One of the officers carefully opened the trunk with gloved hands, inside there was a heavy gold-tone award with a bloodstained, diamond shaped, marble base. It had been carelessly wrapped in a paper bag and it looked like someone had made a hurried attempt to clean off the blood but had only managed to further smear it.

While Inspector Megure yelled for somebody from forensics, Shinichi studied the interior of the trunk without touching it and Kaito compared his hand to the bloody print on the car. After the boys finished their examination of the car they stepped out of the way of the officers and had a hurried discussion about what they found.

"The blood wasn't cleaned off, more like smeared around."

"It won't be easy getting fingerprints off it."

"Yes, but they may be able to get some off the bag."

"As long as some lawyer doesn't claim the murderer fished the bag out of the trash."

"You checked the size of the handprint?"

"It was a small hand, a little smaller than Aoko's."

"Hmm…"

"We're going to have to handle this one carefully"

Back in the building the boys looked for Sato Mari. They found her chatting with a young officer who had apparently offered to share his thermos of tea.

"If it isn't the detectives!" She smiled and waved them over. "I see Ms. Mochizuki didn't scare you away."

"Scare us away?"

"Honey, the whole building heard her and that inspector," She chuckled, "You wouldn't have been the first to decide that one meeting with her was one too many."

Kaito grinned, "I can see why. Um, if you don't mind we had a few more questions. Just to help us get a better picture of things."

"Sure, I may not have liked the boss much but he didn't deserve that."

"No, no one does." Kaito said quietly.

Shinichi nodded in agreement before saying, "We were wondering, everyone we've spoke to disliked Mr. Mochizuki yet many of the reporters have worked for him for years?"

Sato chuckled, "You want to know how we could stand him for so long?"

"Um, yeah." Said Kaito.

"He was a jerk with all the social graces of a dead rat, but he was honest. He never let a questionable story go to print; if it was in this paper then you could be sure every word was true. He never dropped a story because of threats but sometimes he did drop a story just because it was the right thing to do. He was rude and loud and threatened to charge reporters for the paperclips they wasted and few new people lasted a week. I have seen him face down cops, crooks, and everything in between to protect a reporter or source then spend the next month screaming at the poor guy for needing to be protected in the first place."

"Oh," Kaito looked thoughtful, "So most people quit after a week?"

"Most people didn't make it through a week. If the did they usually lasted years. The only exception is secretaries. They quit in days, Yamaguchi Oharu is the first to stay longer than two months."

"She was?"

"Seems like even he couldn't bring himself to yell too much at such a sweet girl."

"Oh?"

"And then there's her secret weapon, those big innocent eyes of hers. One sad look from her and you'd feel like you just kicked a puppy. He'd have her meet people before he'd speak with them, especially if they were trying to get him to drop a story. Said it made them easier to deal with."

As they left her to continue her conversation with the officer Aoko and Ran caught up with them.

You're right Ran." said Aoko. "They're worse than the twins, they can run faster."

Shinichi took one look at Ran and flinched, "I didn't mean to leave you behind." He said.

"I know," She answered, "And I know I can't stop you from chasing after mysteries but you better always come back for me."

"Always." He said.

"If you two are done looking deeply into each others eyes?" Said Kaito with a grin as Ran and Shinichi blushed.

"Baka." Said Aoko as she smacked him on the back of his head."

Shinichi snickered before saying "If you two are done we need to do some planning."

"Should we confront the murderer or explain how the guy was killed?"

"I think the explanation is more likely to draw out a confession or at least some incriminating remarks."

"That's true; we're not dealing with a very stable individual."

As the two boys discussed how to reveal the killer Aoko listened in amazement. Kaito had always been good at magic, as well as getting in and out of trouble but this was a side of him she'd never seen before. Soon they had the inspector, Sato Mari, Ms. Mochizuki, Yamaguchi Oharu, Shimada Ryoichi, and a couple of officers in Mochizuki's office.

"What are we doing in here?" Asked Ms Mochizuki.

"This won't take long Ma'am; we have just a few more questions."

It was obvious she wanted to say something but after a glare from Megure she settled for trying to look down her nose at Kaito and Shinichi. Kaito gave her a broad grin when he saw this, Shinichi just continued explaining.

"Mochizuki was murdered while he was eating lunch, now when you were arguing with your husband his lunch hadn't been delivered yet."

"Yes."

"When you left you saw Yamaguchi arrive carrying a paper bag."

"Yes, but…"

"We're just trying to establish a timeline here."

"Well I don't see why this matters but yes I passed her at the elevator and she was carrying a bag."

"Thank you. Shimada, you saw Yamaguchi arrive shortly before Ms. Mochizuki left, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did."

"And you heard her leave again before the murder was discovered?"

"Yeah."

"I noticed there aren't many first floor windows on that side of the building."

"Yeah, it's kinda weird. The door is around the corner too, but what does this have to do with anything?"

"It has to do with the lack of witnesses and the very short time available to the killer."

Now that Shinichi had their attention Kaito continued the explanation.

"He was eating his lunch when he was killed so we know his killer was someone he knew well. Someone he trusted."

"Trusted?"

"Yes Inspector," Shinichi picked up where Kaito left off. "Would you sit in your office eating your lunch while talking to someone you didn't know or didn't like? I don't believe he was killed by someone who had threatened him, instead it was someone he was close to."

Sato looked shocked at this statement, Yamaguchi seemed as sad and quiet as before, and Ms Mochizuki appeared angry. Everyone else in the room, except for the two boys, showed some combination of surprise, disbelief and thoughtfulness.

"I don't believe this murder was planned in advance. He was eating his lunch while he spoke with his visitor when the visitor picked up the award and struck him in the head. As he slumped down in the chair the killer tried to cover up the crime by pushing the chair over to the window and dumping the body out. The killer then wrapped the bloodstained award in the bag that had held Mochizuki's lunch, dumped his lunch in the trash and walked out the door. No one else knew Mochizuki was dead yet, and when the body was spotted a few minutes later it was thought to be a suicide, by the time anyone was looking for a suspect, the murderer had plenty of time to put the award in the trunk of a car and walk down the street."

"But the killer didn't get away cleanly," Said Kaito. "She left too many clues for that to happen."

"She?" Asked several people.

"She." Continued Kaito. "The killer is small, she used the chair to get the body over to the window and she still had trouble getting it out of the chair, you see these scrapes on the window sill?"

"But if she got away what are we doing here?"

"Because, Sato, she came back." Said Shinichi.

"You know who the murderer is?"

"Yes, it was someone he trusted but something drastic must have happened for her to feel so angry, so betrayed that she killed him."

"It was his wife." Everyone turned towards Yamaguchi as she continued in a trembling voice. "She fought with him all the time and she accused him of having an affair. And it was found inher car."

"No it wasn't," Said Kaito. "The murderer had smaller hands."

"Yes it was her fault! She didn't love him! Why couldn't she let him be happy? I loved him; he should have been with me. It's her fault he died, she wouldn't let him go!"

Everybody stared in shock at Yamaguchi's uncharacteristic outburst. Everybody but Kaito and Shinichi.

"He betrayed you didn't he?" Said Kaito softly.

"No it wasn't him, he loved me!It was her! She wouldn't let him go, wouldn't let him be with me."

"So you killed him."

"I didn't mean to hit him that hard. It was all her fault anyways. She made me! I would never hurt him, never."

The officers escorted a crying Yamaguchi out of the building and to a squad car.

No, this story has not been abandoned, and we haven't been abducted by ailens, mysterious people in black or irritated, shrunken, detectives. This chapter is being posted at 10:30 pm, after a nine day work week. Yes I know there are some loose ends, the next chapter will be out as soon as humanly possible.

P.S. Thank you everybody who reviewed, added this to their favorits, or even just read this story. The ego boost from knowing that you like this is wonderful.