SailorStar9: With Chapter 97 uploaded, this is Chapter 958 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 98: The Blind Spot in the Dressing Room, Part Two


"The order in which Sashihara-sama, Yamaki-sama, and Nitsuka-sama entered the changing room?" Nanbu echoed. "I think Yamaki-sama was first." she recalled. "She said she'd forgotten where the changing rooms were, so I showed her the way to the front of the rooms."

"Did you see the white sandals then?" Megure asked.

"I believe they were already in front of the room on the right." Nanbu replied. "Sashihara-sama was next. She entered the room in the middle. Nitsuka-sama entered last; quite a while after Sashihara-sama. She was irritated that none of the rooms were freeing up."

"According to Conan0kun, Sashihara-san said something rather harsh to you." Takagi spoke.

"A senior employee told me she'd been told the same thing before and not to worry about it." Nanbu stated."

"The dead woman said something that made it sound like you met for the first time today." Conan pointed out. "You actually met a week ago."

"She was here with Yamaki-sama when Nitsuka-sama collapsed in the changing room." Nanbu nodded.

"Are the black pumps you're wearing and those white sneakers the only shoes you have?" Sera inquired.

"I keep the pumps in my locker and usually wear these sneakers to commute." Nanbu replied.

"Nanbu-san, could you draw the white sandals you saw?" Takagi requested.

"Like the employee said, the white sandals were already there when I entered the changing room." Yamaki confirmed.

"President Sashihara entered the changing room next to yours later." Megure reminded. "Did you hear any strange noises?"

"Not in particular." Yamaki answered.

"Are those boxes you had inside you bag a gift for someone?" Takagi asked.

"For the president of the department store." Yamaki nodded. "It's one of our new products. preside Sashihara told me to have one of the employees to give it to him."

"Could you draw us a picture of the white sandals?" Takagi requested.

"I collapsed in the changing room here last week because of the dog hair that Sashihara woman left everywhere." Nitsuka admitted.

"According to forensics, they found substantial dog hair in the changing room." Takagi informed.

"So you know when the owner of the white sandals left the changing room? Megure inquired.

"Between 2:43 pm to 2:44 pm." Nitsuka was certain. "I was checking every minute to see if the room on the right was open."

"What's that light brown case thing?" Conan wondered.

"They're folding slippers." Nitsuka replied. "I'm taking a flight to China after this."


Back at the crime scene...

"Inspector Megure." Takagi reported. "Forensics found scissors, bits of tape, and pieces of straw in a garbage can near the changing rooms. We checked the store's security cameras. May of the customers' feet weren't visible and we weren't able to find anyone wearing the white sandals the three women saw in front of the right changing room at the time of the murder."

"Which means the customer wearing the sandals was the killer and has already left." Megure concluded. "Or the store employee Nanbu Reia-san, who discovered the body. Or the victim's employee, Yamaki Ayami-san, who was using the left room before the victim entered the center room. Or the woman allergic to dogs, Nitsuka Tomoyo-san, who entered the room on the right after the customer wearing white sandals left."

"The question is how did the killer get inside the changing room." Takagi mused.

"The victim would have said something if someone entered while she was changing." Megure agreed.

"Even if they snuck in..." Takagi nodded.

"The killer's reflection should've appeared on this mirror. " Megure concurred.

"If the victim is already unconscious when the killer entered the room, she wouldn't be able to say anything and it'd be easy to strangle her." Conan pointed out.

"But how?" Takagi was confused.

"By using one of the face covers on the right side of the changing room." Sera supplied. "Men probably won't recognize them, but female customers wear them when trying on clothes so their makeup doesn't get on them. By soaking the face covers in chloroform, the victim knocked herself out for the killer by putting on one."

"So, the killer had a bottle of chloroform." Megure reasoned.

"It doesn't have to be a bottle." Conan stated. "A straw's more than enough. You melt one end of a straw using a hair iron, pour chloroform from the open end and melt the open end. To use it, you just have to cut one end open with scissors."

"Even if the face covers were soaked in chloroform, the killer had to know which changing room the victim entered." Megure pointed out.

"She'd enter the middle room if it were the only one free." Sera explained. "The killer made her first attempt last week; Nitsuka-san entered the room before the victim. This is her second attempt at murder."

"How did she leave the middle room open?" Megure frowned. "The killer could enter one room, but how did she block the other?"

"By putting the white sandals in front of the other room." Sera replied. "This could only be done by the woman who entered the left room before the victim entered the middle room; Yamaki Ayami-san, it was you."

"Wait a minute." Yamaki protested. "I don't have any white sandals. The sandals were there before I entered the changing room."

"Conan-kun, we bought insoles, tape and a white ribbon." Ran ad Sonoko returned with their purchases.

"First, put the white ribbon against the heel of the insole." Conan demonstrated how the makeshift sandals were made. "Cross the ribbon on the underside of the insole and tape it. Then cross the ribbons over the top. Tape the ends to the underside again and there. You have some white sandals. Make a second one and put them in front of the changing room and it looks like someone's inside. If you raise the heel by placing a cell phone under them, they look like sandals from above."

"You had one, didn't you?" Sera turned to Yamaki. "A present wrapped in white ribbon. If you made the sandals beforehand and kept them in your bag, all that would be left after the murder would be the tape you used to make the sandals. You could tie the ribbon around the present and you could hide the insoles inside your own shoes. Her fingerprints may be on the tape since it's difficult to remove without bare hands. Here's what you did: after making sure the three changing rooms were empty, you placed the white sandals in front of the room on the right, told an employee you forgot where the changing rooms were, had her show you and made sure she saw the white sandals inside the room. When the employee returned to the store, you entered the middle room, soaked a face cover in the chloroform you had in the straw, pot it back in the box and entered the left room. You watched through the curtain for the victim to enter and listened for the victim to inhale the chloroform in the face cover and collapse. After making sure no one was around, you entered the middle room, wrapped the rope you bought around the victim's neck and strangled her. Then you waited for Nitsuka-san, who was frequently checking the changing rooms, to return to the store, reached through the curtain to collect the white sandals and cell phone, listened to Nitsuka-san enter the right room, returned to the left room, removed the white ribbon from the white sandals, tied it around the present, and put the insoles inside your own shoes. You intended to leave the changing room immediately, but an employee found the victim's body first."

"Then, what were those shapes the victim made with her hands?" Megure wondered.

"The right hand grasping her thumb with lipstick on it was..." Sera started.

"The national flag." Conan supplied. "The flag of China. The victim was wearing nails with five stars on them, so by making the area around the stars red, she was trying to make it look like the Chinese flag. Chinese people count on their fingers in an unusual way; they count from one to ten on a single hand. One through five is the same as Japan. This is six," he held out his thumb and pinkie finger. "This is seven." he closed his thumb and index and middle fingers together. "This is eight." he had his thumb facing upwards and his index finger pointing out. "As in eight; for the 'Ya' in Yamaki-san."

"Since the changing room door was covered in dog hair, you'll probably find a couple strands on the bottoms of Yamaki-san's feet." Sera supplied.

"You don't need to look for dog hair." Yamaki confessed. "After all, I was the president's pet. I came here a few months ago with the president. We happened to try on the same clothes." she related how Sashihara had let her wear her intended outfit to the upcoming party. It was at the party itself when she found out Sashihara had dressed her terrier in the same outfit. "I couldn't get a new job because I owed the president. So, I killed her before she could kill me, so I wouldn't be hers forever."


Later that week...

"And stay out, slut!" Hino Rei hollered. "Don't think I don't know what you tried to do with Yuuichirou!"

"Ow..." Usagi winced, being thrown unceremoniously out of the Hikawa Shrine by the incensed head priestess. After her brief affair with Niel Ackerman ended, she turned her attentions to the other Inner Senshi's lovers, fully intending to snatch them for herself, just to prove that she was still attractive.

Too bad, the men the girls were romantically involved in were smart enough to realize what the pig-tailed blond was doing and shot her down right away.


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