In Today's Case: Winter Murder
Tess sat on the couch reading a book, she just got back from the hospital and what other way to rest then to read? It was the first day of winter and already it was snowing. She glanced outside at the window and smiled at the snow. She loved the snow. She always has. She loved the lovely whiteness on the side of the streets. She most of all she loved it when the snow attired the trees in its wonderful whiteness.
Tess looked back at her book as she continued to read the mystery. She had already figured it out but she wanted to continue reading it to get the families reaction. She continued to read till she heard someone jump over the couch and land next to her.
"Hey!" came the voice. Tess looked over to see Conan… and he was happy.
"Um… hi." Tess said shifting her eyes around slightly. "Why are you so happy?" Tess asked.
"I don't know. I'm just in a good mood." Conan answered. Tess nodded her head. She looked back at her book and continued to read. "What are you reading?" he soon asked.
"A book I bought by Marry Higgins Clark." Tess answered showing him the cover. Conan looked at it and in big white letters it read No Place like Home. Conan nodded his head.
"Isn't she an American?" Conan asked. Tess nodded her head.
"Yup. The Queen of Suspense, I think that's what they call her." Tess said turning the page. Conan nodded his head as he looked out the window. Tess reached forward picking up her bookmark and placing it into the book. She closed it and placed it onto the coffee table. She sighed and turned to Conan. "Do you want to go out?" Tess asked as she stood up. Conan looked at her.
"I don't know. Why?" Conan asked.
"I feel like going out to eat." Tess said stretching and yawning. She looked at him and smiled. "How about it?" she asked. Conan smiled back as he nodded his head.
"Sure why not." Conan said. Tess and Conan got ready to leave. Tess re-brushed her hair considering it was being stubborn today. She put on her bandanna and slipped her gun into the hostel. Conan changed into pants and grabbed his jacket. Tess left a note for Richard, Rachel, and Darien considering they were all out. Darien had gone to the grave yard to visit his mother's grave like he usually did so he might show up first. Richard and Rachel… who know where they are.
Tess and Conan exited the office and walked down stairs onto the sidewalk. Tess looked up and breathed in the ice cold air and Conan looked up at her.
"Don't you just love snow?" Tess asked. Conan shrugged.
"It's alright if you don't mind the cold or like it." Conan answered.
"I love the snow! I remember when I was little me, Darien, and Rachel use to go sledding at the park and one time Darien and I crashed into a tree. It was funny."
"I bet it was." Conan said with a smile. Tess looked down at him and then rustled up his hair. Conan fixed it as they walked into the diner.
They sat down on the bench and waited to get seated. Then a waitress walked up to them and smiled.
"Hi. How many?" she asked as he reached for some menus.
"Two." Tess answered as she and Conan stood up.
"Would you like a kid's menu?" the waitress asked and Tess shook her head.
"No, two adult menus." Tess answered. She knew that Jimmy hated to be treated like a kid when it came to menus. She was the only one that would get him an adult menu, everyone else got him a kids menu.
Tess and Conan were seated a cross from each other. They ordered their drinks and within minutes they had them. Tess and Conan talked back and forth about almost everything but the main subject was Conan and the antidote.
"I just hope I get it in time to help you out." Conan said taking a sip from his Coke. Tess smiled slightly as she twirled the straw in her Pepsi.
"I don't know if I want you to help me." Tess said softly. Conan heard and he looked at her.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Well, considering I almost lost you Saturday." Tess answered, "and I don't want to lose you like I lost my parents. Plus, think of Rachel. She's madly in love with you. She'll slap me when I tell her that you were really Jimmy Kudo and you were killed because of me." Tess added. Conan didn't really think about that. She was right. Rachel would go crazy when she found out. "I would probably end up dead by her anyway if she found out I was your cause of death."
Conan nodded his head, "yeah, I guess I never thought about it that way." He said. Tess smiled.
"I think you should for now on. You know Jimmy, even though you're a great detective… you don't have good common sense." Tess said placing her finger on his forehead. Conan swatted her finger away. Tess pulled it back before he could hit it.
"Yeah I do!" Conan shouted. Tess smiled almost smirk like and shrugged.
"Alright, whatever you say." Tess said taking a sip out of her soda.
"You know, you should be lying down and resting." Conan said. Tess looked at him as she blinked a few times.
"Why?" she asked.
"Because you just got out of the hospital that's why." Conan answered. Tess shrugged.
"Things like that never slow me down." Tess said to Conan pushing her drink to the side.
"It should considering you were drugged and nearly killed." Conan said counting on his fingers. Tess shrugged again.
"I've been through worse in New York." Tess stated. Conan rose an eyebrow.
"How… worse…?" he asked knowing that her answer was going to shock him. Tess looked up at the ceiling with her eyes and blinked.
"Well, I've been targeted by terrorists, shot about 5 times, jumped out a four story building…"
"What!" Conan shouted cutting her off.
"Wait, wait… I'm not finished yet." Tess said, "I was thrown off of a building, I was shot at, I was bombed, I was kidnapped, and…" Conan raised his hands.
"Enough! I don't want to hear anymore!" he shouted taking another drink from his soda then pushed it to the side. "Now… why did you jump out a four story building?" Conan asked.
"Well, it was either that or get killed." Tess told him. Conan nodded his head.
"Good point." Conan said looking at the table. "But that still doesn't really answer my question." He added.
"Let me guess, you want to know what happened right?" Tess asked. Conan nodded his head.
"Alright I'll tell you."
&&&&&&& Story &&&&&&&
Tess sat at her desk working on paper work like always. It was about 2 weeks since she got the job and she was assigned a partner. Jake Goodall. A 22 year old male whose been on the force for about 5 years. So he started when he was 17, but Tess is only 10 turning 11. She was the youngest person to get on the force then anyone else. It was all because she found where the terrorist was. They brought her onto the force to help out with the mysteries. But she was never called to do anything.
Jake walked out of the chief's office and told Tess. He placed a gun on her desk and She looked up.
"What's this?" Tess asked. Jake smiled.
"I got you assigned to a gun." Jake answered.
"Mr Goodall…"
"Jake." He said interrupting her.
"Jake, I can't use a gun? I won't be able to live knowing I killed someone." Tess said. Jake smiled as he pulled a bullet out of his pocket.
"Don't worry about it Tess. They're rubber bullets." Jake said to her bouncing it off of her desk. She smiled and nodded her head.
"Alright then…" Tess said slowly.
"And…" Jake started, "I got you your first job." Jake said. Tess looked up at him and smiled.
Jake and Tess drove down to downtown New York City where the ghetto was. Tess didn't mind it really. She used to live in something like this when she came over from Japan. Jake pulled over where there were FBI tucks and police cops almost everywhere on the street. Tess and Jake ran over to one of the FBI agents in charge. They both showed him their badges.
"Aren't you a little to young to be on the FBI team?" he asked placing his finger on her head. Tess pulled her head away glaring at him.
"No!" Tess shouted. Jake placed his hand onto her shoulder.
"You're looking at the girl who saved this city from that terrorist 5 months ago." Jake said. The man in charged eyes widened.
"Oh, I'm sorry miss." He said. Tess nodded her head with a smile.
"Anyway, what's going on?" Jake asked.
"We got a gang up there holding a civilian captive." He answered. "And our only way in is a vent outside but none of our men can fit." He added.
"How big is it?" Tess asked. The man in charge and Jake looked at her as she had a smirk placed on her face. The man brought them over and lifted Tess up onto his shoulders.
"Can you get through there?" Jake asked as he watched Tess. She nodded her head.
"Yeah I can." Tess answered she begun to crawl inward as the man talked to her.
"You have to find you way to the four floor." He said.
"Alright…" came Tess's echoing voice. The man looked at Jake.
"Do you think she can do it?" he asked. Jake nodded his head.
"Yeah, remember, she escaped and caught that terrorist. She basically a legend." Jake answered.
Tess crawled around in the vents with lint and dust gathering on her pants and hands. She crawled and crawled till she heard voices.
"Talk man! Talk!" Tess looked down into an open vent to see the gang and the man that was being held captive. The man was also another gang member.
"I will not talk!" he shouted. Tess pulled the vent off quietly and slowly trying not to make any noise.
"If you don't talk I'll…!" Tess came down onto the kid's head crushing him to the floor knocking him. The other gang members pointed their guns. Tess went to reach for hers and that's when she remembered that she had rubber bullets and not real ones. Tess pushed the man out of the window breaking it. He was caught on a blue safety catcher. But when he landed he had flattened it. Tess looked down to see she wasn't going to live if she jumped out. But… what other choice did she have?
"Don't move!" one of them cried out. Tess smirked and waved.
"See ya!" She shouted and then she jumped. The members ran to the window and looked down to see that Tess had landed in a dumpster. Tess pulled herself out of the trash as the other members were arrested since she gave them time to get up there.
&&&&&&& Story Ends &&&&&&&
Conan was trying not to laugh. She landed in a dumpster. Tess's hand came down onto his head after she had reached forward. "Shut up okay! If I didn't land in that thing I would be dead right now!" Tess shouted. She had a point there. At the age she was when that happened she wouldn't have survived.
"Here you go." The waitress said giving them their food.
"Thanks." They replied and begun to eat. Tess looked around. It was a small diner. They were the only ones there. A couple of people showed up here and there but none really that she knew of. She continued to eat when a woman came into the diner. She took a seat at the bar end of the diner.
"Hi may I help you?" the waitress asked. The woman looked around nervously when she noticed Tess watching her. The woman seemed to have known who Tess was and Tess thought she looked familiar.
"Something wrong?" Conan asked. Tess nodded her head slightly as the woman looked away.
"Yeah… that woman right there… does… does she seem familiar to you?" Tess asked. Conan turned and looked at her. He then shook his head.
"No… why?" he asked her.
"Because she seems oddly familiar to me. It's like… I've known her for years." Tess answered. She then shrugged the feeling off and went back to eating.
The waitress got the woman's order and walked into the kitchen when… "AAAAH!" Tess and Conan jumped from their seats as the other few customers did as well. Tess hopped over the bar counter as Conan ran through the door. They entered the kitchen and there he was. The chef laying dead on the floor. Tess pulled out her cell to see she had no service.
"I never get any service!" Tess shouted to herself. She turned to someone looking on. "Someone call the police." Tess ordered. One of the men nodded his head as he pulled his cell phone out and walked outside. Tess looked down at Conan as he looked up at her. There they go again… off to solve another murder.
Tess and Conan stared at the body. In the chef's right hand was a frying pan that looked still hot. There was blood pouring onto his white chef suit as he laid there on the ground. The eyes wide open on the chef looking up blankly at Tess and Conan who stared down at him. Conan bent down to the body and then looked up at Tess.
"Doesn't look like he put up much of a fight." Conan said to her. Tess nodded her head agreeing with him.
"It's like he knew that he was going to be killed. But with that frying pan in his hand he must've swung at someone." Tess said looking around at the people who stood around gasping in fright.
"But who?" Conan asked. Tess turned her head to look at him.
"That's what we're here to do." Tess answered him. Conan smiled back as he nodded his head standing upright. The man that had left came back into the kitchen pushing his way through the few customers.
"I called the police." He said to her.
"And…"
"They'll be here in between 10 to 15 minutes." The man answered. Tess nodded her head. She turned to the waitress and held out her hand.
"Can I have your notepad?" she asked. The waitress didn't want to argue considering that Tess had basically control over the situation. She handed her the notepad. Tess flipped through it to a clean and new page. She took the pen out of the bindings and clicked the button on top. She looked up at the customers. "I'm going to need every one of your names." Tess said. "Starting with you, the man who called the police and then we'll work in a clockwise motion."
"My name is Jared." He said. Tess nodded her head writing down Jared's name. she looked up at the woman behind him.
"Serenity." She said.
"Sere…nity…" Tess said writing down her name as she spoke. "You?" she asked turning to the woman who was the last to come in.
"Max." she answered nervously. Tess wrote down her name. "And… all I need is you Sir and you miss." Tess said turning to another man and the waitress.
"My name is Zachary." The man answered.
"And I'm Jessica." The waitress said. Tess nodded her head writing both of their names down.
"What about us?" Conan and Tess looked up at the people in front of them split apart to reveal Dr Agasa and Ai.
"Ai?" Conan asked.
"Dr Agasa?" Tess said. Both of them completely confused considering they didn't see them.
"I'll give you two the credit and not put your names on the suspect list." Tess said.
"What!" Jared shouted. "They're just as guilt as us!" he shouted. Tess sighed as she lowered the notepad. Conan took it from her as he crawled up onto one of the seats at the bar.
"There's always a suspect that basically rejects everything I do. And mainly, they always end up the murderer." Tess said to Jared crossing her arms. Jared stared at her. He then looked down. "Okay, everyone needs to step out of the kitchen." She said shoving everyone out.
The suspects seated themselves at the bar in the order that Tess took down their names. She looked at them all with Conan standing next to her. Of course, Dr Agasa and Ai seated themselves down as well. But they knew that neither Dr Agasa nor Ai was the murderer considering Conan and Tess knew them every well. But they insisted they be seated.
The door bell above the diner door bell rung letting them know that someone had stepped in. Tess and Conan turned around and saw Inspector Maguire and his team of officers enter.
"Ah, Inspector… wondering when you were going to show up." Tess said with a slight smirk.
"Well, I didn't expect you to be here Tess Moore." He said back to her.
"Come on Inspector. You know me; I'm always at a murder scene… me and Conan here." Tess said letting Inspector Maguire notice Conan standing beside her. Inspector Maguire nodded his head.
"Yes… which is very odd." He said underneath his breath. Tess and Conan led Inspector Maguire and the team to the kitchen. The officers stayed as Tess and Conan then led him to the suspects.
"Here are the suspects. They're seated in order that I took down their names." Tess stated as Conan handed him the notepad.
"Thank you Conan."
"You're welcome Inspector." Conan stated as he smiled. Inspector Maguire read the list until he got to Ai and Dr Agasa. He looked up at them as they smiled.
"Me and Tess gave Dr Agasa and Ai credit that they didn't do the murder." Conan said. Inspector Maguire nodded his head agreeing with him.
"Yes, I'll agree. You two can step out of the list." Inspector Maguire said taking his pen out of his pocket and crossing off their names. Ai and Dr Agasa lifted themselves up and out of their seats. They walked toward them and stood behind Inspector Maguire. Jared rose from his seat.
"Now this just isn't fair!" he shouted, "they were here when the murder had happened as well! They should be considered as a suspect just as much as us!" He shouted pointing at them. Tess walked forward pushing his arm to his side.
"Look SIR, we happen to know them well enough to the point where I know they wouldn't have committed murder!" Tess shouted, "now… TAKE YOUR SEAT LIKE A GOOD BOY YOU ARE!" Tess shouted. Jared was shocked at the way Tess spoke to him.
"Has you mother even taught you to respect your elders!" He bounced back. Tess clenched her fists.
"She did… and she also told me to disrespect anyone who disrespects me! And right now… that means you, now… SIT DOWN!" Tess shouted pointing to his seat. Jared backed away and took his seat. Inspector Maguire, Conan, Dr Agasa, and including Ai stared at Tess wide eyed. Serenity the stood up.
"When do I get to leave?" she asked.
"After you have answered all of our questions." Inspector Maguire told her. Serenity took her seat. "Now, do you all have alibis?" he asked.
"Yes, I know I do. I went out to eat with my husband Zachary." Serenity stated.
"Yeah. We were sitting to the right of this young lady and the little boy." Zachary started pointing to Tess and Conan. Inspector Maguire turned to them. Tess and Conan nodded their heads.
"Yeah, they were there." Conan said. Inspector Maguire looked forward.
"Alright, now… Jared…"
"I was sitting over there in front of them with my back turned to them." Jared said walking over to his seat and taping his hand on it.
"Yeah, he was sitting there. He was there when we got here." Tess stated. Inspector Maguire nodded his head. He then checked off their names. The last one was Max.
"Max?" he asked looking up at her.
"I um… came in I think within minutes of the scream." She said nervously.
"Yes, I got her order." Jessica said, "and that was then I turned into the kitchen and I saw him laying there on the tile floor…"
"And that's when she screamed and we all ran over." Tess stated. Inspector Maguire nodded his head. He turned too looked at Dr Agasa and Ai.
"You two may leave." He said. Dr Agasa and Ai bowed their heads and then left. Inspector Maguire looked up at the rest of the suspects. Each one of them described what had happened in their own words. Tess and Conan nodded their heads knowing what they were saying was true. "Alright then… I guess there's no longer a reason to keep you here since you… Tess and Conan and prove that they had done all of this."
"They did…" Tess said. Conan looked at Max's hands. She was holding them tightly and she was sweating. Conan tugged at Tess's pant leg. She looked down at him. She got onto her knees.
"I think Max is hiding something…" Conan whispered. Tess turned her head to look at her. She nodded her head slightly. She turned to Conan.
"I agree… these others are innocent but I don't know about Max. When she came in she was nervous and frightened about something." Tess whispered back. Conan nodded his head.
"We'll have to prove something." Conan said. Tess glanced at where Max was sitting before the murder. On the seat next to hers was her purse.
"I want you to open her purse and then accidentally knock it down. Let's hope something useful will come out." Tess whispered to him. Conan nodded his head as he walked over. He crawled up into Max's old seat. Quickly and quietly without being noticed he opened Max's purse. He then begun to spin the chair around. Max watched her nervously as his legs kept on hitting her purse.
"Conan… stop that." Tess ordered. Conan frowned. And then he spun one more time and the purse went onto the ground. At the same time Tess grabbed a hold of Max's arms tightly. Max looked at her and then… CRASH! All of her belongings in her purse fell out of her purse including a switch blade pocket knife.
"Oops…" Conan said looking down blinking a few times. Everyone looked over. Inspector Maguire walked over and picked up the switch blade pocket knife. He slowly opened it and there was blood that stained the blade. Inspector Maguire turned his head to look at her as everyone but Tess stepped back and gasped. Max's eyes widened.
"We knew…" Tess said facing Max. "Me and Conan had a funny feeling about you ever since you walked into this diner." Tess added.
"Then why didn't you tell me?" Inspector Maguire asked.
"For the simple fact that I'm stubborn like that and I wanted to prove it for myself." Tess said. She then forced Max's long sleeves shirt to roll up. There on her right arm was a burn mark in the shape of a frying pan. "Well… well… well. I guess you did kill the chef." Tess said. Max then ripped arm her arms. Her arms, she placed them on the table behind her. She got up and turned to run. She then felt something on her back and then a click. Max froze in her tracks as she turned her head. There was Tess's gun pressing against her mild back with the hammer pulled back ready to fire.
"Why?" Conan asked as he hopped off of the chair. Max sighed.
"I was hired to kill him…" she answered.
"By who?" Inspector Maguire asked.
"I… I don't know his name…" Max answered. Tess got a pretty good clue at who had ordered her to kill him.
"Let me guess… when you killed him you froze up and didn't know how to take care of the issue. So you decided to take the murder weapon and the only clue which is that burn mark with you right?" Tess asked. Max nodded her head. Tess kept her gun on Max's back as she helped her climb down off of the table. Inspector Maguire walked over to Max and cuffed her hands. "But, you never guess that me and Conan would here right?" she asked. Max shook her head.
"No… I didn't expect the kid to be here… but I did expect you to be here…" Max said softly. Tess placed her gun into the holster.
'And it begins…'
Next Time on Case Closed: "Uh-huh." Tess gets caught up in some work that she doesn't notice someone watching her. When who ever is stalking Tess goes to far… what will Jimmy do to protect her… better yet, what will Darien and Jimmy to do protect her? Of course they know that she can take care of herself but… Tess doesn't have any defense considering her gun had gone missing when this stalker appeared. Darien and Jimm team up to protect Tess from who ever is stalking her. The question is… will the emotions these 2 guys have for Tess get in the way with each other and break out in arguments? Find out.
Next Time: Stalking Business
Next Conan's Hint: Hat