The only good thing about being dragged into this whole scenario is that I learned all the officers names; all of Shinichi's comrades in the world of crime-fighting. Which I still had a hard time taking Shinichi seriously in. A high schooler aiding the police force. What could he do that they can't?

Anyway, officer Chiba checked our alibi's. Then Inspector Megure went around introducing each of the suspects to Shinichi; "this is Yamasaki Hiro, husband to the deceased, and the owner of this mansion. Around the time of the murder he claims to have been preparing for the party. This makes him the prime suspect, being one room away from the victim."

"Oh," Shinichi absentmindedly answered. To Hiro, Shinichi's stare must have felt piercing. I grinned nervously, knowing he wasn't looking at Hiro, but me through his peripherals.

Megure side-stepped toward the old man, "this is Yuri Nagagashi, a guest from the party, he says that he was, star gazing in the courtyard, but no one saw him to confirm this."

Then he scooted to Rita, "Moving on, Rita Yamasaki, daughter to Hiro and Mayuri. She acts as a maid to the household, and from what Hiro told us, she was busy with chores. Sachiko also confirmed this, but it's loose, at best, Rita still had opportunity. Not to mention, the snake in question," he flipped through the papers, "the Japanese Yamakagashi snake was her pet."

Whaa— pet? Who keeps those? I internally shivered. And Rita's the daughter of those two? They didn't seem like a family at all.

Inspector Megure finally got to me, "next is Sachiko Keiko. She-"

"Inspector..." Shinichi interrupted. "No need."

Inspector Megure took in Shinichi's reaction, "you know her?"

"Oh, I know her..." he loomed in close, evoking a wide apologetic grin from me.

"Then lastly, Watanabe Tanaka, another guest from tonight's party. For most of the time he claims to have been in the restroom. We are unable to confirm this. However, some time before they discovered the body Sachiko confirmed that he accompanied her for a span of time." Megure closed the book he read from then pointed at the Philosopher, and me. "When we matched up alibi's, these two had lost track of time. So, we're fairly certain they have an alibi for each other if the stories they gave us are true."

"Should we clear them off of the suspect list then?" Chiba inquired.

"Not until the case is closed," Megure ended.

Takagi brought Shinichi up to speed about certain details of the case. When that ended, Shinichi dragged me off for a private conversation, "what were you thinking hanging around all the suspects!?"

I stomped, "It's not like I met those people on purpose. Besides, I don't know that guy," I signaled out Nagagashi.

"One guy, as opposed to all the other more suspicious suspects."

I chuckled, "suspicious suspects."

"What?"

"It rhymes."

He facepalmed, "just— come on. I need to investigate Hiro's room." Shinichi dragged me out through the halls.

Right as Hiro's bedroom came into sight, Shinichi swung his arm straight out, effectively bringing me to a halt. I gripped his sleeve, trying to move it out of the way to no avail. I had half a mind to chew him out for stopping like this, but at the sight of his solemn expression the words caught in my throat. I followed his line of vision to Mayuri's bedroom; directly ahead. Two forensics men walked out, carrying something between them. The object appeared black, basically shaped like a human. As it should've been. A body bag. As soon as they were gone Shinichi proceeded forward. Only once his arm left my grasp did I realize how tightly I had been holding on.

Shinichi entered Hiro's room, so I followed. That was a body. A dead body. Seeing it before my eyes felt unreal. It's more feasible to understand that they're putting on a play. I can imagine when they leave behind the stage the actors get out of character, remove the make-up, then bow as we applauded their performance. But there's no stage. And this play's sick.

"Hey," I called for Shinichi's attention. "Let's go home. Let the cops deal with this."

He grinned mischievously, "scared?"

"H— ha!" I folded my arms, "nothing can spook me."

Despite my act, he soothingly stroked the top of my head, "sorry you had to see that." Then Shinichi gently leaned in close with a little more pep in his voice he asked, "better?"

I inwardly laughed, all you did was pet me, like a puppy, now I'm just supposed to be okay? And, in all actuality, he did make things better. I grabbed his hand and held it with admiration in my eyes, "the magic touch."

Shinichi laughed, "I feel special." Then it was back to business. "Keiko, I brought you here to ask if you noticed any difference. Since you were in this room before the murder occurred, do you see anything out of place? I'm almost certain the murderer is someone who had access to this room, but I just can't place something."

I immediately spoke up, "I heard it was Rita's fascination to keep those poisonous snakes as pets. Or maybe Mayuri let the snake out by accident, and she couldn't run from it 'cause she's blind."

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." Shinichi quoted.

My shoulders fell. "...huh?"

"Put simply, don't blame someone without proof, my dear Watson." He winked.

"Who are you callin' Watson? Mister mystery maniac... Besides, what proof have you got?"

"In due time you'll see, Keiko. Now..." Shinichi tapped his foot impatiently. I shrugged, defeated, and looked around Hiro's room. "Nothing seems different." I approached the phone, like before, then mentally recalled meeting Hiro. A piece of my memory seemed off, however I couldn't place it. "But why here?"

Shinichi exhaled, then stated, "the workers had rumors floating about that Hiro and Mayuri were passing private letters through a hole between their rooms, I believe that's also how the snake entered Mayuri's room."

My brow raised suspiciously. "Where, per say, is this hole?"

"In his bathroom. In Mayuri's room however, it's in a closet."

We walked through Hiro's bedroom to the bathroom. "you mean this one?" I pointed to a small hole, fairly noticeable in the center of the wall.

"Yes."

I peeked through, only to see the dark inside of Hiro's wall, "this just looks like a hole in the wall... Not a peephole into Mayuri's closet."

"No, it is," Shinichi angled my head to see more right. "Look."

"Nothing."

"Turn more right."

Oh. Through the hole, to the far right, I could see a light shining into the hollow wall. "I see! It's so far though," I stuffed my hand through the hole, yet only my fingers could fit. "Somehow, I doubt anyone could fit their hands through this."

"My theory is that they attached the letters to the end of some wire, and passed it back and forth that way," Shinichi mumbled off toward the end, as if he were falling deeper into thought.

"Don't you think some letters would have dropped between the wall if they exchanged messages like that? Wouldn't the same happen to the snake?" Shinichi continually stared at the wall, obviously lost in his thoughts. I pouted. "Fine, don't listen. I was just giving my opinion."

His concentrated expression smoothed out as he apologized, "no, you're right. I thought the same thing." Then he trailed back off into mental concentration.

"Now that I think about it, why so secretive? Couldn't they just... you know... talk?"

"The rumors say that their relationship is sketchy at best, my guess is Mayuri refused to get closer than a few notes through the wall."

"Hoooold on! Now that I think about it, Mayuri was blind. How was she reading?"

Shinichi opened his mouth, but was interrupted. His father walked in, all confident smiles, "they checked her medical records, she wasn't actually blind, just wearing contacts and putting on a façade for the world." His father smirked. "Hmm, love is strange. Don't you agree, Son?"

Shinichi seemed to feign ignorance on that, and changed the subject, "why are you here?"

"I came to aid in the investigation. But you appear to be doing fine without me. Right, Keiko?"

I nodded when Shinichi refused to answer.

His father hooked my arm. "Then we'll be going," Shinichi thought nothing of the scenario, and went back to his investigation.

"Ah-" I pulled away when he got past the door. "I wanna stay."

"You are aware there's a murderer afoot."

"It's not like I'm in danger. Besides, I wanna stay."

He grinned knowingly. "Then keep an eye on him, okay?" He walked out the door, down the halls with long graceful strides, similar to Shinichi's. Although Shinichi denies it, the two really are a lot alike.

"Okay," I quietly answered.

Shinichi exited the bathroom. "Oh well," he shrugged, "Inspector!"

"Yes?" Inspector Megure answered, only just stepping through the door.

"Did you manage to get what I asked for?"

"Yes, I was also able to get an old buddy of mine to come down and handle him."

"Hey..." My voice quivered. "Handle who?"

Shinichi answered with a grin.

Shinichi followed my jittery reactions with laughing eyes. "Keiko?"

I sharply glared at him, "NO." At such an intense answer his expression saddened. My voice weakened at the sight, yet my answer remained, "...no."

They were conducting an experiment that would inevitably reveal the murderer. Thus, they gathered every suspect into the room to witness the mystery unveiled. Shinichi seemed intent on me watching his theory come to life, but I refused. A snake's involved. Not the poisonous one from before, but poisonous or not my nerves were still recovering from the last one, so I refused to get close.

Still, Shinichi didn't want me missing out, so beforehand he told me how it should all pan out. However, what should have happened, didn't. The experiment failed. The snake couldn't stretch from the hole in Hiro's bathroom to Mayuri's without bending down to the dark between of the wall. Even with a wire as guidance, the snake wouldn't slither across.

I clenched the doorframe, "now what?"

For a moment Shinichi sunk into surprise, his ruined theory apparently devastating. However he recovered with lightning speed, like a spark jump-starting his confidence, this failure inadvertently lit his spirits anew. "Interesting," he grinned.

My cheeks tingled at the turn in his mood. Maybe it's the suit he wore, but never before have I seen him so captivating. What's more is that looking wasn't enough, I soon found myself staring. The overconfident tilt in his grin, the glint of knowledge in his eyes, and the aura he emitted; challenge the impossible.

"Keiko," Takagi addressed me with a laugh, "you're, um, all red."

A few other men in uniform chuckled along with him.

What's so funny? I thought. "Ya got a problem?!" My shout proved ineffective as their laughter increased. So, I retreated to Shinichi's side. "You got it yet?"

"No," Shinichi admitted despite his enthusiastic grin. No surprise there, Shinichi's greatest joy seems to be unraveling a tangled mystery such as this one.

"From your look, I can tell it won't be long. You've probably got the whole case laid out like a floor plan in your head. You can walk sideways, vertically, up, down, forward and backwards through the details." I cupped his arm reassuringly, "Keep walking, and I'll just have to hope you trip over a clue."

"I don't trip over clues. I find them." Shinichi must have felt the point wasn't getting across for he exaggerated, "—like a sleuth. Which I am."

"Like reading between the in-between of the lines," I airily commented. His eyebrows rose at my response, so I asked, "have I given you a clue?" At the same time though a clue occurred to me, I released Shinichi's arm, and focused on remembering what's been nagging at the back of my mind. I gasped, "H-Hiro! I know now. He had a cane. It seemed really old, and important to him. But now it's gone."

Shinichi noted my words, and absently repeated, "between the in-between." Then suddenly he jumped. "Inspector!"

My memory brought a break in the case, though I'm not exactly sure why. Shinichi put together an extensive search. That, in my opinion, went on longer than it should have. We found Hiro's cane under some loose tiles in his bathroom. After forensics investigated all it had to offer, Shinichi revealed that the cane could be opened. The ends of the cane twisted off revealing that the inside had been hollowed out, like a pipe.

"But the trick the murderer used assured that Mayuri would be the only one to open it," He twisted an end back on, "see this?" Shinichi pointed to little dots at the top.

"Yeah," Megure answered.

"It's air holes"

"For what?"

He had the handler slip the snake into the cane, and answered, "so it could breathe." Then he shut the cane completely and fit it through the wall.

"I see! That must be how they passed letters back and forth as well."

"But tonight it wasn't a letter she found." Chiba lamented.

Hiro growled, outraged, "you accuse me because of this? That doesn't mean anything. Where's your evidence, Detective? And don't say anything about fingerprints, mine should be all over it!"

Shinichi nodded. "And I'm sure there will be no trace of a snake as well since you cleaned it so thoroughly, but it's not your prints we're looking for."

Forensics came back with the confirmation that only Hiro's fingerprints were found upon it.

"Your extra precautions have you at a loss." Shinichi stated. "Keiko's fingerprints should have been present as well."

Hiro's eyes widened, and his jaw fell in the most dread-filled manner. He faced me with such an expression, as though I were a judge sentencing him then and there to prison. I couldn't help but draw back at the accusations his eyes laid upon me. Then he slouched forward dejectedly. "Very well. The fight is lost within me, Detective. I can only hope confessing will lighten my sentence." Hiro stood, back erect, and boldly said, "I killed my wife."

My breath caught at how easily the words left his lips.

"She was intolerable," he spat. "However, she was not always so. I remember a day, when we would address one another with sweet little letters of love. A pastime which soon blossomed into such an everyday thing, that I made this connection. Our secret." Hiro brushed his fingers against the wall which connected their rooms. "The shortest span of time after our marriage came and went, and we grew apart. She turned strange. Mayuri sought out the attention of others in the oddest of ways. She manipulated the compassion of those around her, consumed their coos and wishes for good health like a rejuvenating fountain. This led her to fabricating illnesses, taking up medicine she had no use for. Even wearing contacts to appear blind. What's worse is that her friends and family all gathered like lost sheep to her pity party. And when Rita, our dear sweet daughter, turned ten, Mayuri forced her act as a maid to tend to her ailments. It pained me, but Rita refused to go against her own mother. Not long after, her medicine increased, and Mayuri could no longer be called sane. Rarely would she leave her bedroom. And the letters, our last sacred bond of a once burning love, become full of hate. I could no longer take it..."

A retort bursted angrily from my lips, "but that—!"

However Shinichi swiftly interrupted me, "if that is what led you to murder, who's to say who needed saving? Mayuri who desperately needed someone to guide her out of that spell. Or you who did nothing as she withered away and became a stranger. In the end, how could you conclude on ending her life? When so many answers were in plain sight."

Hiro said nothing. And Rita had bowed her head long ago, her quaking shoulders the only indication of how she felt as the cops took Hiro away.

The party simmered down to a dull roar for those who chose to stay. However, with the entire mansion closed off by the police, the orchestra, and all the party's attendants had moved to the courtyard.

All the suspects, including Shinichi and I, were dismissed. We gathered in the courtyard, where I found a fancy wooden carved bench to sit at, and vent my tears.

"Keiko," Shinichi scooched in next to me and offered a smile, "cheer up."

I swiped at my tears then responded, "you're so backwards, why smile after something like that? They only needed an intervention. No one even tried to fix anything. If they had only acted and spoke to one another instead of resorting to murder..."

Shinichi's expression transformed into an empathetic one. "I know. Why people even take murder into consideration is beyond me. But, what's done is done. It will do you no good to dwell on ideas like this, the sooner you put the memory away, the better."

"You're right." I managed to lift the corners of my mouth. "There's no use in talking about what we couldn't prevent."

Shinichi silently nodded, then pulled me from my seat.

Only for Ran to tackle me back down, shouting, "Keiko!"

"Are you okay?" Sonoko asked.

"I'm fine," I blurted, their sudden appearance a surprise to me. "You?"

Sonoko fiddled nervously with the hem of her skirt. "We're fine, but you— I'm sorry! Ran told me what happened with the snake. It's our fault that—"

I shook my head. "Ran and I already went over this, you two owe me, remember?"

"Milkshakes?" She inquired with growing amusement.

"Milkshakes," I happily agreed.

Shinichi wandered out of earshot, and Sonoko took that opportunity to ask what was truly on her mind, "so what went down when I took my eyes off of you two?" Sonoko narrowed her eyes, snickering, "you two were at each others throat on the way over here. Now, not even five minutes ago, you and Shinichi were hip to hip."

"Nothing's happened." After a brief moment of consideration, I amended my statement, "nothing much. We made up."

Sonoko crossed her arms. "You two were gone for hours."

"There was a murder," I threw my hands out, "what do you think happened?"

"Something!" she shouted. "you don't get caught up in murder, and come out the best of friends! You two were practically hugging when we found you."

"That— hugging looks completely different!"

Ran chuckled, "that wasn't a good comeback."

Sonoko laughed, and added, "no one can have a good comeback when they're in denial."

My cheeks blazed with embarrassment, "go away!"

Almost as if on cue, Ran's Dad drove up in a taxi. Yet, before they left and saved me from any further humiliation, the two teased me with kissy noises.

"Bye!" I yelled, hoping to immediately end their banter with my voice alone.

"Bye!" They waved and winked.

Shinichi returned, giving a quizzical look, "what was that about?"

"It's not important." I rubbed my temples, and rose to my feet. "Just forget everything you might have seen."

I dropped my hands, then noticed how Shinichi stuffed his into his pockets. A closed off stance. I waited, thinking maybe he had something to say, yet the silence stretched on for an uncomfortable amount of time.

Shinichi coughed, "Kei-Keiko. You, uhm... you—"

Oh, this was painfully awkward. He was awkward, This had to be stopped. So, I interrupted him with a laugh. "You, uhm—?" Then I continued his sentence for him in a tone I thought was similar to his, "look astonishing, Keiko! The dress which you adorn is but a bin bag in the presence of your beauty."

Shinichi's eyebrow twitched, annoyance settling into his features as he simply stated, "conceited."

I faltered. My performance acting as him was flawless, how dare he! "Hey—!"

Once more, Shinichi cleared his throat, "I suppose you would say this then, Shinichi, you're dashing! Any living being in the world must feel ashamed in the presence of your awe inspiring, oh so handsome looks." He then struck a model pose.

I laughed, "and who's the conceited one?"

Shinichi grinned, bowing before me as he extended his hand to mine, "care for one last dance?"

I smiled and accepted his gesture. "I'd be honored." Allowing him to guide me into the rhythm of a gentle waltz. "But must it be our last?" I playfully teased. "I'd be sad to leave you tonight, only to remember you later as a handsome stranger."

"Hm." Shinichi mock-pouted. "And that's exactly what I was aiming for." He shrugged. "Fine. We'll dance anytime you want. Just promise not to leave like that again. When you disappeared tonight, I was afraid you went home upset."

A chuckle escaped me. "I won't leave, I promise."

"...And..." His gaze went skyward. "You do look okay in that dress. Sorry for not saying so earlier."

"It's okay." I ran my hand down the lapels of his suit. "You don't look half bad yourself."

A small chuckle escaped him at our obvious offhanded compliments. "Thanks."