Yeah not much to say here this time, hope someone out there is finding this story interesting.
Well without further ado I hand you back to Shinichi the unreliable narrator.
Chapter 13: Suspicion
The road outside the window keeps moving as we drive closer to the scene of the crime.
The person driving me there is Takagi-keiji, Megure-keibu had called me to the scene but this is a bit of a special case, I wasn't coming as a detective but rather to ID the victim.
Of course, after doing what I've been summoned for I'm sure they'll gladly let me help investigate and find the truth of the matter. After all… the police believe the victim might be Conan.
They don't really need me to ID him. Between size and approximate time of death it's easy enough to narrow down the identity, but it's important for someone who knows the victim to ID them, and out of everyone I spent more time with Conan than most- he has no parents, he has friends from school but we can't exactly let the children near the rotting corpse of one of their friends. So I'm the only option.
Still... I wonder what happened?
Conan had disappeared from my house suddenly months ago, I thought it probably had something to do with the drug he'd taken or the company so I'd claimed he went back to stay with his parents but from the looks of things now that may have been the wrong move.
I can already imagine how the conversation with the police will go- when I tell them again that I'd sent him back home they'll want to get in touch with the boy's parents to see if they know anything, the problem is 'Conan' was never a real identity so he doesn't have parents that can be contacted. I'll need to prepare an excuse after all I can't just tell the police 'ah, no I don't have a way to contact them at all, I sent him home without ever meeting or even speaking to his parents' at best that would only make me look like an irresponsible fool, and at worst it would cast unneeded suspicion on me for having lied about his parents and delaying the discovery that he was missing to begin with.
I've unintentionally aided the criminal in this case by keeping quiet for as long as I have, but what other choice is there? I can't exactly start telling the truth now, without any evidence no one would ever believe this tale of drugs making someone younger, and an influential company seeking the means of immortality. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't had…
On second thought, why do I believe it?
Haibara is one thing, a second person giving the same story in absence of the influence of the first, and her knowledge of medicine definitely makes it clear that she's not the child she appears to be. Conan was also smart but I never really knew who he was before I found him shrunk at Tropical land, I didn't see him shrink and he never actually gave me any evidence- despite that I definitely believed the whole story right away.
The car pulls to a stop, we've arrived at the crime scene.
Why can't I remember why I was so willing to believe Conan and Haibara's story? Does it have something to do with that note I left for myself about remembering the truth? Have I really forgotten something important?
I can think about that later, I should focus on the mystery in front of me for now.
As I step out of the car I'm hit with an almost disorienting sense of deja vu, I've seen this place before but this is my first time actually being here. So why is this the same garbage dump that's appeared in my dreams lately?
The stench in the dreams didn't do this place justice at all, it smells absolutely awful here, so much so that I'm almost feeling a bit lightheaded.
Following behind Takagi-keiji I approach the scene and am let in under the caution tape. That's when I finally see the body.
He looks awful, another thing the dreams hadn't really prepared me for. It wouldn't be strange for someone to not recognize him at this point in decay, the flesh has already begun to liquify making it impossible to judge from the face, but I can tell. Detective instincts? The power of camaraderie? No. The bone structure matches up, the height would be the same, judging by the amount of flesh the weight would be too, and while it's a mess at the moment the hair remains.
"That's definitely him…" I say somberly as I step in next to Megure-keibu.
I had nothing to gain from denying the truth here, if anything it decreased the need for them to try dna testing him and finding the dna of a missing or presumed dead teen or adult. That would just complicate the matter.
It's not that I don't want the criminal brought to justice but it's most likely one of the mercenaries hired by the company and I'd prefer the police to not catch wind of the strangeness involving the company until I've gotten some real evidence, if they start some large scale operation too early then it may alert the company and they'll start covering up incriminating evidence, all they'd have to do is pick one or two scapegoats for all the criminal activity and then the rest of them can feign innocence. At that point the police wouldn't be able to do anything.
"That's a shame…. Conan-kun was such a young boy with a bright future ahead of him…" Megure-keibu starts, "Now-"
"Before you even ask… I don't have any way to contact his parents." When you want to hide something it's best to stick to the truth as much as possible, helps you keep your story straight, "I didn't see either of them in person, and don't even know their names. Even his surname 'Edogawa' wouldn't be of any use investigating, it was a fake name given to him for his safety… I don't know his real name."
"A fake identity for his safety? Kudo-kun, please explain."
It's not an entirely unheard of practice, it's common to do what can be done to protect witnesses or victims, even as far as relocation and covering up their identity when needed.
Megure knows this but he's asking anyway to confirm whether or not this is one of those cases. If 'Conan' was being protected as a witness there would be case records that could be looked into, it could even end up being important information for this case. A case dangerous enough to result in a child needing to go into hiding and be separated from his family could very well hold potential clues and perhaps even motive for the culprit behind the current murder- surely that's what he's thinking right now.
Right there's no getting around it, I'll have to bluff for this one.
"His family was involved with a confidential case, he came to stay with me with the hopes that I could keep him safe while investigating. It was believed that the danger had passed and he could safely return to his family… but it would seem that was wrong. Unfortunately I can't tell you any details about the case they were involved with, everything's being kept secret by someone higher up the chain of command, I only got involved myself because I happened to rescue Conan from some of the culprits endangering him…"
Bringing the chain of command into it makes it more difficult for him to pry, especially if I don't name any names. If something is being kept secret by the higher ups then there's probably a reason for it, hopefully he'll assume that he'd be given whatever clearance for the information if it were expected to be related to this case.
His phone rings, he glances at the screen and quickly answers it. Something important to do with the investigation of this case no doubt. This is good, he'll be distracted from the conversation we were having, perhaps he'll even end up with something he has to take care of immediately and he won't be able to ask more.
The inspector makes a loud confused noise, "Hmmm?!"
I can't make out what's being said on the other end of the call.
"... and you're sure of this? You double checked?"
Inspector Megure turning a bit pale. Must be some pretty surprising news.
"But how can that be?!" He's shouting now. I suppose that's not particularly unusual for him though, he always shouts a bit when he gets heated. What I want to know now is what's got him riled up this time.
I take a step towards the body ready to start investigating, but Megure-keibu puts a hand on my shoulder and stops me, "Sorry Shinichi-kun, you can't touch anything, you're a suspect."
I stop as the words turn in my head.
I'm a suspect.
So the company was aware that I was looking into them after all, and now they're pinning a crime on me to get me out of the picture. I'm almost flattered they see me as such a threat, but this will be easily taken care of when I find some evidence that proves I couldn't have done it.
It's hard to pinpoint exactly when he was killed with the state the body is in, but I'm unlikely to have an alibi- a side effect of staying out of the public eye for my recent investigations. I'll need to find out what evidence is pointing to me so I can prove my innocence.
I'm not the culprit, and Megure-keibu knows me well enough to know I wouldn't murder a child so surely he told me not to investigate because I'm under suspicion only as a formality- it's like saying 'we know you're innocent but we'll have to investigate this without your help to prove that beyond a shadow of a doubt.' It's definitely the right move from a legal standpoint, you can't just have a suspect taking part in the investigation they'd obviously dispose of any evidence that might point to them, however whether or not it's good that I'll be mostly left out of the investigation will depend on how well the company implicated me.
It would be nice if the police actually managed to catch some of the company's mercenaries for this, but I'm sure they're at least somewhat competent in covering their own tracks, it's more likely that once I'm proven innocent the truth of the case will have to remain unsolved until I can get more information to take down the company as a whole.
I wait for Megure-keibu to get off the phone before speaking up, "Mind telling me why I'm a suspect?"
"I really shouldn't be telling you…" he considers for a bit before continuing, "But… forensics found your dna on the corpse. Not just a little either, it's all over the scene apparently- the blood, the hair, what's left of the skin. Even the trash he was found with has your fingerprints on it. They double checked, but they can't seem to find any dna or fingerprints besides yours. Even said that if they didn't know better they'd have thought you were the victim here."
That's pretty damning. Well played.
Dna evidence on its own is usually easy to dismiss, but in this case not only will there be little else to go on but the overwhelming amount of it is going to be near impossible for the police to ignore.
It's going to be difficult to prove that I'm not the culprit in this case, but for better or worse I'll have to entrust that job to the police- letting me get directly involved myself would be showing a clear bias in the investigation. They'll probably have me vacate the premises soon, often cases I'm involved with end up being exceptions but generally the police wouldn't want suspects or witnesses sticking around the scene, it just makes it all too simple to falsify evidence.
I'll just have to stay out of the way until there's evidence to support that I didn't do it. Besides I have something else I need to focus on- Conan's real identity.
I hadn't concerned myself with it until now, but now I find myself regretting never seriously asking who he had been before he was poisoned. The police should have found something that led to his identity when dna testing the body, but the fact that they didn't is telling in it's own way. They tested hair, skin and fingerprints- even double checked, but they didn't find anything pointing to the victim or any other possible suspect. Only mine. Why is the only dna they can find on his body mine? I can only think of a few possible explanations but even then they're all completely ridiculous.
Theory 1: the company soaked the body in some kind of chemical that would break down the body's dna before they disposed of it. Perhaps they did this because they knew that Conan was someone they'd tried and failed to kill with their drug so they hid the identity of the body to prevent anyone from coming to the conclusion that there was a way that a human could spontaneously become younger.
Unlikely, they don't really have anything to gain from all that effort, unless his identity would cause the crime to be traced back to them there's no reason for them to go this far to hide everything.
Theory 2: Conan was my identical twin. Twins do typically have some variation in dna but it's not unusual for them to have similar enough dna for it to appear to be the same person if not checked carefully. And it would certainly explain why he looks so much like I did when I was a child.
Also unlikely, why would my parents be hiding from me that I had a twin? I certainly wouldn't put it past Mom to just do it for fun but Dad probably would have convinced her that was a bad idea. Besides it's not as if we didn't have the money for him to be raised in the same home, and even if he were my twin it'd be a ridiculous coincidence for us to have both happened to be at Tropical Land at the same time and for me to have found him shortly after he was poisoned.
Theory 3: Conan was a clone of me created by the company. A clone would certainly have identical dna, and it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch that a company that can make drugs that can shrink a human would be able to create clones, and since the head of the company is Agasa-hakase it makes sense they'd be able to get ahold of a sample of my dna to use for whatever cloning process. Perhaps the reason they poisoned him was because he'd escaped.
It makes a fair amount of sense but I'd say it's even more unlikely. The theories are getting a bit far-fetched at this point but I can't deny it's not impossible given the evidence on hand. However I can't think of any particular reason the company would have had to clone me.
Theory 4: If time travel was involved that would resolve most of the questions here but not without creating more. Time travel would mean either Conan or I would have to be from the future, and because I have no recollection of such a thing it would have to be Conan. That then begs the question- why would he come from the future and how? Could it be connected to Haibara and the poison? He and Haibara both claimed it to be cause by a poison but what if it were a necessity of their means of time travel and-
No. No. That's not even worth considering without more evidence to support it than just someone who either doesn't have dna or has dna similar enough to mine for the police to identify it as mine.
I'm almost embarrassed by how quickly I've had to delve into the realm of science fiction just to potentially explain this.
'Once you've eliminated the impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth'. I sigh as I think about that iconic line. Unfortunately I don't have enough evidence even to eliminate any of those theories even with how increasingly ridiculous they are.
I'll just have to reexamine everything I know about Conan and try to put the pieces together into a more logical story once I'm able to be proven innocent and return home.
... At the time I didn't suspect that I wouldn't be returning home that night.