Disclaimer: I don't own DC or MK. And yes, I did plan to have this case finished for Shinichi's birthday :)

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"We need to talk," Heiji exclaimed as he burst into the living room, stepping around all the papers Shinichi had spread out on the floor.

"Oh, so you're having trouble on the case without me there?" Shinichi asked, teasing smile as wide as the Pacific.

"Would you let me get to the point?"

Shinichi raised an eyebrow provocatively. "You have a point? Hattori, are you feeling all right?"

Heiji opened his mouth to retort, but realized he was being baited. "I'm fine, thanks. At first I thought these buildings had nothing in common. The first incident was an office building, and after all the people I talked to today, I think it was to cover up a missin' person. After that, a small restaurant was targeted, but nothing was stolen or destroyed there apart from the fire damage. The third building was a house, private property, and again it doesn't seem like anything was taken."

Shinichi set down the papers he'd been examining. "Okay, back up and go over everything. What's this about a missing person?"

"Eguchi Yoshida, a programmer at NewTech, was last seen on Friday, June 5th. He worked at the first building that was targeted."

"What makes you think he didn't do it?"

"I talked Otaki-han into takin' me back to the first crime scene after I'd looked over the third. Eguchi-san's computer was the only one that showed signs of being smashed before the fire ravaged the floor. The lock on his desk had been broken too, but any prints were wiped."

Shinichi nodded, following his logic. "So someone was looking for something of Eguchi-san's and burned the place when they couldn't find it. The 'something' he or she was looking for probably incriminated him or her. Eguchi-san would have just used his key."

"Right. So we went to Eguchi's apartment to learn more about him. He was a very neat person and his apartment was sparsely furnished and simple. The only decoration in the entire place was a photograph of him with six other people standin' in front of some kind of rock structure."

"Did you identify them?"

"Not all of them." In an immense show of restraint, Heiji ignored Kudo's cough that sounded suspiciously like "amateur." "However," the Osakan plowed on, "I also found his receipts organized in a filing cabinet. Once a week, he gets gas and dinner at the same rest stop about thirty miles out of Osaka."

"So, being a thorough detective, you went to the rest stop and that's why you were back so late."

"Yeah, I – wait, why'd you sound so sarcastic when you said that I'm a thorough detective?"

"Oh, no reason. Carry on."

"Hmph. I went by train to –"

"Wow, you are on a mission today," Shinichi observed seriously. "That's three times I've baited you and you just kept rolling. I'll behave now. What happened next, Hattori?"

"I went by train to the rest stop, since Otaki got a call and had to do his thing."

"And?"

"One of the cafeteria workers who's there on Fridays says that he remembers them, but most of 'em bring food rather than buy it there. Eguchi-san was the exception. And the worker also said that they're usually in around the same time each week during the summer, but this week and last week, they haven't showed."

"They might know what happened to Eguchi."

"Exactly," Heiji replied.

"Then what does Eguchi have to do with the second building?"

Heiji exhaled loudly. "Absolutely no idea. The manager of Ouzo's restaurant says he's never seen the people in the photograph before, and I couldn't get ahold of the burned house's owner. The only suspicious activity at Ouzo's was apparently a blonde woman wearin' sunglasses… in the rain and inside, just hours before the fire. Supposedly, she seemed furtive."

"Did you get a better description than 'blonde woman wearing sunglasses'?"

"That's the fun part." The Eastern detective raised his eyebrows at his counterpart's sarcasm. "The manager's not the one who saw her. It was a waitress who reported it to him –the day of the fire he was at a conference. After the fire, she remembered the weird customer and told him about it. The customer paid in cash, though. Dead end there. The manager wouldn't give me the waitress's contact information since I'm not an officer, but told me to stop in at Ouzo's once it reopened if I wanted to talk to her."

Shinichi sighed in understanding. "Rough. So… you said you visited today's crime scene?"

"Uh-huh, and this one was sloppier. The gasoline wasn't spread evenly like at the other two, which meant that not everything burned. Witnesses put the fire at around noon, whereas the other two fires were set in the evenin', when everyone would have been out of the buildings. This change suggests the arsonist was in a hurry, and maybe rushed out during the lunch hour to carry out the crime. The owner of the house isn't answerin' his cell phone. What I still can't figure out is, why switch from businesses to this house? Why not burn this guy's workplace too?"

"Can't help you." Shinichi sighed. "I'm a little stuck myself, actually."

"What, so you can't solve your case without help, Kudo?"

Shinichi ignored the comment. "Nakamura Haruto and Hoshi are married, like we thought. I checked with the front desk and they never booked a room in the hotel. One of the clerks at the registration desk saw them come in and head straight for the elevator, which means they were probably coming to see someone else… likely the person who pushed them out the window. Interestingly, I found out later that no one had Room 828 booked. One of the cleaning staff came forward saying that a man wearing a navy hoodie and dark pants was standing outside the door of the crime-scene-to-be, claiming he'd been locked out of his room and his wife, who had the key, had left for a business meeting."

"What about security footage from the hallways?"

"The suspect left the room with his face covered, and took the stairs instead of an elevator on the way out. Strangely, there's no footage on the ground floor of the suspect exiting through any of the doors."

"The killer might have known someone else in the hotel and hidden out?"

"Possible; or the culprit could have changed into a disguise in the stairwell, exited on another floor, and come down the elevator normally. I spent an hour trying every exit route from where the murderer was last seen, and came up with nothing. No one saw or heard anything unusual. On another note, considering Nakamura Haruto's repositioning as he fell… I thought he might belong to some sort of swimming group. You saw how it looked like he was diving, right?" Heiji nodded. "I looked into local organizations with swimming lessons or beach communities, but no one recognized the Nakamuras' photos."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. The picture I found in Eguchi-san's apartment. Look at it." Shinichi leaned in as the Osakan pulled out the photo. "Right there, next to Eguchi-san."

"That's Nakamura Haruto."

"Yes it is. Our cases are related." The two detectives shared a conspiratorial grin. "Did you check with the Nakamuras' other family and friends? Any enemies among this lot, someone they got in a fight with?"

Shinichi shook his head. "No. But, Nakamura Haruto called into work yesterday evening, June 18th, saying that he'd need to take a day off next week for a friend's funeral. It was an unexpected death."

"Oh… that's interesting." Heiji raised his eyebrows.

"I thought so too. I went to the morgue to take a look at our victims and have a peek at the Nakamuras' deceased friend. As it turns out… the Nakamuras weren't the only death-by-gravity this week."

"Their friend was pushed out a window too?"

"Forensics thinks it was the roof of the victim's work building, Shimabukuro offices. There were no signs of a struggle, but the door to the roof was locked from the inside. Meaning Kobayashi Ryuunosuke couldn't have done it himself. The culprit must have relocked the door after the crime, so I took on this case too because it was probably the same kil–"

"Wait a minute," Heiji interrupted, "did you say 'Kobayashi Ryuunosuke'?"

"Yes…"

"That's the owner of the house that was set on fire today. You're saying he's dead?"

"He was murdered last night."

"Kobayashi's in this picture too, one of the few I managed to identify."

A comparison of all the files and pictures from both cases revealed some interesting results. "On June 19th, today, the third fire was set at Kobayashi Ryuunosuke's house at 12:13pm; at 3:14pm, Nakamura Haruto and Hoshi were pushed out of a hotel window. The second fire was set at Ouzo's restaurant at 7:47pm on June 18th, and Kobayashi Ryuunosuke was pushed off an office building at 9:55pm." Shinichi reached past Heiji to grab the older files. "On June 14th, the first fire was set at NewTech offices at 9:31pm. Eguchi Yoshida was noticed to be missing on June 5th. What does that tell us?"

"That currently, everything in both of these cases relates to Eguchi's group of friends except the restaurant. We need to identify everyone in this picture and get their alibis. Then we have to talk to that waitress."

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Fortune was not in their favor the next morning. They arrived at the precinct at 7am sharp to find that the officer on duty staffing the criminal and civilian database computers was the policewoman from the Yamazaki Hotel case. The one who deeply disapproved of teenage detectives absconding with evidence.

"Please, Kita-keiji," Heiji wheedled, "we really need this information now. We're working the arson cases and those three deaths-by-descent."

"We've been handling the primary photographic evidence with gloves," Shinichi injected, assuming a virtuous expression not unlike his innocent-child look. Heiji suddenly bit his lip to hold back a smirk. "Copies have already been added to the proper files, and we've made a preliminary report regarding how these murders and arson cases are related. It would really be beneficial to talk to the people in this group and take a look at their credit card records. Two are dead and one is missing. Time is of the essence if we are to save the other potential victims here."

Kita-keiji scrutinized the Beikan detective for two long minutes. "Fine. But only because you've taken the time to go through proper channels. I have some other names to run for a couple of officers, but I should have your results in an hour. Come back then."

"Hey, Kudo," Heiji murmured as the pair walked away, "your bluffing talents are improving."

"Are you implying that they were bad to begin with?"

"Two cases, Kudo. That's all it took for me so figure you out."

"Yes, but the difference is that you were looking for me and you were crazy enough to theorize that a seven-year-old was actually a seventeen-year-old in a smaller body."

"It's not crazy if I was right."

"Oh, don't worry, Hattori-kun, I hear they have ten-step programs for that."

"Being right?"

"Being crazy, doofus. C'mon, let's go talk to the witness at the restaurant." A quick chat with the shop-owner across the street yielded the young woman's name: Katsuo Nana. Further prodding from the owner's blushing teen son got them her address.

Shinichi introduced the two of them to Katsuo-san, who was very polite and brought tea out onto the porch to speak with them. "I'm afraid that I can't give you a much better description," she admitted when they began their questioning. "The woman was wearing a head-scarf with lots of blonde hair sticking out and large sunglasses. She had bright red lipstick. I'd classify her as skinny, probably."

Heiji deflated for a moment at the lackluster description, but then remembered the photograph. "Do you recognize any of these people?"

She giggled. "Oh yes! I know them. They come to Ouzo's on Sundays."

"How come the manager didn't recognize them?"

"He works at his other branch on Sundays, so that's why he doesn't know them."

"And what's so funny?"

"They always claim to be cliff-divers. It's just, I've never met anyone who does extreme sports like that before, so I didn't believe them at first. They stop by for lunch after their weekends out and talk about the weather and waves and which one of them found the highest spot to dive from. It's cute."

"It makes sense," Shinichi stated after the girl had waved goodbye from her porch.

"What does?"

"The disguise. I was wondering about why someone would dress so suspiciously if they were up to no good. Katsuo only remembered the suspect because the woman was dressed weirdly. However, if the woman were a frequent client, someone that the employees would recognize, she couldn't have gone in as herself. If a stranger had been targeting the building, then coming in as a drab, anonymous customer would keep them under the radar more effectively."

"So the repeat customer dons a wig and costume to keep from being put on a suspect list later when the police ask about who was in the restaurant just before the fire. Interesting thought."

The results were back when Heiji and Shinichi reentered the station. Shinichi surreptitiously slipped the hastily-written preliminary report into the proper inbox as they passed Hattori-keibu's office.

"You might have been on to something about that group," Kita-keiji grudgingly acknowledged. "In addition to the deaths of Nakamura and Kobayashi – and probably Eguchi – it seems that Hamasaki Shota, the man on the right end of Eguchi's photo, was found dead at the bottom of the library steps on June 14th."

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From Meri: Reviews are welcome! Even just telling me about a line you liked (or disliked) helps me improve my writing style!