SailorStar9: With Chapter 20 uploaded, this is Chapter 21 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 21: Everyone Saw, Part One


Time passes...

"We've got a case, Kudo." Hattori burst into the Mouri Detective Agency.

"Hattori and Kazuha." Ran blinked. "What do you mean by 'Kudo'? Didn't you just say 'We've got a case, Kudo.'?"

"About that, I mean, since we got a case, things are going to get lively around here." Hattori stammered.

"For a murder case, that's just plain inconsiderate." Kazuha chided.

"A murder case?" Mouri echoed. "You didn't come all the way here to ask me about a case in Osaka, did you?"

Nah, the crime scene's here in Tokyo." Hattori replied. "Otaki here can vouch for that."

"Inspector Otaki of the Osaka Police." Mouri greeted.

"It's been a while." Otaki stated.

"We call it 'the closed-off murder scene where the victim was short on both legs and help'." Hattori quoted.

"A man was killed under police surveillance?" Mouri echoed after Otaki explained the situation.

"Last month, a man in his seventies passed away in a flat in Haido Town." Otaki related. "That man, named Hidemichi Mizuki was a high school teacher until a few years ago. One of his students was a man named Hido Kiriya."

"I've heard the name Hido Kiriya somewhere." Mouri mused.

"He's the serial killer behind two deaths in Osaka and one in Kobe." Otaki supplied. "We got a report he'd been slighted in Tokyo, so in a joint operation with the Tokyo Police, we put Mizuki's flat under surveillance. We figured that since Hido had no relatives, if he'd turn to anyone for help, it'd be Mizuki who used to look up for him. And then, on the morning of the stakeout's third day, he didn't come out for his usual morning walk. We thought it was strange, so we went to check his room, and a rope had been put through the AC vents in the living room and used to hang Mizuki."

"Then, isn't that just a suicide?" Mouri inquired. "You were watching his front door and window, right?"

"That's why we closed the case as a suicide." Otaki agreed. "But the tips of his toes seems strangely far from the ground. They were about the same height as the top of my legs. And surprisingly, the chair lying at his feet was..."

"Exactly the same as the ones we got in my kitchen at home." Kazuha supplied. "Those chairs were only made in a limited amount quite some time ago, and they were all the same size. When we tried measuring one against Otaki, we found there'd be at least 10 centimeters between the top of the chair and the tips of his toes."

"With a 10 centimeter gap, he couldn't have hung himself even if he stretched." Mouri concluded.

"Which means that the chair was just a trick by the killer to make it look like Mizuki killed himself." Hattori stated. "His door wasn't even locked either, so it's gotta be murder."

"Then could it be that Hido Kiriya guy, the serial killer?" Ran gasped.

"Hido Kiriya's already been caught in Hiroshima." Otaki confirmed. "Apparently, he'd been staying in an Internet café for the past month."

"But the police were watching the place, right?" Mouri reminded. "Even if the door was open, how did the killer manage to get in unseen?"

"Exactly." Hattori concurred. "Due to the circumstances, the crime scene was already sealed off. We got permission from his relatives, so we're about to go and check his flat. So I figured you guys would wanna go too."


In the elevator of the crime scene...

"So the flat where the crime took place has been left as it was at the time of the incident, right?" Mouri asked.

"Though the daughter of the victim said she'd be coming by tomorrow to pick up her father's items." Otaki nodded.

"As long as we figure out how the killer got in today, that ain't no problem." Hattori declared.


In the deceased room...

"No doubt about it." Kazuha confirmed. "This chair is just like the one we go at home. It's got the same color and design. This case is definitely, Heiji."

"That's what I've been saying." Hattori deathpanned.

"So the problem now is figuring out how the killer slipped past the police when coming in and out." Mouri pondered.

"There might be some secret exit." Otaki frowned.

"Hattori." Conan walked over to the Osaka detective, noticing the pencil shaving on the floor under the rope and the knocked over dustbin. "Could this actually be..."

"The answer's probably this thing." Hattori agreed, pondering over the electric cleaning robot and switched on the robot. "Mizuki didn't stand on the chair when he hanged himself. He used this thin and long bin." he picked up the fallen dustbin. "He placed it right under the rope, and probably turned it over to make it easier to stand on. As proof of that, you can see pencil sharpenings lying on the floor here. The stuff stuck at the bottom of bin fell over when he turned it over. If you used this, it'd be higher than the chair and his feet would reach."

"But, Hei-chan, that wasn't like that when we were here before." Otaki pointed out.

"Don't worry about that." Hattori assured. "When he hung himself, if he knocked over the bin so that it falls between the legs of the chair, then you'd just need the cleaning robot to push it into the corner before going back to its charging point and you'll end up with the weird crime scene we found. As proof this, the robot only cleans along this route. He probably got the robot to remember the route by putting all sorts of obstruction along it. However you look at it, it's just a suicide."


In the elevator of the crime scene...

"But why did Mizuki choose to die like like?" Mouri wondered, the group was prepared to leave the scene.

"Apparently, Mizuki stacked up a huge debt from buying and selling shares." Otaki replied. "He seemed to have held a grudge against the stockbroker responsible for that. He even said at a bar that he'd 'drag that bastard down to hell with him.' So maybe he wanted to frame the stockbroker."

"But unfortunately for him, he was being watched by the police." Mouri stated. "So his case got cleared up as a suicide without them even suspecting it was murder. By the way, does that broker live nearby?"

"You could say 'nearby', all right." Otaki snorted. "He moved to this block last year. I think his name was..."

"Fuura on the second floor, right?" Nanami spoke up. "He's been causing trouble for everyone living here. He introduces people to stocks while they're waiting in the lift and so on. You make a profit at first, but the moment you start giving him a lot of money, then 'bang', you've made a massive loss. He even caught my husband with his scam. It was really tough trying to stop him. The man's a damn shinigami; he even looks like one. With those hollow eyes, sunken cheeks and that sickly pale face. Speak of the devil." she pointed to the other elevator that was rising upwards, Fuura Kaizou was poised by the right door window. A split second later, Fuura was blown off by the impact of the gunshot that had rang from the elevator compartment.


Later that evening...

"You were re-investigating a case that had been closed as a suicide?" Takagi exclaimed, he and Megure were called in.

"Something bothered me about it, so I took a day off and came over from Osaka." Otaki replied. "But after investigating, it turned out it really was a suicide. And just when I thought I'd get in the lift and go home with Mouri and others, we came across this scene." he looked down that Fuura's corpse lying on the elevator floor. "The deceased is Fuura Kaizou, who lived on the second floor. It seems that he was a stockbroker."

"And who's she?" Takagi noticed Nanami.

"This is Nanami from the third floor." Mouri supplied. "She was about to go down in the lift with us when it happened. Apparently, she goes to the beauty salon at this time every week."

"So you're saying the lift doors opened and this was what you found?" Takagi turned back to the corpse.

"Not quite." Hattori cut in. "Just when we caught sight of Fuura through the window of the lift heading up, he shot himself with a gun. It's like he wanted to show us his death."

"And the lift kept going upwards?" Takagi blinked.

"We thought about going up the stairs to see what floor he was going to, but the lift came down straight away, and when the doors opened, it was like this." Hattori stated.

"So I guess it's a pretty straightforwards suicide." Takagi mused.

"And there's this message that seems to have been left behind." Otaki pointed to the spray painted word on the inside of the doors.

"'Goodbye'?" Takagi echoed.

"See the can of spray paint rolling around by his feet?" Otaki pointed out. "He might've used it to write his message before he died. "Whichever way you look at it, this time it's definitely..."

"Murder." Hattori insisted. "Have a good look at the surveillance camera above the floor number display. It's been covers by spray. I called for the security office for these flats to check, and apparently, a hand holding a spray can appeared on the screen and painted out the camera. Someone probably didn't want to be caught on camera in the lift, so they stretched their hand out and spray-painted it."

"Maybe he didn't want his death to be recorded by the surveillance camera." Takagi suggested.

"But one thing was clearly shown in that recording." Hattori pointed out. "Someone's right hand holding a spray can."

"This guy's holding his gun in his left hand." Otaki spoke. "Wouldn't that mean he's left-handed?"

"Everyone knew Fuura was left-handed." Nanami supplied.

"He was already holding the gun in his other hand." Takagi blinked.

"Are you saying he changed hands just to write that 'goodbye'?" Hattori asked.

"Besides, the watch this guy's wearing; it's stopped." Conan added. "It stopped at the time we found the body. And this watch is automatic. Isn't this the kind of watch that winds up by itself when you're walking? If you shake it, it still works."

"That's probably because whoever killed Fuura and dressed this up as a suicide put the watch on him either before or after his death." Hattori reasoned. "We still don't know why, but at least we know that the killer is still somewhere above this floor. I called the security office on the first floor as soon as we found the body, and had them watch the stairs. And nobody went down the stairs before you cops arrived."

"Then why don't we go and check each of the flats?" Otaki suggested.

"Why don't we start from the fourth floor?" Takagi inquired.


"Murder?" Mutsu Isao exclaimed. "Fuura didn't kill himself?"

"The possibility came up that it was a murder." Takagi responded.

"But how would you know something like that?" Otaki questioned.

"Nanami was tweeting it online." Mutsu replied. "'The shinigami shot himself in our lift.'"

"Would you mind if we came inside?" Otaki asked.

"What's your occupation?" Takagi inquired, Mutsu leading them into his living room.

"I'm an office worker at a building maintenance building." Mutsu replied. "We do stuff like intercoms, delivery lockers and ACs."

"So you do lift and security maintenance too." Hattori noted.

"How were you related to the late Fuura?" Mouri questioned.

"Your name was in Fuura's mobile phone address book." Takagi supplied.

"I was involved in some share trading." Mutsu replied.

"Then did you make a massive loss on the stock market and have a grudge against Fuura too?" Mouri glared.

"I did have a grudge, but not enough to kill him." Mutsu protested.

"Then could you put out your hand?" Otaki requested.

"You're not going to arrest me right away, are you?" Mutsu panicked.

"Of course not." Takagi assured. "We just want to check for gunshot residue that might've gotten stuck on your hands or cuffs when the gun was fired. We have forensics here, you see."

"I lost quite a sum on the stock market on Fuura's recommendations, but I don't have any bad feelings." Yoda Takurou admitted. "It's my own fault for not seeing how the shares were going."

"It stinks of paint thinner in here." Mouri took a whiff of the air.

"I was just adding some color to the severed hand." Yoda explained. "We're making a slasher horror movie at university right now."

"Then if you wanted, you could probably make a severed head that looks like Fuura." Hattori gave the student a look.

"So in that movie of yours, are you going to film any scenes where people get shot with a gun?" Conan asked.

"We're filming a lot of stabbing, cutting and slicing." Yoda answered.

"You have one of these too?" Mouri spotted a similar watch on Yoda's computer table. "A watch like Fuura's."

"It was a gift from him when I first made a profit from the stock market." Yoda explained.

"Come to think of it, Mutsu earlier had one, too." Otaki recalled.

"We're going to check you for gunpowder residue." Takagi spoke up. "So could you put out your hands?"

"I got a watch like that from Fuura too." Izutsu Naoko confirmed. "To celebrate turning a profit in my shares. Though I only wore mine once, then tucked it away at the back of a drawer."

"What's your occupation, Izutsu?" Takagi inquired.

"Can't you see for yourself?" Izutsu chided. "A tracing stand, screen tone, a cutter knife, a dip pen, a mapping pen, brushes, Indian ink, and regular ink. I'm a manga artist. Haven't you ever heard of the pen-name 'Misono Kotori'?"

"Isn't that the manga series with a beautiful female detective Chiba fanboys over?" Takagi recalled.

"Which would suggest you could easily come up with some story about how somebody could kill a person in a lift and make it look like he killed himself with a gun." Hattori added.

"If I'd come up with a plot gem like that, I'd write it in my manga." Izutsu snorted. "It's too good a trick to waste on killing a guy like that."

"Why do you have four tracing stands?" Conan wondered.

"Three are for my assistants." Izutsu answered. "We finished the manuscript in the morning, so they went home."

"Just to make sure, we'd like to check your hands." Takagi stated.

"I don't mind it, but it's a shame really." Izutsu noted. "As you can see, I just got out of the bath. Gunpowder residue washes off with water, right?"'


On the staircase...

"Mouri, did you figure anything out?" Otaki inquired, the two adults leading the others down the staircase.

"I'm clueless." Mouri admitted.

"All three are a bit suspicious and a bit not..." Takagi mused.


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