Chapter 26:

Misdirection

When they entered the theater back door, Shinichi, Heiji and Saguru found themselves in a narrow corridor lined with dressing rooms. Heaps of clothing and other props cluttered the floor, and posters of old plays and performances plastered the walls. Halfway down the hall, from one of the brownest and dustiest posters, half-covered by a large glossy image of Yoko Okino, Kuroba Toichi's dark, keen eyes peered out from beneath his top hat to watch their every move.

"We're backstage," Shinichi whispered to the others.

"No shit, Sherlock," Heiji hissed back, watching the Kuroba Toichi poster uneasily. The magician's photographic eyes seemed to be glaring directly at the three boys, as if they were trespassers in his domain. "Geez…what Kazuha'd say if she saw that…"

Shinichi raised his eyebrows at the poster, then at Heiji. "What?"

"Something about ghosts," Heiji said factually. "Or fate. Or something similarly stupid."

Shinichi snickered as Saguru stepped between them and nodded down the hallway, at the end of which was a large door with the words "Quiet Backstage!" written on them. "Kid said to go above the stage to the roof. Looks like the stage is that way."

The three of them looked at each other. From a pile of old props lying next to them Heiji picked up a long wooden katana, then nodded to the others. With a last exchange of glances, the three then slowly began to creep down the hall to the stage.

Far above them, the wind howled about the two figures standing on opposite ends of the theater's arched roof.

"Evening, Kaitou Kid-kun," said Snake, his fedora and black overcoat flapping in the wind. "I saw your note. I've been waiting for you."

"Yes, it is evening," Kaito agreed lightly. He stood on the edge of the roof, more than ten meters away from Snake, his cape billowing behind him, and put his hands in his pants pockets. "I think the conventional greeting is 'good evening,' but since my plan is for your evening to be a particularly bad one, I think the only option left to me that is both polite and honest would be to simply say nothing."

Snake chuckled dryly and took a step forward. Both of his hands were in his overcoat pockets as well. "Do you have it?"

Kaito raised an eyebrow. Slowly, he withdrew his left hand from his pants pocket, and then slowly, Snake's eyes never leaving him, he raised it aloft. A large diamond shone between his thumb and index finger.

Snake eyed the jewel in Kaito's hands.

"You didn't take it at the clock tower."

"Nope."

"Then how'd you get it?"
Kaito grinned. "Misdirection."

Ten minutes ago…

Kaito had paraglided north from the Clock Tower around to the far side of the theater and landed on a lower part of the domed cathedral-like roof. He scrambled into the eaves in the corner, behind a tall column so that even his bright white Kid costume couldn't be seen from below, and looked back up the street.

There were the police cars, driving steadily up the street.

Kaito reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew what appeared to be a tangle of thin, wiry string. With a few tugs, however, it turned into a sort of net, which Kaito cast down onto the street below. More wires already stretched from the building across the street to the theater, and Kaito attached the net to these cords. Then, into the small metal box nailed into the theater where the ropes were attached, he clipped a smaller metal box with a switch on it.

Then he stretched flat out on the roof and waited.

Earlier, when his fake police car had appeared in midair over the clock tower courtyard, Kaito had been listening to the police radio frequency via an earphone. And when, immediately upon seeing the flying car hovering amid the silver sparkles, Inspector Nakamori had bellowed "Number four, report!" Kaito had known where his target truly lay.

Now, he pressed his earphone more securely into his ear and watched as the first police car drove past below him, then the second, then the third. When the fourth drove over the thin, wiry net lying all but invisibly on the street below, Kaito pressed the switch on the wall beside him.

Instantly, the cords went taught, and with a thin shrieking sound of wire scraping metal, the car was heaved suddenly and quickly into the air.

The radio was instantly full of panicked shouts.

"Inspector!" a woman with a clear, nasal voice shouted. "This is Number Four! We've been—we're—in the air!"

"Number Five, confirming!" shouted another voice. "I see them!"

Kaito withdrew a radio from his jacket and pressed the button. "Negative, Inspector," he said in a woman's clear, nasal voice. "This is Number Four. We're proceeding as normal."

"No!" cried the same voice over the radio. "That's not us! Inspector, we're in the air—"

"Is it another trick?" said a voice that Kaito recognized as that of Inspector Nakamori's aide. "Like at the clock tower?"

Inspector Nakamori cursed. "Number Four, confirm you're proceeding as normal."

"Confirmed, Inspector," said Kaito over the wild protests of an identical voice.

"He's trying to confuse us again," Inspector Nakamori roared, so loudly that Kaito winced. "Proceed, everyone!"

"But Inspector, this isn't Kid—we're literally in the air—right above you!"

By now the tenth car had already passed beneath the swinging vehicle above them. None of them stopped. When the last one rounded the corner, Kaito stepped out from the eaves of the theater, crawled out on a gargoyle-like roof decoration adorning the roof, and from its head leaped lightly onto the hood of the gently swaying police car.

He looked inside the car and waved. Through the windshield, the two police officers, one still holding the radio to her mouth, slowly and fearfully waved back.

Now…

"Hm," Snake grunted. "Very clever. But how do I know that's the real Pandora?"

"That's the million-dollar question, isn't it?" Kaito said cheerfully, tossing the gem from hand to hand. "But as the moon's covered by clouds right now, it seems we have some time to kill before we can both be sure."

"Time to kill, eh?" Snake chuckled. "What an apt phrase." He clicked the safety off his gun. "What's to stop me from killing you now and finding out the truth later?"

"Because you might still need me," Kaito said, the same cheerful smile on his face. "Even if you weren't already stupid, slow, ugly and out of shape, you're probably not the kind of person who can walk into an airport without the CIA and about half of INTERPOL leaping down your throat. That's the benefit of having an ostentatious alter ego to keep private one's secret identity," he added with a tip of his hat. "So it's much more convenient for you to keep your ugly face hidden and let me do your dirty work for you."

"Enjoy these petty insults while you can," Snake scoffed. "If that's Pandora, you'll soon regret them."

Kaito shrugged. "Not until the clouds clear, at least."

"That won't be long. It's a windy night." Snake started to withdraw his left hand from his overcoat pocket.

Kaito took a step back toward the ledge. "You shoot me, the gem falls, Snake."

Snake chuckled. "Relax. Didn't we just agree that I wouldn't be shooting you until we establish whether or not it's Pandora? I just wanted to show you something."

Slowly, he withdrew his hand and held up its contents for Kaito to see: a few playing cards, some wire, a plastic capsule.

"Recognize these?" Snake said. "As soon as I saw the note you left on Inspector Nakamori's window shield, I knew you had addressed it to me, and that you intended to meet me at this theater. I knew the hype about the Clock Tower was a fake. So I made sure to get here a few hours before you, and my boys and I combed the building for your pranks and traps. So if you were planning on killing me up here, I'm afraid you're going to have to think of an impromptu way to do it. And Kid-kun," he added, putting the tricks back into his left pocket. "I'm sure you've guessed what I have in my right hand pocket."

Despite the chill autumn evening air, a drop of sweat slid down Kaito's cheek. He didn't move.

"I expected you to say that," Snake chuckled. "So while we're waiting for the sky to clear, I wonder what your three friends are up to downstairs? Considering my men found quite a lot of the booby traps you laid, presumably to protect them."

From below them, the sound of gunfire echoed through the theater.

"Uh oh," Snake said. "That wouldn't be the sound of three promising young detectives meeting an early end, would it?"

"Shit!" Shinichi cried, as bullets pinged over his head and tore holes into the red curtains behind him. "Run!"

Behind him, Heiji was sprinting full-force across the stage as well. Saguru had already reached the wings next to the curtain ropes, his revolver out and pointed at the auditorium seating, a nauseated expression on his face.

At the front of the stage two men lay spread-eagle, knocked out by Shinichi's stun watch. A third was curled up in fetal position, nursing a bruise on his head, and a fourth was howling and clutching a bloody foot. Five more men were running through the theater seating area, ducking behind the red velvet seats and firing at the boys on the stage.

Saguru returned fire; his bullets hit the back of several seats and wads of stuffing bloomed like white blood from the red cushions. Two of the men ducked to take cover.

Shinichi and Heiji reached Saguru's side as he withdrew to reload his gun. "There's a ladder about three meters behind me," he said, pulling a new bullet cartridge out of his blazer. "Expect that'll lead us to our mystery room above the stage with roof access."

Shinichi nodded. "I'll cover you. You two go first."

The others nodded and Heiji, katana in hand, ran to the ladder.

"Hattori-kun," said Saguru, " let me go first, I have the ranged weapon—"

"No, that's okay."

"But—"

"You fell off a frickin' skyscraper, Hakuba.," Heiji said, glaring over his shoulder at Saguru's flushed face. "Don't tell me you're in peak physical condition. You shouldn't even be here. I'm goin' first."

"I'm fine," Saguru bit out, but Heiji was already halfway up the ladder. He stuffed his revolver into his jacket pocket and climbed after him as behind them Shinichi stunned another man with his watch and then raced to catch up.

Snake's laugh echoed over the sloping theater roof. "You didn't plan well for this night, Kid-kun. Not nearly well enough. I found all your traps, I've killed any help that might be coming—now all I have to do is wait for the clouds to clear. Your old man would be ashamed of you."

He fell silent as the howling wind all but drowned out the sound of bullets and shouts just below them. There was a renewed spurt of gunfire, then two screams, then momentary silence once again.

Snake smiled with delight. "Well well, sounds like they're right below us. Your detective friends got farther than I thought." He put a hand to his ear. "Did you recognize that scream? Which one was it?"

Kaito's face was stony, his cheeks shiny with sweat. He didn't respond.

Above them, a sliver of the moon peeked out from behind the dark clouds.

"Hattori!"

Saguru and Shinichi scrambled up the ladder to a small platform ringed with theater lights high above the stage. On the far side was a door set into the sloping ceiling marked "Roof Access," and on the floor before it lay a strange man—stirring groggily, clutching his head, a discarded gun by his elbow—and Heiji, lying still, blood pooling on the ground beneath him.

Saguru jumped over Heiji's body and pinned the other man to the ground while Shinichi crashed to his knees by Heiji's side.

"Hattori!"

"Stop it, I'm not dead," Heiji grunted. He tried to roll over to his back, his hands pressed to his stomach. "Ow."

Saguru dragged the unconscious other man across the platform and handcuffed him to the light fixtures as Shinichi helped Heiji roll onto his back, then stripped off his jacket and pressed it to Heiji's stomach.

"Ow!" Heiji cried.

"Suck it up, idiot," snapped Shinichi. " we have to stop the blood flow!"

Heiji moaned and bit his lip. "Geez…Y'know," he panted, "I think this is exactly where I got shot during the Naniwa Serial Murders Case." He grinned at Shinichi, his face grey and sweaty. "The fourth case we solved together."

Shinichi grinned shakily back. "I remember. You're always getting yourself hurt."

"Hey, I saved your ass, if you remember. If it wasn't for my omamori—"

"Stop talking," said Saguru, returning to their side and kneeling next to Shinichi. "There's only five minutes and twelve seconds until Kazuha-chan calls the police." He pushed Shinichi's hands off Heiji's wound and pressed his own hand to the bloody jacket. "Go on to the roof, Kudou-kun. I'll look after Hattori-kun until the police arrive."

Shinichi sat back, his eyes wide. The palms of his hands were red with Heiji's blood. "No—!"

"You stunned our pursuers, right? We should be safe for now. Go."

Heiji lifted his head from the ground. "Go, Kudou! Bet Kuroba could use some help. And don't do anything stupid!"

Shinichi jumped mechanically to his feet, but his face was still pale and frozen. "Right," he said woodenly. Then he spun around and ran across the platform to the door marked 'Roof Access.'

"Gettin' killed counts as stupid!" Heiji called after him.

Only the slam of the door answered him.

Heiji let his head fall back to the floor. "That's what Kazuha always says, at least," he gasped.

A sliver of moonlight fell like a knife across the dark roof between Kaito and Snake; both went stock-still as above them the clouds rolled inexorably back and the full moon blazed, clear and brilliant, in the night sky.

Snake's eyes fixed themselves on Kaito's left hand as slowly, he withdrew it from his pocket—a small, clear diamond was shining between his fingers— and, his white shirt sleeves whipping in the wind, he lifted it aloft into the moonlight.

The diamond shone even brighter than the stars above it, and sent dappled light playing across the entire roof. A beam fell on Kaito's monocle, which gleamed opaque on his blank face.

Slowly, his eyes fixed on the diamond, Snake's face drained of color.

"It's…it's not red…"

Next Chapter: "Red Stone, Blue Girl." Reread chapter 2 if you don't know who I'm talking about. Maybe also peek at the omake in chapter 23 (25 by FanFiction's count) :)

A/N:

Good news! My last two term papers got pushed back by a week, and I celebrated by PROCRASTINATING HARD and all but finishing this story! So look for two updates a week from here on out! This is so exciting—for me, at least. This is the longest single piece I've written so far, so it's been a great experience. I hope you're liking it too!

Manga refs: Heiji is alluding to (surprise surprise) the Naniwa Serial Killing Case, volume 19, chapters 5-8 (Episode 118). Incidentally, one of my other fanfics is a pseudo-memoir telling that case from Heiji's point of view. It's called "My Best Friend Looks Like a First Grader." So if you're a fan of HeiShin (not romance, just bromance) and this wasn't enough for you, I hope you check that story out!