Nor'hanger Abbey
A Detective Conan Fanfic
By
Deborah (Kosagi) Brown

Acknowledgements:
All usual disclaimers regarding ownership of Detective Conan and related characters apply. This stuff is copyrighted to Aoyama Gosho.

Much thanks to Ysabet and Ryo Hoshi for their beta-reads, without which I'd probably have far too many spelling, continuity and grammatical errors.

Chapter 5: Revelations – In which entirely too many secrets are revealed

Kuroba leapt off me so fast I thought he was going to go through the hedge. He was standing in the shadows, his face obscured. Even though he was wearing street clothes, the pale moonlight seemed to turn his outfit into the white tuxedo he wore when he 'worked'. "What?" he stammered.

The images were still hammering through my brain. Images that showed me his true nature. I pulled myself to my feet and wondered what I should do. He was staring at me with utter shock and not a bit of panic. And I can't blame him. I took a deep breath. "Kid, you're a pain. This is a fine time for you to trip over your own two feet!"

"What did you call me?"

I blinked at him innocently. "Call you?"

"You You didn't?" He paused. Stared at me. Shook his head hard. "No. No. I'm not going to let you pull a fast one. You know who I am. I don't know how. Maybe it has to do with your other talent, but you know!"

I went silent. So he'd been watching me. No great surprise that he would. A guy who lives on his wits the way he had to would have no choice but to be keeping an eye on someone acting as weird as I was. "Does it matter how?" I said finally and leaned into the crypt. "I can't prove it. C'mon, Kuroba. Help me get her inside. She's freezing."

***

The trip back to the main house was a silent one. For one thing, Toda-san was no light-weight and most of their breath was needed to assist in the effort of carrying her. For another, neither really knew what to say to the other. At least I don't think he knows what to say, the young thief thought. Neither do I for that matter. It was strange, immeasurably so, to find himself working in tandem with someone who by all rights would be an enemy. Someone who, under ordinary circumstances, would be doing his level best to capture him. Someone who, despite all that, knew the truth. Oh, Hakuba and Akako believed, though they couldn't prove it. Hattori Heiji, on the other hand, knew who he was beyond all shadow of doubt. I should be running. I should be making tracks so fast I'd leave skid marks in the air.

***

As we lowered Toda-san onto the couch her eyelids fluttered slightly before she fell back into unconsciousness. Conan hurried into the room with a blanket and covered her up, while Ran examined her forehead. "She's going to need a doctor, soon," she said softly. "I'll go call"

I stopped her. "Use my cell-phone," I told her. "And we all stay in this room." Someone had knocked Toda-san out and stuck her in that crypt. Somebody who hadn't meant her to be found and had probably meant her to die. Somebody who was probably still in the abbey and a danger to the rest of us.

"But"

"Please, Ran-neechan. I'm a little scared." Conan tugged at Ran's hand and held onto her fingers. Oh, I didn't doubt he was a bit frightened, but for Ran, not for himself. Ran smiled down at him and stroked his hair lightly in a comforting gesture.

"I don't understand. What's worrying you, Heiji," Kazuha demanded.

I told her point blank. "There's a would-be murderer here. Someone tried to kill her. They may try and kill us because we found her." The girls' expressions hardened as comprehension hit. "We didn't find her just flopped out in the maze. She was hidden in a crypt. Someone didn't want her found."

Ran gave the other two girls a sharp determined look. "We don't let anyone else in here unless Hattori figures out who the killer is."

"What killer?" The speaker was Wanabe-san, walking into the room with a casual air. "What's all the excite TODA-SAN!"

I gotta give those three girls credit. The understanding that there was a killer in the house, and that that killer might be any one of the adults made them pull together. Ran moved to one side, Kazuha to the other, with Aoko just behind the couch. They didn't take up defensive postures, but I knew they wouldn't let Wanabe, or anyone for that matter, touch Toda-san.

Standing up, partially blocking Wanabe's view, I grabbed my hat and pulled it brim forward. Then I stuck my hands in my pockets as I eyed the lawyer. Conan was moving into position near something he could kick and Kuroba – well I had no idea what he'd do, but I expected it to be spectacular and possibly aggravating. "Yeah," I said. "We found her in the maze."

He looked puzzled and very confused. "The maze? But the maze is blocked off. There's no way through to the center."

I raised a brow, glancing at Kuroba and Conan with a faintly amused grin. "Did I say it was at the center?"

"I'm absolutely certain you didn't, Hattori-kun," he answered, grinning back at me. "Why did you think that we found her there, Wanabe-san?"

Wanabe started to stammer. "I just meant that it was blocked all the way to the center" he started to protest, but the mockery in my eyes stopped him. "All right. You have me. You found the secret passage, didn't you?" He shoved his hands into his pockets and watched me with a cocky grin. "Bunch of kids poking your noses where you don't belong."

I shrugged. "Maybe, but it's a good thing we did. Toda-san would be dead now, otherwise." That shocked him and I realized, "Oh. You thought she was dead."

The lawyer managed to regain his good humor. "That's right. I did. So I had to get her out of the way. We couldn't afford to have the police in on this and it was obvious from what she said to you that she'd guessed something."

It didn't surprise me that he said 'we'. I'd expected he wasn't the only one involved in whatever was up at the abbey, but what did surprise me was the voice that came from behind us. "It would, after all, have ruined our plans." Nakamura-sensei's voice. Its accent had thickened, become sharper and heavier. A street-punk accent. "Don't move. Any of you, or the girl gets it."

I looked, slowly, over my shoulder and winced. We should have realized the passage downstairs wasn't the only one. A secret door had opened behind Aoko and she was now grasped tightly in the crook of Nakamura's elbow, his other hand clenching a knife to her throat. I wasn't surprised that he was involved in whatever crime they were up to. His curious behavior earlier had set off alarm bells, after all, despite Agasa-hakase telling Conan that the man was indeed a professor of English History at Tokyo University. I would have bet my hat that the man calling himself Nakamura was someone entirely different.

Kuroba's expression stayed ingenuous, but I could see a slight tensing in his manner. His hands stayed out in the open, though. He wouldn't dare make a move unless and until it was certain to do the trick. Aoko's eyes met mine and though she was obviously scared, she was fighting to keep her calm, to wait for a moment when we could save her. Provided, of course, that such a moment came.

***

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN, DAMN, DAMN! He watched Aoko with a sense of impotency. These two had the upper hand for the moment and it was his fault. He'd been casing this place. If anyone should have known that passage was there, it was him. How could I have missed the damned thing? He eyed Hattori, knew the Osaka-ko was thinking as rapidly as he was, as rapidly as Conan had to be. The trouble was, they would have to work together and they would have to do it right without any knowledge of what was on each other's minds. So wait, Kid. Wait for your chance and grab it when it comes. The way you always do when the luck of the draw goes against you.

***

The door opened and two figures walked in. James and Sarah Aden. Their reaction, or lack thereof, told me they were in up to their earlobes, so I wasn't at all surprised when James-san said, "Oh, lovely. How do you propose we clean this mess up, Wanabe? They aren't all going to fit into the crypt."

"Good question," Wanabe answered. "I figure we'll have to lock them up somewhere until we've gotten the cash from Abe-san. Once we've done that, we get the hell out of here. 300 million in American money will get us pretty far before this bunch of meddlers get to the police."

"Aren't you assuming we'll cooperate?" I asked softly.

"You will if you don't want the little girl hurt," Nakamura said, tightening his grip on Aoko's throat and grinning at me. I looked over at Kuroba and could see Conan beyond. Neither of them seemed ready to cave in. We might not know each other's minds, but we were on the same wavelength. This bunch had been willing to try and kill Toda-san. Her comment to me could have been read as anything, but, "The wicked flee where no man pursueth," I muttered in English and saw both Kuroba and Conan nod ever so slightly. They knew as well as I did that if we cooperated the criminals would still kill us.

"What are you talking about, brat?" Nakamura demanded.

I shrugged. "If you really were a professor of English History you'd be able to speak the language better," I answered and something lit up in Kuroba's eyes. He'd had a thought, I realized.

***

The first thing that had to happen was freeing Aoko. He felt the comforting presence of his card-gun beneath his jacket and glanced sharply at Hattori as James moved towards the Osaka-ko. "English isn't my language, but what was it Napoleon said? Après moi, les deluge," he said, praying that Hattori's apparent skill with languages had extended itself to French as well as English. James stopped and stared at him, "That's French," the blonde protested

He slapped his forehead in an exaggerated gesture of disgust. "Oh. Yeah, I guess you're right." Then he fired his card gun - drawn in that moment of distraction - the ammunition burying itself in Nakamura's knife hand. Startled, Nakamura's hand jerked just enough to give Aoko her chance. He had no doubt she'd take it.

***

With a yell that split the ears, Aoko grabbed Nakamura's arm, twisted it into a lock and made a single sharp move that dropped him to the ground. I made my move then, together with Ran, and James fell to a simultaneous kick and punch. Meanwhile, Kazuha had made for Wanabe, only to come to a skidding halt as the door broke open and Fujiwara came in, gun held out and ready. "Oh crap." I muttered. "Hold on, Kazuha." She was too close. Too damned close. I felt my heart sink at the thought of what was about to happen. Not even Conan, his hand on the button of his gym shoe that set off its power mode, could possibly move fast enough to save her, I feared. He froze.

Wanabe breathed a sigh of relief. "There you are. I was afraid you'd gotten lost. You're just in time."

"Yeah, it looks like I am," Fujiwara agreed. "Though it doesn't look like I was all that necessary after all." He aimed the gun straight at Wanabe. "You're under arrest, Wanabe Shiro. For theft. For attempted fraud and attempted murder. Oh, yes, and smuggling and/or forgery."

Wanabe's eyes bugged out and he stepped backwards. "You you're"

"That's right. I'm with the police – Detective Futaba Akashio, at your service. I've been investigating you bunch ever since Abe-san came to us with her concerns over your professional behavior. It seems she suspected you were trying to scam her with various English treasures that you'd supposedly discovered in the process of assisting with the restoration of the house."

"You made your biggest mistake telling me that the jewelry had been found in the maze crypt," Heidi, or rather Abe Hiromi, said, taking off her platinum wig and revealing the thick black curls beneath. "You forget that grandpapa used to have me stay here every summer. The maze was the best hide-n-seek place ever, so he had the gardeners take the lid off to make sure I wouldn't accidentally get trapped inside. Overprotective of course. That thing's too heavy for a little girl to move, but I used to pretend it was a boat and go sailing down the Nile. Nothing was there then." She smiled at us. "I really am sorry, children. If I'd known they'd get this violent I'd never have let him invite you. He said it would be great fun to have guests hunting for ghosts. I guess he did it to help cover up what he was up to."

"So," Kuroba said softly, drifting towards the window, "What was the artifact anyway?"

"A fifteenth century crown set with rubies and diamonds," Abe-san said, smiling at him. "But I don't think it's real. Nakamura-sensei was supposed to check it out for me, but since Wanabe-san hired him"

"In other words, a fraud." Conan moved slightly and I could see him lining up a shot. "And a thief along with him."

I moved, ever so slightly, out of the way. While I wasn't going to help Conan on this one, I wouldn't interfere, either. We both would have suspected Kuroba even if I hadn't managed to learn his secret. The rest was up to the Kid to handle.

Kuroba grinned broadly at Conan. "You really can be such an annoyance," he said lightly. "Hey, Aoko," he called over to his companion as she rose up from the floor, having well and truly subdued her attacker. "Apologize to your friend for me, would you? I had to knock him out for a while."

"Friend? What? Who" Then realization hit. "You're"

With a sharp movement, the Kaito Kid shot out the lamp above us with his card gun. A moment later, in the darkness, I heard a small rough sound, like fabric rubbing harsh against fabric, then the sound of piece of wood striking and shattering the window. A flicker of moonlight caught and glittered against a monocle and gleamed on a white top-hat. "Sorry, little guy. Not this time," he said mockingly. "Give my regards to your father, Aoko-kun!" There was a flurry of white, then the Kid was gone, disappearing into the shadows like the ghost he was sometimes called.

***

He blinked up into the light at the group of people staring down at him. He was in a closet, bound by a rope and wearing nothing but his underwear. "Hey, Aoko. What's up?" he demanded, smiling nervously around. "And what am I doing in here?" Conan's eyes were the ones he most wanted to fool, though, for Aoko didn't want to believe in his true identity. Even then he wasn't sure he'd managed, but it was obvious from the shrunken detective's demeanor that he'd decided to accept the apparent truth that Kuroba Kaito had been impersonated by the Kid in order to permit the well-known thief a chance to case what might be his next theft. As for Hattori I have a feeling he's not so easily convinced.

***

The next day was a quiet one. Abe-san was thrilled with the recordings the girls had come up with and though I suspected Wanabe might have been behind them, I decided not to comment. No point in disappointing them. As for Conan, for someone who'd missed another chance at the Kaito Kid, he was doing okay. So I used the time to find a quiet moment up in the bell-tower in the last hour before our departure, waiting for Kuroba to decide if he wanted to talk to me.

"So."

"So," I said in return, as the nuisance set the trap door down and took up a seat on the balustrade across from me.

"What happened to you?"

I shrugged. "It's not your business really."

"Neither is your knowing mine," he said grimly and I knew he was disturbed and still upset by that fact. I couldn't blame him. It was pretty certain I wasn't feeling much better about it.

"True. But some of it isn't my secret. Suffice to say, I got drugged with something that did something to my mind. As you've already guessed, I see ghosts. Real honest-to-goodness ghosts. Another side-effect is that I can read things about a person by touching them." I gave Kuroba a long, measuring look. "Which, as I'm sure you can guess, means I know last night's drama in your bedroom was a load of hooey."

Kuroba grimaced. "Aoko would have started suspecting. I'm sure you know what it's like, not wanting your girl to know." He laughed suddenly. "My girl. She'd brain me if she heard me call her that."

"So would Kazuha. So would Ran," I agreed, knowing that he knew about Conan. "We three seem to have a lot in common."

"What are you going to do?"

I stood up, looked out onto the sunlit maze. "Nothing. I found out in the most unfair way possible. Conan might not agree, of course, but I don't feel it's right solving a case by touching the criminal and getting what amounts to a confession without so much as a by-your-leave." There was another reason and I said, slowly, "Besides I'm not sure I want to arrest you." I'd seen the reasons he was doing what he was doing, and though his methods were more than slightly illegal, I wasn't absolutely certain I considered them immoral. "Again, Conan probably wouldn't agree. That's why I'm not going to tell him. If he figures out the trick you played, that's up to him. I wouldn't put it past him, though. Be very careful around him for a while, Kid."

"I intend to be." He leaned against the balustrade beside me. "Uh, Hattori, that crack I made earlier? About Toda-san being a ghost? I would never have said something like that if I'd known. I'm glad she didn't become one."

"Yeah, I sorta guessed that. And you were trying to get my goat, weren't you? Trying to figure out what was up with me, and testing out what buttons to push. It worked, too, just better than you'd expected, right?" At his nod, I sighed. "Don't sweat it, Kuroba. I don't think I like you very much, but I'm not holding a grudge at the moment. Just don't make fun of ghosts around me again and we'll be okay."

He went silent. Then, "I suppose you don't want me to go to Osaka, either?"

With a look of faked surprise, I shook my head. "Why ever not? Come to Osaka. Give me a reason to help my father catch you. I'll be right there, ready to salt your tail feathers for you."

He stared at me, then started to laugh. Perforce, so did I.

***

So. Yet another challenge, the more so because he knows who I am. He climbed into Aoko's father's car with a thoughtful air and barely listened to the two talking, Nakamori-san clearly becoming more and more enraged as he realized that the Kaito Kid had been hanging around his little girl and pretending to be her friend. Though I think he'll be fair. No attempts to catch me using his special knowledge. It occurred to him that Hattori had felt a bit sorry for him, that he knew far more about what went inside the Kaito Kid's head than anyone other than the Kid, himself. Knew the pain and hurt and anger hidden beneath the humor. And I'm not sure I like that. He sighed. There wasn't any point in getting upset over it. Hattori knew and that was that. He knew what Hattori was, after all, so it wasn't like they weren't somewhat even. If anything, he felt a touch of pity for the Osaka-ko and knew Hattori wouldn't appreciate it. Not, he thought, grinning to himself, that I won't take him up on that sweet little challenge of his. Salt my tail feathers, will he?

To Be Concluded...