Hi everyone! Welcome to yet another chapter of [Coming Home]! I think all of you have figured out what the story is about now, right? If you haven't.we need to talk.

What? You want me to stop rambling so that you can actually read this chapter? Okies! I'll just babble at the end ^_^ Tanoshinde kudasai!

Disclaimer: If only I owned Detective Conan.but I don't. *bursts into fits of sobs*

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Chapter 2 ~ The Waiting Room Case

"Attention ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived in Salisbury. You will be shown to a luxury waiting room. Our problem should be fixed within an hour. We require you to stay in the waiting room until we ask you to board the plane. You will be given a coupon for a complimentary Japanair domestic flight ticket. It is our way to apologize to you for the delay, and to thank you for your patience and cooperation!"

Kudou Shinichi grinned at the announcement. He'd told Yuki that he would solve this case and find the criminal in one hour-and he believed that he could. In fact, he'd already cracked the mystery of the first message and found another note on seat 1C. Taped to the back of the seat was another note, which read, "Creed, Shinjite, Croix-can you find me now? Think think think!" Shinichi already had a hunch about it, but he needed to check something first.

The entire crew on the plane stepped off angrily. Some were talking on their cell phones, some were arguing with flight attendants, and one of them was even threatening to sue Japanair. "I swear, if you make me late for my daughter's wedding, I will kill you!" the woman shouted. "But not before I make you lose all your money, and your job, and your family, and your house, and-" She had to be ushered into the airport.

"This is the waiting room," an aiport worker said, showing everyone to a conference room in the airport hotel. "Please do not leave without informing us." All the people that where on the plane piled into the room, still angry and grumbling. Shinichi looked around.

There were three large couches and a big-screen TV in the center. There were two restrooms in the back, and a loveseat by the window. In the corner was a writing desk-that was Shinichi's target. He casually walked over to the desk and sat down in the chair. Very inconspicuously, he reached under the desktop and to his delight felt a slip of paper. He tugged it gently and heard the tearing of the tape. Upon opening the note, there was yet another message:

"Shanghai, China, Switzerland, France, Everest. This is your final message."

Shinichi frowned. This one had just as much gibberish as the others-but why didn't it follow the same pattern as the other two? He sighed and stared at the paper, trying to find out what it meant.

"China.Shanghai is the biggest city in China.but what do Switzerland and France have in common? And Everest.could this person be referring to Mt. Everest? But that's not in China.that's in Nepal.unless.no, they wouldn't." he muttered to himself.

But there's more to it than that, he thought. How did the person know that we would be in this waiting room? There is no possible way! But what if- he gasped. Then it can only be...one of those people! In fact, if my hunch is correct, then it can only be that person!

But why would that person do such a thing? he pondered. I can't make any assumptions yet. I must observe more; but more importantly, I must find the evidence.

He signaled for Satou and Takagi to come over. "I already have some ideas about this bombing case. I found another message, which lead to this final message-" he showed them the final note, "-but I have no idea what it means yet. By the way, where are the four people that we told about the note?"

"Hmm?" Satou looked around. "Oh, Tanaka-san is watching television, Yuki and Marina are in the kitchen, eating, and Mr. Carson." She looked around some more. "I don't see Mr. Carson." Just then, the pilot stepped out of the restroom. "Oh, never mind, there he is."

Shinichi sighed in relief. Thought that I'd lost sight of him, he thought to himself. "That would've been bad," he muttered. "Listen," he said to Takagi and Satou. "We need to keep an eye on those four. I have good reason to believe that one of those is the perpetrator of this crime. Although I still haven't figured out his or her target, there is a possibility that this is more complicated than just an airplane bombing case."

The two detectives nodded. "We will," Takagi nodded. "But we had better solve this case quickly. Everyone is getting impatient."

Shinichi nodded. "No problem. There is always only one truth, after all." He grinned. "I will get to the bottom of this!"

He walked over to Tanaka and said, "Tanaka-san, I still have some questions to ask. Would you spare me some of your time?" Tanaka agreed, and they went to a corner and lowered their voices to talk about the case.

"Tanaka-san, what do you think about this case?" Shinichi asked carefully, not wanting to tell any extra information.

"Well..." Tanaka thought for a moment. "I think that it's actually quite scary, you know? With the letter and everything...did you find the other messages?" Shinichi nodded slowly. "The last one has me stumped, actually," he confessed. "So I'm trying to clear my head by not staring at that piece of paper." They both laughed. "Oh yeah, and has the airport security found the bomb yet?" Tanaka asked concernedly. Shinichi shook his head. "They're checking it right now. We may have to start checking the luggage..."

"But there wasn't anything showing in the x-rays, were there?" Tanaka asked. Shinichi shook his head. "No...well, thank you very much for cooperating, Tanaka-san. I'm sorry for interrupting your TV time."

"No problem," Tanaka replied. He picked up his pilot's notebook, an old, tattered black binder, and returned to his spot on the couch.

Shinichi then approached Mr. Carson. Somehow, I can't help thinking that he has something to do with this, he thought. "Hello, Mr. Carson. Would you mind if I asked you just a few more questions?"

"Sure," Mr. Carson said with a friendly smile.

"Okay...is this the first time such a thing has ever happened? The threat letter, I mean?"

Mr. Carson thought for a moment. "Well, certainly not for Japanair. In fact-you do know that Japanair is fairly new, right?" he asked. Shinichi nodded. "There have been several people who are upset about this new airline. Threats were found, but none were quite as serious as this. As for me...I've never had this happen before. Before I became a pilot here, I worked as a co-pilot for Delta Airlines. I did have a hard time deciding whether to stay with Delta or coming here when I was hired...but then my sister made me take this job so that we could work in the same company." He laughed. "Strange way to make a decision, huh?"

"What about Mr. Tanaka?"

"Tatsuya?" -again, Shinichi winced at the schwa- "He's been with Japanair ever since the beginning. He was qualified for pilot position, but for some reason he declined. I don't know why, and I've never mentioned it to him. I didn't want to make the conversation uncomfortable, I guess. I'm sure he wants to be pilot, because he's always so eager to make test flights and such. I don't know much about him, actually. He's a very easygoing guy."

"How did you meet Yuki?"

"Well, my sister and Yuki have been friends since Jr. High, so I've always seen her around the house and everything. We've never actually talked until we started working together on this flight. She's so smart, you know? I still can't speak a lot of Japanese, and listen to her! Perfect English and Japanese...amazing, isn't it? We got married two years ago-two years after we both started working here."

"And your sister? Was she offered a job here as well?"

"Yes. Both of us were given the offer at the same time. She was so excited; being a flight attendant is her dream. She's very outgoing and just very friendly. We get along pretty well, actually, unlike a lot of siblings."

"What does she think about your marriage?"

"Oh, she thinks that it's awesome, because now she's sisters with Yuki. They're best friends, you know."

"Well...I think that's all my questions for now, Mr. Carson. Thank you so much." Shinichi stood up to leave.

"Oh you're very welcome. But actually, I think-" Suddenly, something came on over the radio.

"Mr. Bertie Carson, Mr. Tatsuya Tanaka, Mrs. Yuki Carson, and Miss Marina Carson of flight 404, please report to the engine room. Over."

Carson spoke into his radio, "Roger." He turned to Tanaka. "Let's go, Tatsuya."

Tanaka nodded. They grabbed their pilot's notebooks and left together. Shinichi returned to figuring out the code. Thirty minutes later, he still hasn't figured it out. "What the heck is it?!?" he grumbled in frustration.

Suddenly, the code became clear to him. "Could it be?" he gasped. "Shi-shi ne?" A/N: NO, it's not "shine", it's shi ne, the Japanese word for DIE.

At that moment, Tanaka burst back into the room. "Kudou-san!" he panted. "Kudou-san, we-we can't find Carson anywhere!" Yuki and Marina came in at the same time, also breathless from running.

"What?" Shinichi stood up so fast that his chair nearly fell over. Could it be...

"We must find him!" he declared. "Satou-san, Takagi-san, please help us. We MUST find Mr. Carson as soon as possible!"

The four of them took off. On the elevator down to the main floor, Tanaka told the whole story:

"Yuki-chan, Miss Marina, and myself were in the control tower. We were called down there to test the aircraft controls, make sure that they haven't been tampered. Carson was the only one down in the craft. When nothing would respond to the radio-overs, we went down to the aircraft, and he was gone."

Shinichi pondered this. "How long does it take to get from the control tower to the aircraft?"

"About ten to fifteen minutes, I guess," Marina replied. Yuki and Tanaka nodded in agreement. "But the transportation cart was a lot faster today," she added, "So I guess ten minutes at the most."

"Hmm. Is that so."

The four of them checked every possible place that Carson could be. They ran through the airport, looking in every restroom, restaurant, waiting room, shop-anywhere and everywhere. But after twenty minutes, they haven't even gone through one terminal.

Finally, they stopped. "This is taking way too long," Shinichi said.

"Um, if I may make a suggestion." Yuki said quietly. "Why don't we split up?" she asked. "We can all carry radios with us, and if one of us finds him, the others can be informed immediately."

Shinichi looked at the others, who nodded. "All right," he agreed. "We can do that." Tanaka provided radios for everyone, and they split up.

Shinichi started to follow one of them, but after a few turns lost sight of that person. "Kuso!" he cursed to himself. "This is a mistake," he muttered. "If I'm not wrong, then."

Suddenly, Yuki's scream could be heard over the radio.

"Yuki-chan!" Tanaka immediately replied. "What's wrong?"

"I-I found him," Yuki's voice was trembling. "He's dead," she whispered. "At least I think he is.he's lying on the ground in a pool of blood."

"What!?!" Marina and Shinichi shouted at the same time. "Where are you? Where-where is he?"

"I'm in the control tower." She was now sobbing. "S-second floor," she gasped.

Shinichi broke into a run. No, no, he thought. It can't be!

He arrived at the tower last. Marina was backing away from the door, eyes widened in shock. Yuki was trying to get to Carson, but Tanaka was holding her back. "No, Yuki! We should just contact the police!" he was saying as Shinichi arrived.

He gasped at the sight. There was Bertie Carson, lying the ground, with a knife stuck in his back, lying in pools of blood.

Kuso! He thought. How dare this person kill someone in front of me? I WILL find the killer, no matter what! I WILL reveal the truth!

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*sigh* Whew! Finally I finished this chapter! It's been taking me so long. Well, that's because I haven't had very much time to do a lot of stuff, I guess. So, I guess you'll have wait a bit longer for chapters! School's been very busy, and next week I'll be having finals~~ugh. So, I suppose that I won't be updating for a while, huh? I think that I'll be writing in a notebook, so that I don't have to, you know, have a computer whenever I want to write. Isn't that convenient?

This story is harder to write than I imagined! I now understand how difficult it is for Aoyama-sensei to think up murder plots! He truly is a genius. If you can figure out the murderer, feel free to email me your ideas! I think I pretty much gave it away, ne?

Oh well, by the way, remember that Ran is still waiting for Shinichi!

Please guys, I need reviews! They motivate me!!!!!

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~pretty please? ^_^

Arigatou gozaimasu!!!