Case. They confronted the culprit.
Characters. Megu saw another side of her two boy friends and she had difficulties registering what she saw.
*Note. To avoid language confusion, dialogues in English will be in italic.
Chapter 5. The Confrontation
It was 8 am when they entered the building and it had been about 30 minutes since they walked inside it. Following Kazuma's instructions, they had passed around 10 checkpoints and they were now standing in front of the last one. The automatic sliding door opened and they went in quietly.
The circular room was equipped with modern technologies. Kyuu felt as if they were in a spaceship or something. After they were all inside, the sliding door closed behind them.
There were two people inside, a tall man and a well-built woman. The middle aged man had white shoulder length hair and he wore vintage golden frame spectacles. His white coat told them that he was a researcher. On the other hand, the woman who stood behind the man wore a white suit. Her body seemed toned and her gaze was sharp. They could tell in a glance that she was a good fighter.
"At last we get to meet you, Joseph!" The tall man said, his hands wide. "Well, I did not expect to have this many people though," he smiled. It was a wide smile but through experiences they knew the smile was not genuine.
"Do I know you?" Kinta, who dressed as Joseph, asked.
The man laughed. "I believe you don't, but you will. I am your father's friend from a long time ago," he smiled and offered his hand to Kinta. Kinta hesitated but shook the hand in the end.
"You have become a fine man," the man said again. "Thank you for coming here and helping us out. Let's go then," he gestured to our fellows to follow him to another sliding door.
When the door opened, there was a slightly younger man waiting. His hair was grey and he was also wearing a white coat. Both of his eyes were wide seeing the white haired man. "I see, so it was you!"
The white haired man gasped and narrowed his eyes, "You!"
The woman swiftly tried to attack the younger man, but suddenly there were police officers holding her.
Helpless, the white haired man did not try to do something foolish nor dangerous, even though his eyes showed flames of anger. Instead he asked, "But how?"
There are three hints!" Kyuu said.
The white haired man turned to look at our young black haired detective. His eyes were wide with shock.
"The first hint. Ilios contacted Melvin Rios to ask for help, but then someone tried to kill him. Next, they also want to kill Joseph. We had to consider the possibility of Ilios behind the attempted murders because the chronology was just too good to be true," Kyuu started explaining.
"The second hint was the card," Kyuu said calmly. "It was a reckless move to use your power to get the access card."
"Yes," Megu continued. "Our team member traced the card and found out that the access was granted by a secret authority. That broke all other assumptions that we had and led us to Ilios, a secret organization which has incredible access to almost anything."
"But that was not enough. So, we played our game and lure you out with the email," Kyuu continued. "You received our reply, didn't you?"
"The one with codes, yes, and I replied," the white haired man said impatiently.
"We received and replied as well," the younger man also answered. The white haired shifted his head in shock.
"Yes," Kyuu answered. "One of our team sent the emails privately to many people in Ilios and when we analyzed the replies, we knew that you are the one."
"But..." the white haired man tried to defend himself.
"Sir," Ryuu looked at the slightly younger man, "When you read the email, what do you have in mind?"
"I thought it was a threat, but I'm not sure, so I asked in the reply," he answered.
"Yes, that is the right answer," Ryuu nodded. "In the email we said, I'll be going in my dad's place. Tell me where I should go. It was very ambiguous since it was sent from Joseph Rios' email. Ilios sent the previous email addressed to Dimitri Wells, so they could not have known the relation between him and Joseph Rios. We also use a different code from the email Ilios sent, so from a normal perspective both emails were not relevant at all."
Ryuu then looked at the white haired man, "But you knew. We don't know how you knew, but you figured out that Melvin Rios is Dimitri Wells. That's why you burnt his house and even tried to kill Joseph Rios, who is Melvin Rios' child. And that's also why you immediately sent us directions to go in without hesitation. That's the third and final hint!"
"Looks like your own enthusiasm uncovered your own secret," Kinta said with a wide grin.
An officer held the white haired man's wrists and said, "We'll talk more later." He led both culprits and went away.
"Wow, that's quick!" Ben went into the room and so was the grey haired man. "As you guys suggested, we went to his office and found syringes of poisons. I bet he was going to shoot you with it."
"I still can't believe you guys figure that out. I heard you guys are good detectives, but I didn't expect you to be this young," the grey haired man said. "I'm McKinney, Lewis McKinney."
"That is so true!" Ben's bright laugh filled the circular room.
"McKinney... You are Professor McKinney! I read your name," Joseph exclaimed.
"Oh, and you are?" McKinney asked.
"I'm Joseph Rios. Melvin Rios' son," Joseph offered his hand. McKinney's scrutinizing gaze made Joseph realize that he was still using Kinta's face and voice. "Oh, wait a minute," he said before pulling his face. Kinta, who also realized, also pulled his face.
Seeing McKinney stepped back by the shocking revelation, Ryuu automatically spoke up. "Sorry for the surprise, we decided they have to switch places, just in case someone wants to hurt Joseph. Kinta's a great fighter," he explained briefly.
"Oh, good grief," McKinney chuckled.
"Sorry about that," Joseph said.
"No, that's very reasonable," McKinney smiled. "I am really glad that you came, Joseph. I heard about the whole mess from Ben, and it is true that Stephen Wade is really sick. He needs the transfusion and we are frustrated to the point we made contact with Dimitri. Actually, we promised not to contact him again years ago, but we had no other choice. We're truly at loss hearing about his death from Ben," he lowered his head.
Joseph smiled a sad smile, "Thanks. I have accepted my nature. I'm his clone, right? My blood should be a match for him. I believe this is what my dad wants too."
"His clone?" McKinney shot one of his eyebrows up. "I think there is a misunderstanding here."
Joseph was surprised by the remark. The same goes for Megu and Kinta.
"Sorry we hid it from you, Joseph, and in this case to Megu and Kinta as well," Ryuu said suddenly. "You see, Kazuma, one of our team, found out that Stephen's research about clones never succeeded."
"And when I looked around the lab in the woods, I found another picture of your dad and a woman. It's the same woman in the picture behind the book rack," Kyuu added. "Do you remember her?"
Joseph nodded.
"She was Claude Isabelle, a chemist whom Stephen Wade worked with," Kyuu said.
"I knew Claude Isabelle, she was Stephen Wade's spouse. But she died a long time ago," McKinney responded.
"Yes, sadly," Ryuu lowered his head. "Kazuma tried to search thoroughly but we only got puzzle pieces. After thoroughly analyzing it, we deduced that Stephen and Claude had a child. But, since Stephen was very busy and engrossed in his career at that time, Claude didn't tell Stephen. Instead, she told Dimitri about it. Sadly, she died in childbirth. But," Ryuu looked at Joseph, "You survived."
Professor McKinney's eyes got wide again, as if he just saw the red string. "That's true... Stephen was frustrated that time. He was depressed for several months and I thought he had become crazy. We're so lucky that he did not," McKinney confessed.
"Yes, probably after seeing Stephen like that, Dimitri decided to raise the child himself and retreated from the organization," Ryuu concluded.
McKinney nodded slowly, "Dimitri did resign months after that. I think you guys did a quite accurate deduction."
"Really?" Joseph's voice was shaky. "So I am not a clone?"
"No, you are not," Ben's voice was firm. "Your DNA results showed that you have half of Stephen's blood. We checked the other half with one of Claude's family who is still alive, and it is quite a match."
"Even if you decide to give your blood to Stephen, the possibility is still 50-50. But it's the best shot we have right now," McKinney said. "I don't want to push you. It's your decision to try and give him your blood or not."
Joseph pondered for a second, then nodded. "I'll try. He will die if we don't, right?"
McKinney smiled genuinely, "Thank you so much, Joseph. We're so glad. Let's go to the hospital, then."
Some officers brought Joseph and McKinney to the hospital, but Ben had told our detectives not to follow. So they only escorted Joseph, McKinney, and some other Ilios members to the lobby. "Better leave them be now that the case is solved," Ben said seriously.
After the cars were gone, Ben stretched his arms high. "Ah, it's almost time for lunch. Shall we eat lunch together?" Ben asked them with a smile. "Yes, I am totally hungry!" Kyuu answered and chuckled.
Ten minutes later, they were sitting at a fast food restaurant nearby. Their food was almost finished when Ben said, "But you guys really amazed me. I've never seen such young talented detectives before! You guys are my role models now!"
"That's too much!" Kyuu let out a laugh and spitted some food in the process. They all laughed again.
"Well, now since you're all in New York, you should have some fun. We have some well-known amusement parks nearby!" A big grin was on his face.
"Really?" Kyuu's grin rivaled the big man's. "Guys, let's go there after this!"
Ben laughed again and said, "C'mon, I'll drive you guys!"
Our young detectives spent time in the amusement park happily. Before they knew it, the sun had lowered down and the sky had turned orange. "Guys, let's ride that!" Kyuu pointed at the enormous ferris wheel at the center of the amusement park. "Man, you're full of energy, aren't you?" Kinta followed him.
Megu turned around when she heard Ryuu chuckled. "Sorry, never mind me," he said. Ryuu sped his pace to walk side by side with Megu to the ferris wheel.
Kyuu was the first to get inside and Kinta sat opposite him. Megu took the place beside Kyuu, and Ryuu beside Kinta. They all faced the sunset when their seat started to rise. The ride was awfully quiet. Even Kyuu did not start a conversation. He just sat in silence while watching the sunset from his side of the window keenly.
Megu was happy to be there at the moment. She was a bit ashamed that she doubted Kyuu the day before, but she was so relieved everything went well that day. She shifted her head to see Kyuu closer. She was lucky because the direction of the sunset gave a nice angle for Megu to see the side of Kyuu's head. She could see the glittering eyes, full of wonder and excitement as always. Suddenly, Kyuu turned his head to face the city but his movement halted before he faced the other direction completely. Then, Megu saw pink colors shaded the side of the cheek she could see.
Kyuu was flustered. Megu knew the look. It was the same as when Kyuu saw a girl's panties or when he saw Megu using clothes other than her usual apparel on their dates. What would make Kyuu fluster right now, she thought.
She turned her head slowly until she found the source of her lover's unexpected behavior. It turned out to be her other friend. The one who sometimes also made her flustered. The violet blue haired man was still intently gazing at Kyuu. He probably did not notice Megu's gaze at him. Suddenly, Kyuu lost his composure and shook their seat.
"O-Oi, be careful, K-Kyuu!" Kinta abruptly clutched to the metal handle that his hands could find.
Kyuu chuckled, "Sorry about that!" His face was bright red. "Hey what? Kinta, are you afraid of heights?"
"N-No! I-it's just, it's d-dangerous you k-know!" Kinta's voice was wavering.
Kyuu laughed and they started bickering over it.
Megu looked at Ryuu and saw him genuinely laughed a little. It was just a glimpse, but Megu could not shake her feelings about it. Could it be that... Kyuu towards Ryuu? Or maybe Ryuu towards Kyuu? No, that's absurd. They were both men. They couldn't, could they?
Megu clenched her hands as she wondered.