* Conan *

Every person was asked their name and contact information, then told to wait, but when he looked around, he could find neither Gin nor Miki.

"Hey detective Takagi!" Conan called out, grabbing the officer's attention.

"Ah, Conan-kun!" He exclaimed in a semi-delighted way. "What is it?"

"We want to know if you interviewed a tall man with silver hair and an average woman with black hair, both long," Haibara said shortly.

"Actually, yes," Takagi babbled. "That was interesting. The man had a concussion and the woman severely injured her kneecap. Someone drove them to a nearby hospital. We'll speak with them when we have permission. Though, the woman – her name was Amarante – did say she wanted to speak with us as soon as possible; something about seeing the culprit..."

Conan's eyes widened. He hadn't expected that.

"Let's try to solve it before then," he suggested. Takagi shrugged.

"Might be worth a shot. Try not to get in the way too much, though, all right?"

"Hai! Conan yelled, elongating the last syllable childishly as he and Haibara ran off to search for clues.

* Haibara *

When they rounded up the initial evidence, it was clearly done with a sniper rifle, though there was none found on the train itself or in the immediate vicinity. There was a bullet, though. A bullet lying in the car. One that matched the wound, but had no blood on it and physics would disagree with it being what killed the man, anyway. There was even a bullet hole in two of the windows that faced each other.

No visible murder weapon, and Shinichi was insistent the murderer had been on the train. How? A sniper could not get that accurate a shot without a visual. Period.

Miki had explained this to her at length, though she failed to remember the full discussion and had disregarded it immediately when Akemi, laughing, had said that Miki could not hope to hit the broadside of a barn twenty feet away, much less a hundred! Come to think of it, she had mentioned a scar...on Miki's eyebrow...something about Rye...

Now her head hurt.

"Hey, Haibara!" Shinichi exclaimed, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Hmm?" She asked, snapping back into the present.

"You okay?" A familiar voice asked. Her eyes widened. Subaru.

She managed a nod after pausing for a full second.

"Subaru-san!" Conan exclaimed in surprise. "What brings you here?"

"I had a feeling something would happen," he said mysteriously. "It often does when she rushes things."

Conan blinked at him a few times.

"How do you know her?"

"Childhood," he said quickly, "but that's not so important." The blood drained from Conan's face and Haibara, for the first time, saw him narrow his eyes at Subaru suspiciously.

"No. It is important," he said dryly. Subaru nodded, sighed and sat down.

"We became friends rather suddenly when her parents passed away. Of course, she disappeared seven years later and just...shows up..."

"...like she has a plan," Haibara whispered. Subaru nodded.

"Exactly."

Conan looked confused.

"What do her plans normally involve?" He asked. Haibara looked down.

"Normally, it's removing physical evidence of activities or spying on certain people to make sure tracks are covered. Nine times out of ten, she managed to hide whatever – person or thing – from the police, even if they were caught," she managed, "but..."

"This one seems different?" Conan guessed. Haibara nodded and Subaru seemed startled.

"...I see now..." He said quietly.

Conan's head snapped up and looked quizzically at Subaru who sighed.

"There was a period of time where all activity appeared to cease. Nothing. No hints, no mistakes, no trace. If they were doing anything, there was no sign. Four years before she disappeared."

"That's when she was in charge," Haibara said in a low voice.

"Did you know?" Conan inquired. Subaru shook his head.

"Had no clue. Nothing about her seemed to change, except that her eyes became angrier every time a family member died, instead of just sad, or when she destroyed a wooden crate when she read a certain paper headline. Some person she had never mentioned. That was what I had to work with."

"When did she get that hair pin?" Conan drilled.

"Before I met her," Subaru admitted.

There was someone before Subaru who knew her. This surprised Haibara. She had never learned about Miki's childhood. Someone had covered it up so well within the organization that no one even knew her last name...that she knew of, anyway, not that anyone had really cared to know. Her efficiency and loyalty had removed those questions from the minds of everyone...that Haibara could recall, anyway. Had there been someone?

There was a hand on her shoulder. Haibara realized she had been shaking and stopped.

"Sorry. I just...so confusing...not her usual..." She whispered, then someone picked her up and everything went black.

* Conan *

Haibara passed out and Subaru picked her up with a sigh.

"That's unfortunate. I was hoping she had an idea of what Miki was up to."

Conan followed Subaru to the black car waiting and watched as he placed her carefully in the back seat, then locked the doors, taking the keys with him.

"Let's wrap this up. The Detective Boys are waiting. They'll be asking soon."

* Subaru *

"We have many ideas," Inspector Megure was saying, "but I would prefer to hear the eyewitness account so we can factor that in first, before we jump to any conclusions."

"Hey Subaru-san," Conan addressed. Subaru looked down with a raised eyebrow. "How about we go check out the area where the train was shot?"

It was purposefully loud enough to attract the attention of the police and he noticed with satisfaction when detective Satou smacked her forehead and everyone else had the "derp!" expression on their faces.

Subaru could not completely hold back the smirk that threatened to spread across his face.

"Do we have permission, Inspector Megure?" Subaru had stopped to ask.

Conan and a few of the officers had run off, not waiting for an answer.

"Er-yes. Let's go take a look. I'm surprised the train waited until it got to the station," he remarked.