SailorStar9: With Chapter 77 uploaded, this is Chapter 78 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 78: The Man Who Died Twice, Part Two


The next day...

"She still hasn't admitted it?" Mouri remarked over the phone. "She did seem like a nasty woman. The Inspector must be having a tough time."

"If someone killed Takarada and made it look like his wife did it, then she would lose the right to the fortune." Conan pondered. "His brother, Koji-san, would inherit everything. That must've been what he was going for. The question now is Shinkai-san's testimony. Was he forced to perjure himself?"

"I'd like to speak to you about Shinkai Haruyuki who was arrested yesterday." Teshima Hisashi poked his head into the Mouri Detective Agency. "My name is Teshima Hisashi." he handed Mouri his name card. "Shinkai and I have been friends since we grew up together in the same foster home. So, if there's anything I can do to lighten his sentence, I want to do it. I heard you witnessed his crime, so... I promise you Shinkai isn't a bad guy. He was abandoned by a horrifying selfish mother. I feel sorry for him."

"Teshima-san, I understand how you feel." Mouri emphasized. "But you should be discussing this with a lawyer. This doesn't fall within a detective's domain."

"I understand." Teshima saw himself out.

"Ojii-san, I'm going out for a bit." Conan made himself scarce.


Outside the Takarada house...

"Around one yesterday, when Takarada-san was murdered, you were at a department store in Shinjuku, right?" Conan had called Koji out.

"What do you want to know?" Koji downed his can of beer.

"Apparently, Shinkai-san is saying you threatened him into perjuring himself to back up your alibi." Conan supplied.

"That bastard." Koji snarled. "Why'd he have to lie about that? Tell that detective who sent you here that there's no point in suspecting me. I've got other people to back up my alibi besides that secretary. Yesterday, I was invited out over the phone by a man I don't recognize. He said he had a sweet get-rich-quick scheme. Ultimately, he stood me up. While I was waiting for him..." he recounted how he had ran into a debtor and had fled the scene. "It was some guys named Yaginuma who I previously conned. The reason I was so composed when the police suspected me was because I just had to call in Yaginuma as my witness."

"It seems he was lying." Mouri entered the scene after Koji entered the house. "And I didn't' send you here. Takarada Yoichi was murdered by his wife, Mika and she had a man call Koji on the phone to draw him out of the house so he wouldn't have an alibi."

"But, ojii-san." Conan caught up with Mouri who had stormed off. "If that's true, don't you think her plan was too careless? If she wanted to eliminate his alibi, she wouldn't sent him somewhere deserted. Since she didn't, he has a witness called Yaginuma-san. And since that blond wig was thrown away so offhandedly, it was found by the police."

"It just means Mika was stupid." Mouri scoffed and drove off.


After Conan put everything together, he gathered Mouri and Megure's team back to the crime scene with the three suspects.

"What's going on, Inspector?" Mouri burst through the door.

"I could ask you the same thing." Megure retorted. "You're the one who asked me to bring these three here."

With Mouri in range, Conan hit him with the tranquilizer dart. "Now then, everyone." he took on Mouri's voice and began his deduction. "It's time to discuss the events of this case in full. We made a mistake right from the very start. By assuming someone in his family did it, we immediately eliminated the true culprit. The person who murdered Takarada Yoichi is Shinkai Haruyuki-san."

"If he strangled Takarada to death, then what need was there for him to stab him two hours later?" Megure was confused.

"I have an alibi for that time when the president was murdered." Shinkai reminded.

"Shinkai-san did testify that he planned to murder Takarada since more victims would be created as long as he lived, but..."

"That's not why he murdered Takarada." Conan refuted. "Shinkai-san, as Takarada's secretary, you know Mika remained married to him just for his money. Takarada probably told you himself that he had only six months to live. In other words, in six months' time, Mika would inherit the fortune and insurance money she longed for. You couldn't allow that. That's when you came up with the idea of killing Takarada-san and framing Mika-san as the killer. Then, Mika-san would lose the right to Takarada's fortune and the insurance money. You didn't murder Takarada-san to kill him, you did it to frame Mika-san as his murderer."

"You're not making any sense." Shinkai scoffed. "You seem determined to paint me as the true culprit, but you're contradicting yourself. If I wanted to frame his wife, I should've put her fingerprints on the threatening letter."

"When Koji, the perfect pawn, came to the mansion, you put your plan into action." Conan deduced. "You created a threatening letter with Koji's fingerprints on it and mailed it. The letter arrived yesterday. Later, you urged Takarada to come to this room alone. You told Mika-san that the president asked her to organize the warehouse. You planned this so she would have no one to back up her alibi. You knew the housekeeper would be out. Then you called me pretending to be Takarada. Since I'd never met him before, I wouldn't recognize his voice. You also pretended to be an imaginary person and invited Koji out of the house. At one, you came to this apartment."

"I followed Koji-san to Shinjuku." Shinkai protested. "The place was crowded with families there to see the hero show."

"If you followed him there, perhaps you can tell us about the commotion that occurred." Conan fired back. "There's no way you didn't see it if you were there. You could've learned about the hero show before that day. You could also naturally assume the place would be crowded with families, even if you weren't there."

"You're accusing me because you have proof, right?" Shinkai muttered.

"Yesterday at one, you avoided the security cameras and entered this building through the rear entrance." Conan continued. "You gained access to his room by pretending you had urgent business. Then, you strangled Takarada. You left the letter you had brought in the room, disguised yourself as a blond woman, called the building administrator under the guise of a tenant, let him witness you, planted one of Mika-san's hairs on the wig and stuffed it into the belongings of a man famous for dressing up so it would be found by investigators. Then, you returned to this room and waited for me to arrive at three. At just the right moment... you called me so I would witness that decisive moment since I have the absolute trust of the police. No one would attempt to kill a man he's already murdered. You hid behind that preconception."

"I thought the president was alive." Shinkai defended. "He seemed to be napping when I arrived, so I took that opportunity to stab him."

"After being arrested for mutilating a body, you fabricated plausible sounding lies while you waited for your schemes to take effect." Conan cut off any protestations. "Just as you had planned, Koji fell under suspicion due to his fingerprints on the letter. That's precisely what made me suspect you. Thinking the case had been solved with Koji as the murderer, Mika-san became ecstatic. She no longer had to wait six months. Before she knew it, the situation changed. Mika-san had no one to back up her alibi and when material evidence was discovered... in other words, the killer deliberately wrote a letter with Koji's fingerprints on it so Mika-san would taste a moment of ecstasy before suddenly being thrown into despair. It was a reversal filled with hatred for Mika-san. Naturally, it began when you reversed your alibi testimony. That's when I started suspecting you were the killer."

"This is all too forced." Shinkai twitched. "Show me the evidence, Mouri-san. Everything you've said is nothing more than hypothesis."

"Since you were so careful, there's likely no physical evidence." Conan admitted. "But you were too careful. The tenant living across from this room saw you yesterday. It happened around 2:30. Because it was more than an hour before the time reported in the paper, they thought it was unrelated to the case. Even though you were supposed to have come here at 2:30, you stabbed Takarada at three; which doesn't support your story of stabbing Takarada because he appeared to be napping when you arrived."

"It's over." Shinkai confessed. "It was supposed to be perfect. Exposing even a single flaw means I've lost. Of course I was careful, Mouri-san. Even though we agreed to meet at three, you could've arrived earlier. So, I quickly returned here and watched from the window so I would be ready whenever you came. If I timed it wrong, I wouldn't have been able to hide behind your preconceptions. Everything Mouri-san said is true."

"Why were you willing to kill Takarada just to frame me?" Mika demanded.

"Because he saw his own mother in you." Conan responded. "I heard from Teshima-san."

"I loved my father." Shinkai sobbed. "He had a weak constitution but he was intelligent and kind. But my mother shunned my father. She refused to divorce him. Eventually, my father died. The second she got the insurance money, she disappeared with another man as though she'd been waiting for him to die and abandoned her ten-year-old son."


Later that evening...

"Hey, Rei." Ami looked up from her half-eaten slice of mille-feuille. "Have you ever thought of finding out who your mother is?"

"What brought that on?" Amuro swallowed the last bite of his dessert.

"I was just curious, I guess." Ami shrugged.


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