Ch6.
There's always only one truth
Once again ( ) will be used for Conan's thoughts
(They're headed toward the Southern side of the city. At the rate they're going, they're on a car. Damn it, why didn't you stay in the car like you were suppose to. This way!)
Conan jetted through the road dodging cars, people, and obstacles with ease. (I'm coming Haibara. Don't worry, I'm coming!)
"Where did Conan-kun go?" Chief Megure asked.
"Ohh, He said that he received a call from home from Ran-san and he went home." Lied Hattori precipitating across his forhead. "Anyways, I think we should cleans things up here as well Chief Megure."
"What are you saying." The chief raised his eyebrows, "Wait, are you saying that…"
"Yea. I know how the Murderer managed to kill Mr. Katsuoka." Hattori grined.
"Excellent. So, who is it?" Chief Megure questioned with great enthusiasm.
Upon this the crowd gathered in a circle around the great detective of the west.
"First lets go over the case once more. The entrance to this building is closely guarded. There are metal detectors, guard's men, and a thorough baggage check. From these, it raises the main question to the case, that is where did the murderer bring his weapons in from? Anything in related to a weapon such as knives, guns ect. Will be caught at the door so that means that the weapon must have been in the building to start with. The object could not have been a knife or gun for it was impossible to bring in to the building and there is just simply no such mark left on the body."
"So you're saying that he was poisoned?" asked the tubby chief.
"Precisely, and a powerful one at that. Also if I'm not mistaken, judging from the smell I've smelled since I ran here, that poison is cyanide. This poison can kill an individual instantly. We did not hear any scream because the person died before he could. The location of his wound just made the regular process more faster."
"You mean the back of his ear?"
"Yes, I'm guessing that he must have hit an artery that went straight to his brain causing the instant death, even thought that may have just been due to luck."
"But how did the murderer know where he was in the dark."
"Oh, that's not hard. The place that he was suppose to go was decided before the party had started so anyone could have known the general area of where he was when the light turned off."
"Hmm, I see. But how did he bring the substance in to the building."
"Cyanide is a solid poison that can easily be found. The murderer probably placed it in a bottle and told the front that it was just cold medicine. Even if he was asked by the front to take one to prove it, he could easily have hidden a real one in his hand, pretend to take one out, and eat it on the spot."
"But what did the murderer use. My crew has been flipping this place upside down trying to find it but we have not found anything so far."
"You see, that's where I thought it was weird as well. I would have suspected at least something to be found by now as well. But since nothing has turned out, it got me to think that the weapon was not something that was odd to have in the building. If that be the case, what is it that the murderer that used. Then it struck me."
"And… what was it Hattori-kun"
"Indiana Jones!" Hattori responded with glowing eyes.
"Huh. You mean that archeologist in the movies? What does he have anything to do with this?" Question marks were juggling above the chief's head showing how he had no clue to what Hattori was talking about.
Hattori laughed, "Haven't you seen his movies Chief Megure. Don't you remember, the angry Indians that attacked him?"
Megure came to a sudden realization, "DARTS!!"
"Right. But in this case, the murderer used an extra sharp toothpick and a straw. Both of which can be found at the snack shop and the restaurant out side."
"Wait a minute." The chief replied with a dubious gesture. "If you were to use a straw and a tooth-pick then that can only work if the toothpick's radius and the straw's radius was the same and even if they were, it would take a humongous force of air to blow the pick out and stick it into a person's body."
"Paper towels Chief Megure. Allow me to demonstrate." Saying this, Hattori pulled out a marshmallow, some tissue paper, a straw and a toothpick. "We will say that this marshmallow is human skin."
"Hmmm." Chief megure looked intensely.
"First you take the toothpick and break it in half. Notice how the tooth pick is able to form on the broken side a more harder tip then the front?"
"But that won't be for all the case will it?"
'No, but that doesn't mean that the murderer only tried it once. Remember, the restaurant is just outside. He could have done it over and over again. I'm guessing at least one out of 5-8 toothpicks will have this result. Even if it doesn't, the store waiters won't even notice because in a big restaurant such as the one outside doesn't have just one waiter or waitress at the front desk. They switch between everyone to help each customer at the maximum speed. Lucky for me, mine was able to break in such way the first time. Now I will take a ripping out of the tissue paper here and make it wet with some spit and rap it around the toothpick. I then install this toothpick into the straw like so." Hattori slides the toothpick inside with the side that's rapped inward and the sharp side forward. "And finally", He takes a big breath and blew into the straw in a sudden way as though a small explosion occurred in his mouth. The toothpick flew out with a pop from the straw and stabbed into the marshmallow like an arrow. The tissue has now flown off somewhere else into the room.
A surprised look can be seen from the chief's expression. Hattori continued, "Also another question came into my mind when I realized the security cameras in this place. If anyone was doing something suspicious during the time such as dialing a number on their cell phone. But since no reports have came in on that so I'm guessing that he was not caught on camera. Even if he did it under his chest, I'm sure someone in the audience would have noticed it. Therefore I decided to test out some things. We all saw the direction that Mr. Katsuoka was facing when the spotlight turned on him, therefore I know that he was murdered from the back of the room. To be more precise, behind that curtain," Hattori pointed, "I am pretty sure of that because I've tested it out with my finger and followed it around in all different possibilities and non of which have gone outside from some where from the back of the room. I also checked the security camera and I found 2 individuals that was talking on their cell phones but they were both talking for some time before the lights went out so that went out of the question. Besides, no one was running after the lights turned out according to the tapes and the fact that no one reported seeing it. (Hattori continues to explain what he explained to Conan earlier in chapter 4) And so I've come to the conclusion of those 5 individuals."
A look of stress stroke across the 5 individual's face. "I've noticed something that determined the criminal because of a specific behavior of an individual."
"A specific behavior?" Chief Megure swallowed his saliva and reached his neck forward. The room was at total silence.
"Nakamura-san, I've noticed you put your lips on your ice tea but I hadn't notice that your ice tea had gone down in volume earlier. Also, I've noticed that the moment Mr. Katsuoka died, you received a new cup of ice tea. I could tell by the lemon on the top." Hattori smiled and turned toward Nakamura Kousuke.
"Are you saying that?"
"Yes, the person who murdered Mr. Katsuoka is you! Kousuke-san." Hattori Heiji pointed with his index finger. Nakamura was grinding his teeth.
"You didn't actually drink it but you could not have not drink it for it would bring suspicion upon you if you had ordered the ice tea and not drink it. So, you would timely put your lips on it to pretend that you are drinking it. You see, it takes time for cyanide to completely dissolve in a solution, In order to assure that there would be cyanide on the toothpick he would need a saturated solution, or in other words, the point where a solution has dissolved nearly all that it can dissolve. To do this requires time so you did not drink any during that time. Unlike drinking down an infected liquid when you intend to put it on another object it is critical that the poison gets onto the object. If the cyanide concentration isn't high enough then there is a chance that it won't go on. And when …"
"Ha, impossible, at that time, the stadium was pitch black. Even if the gathering location for us people that was involved in the party was very close to the starting location that don't mean anything. As for the lemon, it just proved that I haven't used it. That can't mean anything. Or what, did you wish to test my ice tea for signs of poison? I can assure you that…and where had the weapon gone to huh?" said Nakamura angrily.
"I won't find any" Hattori cut in to finish off the sentence, "And I bet that you flushed the straw and the toothpick down the toilet in the hotel as well to get rid of evidence. As for retrieving the weapon that is easy. All you have to do is tie a string on the tooth pick and pull is back after you had killed Mr. Katsuoka."
"Just as I thought. It's just a silly kid's deduction. No proof at all." Laughed Nakamura.
"Oh, I've got evedence." Hattori gave a confident grin.
"What?" Namura reacted turning white.
"The tissue paper that you used. Judging by the straw size that you had access to, shouldn't be that small. Also, I know that it must have flew off because it had hit Conan right after the lights turned off."
"SIR!! We've found it. A ball of tissue that contained signs of cyanide." An inspector came running in.
"You see, now then, can we get a sample of your saliva?" Hattori laughed.
"Damn. That was my mistake. I didn't know that the peace of tissue was going to fly off and I didn't have the time to find it and retrieve it. But, now that I've been told to the end, guess I shouldn't stick around any more." Nakamura smiled and snapped his fingers.
Immediately two smoke bombs fell from his suit and exploded conceiving him from vision, quickly followed by 3 simultaneous explosions at the front door. Sound of shattering glass could be heard from out side the room. The smoke cleared but the man was now gone.
"Damn it, find him!! Chase him down!" Said the chief with rage.
"Assassination crew leader. I guess even they have slip ups. Kudou, I hope all goes well in your side." Hattori mumbled under his breath.
Time was running out for our little hero when a final strike of luck flew in. (Haibara's signal stopped moving. But that could mean… She could be immediately killed. No! stop thinking so negative. I only have about 10 minutes of time left before the skate board become dead. Hold on Haibara, I'm coming!!) Conan zoomed down the streets against the setting sun, which now lay as though parallel to the clouds giving it an extra red tinge. Sweat glided sideways, flying off into the air.
The tired eyes slowly opened. In front of her was the police officer that she remembered from back at the hotel. "Huh, where am I?" Coming to a sudden realization that her hands were bound, she wiggled herself up.
"So your finally awake." The young man said. "But Sherry, meeting you in a place like that. It must have been my lucky day. I had first just gone there to make sure that Merlot wasn't planning anything stupid and to hear on his success but this is even better."
"Who are you?" Haibara asked intimidated and half not wanting to know the answer.
(Shit, my board is dieing. I'm going to have to run from here on. The place can't be too far. Maybe 500meters. Don't worry Haibara, I'm almost there.) Conan dashed away. His breathe speeding up faster and faster. His heart jumped more rapidly. Yet he didn't know, he didn't even think about how much he pushed himself.
"Don't worry, if things turn out bad, I'll protect you" The promise of he made flashed back in front of him echoing in his mind. (DAMN IT. Be okay, just please..BE OKAY!)
"Its time Sherry. Think of this as a punishment for escaping from the organization with out even saying good bye to me." The young man raised his guns and pointed it to Haibara's head. Haibara closed her eyes and prepared for the on coming impact.
SWOOSH
She opened her eyes in surprise and noticed a soccer ball flying and hitting the gun off the man's hands. Breathing heavily in front of her was a familiar backside. "Remember, (pant) I promised you."
Haibara whispered quietly under her tiny smile, "Baka."
The man's eyes narrowed, "Cool guy…"
End…..
Wow, that took more pages than expected.
As always, Review are always well appreciated
Next chapter is the climax chapter. I will publish it sometime in the next 2-5 days. I'm sure you all would have guess who the officer is since I even changed my title because of it.
I don't know, putting Gin in the story would have screwed up the general plot of the anime too much so I changed it.
To Dagron: No, Sherry was that other girl's name. I put that in as a calm before the storm type of thing I guess.