Part 2

"Don't panic, everyone!" Heiji shouted as he crouched near the fountain and peered into it. "Someone get the police, hurry!"

What's taking Kudo so long? he wondered as he pulled up the sleeves of his jacket. The fountain had started to spray bloody water out, and it was a horrible sight. This is so cruel, he thought bitterly. Who would kill someone and toss him into this fountain with so many people around here? Of course, their attentions were all on Kid...where's Kid anyway? he suddenly remembered.

---

Tohyama Kazuha stood by a lamp post, positively miffed. She did not know where Heiji was, she was alone and she was...annoyed. Not angry, but annoyed. That was the only way she could describe it.

"That idiot...he left me alone again..." she muttered, absently pressing the buttons on her phone. She knew that there was a Kid heist---that was why the people were so frantic to cheer the thief on, waving their signs and whatnot. But suddenly, there was a piercing scream. Kazuha froze.

The crowd kept chanting. However, some of the people had scattered in disorientation.

She ran into the crowd without any second thought.

"Maaann, can't these people move?! Excuse me!" Kazuha repeated, for the---who knows, the zillionth time? Slipping gratefully through the now more loosely knit crowd, her eyes searched for the one she was looking for. Then she spotted him.

"Heiji!" she called, dashing towards him. Then she froze---yet again.

"Wh-what happened?" she asked, biting her tongue. Warily, she stepped closer, trying not to look too closely at the corpse.

Heiji turned to see Kazuha right behind him. "Someone was murdered. Don't look if you can't take it," he told her as-a-matter-of-factly. "I don't want to deal with a sick girl tonight."

"Who said I was going to get sick?" Kazuha bit back, annoyed.

Heiji ignored her. He tried to peer through the bloody water at the corpse. The clothes looked torn from slashes of a knife. That was obviously how the murder was committed. Where's that annoying Inspector? He should be here instead of looking for Kid, this is a more serious situation! he thought with a frown. "Kazuha, will you get the police? And find Ku---I mean, Conan-kun and Ran-chan too."

Kazuha did what he told her to do. She dashed back off into the crowd, dialing for the police on her cell phone, eyes searching for any trace of Ran and of course, Conan. Where are you guys?

Conan pushed through the crowd, trying desperately to squeeze in between the onlookers with his tiny body. Conan had heard the scream and located the body in the fountain through a window in the stairwell. He had raced out of the building and, after eluding Ran, passed by her unnoticed into the crowd. Conan assumed that Heiji had previously perceived the piercing shriek, and was already on the scene, possibly with the Inspector. Though he did not see the murderer, he had a pretty good idea of who the main suspect was.

Conan didn't know how far he was from the fountain. He paused and jumped up to try and see over the heads of the people in front of him. Conan saw what he believed was the top of Heiji's head, and scrambled through the crowd towards him. He wriggled through the last couple bystanders.

"Hattori! Finally I found you!"

Heiji turned to see Conan coming up. "Finally! Where have you been? And you let Kid get away---again!" he retorted. Conan glared back.

---

Renee Thomas looked up at the crowd she passed, raising an eyebrow as she tried to decipher the signs. "...Kaitou Kid?" she muttered to herself, blinking a little more as she marked her place in the characteristically large novel. She looked around, blinking some more. Her natural curiosity was getting the better of her. She hated the general crowd at large knowing more than her!

"Sumimasen," she asked a particularly tanned member of the crowd. "Who is this...Kaitou Kid?" she asked, gripping her book nervously. She did not notice what was going on, apparently. I am randomly nervous. Do I know why? Yeah, it's because this is about the first time I talked to anyone, in Japanese, without them knowing I was American first. I really hope I didn't screw that up...

Heiji turned to see a foreign looking girl. He was surprised that she had a slight accent in her voice but not bad in language. He rubbed his chin. "Well, Kaitou Kid is just a thief who does magic and stumps the police with puzzles. You don't know who he is? It seems to me everyone in Japan knows him. Oh, and excuse me, you might like to move away because a murder was committed here."

Renee actually took that moment to take in her surroundings. "...S-so I am..." she muttered in English, taking a few wary steps back. Thank goodness I have a strong stomach. "T-tha-thank you..." Again, English. "Er...Arigatou gozaimasu..." she shuddered. Heiji shrugged.

There. Kazuha lowered the cell phone from her eyes. The police were coming, but she still had no idea where the ones she was looking for were. "Ran-chan! Conan-kun! Are you there?!" she called, going back near the thick of the crowd. She edged around it, and the fountain, when she noticed Conan.

Well...I guess that leaves Ran-chan. She dialed her friend's number on the cell phone.

Heiji bent down so that he was level with Conan's height. "The police are too slow, I'm going to get the body out first," he whispered, taking off his jacket. Using it to cover his arms, he reached into the bloody water and heaved the corpse out of it. He grunted as he finally laid it on the ground.

"This guy is heavy," he commented, tossing away his bloody jacket. He did a search on the body and found a wallet. It contained little money and the victim's ID. He studied it, and learned that the victim was a third-year in high school named Mitsui Hirota. "Hmm...does anyone know this guy?" he asked aloud, pointing at the shocked motionless face of the body.

Briiiinnng, brrinnnnggg. Kazuha bit her tongue, impatient. The phone continued to ring, but no one answered. Lifting the phone from her ear, she decided that maybe sending a text message would be better.

Ran-chan, where did you go? Could you meet me at the bench near the fountain? A murder just happened, and I don't really want to be alone with the boys. Conan-kun's there, if you're looking for him. Bye please come A.S.A.P.

And yet again, she closed her phone, automatically exiting out of whatever she was doing. She sat down on a bench waiting, and watching Heiji, whenever the crowd let her.

While Heiji questioned the crowd for witnesses and/or friends or relations of the victim, Conan examined the body. He was a burly guy, wearing a polo shirt and some khaki shorts. Heiji had placed him on the ground in much the same position as he was in the fountain---on his stomach, but his head was turned to the left.

His face registered shock, so the murderer probably caught him by surprise, thought Conan. Although he did not see the wounds themselves, it was easy to conclude that the victim had been stabbed in the back multiple times due to the slashes in the shirt and the newly flowing blood coming from them.

Then Conan noticed something odd on the ground near the fountain. He was reaching out to pick it up when he felt a pull at the back of his collar and was swiftly lifted off the ground. "H-hey!"

Hearing Conan shouting, Heiji turned to see Nakamori-keibu holding Conan off the ground and looking mad. "What are you doing here, little boy? What happened? Where's Kid?!" he demanded.

"Why don't you stop thinking about Kid for once? Someone was murdered," Heiji told him off.

Nakamori-keibu finally took notice and looked around. His face had turned very red---not of embarrassment, but of anger. "It's Kid!" he roared. "He's finally got the guts to murder!"

Heiji blinked. "You're out of your mind," he muttered.

---

"An hour passed already?! Uuusssooo!"

Ran had scrambled for her phone in the thick of the crowd when it rang (after which she saw the time). While it explained where Conan was, it didn't entirely explain what was happening.

"Sumimasen!" Ran repeated, pushing and slipping through the mass.