SailorStar9: With Chapter 14 uploaded, this is Chapter 15 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 15: Kudo Yusaku's Cold Case, Part One
Sometime later...
"Kudo Shinichi's father is that famous mystery novelist, Kudo Yosaku?" Sera was impressed.
"He's not in Japan right now." Ran nodded. "He's working on a novel overseas."
"I used to read his books, like the Night Baron series, when I was a kid." Sera beamed.
"Thanks to him, his son, the mystery frantic was born." Sonoko rolled her eyes. "But, rest assured; since your future father-in-law is a best selling novelist, you don't have to worry about starving once you're married."
"Anyway, is that true what you're telling us?" Sera asked. "Hard to believe Kudo Yosaku withdrew from such a strange case, you know."
"When Shinichi's dad was still in Japan, he was helping to investigate a case, but he left in the middle of the case, so Shinichi got angry with him." Ran recalled.
"So, what kinda of case was it?" Sera's interest was piqued.
"I think next to the corpse, there was a character written in blood." Ran thought back.
"Are you okay?" one of Takaichi Isao's cor-workers suddenly called out. "Get it together, Takaichi."
"What happened?" Ran asked, the three high school girls hurrying to the vending machine.
"Actually, since this guy didn't show up for work, I went out searching for him and found him hunched over here." the tan coated man replied. "He was bleeding from the mouth. Just in case, we called an ambulance."
"There's no need for an ambulance." Sera stated, inspecting the victim's eye. "It seems he passes away about nine hours ago. Is this man an alcoholic?"
"His doctor told him to stop drinking." the tan coated man confirmed.
"From the looks of his sclera, he has jaundice and even though he's thing, his stomach protrudes." Sera explained. "This is ascites, which is proof that his liver is functioning poorly. Furthermore, inside that vending machine's bin, there's an untouched can of sake. At first glance, it seems plausible that this man brought that sake before he died. A person suffering from liver pain would usually avoid alcohol because it makes the symptoms worse. Despite that, he still wanted sake, so I suspected he's an alcoholic. Normally, an alcoholic with cirrhosis could suffer from a variceal rupture, causing him to vomit blood. There was nobody around at that time, so he couldn't get help and died is what I would normally think. However, he didn't die of natural causes., but rather from malicious intent. The proof is in front of the man. This character in blood is 'death'."
"Wait a sec..." Ran gaped. "This 'death' character is exactly the same as the case from 10 years ago. Shinichi showed me a picture of the scene at the time, so I'm certain."
In Teitan Elementary School...
Conan's class was on cleaning duty when Conan received an email from Ran on Shinichi's mobile phone. 'Today on my way to school, I encountered a murder scene. The bloody character written at the scene was exactly the same as the one Shinichi showed me from 10 years ago. Sera and Sonoko said they wanted to see that picture, so after school, we're going to Shinichi's house to look for it. No problem, right? I vaguely know where it is.'
"Where's Conan?" Ayumi looked around, finding Conan was missing.
"He said an emergency came up, so he left early." Haibara explained.
On the way to the Kudo household...
"I got Shinichi's reply." Ran read the new email. "'I'm worried my house would be turned upside down, I told Conan where it is and sent him to get it. He'll take it to the detective agency, so excuse me for that.' Then, just tell me where it is." she fumed.
Maybe there's a pile of porn magazines hidden near the picture?" Sonoko teased.
"But you know, we're already here." Sera stopped in front of the gates. "Since we're, lets go inside. I also want to meet Subaru, the person who's currently living here."
In the house...
"Conan's shoes." Ran noticed the Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes at the doorway.
"You know, I've always been curious about Subaru." Sonoko noted. "Because he's always wearing clothes that cover his neck. He probably has an embarrassing tattoo or something on his neck and wants to hide it."
"Conan?" Sera stopped by a bathroom. Opening the door, she blinked when she saw Subaru brushing his teeth.
"Subaru, I believe Conan is here." Ran cut in. "Do you mean he's in the study?" she blinked when Subaru pointed to the direction of the study. "Then, we'll head over there."
In the study...
"Conan, do you want us to help you search?" Ran called out, Conan was carrying a box down the step ladder.
"It's okay." Conan replied. "I've almost found it. Why don't you all go have some tea in the kitchen? When I find it, I'll bring it over."
In the kitchen...
"I think Shinichi is hiding it." Sonoko was certain. "Because every month, he lets you clean his house. But doesn't it seem suspicious why he won't let you search for that picture?"
"No, he may be hiding a woman." Sera determined, searching the cupboards. "Look at this. A hair tie. It was inside the cupboard." she pulled out a pink hair elastic. "Women usually put them in places like this."
"That probably belongs to Shinichi's mom." Ran chuckled.
"But in the sink, there's an unwashed glass with some smeared lipstick on it." Sera picked up the wine glass in the sink. "Furthermore, inside the drain, there are long strands of hair. It seems to be hair fro ma wig, though."
"Don't tell me Shinichi brought home a woman and is having an affair?" Sonoko snapped.
"If you think so, take a picture of this, save it and put it in your diary." Sera suggested. "Write when and where you found it and how you felt at the time, so when you bring it to court, it'll be useful. Use an instant camera instead of a digital camera. You should write in your diary with something indelible, like a pen. If you write about the news and/or weather that day, you'll be more credible. But Kudo hasn't been here for a while, right? If we think of it rationally, wouldn't it be more likely that Subaru who we met earlier brought in a woman?"
"I brought the picture." Conan voiced. "But what are you talking about?"
"It really is similar." Sera gawked after Conan took out the picture. "The bloody 'death' character, that is."
"So, you're saying the murderer from 10 years ago has reappeared?" Ran gasped.
"Then, it's a serial killer." Sonoko exclaimed.
"When I searched the Internet, pictures from that 10-year-old case had not been posted." Sera revealed. "So it's no mistake that this has been done by the same person. Really?" she echoed after Conan told them that Yosaku had said that the murderer from 10 years before would not appear again. "Kudo Yosaku really said that?"
"'The murderer who wrote this 'death' character will never appear again.' is what he said." Conan confirmed. "That's what Shinichi-nii-chan said when he heard it from his dad."
"I also remember when he showed me the picture; Shinichi told me that." Ran concurred. "Furthermore, the man's palm and fingers had blood on them, but not on the finger-tip, so he can't write the character. 'Why isn't it murder?' Shinichi was dismally complaining."
"Even if it wasn't murder, there's no mistake that somebody was with him before the blood dried." Sera looked at the photo. Also, this morning, we found this blood character that had been left behind at the scene."
"But wasn't the 10-year-old case an accident or something?" Sonoko pointed out.
"Accident?" Sera echoed.
"There's more in-depth details in this envelope that came with the picture." Conan took the photo back.
"The person who passed away was the preschool principal Koriyama Takefumi." Sera read the report. Death was due to shock damage to the heart. A glass shard from a fishbowl pierced and went into his heart, so he passed away. The goldfish was scheduled to be placed in a fishbowl so that the school's aquarium could be cleaned. The principal forgot the fishbowl at home, so he went to go get it. While walking towards the preschool, he took a shortcut and unfortunately, while holding the fishbowl, he tripped on a stone step and was fatally wounded when he fell. The first person to find the victim was a student at the preschool: Nishimura Ryosuke. He's the only son of a local priest and is five years old. When the principal hadn't returned, the other teachers started fussing. The boy told then that he saw the principal lying on the ground. Then, they ran to the park and found his corpse. The boy was nervous and didn't say anything, but after the boy ate some of the candy he had been carrying, he began to talk. He and some other kids had been secretly taking care of a dog in the park. On the way to the preschool, he went to check up on it. Then, when the principal just lay there and didn't respond, he thought he was dead, so he gathered flowers from the park and left them as an offering."
"It's true." Ran referred to the picture. "There are flowers in the picture. It's above the bloody character. But rather than offered as a bunch, it looks like they were scattered all around."
"Probably the culprit who wrote that character kicked it." Sonoko noted.
"But if the principal was murdered by somebody, maybe the principal was pushed from behind and was fatally wounded by the fishbowl." Sera reasoned. "Then the culprit probably wrote the character in with the oozing blood, but when the boy left the flowers, he said there were no bloody characters. That mean right after murdering the principal, the culprit hid for a moment when the boy came. They waited until the boy left, and came back with the purpose to write the bloody character."
"Maybe it was that boy." Sonoko gaped. "He was the one who wrote it. He probably wrote it when he left the flowers. You know, since he was a priest's son, he was mourning the dead."
"But he's only five years old." Ran reminded. "He can't write the kanji of death, right?"
"The man that Ran-nee-chan saw this morning, how did he die?" Conan thought to ask. "If there are any similarities with that 10-year-old case, it may be a clue on how to capture the culprit, right?"
"Other than the bloody character, there was a cigarette beside the corpse, not flowers." Ran recalled.
"The man's estimated time of death was probably 11 o'clock at night." Sera supplied. "The corpse was leaning against the vending machine, and inside the bin was a new can of sake. Something happened to cause his death after he bought the sake. He must have been there until the next morning since that vending machine is open until 11 o'clock at night."
"The 'death' character was written in blood beside that man as well, right?" Conan asked. "Had he been stabbed by something, too?"
"Blood was coming from his mouth." Sera recalled. "That man seemed to be an alcoholic, so at first I though his varices had ruptured and he had vomited blood. At least, that's what I thought until I found that bloody character beside him."
"So, the two points these cases have in common are: the close resemblance of the bloody 'death' character, and at first glance, they did not seem to be murder cases, right?" Subaru cut in. "Also, according to the newspaper clipping that was inside the envelope, 'while heading to the park, the boy noticed the 'death' character after trying to wake the corpse.' is what's written. More than likely, this is a picture of the corpse after it was moved. When the boy found the corpse, the bloody character was already there, but was covered by the body, so he probably couldn't see it."
"Subaru is a Holmes fan and loves making deductions." Conan explained.
"Come to think of it, when we came across the corpse this morning, his coworkers were trying to rouse him." Sonoko recalled.
"Maybe that corpse was moved a bit." Ran nodded.
"Then, how about we ask the police?" Conan suggested. "Detective Takagi was dispatched to the scene after you called, right? They might tell us something."
In the Police HQ...
"The corpse from this morning?" Takagi echoed. "I believe he lived nearby and his name was Takaichi Isao. Mizuno-san is still writing up her report, so I don't know what her conclusions are. That case was classified as a robbery, so it went to Division 3."
In the Kudo household...
"Robbery?" Ran echoed. "It's not a homicide case?"
"Stop messing around." Sera snatched the mobile phone over. "How is that a robbery? I was with Ran at the scene, I'm Sera. You saw the 'death' character, didn't you?"
"I thought it might be a bizarre murder case as well." Takagi admitted. "But after you guys left, you missed Inspector Megure. Soon after he saw the bloody character, he said 'This is probably a robbery.'" Actually, we didn't find a wallet on the victim."
"But didn't he buy beer?" Sera retorted. "If he lived nearby, he couldn't just brought enough money for the beer."
"I thought so, too." Takagi stammered. "By the way, Mizuno-san had already confirmed the cause of death was indeed variceal rupture, prompted by cirrhosis, like you thought. That's how it is." he hung up.
"Isn't that strange?" Ran mused. "I'm pretty sure that Inspector Megure was in charge of the case 10 years ago, so it's weird that he doesn't think this is a serial killing."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
