SailorStar9: With Chapter 31 uploaded, this is Chapter 32 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.
Pairing: Developing!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami
Chapter 32: The Secret of the Statue of Kogoro Mouri
Time passes...
"As expected from a great detective." the laughing Kataoka Eisuke removed his mask. "This hiding place of the mysterious Kaito K is finally discovered."
"Finally, you appear, Kaito K." Mouri growled.
"Sir, be careful." Sada Yuzuru cautioned. "Come down, please."
"Be quiet, Sada." Eisuke snapped. "It is not 'sir', it's Kaito K."
"Weren't we actually invited to dinner?" Ran wondered.
"What do you mean?" Conan asked.
"Don't you know?" Kataoka Seiya tossed a basketball through a hoop. "My father loves detectives more than anything. And Detective Mouri is his favorite at the moment. So occasionally, he disguises himself
as a thief, and offers a little game in the form of a challenge."
"Really," Kataoka Yurie entered the scene. "This man is really stupid."
"The time limit is thirty seconds." Eisuke declared. "You should all try to catch me before this clock reads 6 o'clock." he put his mask back on. "The one who catches me will receive a wonderful prize."
"But even so, this backyard is truly incredible." Mouri remarked, the entire group was roped into chasing Eisuke.
"Sir often calls it his 'town'." Sada supplied.
"It's probably a dead-end." Mouri grinned after Eisuke turned a corner.
"Kataoka-san disappeared?" Ran gaped, the group turning the corner and finding Eisuke was nowhere in sight. "Did you notice something, Conan-kun?" she noticed Conan's smile.
"Doesn't it look strange, this clock." Conan asked, walking towards the clock in front of them. "It's positioned extremely low and both its hands are pointed at six. Isn't it odd?"
"Could it be..." Ran went forward and parted the clock's hands. Finding a hidden button, she pressed it and a trapdoor appeared underneath Mouri's feet, causing him to drop into the hole.
"This is the entrance to an underground passage." Sada supplied.
"Kaito K." Mouri spotted the masked Eisuke hovered over him. "Wait."
"I will move towards the exit." Sada informed. "Let's attack from both sides. Sir, get ready." he declared, having cornered Eisuke with Ran and Conan.
Eisuke simply hopped on a nearby bench to escape his butler and made his getaway.
"It seems he's heading towards the backyard." Sada noted, the trio having chases Eisuke back to the front of the mansion. "You two, continue in this direction, please. I'll take the other path. Don't let him escape. I'm already here." he called out. "Get him."
"Conan-kun, let's go." Ran shouted, Eisuke had rode past them on a bicycle.
"Watch out." Conan yelled, seeing a white cat suddenly appear in front of Eisuke and forcing him to turn the corner. "There. "he then heard a shout from the distance.
"Are you alright?" Ran asked, the pair spotting Kada on the ground and the bicycle collapsed beside him.
"When he suddenly appeared in front of me, we collided." Kada winced. "That's why I fell."
"And Kataoka-san?" Conan blinked.
"Perhaps he went in the direction of the manor." Kada replied.
"Yurie-san." Conan called out, the trio hurried to the front door after hearing Eisuke yell out.
"Did you hear that voice just now?" Yurie gaped.
"What happened?" Ran asked.
"I just got here as well." Yurie replied.
"Could something have happened to the master?" Kada was worried. "Sir!" his voice then echoed through the mansion.
"It's coming from the backyard." Seiya realized.
"Sir, please hold on." Kada pleaded, cradling the dead Eisuke.
"Has something happened?" both Mouri and Yurie had also arrived on scene.
"It's..." Kada started.
"This is no good." Mouri reported, after feeling no pulse. "He's dead."
Later that evening...
"The victim is the wealthy owner of this manor." Takagi reported. "Kataoka Eisuke-san, aged 54. He seems to have hit his head. Moreover, the cause of death seems to be the injury on the back of his skull."
"There was no doubt that he died at 5.55 pm." Mouri confirmed. "All of us heard Kataoka-san's cry when he fell from the ladder."
"You and Kataoka-san were in the middle of a game." Megure pointed out.
"We were playing onigokko." Conan nodded. "We were the oni and had to chase him."
"Then, it was an accident?" Ran wondered.
"There are traces of Kataoka's shoes on the ladder." Megure nodded. "While climbing, Kataoka-san probably lost his balance and fell. If we reconsider, there's no doubt."
"The bruise on the cheek of the victim was probably made when he fell from the ladder." Takagi added.
"It's his own fault." Yurie insisted. "Always absorbed in his games."
"This is the wife of Kataoka-san." Takagi informed Megure. "After mourning his ex-wife, he remarried three years ago."
"Yurie-san, do you not wear a ring?" Conan spotted the missing wedding ring.
"I took a bath today and forgot to put it on again." Yurie replied.
"And this person is the son of the former wife?" Megure turned to Seiya.
"When his mother died, he blamed his father and he bore a grudge against Kataoka-san." Takagi informed.
"Even in death, he is still my father." Seiya stated.
"Seiya-san, what happened to your hand?" Conan pointed.
"I hurt myself earlier on a guitar string." Seiya looked at his bandaged hand.
"Everyone, I'm sorry for any inconvenience caused." Kada apologized.
"But was it really an accident?" Mouri wondered. "For the challenge, Kataoka-san employed various tricks to escape. But this time, he only used a ladder."
"Aren't you thinking a little too much?" Takagi wondered.
"He was only an amateur." Megure reasoned. "This can happen."
"That might be true." Mouri conceded.
"So, it's an accidental death?" Takagi looked at his superior.
A while later...
"Oji-san, everyone has come here as you asked." Conan called out, having put Mouri to sleep via tranquilizer dart and had sat him on the base of the bronze statue. "I finally understood." using the Voice-Changing Bowtie, he presented his resolution. "That this was a case of murder set up to look like an accident."
"But the circumstances at the scene of the crime point to an accident." Megure pointed out. "Why do you think it's murder?"
"Because of the bruise." Conan answered.
"Didn't he get it when he fell from the ladder?" Megure was puzzled.
"That's what I thought at first." Conan admitted. "But then, I looked at this statue. Please look at it more closely. The nose is broken. It is quite recent. Something strong hit it earlier today."
"Don't tell me..." Megure gaped.
"The trace would match if we examine it." Conan confirmed. "The bruise on the cheek of the victim is from the collusion of this statue."
"But the body was found..." Takagi trailed.
"Kataoka-san had a wound on the back of his head." Conan reminded. "But if he fell from the ladder, the how did the bruise on the cheek come about? That means, Kataoka-san did not fall off the ladder. First, the culprit struck him to make him lose consciousness and he collided with the statue. Then, they transported him to the place where we found him and stuck the back of his skull on the stone floor which killed him. After that, the culprit put traces of his shoes on the ladder and put it next to the body to make us believe that Kataoka-san fell from the ladder. There is something I need to check first. Detective Takagi, is there a tear on Kataoka-san's mantle?"
"There isn't." Takagi answered.
"Don't you find it strange, Ran?" Conan asked.
"I see." Ran recalled. "Kataoka-san's mantle should be torn."
"However, the mantle on the body of the victim was not torn." Conan stated. "In other words, the person we were trying to catch wasn't Kataoka-san. Of course, initially, the Kaito K that we were pursuing was the real Kataoka-san. However, there was a replacement during the game between Kataoka-san and the culprit. Isn't that right, the other Kaito K and the one responsible for Kataoka-san's murder, Sada Yuzuru-san?"
"But Sada-san was always with us when chasing after Kataoka-san." Ran protested. "He had no chance."
"You were not together all the time." Conan reminded. "You were separated once before coming to this backyard. It was surely Kataoka-san who had made this plan. He, as I thought, had prepared a trick. But, the purpose of Sada-san was to use this trick to kill Kataoka-san. When he left Ran and the others, he took a shortcut through the manor. He had prepared the costume and mask of Kaito K beforehand. Kataoka-san was waiting in the backyard for the change of roles. He then attacked him from behind to knock him out and hid him behind the statue. He then appeared as Kaito K in front of Ran and the others. When Kaito K ran through the underground passage, his shoes got completely dirty, but the pedals on the bicycle were clean. And after he faked the accident, Sada-san got rid of the costume and became himself again."
"Mouri-san, you forgot one thing important." Sada reminded. "All of us, Ran-san, the others and me, heard the cry of master when he fell off the ladder."
"Isn't it obvious?" Conan sighed. "Detective Takagi."
Gesturing to the officer in one of the upper rooms, Takagi had the officer play a recording from the room.
"This is no doubt the same voice we heard that time." Yurie gaped, recognizing the sound of something falling and Eisuke's scream.
"It's the sound from the stereo." Conan revealed. Sada-san prepared the sound of Kataoka-san's cry seemingly falling from the ladder and recorded it on a CD. He used a timer and increased the volume to play the sound at the right time. But actually, at that time, Kataoka-san was still alive behind this statue. And while we were all finding Kataoka-san in the manor, Sada-san came to the backyard and killed him when everyone was running around, being misled by the sound. He then held Kataoka-san's body against him, in order to hide the blood that had got on his clothes. Sada-san, your mistake was that the volume of the stereo was too high. The sound was able to reach us, despite the distance between us, and even reach Seiya-kun who was listening to music on his headphones. You didn't even have the opportunity to dispose of the inserted CD."
"But, what does it matter?" Sada inquired. "There isn't any evidence."
"So, let me show you irrefutable proof that you are the culprit." Conan declared. "At the crossroads, there is my statue. After your performance, you needed a place to hide your costume. The pedestal of the bronze statue has a hole, which is a convenient place to do so. The costume was supposed to be in there, but where was it? At that moment, you used something else instead."
The basketball was tossed out from behind the statue and the stray cat leap from Mouri's lap. The feline then pawed the ball, making it roll to Conan's feet.
"Doesn't this ball seem strange?" Conan kicked the ball up with his heel. "It's a little too large and in addition, makes a funny noise." he then kicked it to Takagi.
"This is..." Takagi opened the ball's skin to reveal the hidden costume.
"A piece of bronze?" Megure picked up the chunk of metal that had fallen off. "There is a little blood on it."
"There's also a wig." Takagi added.
"What does this mean, Sada-san?" Megure turned to the caretaker.
"At that moment, you used the hollow ball instead as a hiding place for the costume and planned to throw it in the pedestal before Ran and the others could see you." Conan supplied. "You intended to retrieve it later, but you made two miscalculations. The first was that the ball didn't reach its target and got lost because of a stray cat. The other is that in the rush you hid the nose piece of the statue in the ball, which causes the funny noise in it."
"The first mistake I made, Mouri-san, was that I took your reasoning abilities too lightly." Sada confessed. "It is I who killed the master. I could not forgive him for forgetting his late wife, nor to see him continue to live an extravagant life. The poor mistress..."
"That's wrong." Yurie objected. "He only loved detectives and his late wife. It seems he married me to cure his sadness, but despite everything, I took only the second place in his heart. Although, I have noticed it only recently..."
"That's why you didn't wear your wedding ring." Conan concluded.
"Initially, it was out of protest, but he didn't even notice it." Yurie sighed.
Later, afterwards...
"So, Mouri-sensei kept that statue!?" Amuro was amused when Ami informed him of the aftermath of the case.
"It really makes me wonder what he intends to do with it." Ami snorted. "It isn't as if the Detective Agency has a lot of space for a colossal, useless white elephant."
"Meow." Ami's Russian White cat meowed as she looked at her mistress.
"I know, Anastasia." Ami got up from her chair at the dining table and filled the cat bowl with her homemade raw chicken liver and salmon mix.
The almost seven-month-old cat shook her head vigorously and dug into her cat bowl.
"I should feel lucky Haro isn't such a picky eater." Amuro noted.
"Haro!?" Ami giggled. "You named that puppy 'Haro'? I never pegged you as a Gundam fan."
"Say what you want about that series, even you have to admit their soundtracks are amazing." Amuro defended.
"I'm not arguing with you on that." Ami retorted. "Pumpkin croquette?" she served up her newest creation.
"Don't mind if I do." Amuro wrapped the freshly fried dumpling in kitchen paper and bit into it.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
