Disclaimer:

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


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FS

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x. ENCOUNTER in VENICE x.

(new version)

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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)

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The first act…

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

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"The first act of the opera lasted about thirty minutes. It has taken you long to search Tenoh's dressing room for the painkillers if you stayed there for the whole act!" observes Shinichi. They're going to arrive at La Fenice in a few minutes; and Shinichi's number-one suspect can't be interrogated while he is applying his stage make-up, especially not when the case is closed and Shinichi doesn't even have the permission to conduct an inquiry.

"I get distracted easily," Seiya brazenly claims. "I was so engrossed in one of Haruka-san's Sherlock Holmes books that I forgot about the time."

"So she was suffering from a migraine and you forgot about the time because you were immersed in a Sherlock Holmes book?" Shinichi mercilessly asks, whereupon Seiya offers the sorry excuse that "old habits die hard".

"Which story was so extremely compelling that it could distract you from your girlfriend's headaches?" If Seiya doesn't even attempt to invent a plausible excuse, Shinichi might as well expose him as a liar in front of Ai.

In response, Seiya lists A Study in Scarlett, The Sign of Four, and "A Scandal in Bohemia", all of which were in the fake Wordsworth's Classics edition of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which includes the first two Sherlock Holmes novels in the first short story collection. Realizing that lingering over the topic will get him nowhere (being the dedicated actor he is, Seiya will most probably have studied all the Sherlock Holmes stories so well that Shinichi will only make a fool of himself if he insists on testing Seiya's knowledge of the canon), Shinichi decides to focus his efforts on another question.

"Even without taking Tenoh's thirty-minute delay into account, the interval between the second and the third act was especially long: forty minutes between seven twenty and eight o'clock because the whole 'opera' was sung by only one singer, whose voice needed time to recover from the strain. The portiere didn't remember the time when you came to the opera house because he was distracted by a book as well. So, when exactly did you return?"

Isn't it great that the general enthusiasm for literature hasn't waned in the internet age? He honestly doesn't know when he came back because he doesn't wear a watch and doesn't care about the time, Seiya blithely responds. Hakuba Saguru, whom he encountered this morning when he visited Chiba at the Gritti, has already asked him similar questions and received the same answers. He is terribly sorry for being such a scatterbrain, but the skills which singers have to hone are completely different from the skills which detectives need. Hence asking him to assist a criminal investigation makes as much sense as asking Shinichi or Hakuba to sing a supporting role in an opera or a musical.

Shinichi, who has come to the same conclusion (and who has noticed that Ai looks increasingly unhappy about the tension between him and her singer) finally gives up on Seiya as a witness. What Shinichi needs is not a theory but irrefutable evidence. Until then, it will be only his word against Seiya's; and Shinichi doesn't need to be a genius to know that Ai—being the unfaithful wretch she is!—has reallocated her trust in him to her dubious singer.

x.

The small square in front of La Fenice and all the streets leading to it are teeming with journalists, paparazzi, and fans, much to Shinichi's utter horror. As much as Shinichi liked the love letters of his admirers, which he used to collect and reread regularly before the girls switched to sending him emails and love letters from strangers lost their quaint charm, Shinichi suspects that his fans and Seiya's fans have very little in common. With a few exceptions, his fans are sensible enough to content themselves with expressing their admiration verbally whereas Seiya's fans are so fanatically, obsessively infatuated with their idol that they're capable of committing suicide or murder.

Even if the fans weren't an issue, parading Ai in front of so many cameras as Seiya's life partner is a disaster waiting to happen. Although the seven crows have committed suicide and most of the codename members, who haven't followed their example, have been arrested, many former members—among them codename members, who have committed high-profile crimes—are still on the run. If anyone recognizes Sherry in Seiya Kou's alleged girlfriend, it will cause a scandal from which Ai's reputation won't recover for years, not to mention the possibility that an embittered former member or even a victim of the Organization could get the idea to assassinate her. A glance at Seiya shows Shinichi that the singer is as apprehensive as he is. Their eyes meet for an instant, just when a shrill voice shouts, "Seiya-sama!", which sparks off a cacophony of sobs and screams and squeals. And Shinichi, taking advantage of the coincidence (but is it really a coincidence?) that Seiya has let go of Ai's hand, throws his arm over her shoulder and—thus hiding the lower part of her hair with his arm while shouting, "Please let my wife and me pass!"—fights his way through the flood of excited fans and the walls of flashing lights past La Fenice.

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"When Shiho turns around…"

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When Shiho turns around to cast Seiya a wondering glance, he silently signals for her to go with Kudo. It won't hurt to postpone the inevitable public exposure for a few hours; and Kudo and Shiho seem to need a private conversation to clear up the misunderstandings between them. Naturally, Seiya is under no illusion that Kudo will ever like him—hell will freeze over before that happens!—and in this case, the sentiment is mutual.

As much as Kudo's decisiveness and resilience impress Seiya, it's hard to root for an opponent who makes no secret of his jealousy against you and has shown you that he would steal her away from you the very moment you allow him to do it. It wouldn't have worried Seiya if Kudo had arrived in Venice at a less opportune moment for this endeavour, during the first months of Seiya and Shiho's relationship, when they spent almost every waking and sleeping moment joined together like two Lego pieces, with their limbs always intertwined in some way so that it was impossible to distinguish when one person ended and the other one began—before Seiya had to go back to work and Shiho began to meet up with Haruka-san, who talked her into leaving him. But Kudo has come just when they're going through this blackmail drama and Seiya needs to focus on the musical, during the phase when Seiya will shut himself off from the outside world and Shiho and he will live together in a pleasant but slightly distracted cohabitation until the season ends.

Where is your secretary? Is she really your secret girlfriend? Are you two cohabiting? How long has this been going on?…

The reporters are blocking his way to the entrance where Gentile is standing, tapping a gloved finger demonstratively at his vintage watch, his face contorted with rage and agony, "You're late, Signor Kou! We need at least four hours for the Phantom's mask! Since you didn't answer your phone, I've already asked your stand-in to get into the costume!"

"Where is Shiho Miyano, your beautiful girlfriend?" asks a skinny Italian journalist, whose impressively high, penetrating soprano voice pierces through the racket and caterwauling of the hysterical crowd and whose question Seiya wants to answer because she has made an effort to learn how to correctly pronounce Shiho's name. "Has she decided to skip the opening night because of Haruka Tenoh's mysterious death or because you two don't want to make your relationship public?"

"Why did you claim that she was only your secretary?" shouts another reporter, who has pushed her microphone into Seiya's face so that he has to shove it aside to keep walking. "Are you two in a committed relationship, or is this only a fling?"

"I'm still very much in love with her," Seiya says into the microphone of the Italian journalist, whom he has taken a liking to because she stands out from the masses with her curious, intelligent eyes. "But it seems like she has just eloped with another man," he cheerily asserts before Shizuka-san's plaintive, exhausted voice steals into his mind, "Couldn't you simply have kept your big mouth shut instead? The role of the abandoned life partner suits you even less than the role of the adoring boyfriend! This is the most destructive joke you could have made for your image! How am I supposed to react to this? Oh damn, damn, damn, damn!"

x.

The Italian journalist jumps in surprise when a fragrant cloud of blonde hair brushes against Seiya's chin and rests on his shoulder, exactly half a shaku above the spot where Odango's head would have been eight years ago. "The truth of the matter is that he has broken up with her to be with me so that he is mine now," declares a deep, familiar female voice before two long-fingered hands forcefully grab his arm. And Seiya turns his head just in time to evade Minako-chan's kiss and to catch Shiho's menacing glare, which she has shot him before disappearing behind the corner with her detective. Gazing down at his old friend in dismay, Seiya notices once again that a woman's attractiveness isn't always directly proportional to her beauty and elegance. Although Rei-chan, who is now following them with a resigned smile and a raised eyebrow, is prettier by a wide margin and would win a beauty contest by a landslide, Minako-chan possesses the much-coveted glow. For the sake of the musical, Seiya hopes that Rei-chan's talents and hard work, added to her immense beauty, will outperform the competition onstage, as it won't do their production any good if Christine Daaé pales beside Meg.

"Why can't you share your fame with less lucky mortals like us, you selfish, gorgeous jerk?" Minako-chan hisses into his ear while beaming at the reporters and paparazzi, who are taking photos of them with maniacal enthusiasm. "You'd only have to pucker up and go along with the charade for once! I've just saved your lovely butt from the whip of your demon agent—and all I get from you is a heartless public rejection!"

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"Your wife…"

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

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"Your wife?"

"Why not, does it sound so horrible to your ears?"

They're striding to the nearby Santa Maria del Giglio ACTV and Aliaguna stop, where (according to Shinichi's plan) they can take a vaporetto in the direction of San Marco. To keep up their charade in front of Seiya's fans, who are now standing in line on the streets to get the last tickets at the box office, she has agreed to wrap an arm around his waist while he has left his arm around her shoulder. The embrace feels perfectly right now that Shinichi has grown so much that they have the ideal height difference for it—and suddenly Venice, whose charm has been lost on Shinichi at first, seems suffused in a nostalgic, almost magical glow.

The early sunset has deepened the blue of the sky and is bathing the tops of the towers and the roofs of the palazzi in a golden light. On the horizon, the first tints of orange and red have just appeared while the shadows are turning violet and purple. Even the rows of radiant, expectant faces on the streets (all of which belong to Seiya's fans, who have put on their fanciest clothes for the musical), lift Shinichi's spirits. Laughing at the mental image that Seiya must still be fighting his way to the opera house while he has escaped with Ai, Shinichi mentally lists all the cafés in the vicinity where they can stay for an hour before going to Kaioh's place. The Caffè Florian seems like the right place for having a cup of tea and a heart-to-heart. Despite its international repute, it will be less overrun by tourists than Harry's Bar or the roof terrace of the Danieli.

As much as Shinichi would like to bring Ai to the Danieli, he decides against it because the Danieli's roof terrace would unavoidably evoke her memories of Seiya's roof terrace. The staff of Caffè Florian are impeccable and unobtrusive, from what Shinichi could see when he was there with Ran; and if Shinichi is lucky, he will manage to persuade Ai to skip the musical and help him investigate the Tenoh Haruka case—at least out of concern for her singer if not out of interest in the truth or out of friendship to Shinichi.

"The very word 'wife' sounds terrifying to me—or at least it used to when I was still traumatized by the disaster with Gin," Ai remarks with an appreciative smile at the streaks of orange on the horizon. "These days I can only see security, all the rights a girlfriend doesn't have, and the freedom to get a divorce if the relationship ceases to be great. Even marriage can be enjoyable with the right partner."

Feeling that his arm on her shoulder has grown tense, she adds with a resigned sigh, "I see I don't need to ask what you think of my husband! Maybe Venice isn't large enough for two egos of that enormous size to coexist without clashing—"

"Are you secretly married?" Shinichi cuts her off as a feeling of nausea settles in his stomach. They might have married on a whim, in a remote corner of Europe where Seiya's name is less notorious, which would give the rings he saw in the singer's drawer a different meaning.

"No, but we're as married as we'll ever be. Neither of us wants to go through the hassle of filing the necessary paperwork and planning the event." She draws her shawl, which has covered her chin and her lower lip until now, away from her face. "Just imagine the mayhem our wedding would cause: half of the women under fifty would be on the streets to lynch me!"

"I can't believe you've ever considered marrying him in all seriousness!" From the look on her face, Shinichi can tell that this isn't the first time that she has toyed with the thought.

She shoots him a quizzical, calculating glance, and he can tell that she hasn't only considered marrying her singer but has also planned it although she will never admit it to him.

"Well, I can't imagine that he will ever propose, and I'm not keen on getting on my knees either. Things are perfect for us as they are now. But if he absolutely wants to declare to the whole world that he intends to be mine for life, I'm not going to refuse the offer!" Noticing that he finds the idea too nightmarish to consider, she glances about herself to check their surroundings, lets go of his waist, frees herself from his arm, and sighs.

"I'm sorry that things haven't worked out well for Mori-san and you—but if she doesn't jump at the chance to marry her kendo champion, she might still be mourning what you two had. Instead of taking your frustration out on Seiya and me, you should ask yourself why you've become so bitter after she tried to move on with another man and seize this opportunity to get her back as long as you can!"

"This doesn't have anything to do with Ran!" Shinichi brushes off her suggestion with more vehemence than intended, but the way she links his exasperation at her singer to his failed relationship with Ran as if she believed him to begrudge her the long-term commitment drives him up the wall. "It's Seiya who I can't stand! You trust him too much although you know that he is a master liar and you have nothing but his word!"

It's unfortunate that he encountered Seiya when both of them got out of bed on the wrong side, she claims. "Maybe it could have been salvaged by Kino-san's tiramisu if only Seiya had arrived at Kino-san's shop in time… But at least he did bring six portions of zabaglione as replacement as I asked him to! I knew he was unlikely to succeed. Kino-san's tiramisu is even more popular than her strawberry chocolate cake—there are addicts who wait during aqua alta in front of her shop just to get it."

Alas, she is as oblivious to Seiya's flaws as the infatuated fans who have tried to camp in front of La Fenice. "Oscar Wilde said that there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it… Or to quote George Bernard Shaw: 'There are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart's desire. The other is to gain it!' We've had our fights, of course—sometimes about things I can't even remember anymore—and I've left him more than once. But as far as cohabitation goes, this is as great as a relationship can be!" Seiya is extremely pleasant to be with, she insists in a voice which she would have derided as "gushing" years ago, whenever Shinichi used it to talk about Ran; and Shinichi almost feels tempted to remind her of the story of Icarus, who—ignoring all warnings—flew too near to the sun. "…I've never met anyone who is so easy to please! He never complains about anything and is happy with the tiniest crumbs he gets from me. I suspect that he can talk himself into loving any actress he is paired with onstage—and they'll all become obsessed with him just as they'll all resent me in the long run—but since he never acts on it and it's over the moment he sheds the costume, I accept his consolation gifts and consider the spells of emotional infidelity and his constant flirting blemishes which even the most perfect beauty must have."

"If you need someone to list all his shortcomings for you, I can do it: He can change like a chameleon—but at the speed of light! His job demands that he spends half of the year abroad or on the road while your job doesn't allow you to go with him! You will never know whether he cheats on you or not because he can lie so well that not even I can detect when he is lying and when he is telling the truth. He isn't only a magnet to almost all vulnerable women—he also flirts with the women who are interested in him. He is reckless, careless, and workaholic while he is nonchalant and non-committal about all the things which should matter—and he is my number-one suspect! Among the people who were in the backstage area at the time of Tenoh's death, he is the only one who possesses the opportunity, the talent, the personality, and the nerves for the crime!" Since she remains shockingly unfazed by his arguments, Shinichi, throwing his hands into the air, exclaims, "I'd never have expected the man you end up with to be so, so…" For once, he is at lost for words.

"So extraordinarily stunning?" She tilts her head to study him with mild curiosity as a flicker of amusement crosses her face. "I was surprised, too, to be honest. But not being the pretty one in our relationship has been easier than I thought—there is no need to indulge in petty rivalries when life is so good!"

"For someone who is supposed to be happy, you look thoroughly exhausted," he points out. "You're still accustomed to overextending yourself!"

"I was busy and haven't been sleeping well," she dismisses his observation with a flick of the wrist. "I'm going to have much more time from now on."

Shinichi was about to comment that she must be right since one of her employers was murdered last night, which freed her of her obligations of a secretary, whatever they were, but the direction in which she is leading him now makes him suppress the remark in favour of another one. So she still intends to watch the musical despite knowing the commotion her appearance will cause, he asks her, staggered by her absurd persistence. Seiya's fans will tear her to shreds, he warns her, to say nothing of the reporters and the former members of the Organization.

Visibly amused by his concern for her, she smiles to herself and shakes her head, claiming that she already has a bodyguard and doesn't need his protection.

"Seiya let go of me so that we can talk, but he has been looking forward to showing me how he applies the stage make-up for the face of the Phantom." Although she appears to be genuinely sorry for turning down Shinichi's invitation, she is adamant that she stays with her singer on the opening night. "It wasn't easy for Seiya to convince the director to let him apply his stage make-up himself. But he is great at it, he never fails to impress, and it's fascinating how he changes the details every time to make it better! He must be disappointed that I'm not there to watch him."

"So you've already seen him applying his stage make-up more than once! You've even watched most of the rehearsals, from what I've heard. Why can't we have a snack and tea at the Florian instead? Afterwards you can go with me to Kaioh's place since I have to meet up with Carrara there at half past five."

To his annoyance, he sounds almost desperate; and it irks him even more that his urgent tone hasn't escaped her. A smile brightens her face when she considers his suggestions—and since her smile doesn't vanish but broadens when their eyes meet, he allows himself to entertain the hope that she will come with him.

"Let's meet up at the Florian tomorrow at three p.m. instead! All the cafés at the Piazza di San Marco are open on Sundays, so there shouldn't be any problems." Noticing that he is crushed by her refusal, she continues to explain herself although she seems baffled by his behaviour. "It means a lot to Seiya that I always attend the opening night. I can't abandon him during the musical, on the opening night out of all nights! It's depressing enough that I'm not in his dressing room at the moment to watch him apply his stage make-up! By the time I'm back, I'll have missed over half an hour."

So what? You've abandoned me and missed almost four years of my cases, Shinichi would have liked to counter. But since it would sound like a most inappropriate love declaration and there is no sense in nagging at her about her disappearance again, he opts for a delaying tactic until she comes to her senses.

"Let's talk about the case then, before you go back to him! You know I need your help to solve it—and if you care about him so much, you should be interested in solving it as well!"

"You seem absolutely certain that he has done it," she observes, knitting her brows in mild irritation. "Why?"

"Commissario Carrara told me that there were no fingerprints in Tenoh's dressing room apart from her own fingerprints on the cup, the chair, the table, the vase, the doorknob, the shelf, and the frame of the painting. Well, there were my fingerprints on the shelf as well since I touched it when I took out her Sherlock Holmes books—but Seiya's weren't in the room although they should have been there."

"There were no fingerprints in the dressing room but your fingerprints and Tenoh-san's?" She doesn't look half as sure of her singer's innocence as she looked half a minute ago, and Shinichi curses his bad luck for making him the one who has to break the news to her.

"There is a clearly defined handprint—of Seiya's right hand—on the doorknob from the outside, which Seiya must have intentionally placed there after removing the fingerprints, maybe even after Gentile has already discovered the corpse, when Seiya realized that his own fingerprints must be found on the doorknob from the outside in case other people remember that he has taken Tenoh's sofa. He didn't need to risk detection by touching the doorknob from the inside since he can claim that he has kept the door ajar with his foot so that he didn't leave any fingerprints in the room but on the sofa, which is in his dressing room now."

"That's silly! If it had been him, he wouldn't have had to remove any fingerprints since he can use the sofa as an excuse! Wiping the fingerprints off her cup would have sufficed and taken less time!"

"Sure! But that means that someone else would have been suspected instead! That's why he removed all the fingerprints and created circumstances which should prove that none of the people in the backstage area could have committed the murder. But it's only an illusion—and to uphold it, he had to arouse the commissario's suspicions without giving the commissario the chance to make an arrest." Since she doesn't respond, Shinichi continues in resignation, "True to his character, he turned the situation into a self-parody or a joke: 'Here I am, your mentally unstable, arrogant sociopath of a culprit! I'm clearly guilty, as you can see, but I'm so smart that you'll never catch me!'… Even I fell for his act because he was so extremely irritating. While that actually makes him one of the kindest—or even the most considerate culprit—I've ever encountered, it wouldn't change anything about the fact that he has taken another person's life. I want to know his motive and figure out the details before I decide what to do with my knowledge. But I can't do that if you don't help me!"

She is striding back to La Fenice with her hands in the pockets of her coat, and Shinichi silently keeps pace with her until he loses his patience and stops her by taking her elbow.

"I haven't told Carrara about this yet, but I looked at my watch after Gentile appeared onstage and asked for a doctor because I always check the time. It was five past nine! How could thirty-five minutes have passed between the time Gentile discovered Tenoh's corpse and the time he called for a doctor? My guess is that less than ten minutes—probably only five minutes, if Gentile was fast—have passed. The thirty minutes in between have been 'stolen' by someone who is skilled at capturing the attention of the audience—by a skilled magician, for instance, or by a very charismatic actor!"

She doesn't answer, but her pale face and bright eyes betray her mounting distress. He can also discern a distant faraway look in her eyes, a flicker of remembrance. She has been betrayed by a lover who misused her drugs once. He can tell that she doesn't want to go through the same experience for a second time.

"Commissario Carrara was sure that, if this was murder, it could only have been Seiya. But even he doesn't want to convict Seiya, especially not when he doesn't know what Tenoh died of and can't imagine how Seiya could have pulled it off. He doesn't know what you and I know, though! Do use your head and don't defend Seiya just because you don't want to believe it!"

Seeing that she has blanched even more as she eventually arrives at the same conclusion as him, he adds, "Seiya isn't only a showman with many talents, he also has one great talent which no other person in the backstage area—probably no other person in the whole opera house—has! Carrara doesn't know about it, and Carrara doesn't care about the time because his hands are tied without a proof that Tenoh has been poisoned. But Hakuba has shown interest in the case and has already deduced that you're Haibara Ai without my help! Hakuba will be unstoppable when he learns more about it and notices that Seiya has manipulated the witnesses and messed up their sense of time. If I don't solve the case, Hakuba is going to solve it! You should cooperate with Carrara and me before another commissario takes over the case and convicts Seiya with Hakuba's help."

Among all the former highschool detectives Shinichi knows, Hakuba is the one Shinichi likes the least, mainly because Hakuba isn't only a hedonistic jerk and an unbearable know-it-all but also the sort of detective Holmes pretended to be but wasn't: a cold, calculating case-solving machine for whom only the satisfaction of his own curiosity matters. Hakuba isn't particularly interested in humans or even in justice, wouldn't mind testing an unknown drug on his closest allies to watch its effects (in fact, Hakuba was openly looking forward to seeing Kuroba drugged when he was warned that the Organization possessed an undetectable poison). Hakuba will instinctively choose solving a mystery to saving a human life (as Hakuba has demonstrated to Hattori and Shinichi once), and would undoubtedly convict his best friends in front of a camera without batting an eyelid just to ask his famous question, "Why?"

Shinichi liked Hakuba as an ally—Hakuba's sense of humour sometimes reminded him of Ai's; and it was impossible not to be impressed by Hakuba's brilliance and efficiency. But when Hattori died, Hakuba attempted to console Shinichi with the observation that selfless, heroic people with Hattori's impulsive temper seldom reach old age… To be fair, it's not callousness but rather Hakuba's inability to feel real compassion for anyone but his own housekeeper and his falcon, on whom Hakuba has exhausted his limited capacity to love. Depressingly, now that Shinichi is picturing a showdown between Hakuba and the most likely culprit, Shinichi very much prefers Seiya, as dangerous and frustrating as Seiya is, to the time-obsessed detective.

x.