A New Beginning

Chapter 14

"How did you know it was me and not Nakamori-san, we're almost identical in appearance aside from the hair," Ran enquired quizzically as she attempted to sit up in bed.

"I'm your husband," Conan answered with a brief smile before pushing her back down.

"Shinichi."

"All right. First, Kaito described the scene of how he found you in great detail and the statement about the bathroom being flooded struck me as strange, there was no need to flood it if you just wanted to slit your wrists. You needed to for 2 reasons," Conan began, relaxing into his deduction stance with his hands in his pockets. "You needed to get your hair wet so he wouldn't notice that your hair was flatter than Nakamori-san's, I've noticed that the only difference between you two is that your hair is flatter than hers. You also needed to flood the bathroom so you could drown and lose consciousness so it wouldn't be noticed that you hadn't cut yourself very deeply."

"Go on, I've always liked listening to your deductions."

"To make it look like you had slashed your wrists properly, you put corn syrup and red colouring in the water," Conan lifted a strand of her hair gently. "Your hair smells of corn syrup as opposed to actual blood. Corn Syrup is a key ingredient of fake blood."

Ran smiled. "Is that all it took for you to know that it was me? You only knew what my hair smelled like when you came in here."

Conan shook his head. "I knew it was you before. The nurse told me your blood type and I donated. Kuroba and Nakamori-san are both Type A whereas we are both AB Negative."

Ran's eyes started to close and Conan grabbed her hand.

"I've been so worried about you since you disappeared and then now I've found you after you've done something completely reckless. What would have happened if Kuroba hadn't found you until later? You could have actually drowned or died from blood loss."

"I wanted to help that girl. She looked so sad and frightened after that nasty looking man visited her, I overheard their conversation so I climbed in through the window, made her leave and slit my wrists in her place," Ran said tiredly.

Conan kissed her lightly on the cheek and let go of her hand. "I think you should sleep for now, but before that, where is Nakamori-san?"

"She's in the house which I've been living in which is next door to hers. I got Sonoko to help me with this plan and she should be with her now."

Her eyes closed properly and her face relaxed as she fell asleep. Conan pulled her covers up a little higher to keep her warm and sat on the edge of her bed for a few minutes.

"Sonoko is going to kill me," he said out loud.

Should he tell Kaito that Aoko Nakamori was still alive, he asked himself. Or should I respect Ran's wishes and keep it quiet? In any case he needed to see her to tell her to stay where she was and not get involved in anything else- that meant seeing Sonoko as well.

"Hakuba, where is Kuroba now?" Conan asked as he exited Ran's room and lsoed the door behind him.

Hakuba swallowed his mouthful of tea to answer. "He found that Bourbon has had most places here under surveillance so I have asked him to destroy all the cameras in case other members can see the feed. Sherry had destroyed the ones here."

Conan nodded. "I suspected that we were being watched. Anything else?"

"Gin is in the next town waiting for us to start doing something or until this evening. I also got Sherry to make a trial antidote," Hakuba informed him, holding out the pill. "I thought it might come in useful."

Conan met his eyes unhappily. "You can't be thinking of that… I suppose it would work, but I will only do it as a last resort- disguising as Kid to become bait is not an attractive prospect."

Hakuba handed the antidote to a reluctant Conan who put it in the pocket of his trousers. "How is Jodie Starling-san?"

"She is very eager to come here, but I've told her to stay in the next town until I contact her. If They sniff even the slightest presence of the FBI then They will withdraw. I suppose we could get her to plant a tracker on Gin's car if they are in the same town, but we don't know his exact location or what car he is in."

"Porsche 356A," Haibara broke in. "He is very particular about always being in that car as its presence signals danger to anyone that knows it is his. I'm sure he would have shipped it overseas with him. It's quite conspicuous in Japan, but here… Even Hakuba-san has a Porsche."

The two detectives exchanged hopeful looks.

"I'll go back outside and call Jodie-san," Conan said eagerly, as he had decided that he would go to Sonoko's house and he needed an opportunity to go that didn't seem suspicious.

"Please be careful Kudo, some of Them might be around even if Gin is not here," Hakuba called after him as Conan ran round the corner before anyone could say anything.

5 minutes later a heavily panting and sweating 7 year old boy rang the door bell of the house next to Kaito and Aoko's. As he waited for someone to answer it he noted the opportune location of a large heather bush below Aoko's window which also looked slightly squashed, indicating that someone had landed in it. His eyes then surveyed the ivy growing on the wall.

It would have been an easy matter for someone athletic like Ran to climb up the ivy and break in, he thought to himself. She might have done it instantly after overhearing Gin and Nakamori-san's conversation.

He became aware as he switched his attention back that the door had been opened and Sonoko was glaring down at him.

"Oh, it's the detective geek. I've got something to say to you," she narrowed her eyes further and dragged him into the house.

"Where is Nakamori-san?" he asked as he was pulled along.

"In here," she replied, dragging him into the living room.

A surprising sight met his eyes. He had been expecting just to see Aoko, but instead he saw her sitting in between a tall dark skinned Japanese man wearing a baseball cap indoors and a Japanese woman with pale skin and black haired tied back with a green ribbon.

"What's going on?" Conan demanded. He had just wanted to stop by, but now it looked like he was going to have to stay longer and explain himself to other people as well.

Sonoko gripped him by the back of the neck.

"I should be the one asking you that question. Why are you so small? And why are there murderous men in black roaming the streets?"

"Conan-kun, I haven't told them anything," Aoko interjected hastily. "I don't want anyone else to end up sacrificing their lives for mine. How is Ran-san?"

"She's out of surgery, but she is a little weak at the moment."

Aoko bowed her head. "I'm so sorry about it. I was about to go in the bathroom when I heard a noise by the window so I went to have a look and the next thing I knew I was falling onto a heather bush and Sonoko-san then dragged me here despite my protests."

"What is going on here Kudo?" Sonoko rephrased her earlier question.

Conan's eyes shifted towards the two unknown people on the room. Matters for him were becoming increasingly complicated especially now that unexpected people were involved.

"Who are the people?"

Dismissively Sonoko waved the hand that she wasn't using to grip Conan's beck. "You can say anything in front of them. They're in the same line of business as you. They run a detective agency."

The dark skinned one stood up and introduced himself in a broad Kansai dialect.

"I'm Heiji Hattori. Nice to meet ya."

"I'm his partner Kazuha Toyama," his partner stood up and followed his example."

"Who hired you?" Conan asked, ignoring their greetings. There was no time for pleasantries; he had to get back to the hospital before anything was suspected.

Heiji blinked. "Ya wife hired us ta find ya, ahou."

Behind him Sonoko tightened her grip on his neck.

"You disappeared off the face of the earth and Ran was so worried about you so she hired those two to find you."

"How did you find me?"

"We looked into everything ya had left behind like call logs, emails and receipts and discovered ya had been in contact with a certain Saguru Hakuba so we switched our attention ta him and found he had been seen around a boy the resembled ya."

Sonoko took up the explanation. "It was the only lead they had found so we followed it up ourselves and bought this house a month ago to observe you. Ran confirmed that it was you so we were left with the problem of working out how you had shrunk so we hired those two again to look into your most recent case. Then 3 days ago they warned us that we could be in danger."

Out of worry Conan checked his watch and saw that it had been 15 minutes since he had left the hospital.

"I got involved in something I shouldn't have and paid the price- Nakamori-san can tell you the rest and please could you all go back to Japan now or at least stay put and don't go out. I've got to go."

He shook himself free of Sonoko and tried to make a run for it only to find that he had been grabbed by a dark skinned hand.

"Not so fast Kudo. I'm comin' with ya."

Ahou: idiot

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the past couple of chapters.