After the movie Shinichi and Ran were walking to the bus stop when the sound of approaching sirens caught their attention. When they turned the corner they saw police and paramedics in the middle of a large crowd, as they started to walk past Shinichi kept looking over his shoulder trying to see what happened.
"We might as well go and see."
"What?" said Shinichi.
Ran sighed, "We might as well go over there and see what happened or you'll be wondering about it all day."
"But I don't want to ruin this day. It may be a while before I can come back again."
"That's why I said 'we' I'm going to be at your side until you have to leave. I know better than to try to keep you away from a possible mystery but I'm not going to be left behind this time."
As they walked closer Shinichi spotted a familiar face.
"Inspector Meguire."
"Kudo? You're back?"
"Only for a while Inspector. What happened here?"
"Mochizuki, the editor of The Tokyo Daily Globe committed suicide."
"It wasn't suicide."
Shinichi and Meguire turned towards the new voice as a messy haired teen who resembled Shinichi stepped forward and said, "Look at the man's face, I think he was murdered."
"I didn't know you had a brother Shinichi?" said the Inspector as he looked back and forth at the two boys.
"We're not related." Said both boys in unison.
A dark haired girl burst out from the crowd shouting, "Quit bothering the police Kaito!"
She looked like she was going to drag him away until Shinichi stopped her by saying, "Actually Kuroba is right. This man didn't commit suicide and it's very probable he was murdered."
"What!"
Kaito pointed at the man's face as he explained, "People don't normally decide to kill themselves in the middle of eating lunch."
As the inspector looked closely at the body, Shinichi continued the explanation.
"He still has traces of mustard on his face, most people would at least have wiped their chin after finishing their lunch. And even more suspicious is this wound on his head. I believe it happened before the fall."
"It sure didn't happen when he landed." Said Kaito.
"You're right!" Said Meguire, "The angle of the blow is all wrong for the way he landed. Looks like I'm in your debt again Kudo, and yours as well…?" He turned towards Kaito.
"Kuroba Kaito."
"I'm sure the autopsy would have spotted this as well." Said Shinichi.
"Eventually yes," answered Meguire. "But important evidence could have been lost or overlooked first. Could I count on your assistance with this investigation?" Shinichi looked at Ran as if asking her permission but it was Kaito who answered the inspector.
"With two conditions. Our names stay out of the papers, and our friends stay with us."
The inspector looked doubtfully at Aoko until Kaito explained, "She's Inspector Nakamouri's daughter."
"Nakamouri, the head of the Kaitou Kid task force? You should know to be careful around a crime scene then. Ok, they can tag along and it's no problem keeping your name quiet."
"Thank you Inspector. If we could examine his office now?"
As the four teens followed Meguire in to the building Aoko hissed, "How do you two know each other?"
"Kudo's one of the detectives I told you about, he got me out of a bad situation a few months ago." Whispered Kaito.
"Are you a detective too?" Asked Ran softly, "You sounded just like Shinichi out there."
"No, he's just contagious."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are you even got that creepy blond scientist solving mysteries."
"Well, you don't have to make it sound like a disease." Said Shinichi.
"Fine then how about self defense?"
"… Huh?"
"Well bodies and mysteries do tend to turn up wherever you go."
"It's just coincidence."
"Sure it is."
By this time Shinichi was glaring at Kaito and the girls were stifling snickers at the whispered argument.
"They're as bad as Conan and Arthur." Said Aoko.
"No, I think they're worse." Said Ran.
In the office they saw the half-eaten lunch still lying on the desk and the chair had been rolled back and sat next to the large open window behind the desk. Examining the room Shinichi found a trace of blood on the back of the chair and on the desk.
"From the shape of the smeared blood it looks like the murderer laid the weapon down on the desk here." He said
Meguire came over and looked closely at the bloodstain "So we're looking for a blunt object with an odd angled shape."
"Like one of these awards over here?" Said Kaito. "One is missing and it had a diamond shaped base."
"How do you know one is missing?" Asked Aoko.
"It's been a while since this shelf was dusted, you can see the shape of it in the dust."
Shinichi and Meguire examined the silhouette in the dust.
"Yes, that would be about the right shape."
"The murderer was probably someone he knew well and trusted, there's no sign of a struggle."
"We need to find out who's been in here today."
"Unfortunately, someone can go from the elevators to this office without seeing anyone but the secretary, unless someone was standing near the elevators we'll only have one witness to who's been in here and what happened."
"But this building is full of reporters." Said Kaito.
"So?"
"Reporters make it their business to know what's going on." He grinned at the girls obviously delighted to show off for Aoko. "I'm sure they don't call it a gossip column for nothing."
Tigger Says "Sorry it's been so long but sleep depravation and a broken computer kind of interfered with writing."
Manzanita says "Neither of us had a working computer for a while and I forgot to back up this chapter on disk before my computer went down."