SailorStar9: With Chapter 13 uploaded, this is Chapter 14 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and potential pairing.

Pending pairing: Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami

Chapter 14: The Client's Message


Sometime later...

"So, the person who asked you to investigate if her boyfriend was cheating..." Ran trailed as Mouri drove her, Conan and himself to a villa one rainy night.

"She passed away." Mouri confirmed. "She fell down a flight of stairs made of stone. That was three months ago."

"And this morning, Tsuge contracted you and said 'I'll tell you about her murderer, so please come.', right?" Conan asked.

"Did something happen?" Mouri poked his head out of the car window when he met with a road block.

"There's a landslide up ahead, so the road is blocked." the police officer replied.

"We're on our way to that house." Ran pointed.

"You guys, too?" the officer mused. "If that's the case, that road is fine."

"Damn, I can barely see anything ahead." Mouri cursed, driving on.

"Is anyone else coming?" Conan wondered.

"He said that he called the three people that made a commotion at the funeral, too," Mouri confirmed. "As I thought, someone has already arrived before us." he pulled into the carpark.

"Mouri, Tsuge invited you, too?" Sasamori Takashi spotted Mouri after alighting from his car.

"It's raining pretty hard." Noguchi Mariko ran into the porch to get out of the rain. "Now then, let's go inside."

"Whose car is this?" Mouri looked at the red car next to the door.

"It's Tsuge's." Noguchi answered. "These three months, he confined himself to this workshop while working on his art piece. It was unlocked." she blinked, turning the doorknob. "Tsuge, this is Noguchi." she entered the house.

"Thank you." Ishikura Kazumi nodded when Ran shared her umbrella with her.

Instantly suspicious, Conan dashed over to Ishikura's car when he heard a horrified scream from the house.


In the workshop...

"It's too late." Mouri felt for a pulse on Suggests wrist. "Ran, call the police. I'll preserve the scene. Everyone, please wait outside."

"Don't lay a finger on that art piece." Noguchi pointed to the metal statue on the table.

Taking advantage of Mouri's momentarily distraction, Conan snuck back in, first looking at the corpse and at the crime scene.

"The victim is Hikari Tsuge." Takagi reported. "Real name: Hikage Ritsu. 33 years old. Profession: sculptor. By the way, it seems that Hikari Tsuge is an anagram for Hikage Ritsu. According to Mizuno-san, the cause of death was an occipital blow leading to intracranial injury. The hammer seems to be the murder weapon and was on the ground nearby." he handed the bagged evidence to Megure. "It's been wiped clean of fingerprints."

"Just to clarify," Megure started. "The victim told everyone that he will reveal who committed the crime that occurred three months ago, and that they were all invited here?"

"Yes, Inspector." Mouri nodded. "Though, by the time we all arrived, he wasn't breathing anymore and the culprit had left."

"About that, Mouri." Megure voiced. "According to the officer at the checkpoint, nobody has crossed the path to the workshop, apparently."

"Does that mean the culprit is still nearby?" Sasamori asked.

"That is still a possibility." Mouri agreed.

"No," Megure corrected. "To begin with, except for the U-turns, only four cars drove up the slope."

"Then one of us is the culprit?" Ran wondered. "That can't be. Because we got here first and everyone else came after us. After all, we all went inside together and found the corpse."

"But you know," Conan piped in."At the checkpoint, when we told the officer we were heading toward the workshop, that officer said 'You guys, too?' Doesn't that mean there was somebody who went to this workshop before us? If we ask that officer, we might be able to find out something about the type of car or driver."

"About that, he remembers there were four cars, but doesn't remember anything about the type of cars or drivers." Takagi explained.

"In other words, is this what we think is the order of events?" Megure voiced. "In the beginning, there was only one car at the workshop which belonged to the victim, Tsuge. Then Mouri's group arrived. Next, it was the three cars. Now, it's four cars. However, according to the policeman, there was one car before Mouri. That means, the culprit arrives first and murders Tsuge. He leaves the workshop and hides elsewhere. They waited until everyone had arrived, then appeared as if nothing had occurred."

"Then, what's the motive?" Takagi wondered.

"To silence him, of course." Mouri scoffed. "The culprit heard Tsuge that he would reveal the murderer from three months ago. So they came here as soon as possible and murdered Tsuge. In other words, Tsuge's killer may be the same person who murdered Sasamori Kaori."

"Hold on a second." Sasamori stated. "Since Tsuge knew that one of the three of us is the culprit, why would he needlessly invite that person?"

"Maybe he kind of felt like being a detective?" Ishikura guessed. "He did have a bit of a childish side."

"That's true." Noguchi agreed. "Maybe he went into the trouble of inviting everyone just so he can say 'The culprit is one of you guys.'"

"Whatever." Sasamori shrugged. "I'm not the culprit. One day, I promised my sister we'd go out and eat. But the shooting took longer than expected. I was a little late and when I went to the meeting place..." he recalled seeing Kaoru roll down the flight of stairs and saw Tsuge on the top of the staircase. "At that time, I was certain I saw Tsuge there, at the top of the stone stairs. So I jumped to the conclusion that Tsuge was the culprit."

"But it wasn't like that." Ran noted. "Tsuge was the eyewitness."

"That's why I can't possibly be the culprit." Sasamori added.

"But there was no witnesses to confirm your story, right?" Ishikura reminded.

"So you're saying I'm lying?" Sasamori glared. "Kaoru is my sister."

"But you two didn't get along, right?" Ishikura asked. "Kaoru told me. 'My brother and I are having a dispute over the inheritance money from our parents.' she said. Then you got the idea at the top of the stone stairs and you pushed Kaoru down."

"Wait a second, Kazumi." Noguchi cut in. "Indeed, you sound like a trustworthy friend; but even you have a motive for murdering Kaoru. Tsuge had another woman besides Kaoru. She hired Mouri to investigate who that other person was. That other woman is Ishikura Kazumi."

"I also didn't know." Ishikura admitted. "To think he would go out with Kaoru." he related how she had received an email from Kaoru saying that Tsuge had proposed to her and she had then headed over to Tsuge's place to get an explanation from him.

"What about you?" Sasamori turned to Noguchi. "It's not like you don't have any motive. I heard from my sister." he recalled how Noguchi had offered Kaoru money to break it off with Tsuge. "Fed up with watching Tsuge no work, I heard that you began to look for a different artist as a client. If you don't, you'd pay a huge penalty."

"So, you're saying I murdered Kaoru because of that?" Noguchi snapped. "It's true that ever since his girlfriend passes away, he's been working as if possessed. But I had nothing to do with it."


In the carpark...

"Detective Takagi." Conan tugged Takagi's trousers, Ami shut the door of the ambulance after Tsuge's body was ushered in. "Kogoro-oji-san asked me to tell you, 'From here to the checkpoint, could you look for a place to hide a car?'"

"Maybe around here?" Takagi mused, driving along a S-curve.

"I'll go check it out." Conan jumped out of the car and searched around the hidden cabin, before finding what he was looking for near some bushes.


Back in the workshop...

"Now then, everyone." Megure started. "We'd like to question you individually, so if you could please accompany me to the station."

"He's here." Takagi breathed when Mouri suddenly slumped onto a nearby stool once Conan hit him with his tranquilizer dart. "Sleeping Kogoro."

"No need to go to the station." using Mouri's voice, Conan took over. "Inspector, let's put an end to it here. When I saw Tsuge's corpse in this workshop, I noticed a certain something was missing from the scene. Judging from the situation, most likely, the culprit took the weapon away after committing the crime. Takagi, please bring it over. Why did Tsuge wait three months, then decide to reveal Sasamori Kaoru's murderer now? He could have revealed it on the day of Kaoru's funeral where he quarreled with Sasamori. Tsuge probably tried to use his own methods to prosecute the culprit. To do so, he needed three months. It's in front of everyone right now, the object produced for the prosecution. The object title 'Demurrer', which means 'to object'."

"Mouri, I brought it." Takagi returned with the light tripod.

"Sorry, but would you place it on top of the tape that's in the back?" Conan requested. "If you'll recall, Hikari Tsuge is an anagram of Hikage Ritsu. Hikari Tsuge and Hikage Ritsu: literally light and shadow. Therefore, let's examine the object's title 'Demurrer'. If you think of an anagram for it, one different title reveals itself: murderer., meaning killer; the shadow's title."

"All ready." Takagi reported.

"Ran, lower the screen that's above the door and turn off the light." Conan added. "Takagi, the light. Takagi, slowly rotate the base of the object." he continued, the shadow reflected on the screen revealed nothing on the murderer. "Shadow art." he spoke, the side silhouette of s ballerina was shown. "At first, one might not know what the object is, but when light is cast at a certain angle, it creates shadow art. Tsuge, through his art, wanted to prosecute the culprit. Ran, turn on the lights. Ishikura Kazumi, the person who murdered Sasamori Kaoru and Hikari Tsuge is you."

"Wait, Mouri." Megure spoke. "To decide that she's the culprit based on the shadow of a ballerina is..."

"It's true with just that shadow, the level of evidence is low." Conan agreed. "However, the culprit is afraid the shadow light be seen and so took the light and ran off. Those actions are irrefutable proof that identifies the murderer. If you'll recall, to reach the light, one must step over Tsuge's corpse but the pooled blood blocked that path, so you could not go that way without stepping in the blood and leaving footprints. So the culprit had to do what Conan did: crawl under the work table, get the light and take it away. Sasamori and Noguchi's body type would prevent them from going through the bottom. The one person who could get through is only you, the ballerina, Ishikura. One last thing, when you got out of your car, you were soaking wet. According to Conan, the driver's seat was also soaking wet. In other words, you were already soaked before getting out of the car since you threw away that light stand during this downpour."

"We were planning to get married." Ishikura sighed. "At the very least, that's what I planned. That's why when I heard he invited everyone, I thought he was going to announce that. Because of that, I accidentally came earlier than the appointed time. Tsuge showed his shadow art to me and said he'd reveal who the murderer was." she then revealed that she had taken what Tsuge had said in jest and pushed Kaoru down the staircase to remove her love rival. When Tsuge told her he had no intentions of marrying her, she snatched the hammer from its hook and hit him on the head with it.

"But why didn't you break the object?" Ran wondered. "If you did, then you didn't have to hide the light."

"It's not like she didn't, but more likely she couldn't." Conan voiced.

"I couldn't break it." Ishikura agreed. "I was happy. Even if it was meant to prosecute me, for three months, his only thoughts were for me while making this thing. When I thought about that, I couldn't break it."


SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.