SailorStar9: With Chapter 72 uploaded, this is Chapter 73 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 73: The Suspects Are a Passionate Couple, Part Two
"When you entered the storeroom where you found the body, are you sure it's locked?" Megure asked Higo and Okino.
"The waiter opened it for us." Okino replied.
"After calling Asuka-san's name several times, he told us to wait, left us there and didn't seem to come back." Higo added.
"Inside the storeroom were canned goods from foreign countries that I'd never seen before." Okino recalled. "While we were looking around, I noticed something that looked like blood on the floor in the back. When we went to see what it was..."
"We found Asuka-san dead on the floor." Higo revealed.
"Higo-san, you said you lost your cell phone." Takagi pointed out. "Do you know where you might have lost it?"
"I'm not sure." Higo pondered. "I often forget it on tables at restaurants. Then, there's the bathroom. I keep it in my pocket with my handkerchief. After taking out my handkerchief, sometimes I'll leave just my phone in the bathroom."
"So, you never got in touch with the owner while you're in the restaurant?" Megure questioned.
"You could've borrowed Yoko-chan's phone." Takagi reminded.
"I did bring my phone." Okino admitted. "But I forgot to charge it before I went to sleep last night. The battery was dead by the time we tried to call."
"Anyway, what are you two going to ask the victim to do when you saw him today?" Megure asked.
"This is the blanket Asuka-san was using while he was sleeping, right?" Conan pointed to the tussled covers. "There's a tiny hole right here and a dark red stain around it. It doesn't seem like blood, though." he took a whiff. "It smells like wine."
"To summarize what everyone had said," Megure started. "The owner of the restaurant, Asuka Teiya-san, was late to return, so the sommelier Yamada-san, the waiter Konoe-san and the waitress Banba-san, decided to look for him. Yamada-san and Konoe-san searched this backroom in the back of the restaurant, but the owner wasn't there. Banba-san searched the storeroom in the basement, but he wasn't there, either. Ten minutes later, the three of you decided to look for the owner again. This time, Yamada-san searched the storeroom, Konoe-san searched the bathroom and Banba-san searched the backroom. That's when Banba-san found the owner sleeping on the sofa in the backroom with a blanket pulled up over his head."
"The blanket was covering his face, but his shoes were next to the sofa." Banba nodded.
"Ten minutes after that, Yamada-san went to the backroom to wake the owner." Megure added. "But he was already gone. That's when Konoe-san received an email from the owner, instructing him to bring Higo-san and Yoko-san to the storeroom without anyone noticing. Konoe-san took them to the storeroom and called for the owner, but there was no response, so he left them there to look for the owner. After that, while waiting in the storeroom, you found the owner's body." he turned to the celebrity pair. "The backroom and storeroom were always locked and the keys were hanging on the hallway entrance in plain view of the staff, making it impossible to take them without anyone noticing and only the owner had a set of spare keys. Furthermore, Konoe-san took Higo-san and Yoko-san to the storeroom, if the storeroom was locked properly, only those waiting in the storeroom, Higo-san or Yoko-san, could have committed the crime."
"Mouri-kun?" Megure suddenly spotted Mouri slumped on the armchair.
"Don't you think it's strange?" Conan took on Mouri's voice. "The number of people who searched the backroom the first time; at first glance, you could tell whether or not there was someone in this room, but Yamada-san and Konoe-san searched the room together. The storeroom had rows of shelves and plenty of blind spots. They could've sent more people to search it, but Banba-san went alone. They did this because they wanted a third party to confirm that the owner wasn't in this room, so that the trick they used in the murder would work."
"Yamada-san was the one who said we should search the room together." Konoe stated.
"I did instruct him to do that." Yamada admitted. "After all, this room has lockers and cupboards."
"Did you think the owner might be hiding in them?" Conan questioned.
"It's not impossible." Yamada defended. "Besides, what good would having him confirm the owner wasn't here do? He and I were only here for a few minutes."
"It wasn't for a few minutes." Conan refuted. "It was only for a moment. And in that moment, you set it up: the false image of the owner sleeping on the couch with a blanket pulled over his head."
"Are you saying I stuffed something inside the blanket then?" Yamada scoffed.
"In the first place, there was nothing he could've used next to the sofa." Konoe confirmed.
"I bought the items you requested, Mouri-san." Takagi returned. "A blanket, an ice pick, a vacuum bag and five sets of heavy clothes."
"It's time for an experiment." Conan declared. "Conan, do what I told you to do. Got it." he stepped out of his hiding place. "First, put the clothes inside the vacuum bag." he demonstrated. Use a vacuum to remove the air from inside the bag, so it flattens out. Then put the vacuum bag with clothes on the sofa, put the blanket of it and all preparations are done. It just looks like there's a blanket on the sofa. But if you stab it with the ice pick so it reaches the bag to the bottom, air begins entering the bag through the hole." the vacuum bag started inflating. "Now it looks like someone is sleeping under it. Now, you just have to pull out the owner's shoes that were hidden under the sofa, then, the stage is set. He would've had enough time to do that without Konoe-san noticing while they were leaving the room. You're the culprit, Yamada-san." he reverted back to Mouri's voice. "The reason: there was a small hole stained with wine in the blanket of this room. It proves that you used it to put a hole in the vacuum bag. A sommelier's essential tool: your sommelier knife. You pierced the blanket using the tip of the corkscrew of your sommelier knife. That's why there was wine around the holes in the blanket and clothes."
"But according to my sommelier friend, the corkscrew doesn't go all the way through the cork." Megure pointed out. Otherwise, pieces of cork would go in the wine. Though, the corkscrew sometimes goes all the way through old corks in expensive wines, this restaurant doesn't stock wines like that."
"We're not a three-star restaurant." Yamada argued. "Someone must've done this to frame me."
"You're right." Conan agreed. "Normally, there is no wine on a sommelier's knife corkscrew, but that's only if Yamada-san is a real sommelier. After uncorking the wine at Higo-san and Yoko-chan's table, you left it on the table without smelling the cork. A sommelier would never do that. Known as bouchonne, about one in ten or twenty wines are degraded or smell like cork due to the cleaning solution left over from creating it. Why didn't you check if that was the case? You also smoke cigarettes: a sommelier who values his sense of taste would never smoke. The cigarette butts in the men's bathroom were all of the same brand, but some were left long and had the filters chewed, while the others were smoked down to the end. Based on the quantity, they were left by staff members and not customers. Konoe-san probably smoked half of them, and the other half was smoked by you, Yamada-san. An examination of the saliva on the filters should reveal that you're a fake sommelier. You thought to commit this murder when you saw the phone Higo-san left in the bathroom. After reading his emails, you learned that Higo-san and Yoko-chan were meeting the owner today. So, you came up with a plan, took a vacuum bag of five heavier sets of the owner's clothes out of his locker, placed them on the sofa, and laid the blanket over them. Then, you sent him an email asking him to pick up additional items to delay his return so the other staff members would suggest you look for him because he was late. First, you and Konoe-san searched the backroom, so he could confirm the owner wasn't there. While leaving, you opened a hole in the vacuum bag so the blanket would inflate and took the owner's shoes out from under the sofa. Later, you sent a message from Higo-san's phone, asking him to wait in the storeroom because you wanted to meet him privately. Then, you pretended to search for the owner once more, went to the storeroom and killed him. You tricked Banba-san and Konoe-san into thinking the owner was sleeping with a blanket covering his head in the backroom. Ten minutes later, you as you were heading to the backroom to wake him, using the phone you stole when you murdered the owner, you sent a message to Konoe-san, so he would bring Higo-san and Yoko-chan to the storeroom. You removed the clothes from the vacuum bag, left the backroom and put them back inside the locker and destroyed the evidence of the trick you used."
"I found the vacuum bag and cell phone in the garbage can in the kitchen." Haibara flung the door open. "Forensics are examining them right now. You probably when to the kitchen when the owner's body was discovered and threw away the vacuum bag and phone you'd been hiding in your jacket. Since you didn't have time to put on gloves, your fingerprints should be all over them."
"I didn't have a choice." Yamada sank to his knees. "The owner found out that I'd been putting fake labels on cheap wines and selling them as expensive ones. I put the profits in the business and gave some kickbacks from the wine makers, too. I told him customers of a former J-Leaguer's restaurant were of no importance. They wouldn't know the first thing about wine, so we should increase our profits this way. The owner wouldn't listen. He said he'd accuse me of fraud."
"Of course, he did." Higo stepped forward. "Asuka-san was a fair and honest player who didn't receive a single red card while he played in the league."
"So, what are you going to ask the victim for?" Megure asked, after Takagi took Yamada into custody.
"One of our former teachers from when we were high school students is retiring." Higo explained. "The two of us bought a watch to celebrate his retirement and we were hoping Asuka-san would write a message to go with it."
"Asuka-san is the first celebrity Konan High produced." Okino added.
"So, you're not dating then." Megure blinked.
"I'll be married to soccer for a while longer." Higo chuckled.
"I have singing and acting." Okino giggled.
Later that night...
"It's been a while since I heard this song." Ami mused, the Three Lights' 'Todokanu Omoi' song played on her radio.
"Three Lights, huh?" Amuro noted. "It's been, what, thirteen years since they disbanded and vanished from public's eye?"
"True." Ami nodded, the former idol-singer group's 'Nagareboshi He' was then played on radio. "If I remember correctly, today should've been the thirteenth anniversary of their disbandment."
"I never took you to be a groupie." Amuro teased. "Miss Gold-Card-Holder and Number 25 of the Three Lights Fan Club."
"Hey, I like their music, okay." Ami pouted.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
