SailorStar9: With Chapter 53 uploaded, this is Chapter 54 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 do not own Sailor Moon or Detective Conan, I only own this plotline and the pairing.
Pairing: Established!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami
Chapter 54: The Mystery Sinking in the Midsummer Pool, Part One
Time passes...
"Can we really trust this Edogawa Conan kid?" the shrunk Mary asked in her and Sera's room in Hotel Hyde Pride. "He seems clever enough, though."
"It'll be fine." Sera assured.
"When is he coming here?" Mary inquired.
"He should be coming soon." Sera answered.
"You told him to come alone, right?" Mary reminded.
"I reminded him not to invite the kids." Sera nodded. "He's here." she heard the knock on the door.
"Be careful." Mary warned. "If he's not worth our time, then we'll have to leave this place and find a new place of operations."
"I've been waiting for you, Conan-kun." Sera opened the door, once Mary was safe in the bathroom.
"We came with him." Ran stated, arriving with Sonoko as well.
"You didn't come alone?" Sera blinked.
"When I told them you mentioned this hotel has a pool, they wanted to come, too." Conan nodded,
In the hotel's swimming pool...
"It's huge." Ran gawked, she and Sonoko were now decked in their bikinis.
"It's a little smaller than my villa's pool." Sonoko was not impressed.
"Sonoko-ojou-sama?" Samaki Raito walked past the girls and spotted Sonoko. "It's been a while. I'm President Oiso's secretary, Samaki."
"Come here, Samaki." Oiso Nagami called from a nearby beach chair. "Could you rub oil on me? I let her handle it, but she scratched me." he turned a nasty smirk at Oiso Hamaka.
"Onee-sama," Hamaka voiced. "Your necklace..."
"No way." Nagami was shocked to find her crystal necklace missing from her neck.
"You were just swimming." Samaki reminded. "Could it be in the pool?"
"Don't you know how much that's worth?" Nagami fumed. "Kick the guests out of the pool and block off this area." she demanded Toyoshima Ensaku. "Don't forget to check the guests' bags, too. Someone may have stolen it. Raito, bring m snorkeling gear. Kick all the guests out so we can look for it."
After a while...
"It's no use." Nagami raised her head from the water. "I'll never find it by snorkeling. Samaki, bring me a scuba tank. And you," she turned to Hamaka. "You're in the way of my search, so get out of the pool. I'll look for it myself." she snapped. "So, everyone get out."
After lunch...
"What's the matter, Conan-kun?" Sera noticed Conan was distracted.
"The hotel bellboys seem to be excited about something." Conan spotted two bellboys whispering.
"Nagami-ojou-sama..." Ran exclaimed after Toyoshima informed them.
"Is missing?" Sonoko echoed.
"Wasn't she looking for her necklace in the pool?" Sera wondered.
"I thought so, but she suddenly disappeared." Toyoshima replied.
"We checked the changing room and bathroom next to the pool." Hamaka supplied.
"She hasn't gone home, either." Samaki added.
"What's that?" a bellboy noticed something in the water. "There's something in the middle of the pool."
"Is that a person?" the second bellboy recognized the shadow.
"Ojou-sama." Samaki immediately dived in and pulled Nagami out.
"Call and ambulance and the police." Sera barked.
"That's odd." one of the two bellboys told his companion. "There was nothing in the pool when we looked ten minutes ago."
"Ow..." Toyoshima winced, having also dived into the water to retrieve the oxygen tank. "There are shards of glass on the bottom of the pool." he remarked, after dunking his head into the water.
After a while...
"Did she drown?" Megure asked.
"According to my preliminary prognosis, she died around noon and 1 pm." Ami reported.
"I don't understand, though." Megure noted. "This pool is shallow enough to stand in. How did she drown?"
"She was wearing a tank and weights on her hips so she wouldn't float." Samaki answered.
"Nagami-ojou-sama said she wanted to focus on searching the pool." Toyoshima added.
"The victim is Oiso Nagami-san, daughter of Oiso Finance's president." Takagi supplied.
"What was she doing at the bottom of the pool?" Megure asked.
"She was looking for her necklace." Samaki responded. "We noticed it was missing while rubbing some suntan oil on her. We thought she might have dropped it while swimming in the pool."
"Once we evacuated all the guests from the pool, the four of us searched the bathroom, changing room and pool." Toyoshima added.
"But my sister said she wanted to search alone." Hamaka sobbed. "We did as she said, and then this happened."
"So, it could be an accident." Megure noted.
"It's possible she had some kind of accident while wearing the heavy weights." Takagi nodded. "If she panicked and lost the mouthpiece she was breathing through, she could have drowned."
"I don't think so." Conan spoke up. "They said there was nothing in the pool ten minutes before she was found." he turned to the bellboys.
"The three of them and two of us came to the pool to look for Nagami-ojou-sama." one of the bellboys confirmed. "But we didn't find her. When we came back ten minutes later, she was at the bottom of the pool."
"Do you know what time that was?" Takagi asked.
"I think it was after 2 pm." the bellboy recalled.
"Which means after drowning her around 1 pm, someone hid her body somewhere." Sera concluded. "And at 2 pm, they sank her body in the middle of the pool without being seen."
"Was it possible for someone to have done that without being seen?" Megure inquired.
"We split up to search, so I doubt it was be possible." Toyoshima replied. "Besides, the receptionists at the counter check everyone who enters and leaves. I don't think they saw anyone suspicious."
"But, there's something weird on the bottom of the pool." Conan pointed out. "There were a bunch of glass shards at the bottom. You stepped on them and cut the bottom of your foot, right, Manager?"
"Yes." Toyoshima nodded. "I carried her tank to the side of the pool but when I tried to get out, I felt a sharp pain on the bottom of my foot. When I looked underwater, I saw a bunch of glass shards at the bottom."
"Drain the pool." Megure instructed. "They certainly seem to be glass shards." he and Takagi gathered up the shattered glass.
"But why are there so many?" Takagi wondered. "Were these here when you were searching the pool for Nagami-san?"
"We would have noticed if they were." Toyoshima pointed out.
"With all these pieces, we won't know what the original shape was unless we repair it." Megure picked up a shard.
"It's an aquarium." both Conan and Sera chorused.
"There are four corner pieces like the ones you're holding." Conan pointed out. "And four L-shaped pieces like the one Inspector Megure is holding."
"This is making less and less sense." Megure pondered. "Why was there an aquarium in the pool, much less a shattered one?"
"Inspector, there was a long fishing line caught in the pool's drain." one of the forensics brought over a coiled line. "It's about fifty meters long."
"Hamaka-san, what was the necklace Nagami-san lost like?" Takagi turned to the younger Oiso sister.
"It had a lot of diamonds." Hamaka recalled.
"Maybe the culprit was trying to do something by recreating the necklace with fishing line and glass." Takagi surmised.
"The fishing line seems a bit long for that." Megure pointed out.
"You could loop the end and attach some glass shards." Takagi was on a roll. "Maybe they drew her somewhere by pulling it through the water."
"Keep investigating the pool." Megure instructed. "Meanwhile, we'll ask exactly how they ended up looking for the necklace. Those three individuals connected to Nagami-san. So, you all rubbed suntan oil on Nagami-san?" he started his questioning.
"She said I was terrible and told me to stop." Toyoshima nodded.
"I accidentally scratched her and made her angry." Hamaka was next.
"I was the last to do it." Samaki supplied. "But we noticed her necklace was missing and stopped."
"I thought it would be possible to take off her necklace while rubbing suntan oil on her." Megure noted.
"But all three of you were made to do it." Takagi sighed.
"My sister liked that kind of thing." Hamaka admitted. "She made men zip up the backs of her dresses. She would make you touch her forehead because she felt feverish. It was cute the way she enjoyed watching people's reactions. Naturally, I knew she would insist in searching alone. She was particular about everything she did."
"I accepted her selfishness as part of her individuality." Samaki noted.
"But didn't Nagami-san say her fiancé Samaki-san and sister Hamaka-san were a couple?" Sera cut in. "She said the hotel manager was letting them use the hotel to meet."
"If that's true, that would be motive for murder." Megure declared.
"It's a misunderstanding." Samaki protested.
"My sister was overthinking things." Hamaka agreed.
"Her birthday was coming up." Samaki explained.
"We planned to celebrate it in the suite since she loves this hotel." Hamaka added.
"We discussed decorations and food." Toyoshima concurred. "Since it was a surprise, we didn't tell Nagami-ojou-sama."
"Because we're meeting in that room, she got the wrong idea and said those things." Hamaka stated.
"She's always been the jealous type." Samaki sighed. "We were high school classmates and we'd been dating since then."
"She really did like that room, so I'm not surprised she was angry." Toyoshima related.
"She's even kicked out guests with a reservation to stay in that room." Hamaka added.
"So, we had no motive to kill her." Samaki insisted.
"If you doubt us, ask the hotel staff." Toyoshima challenged. "We discussed the party decorations with them."
"We'll be confirming that later." Takagi stated.
"First, I'd like to hear what you were doing after you left Nagami-san alone." Megure pressed.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
