Pursuance: Part 5: The Play's the Thing – In which a murderer is confronted with the past.
A Detective Conan/Hattori Heiji Fanfic
By
Deborah J. Brown

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

Much thanks to Icka M. Chif for her beta-read. Not to mention reviewing even after being Beta Reader.

HEIJI:
"Honestly. If it isn't one of you or the other it's both." Mom gazed at the two of us levelly, voice very quiet and gentle. Didn't make her scolding any easier for either of us to take, though. Mom was a past master of the practice of mild rebukes that made you feel like you were the lowest of the low for having distressed her. At least she waited until we'd cleaned up.

*AAACHOOO* Dad grumbled into his mustache as he rubbed a towel through his hair. I refused to help him out. This time, at least, he was the one who'd gotten into trouble first. Besides, from the way Kazuha was glaring at me, I was going to get her version of scolding pretty soon. Probably involving a good sharp smack to the back of my head, if I know her. Oddly, I felt my lips twist into a grin at the thought.

Before Mom could say another word, though, Superintendent Shiratori spoke up. "It's not that I want to interfere with family politics," he said politely. "I do understand how distressing this is, but."

"You need us to tell you exactly what happened," Dad nodded, wiping his face and mustache off carefully. "Not much to tell, really. I told you about that clue Toshini had left us and I'd decided to at least take a look at the bilge tanks again."

"Again?" I demanded. "What do you mean, again?"

"Kazuha's father was aboard the ship when Toshini disappeared," Dad explained. "Investigating another case. Toshini had contacted him while he was at dinner, gave him a note that said there was something desperately important that Toyama needed to know and asked for a meeting up on deck at midnight."

I nodded. "Except he never showed up. Toyama-san convinced the Captain to have the ship searched and when the man wasn't found, insisted on further investigation. It wasn't until they docked that they found the remnants of his uniform in the ship's propellers. Toyama-san did get access to the diary with Toshini's little haiku, but" I paused, realizing that Dad was about to explode.

"WOULD YOU STOP GETTING INTO THE POLICE FILES WITH MY PASSWORD!!!!"

I blinked at my father innocently. "But, Dad, I have to use yours. I don't have one of my own." If I was going to get clobbered for poking around where I really wasn't supposed to be, I might as well do so with style. "If it bothers you so much, why don't you change it?"

"Deep breath. Deep breath, Hattori. Deep breath." Dad's mutters were just barely audible under his breath as he glared at the floor. "DAMNIT BOY"

"Not now, husband." Mom used her fan to – lightly – tap Dad on the top of the head. "It is not – entirely – the boy's fault that he is his father's son." I blinked at her, but no explanation was forthcoming. Someday I'm going to figure them out. Then I'll probably faint from sheer shock, I thought, as my father glared at her and sighed. "Now then. Would one of you continue?"

"The haiku, referring to the bilge tanks the way it does, suggested to Toyama that there might be something suspicious going on there. Except examination didn't really reveal anything. The entrance hatch to that separate section may have been better concealed," Dad said finally. "Or perhaps the rust pattern that gave Heiji the clue that it was there hadn't formed yet."

"That and we were at a different angle. Did Toyama-san go down inside?" I asked.

"Yes, but he was looking for something smaller." Dad shook his head. "Remember, he was there on a drug smuggling case. He was expecting – at most – a waterproof box somewhere on the bottom. He probably scanned the rest of the tank, but"

Shiratori frowned. "But, by the time he got down there, the people hidden in that other chamber were well and truly dead."

Kazuha looked utterly sick. "How, though? Did whomever it was who left them there kill them?"

"They might as well have," Shiratori-san said gently, putting a hand on Kazuha's arm. "The heat alone would have done it. Heat stroke. Suffocation. The human body can take a lot of stress, but not for extended periods. It would have been like an oven in there." Her expression didn't reveal much, but I thought there was deep anger there.

"That's horrible!" Kazuha looked at us, at my father and the Superintendent. "Absolutely horrible. Whoever did that They can't be allowed to get away with it!"

I gazed at my father quietly and saw his lips tighten. "I don't intend to let the culprit get away if I can help it. The trouble is, we have no way of knowing who was behind the crime."

To my surprise, Shiratori-san sniffed. "Nonsense, Heizo-kun. You may not have enough evidence to convict, but I'm certain you have enough to know in your heart who is most likely to be the criminal. Even if your ethics as a police officer do not permit you to accuse someone of a crime without any evidence."

The look on my father's face, the expression of a man who has eaten a particularly bitter piece of lemon, was unforgettable.

***

KAZUHA:
"Heiji?"

Heiji turned to look at me as we walked down to the Medical Bay, one brow cocked in that curious expression he gets when he's thinking of far too many things at once. I knew I wasn't the first thing on his mind, might not even be in the top ten, and – oddly enough – didn't feel bothered by that at all. "What is it?" His tone was exasperated and I realized I'd been staring at him, gazing at his face as if I'd never seen it before.

"Are are you okay?" I immediately regretted the question. Heiji has always hated being mothered. His response, rolled eyes and a shake of the head, was what I ought to have expected and I forced myself to respond the way I usually would. "Don't you look at me that way, Hattori Heiji! You nearly got killed down there. If I hadn't paid attention to that dog." My voice trailed off as I realized what I was about to say. It was one thing to listen to one's inner instincts – even if they did take some weird form – but another to tell someone like Heiji about them. He'd laugh his fool head off.

Rather to my surprise, Heiji paled slightly and he stared at me. "Dog? What dog?"

I shook my head. "Never mind. I have no intention of telling you something that you'll turn into a joke." I walked past him, intending to catch up with the others and he snagged my arm. "Heiji!"

"C'mon, Kazuha. Give! What did you mean? What dog?"

I was about to tell him off the way I normally would but something in his eyes, in his whole expression, pleaded with me. With a sigh, I shrugged. "When Superintendent Shiratori and I were looking for you I had a strange vision. A dog's head yelping for me with your voice. That's how I knew you were in trouble." I glared at him, waiting for laughter and daring him with his eyes to do so.

To my surprise, though, he dropped my arm and turned a glare off to the side momentarily. He muttered something under his breath, so soft I only picked up a word or so, "Show yourself to her." At last he turned and smiled at me. "Well, you've always been the one who sees to my luck with your li'l bags. Maybe you've gotten stronger."

Though I wanted to glare at him, something in his wry expression kept me from doing so. He occasionally teased me about the omamori my Mom had taught me to make, even though I knew he was also convinced that they worked. Sometimes he'd suggest that I ought to become a Shinto Priestess when I grow up – the last thing in the world I'd want to be. "Bite your tongue, Hattori Heiji," and, a moment later, "Put that thing back in your mouth!"

Heiji used a handkerchief to wipe his lips, smirking still, and sauntered beside me, looking more cheerful suddenly. "So, what kind of dog was it?"

"I don't know. An akita maybe? Or a shepherd. It's not like I know much about animals. A black dog, whatever it was." I shrugged, though a memory was niggling at me. No, can't figure it out. At last I decided it wasn't something worth worrying about. Heiji and his father were safe and if some power had decided to manifest itself to me, I didn't feel changed or likely to experience it again. "What are we going to do now?"

***

HEIJI:
I hesitated over my answer. I was fairly sure Dad had a couple of suspects in mind when it came to those murdered immigrants. I was equally certain that whomever hid those poor people in the bilge tank had probably murdered Toshini Senior. "Superintendent Shiratori needs to contact his superior regarding the bodies. He took photos, so we have some evidence even if the culprit finds away to get rid of them." I shook my head. "As for the current case – we have to find Akemi-san. I'm just hoping what I think happened to her is right."

Kazuha frowned at me as I opened the door for her and followed her into the hallway leading to the Medical Bay. "What do you think happened to her? Or are you going to play this one close to your chest as usual."

I grinned. "Sore wa himitsu desu," I answered, giving her my best Xelloss style grin.

"I'll 'it's a seeeecret' you." The smack she delivered across my arm was something of a relief, a normality that I was beginning to feel was rapidly disappearing from my life. She seemed to understand that, because her expression – beneath the usual disgust she'd get when I teased her – had a faint hint of satisfaction. "There's just no talking to you."

As Kazuha stalked ahead of me and entered the Medical Bay, I glanced sideways at Franky. Don't suppose you could help me find the girl before she gets killed? I didn't get any sense of agreement from the big oaf and I rolled my eyes at him. It would have been too much to hope for, I guess. If nothing else, though, it must mean she's not in any danger yet. That was the main reason I wasn't too worried. Franky would have been howling if Akemi-san was likely to die any time soon. Somehow I had a feeling she'd slipped off when Kazuha and the Doctor had collapsed, possibly realizing that she was in danger if she stayed where she was.

Following Kazuha into the Medical Bay I found myself nearly walking into my father and Shiratori. "Watch it, boy." Dad glared at me. "Pay attention to where you're going. And if you must scuff your feet the least you could do is ground yourself before touching people. I'm getting tired of all the static shocks."

I shrugged, sticking my hands into my pocket. "Where's Doc Makashino?"

As my father gritted his teeth and muttered under his breath about cocky, arrogant, rude little brats Shiratori shook his head, "He wasn't here when we arrived. We're going up to the Captain's office and see if he knows where the Doctor might be."

"I'll just come along, then."

***

KAZUHA:
The sound of arguing came through the doorway, two men's voices, one the Captain's, the other Toshini-san's. "I'm telling you, I have no idea what happened to her, sir! I haven't seen her since last night."

"She's your sister. You're telling me she hasn't made contact with you at all?" the Captain's voice was low and angry. "I don't believe you."

Toshini-san made a helpless sound and Superintendent Shiratori came to his rescue by knocking at the door. The two men went silent and the door shot open. "WHAT oh. You. Come in, Superintendent. Maybe you can talk sense into this man." He glanced over the Superintendent's shoulder. "What the" He stared at Uncle Heizo and Heiji. "What are they here for?"

"Captain, we've found something important. We need to talk."

After a moment's hesitation, the Captain sighed. "All right. Come in." He stepped aside long enough for Uncle Heizo and the Superintendent to step in, then moved to block Heiji and I. "Not you two. This isn't a matter for children!"

The door started to slam shut in our faces.

HEIJI:
"They're involved. Let them in." I was deeply surprised that it was my father who was defending our right to be in the room. Yamamori glared at him momentarily but my father – with years of experience glaring down criminals – won. Grudgingly, the Captain opened the door for us. "Heiji. No comments unless you have something important to say."

Butter wouldn't have melted in my mouth as I mimed zipping my lips. I sauntered into the room. Hail, hail, the gang's all here. Doctor Makashino was leaning against one wall, looking irritated at the whole proceedings. Toshini was standing, hunch-shouldered and nervous, across from the Captain's desk, his collar buttoned high around his skinny neck and his eyes wide and frightened. The Captain walked back to his desk but remained standing. "Well?"

"We need to use your ship to shore radio," Superintendent Shiratori said quietly. "We've made an unfortunate discovery."

The Captain blinked. "I wish you could, but it's been broken for the last twenty-four hours." He shrugged, looking irritated. "We've been working on repairs, but."

Dad frowned. "You mean there's no way to contact the shore?" As he stared around the office I followed his gaze. A small table in a corner with a piece of wood and an electric stylus of some sort. There was a chart, some shelves and a coffee machine against another wall and right beside where I was standing was a computer. It was turned off and its keyboard drawer was shoved in. "The computer?"

"I don't use it much. Hate the stupid thing," the Captain explained. "Suppose you could use it to email someone. Though I don't know how long it'd take."

I glanced at my father and raised a brow. I had an idea but I knew if I spoke up now I'd get yelled at. Still, email wasn't a good way to make contact. It was so easy for things to get lost in the ether. After frowning a moment, Dad nodded and I said, "May I?"

"Be my guest," Captain Yamamori sighed. "Doubt you'll get much use out of it."

***

KAZUHA:
Heiji bent over the computer, whistling tunelessly as it booted up. Then he used the mouse to select a few things and a minute later had brought up an IM screen. Oh. That's what he's up to. But there's no one on IM at headquarters, surely

"Agasa-sensei?" Heiji's father asked curiously. "That weird old man you visit in Tokyo?"

"Yeah. He's usually on." Heiji typed a few words onto the screen and waited. A second later there was an answer. "Okay, Prof. I need you to make a call."

I noticed both the Doctor and the Captain staring at my friend, their eyes narrowed. "I don't understand" Doctor Makashino murmured.

"Shhh." Heiji was typing rapidly and something on the screen made him chuckle. "Dad, they want proof it's you. They won't listen to the Professor without it."

"Tell him to tell those idiots that if they don't listen to him I'll rip their badges right off their shirts and feed them the things with a side order of takoyaki with Kondogawa-san's special sauce." Heiji blinked at his father, grinned even more broadly and typed again. Another minute, then Heiji nodded. "Dad, you do the typing now. You know what you want to say."

As Uncle Heizo sat down at the computer, Heiji moved out of the way. "Oh, is this that woodburning art thing that Doctor Makashino mentioned?" He pointed towards the corner.

The Captain was watching Uncle Heizo with a puzzled expression. "Yes," he said absently. "What is going on?"

"Oh, I IM'd a friend of mine," Heiji explained off-handedly. He was about to say more when the phone rang. "Aren't you going to answer that?"

The Captain shook his head and I thought I saw him looking rather pale. "It's just that bug in the system. No one's supposed to use the phones right now while the repair crew tries to fix it."

"Ya oughta leave it off the hook," Heiji picked up the phone, listened for a moment, then set it to one side. "Yeah, I see yer point. Nothing but static and a voice whispering 'Dimsdale'."

Superintendent Shiratori forced back a small snort but the Captain and I just stared at Heiji, uncomprehendingly. Heiji grinned at us and shrugged. "Anyway, Captain. I'd been meaning to ask you, how much of the crew is the same right now as it was thirteen years ago?"

Raising a brow, the Captain shrugged. "Doctor Makashino and myself. A few of the sailors. Why?" He looked supremely puzzled, though I could guess why Heiji wanted to know. Whomever the person was who'd tried to kill Akemi-san almost had to be covering up his crime of thirteen years past.

"No one else, then. Interesting." Heiji wandered over to the table in the corner, picking up the stylus and sniffing at it. "Whoof. This thing smells nasty. Like plastic. Should take better care of your tools, Captain." There was a speculative look in his eyes that I liked. It meant that something was starting to gel in his head.

Angrily, the Captain walked over and grabbed the stylus. "PUT THAT DOWN, BOY!"

Uncle Heizo glanced over his shoulder. "I told you not to be a nuisance. Why don't you find something else to do? Maybe go sniffing for clues. Make yourself useful."

With a sour look, Heiji nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Right. I'm outta here."

***

HEIJI:
"You're whistling."

I glanced sideways at Kazuha as I sauntered down the hallway. "Am I?" I was beginning to get the glimmerings of an answer and while it wasn't a pretty one, it was a solution. The question was, could I possibly prove my case? I could accuse the man I thought was guilty of trying to kill Akemi-san, but he could easily deny it. And what was the deal with the phone? I did hear a ghostly voice but it wasn't real I mean not dead. More, I suspected, of Miss Toshini's efforts. The silly girl was going to get someone hurt pulling stunts like that. I had a sinking feeling it was going to be her.

Kazuha put a hand on my arm, looking up at me. I had to force myself to keep breathing. It was getting harder and harder not to notice the way her eyes looked when they met mine. The worry and pride in them. "Yes. You know who the killer is, don't you?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. I." I was about to continue when I saw someone leaning on the railing. For only the briefest moment I thought it was Toshini's ghost again, but then I realized I was seeing him by normal sight. I'd been fooled by the reddish gold of the sunset reflecting off his whites. I hurried after him, closely followed by Kazuha.

As I caught up, Toshini turned and looked at me puzzledly. "Heiji-san? Is there a problem?"

I eyed him, noting the unbuttoned collar and casual air. Damn. She was right there! I glanced down at Franky, annoyed at him for not having cued me in on the trick and doubly annoyed at myself for expecting him to. I can't depend on him to solve my cases for me. He's here to help me keep people from being killed, or at least find their bodies, not find out why.

"Heiji? What's wrong?" Kazuha came up beside me and looked worriedly up at me.

"I'm an idiot. The person dressed as this man up in the Captain's office was really his sister." I gestured at Toshini-san and he paled. "And you knew it, didn't you?"

***

KAZUHA:
It only took Heiji a few minutes to force an explanation from Toshini-san. He still knew very little about what his sister was up to but he had assisted her in making herself up as him and had been told that she was trying to prevent a crime. All he knew was that it somehow had something to do with their father's death.

"She's trying to force his killer to reveal himself," Heiji said. "She was using the play to remind whomever it was. To make a guilty conscience react."

"The play's the thing," I couldn't help saying and Heiji glanced my way, nodding approvingly. "She's using Hamlet's trick and we know what happened to him." I was getting scared. "Heiji, we should go back to the Captain's office. Find her."

Glancing at his watch, Heiji shook his head. "Not likely. She probably got out of there as soon as she could." He eyed Toshini. "Could your sister rig up a system that would make phone calls with recorded messages?"

"Oh, yes. You connect it to another phone in the system and set it to connect up randomly. We used that trick for a play we did at Abe Hiromi's house last year." I was rather puzzled at the almost guilty look Heiji cast down towards the floor beside him. He was doing that sort of thing a lot lately, refusing to explain why, and it bothered me a lot.

Ignoring my expression, Heiji rubbed at the back of his head. "Where is she likely to be?"

"I."

"Toshini, your sister is putting herself in a lot of danger. She's trying to flush a killer using herself as bait. That attempt at hanging her wasn't a joke."

"She said she"

Heiji growled a curse. "She what? Did it to herself? The hell she did you idiot! She would have died! Are you saying she was trying to kill herself?"

Toshini shook his head. "She said her failsafe failed it was an accident. She wanted it all to look like someone had tried to kill her without That doesn't make any sense, does it? There wasn't a failsafe." His eyes were wide and panicked now. "oh god"

Heiji nodded vociferously, "Now. Where do we find her?"

***

HEIJI:
"Damnit all to hell!" I hit the wall of the stateroom where Akemi-san was supposed to be hiding. "Too late." The room was empty but there were signs of someone having been there and having been very busy with the make-up. Plastic and gunk and 'blood' soaked tissues. It looked to me like Akemi-san had been making quite a mess of herself. I glanced out the window. The skies had darkened into night.

Kazuha fiddled with a piece of latex. "What is she trying to do?"

"Make herself look like her father's ghost," I answered and Toshini paled. "You look like your dad, Toshini. You and she both do. And she's made herself up to look like you before, in that 'White Devil Wolf Woman' play." I remembered the photo from last night and was unsurprised when Toshini nodded weakly. "She thinks she knows who the killer is now and she's trying to force him to confess."

Crying, Toshini collapsed onto the nearby bed. "I don't know what to do!" he wailed. "Nee-chan always makes the plans!"

As Kazuha comforted our nervous friend, I wandered over to the phone and examined the little setup. No wonder the maintenance people couldn't find the source. Even if they could trace the call she'd just have to move the thing. The timer had been set to a specific time, 11pm, more than two hours away. Thoughtfully, I played the message.

The sound was unmistakable. The grinding swirling sound of propellers in water. A sound I'd never forget. Then, soft but unmistakable. "Murderer. Come and pay. Where you killed me. Come and pay."

Toshini gasped and shuddered. "She's mad. I have to stop her. But how?"

I hesitated. "Make yourself up too."

"What?" Both Kazuha and Toshini stared at me and I grinned, a sharp toothed, tight little grin that caused both of them to get nervous. "I don't understand," Toshini protested. "How will that help?"

"Because, your sister has to have figured out that it's one of two people." I reached up and turned my cap, thinking hard. "It could have been one of the lower ranked crew, but you don't get a setup like that fixed up without somebody in charge. The Doctor and the Captain are the only two people who might have been in a position to handle something like this."

Kazuha glared at me. "That doesn't explain why you want Toshini-san to pretend to be a ghost too?"

I rose to my feet. "We don't know where Akemi-san has gone, but it's damned sure she's off to find one of two people. Except I know which of those two would kill her and which is only partly involved. By now, she's sure, too, or probably is." I pointed to the set up, particularly at the phone number it was programmed to dial. "So we're going to provide her with an understudy."

"Doesn't that just put him at risk?"

Toshini was looking pale at Kazuha's question, but then he straightened. "You need me to distract the killer, right? I'm willing."

"Good man," I nodded. "Then let's go. There's something important we have to do, first."

***

KAZUHA:
"He's coming." The voice of the man beside me was soft and tense.

I shifted nervously, then forced myself to stand as still as possible in the shadows of our vantage point on the deck above. The light that usually lit the lower deck was out but I thought I could see a figure standing there as well. It hadn't been there a few minutes ago but there were plenty of places to hide amid the lifeboat equipment.

The man Heiji believed to be the killer walked slowly and cautiously down the way, his left hand hidden at his side. He was glaring into the shadows and as the figure moved, he paused. "Who do you think you're fooling, girl?"

There was dead silence. A cold and angry silence. He continued. "You think you're going to get a confession out of me? Some sort of tearful, or terrified, admission of guilt?"

"You murdered them. I heard what the Superintendent said." Akemi-san gave up all pretence of playing her father's ghost. She stepped out into the light, the bloody wounds that she'd given herself stark and ugly. "All those poor people you left in the bilge tank. Then you murdered my father to keep him from telling."

I glanced towards the lifeboat where I knew Heiji and Toshini were hiding, and had been for over an hour. The jig was up. If the man knew Akemi was a fake ghost it was certain he wouldn't believe Toshini was one either.

The man snorted. "And you can prove this, how?" As Akemi-san clenched her fists, he laughed, loudly. "Come now, girl. Was this the extent of your plan?" He shook his head. "You're pathetic. Pitiful."

"DAMN YOU!"

I realized everything was going wrong. Heiji's plan, to provide a secondary 'ghost' wasn't going to work if the murderer didn't believe there was a ghost at all. I glanced over at my companion. He was tense and unmoving.

The murderer's hand came up. "Oh, quite likely, girl. But not for a while yet. And not in your lifetime." I stared, realizing what was about to happen.

He had a gun.

To Be Continued

Author's Notes:

Been forgetting to respond to reviews so

Chibi-Nao: Thanks!

Ytak: If you read the first of my Heiji stories on FF.net (Sense & Sensitivity) you'll see how this Heiji got the ability to see ghosts.

GhostAngelGirl: Thanks!

Amaya Shinkuyoake: Yeah, too many irons in the fire to let me write anything as quickly as I'd like. (Points at Amusing Interlude, which ought to have been done by now.) I know the POV thing gets to some people, but I've always liked it as a way to get into the heads of more than one character – necessary in some stories.

Mystic: Two more chapters will finish this one off. So I'll probably be done by the end of this week, given I don't get sick again. (Kosagi growls at the little germs and virii that her children keep bringing home for her.)// Yeah, the head is with Kazuha. Heiji needs to keep an eye on her, after all. Or something. Heh.//If Hattori senior was a little less practical he might figure it out. As it is.

Icka: (glomp) Thanks! I like hearing from you even if you did review already via beta. Hopefully I resolved the codeine question to your satisfaction?

Ke: Thanks!

Other Notes:

Someday I may elaborate on Hattori Senior's misspent youth. Once I convince him to let me.

I probably watch far too much anime. So does Heiji. Funny that.

"White Devil Wolf Woman" is "Bride with White Hair." A lovely martial arts movie with a rather unusual villain.