Disclaimer:

Let's just skip the giant disclaimer you can find in Chapter 1!


x.

FS

x.

x. ENCOUNTER in VENICE x.

(new version)

x.

Starry, starry night

Paint your palette blue and gray

Look out on a summer's day

With eyes that know the darkness in my soul

("Vincent (Starry, Starry Night)", by Don McLean)

x.

In the beginning…

(Saturday, November 3rd 20xx, from different points of view)

x.

In the beginning, Shinichi thought Ai lied during the interrogation at La Fenice because she couldn't talk freely in Carrara's presence, but now he is positive that she is lying to him, too. It shouldn't surprise him—her disappearance after the Pandora's Box operation is sufficient proof that she has never been truthful with him in the first place. And, as irrational as it is, it consoles him that she is lying to Seiya as well.

Ai has refined her acting skills in the last years: she looked and sounded perfectly neutral when Shinichi voiced his suspicion that Tenoh had stayed in Japan to take revenge on the seven crows. When he pretended to focus on his tea, however, Shinichi could see in his peripheral vision that Ai was horrified by his question and that she has once again darted a calculating glance in the direction of the bathroom.

Beyond doubt, Ai is petrified of Seiya overhearing their conversation whenever Shinichi mentions the seven crows—which doesn't make sense if she has told Seiya all about Gin and the Organization. The intensity of her fear also throws Shinichi, as Seiya behaves like a nauseatingly agreeable boyfriend or—if their relationship is only a charade—a pleasant flatmate. Considering his cavalier attitude to social norms, it's unlikely that Seiya would condemn Ai for her past role as the Organization's leading scientist. Whatever she is hiding from her singer must be a dark secret related to Tenoh Haruka and the seven crows. Shinichi could wait until they're alone to ask her what this affair is about, but her acting skills have become a pain to deal with, and Shinichi can make use of her weak spot by interrogating her now.

When he produces the watercolour card with Tenoh Akira's name, however, she looks so terrified that he—unable to press ahead with his plan—wordlessly stuffs it back into his jeans pocket. She thanks him with a radiant smile, which staggers Shinichi because he seldom if ever saw it on her face while the Organization existed—not even during her time with the Detective Boys or on the few occasions when she met Higo in person.

"Since Kaioh's academy already existed before you came here, Tenoh and Kaioh must have moved to Venice before the Organization went down. Why did they run into you in Ichinohashi Park before we went to Paris? Was Tenoh working for her father?"

Ai must have deduced by now that Shinichi knows about Tenoh's connection to M Jean Black, but she doesn't betray any emotion and, distracted by Seiya, who has just stepped out of the bathroom, doesn't even answer immediately. Darting Shinichi and Ai curious glances, Seiya winks at Ai before disappearing in the bedroom. The singer is holding a mobile phone although his hands were empty when he entered the bathroom to dry his hair, Shinichi observes. Since Shinichi is positive that Seiya didn't keep a phone in the non-bulging pockets of his cardigan, Shinichi has to conclude that Seiya must have forgotten his phone in the bathroom when he opened the door for Shinichi…

The probability that they're only playing a charade is so tiny that it might as well not exist, Shinichi concedes, mulling over the possibility that he will have to help Carrara jail Ai's live-in boyfriend in the near future. If Seiya has murdered Tenoh, Shinichi can't possibly let Seiya escape the law just because Ai loves him. Quite the contrary, Shinichi should look forward to arresting Seiya in order to save Ai from this potentially dangerous relationship. Ai has always had a terrible taste in men, as evidenced by her past relationship with the "second crow"—and Shinichi suspects that Seiya's ability to switch within the blink of an eye fascinates her instead of alarming her as it should.

"Tenoh-san didn't work for anyone. She even stopped addressing M Black as her father after he told her he was never going to accept her relationship with Kaioh-san. She would never have worked for him even if she had wanted to work for anyone."

"What about MI6 or MI5? She has been seen with MI6 agents, and she stayed in London for a year when she was fourteen."

"Very unlikely. She was always her own boss. Most likely, those people were acquaintances. She didn't have many real friends but socialized with plenty of people."

"She was very gregarious?"

"Gregarious" is not the right word, Ai says, as Tenoh could "avoid others like the plague for weeks when she was in her lone wolf mode". A trace of a smile flickers across Ai's face. "In that respect, she is very much like a certain someone."

"Haruka-san didn't take orders from anyone," remarks Seiya, who has returned to the living room in the meantime. "She liked to give orders, though, and couldn't stand it when you disobeyed them." He walks into the kitchen to do the dishes with the air of a housewife tackling the task, whereupon Ai leaps to her feet.

"I can do the dishes for you today," she proposes as she joins Seiya at the sink. "He is my detective, after all."

"It's only a few plates and glasses. You can do it another time—when Odango visits us and we have more dishes to wash."

"As you can see, he loves to bully me!" Ai says as she returns to the table. "I believed I could intimidate him into submission at first, but now I have to give my all to prevent him from winning." She doesn't sit down on the sofa but stays at Shinichi's armchair, leaning against the high coffee table to gaze down at Shinichi with a curious half-smile. Her cashmere dress, which, quite enticingly, flows down her chest and her thighs, looks so fluffy that Shinichi has to suppress the urge to touch her. He has been single for too long—he thinks, disturbed by the wish. This must be a biological problem since he has never seen Ai as a potential lover before.

"Why was Tenoh in Tokyo when she met you in Ichinohashi Park?" Shinichi rephrases his question. "Was she interested in the files in Pandora's Box?"

"Tenoh-san wanted the files—for the same reasons why you wanted them, of course: to save the scapegoats of the Organization. But after learning that her father had asked you to backup the files for him, she decided to help me instead—in case anything went wrong." She gives him a disarming smile, which infuriates him. "Since having an ally like her couldn't hurt, I agreed."

"You should have told me about her!" Shinichi snaps. "We were partners… or so I thought."

Noticing that he sounds like a jealous ex-husband making a scene at her new boyfriend's place—a ridiculous comparison, now that he is thinking about it—Shinichi continues with the next question before she can react. "Does Kaioh know about Pandora's Box? Did Tenoh and she work together?"

"Of course she knows about it. Tenoh-san tells her almost everything." Although Ai seems upset by Shinichi's outburst, she doesn't dwell on the topic. Tearing her troubled gaze from her boyfriend or fake-boyfriend, she adds, "But Kaioh-san wasn't involved in any way since she was on tour at that time. She would have liked to stay in Tokyo to help me out, but Tenoh-san threatened to play Stockhausen for a month if Kaioh-san didn't perform at Carnegie Hall."

"Kaioh would have turned down Carnegie Hall?" Shinichi shoots Ai a skeptical look. Although the musical world doesn't interest him in the least, even he knows what Carnegie Hall means to a musician.

"She is extremely generous, Kudo—embarrassingly so… Just like Tenoh-san." A deep blush spreads on Ai's cheeks and lips, whose graceful curves and appealing shape have become most distracting. "But she isn't like Tenoh-san, who never knew when to stop."

"What do you mean?" Intrigued by the resentment in Ai's voice, Shinichi bends forward until he realizes that she has backed away. "Did Tenoh overdo it from time to time?"

"Always—she simply couldn't leave us alone!"

Like his two brothers, Seiya is supposed to stay single for the next ten to fifteen years—Ai explains—because his agent thinks that a steady girlfriend could tarnish his image of the unattainable lover born under a wandering star. To appease Igarashi-san, whose late father was Three Lights' mentor when they started their idol careers, Seiya and Ai agreed to keep their relationship secret until Two Lights' comeback so that the news wouldn't affect Yaten and Taiki. This plan has been ruined by Tenoh, who made their relationship public by informing the editors of the most famous Japanese magazines via email, claiming she only did it because she believed that "dealing with the publicity would help".

"Tenoh was right," Shinichi points out. "You said yourself that your reputation is ruined because people believe that you're his secretary."

"But she didn't want to 'help' us become an official couple—she said that this was blind love and a waste of time because it's not going anywhere." Ai is whispering now, and, falling into the habit she cultivated during her time as Haibara, she leans in so that only Shinichi can hear her. "She planned to break us up as soon as possible so that we could find other people to marry."

Which is a most sensible idea—Shinichi thinks—since no relationship with a fixed expiration date should be taken seriously. But he naturally refrains from telling Ai his opinion. Despite suffering from bouts of ill-advised bluntness, Shinichi has learned not to unleash his unfiltered thoughts on his friends when he knows that his comments will hurt them.

Tenoh Haruka, in contrast, apparently tried to force her opinion on others on a regular basis, and Shinichi begins to comprehend Seiya's and Ai's anger at Tenoh's conduct even though he can't believe that this is the only reason why they aren't mourning her.

x.

In any case, there is a more urgent problem for him to deal with than the mystery surrounding Tenoh Haruka's death.

"What are you going to do now? If you stay here, you'll be dissected by the gutter press. Ran and I are staying in Venice for another week. You can fly back to Tokyo with us if you want—that is, if you can quit your job until then." Knowing that she can't earn much with her part-time jobs and may be too broke to buy a ticket, Shinichi adds in passing, "I'm going to buy the ticket for you. You can hide from the reporters in our suite in the Danieli until Monday since we're staying at Sonoko's place. Afterwards, I can find a new room where you can stay until the flight." Since Ai is staring at him in stunned silence, he gives a mirthless chuckle. "Don't worry, he—" he indicates Seiya, "—can still visit you whenever he wants, and you can pay me back later, after you've found a job in Tokyo."

Seemingly baffled by Shinichi's suggestions, Ai darts Seiya, who has abruptly stopped doing the dishes, a wondering glance before she turns her level gaze on Shinichi.

"I'll continue doing the paperwork for the ballet department until the end of this semester—until Meioh-san returns. Afterwards, I'm going to take over the advanced ballet classes for Kaioh-san since she wants to quit teaching to take up the violin again." Ai blinks into space as if she were trying to comprehend the meaning of Shinichi's suggestion. "Thank you for your offer. It's extremely generous and I appreciate it." Her gaze softens. "But I can't go back." Of course she is going to introduce Seiya to the Professor and the Detective Boys, she assures Shinichi. "We were going to visit Tokyo first before flying to New York to celebrate Taiki-san's and Yaten-san's comeback with them… But now that Tenoh-san has created this scandal, I'd prefer the Professor to come to New York if things get too bad. I'm going to ask him in a few days, after I've survived the first interviews and burned the hate mails of Seiya's fans…"

With a start, Shinichi realizes that Ai and Seiya have never intended to break up this arrangement when Meioh Setsuna resumes her job. Following Ai's worried gaze, Shinichi notices that the singer, who has resumed doing the dishes, looks offended by Shinichi's proposal.

"I misunderstood when you said you're going to stay in Venice for four years," explains Shinichi in an attempt to salvage the situation. "I thought you were going to fly back to Tokyo…" He trails off, hit by the reality that she isn't going to return.

"For a visit," she says. Closing the distance between them, she places her hand on his shoulder and—before drawing away—squeezes his arm as though she has become aware of his shock at the realization that she was planning to stay here. "Maybe we will live in Tokyo again in a few years—if the situation changes and Seiya begins to spend more time in Japan than in Europe. But right now it's impossible."

"We can go back to Japan whenever you want," interjects Seiya, who has remained silent during the whole conversation. "I can find a job anywhere, and we still have the apartment in Azabu Juuban."

"I'd rather stay to teach the advanced ballet classes," Ai says although Shinichi believes to see a hint of regret in her gaze. "Maybe in a few years," she thoughtfully adds, "after the wedding!"

"You're going to marry?" Shinichi grabs her wrist just when she leaves him to walk over to the sofa, causing her to stumble, whereupon she whirls around to study him in astonishment. He doesn't let go so that they stay locked in the same position for what feels like years—until Seiya Kou's voice reclaims her attention.

It's just a running joke of hers, which Shinichi shouldn't take seriously, Seiya dryly remarks while Ai frees herself from Shinichi's grab. In reality, she is so terrified of marriage that she will run away the moment he mentions it. It has happened so often by now that he has lost interest as well. They're never going to marry, period. To both of them, it's just a redundant piece of paper.

Another pretty excuse of a commitment-phobic man who has never tried to propose in all seriousness, Shinichi observes. And yet he feels so incredibly relieved to hear Seiya's words after her agonizing silence that he is beginning to doubt his sanity. Watching Ai, who has just poured him and herself tea, which she is now sipping in brooding silence, Shinichi deduces with a sinking feeling that she would marry Seiya if the singer proposed. For the first time, Shinichi can feel acutely that there is something missing in her faraway gaze when she raises her head to meet his eyes. Miyano Shiho is no longer looking at him with the same undivided attention and intense interest he once took for granted in Haibara Ai.

x.

"You said Seiya's agent is trying to maintain his image. Does it mean his reputation of womanizing has been made up by Igarashi-san?" A glance into the kitchen shows Shinichi that Seiya is shaking his head. The singer, who is scrubbing the sink now, seems able to hear everything they say despite the sound of the running water.

Igarashi-san claims that it was Seiya's own doing although she did promote his bad boy image—but Seiya, who stands by his other lifestyle habits like barhopping and roaming cities in disguise, adamantly denies that he has ever touched any of the women spreading rumours about him—Ai informs Shinichi. "I prefer to trust his version of the story since we've been living together for years and he hasn't cheated on me yet. But I'm willing to change my opinion if someone can prove to me that he is lying."

For an actor like Seiya Kou, who regularly leaves the city for days or weeks, cheating on his girlfriend without her knowledge should be plain sailing. Ai may be more observant than the average woman but is also so unreasonably infatuated with her present life partner that she readily believes anything he says.

"Besides, the love of his life is now happily married and the other woman he admires prefers women to men. He'll be stuck with me for life," she wickedly adds, whereupon Seiya, who has finished drying the dishes, protests that she shouldn't reveal all the details of his private life without asking for permission.

"Your flirt with Kaioh wasn't only a prank to aggravate Tenoh?" Shinichi asks Seiya, who has pinched Ai's cheek in revenge for her remark—a gesture Shinichi didn't expect from him. Observing that Ai doesn't even flinch, Shinichi deduces in surprise that she is accustomed to the treatment.

"Michiru-sama used me to make Haruka-san jealous," Seiya admits, "but I wasn't aware of her plan."

"He also gushed about her music and her paintings and her swimming skills during our walks along Tenoh-san's beach. Maybe he would have pursued her despite her preferences if it hadn't been for Tenoh-san."

"I wasn't serious about Michiru-sama at all! I was only interested in Odango… and that was long before I met you!"

"Does it mean you would have preferred me to Odango?" Taking Seiya's arm, Ai subtly tilts her head to give the singer a coy look.

"No," Seiya laconically admits. "I only liked the nice girls back then—you would have been too sarcastic for my taste."

"Why did you flirt with Kaioh if you weren't romantically interested in her?" Shinichi asks.

Seiya casts a nervous glance at Ai.

"She is interesting," he says cryptically, after a thoughtful pause. "I still think she is one of the most impressive women I've ever met—but I've never been in love with her… not in the conventional sense of the word."

Without letting go of her singer's arm, Ai flashes Shinichi a content smile.

"You see now why I've endured living with him for years? He is more or less honest and only omits all the details he doesn't want me to know."

They surely have a curious relationship resembling a close friendship, considering the ease with which they talk about the women Seiya used to love. But beneath the playful banter, Shinichi can sense serious issues simmering. If they are a couple, Ai can't be happy about the remarkably beautiful women in Seiya's circle of friends—much less about "Odango" (who must be Chiba's wife since Chiba Usagi wore her hair in high side buns, as Shinichi could see on the photo Ran has saved for him). Adding the secrets Ai is keeping from Seiya, Seiya's fame, and Seiya's job, which doesn't leave much time for a serious relationship, into the mix, this is a perfect recipe for disaster in the long run.

x.

Lovers have the annoying tendency to touch whenever they can—and if they're only playing a charade, they're playing it so well that Shinichi can't find a flaw in their act. Sitting across the pair, who are glued to each other and holding hands like thirteen-year-olds on their first date, Shinichi has to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach to focus on work.

"Katsutoshi Yamada—have you heard about him?"

Ai shakes her head whereas Seiya nods.

"Second to Haruka-san's first place in all of their races," he tells Shinichi and Ai. "His hooligan friends and fans used to start a fight with Haruka-san after every race, so Odango told me."

"Did Tenoh call Chiba's wife 'koneko-chan'?"

"Like any other woman she liked."

"Like any cute woman she liked," Seiya corrects Ai.

"Did she call you 'koneko-chan', too?"

Tenoh-san did, Ai admits. She hated demeaning nicknames, but from Tenoh-san's mouth, "koneko-chan" sounded natural.

"So what happened when Yamada's fans attacked Tenoh-san?" Ai asks Seiya. She can't be the "koneko-chan" Maeda saw.

"Haruka-san helped all of them get a long, restful stay in hospital—and Yamada-san ran out of aggressive fans after a few months. Haruka-san said Yamada-san was all right, though. He never attacked her and always tried to stop others from harassing her whenever he could."

"Katsutoshi disappeared just when Tenoh quit racing. He was declared missing soon afterwards. Rumour has it that she has murdered him."

Ai looks taken aback by the news but Seiya remains nonchalant.

"Why should she have killed him?" Seiya raises a brow. "He was insignificant in her eyes. Perhaps his friends accidentally killed him when they tried to trap her so that they had to dispose of his corpse or hide it somewhere."

"At Infinity, for instance," Shinichi suggests.

"Maybe," Seiya listlessly says. "Why are you so interested in Yamada-san all of a sudden?" He grins. "Have you put his corpse on your list of suspects?"

There it is—the sudden switch between "Seiya Kou, the helpful witness" and "Seiya Kou, the pain in the neck"—just when one would least expect it.

"Not yet. But you're still at the top of my list until I can strike you out," Shinichi declares under Ai's disbelieving gaze. "You had better cooperate since you're dealing with a real problem."

"That's flattering to know." Giving Ai's hand a reassuring squeeze, Seiya adds, "But Michiru-sama has sent me a message saying the police has informed her that the case is closed. Since you're Shiho's friend, you can interrogate Shiho and me as much as you want. But if I don't want to, I don't have to tell you anything."

No sooner did Seiya finish his sentence than one of Shinichi's mobile phones vibrates. "Since I had to close the case, let's meet at five thirty in front of Signora Kaioh's place if you want to have a look at Signora Tenoh's belongings. PS: The fingerprints on the glass and the fingerprints on the doorknob match. Carrara."

x.

"Now that the case is closed, we can talk about you instead. How did you manage to live with the same man for four years?" Shinichi asks Ai as he is trying to recover from the latest blow. "After all your speeches on boredom and the futility of long-time commitment, I was surprised to read that you've stayed with Gin for… how long? You were eighteen when it ended."

Although the case is closed, the game is afoot. It will be easier to catch the culprit and the witnesses supporting them off-guard when they deem themselves out of danger.

Ai doesn't respond but studies Shinichi in silence, apparently confused by his behaviour.

"Three years," Seiya answers the question for her. "They got together when she was fifteen, so she told me." Smiling at Ai, who is now looking daggers at him, Seiya adds, "She had pursued him for years, ever since she was four or five, until he gave in. He wanted to marry her when she was eighteen—bought a diamond ring and proposed to her in a five-star hotel—but she turned down his proposal with the comment that she would rather die than sign the papers."

Shinichi can tell that Seiya is getting back at Ai for spilling the beans about the women he likes. And if they both give away each other's secrets to satisfy their desire for revenge, Shinichi, whose curiosity is a bottomless pit, will be the last person to prevent them from doing so.

"Living with Gin meant being his therapist, his mother, his colleague, his doctor, his cook, his maid, and his lover for twenty-four hours a day," Ai coldly says, shocking Shinichi with her sudden candour. "When he was in a good mood, we would go out and he would shower me with fancy purses and flowers. When he was in a bad mood, he would handcuff me to the heater, put out his cigarettes on me, and leave me there for the whole day."

"He tortured you?" Shinichi can feel the blood draining from his face before a rush of blind fury overwhelms him. Even though he didn't expect the second crow to be a great boyfriend, Shinichi would never have expected Gin to torture her.

She looks genuinely surprised by his choice of word.

"He didn't—not intentionally. He only tried to punish me, I think. Gin had a terrible childhood, and I knew he couldn't express his anger in a nicer way, but I couldn't muster the self-denial to put up with his antics in the hope that he would change in a few decades." Giving Shinichi the easy smile of a woman who has long forgiven her abusive ex-boyfriend, she chuckles at her singer. "Seiya does the same things—sans the cigarettes," she asserts with an impassive face. "But since he only uses napkins and handkerchiefs to tie me to picturesque bridges and I can free myself without a key, it's easier to stay with him."

"On a more serious note, it's hard for us to bore each other silly if we can only see each other in the evenings and during meals," Seiya says. "You'll have to find yourself another girlfriend because I'm not going to give up mine!"

The sentence has been uttered in a friendly tone—laced with humour, devoid of aggression—and Ai, blushing in embarrassment, only claims that Shinichi should be flattered because her boyfriend is never jealous. But while the realization that Ai's life partner is serious about her should appease Shinichi and endear the singer to him, Shinichi discovers with a sense of dread that he can't bear to lose her like that—as though she had become a part of him during her absence and accepting her relationship with another man wasn't an option.

"It's true that I'm not a jealous person," Seiya voice startles Shinichi out of his contemplations. "But since she has told me that she is in love with you and I don't want to share her, I'm going to keep an eye on you two because it's better to be safe than sorry."

"You were once in love with me?" Shinichi asks, stupefied, wondering whether he has been walking into the wrong movie. Her boyfriend has brutally dumped the information on Shinichi in the same matter-of-fact way in which he has just poured tea into Shinichi's cup again without asking Shinichi whether Shinichi wants any.

"Oh, I still am—and that despite having a very attentive boyfriend." Ai looks embarrassed although her posture stays remarkably poised. "Are you… flattered by the thought?" She narrows her eyes to peer through her long, barely curved eyelashes, studying Shinichi with keen scientific interest, which doesn't match her words and her tone.

"Heaven forbid, no!" Shinichi exclaims, enraged by the realization that Seiya and she must be playing a joke on him.

Ai laughs—a deep, warm sound with a silvery edge, which fills him with a tingling sensation—but doesn't show any interest in continuing the discussion.

After a comfortable silence, in which they behold the patterns the sunlight from the glass roof has drawn on the corridor—surreal images that gradually morph into each other as the raindrops roll away—Seiya bends towards Ai to refill her cup. Keeping her boyfriend's head still with one hands, which she has left entangled in his hair, Ai spontaneously plants a kiss on his chin. Although she didn't kiss her singer on the lips, Shinichi is startled by the expression on her face. Even if this were only a charade, there can be no doubts about the sincerity of her feelings.

"Sorry for misbehaving." She winks at Shinichi. "But tonight I'll have to watch him feel up 'Christine' again. It must be delicious torture for a masochist! Unfortunately, I don't have the mental make-up for this…"

"Ah, just drop it, will you?" Seiya sighs. "You know I'd never cheat on you!" Turning to Shinichi, he openly complains as if they were in couples therapy and Shinichi were their psychologist: "I turn down anything with a love scene and even fake the most harmless stage kisses in a musical for her—but she can't understand that there is no reason to worry."

"I've forgotten about the stage kisses," Shinichi admits. "Dealing with a partner's love scenes must be hard. My mother had to quit acting because my father couldn't handle it."

Seiya blanches at the prospect of having to quit acting, confirming Shinichi's suspicion that to Seiya, acting is a vocation, not a job.

"You can go ahead with all those 'harmless' stage kisses if you want," Ai declares in a sharp voice. "It doesn't matter since you've fondled her belly and her breasts in her skimpy nightdress during almost every single rehearsal I've been forced to watch… I've grown accustomed to it by now although it's not pleasant! I should show you how it feels by asking you to watch me make out with another man every day."

"You should have told me this after the very first rehearsal or after we read the screenplay!" Seiya retorts. "I'd never have accepted the role if I'd known that it would bother you so much!"

"But then you wouldn't have found any main role for this season, would you?" Her melancholic voice drifts away, and Shinichi can see Seiya's irritation evaporate.

"That's nonsense!" He ruefully rubs her fingers and her wrist. "In the worst case scenario, I can make do without a main role."

"You're impatient today!" She withdraws her hand although a hint of a smile has stolen into her eyes. "You're already losing yourself in your role."

"I know." He apologetically strokes her knee. "The next time it happens, just kick me!"

Half amused and half distressed by the scene, Shinichi wonders whether they're always oscillating between kissing and fighting. Life is full of random coincidences and fateful decisions. If Shinichi had returned to the ship in time, Seiya and Ai would never have met. Seiya would have gone to New York, Tenoh might still be alive. And if there was a grain of truth in Ai's joke that she was in love with Shinichi, the past years, which they would have spent together in Tokyo, could have brought drastic changes to their relationship.

For an instant, Shinichi has a vision of how life would be if Ai were with him instead: Shinichi would never get distracted by other women; Ai would never have to lie to him because he would guess anything she tries to hide within days or weeks; they would appreciate each other's jobs; and they would solve cases together instead of spending the whole day apart from each other just to bicker about petty jealousies during tea.

He would have married her instead of ruining her reputation, Shinichi thinks, trying to conjure up the image of Ai dressed in white or cream-coloured satin although he has to admit that it's harder for him to picture her in white than in red. Like most adventurous but vulnerable women, Ai is fatally drawn to the unavailable bad boy—and not even her personal experiences with Gin could prevent her from flinging herself into the arms of a just as unmanageable life partner as the one from whom she has barely escaped.

"What about a glass of orange juice on the roof terrace?" Seiya, who has just walked to a nearby window and peered through the Venetian blinds, suggests. "It has stopped raining," he smiles at Ai, "and our stalker seems to have given up for the time being".

x.