Snapdragon 9

Snapdragon-deceit, graciousness

Isabelle's pov

"I'll feel quite reassured knowing you will be working on my... well problem,"Father said.

'Ha it worked, he's such an idiot, All I had to do was remove the glasses, cover the freckles, a bit of highlighting on the cheek bone and forehead, then I'm unrecognizable. I guess it's true the best disguise is the unexpected' I let Irene, my owl, fly back to the perch with Watson, I removed the bulky leather glove and placed it in my messenger bag I used to carry any necessities of Irene's or mine. Saguru and I both shared an interest in falconry, when I was in London I had to keep Irene with Saguru's aunt so that my gran wouldn't find out, it worked out just fine.

I took a seat at the table across from the small boy, he was wearing a small navy suit with a red bow tie, he was so adorable, and yet there was something off about him, I could tell just by looking at him that he knew more than he let on. He had a sort of forced innocent expression, one convincing enough to fool the average person, but I know better than that, he's hiding something. This boy wasn't the only one acting strange, my father, he didn't seem to be concerned, and normally he'd have another man with him on these kinds of business meetings but why not this time? 'Am I right about this having something to do with Kid? No, I'm right, I'm 100% positive he has something to do with this, why else would that police Inspector be here. But I feel like the real question is whether or not it's all been a lie, whether or not this will be the lead I've been looking for, or is this all just a waste of my time? How can I be sure anything will turn up? No something will turn up, I know it, I'll find out who they are and prove their guilty actions.'

"Well then I guess it's about time I told you why I asked you to come here," Father said, opening a vanilla folder containing several photos and papers.

Everyone at the table seemed to perk up much like a prairie dog at the words. 'Finally some answers'

"I've come here to Japan for business purposes. Now my family has owned a priceless Garnet gemstone, it's passed down throughout generations, at around 1912 it was mounted onto a chain of silver and has been called the Garnet Rose ever since," He said, handing each of us a picture.

I recognized it almost at once, it was the necklace my mother always wore, the silver chain was made to look like a strand of roses and the garnet was mounted to a silver and rose gold stem and leaf to make it appear as a rose of precious value. After Mother's death father had the necklace put in museums all around the globe, I believe it was time for it to come to Japan.

"About a week ago I received a notice, the sender claims to be Kaito Kid, but I'm afraid my judgement is not the most professional. I came here because the Garnet Rose is to be displayed in the Edoka Art Museum tomorrow evening. However the most troubling thing is that It's not the first time he's sent a notice," He said, placing a piece of paper in front of the police Inspector,"He had sent one ten years ago claiming that he'd take it, but the museum had been set ablaze almost killing my second born daughter, Scotland Yard had claimed that it was an act of arson committed by another man, they said it wasn't in Kid's nature to do such a thing. I believe them, it's just that I don't know why Kid would make another attempt."

"Hm, well I don't know why he would make another attempt either, nothing he does makes sense, he'll go through the trouble to steal the gem but then returns it," The Inspector said.

"Here's a photo of the exact state I found the note, he had attached this here rose to it as well, I believe you'll find this of interest Miss. Adler," He said passing a small bag with a dried blue rose inside.

"Curious,"I said pulling out a small 'Language of the Flowers' book, I flipped through page, after page. It's not that I didn't know what it meant, but rather I wanted to know more abut the specific type of rose,"He's quite a cocky fellow isn't he, I can tell he's very confident in his abilities, and yet he doesn't seem like a bad person."

"What do you mean 'he doesn't seem like a bad person' he's a thief!" Mr. Mouri said, rather angrily,"If you've never met him how would you know how confident he is?"

*sigh*"Je n'ai jamais su qu'une telle stupidité était possible.[I never knew such stupidity was possible],"I muttered receiving a sinker from Saguru,"I guess the thought never came across, that perhaps the reason why he returns everything is because he's looking for something and has no real interest in stealing the gems for profit, therefore instead of keeping them and selling them somewhere else he returns them once he realizes there not what he's looking for. As for how I know he's probably a cocky douche, it's the rose. In case you didn't know a blue rose symbolizes mystery and something unattainable, the specific type of rose is a Florigene-Suntory Rose the only kind that is naturally blue, making it one of a kind. Now if I were you I'd take note that these are only accessible in Japan, however checking out florist shops that sell these will be near impossible because of their popularity."

I pulled out my black, red, and gold leather bound notebook and flipped to an empty page and jotted down the information I had thus far.

"Well that sounds reasonable, but what do we have as far as the notice goes?" Saguru said, drifting all attention to the Inspector.

The Inspector grunted and furrowed his brow in frustration,"Well it's definitely Kid that's for sure, but the majority of the note is indescribable. There is a portion at the Top however that is in English it reads 'When A is the fourth letter find Caesar's reverse, but note my arrival will be that of the outer letter J on the evening of Sunday.' The rest is just a bunch of random letters, but I can't even make heads or tails of which isn't gibberish."

"May I take a look?" Saguru and I said in unison.

"Huh... I guess," The Inspector said, reaching over and placing it in between us.

Saguru pulled out a notebook and we both continued to jot down the exact wording, it probably looked like we were mirroring each other because I preferred my left hand and Saguru was right handed.

The note read like the following:

When A is the fourth letter find Caesar's reverse, but note my arrival will be that of the outer letter J on the evening of Sunday. Y'yv ro tavupgnj zbes ensn, fcnuerc n lnoerffnc gho gba lan enp, hbl gaqyhb'j rinu bg xbby bbg ens, sb rfehbp fvug qyhbj gfhw ro lnq rab, rerug yyvj ro bg rzbp. V yyvj avbw hbl fn rab sb U Rgvuj, qan rinry ugvj rug Rfbe ab rug ftavj sb gutva. Kaito Kid

"I want to see it too," A small voice said from between Saguru and myself, it was the little boy with the glasses.

"Oh... here you go little man,"I said, moving the paper closer to the little boy,"If you solve it let me know."

He nodded and starred at it,"Kid sure is funny it looks like he should stay with Japanese 'cause when he shifts to English he makes no sense,"The kid said putting the paper down on the table,"Do you know what time it is, I'm waiting for a friend to message me."

"Yeah It's currently 4:35," I said, pulling out my pocket watch.

"Your watch looks really different from Haku-chan's, why are there letters all over it?"

"Oh it's a Caesar cipher," I said.

"Caesar cipher?" The kid asked in a fake confused tone.

"Yes, it's a type of shift code, in cryptography it's known as the Caesar cipher, it's one of the most common encryption methods. All you have to do is turn the outer wheel to a set number of spaces then translate your message each letter at a time using the inner ring as a guide," I said, showing him how the outer ring could be moved.

"So what would it look like if you coded something?" The kid asked.

"Well it would look very confusing, like gibberish basicly," I answered.

"Ha I've got it!" Kogoro announced," Kid wrote his message in a Caesar cipher in a shift of 4 so that A is equal to D the fourth letter of the English alphabet."

"Well I can see where you'd get that from but I don't believe that's right. If it were a shift of four then 'Y'yv' would be 'V'vs'. Besides Kid doesn't seem like the type to use such a common method of encryption," Saguru pointed out,"And if he did would he really give us the answer."

I continued to look at the note 'When A is the fourth letter, find Caesar's reverse. . . Of course, that's what he meant'

"Haha, he would, he would do exactly that,"I said, chuckling to myself.

"You must know him very well then," Saguru said, sarcastically.

"Well he did, If you don't know the answer look again. The answer's right there, 'When A is the fourth letter, find Caesar's reverse'."

"I just explained this," Saguru said, getting annoyed.

"Really? You explained how A wasn't equal to D. What if I told you that D isn't the fourth letter he was referring to," I said.

Everyone except the kid looked at me confused.

"Enlighten me," Saguru said, furrowing his brow.

I smirked,"You're right when you say that the Caesar cipher is the most common cipher there is, but what if you use more than one? What if the fourth letter he's referring to is the fourth letter in the note itself, thus making it a completely different shift,"I explained.

"However once you decode using a shift of N, it still appears to be unreadable," Saguru argued.

"Yes that's true, but remember what I said about using more than one cipher. A Caesar cipher on it's own is quite simple to crack, but if you add another cipher such as a numeric code, or cipher cipher it becomes much harder to solve, much more confusing. You don't even have to use a cipher to make it more complicated, in fact you could simply spell everything backwards. Hence the words 'Caesar's reverse'," I explained,"Once you decipher this note and flip the spelling it'll clearly read: 'I'll be watching from afar, perhaps a passerby but not any car, you wouldn't have to look too far. Of course this would just be day one, there will be more to come. I will join you as one of H White, and leave with the Rose on the wings of night.' ," I said showing Saguru where I had written it out,"Of course this final note may need more interpreting, and please don't patronize me, the little boy deserves credit as well."

"I knew I could count on you,"My father said,"Now I'm afraid I must be leaving, but I'll see you later, Saguru. Your father invited us over this evening. Till then," He said, leaving the table.