chan, and Mitsuhiko looked at her, surprised. "I'm worried about Ai-chan," she said. "And it only takes ten minutes to walk to Hakase's house. We could get there, check on her and eat lunch, and be back before class starts again."
Well, if Ayumi-chan was for it... "Very well," Mitsuhiko said. "We shall do it."
The news of Conan-kun's kidnapping had spread like wildfire through the school, and when Mitsuhiko entered his classroom, he saw that his fellow first graders were all uncharacteristically quiet, huddled in small groups like conspirators, speaking to each other only in whispers, occasionally casting wide-eyed glances at him and Ayumi-chan and Genta-kun. He ignored them, just sitting down at his desk, trying to think of a good way to get to Hakase's house during lunch period without getting caught. Nothing especially brilliant was coming to mind.
When Kobayashi-sensei entered the classroom, everyone fell silent and quietly went to their own desks. Mitsuhiko couldn't help but notice that their tender-hearted teacher - and self-proclaimed manager of the Shounen Tantei-dan - looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and her face was splotchy, even though she was obviously trying to smile. But when she stood behind her desk, her gaze immediately went to Conan-kun's conspicuously empty seat, and the smile slid right off her face.
She visibly swallowed and took a deep breath before looking at the rest of her students and attempting to smile again. "Good morning, class," she said, and before she could say anything else, one of the boys a few rows over raised his hand. "Um... yes, Takuma-kun?"
"Sensei, is it true that Conan-kun was kidnapped by a bad guy?"
She blinked at him. Mitsuhiko watched with concern as she grasped the edge of her desk as if to steady herself. "Yes," she said. "I'm afraid so." Another hand went up. "Yes, Daisuke-kun?"
"Did Shiratori-keiji tell you all about it? Can you tell us what he said?"
Mitsuhiko frowned at the personal, presumptuous question, but Kobayashi-sensei just said, "We talked about it, yes, but I only know what information has already been released to the public. It's against protocol for a police officer to discuss the unreleased details of a case with civilians."
"Even though he's your boyfriend?" Daisuke-kun asked.
Kobayashi-sensei flushed a little. "Yes." More hands went up, and she shook her head. "Now, children," she said. "We need to start on our morning lesson."
There were several disappointed groans, and she sighed. "I know that this is very upsetting," she said gently, "and that many of you want to talk about it. Conan-kun is a special part of our class, and this is very frightening for all of us. But we still have to do our lessons. If we have time at the end of the day, we can talk more about it then, okay?"
She was answered by reluctant murmurs of assent.
Mitsuhiko heard a soft sniffle, and glanced over at Ayumi-chan. She was trying to put on a brave face, but there were still tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Mitsuhiko reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his handkerchief, reaching across the aisle to hand it to her. She took it with a grateful smile and wiped her eyes before returning it to him.
He carefully folded the handkerchief and almost reverently put it back in his pocket. Ayumi-chan's tears were practically sacred. Even if they were for Conan-kun.
The wait until lunch period seemed to take forever. Not knowing if Haibara-san was all right was starting to make him feel anxious and antsy. All through third period, he struggled not to fidget.
Finally, lunch period came. He met with Ayumi-chan and Genta-kun under a tree near the school gate.
"We have about fifty-five minutes before we have to be back in class," Mitsuhiko said, checking his watch. "Are you both ready?" He looked around the school yard to make sure nobody was paying attention to them.
"Yeah," said Genta-kun. "Let's hurry and get to Hakase's, 'cause I'm starving."
And so, as casually as possible, the three of them strolled out the gate.
As they walked down the street toward the corner that would take them to Agasa-hakase's side street, Mitsuhiko couldn't help but notice how very out of place they looked. Three elementary school children wearing the book bags that held their lunches, walking down the street in the middle of a school day.
"Mitsuhiko-kun," Genta-kun said, giving him an annoyed look. "You're suspicious-looking. Stop acting like you're gonna get caught doing something bad."
We are going to get caught doing something bad, Mitsuhiko wanted to say, but he didn't, because even though he felt utterly conspicuous, hardly anyone was out on the street, and the few people that were didn't even look their direction.
To his amazement, their luck held out. They made it to Agasa-hakase's side street without incident.
As they got closer to Hakase's gate, he saw that there was police tape lying on the ground right in the entrance. It looked as though at one point the tape had criss-crossed the gate, but that someone had torn it down in the meantime.
Strange, he thought, as they stepped over it and walked through the gate. Whoever tore it down didn't bother to clean it up. And why was it there in the first place?
"Hey," said Genta-kun, "look, there's dried blood on the lawn. There, there and there. This must be where the kidnapper guy killed those three gangsters."
"What?" said Mitsuhiko, stumbling to a halt to look at where Genta-kun had pointed. There were indeed dark, dried patches on blood on Agasa-hakase's lawn. "I didn't know about that!"
"It was on the news," Ayumi-chan said. She had her arms wrapped around herself as if she had a chill. "The kidnapper tried to get Conan-kun here first. When he shot Hakase, he also killed the three guys he'd sent to kidnap Conan-kun because he thought they were going to tell on him. That's why he ended up kidnapping Conan-kun at the hospital instead."
Mitsuhiko stared at her. "I... my parents didn't tell me any of that," he said. Three murders, a shooting, and a kidnapping? For someone to go through such trouble just to grab a little kid... what had Conan-kun got himself into?
And then something else dawned on him - the way Conan-kun had been acting so strange and nervous the day before.
"He knew," Mitsuhiko said with horrified realization.
"What? Who knew?" asked Ayumi-chan.
"Conan-kun!" Mitsuhiko said. "Remember yesterday how we noticed he was acting nervous and jumpy? He wasn't nervous about going to the dentist, he knew some bad guys were after him!"
Genta-kun and Ayumi-chan both looked at him with identical expressions of shock.
"But... why didn't he tell us?" Genta-kun said, frowning.
Mitsuhiko sighed. "Why do you think?" he said, pointing to the dried blood.
Ayumi-chan paled. "He didn't want us to get hurt," she said.
Genta-kun scowled and clenched his fists. "But that's stupid," he said. "So he got caught up in another mystery that he didn't let us in on, and now he's kidnapped when we could have helped him!"
Mitsuhiko wanted to agree with Genta-kun. Conan-kun was always going off to solve mysteries without them, and he found it just as irritating as Genta-kun did.
But, looking at the large, dark patches of blood staining the grass, he couldn't help but be grateful to Conan-kun for going out of his way to keep them out of... whatever this was. And it was bad. Something so bad that three guys had been killed right on Agasa-hakase's front lawn.
"Come on," he said, feeling a sudden surge of urgency amidst his uneasiness. "Let's hurry and make sure Haibara-san is okay." And get back to school before we get caught sniffing around a crime scene, he thought.
They ran up to the front door of the house. Genta-kun rang the doorbell. There was no answer. He rang it again. "Haibara-san?" he called.
Mitsuhiko stepped forward. "Maybe she can't hear the doorbell," he said, and reached up to knock loudly on the door.
The door wasn't latched, because as soon as he hit it, it swung open.
There on the floor, just on the other side of a disturbingly large pool of dried blood, a man lay sprawled on his stomach. His face was turned toward the open door, and Mitsuhiko could see, even from where he stood in the doorway, that the man's eyes and mouth were frozen wide open in a rictus of death.
Ayumi-chan let out a startled scream and clutched at him, but Mitsuhiko couldn't even react, because Genta-kun staggered back a step, his eyes bulging.
"Th-that's the guy!" Genta-kun said, pointing, his hand shaking. "From the wanted poster they showed on the news! That's the guy who kidnapped Conan-kun!"
Ayumi-chan let go of Mitsuhiko, the shock of stumbling upon a dead body passing quickly, and she let out a little gasp as she took a closer look at the man. "You're right," she said. "But... if that's him, then where is Conan-kun?"
"If that's him," Mitsuhiko echoed, "then where is Haibara-san?"
The three of them looked at each other, and Mitsuhiko could tell from the expressions on the other two that they were all thinking the same thing: the kidnapper was here, dead. What if Conan-kun and Haibara-san were close by, but hurt or scared or trapped or tied up and somehow unable to get help?
"I'll check the basement," Mitsuhiko said. "Genta-kun, you check the second floor, Ayumi-chan, you check the main floor. Don't anybody touch the body, and if you have to open a closed door, use your handkerchief."
The other two nodded, expressions grave, and they all took off running in separate directions.
The door to the basement lab was locked. Frustrated, scared, he pounded on the door. "Haibara-san? Conan-kun?" He pressed his ear to the door, listening for any sound. Nothing.
He could hear Genta-kun and Ayumi-chan calling for their missing friends, could hear their footsteps as they ran from room to room. Blocked from the basement, he ran back upstairs to help. Genta-kun was on the balcony that surrounded the center common room.
"The basement's locked, I can't get in," Mitsuhiko said. "Did you find anything?"
"Nothing," Genta-kun said.
Ayumi-chan rushed out of the hall that led to the bathroom. "I don't think Ai-chan is here," she said. "Her toothbrush is missing, and so is her bag that she brings when we go camping."
"Really?" Mitsuhiko said, a feeling of relief washing over him. "Then... she probably stayed somewhere else last night." His relief was short-lived. That was only one friend, and only partially accounted for. "Any sign of Conan-kun?"
"Nuh-uh," Genta-kun said, coming down the balcony stairs. Ayumi-chan shook her head, looking upset.
Mitsuhiko looked over at the dead body of the kidnapper and felt his heart sink as realization set in. "We need to call the police," he said, and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
"Mitsuhiko-kun," Ayumi-chan said, her tone a little apprehensive. "Could you maybe call Takagi-keiji directly instead of 119?" She flushed a little. "He... might not yell at us."
Mitsuhiko nodded ruefully. Any chance of them not getting in trouble for sneaking out of school disappeared the moment Agasa-hakase's front door swung open and showed them the body.
The school administrators would not be happy. Kobayashi-sensei would not be happy. And he was pretty sure that there was absolutely no way to convince his parents that their off-school-grounds excursion had nothing to do with the Shounen Tantei-dan and trying to find Conan-kun, since, technically, that's exactly what it ended up being.
Yes, he foresaw that he would be grounded at least a month for this.
Mitsuhiko took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pressed the call button.
Ran woke up, groggy and disoriented, to the sound of a knock on her bedroom door.
"Neechan? Haibara-san?" Heiji-kun's voice.
"Um, yes," she said, struggling to sit up. What time was it? How long had she been asleep? It didn't feel like very long; exhaustion clung to her like cobwebs. On the futon next to her bed, Ai-chan stirred as well.
"Sorry to wake you," Heiji-kun said, "but Kudo-san sent someone over with a lead, and we're going to go check it out."
The word "lead" was all it took for a surge of adrenaline to incinerate the cobwebs, and she practically leaped out bed and threw open her bedroom door before Heiji-kun had time to finish his sentence. He blinked at her in shock, and for the briefest moment, she was aware that she must be a sight in her rumpled blue flannel pajamas and bed-mussed hair.
"A lead," she said. "What is it?"
Heiji-kun took a step back in the face of her intensity. "Uh... it's an address," he said. "Apparently Kudo-san believes it's where Kudo was taken last night right after the abduction."
"Okay," she said. She glanced back at Ai-chan, who looked wide awake, and just as anxious and determined as she felt. "Give us ten minutes, and we'll be ready to go."
"Oh, uh..." Heiji glanced toward the front door, a strange look on his face, and then back at her. "You don't really need to come..."
He trailed off as she fixed him with a look.
"But hey, the more the merrier, eh?" he said quickly. He gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, okay, meet us downstairs in the café as soon as you're ready. And, um..." Again, that strange expression crossed his face.
"What is it?" Ran asked. "Just tell me, Heiji-kun."
He looked at her, and sighed. "Well... this guy who came by with the lead. His name is Kuroba Kaito." He paused as if waiting for her to recognize the name, and when she obviously didn't, he continued. "He looks almost exactly like Kudo. The grown-up version."
She blinked.
"Seriously, they could be twins, except for the hair," he continued, and he scratched the back of his head. "It's kinda creepy, actually. So, since you're coming, just... be ready for that."
"Okay," she said slowly, not quite sure how else to respond to something like that. "I will. Thank you for letting me know."
Heiji-kun sighed. "Actually, that's not all." He glanced over at Ai-chan. "He knows everything."
Ai-chan came and stood next to Ran. "Define 'everything,'" she said.
"Everything. The Black Org, the Apotoxin, that Conan-kun is Kudo... everything."
Her eyes narrowed. "How?"
"He says that Kudo-san told him. Apparently his family and the Kudos go way back, and Kudo-san recruited him to help us."
Ai-chan crossed her arms, looking none too pleased. "And you took him at his word?"
"Of course not," Heiji-kun said irritably. "I called Kudo-san, and he verified that this Kuroba guy and his lead are both legit."
"And you're sure you spoke to Kudo-san?" Ai-chan's gaze was challenging, but Ran could see a hint of fear in her eyes as well.
"Pretty sure," Heiji-kun said, "unless someone mugged him, stole his phone, and was able to imitate his voice perfectly."
"I know people who are capable of doing just that," Ai-chan said coldly, and Ran realized with a chill that she was referring to Vermouth.
"Look," Heiji-kun said, "I admit, my instincts are telling me that there's something weird about this guy, beyond him looking like Kudo, but he doesn't seem like Black Org to me."
"And you're the best judge of that, are you?" Ai-chan said.
Heiji-kun snorted. "No, that would be you. So if you and Neesan are coming with us, maybe you could feel him out and see if he's trying to lead us into a trap. But this address is the best thing we've got right now that might help us find Kudo sooner rather than later, so, trap or not, I'm willing to risk it."
Ai-chan gazed at him in stony silence for a moment. "Fine," she said. "We'll be down in... ten minutes?" She looked up at Ran, and Ran nodded.
Heiji-kun looked relieved. "Okay," he said, "see you in a few." He headed for the front door.
When he was gone, Ran looked down at Ai-chan. "You don't really think this guy, or whoever sent him, might be Vermouth in disguise, do you?" She was still trying to wrap her mind around the idea that the Black Org woman had managed to successfully impersonate Ariade-sensei for weeks on end.
Ai-chan shrugged. "It's within the realm of possibility, and I like to err on the side of caution, especially since she would like nothing more than to see me dead."
Ran paled. "But... I thought you said that she promised Shinichi that she wouldn't come after you any more."
"She promised to not kill me, she didn't promise to leave me alone. Besides, Vermouth promising not to kill is like a coiled viper promising not to strike. And I've no doubt she's heard about Kudo-kun's kidnapping by now. It would be like her to try something while he's missing."
The bland, almost apathetic way that Ai-chan spoke about her own possible murder left Ran feeling cold and angry. "I won't let her touch you," she said.
Ai-chan looked at her, shocked in the face of her vehemence. Then she smiled. "Thank you, Ran-oneesan. Now, let's get ready before Hattori-kun thinks we've changed our minds about going with him."
It took less than ten minutes to get ready, and during that time, Ran found herself performing some amazing mental gymnastics.
She thought about Vermouth, who wouldn't shoot through her to kill Ai-chan. She thought about Heiji-kun's lead, and the mysterious Shinichi look-alike who brought it who might or might not have been sent by Kudo-san. She thought about calling a taxi to take them to the address, then wondered if Heiji-kun had already called a taxi, then wondered if they would split the cab fare, then wondered how far away the address was. She thought about making breakfast or skipping breakfast, and what she should make for dinner later, or if she should just warm up leftovers. She thought about her dad, and wondered where he was right now. Was he still with the police? Was he still at the hospital?
She thought about anything and everything she could to keep from thinking about Shinichi, trapped in the body of a small child and in the hands of monsters.
That one terrible thought seemed to be taking up most of her brain, and it was all she could do to keep from staring right into that abyss of fear and despair and letting it swallow her whole. She had to continue to distract herself from it by any means necessary, or she wouldn't be able to function.
So. Get dressed. Wash face. Brush teeth. Run a comb through hair. Done.
Ai-chan was already waiting for her at the front door when she finished making herself presentable. "Are you ready?" Ai-chan asked.
"Almost," Ran said. Grabbing the notepad and pen that sat next to the living room phone, she wrote a quick note to her dad, letting him know that she was okay, that she was going to be out helping Heiji-kun with the investigation, and to call her if he needed anything. "There," she said, putting the pen down and grabbing her jacket that had her phone and wallet. "Let's go."
They walked down the stairs to the street and went into the Poirot Café. Heiji-kun was standing by the picture window, talking on the phone. Azusa-chan was busy back in the kitchen. And as for the Shinichi look-alike... well, she was grateful that Heiji-kun had let her know about him in advance.
He was sitting in one of the booths looking at something on his smart phone, and sipping coffee from an oversized mug. His resemblance to Shinichi was undeniable... but as she looked at him, a memory from a few months back clicked in her head.
"Oh!" she said. "I've seen you before."
He looked up at her and blinked. "Eh?"
She flushed a little, embarrassed at her forwardness. "I'm sorry," she said, "that wasn't polite. I'm Mouri Ran, and this is Haibara Ai. Pleased to meet you."
He stood, slipping his phone into his pocket. "Kuroba Kaito," he said. "Likewise. So you've seen me before?" He smiled, seemingly completely at ease, but there was a hint of something behind his eyes... "Are you sure?"
"Positive," she said. "It was a few months ago. I remember it clearly because it was right around the time of the Kaitou Kid heist where he tried to steal the Black Star Pearl."
He raised his eyebrows. "Oh... really?" he said, glancing briefly over at Heiji-kun.
"Yes," she said, wondering why he seemed a little discomfited. "The first time, it was just before the heist. My friend and I were shopping in the Shibuya district, it was raining, and I saw you and another girl walking next to each other. You were holding an umbrella and I... I thought you were Shinichi, and that he was..." She trailed off, blushing as she remembered talking about her fears that Shinichi was cheating on her - and in front of Conan-kun, no less. No wonder he had been so adamant that she was mistaken.
"Well," she continued, smiling a little, "obviously you weren't Shinichi, and I realized it when I saw you again in the same area after the heist without an umbrella covering your hair. My friend and I saw you with that girl and I realized my mistake."
"Ah, you must be referring to my friend, Aoko," he said, grinning, and whatever it was that she thought she had seen lurking in the back of his eyes was gone. "We've been friends since we were kids, and whenever she wants to go shopping in Shibuya, she always drags me along with her."
Ran was about to ask him if he was related to the Kudos, because the resemblance was so strong, but Heiji-kun walked up to them at that moment. "I called a taxi," he said. "It should be here in less than five. Oh, and Neechan, before I forget and Kazuha kills me for it, she wants you to call her. She wants to help with making phone calls to hospitals, and I told her to coordinate with you."
"Okay," she said, and then, as she was reaching into her pocket for her phone, she paused uncertainly. "Oh, um... did you tell her?"
"About Kudo?" Heiji-kun shook his head, frowning. "No way. Knowing is dangerous, Neechan. The less people who know about his secret, the better. Kudo's going to blow a gasket when he finds out that you know. I'm not going to drag Kazuha into this mess any deeper than I have to."
"Which is very wise of you, Hattori-kun," Ai-chan said. Ran looked down at her and saw that she was giving Kuroba Kaito a very narrow look. "But I have to wonder if Kudo-san shares that wisdom if he is willing to share the secret so freely with virtual strangers."
Kuroba met Ai-chan's challenging gaze. "First of all," he said mildly, "I'm not a virtual stranger. Kudo-kun's parents and my parents have been friends longer than we've been alive. And second, it seems to me that with Kudo-kun's life in danger, and you not being able to go to the police with your investigation, you could use all the willing help you can get."
Ai-chan frowned, but reluctantly nodded, conceding his point. Her suspicious glare didn't lessen, however, though Kuroba seemed immune to it.
It was only when he turned his grin on Ran, and raised an enquiring eyebrow, that she realized she had been openly gawking at him. Even knowing who he was, it was hard not to look and silently catalogue the similarities between him and Shinichi. "Sorry," she said, "I... I don't mean to stare, but..."
"But I look like him, I know," Kuroba said, his smirk fading. "I don't mean to upset you."
"But that's just it," she said. "I thought I might be upset, but I'm not, because even though you look like Shinichi..." She smiled. "Well, you don't feel like him."
He looked surprised at that, but then he grinned again. She was starting to think that this grin was his default expression.
"Speaking of," Heiji-kun said, looking down at Ai-chan. "What's the verdict, Haibara-san? Does he feel like Black Org?"
Ai-chan turned her half-lidded glare on Heiji-kun for a moment, before turning away. "No," she said. "But that doesn't mean he's trustworthy."
"You wound me, ojousan," Kuroba said, dramatically clutching at his heart. "Very well, then. I shall make it my mission to earn your trust."
Heiji-kun snorted, then sauntered back over to the window, hands in his pockets, humming the theme to Mission: Impossible. Kuroba laughed. Ai-chan simply crossed her arms and rolled her eyes.
Ran got the distinct impression that the alliance with Kuroba had been accepted, albeit reluctantly. With that apparently settled, Ran pulled out her phone to call Kazuha-chan... and saw that she had eleven missed calls, eight new voice mails, and five text messages - all from Sonoko.
She winced as she remembered that she and Ai-chan had silenced their phones the night before while the police questioned them. That she had completely forgotten to turn the sound back on was a testament to her state of mind. Of course Sonoko had heard about Conan-kun's kidnapping, and of course she would have been trying to contact her to talk about it and offer her a shoulder to cry on. It's what best friends did.
But what could Ran even say to her? Was it only two days ago, on Sunday afternoon, that she and Sonoko had gone shopping together? And she had bought the ice cream that she had shared with Conan-kun that night, right before Megure-keibu and Takagi-keiji came to tell her about the anonymous tip that started this nightmare. Since then, her life had been turned completely upside-down.
Sonoko, sorry for not getting back to you sooner, but hey, guess what? Conan-kun is Shinichi. No, really. See, there's this drug that either kills you or, if you're really lucky, strips a decade off your age. It was created by a massive crime syndicate called the Black Organization. Oh, and by the way, if they ever find out that you know about their existence, they will kill you...
Suddenly, with crystal clarity, she understood on a whole new level why Heiji-kun refused to tell Kazuha-chan and - more importantly - why Shinichi had never told her. She had understood why on an intellectual level, but now, as she found herself with the same dilemma that he faced on a daily basis, she felt it viscerally. The thought of Sonoko knowing about the Black Org filled her with a growing dread that made her stomach clench.
This truth was dangerous, and it was a danger she couldn't inflict on someone she cared about.
How often had Shinichi wanted to tell her the truth about what had happened to him, but fear for her safety kept him silent? Day in and day out, for months on end, he had played the child; had endured the humiliation of being treated like a little boy by almost everyone he knew, and still, he guarded his secret with every scrap of cunning he possessed.
More than anything, she wanted to take his hands in hers, look him in the eyes and tell him that she understood - that she knew what he had suffered for her sake. And that she loved him for it.
But first, she had to find him.
As for Sonoko, she would be in class by now. She sent her a quick text explaining how she had turned off her phone the night before, that she was okay, and she would talk to her after school. Maybe by then she would figure out what to say to her.
Ai-chan saw her looking at her phone, and pulled her own phone out of her pocket. Her brows drew together in a slight frown.
"Did you miss some calls too?" Ran asked.
"Mitsuhiko-kun called me before school started." Ai-chan sighed, looking troubled. "No doubt the children have heard the news. I should give each of them a call when school gets out and make sure they're okay."
Ran nodded. Those poor kids, she thought. Conan-kun was their friend, and Agasa-hakase was practically a grandfather to them. She wondered how they were handling this.
"Taxi's here," Heiji-kun said, heading out the café door. "Let's go."
Ran immediately went after him, followed by Ai-chan and Kuroba-kun, and they all piled into the taxi. She sat between Heiji-kun and Ai-chan, with Kuroba-kun sitting on Ai-chan's other side. It was a little cramped, but they managed to fit. Heiji-kun gave the driver the address, and they were on their way. Hopefully to find clues that would lead them to Shinichi.
The thought made Ran excited and scared at the same time. What if they didn't find anything? Or what if they did, but it wasn't enough? How much time did Shinichi have before his captors did something terrible to him? How much time did they have to rescue him before...
She closed her eyes, unable to complete the thought.
"Neechan," Heiji-kun said, "you call Kazuha yet?" He gave her a rather sheepish look. "Seriously, if you don't, she'll yell at me so loud you'll hear her from Osaka."
"Ah, sorry," Ran said. Her phone was still in her hand, and she quickly dialed Kazuha's number, feeling grateful. It would be wonderful if following this lead made the time-consuming task of calling the thousands of hospitals across Japan unnecessary. But talking to Kazuha and making a plan in the meantime would hopefully keep her mind occupied enough that she wouldn't have time to dwell on all the terrifying unknowns lurking in her mind.
Kaito sat in the back of the taxi, looking out his window. He couldn't help but feel Tantei-han's occasional, suspicious glances from the other side of the vehicle, so piercing they felt like they might burn holes in the back of his head.
Ah, he just loved detectives. They were great fun to mess with, and Hattori Heiji, the Great Detective of the West, was proving no different.
Still, he needed to be careful. He wasn't sure what he had done to put Hattori on high alert the moment they had met face to face - well, other than bearing a striking resemblance to the missing Tantei-kun's adult self - but he would have to resist the temptation to flaunt his personal mystery. They already had a serious investigation on their hands, and he didn't want to give Hattori any reason to think that he was a puzzle that needed solving as well.
No Kaitou Kid here, no sir. Just your perfectly normal, average genius magician high schooler.
Traffic was good, since it was mid-morning. Too late for the morning rush hour, and too early for lunch. So although the address was in Suginami, which was quite a distance from Beika, it ended up only being a twenty minute drive. The time might have passed in awkward silence, were it not for Mouri-chan chatting on the phone with Hattori's girlfriend. Apparently they were planning to call hospitals to enquire about the possible theft of medicine or medical equipment. A gargantuan, but necessary task, apparently. He didn't envy them.
The address ended up belonging to one of four small houses that lined the north side of a dead-end side street. The south side of the street was lined with an eight foot tall brick wall, on the other side of which was a small park. The house they were looking for was second from the end, and set toward the back on the property, with a long, wide driveway and a virtual forest of trees in the front yard.
They all exited the cab, and as Hattori paid the driver, Kaito couldn't help but notice how absolutely vacant the house seemed. If Tantei-kun had been brought here last night, he certainly wasn't here now. But then, they hadn't expected him to still be here. They would be looking for clues to see who had him, and where he had been taken from here.
Hattori frowned at the house as the taxi drove away, then turned to the girls. "Kuroba-kun and I are going to investigate the house," he said. "Neechan, Chisai-Neechan, you two mind going to the neighbors, seeing if anyone is home, and if they can tell us anything about who was staying here?"
Haibara-chan raised an eyebrow at the "Chisai-Neechan," and Kaito stifled a grin. Little Big Sister indeed.
"Sure," Mouri-chan said. "You'll come get us if you find anything, right?"
"'Course," Hattori said, then turned to Kaito. "You got a handkerchief or something you can use? I don't want you touching anything with bare hands."
Kaito responded by pulling a clean, neatly pressed white handkerchief from his jacket pocket. "Will this do?"
Hattori gave him another strange, calculating look, and Kaito was suddenly very glad he hadn't pulled out one of his "KK" monogrammed handkerchiefs.
"Yeah," Hattori said. "Come on." He headed down the driveway toward the house. Kaito followed obediently, wondering just how Hattori thought their partnership was going to work.
When they got the front door, Hattori pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket and tried the doorknob. It was locked, of course.
Kaito quickly said, "I'm going to check the back door. Why don't you start seeing if any of the windows are open?" And before Hattori could protest, he took off, not waiting to see if Hattori was going to check the windows or not.
The back door was locked as well, but Kaito picked the lock in record time, just in case Hattori had decided to follow him. There were some skills Hattori just didn't need to know he possessed.
He opened the door and strode through the house, making note of the kitchen, a bedroom, a good-sized bathroom, and living room. He unlocked the front door and opened it with his handkerchief to see Hattori, at the front window, staring at him in surprise.
"Back door was unlocked," he said, grinning. "Come on in."
If Hattori was suspicious of his means of entry, he didn't show it, apparently too glad to have easy access to the inside. Immediately, he dropped to his knees, examining the floor.
The living room was carpeted with light brown half-inch pile that had been recently vacuumed. The vacuum tread had eliminated foot prints, but there were four distinct rectangle marks, about three centimeters wide and eight centimeters long, that the vacuum couldn't erase. Each of the marks seemed to form the corners of a much larger rectangle. Hattori ran his finger down into one of the indentations, then sat back on his haunches, his brows creased in thought.
"So what made those marks?" Kaito asked.
"A gurney," Hattori said, without hesitation.
Kaito was surprised, but didn't show it. "How do you figure?"
"These marks in the carpet were made by wheels," Hattori said. "See how it's deepest in the center, but tapers up on both ends. And these two marks are parallel to each other, while those two over there are skewed in different directions. Those were the wheels that allowed whoever was pushing the gurney to steer."
"And it sat here long enough to make marks that a vacuum couldn't erase," Kaito said.
"Right," said Hattori, getting to his feet. "Check the bathroom. If you find anything, don't touch it, just let me know. I'm gonna take a look at the bedroom."
Kaito nodded, and headed into the bathroom, hands in his pockets.
At first glance, the bathroom was pristine. White and blue marbled tile on the floor, white walls, bathtub and toilet, a white sink set into a long marbled counter top over light-stained oak cupboards, with an equally long mirror mounted on the wall. The chrome fixtures and faucets were polished and gleaming. A narrow, pebbled glass window was in the wall over the bath near the ceiling. The window was open, but the screen was closed.
Someone had evidently done a decent job of cleaning, and he doubted he would find anything. But still he started scanning the room, his sharp eyes covering every centimeter, looking for something, anything out of place.
And there, on the floor, next to the bath, he saw something. Kneeling down, he saw a light dusting of white powder, no larger than a five yen coin, that was almost completely camouflaged by the marble tile. And, not far from it, a small drop of brown liquid no larger than the size of a pin head.
"Hattori-kun," he called. "Found something."
Hattori quickly came into the bathroom and knelt next to him. "What is it?"
"Look at this." He reached down and stuck his index finger into the very edge of the powder, rubbed it between his fingers, and sniffed it. "Hair bleach powder. L'oreal Quick Blue, if I'm not mistaken. And this..." He took his handkerchief and dabbed a corner into the brown liquid dot. He sniffed again and wrinkled his nose at the unmistakable scent of ammonia. "Hair dye. Ash blonde, from the look of it. And fresh. Someone used this less than a day ago."
Hattori stared at him for a long moment, before dabbing his own finger into the edge of the powder and sniffing it. Then he stared at Kaito again. "How do you know?"
"My mom likes to lighten her hair whenever she goes on a trip to Europe or America," Kaito lied smoothly. "Japanese hair is difficult to dye. The most effective way is to use powder bleach mixed with a creme developer to strip the hair of color, and then use a standard permanent hair dye. This ash blonde usually ends up looking light brown."
"What about grey hair?" Hattori said. "I found several short grey hairs on the bed sheet behind the pillows."
"Grey hair doesn't need bleach," Kaito said, and when he did, he could see in Hattori's angry expression that he was coming to the same conclusion he had.
Hattori stood abruptly. "Let's check the kitchen. Then I want to find where this guy put his trash."
"Did you find anything else in the bedroom?" Kaito asked, following Hattori into the living room.
"One of the pillows is missing off the bed," Hattori said.
He might have said more... but at that moment, the front door opened, and a short, middle-aged woman stepped through.
Her eyes widened in shock as she saw them. Hattori froze, looking amazingly caught-in-the-act guilty, but Kaito had too much experience in this kind of thing to be thrown for a loop.
He was already smiling, stepping toward her even as she demanded, in a shrill voice that bordered on a scream, "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?"
"Madam," he said, instinctively oozing Kid charm. "We are terribly sorry for this intrusion. Am I correct in assuming that, while you own this house, you do not live here?"
As expected, his friendly, up-front manner took her off guard. "Yes," she said. "I... I use this house as a rental."
"And we are here investigating your most recent tenant," he said. "We have reason to suspect that he was involved in some unsavory business dealings."
She blinked at him. "Who are you?" she said, curious, but no longer afraid. Perfect. "How did you even get in here?"
"Ah, my apologies," Kaito said. "Allow me to introduce my comrade, Hattori Heiji, from Osaka. He is a famous high school detective, known there as the Great Detective of the West."
Stunned, the woman looked over at Hattori, who was looking almost as shell shocked as she was. "Oh," she said, obviously not recognizing the name. She turned back to Kaito. "And you are?"
"Kudo Shinichi," he said.
She gasped, even has Hattori's head whipped around to stare at him.
"Kudo Shinichi?" the woman said, her eyes wide. "The Heisei Holmes? The Savior of the Tokyo Police?"
"At your service," he said, bowing politely and completely ignoring Hattori's glare. Sheesh, if looks could kill... "Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?"
The woman's demeanor had completely changed. "Not at all," she said. "But... I recognize you now, from the newspaper. I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you before, but I was so surprised to find you here..."
"It's no problem," he assured her. "Please, if you would like to take a seat..."
He led her over to the living room sofa, and as she sat, he took a seat in the chair across from her. Hattori didn't move from where he was standing, but at least he seemed to have the sense to start playing along and had stopped openly glaring at him.
A little less than a half hour later, he and Hattori walked out the front door, having found out that Gushiken Miho had rented her house to a man who claimed to be very private. She never saw him in person, but had sent him the required paperwork to a post office box, and he signed the lease under the obviously false name of Kase Kiyomasu.
"Kase-san" had stayed in the house for a little under a month, but he had paid for a full month in advance with cash sent to her office in a thick manilla envelope. She had received an email from him yesterday evening informing her that he would be vacating the house that night, and while he left her house in perfect condition, she could keep the deposit. And yes, now that she thought about it, it was all very suspicious, and she should have known that he was some sort of criminal up to no good.
On top of that, she was more than happy to provide the address for the neighborhood trash drop-off point, which was conveniently just around the block, and she promised not to tell anyone that Kudo had been there because this investigation was all part of a top secret case, and wasn't that just thrilling.
It had all gone extremely well, but for some reason, now that they were out of the house and walking up the driveway, Hattori was radiating a fury so intense he could feel it a good two meters away. Two meters had seemed a relatively safe distance, but he was starting to change his mind.
"Problem?" he asked, his tone carefully neutral.
"Who the hell are you?" Hattori practically snarled. "And if you dare say that you're Kudo, I will punch you in the face."
Kaito looked at him. "I'm Kuroba Kaito," he said. "Pretty sure I told you that when we met."
"You know exactly what I mean," Hattori said. "What you did back there-"
"What I did back there was save us from getting arrested for breaking and entering," he said, "not to mention obtaining some valuable intel on Kudo's kidnapper. And I'm not going to apologize for impersonating Kudo to do it, because if she wasn't impressed with you, a famous great detective, she sure as hell wasn't going to be impressed by a nobody like me. I'm sure you realize just how lucky we are that Kudo is still as famous as he is, and that she just happened to be a fan."
Hattori's glare relaxed a bit, and Kaito could tell, with no small sense of relief, that Hattori was actually seeing the sense in what he said.
"Dammit," Hattori said at last, rubbing a hand over his face. "Just... don't do that again."
"No promises," Kaito said. "Besides, even after all that, we still don't have an inkling of where that bastard took Kudo after he left here last night."
At that, a strange, contemplative look crossed Hattori's face, and Kaito stopped in his tracks. "Wait," he said. "Are you kidding me? Did you figure it out?"
Hattori seemed to chew on the inside of his cheek for a moment before he replied. "I... have a theory," he said. "But I need more proof."
"Ah," said Kaito. "Is that why we're going garbage hunting?"
Hattori just nodded.
"Want to tell me what we're looking for?"
"I'll know it when I see it."
Kaito rolled his eyes. Detectives, he thought. But this was good. Perhaps this lead would actually take them somewhere.
When they got to the end of the driveway, they saw the girls walking up the street toward them. When the girls saw them, they both broke into a run to meet up with them.
"Find out anything good?" Kaito asked as they met on the sidewalk.
Mouri-chan nodded, her eyes bright. "No one was home at those two houses," she said, pointing toward the first two houses on the street, "but there's a lady in the house at the end. She says she never saw anyone or anything until last night when she was walking home late, around eleven o'clock. When she walked passed, she said the lights were on in the house, and there were two vehicles in the driveway - a blue car, and an ambulance."
Hattori froze. "An ambulance?" he said. "She's sure it was an ambulance, and not... not just a van or something?"
Haibara-chan looked up at him. "She said that the ambulance left a little after midnight last night, because the driver turned on the flashing red lights, and she could see them from her living room. No siren, though."
Hattori smiled then, but combined with the grim, burning look in his eyes, it was not a comforting expression. "Call Kazuha," he said to Mouri-chan. "Tell her to hold off on making any phone calls until we get back to her." He turned to Kaito. "Come on, let's hurry," he said, and then he took off down the street.
Mouri-chan looked after him in shock. "Where is he going?"
"To the trash pick-up point around the corner, apparently," Kaito said, sighing. "Meet us there when you're done."
"Okay," she said, pulling out her phone, and Kaito hurried after Hattori.
By the time he caught up with the detective, Hattori was already digging through a large pile of clear plastic bags piled at the side of the road. He supposed they should count themselves lucky that the trash collectors hadn't been by yet.
"How are you going to find this guy's trash in all of this?" he asked.
"These are combustibles," Hattori said, pulling out another bag and examining its contents. "Look for a bag that has an empty box of ash blonde hair dye."
Of course, Kaito thought with a shrug, and he joined in the search. He had sorted through eight bags, not finding anything promising, when he pulled out a large bag that immediately caught his attention. "Hey," he said, "I think I found your missing pillow."
Without a word, Hattori took the bag from him and began working on the knot tied in the plastic. When he opened it, he reached inside and pulled out the pillow. "It's wet," Hattori said, and then he scowled. "Look at this," he said, handing the damp pillow to Kaito.
Kaito examined it and saw that, on one long end of the pillow, there was a brown stain that smelled of ammonia. Hair dye, he realized, and he frowned. If he had suspected before that Kudo had been the recipient of the dye job, this confirmed it. He could see it in his mind's eye - an unconscious child lying in the bathtub, this pillow lifting his upper back and neck so that his head hung back, making it easy for his captor to bleach and dye his hair without struggle or mess.
The question was, why? If the look on Hattori's face was any indication, he had already figured it out, and yet he was still going through the open garbage bag. A moment later, he pulled out a long, white butcher's apron - also stained with hair dye, he saw. So the kidnapper wore this to keep his own clothes clean. Great.
But Hattori wasn't looking at the front of the apron, he was looking at the ties that went in the back. There were creases in the fabric where the ties had been pulled together and knotted, and Hattori used them to recreate the knot. When he finished, he held up the apron by the neck and looked at where the knot fell in the back. "Huh," Hattori said. "Thought so. Skinny bastard."
Only then did Kaito realize that Hattori had used the apron figure out the kidnapper's physical build. Wow, he thought. Not bad.
"What's going on?" Kaito turned to see Mouri-chan and Haibara-chan walking up to them. "Did you find anything?"
Hattori re-tied the garbage bag and dropped it back into the pile, then brushed his hands on his pant legs as he stood. "The kidnapper dyed Kudo's hair," he said, "and used an actual ambulance to transport him to the next location."
"And that means what, exactly?" Kaito said, feeling rather impatient. Honestly, detectives and their 'big reveals.' Just once, couldn't they talk about things as they figured them out?
"Why dye his hair?" Hattori said. "They already have him. The only reason to dye his hair is to disguise him, and the only reason to disguise him at this point is because people who are not part of their plan are going to see him." He turned to Mouri-chan. "We shouldn't be calling hospitals about equipment theft," he said. "We need to be asking about any new seven-year-old patients. The kidnappers already have all the equipment they need because they are hiding him in plain sight."
Mouri-chan inhaled sharply, and Kaito felt his own eyes widen. Son of a bitch, he thought. Hattori's right. But before he could comment, Hattori was already turning to Haibara-chan."
"I need to know," Hattori said, "on your team for working on the drug, was there a man, around one hundred eighty centimeters tall, abnormally thin, with short cropped grey hair?"
Haibara-chan looked at Hattori, stunned, before she suddenly went pale. Slowly, she nodded. "Numabuchi Souichiro," she said. "He... he took Kudo-kun?"
Hattori frowned. "Numabuchi... why does that name sound familiar?"
"Because," Haibara-chan said, looking down and clenching her fists. "You met his brother a few months ago. Numabuchi Ki'ichiro."
Now it was Hattori's turned to look stunned. "The serial killer Kudo and I caught in Osaka?"
"That would be him, yes."
"Holy shit," Hattori said, and then glanced between her and Mouri-chan. "Uh, sorry."
Mouri-chan just shook her head. She had both of her hands pressed over her heart, and tears were standing out in her eyes.
Kaito stepped toward her, feeling concerned. "Hey," he said, "you okay?"
She nodded, swallowing hard. "It's just... it's all a bit much to take in," she said. "But it's good. We know where to start looking now."
"I need to let Kudo-san know," Hattori said, pulling out his phone. He took a few steps away from the group as he dialed. "Kudo-san," he said after a moment. "Hattori here. I have some news." They listened as he relayed everything they had learned.
When Hattori finished, he stood in silence, listening to whatever Kudo-san was saying in return. To Kaito's surprise, Hattori's eyes suddenly narrowed. "What?" he said. "Are you kidding? Sorry, 'course you're not, but... what the hell? When did this happen?" Hattori looked at his watch. "Shit. Okay. Yeah, we're gonna head back soon and we'll touch base then. Later." He hung up and looked over at them, eyes wide.
"What the hell was that all about?" Kaito asked.
"Kudo-san... he said that the Shounen-Tanteidan went over to Agasa-hakase's during their lunch hour, and they found the corpse of the mercenary hired to kidnap Kudo, right inside Hakase's house. Preliminary reports from the police are saying it looks like he died of a heart attack, but no one is sure how or when he got there, or why he was there in the first place." Hattori gave Haibara-chan a questioning look.
Her eyes were wide, her pupils shrank to the size of pinheads, and she was shaking. "Vermouth," she whispered. Mouri-chan gasped, and put a protective hand on Haibara-chan's shoulder.
When she said that, Hattori turned on Kaito so fast that he took an instinctive step back. "Did Kudo-san ever tell you where this lead came from?" Hattori asked, and Kaito shook his head.
Hattori scowled. "I think it's time to ask him about it. In person," he added.
Kaito looked at the terrified little-girl-who-wasn't, and found himself in perfect agreement.
Hana got about three hours of sleep reclining in the hospital room's visitors chair, and she woke up feeling a lot more like herself. Emotions firmly tamped down. She was clear-headed and under control.
And a good thing too, because as she sat up and stretched, wincing at the creaking in her joints, she saw that the boy's eyes were open yet again. He was watching her, slits of blue peering from under heavy lids. And more than that, both of his hands, strapped down at the wrists, were moving restlessly, his small fingers sliding back and forth against the bed sheet.
She looked at him for a moment, then she looked at the clock. Almost nine am. She had some time to kill before the boy had to be ready for his CT scan and MRI, so she pulled a paperback novel out of her bag - The Elephant Vanishes, by Haruki Murakami - flipped open to her bookmark, and started reading.
She had just reached the part where the couple, up late craving food, decide to rob a McDonalds, when Matsumara opened the door and came striding in. He stopped at the foot of the bed and looked at the boy; at his moving hands and his open eyes as he slowly dragged his heavy-lidded gaze to look right back.
Matsumara scowled. "This is unacceptable, Okazaki-san," he said, turning to her.
She sighed, and closed her book.
"I don't care how 'standard' this is," he continued. "Having him looking around is bad enough, but moving his hands? The whole point of putting this kid in a coma was to make it impossible for him to escape."
Hana somehow managed to not roll her eyes. "I told you," she said, "he's not going anywhere."
"That's not the point," Matsumara said, calm and cold. "I don't think you fully appreciate how smart he is. If he can move around like this, some well-meaning nurse will come in to check on him, and he'll start tapping out a message in morse code."
Hana almost laughed at him, but the quiet seriousness in his voice, as opposed to the usual loud, anxious rants he had been prone to before getting the boy safely to the hospital, stopped her. Now he was seeming more like the confident, self-possessed man she had listened to when he first approached her to be part of his team.
Suddenly uncertain, she glanced over at the boy, and saw that his hands had abruptly stilled.
He was listening, she realized. He was listening, and he understood, and he realized that he was in danger.
Matsumara followed her gaze. "Do you see? Do you understand now? He needs to be much deeper than this. He needs to be completely insensate."
She pressed her lips together into a thin line. "His kidneys could take serious damage under that much medication," she said.
"Then we will put him on dialysis if we have to. But he must be made incapable of communicating, even if it's just with his eyes or fingers."
She looked at the boy again. He looked back at her. And perhaps she was just projecting her own expectations at this point, but... she thought she saw a touch of fear in his hazy eyes.
She looked away. "Very well," she said.
Matsumara relaxed. "Thank you," he said. "Isao-san and I will come back in an hour for the CT and MRI. Isao-san will also be by later in the day to perform a Lumbar Puncture to get a sample of spinal fluid. Do you mind helping him with that?"
"Not at all."
He nodded at her, and then left.
She sighed and got to her feet, wincing at the pops and crackling noises her body made as she straightened. As she walked over to the IV stand and started to make preparations to increase the boy's sedation, she saw him moving again out of the corner of her eye.
She looked down and saw that his fingers on the hand nearest to her were straining in her direction.
No, stop, the gesture seemed to say.
She refocused her attention on the task at hand. That, more than anything, proved to her that Matsumara was right.
"Sorry, kiddo," she said, not bothering to look at him again. "Looks like you're headed all the way down to the bottom of the rabbit hole."
Shinichi watched, full of dread, as Okazaki Hana did something to his IV. A fresh wave of cold seemed to flood through his veins, and he would have shivered if he could have.
Once again, she reached over to his face and gently pushed his eyelids closed. He fought to open them, once again using the burning pain in his throat as a means to focus his will into an act of defiance... but the drug flooding through him was a black tide, and the pain was not enough to push it back.
Or... maybe it was. He could see, though he couldn't remember opening his eyes. The hospital room surrounded him. Okazaki was sleeping in the chair again. He moved his hands experimentally, and they obeyed.
And then, the door to his room opened, and a nurse came through the door, and he looked at her, filled with a sudden wild hope. Help me, he said, and she said Okay.
She came over to him and freed his arms and legs, and helped him to sit up. She pulled the IVs from his arms, and pulled the respirator from his throat, though it didn't hurt more or less. This way, she said, and he climbed out of the bed and followed. And if she didn't have a face, it didn't really matter, because she was helping him escape.
And then he was in the hallway of the hospital, and he turned to thank her, but she was gone. And now, more than anything, he needed to find a way out. He needed to leave, and get back home to Ran because the last time he had seen her, she had been tied up and crying and she had to be so worried about him.
But as he stood out in the hallway and looked around for a doctor or a nurse or even a visitor who could show him the way out, he couldn't see anyone like that. Instead, down at the end of the hallway, several tall figures dressed in black clothes started coming out of the rooms.
A surge of terror and adrenaline filled him as the figures in black all turned in his direction and started coming toward him. He turned and ran.
And there was a door, and he stood on tiptoes and opened it, his heart beating in his throat, and behind the door there was a long, curving stairway that led down, and he ran down the stairs as fast as he could, certain that the figures in black would soon be following. And moments later, he could hear slow, heavy footsteps coming down the stairs after him.
And for a very long while, there was nothing but darkness and the curving stairs and the sound of the footsteps following him down.
But then, finally, there was a door. A plain white door, and he reached up and turned the knob as the footsteps came up right behind him, and there was a brush of thick fingers at his throat as he pushed through the door and slammed it behind him.
And then there was silence.
He turned around and looked at the room he was in.
He was in the morgue. He had been in lots of morgues, and this one didn't seem any different. White, sterile, cold, with rows of dead bodies on tables covered in white sheets.
Slowly, he started walking through the tables. It was cold in here, very cold, but that only made sense because bodies needed to be stored at a temperature between -10 and -50 degrees celsius.
He needed to find a way out. But he couldn't find a door. In fact, he realized with alarm, he couldn't even find the door through which he had entered. So he kept wandering through the tables, through the bodies, looking for the exit.
Who were all these dead people, he wondered, and as he did, he saw that one of the bodies had a pale, grey foot uncovered. On the foot, a toe tag. He walked closer. On the toe tag, a name. Kudo Shinichi, the tag said.
He looked at the body. His head ached; felt like it was being pinched in a vice. He reached up and pulled back the sheet, and his own dead, white face stared back at him.
He found himself backing up, his eyes wide, unable to look away, until he backed into a wall and stopped. He slid down the wall until he was sitting, then wrapped his arms around his legs, and clenched his eyes shut.
I'm dreaming, he said. I'm dreaming.
Wake up, he told himself. You've got to wake up. Just open your eyes, really open your eyes and wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up...
A/N: Shinichi's coma nightmares are actually pretty tame compared to some of the real stories I've read.
This has not been proof-read. My apologies for any typos or other errors. At some point I will go back and fix them.
Next time: Oh heck, I don't know. Well, I do, but after writing all that I'm too fried to summarize right now. ^^;
Please review? My muse desperately needs it. This chapter beat her up pretty badly. Seriously, she's sulking in the corner sporting a black eye and not speaking to me. Help!