Meitantei

Chapter 10: Get Out of Jail Card

Despite Takagi-keiji's insistence that he wouldn't interfere with Shinichi's investigation, Shinichi kept one bemused eye trained on the doorway to the library where he could hear the officer shuffling. Initially, Takagi-keiji and Satou-keiji had both been assigned to look after him, but a man had committed suicide, and Satou-keiji had had to go the scene to preside over the investigation. Not long after she left, Takagi-keiji had abandoned his stake-out post and asked if he could come inside to use the bathroom but was spending an awfully long time lingering outside the library where Shinichi had holed himself up.

Perhaps the officer hoped that Shinichi would offer to invite him in to discuss the case, but Shinichi was adamant about solving this without help from the police. They were under moral obligation to turn in information that would result in the capture of Kid. Not that Shinichi expected Takagi-keiji to make the connection between Kuroba Kaito and the infamous Kaitou Kid, but Shinichi felt a bit guilty since he knew he wouldn't be able to explain everything to Takagi-keiji. Usually Shinichi appreciated Takagi-keiji's help. He'd always been a great asset, even trusting Conan's judgment, but there were times when Shinichi felt more comfortable doing things on his own, especially since his current plans were putting in motion events that would promote criminal activity.

As Holmes said in The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, "My dear fellow, you shall keep watch in the street. I'll do the criminal part." Shinichi therefore felt bad about leaving the detective in the dark, but still felt it necessary. Idly, he wondered if Kaitou Kid ever felt he should take it upon himself to commit a crime to stop someone else from doing so. As it was, Shinichi didn't want anyone else doing anything unsavory. If Takagi-keiji wasn't with him, then he wouldn't feel so bad. Speaking of police detectives...

Picking up the phone, he made a call.

"Who is this?" A gruff voice grunted.

"Nakamori-keibu, Kudou desu," Shinichi greeted.

"Kudou-kun? Has there been a new heist note?" Nakamori-keibu asked anxiously. Strangely, the only time Shinichi could recall hearing the police detective with this weary inflection in his voice was when Kid had impersonated him during the Kirin Horn's heist. It hadn't even been Nakamori-keibu but Kid disguised as him.

"Not that I'm aware. I wanted to check up on you after what happened with the brakes to your car being cut. I also heard that another incident occurred yesterday afternoon where a suspicious person tried to throw a brick at you. Has anything else happened that the public isn't aware of?" Shinichi asked, bluntly. Nakamori-keibu lowered his voice. From outside the library, Shinichi could hear the faintest brush of hand on wood as Takagi-keiji leaned in closer.

Stealth was clearly not one of Takagi-keiji's strong points.

"This morning the doors to my house and the first floor windows were barricaded. Managed to get out of the house via the second floor window. Normally I wouldn't be sharing this kind of information with just anyone, but seeing as how Hakuba-kun is in the hospital, I'm guessing that you've experienced some sort of personal attack?" Nakamori-keibu wondered.

"Not yet, but the higher-ups in Division One certainly think I'll be next, don't they, Takagi-keiji?" Shinichi remarked, raising his voice to make sure Takagi-keiji heard him. There was a nervous laugh and a mumbled apology before Shinichi heard the sound of Takagi-keiji making his way back outside.

On the other end of the phone Nakamori-keibu laughed, realizing what was going on.

"Is someone there keeping an eye on you?" he asked, amused.

"Yeah," Shinichi grumbled his assent. "What about the other attacks?"

Nakamori-keibu described them both. It unnerved Shinichi a bit to hear Nakamori-keibu explain how the culprit had thrown a brick at him.

"Awful aim. Missed me by quite a bit. It scared the hell out of me, but the scattered pieces of the brick I stubbed my toe on were more a deterrent than when the guy tried to hit me with it. Stupid thing. If it hadn't been so close to my feet, I wouldn't have fallen when I tried chasing the guy since he ran away right afterward."

"Thank you, keibu. Just wanted to double check to see what was going on. Stay safe."

"Wait, Kudou-kun. About the most recent heists, have you noticed anything different about Kid?"

After a moment's hesitation, Shinichi replied.

"He seems off."

"An imposter?"

"No, I don't think so. There are too many similarities for it to be an outsider."

"The assistant?"

Even though the keibu wasn't able to see through many of Kid's tricks, he was definitely familiar with Kaitou Kid's heists and on-goings.

"Possibly," Shinichi answered, vaguely.

"It's just..."

The man trailed off. Whereas Shinichi was ready to hang-up just a few moments ago, he held the phone tighter to his ear, waiting for Nakamori-keibu to continue.

"Keibu?"

"Have you ever spoken to Hakuba-kun as to his theories on Kid's identity?"

"No."

"Okay. Fine then. Have a good rest of the day."

"Wait. What do you-"

With that, Nakamori-keibu hung up the phone.

Was it possible that Nakamori-keibu suspected Kuroba Kaito? Kuroba-kun had mentioned that Hakuba-kun suspected that he had not killed Motoyama-san, but that he had stolen the jewel. It wasn't hard to guess that Hakuba-kun suspected Kuroba-kun and Kaitou Kid to be one in the same. It hadn't occurred to Shinichi that Nakamori-keibu might have had the same speculations.

If he knew that Kuroba-kun was in jail and was asking whether or not Shinichi felt that the current Kid was the assistant instead of the real deal, it seemed more than likely that Kuroba-kun was one of the people the police detective suspected of being Kid.

But if he suspected that, it meant that Nakamori-keibu had to know Kuroba Kaito personally.

A few internet searches and two phone calls later, Shinichi was looking at the class lists for Ekoda High School's past few years.

Geeze. Not only had Hakuba-kun been in Kuroba-kun's class, but so had Nakamori-keibu's daughter. To top it off, from what the receptionist at the high-school had said, Nakamori-san and Kuroba-kun were best friends.

Interesting. If Nakamori Aoko and Kuroba Kaito had been best friends since childhood, as the receptionist had indicated, what would make Kuroba-kun become Kaitou Kid if he knew doing so would upset his best friend? Shinichi was fairly certain that Kuroba Toichi had been the first Kid, but the heists had stopped for eight years. Kid would have had to have a good reason to start things up again. Shinichi had to give Kuroba-kun credit having been able to stay out of jail when there were multiple people who had speculated about his identity though had yet to find proof against him.

Shaking his head, Shinichi's mind went back to some other interesting details the keibu had given him.

The three incidents against the police detective had been mild in comparison to the attack on Hakuba-kun. Where Hakuba-kun had been physically attacked, the incidents against Nakamori-keibu had merely acted as a minor obstacle. Clearly having the brakes cut on the police officer's car had been something that could have gone horribly wrong, but realistically, it was something that wouldn't have gone unnoticed.

Where Nakamori-keibu usually parked meant that he would have to back up and use the brakes and then use the brakes again as he left the parking garage. From the reports that Takagi-keiji had given him, the brakes had been cut through completely. It wasn't like how most culprits did it. Usually a person who wants the brakes to cause serious injury makes a partial cut, and then the wear and tear of the person repeatedly using the brakes during the period of their drive snaps the wires fully. If the brakes are completely cut through, the first time the victim tries to use them, they will give. When a person needs to back out of their parking spot, this is not an effective means of causing damage. If the car had been parked facing forward, it might have been different, but there was still another place where he would have had to use the brakes before leaving the parking garage. Usually cutting a person's brakes all the way through wasn't very effective unless the person lived on a hill or cliff.

Nakamori-keibu wouldn't have been able to leave the parking lot without realizing that his brakes had been cut. While some sort of accident was definitely going to occur, it was unlikely that he would have gotten into a major accident.

Obviously throwing a brick at someone can cause serious harm, but the person hid, threw the brick toward Nakamori-keibu – and missed. If a person is going to throw a brick at you, then they should have some sort of back-up plan. Nakamori-keibu said that he tried to run after the culprit through the bushes, but the culprit had vanished because Nakamroi-keibu had tripped, indicating that the culprit had aimed properly: just for his feet. The culprit hadn't likely meant to hit Nakamori-keibu with the brick; just startle him and then make him trip over the brick to prevent him from following.

This morning's incident was non-threatening. It was a comparable nuisance, no doubt, for Nakamori-keibu to try and leave his house, but again, no physical damage had been done to him.

Hakuba-kun, on the other hand, was fighting for his life.

Between the two, Nakamori-keibu's constant fight against Kid was disruptive to Kid's heists, yet more like the attacks against him; minor, a nuisance, but not something that couldn't be overcome. Hakuba-kun's involvement in Kid heists meant that there was a lot more for the thief to deal with.

There were times when his fellow Holmes' fan made note of this. Hakuba-kun had been openly quoted in several newspapers, patronizing Nakamori-keibu's approach to heists. If Shinichi remembered correctly, Hakuba-kun had only stopped his harsh analysis after he had also made a nonchalant remark about how Shinichi dealt with Kid heists and had faced rebuttal from the media.

If Hakuba-kun hadn't been in the hospital, Shinichi might have felt a wave of smugness come over him that after those comments that Hakuba-kun had mentioned about him, Shinichi had been the one to recapture the jewel from Kid on that particular heist and had on multiple occasions outwitted the thief. As it was, Shinichi could find no pleasure in it knowing how badly Hakuba-kun was injured.

Even if Hakuba-kun had been less than subtle about his claims that he was better suited to capture Kid than Nakamori-keibu was, it was obvious that Hakuba-kun did, in actuality, pose more of a threat.

Was this why his attack had been more personal? The Kid fanatic felt that Hakuba-kun needed to be completely taken out of the picture? After all, the culprit had not gotten too close during the attacks on Nakamori-keibu. In regards to Hakuba-kun, the culprit had gotten him alone and brutally attacked him.

Everyone who knew Shinichi knew that he was very rarely humble. He believed that between Hakuba-kun and himself that he was the more competent adversary against Kid. What did that mean in relation to the Kid fanatic? If the Kid fanatic was attacking the "incompetent" detectives, but had clearly gone after Hakuba-kun with greater vigor, did that mean that the Kid fanatic was determining how deadly the attack against the detective was based on the level of how much of a threat the detective posed for Kid?

Shinichi wasn't sure he wanted to find out. Then again, some of the other possibilities that Shinichi had thought up were even less pleasant.

While jotting a few things down in his detective notebook, he was a bit surprised to hear voices coming from his front door. Wondering what was happening, he hurried to see what was going on.

"-to let me check," Shinichi caught only the tail end of what Takagi-keiji had said. Even so, Shinichi could tell whoever it was had Takagi-keiji rather agitated.

"I told you, sir, no disrespect, but I was instructed to give this package to Kudou Shinichi-sama only."

"What's going on?" Shinichi asked as he opened his front door. In all actuality, it was more a rhetorical question than anything else. It gave him some time while he put on his shoes without actually using his hands to slip into them.

He could quite clearly see what was going on. A delivery man stood at the front doorstep arguing with Takagi-keiji. The agitated deliveryman would not allow Takagi-keiji to inspect the package. Of course, for safety purposes, Takagi-keiji wasn't about to just let the man pass without making sure the parcel posed no threat. However, Shinichi could tell by the size and shape – not to mention hideously floral packaging – who the package was from, and more importantly, what was in it.

"He-" Takagi-keiji began, but Shinichi shook his head.

"Never mind. It's okay. I know what it is. I'll sign," Shinichi said. The delivery man held out the receipt, and Shinichi signed off with a flourish, hastily opening the package to check its contents before just as quickly hiding it from Takagi-keiji's view.

Smiling, he thanked the deliveryman and then checked his phone quickly before turning his attention to Takagi-keiji.

"I'm getting hungry. Let's go out for a bite to eat before I make my first stop of the day. You can drive."

Not bothering to check and see if the police detective was following him, Shinichi began to head toward Takagi-keiji's rather conspicuously parked car.

"Oi, wait! Kudou-kun!"

Kaito hummed as he placed his lunch tray down on the table and sat down in one of the squeaking chairs, saying hello to two of the fellows he had become acquainted with during his time in jail. Fujimoto Takumi and Kurokawa Hayate, the two men who he worked with in the laundry department, didn't even look surprised when the food from their trays and the food from Kaito's did a switch, leaving Kaito's tray fish free.

"Is that letter from your daughter?" Kaito asked around a mouthful of too salty, but otherwise pretty decently cooked harasume noodle salad. The man he directed his question to was Fujimoto Takumi; he was kind enough to always take Kaito's fish (some type of mackerel, not that Kaito cared), and give Kaito his daikon or vegetables in exchange for the fish. He also happened to be the man who had picked up Kurokawa's forbidden pet cat the other day in the laundry room. The other man had become aware of Kaito's aversion to fish and generally read some sort of mail to hide his tray from view.

"Yeah," Fujimoto said, his voice sounding somewhat choked up. "I don't understand this. She says I sent her a wonderful birthday present."

Fujimoto had been depressed all of last week because he would be missing his daughter's birthday. Accompanying today's letter from his eight-year old daughter was a colorful display of her "gift." Kaito leaned over to get a better look at the marker and crayon drawing. Every inch of the paper was filled with color that seemed to be depicting Fujimoto's daughter at the center, where some sort of color explosion took place upon opening her present. In addition to the drawing, a digital photo accompanied the letter.

Kaito leaned back, using his hand to cover the wide grin on his face at the photo. Fujimoto's eyes widened as he showed the picture to Kurokawa. It showed a cute little girl holding up a gray cat with black around the paws.

"But...but how? How in the world did this cat get out of this place? This cat was the one I picked up two days ago! That was the day of my little girl's birthday. Even if the package had been sent, how would she have gotten it that same day?"

"It's not possible! How would she had time to post this letter and for it to get to you in that time too? But that definitely looks like the little cat I took care of." The two men turned their heads toward Kaito who merely shrugged his shoulders and went back to eating.

Shinichi couldn't help but smile at the petite woman in front of him. Sitting in the house of the Kuroba family was very disarming. On cursory glance, everything looked perfectly normal, even to his trained eye, but Shinichi had, after a "visit" to the bathroom, scoped out the layout of the house. He would bet money that there was a secret room, a very large one at that, somewhere within the house.

Even though Shinichi would not snoop around to the point of being intrusive, he could tell by the layout that the measurements between the rooms did not add up, meaning there was more room hidden somewhere in the house. He'd almost missed it due to the way the house was expertly constructed, but Shinichi was a big fan of the Holmes' short story The Adventure of the Norwood Builder and the Holmes' novel The Valley of Fear and was therefore always suspicious of extra space within homes that could not be accounted for.

"You've grown so much since I've last seen you! How have you been, Shinichi-kun?" Kuroba-san – call-me-Chikage – simpered.

Shinichi recalled a vague childhood memory of when he was six or seven – the first time around – and having this woman bring out tea and cookies while wearing a frilly apron. Her hair had been dark brown instead of its current auburn shade.

"In general, I've been good, thank you for asking. But it's hard to sum up over ten years in such a short time," Shinichi replied, amicably. Chikage gave a small laugh. The worried lines in her face smoothed, and the smile she gave him was truly genuine.

When Shinichi had first knocked at her door, she had opened it wide. There had been a moment's puzzlement as she looked at him, before her gridelin colored eyes widen in recognition. The sudden feeling of her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug made him tense, but she either didn't care or notice as she squeezed him harder before releasing him as quickly as she'd grabbed him.

"It's been too long! Oh, it's so good to see you! I've heard all about the cases you've solved. You have to be here to help Kaito, ne? Come in! Come in!" The last part had been unnecessary as she'd been gripping his arm and dragging him in while she spoke.

"I want to talk to you about Kuroba-kun," Shinichi began. Chikage's mouth opened for a moment, before she closed it again. It wasn't too hard to summarize what she was going to say. Shinichi was pleased to see that Chikage's knee jerk reaction to stop him from prying had been tempered in favor of hearing him out.

Chikage nodded her head for him to continue, the strained look reappearing on her face.

"Kuroba-kun is in quite the dilemma at the moment. However, I would prefer for him to be able to aid me in my investigations. This is difficult with him in jail. Have you considered speaking with a bail bondsman?"

"Since the judge felt Kaito would be a flight risk – he had a ticket to France on him – his bail is considerably high. Kaito is adamant that I do not go to a bail bondsman to borrow the money, and while I have the means to put the money up for him if I make some personal sacrifices, he had also been incredibly stubborn about not allowing me to help him," Chikage explained, lips pursed.

Shinichi wondered if the money she could use was from the legitimate earnings of her late husband, or from other means. However, Shinichi wasn't going to worry about that now.

The way bail worked meant that as long as Kuroba-kun showed up for his court date, and as long as he did not do anything to break his parole when he was released, meant that the bail money would be returned when he showed up for his court date. While Shinichi was sure that Kuroba-kun would likely break parole, it was also very unlikely that anyone would catch him at it. After all, the police had yet to catch Kaitou Kid.

No, it was obtaining the bail money that was the problem.

"I have the money for bail, but I would like you to be the one to front it."

"Shinichi-kun, I can't accept your money-"

"It's from my parents," Shinichi said, waving his hand. "My mom is more than happy to help. It's her money from one of her more recent acting jobs. I don't know if you've talked with her recently or not, but she started picking up a few roles here and there in America. She insists that she wouldn't have been able to get the parts if her sensei – your husband – had never taught her. Besides, she's sure we'll get the money back. It will only be a matter of time before I figure out what really happened. So, if you're not busy, let's go spring your son out of prison, shall we?"

Numerous claims and signed documents later, Kuroba Kaito left the Tokyo Correctional Precinct's prison. He'd given his mother a big hug and told her he would have been fine waiting, but Kaito would be the first to admit that it felt good to be out of there. The restrictions had been not only physical but mental. The only option of escape for him had been to physically break out of prison, something he had resigned himself not to do. Much. He may have thought about sneaking out the other day to deliver a little kitten to a girl whose father would be in prison for her birthday. But hey! It was for a good cause. If he had. Which, of course, he hadn't.

Yet being outside again was like a triple scoop ice cream cone after abstaining from chocolate for a month. Speaking of which, it had been ages since he'd had one! As they walked to his mother's car, Kaito explained the things he had missed.

"First things first, I need to stop by Mister Scoops for a triple scoop chocolate chocolate-chip hot fudge sundae. Then-"

Standing by his car was someone he hadn't expected to see, talking to someone on his cell phone.

"Mom?" Kaito prompted, raising an eyebrow.

"He can help you with your case, you know," Chikage responded. Kaito nodded, just making sure that the detective was supposed to be there. To think of Meitantei-kun and his mother collaborating to get him out of jail was rather strange. Still, he wasn't one to kick a gift-horse in the mouth.

"For the last time, I'm fine. You don't need to worry. I'm with friends. I have to go. Bye," Shinichi said in a rush. Muttering in annoyance at his phone, Shinichi turned to look at Kaito.

The two stared at each other for a moment before Kaito broke out into a broad grin.

"You bailed me out of jail. Thank you," Kaito said, giving him a quick but formal bow.

"No problem," Shinichi said, slightly surprised at the show of gratitude.

"Since you had enough money to bail me out of jail -" Kaito began. Chikage shrugged and smiled. Shinichi just sighed. He guessed he shouldn't be surprised Kaito had figured it out, "- you should have plenty of money to treat us to some ice-cream, right?"

"Oi."

"Is that a yes?"

Continued in Chapter 11: Museums and Musings

Below are some websites I used when trying to figure out what it would be like for Kaito in jail. Just replace the words dot with a period and delete the spaces.

www dot japantoday dot com/category/food/view/ever-wondered-what-japanese-prison-food-tastes-like

japan dot usembassy dot gov/e/acs/tacs-7110g dot html

Hope you liked the chapter!

~ Jelp