Candytuft 14
candytuft-indifference
Edoka Art museum
Saguru's pov
I pulled out my pocket watch, 15:15:42.79. Princess should be coming any time soon.
The media wandered about the room freely, trying to get the guards to answer their questions, there were two camera men, four reporters, and seven journalists. Mr. Arens stood by Nakamori-san who was checking the security cam footage on a brick of a laptop that would be better off running on potatoes.
I caught a blur of white in the corner of my eye, I turned around to see Irene, the owl, perched on the railing of the upper floor. Footsteps echoed through the room, they seemed to stand out from the rest with their hollow sound. The murmurs from the press and clicks of camera shutters, faded into silence as Isabelle, or I guess I should say Rose, entered the room. She wore a black inverness coat, however it was more form fitting, it had a double cape, the hem embroidered with red roses. She had her hair pined in a Gibson tuck, on her head she wore a top hat embellished with a royal flush, in the hearts suit, and roses. She wore black and white wingtip shoes and had a black leather glove for Irene. Around her neck was a pair of black welder's goggles.
She walked over to the table where keibu-san and a few other officers sat, she drew off her over coat, flicking it to make it disappear, releasing her doves Ace and Spade. The two java doves flew over to me and sat on my shoulder. Under her coat she wore an off white blouse with puffy sleeves, a dark red waistcoat, and a black skirt that came down about ten centimetres below her knee. She put the glove and top hat back on. Irene settled back at her rightful place on the glove, the doves flew off and sat on her shoulder.
The media members crowded around bombarding her with questions.
Knowing how much she hated the media I walked closer to where they stood.
"Miss. If you don't mind, who are you?" One of the reporters asked.
"Who am I?," She echoed,"Why I ask myself that question everyday, the answer my friend is different every time."
She always came up with the most clever answers.
"What's your name Miss?" The reporter elaborated.
She raised a brow,"What's in a name? That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet," She quoted,"My name is not something I shout out on a whim. Sometimes it's wise to keep the mouth closed, rather than spill information that can be used against oneself."
"Why are you here miss?"
She sighed and shook her head,"Why are you here? You do realize that just by running that camera you give kid live access to the setup of security, without realizing it you've become his unwilling accomplice. So if you had any common sense you'd shut the bloody thing off and stop asking questions that have no real significance."
The reporters stopped asking questions and looked at each other, despite her advise they kept the cameras on.
Princess shook her head in disapproval and stepped out of the ring that had formed around her. I followed her.
"They know I'm right, but they do not listen, it's a shame really. It's no wonder the police haven't caught him yet, because they've allowed him eyes and ears inside the building," She complained, putting on the goggles. She she took something out of her pocket it was a small circular piece of machinery, what it was I have no Idea. She placed the metal and plastic disk into a slot in the goggles, it stayed with a click. There was the small sound of a camera shutter.
"What?"
"It's a camera," She said, presumingly taking pictures of the room around her,"It also works fairly well as a scope."
"That's pretty cool, so you can switch it out with a regular lense?" I asked.
"Yeah, that and they just look dope. Now if you're right about the time being 10 o'clock, then we have enough time to scope out security blind spots. I'll take the east wing if you take the west," She said handing me a map of the floor plan(including ventilation), and a protractor," Security cameras can see up to 70 feet and have a vision field of about 170 degrees,"She said with a grin.
"Sounds good, I'll meet back up with you in 45 minutes," I said, stroking Irene's feathers.
Isabelle's pov
"I'll tell Mouri-san we're going off on our own, we wouldn't want him to screw things up," I said, tucking a red rose behind Saguru's ear.
I walked over to where the "famous" detective stood, he was scolding the little boy with glasses, his daughter was nowhere in sight.
"Good morrow, Mouri-san," I said, walking up to the detective,"Where's Ran?"
He looked at me,"She stayed home. Here your a girl, do something useful and watch this little stowaway," He said grabbing the boy by the collar and trowing him into my arms almost knocking me over. He stormed away in a cloud of anger.
"Let me guess you're not supposed to be here?" I said, looking down at the boy in my arms.
He looked at me innocently.
"What a jerk, just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm useless. I wouldn't be surprised you did all the work for him," I joked,"Come on boy I'll show you the ropes of the trade," I said, putting him down on the floor. I took him by the hand and walked back to Saguru.
"So how'd it go?"
"He stuck me on babysitting," I answered.
"The boy's smart for his age, you should be able to work with him just fine. He has quite the eye for detail," Saguru said, kneeling down and ruffling his hair.
"So we'll meet back here in 45 to touch base, before Kids arrive at 10," I asked just to make sure we were on the same page.
"That's the plan."
"Alright come on little detective," I said, taking the boy's hand and began walking toward the East wing.
"You and Hakuba must work really well together," The boy said.
"Yes we both started our detective work together. Oh I never caught your name boy."
"Conan, Conan Edogawa," He said, beaming.
I jotted down the locations of several cameras.
"Conan? You weren't named after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were you?" I asked.
"Yeah I was, my dad was a huge Holmes freak," He said, extending his arms out at the word huge,"So what are you doing?"
"Oh well Saguru and I are marking the security bind spots in accordance with ventilation, guards, entrances, and exits," I answered.
"Oh, that's clever because you'll be able to see the places he's most likely to be hiding,"He said, looking around,"Where's your owl?"
"I sent Irene with Saguru, so if anything happens we'll know," I said, with a smug grin.
"You really thought this trough," Conan said, enthusiastically.
"Yes, I never do anything without a plan," I said,"That and Saguru is a total neat freak."
"So what's up with the goggles?"
"They're just plastic with glass lenses, but I did customize them to have removable light and camera lenses," I said, pulling out the vast amount of colored and custom lenses.
"Wow, that must be pretty useful," He said, trudging along behind me.
Edoka art museum
Saguru's pov
I walked down the hall, Irene waddling on the floor behind me like a little person. I jotted down the last few camera locations, I hope this works. I continued walking down the hall, wandering aimlessly till I reached a dead end. At the end of the hall there was a staircase that went both up and down, next to it hidden conveniently out of view of security was a cleaning cupboard.
"Well that's all of them," I said, turning to Irene.
The bird looked at me and began turning it's head.
"You hear something?" I asked, kneeling down.
Irene quickly turned her head to face me she started to make frantic clicking sounds.
I strained my ears searching for anything, that's when I heard it, just the slightest flick of movement. I slowly turned my head, I saw white for a fragment of a second before I felt blunt pain and everything went black.
Conan's pov
Rose, I don't know what to say. 'She's different' I told myself, by that I meant 'I've never met someone like this'. I found it quite odd that she was a, or at least called, a professional magician. Hakuba had said she was a famous detective/magician/illusionist from Europe, he said that the media has been on her coattails ever since she first made an appearance. They had supposedly met when the media had asked him to find out more about her, instead he declined and partnered up with her for awhile. The media doesn't even know what country she's from.
"Alright that's all of them," Rose said, with a heavy exhale.
Irene flew into the room dropping a red rose on the floor. Roses eye's widened as she bent down to pick it up,"Alright Conan, if Saguru comes back keep an eye on him, if he's acting weird tell keibu-san. I need to go look for something," She whispered.
"O-okay," I said as Saguru came waltzing down the hall.
Rose winked at me as if to tell me to play along.
"Saguru why'd you send Irene back like that, you nearly gave me a heart attack. I thought we had an agreement," she scolded, removing his deerstalker cap and smacking him on the shoulder with it.
"I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose. I accidentally spooked her when I tripped, that's all. Ah here, uh I finished noting the camera's for you princess," He said handing her his slip of paper.
"Well actually um... if you don't mind could you hold on to those and watch Conan for me, I need to spend a penny," she said, awkwardly shifting her feet( note the phrase 'to spend a penny' is a polite way for women in the UK to say 'I need to use the bathroom').
'Oh she's definitely from England'
"Oh alright," he said.
Saguru's pov
I woke up to someone gently shaking my shoulder and calling me name. I slowly opened my eyes. My head throbbed, the loud ringing in my ears didn't help at all and only made me feel nauseous.
"Are you okay?" Bella's voice asked.
"Ugh, my head," was all I could manage, it hurt to move my neck and my vision was a bit blurry.
All I could make out was a fuzzy blur of color that I believe was Bella.
"Looks like Kid hit you in the head with a wrench," she said, shining a light in my eyes,"It looks like you may have a concussion. You should stay here, and rest. Just don't go to sleep because you might die," She said tucking her coat and an ice pack under my head.
"Where is here?"
"In a cleaning cupboard, nobody else knows your in here, Kid's pretending to be you. I think I'll play along with his game, see how much he knows. I stole your phone back for you so call me if anything happens. I'll come back later to check on you," She said leaving the room,"Just don't leave, you'll ruin everything."
"Yes mum."