SailorStar9: With Chapter 76 uploaded, this is Chapter 77 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 77: The Man Who Died Twice, Part One
Time passes...
"It's Room 901, right?" Conan asked Mouri who was on his way to an appointment.
"On the top floor." Mouri confirmed. "You snuck into the car, didn't you?" he glared. "Wait, you brat." he chased after Conan who had ran across the street and into the building.
Outside the apartment unit...
"It looks like it's down that way." Conan noted.
"Die!" a scream was heard inside the unit.
Both Mouri and Conan sprung into action and flung open the main door, hurrying into the living room, only to witness Shinkai Haruyuki plunge a knife into Takarada Yoichi 's stomach.
"I did it..." Shinkai gasped for breath, taking a few steps back. "Who are you?" he demanded when Mouri leapt over the sofa to examine his client.
"That's Takarada-san." Mouri remarked.
"It serves him right." Shinkai declared.
"Ojii-san, we should call an ambulance." Conan suggested.
"We're too late." Mouri informed. "It's been two hours since he was strangled to death."
After Megure's team was called in...
"Takarada Yoichi?" Megure echoed after Mouri informed him of the victim's name. "That notoriously unscrupulous moneylender?"
"According to his secretary Shinkai Haruyuki-san, Takarada was renting this room so he could write a novel."
"Now that you mention it, I heard he self-published books in his spare time." Megure noted.
"Takarada-san had come to this room to write, right?" Takagi inquired.
"He'd been in here since this morning by himself." Shinkai nodded.
"I didn't know he was such an evil man." Mouri related.
"You're been hired by him to come work for him, right?" Conan blinked.
"Even though we've never met before, he suddenly called me before noon." Mouri explained. "He had received a murder threat in the mail. He wanted me to come at three to discuss it. But when I came for our appointment..."
"The threat has already been carried out." Megure noted.
"This seems to be that letter." Takagi presented the bagged evidence. "It was on the table."
"He's preyed on countless people." Megure related. "One of his victims must have sought revenge."
"When the letter arrived at the mansion this morning, that's what I thought so too." Shinkai admitted. "I didn't want to allow his victim to become a killer. So, while the president was napping... but I was too late."
"We'll be asking you about the damage you did to the body later." Megure nodded. "Right now, the murder is the more pressing matter. Do you have any idea who did it?"
"He had too many victims who hated him." Shinkai shook his head.
"Is one of them really the murderer?" Conan wondered.
"Inspector Megure." one of the detectives Megure brought in voiced. "After knocking the victim unconscious by striking him on the back of the head with a blunt object, they strangled him with some kind of rope-like object. Mizuno-san estimates he died around two hours before his body was discovered. That would be around 1 pm."
"Inspector, this is the building administrator." Chiba brought Tomii Kinsaku in. "He says he saw a suspicious woman right around that time."
"After lunch, I came to this floor while doing my rounds." Tomii related. "Just then, a blond I didn't recognize came walking away from this room. That was around one."
"How am I going to go on living by myself?" Takarada Mika played the grieving widow.
"Who on earth killed my brother?" Takarada Koji growled.
"Madam, where were you around 1 pm this afternoon?" Megure asked.
"You think I did it?" Mika growled.
"Of course, they suspect you." Koji jeered. "You'll be inheriting his fortune and the insurance money."
"You're the one who resented Takarada." Mika retorted.
"Where were you at 1 pm?" Megure cut in.
"I was at home organizing the warehouse like Takarada asked." Mika replied.
"What about you, Koji-san?" Megure inquired.
"I was wandering about Shinjuku." Koji replied.
"Can anyone verify that?" Megure pressed. "That's a no, then." he noticed their expressions.
"The wife is telling the truth." Shinkai interrupted. "I was in the study until I left the mansion just after 2 pm. Around 1 pm, she was in the warehouse."
With the crowd of reporters outside the building, Megure moved the questioning to the Takarada house.
In the Takarada house...
"I hated my brother?" Koji scoffed. "That's not true, Inspector."
"Koji-san made a living deceiving people." Mika snorted. "Two years ago, after failing in one of his attempts, he came crying to Takarada to bail him out of the situation but he refused. He was forced to go into hiding. Three days ago, he asked us to take him in for a while. Today, Takarada was murdered."
"What are you talking about?" Koji snapped. "You're making it sound like I came home to kill my brother. Detective, I just happened to come home. One of his victims must've killed him. There are plenty of them."
In the corridor...
"It seems it's true that a lot of people hated him." Kinoshita Kyoko confirmed Conan's inquiry.
"Then, he must've received a lot of threatening letters." Conan surmised.
"He had, but..." Kinoshita trailed.
In the living room...
"What's strange?" Mouri echoed after Conan informed him.
"Takarada-san received threatening letters all the time." Conan reported. "His housekeeper even said he was attacked by a knife once. But it didn't bother him at all. So why did he decide to ask you about it this time? He even laughed it off in front of everyone else before calling you. Maybe he had a special reason for it."
"Takarada knew who was trying to kill him." Mouri concluded. "That's why he laughed it off so they would let their guard down. Then, he's going to hire me to investigate and expose them. The killer is not only one of his own, but also one of the three people who were there at the same time."
"But ojii-san, of those three people..." Conan pointed out.
"Since Shinkai-san stabbed the body without realizing Takarada-san was already strangled, he's out." Megure declared.
"If his wife Mika-san has an alibi..." Chiba trailed.
"Wait..." Koji stammered.
"They found fingerprints on the letter." Megure reported what the forensics discovered. "Yours, Takarada Koji-san."
"Kyoko-san, come here." Mika instructed. "Call my lawyer Watari-sensei and have him come here. Tell him we need to discuss the inheritance. Also, tell Beika Health I need to discuss the insurance claim. It's only natural. Since we know this man did it, the case is settled."
"Actually, we're not certain it's him yet." Megure refuted.
"I've been waiting for this moment to come." Mika ignored Megure. "Now that it's over, I can finally say I only married Takarada for his money."
"In any case, Koji-san, you sent Takarada that letter to make the murder seem like the work of someone who resented him and then killed him to get revenge for the events of two years ago." Megure stated.
"I didn't do it." Koji professed. "I didn't write that letter."
"But your fingerprints were on it." Chiba argued.
"So, that secretary was following me?" Koji snorted, after Takagi informed Megure that Shinkai had been following the younger Takarada during the time of the murder. "The tables have turned. Now I have someone to back up my alibi, and you don't. Not a single one."
"'Kinoshita-san, you were out at the hospital all afternoon?" Megure turned to the housekeeper.
"I'm sorry." Kinoshita bowed to her mistress.
"It's fine." Mika assured. "I don't need someone to back up my story."
"But if Koji-san didn't do it, then why are his fingerprints on the letter?" Conan wondered.
"It must've been a trick." Mouri answered. "They used a piece of paper that had his fingerprints on them."
"So that the real killer could make look like he'd done it." Megure noted.
"I have no idea who you're talking about." Mika shrugged.
"Killing my brother won't benefit me in any way." Koji argued. "But you'd finally get his fortune.''
"I won't go through the trouble of killing him just for it." Mika retorted. "The doctor told me."
"It's true." Megure got confirmation from the Beika Health doctors. ""Takarada had terminal cancer and only six months to live."
"I just need to wait six months before I got his fortune and insurance money." Mika huffed. "What kind of idiot would do something stupid to risk losing it all?"
"Takarada Mika-san, the hair sample you gave us matched the hair we took from the wig that was found." Megure informed after two detectives from his squad located the blond wig and sunglasses.
"That's impossible." Mika protested. "I don't know anything about that wig."
"That wig had been thrown away, right?" Conan pointed out. "There are more certain ways of getting rid of something if that's what they want to do."
"You've been waiting for your chance to kill my brother, haven't you?" Koji sneered. "Then a convenient scapegoat like me showed up. You almost got away with framing me."
"I was here at home when Takarada-san was killed." Mika insisted. "You have to believe me, officer."
"Let's talk at the station." Megure declared.
"That settles it." Mouri was confident. "Let's go home. But I need to go to the bathroom first."
"So, Koji-san knew you were going to the hospital today?" Conan questioned Kinoshita.
"Not just Koji-san, but everyone knew." Kinoshita replied. "I don't want to inconvenience anyone, so I wrote my appointment on the calendar."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
