SailorStar9: With Chapter 114 uploaded, I present Chapter 115 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 115: A Day Without Conan
Time passes...
"The victim is a serial blackmailer named Unmo Sadakazu-san." Mitsuhiko reported to Conan, the Detective Boys having found the victim in a construction site and had called Megure's team beforehand. "There's no weapon at the crime scene, but he most likely died instantly when he was hit over the head with a metal pipe. They're finished." he added. "I'll call you back." he ended the call.
"The estimated time of death is today between 3:00 to 4:30." Ami informed her superior.
"It's four." Mitsuhiko spoke up. "That's when the tall man wearing the sunglasses and a mask came out."
"You kids were watching this construction site from across the street?" Megure asked.
"We saw a woman in trouble." Mitsuhiko nodded. "It was regarding her grandson who lives with her. We were curious about what happened, but then, the grandson in question came out. When we followed him, we discovered he was actually working. He was working nights."
"The man you kids saw certainly sounds suspicious." Megure concurred. "But without knowing his appearance or age..."
"He was really tall." Ayumi supplied.
"There are a lot of people like that." Megure pointed. "Unmo-san himself looks to be almost two meters tall."
"Inspector Megure, is it safe to assume the suspect is being blackmailed by Unmo-san?" Takagi asked, entering with Chiba.
"It seems Unmo-san had no relationship with his neighbors." Chiba added.
"So, they lied about paying him, asked to meet him here and killed him." Haibara reasoned.
"This is bothering me." Conan voiced over Mitsuhiko's phone. "There was no weapon at the crime scene."
"We believe the culprit took it with them." Mitsuhiko nodded.
"But the man who fled wasn't carrying a metal pipe." Conan pointed out.
"Perhaps he was hiding it under his coat." Mitsuhiko suggested.
"I got it." Conan nodded. "I'll be back tomorrow afternoon. Let's find the culprit then."
The next day...
"You can't come back now?" Mitsuhiko exclaimed, after Conan informed them.
"Stick with the police and tell me everything you learn." Conan requested.
"Found it." Takagi located the relevant folder in Unmo's laptop. "It's a list of people he was blackmailing."
"Ten men and one woman." Chiba looked at the opened file.
"Let's split up." Takagi told the other detectives. "Samei Rika-san, where were you at four yesterday?" he and Chiba tracked down their last suspect.
"Kuniko-san." Samei noticed her neighbor walk by. "I was in my apartment yesterday afternoon, right?"
"You started working around 3." Tago Kuniko blinked. "Did something happen?"
"Nothing." Samei assured.
"Everyone they spoke with had an alibi, too." Chiba informed, having contracted the second team.
"All the suspects are innocent?" Conan echoed, after Mitsuhiko called him.
"Then who killed the man with that dumb face?" Genta complained.
"The victim Unmo Sadakazu-san didn't have a particularly dumb face." Conan looked at the victim's picture in the newspapers.
"That's because you didn't see the body, Conan-kun." Mitsuhiko explained.
"Hold on." Conan remarked and dug out Mouri's phone. Using the Voice-Changing Bowtie, he took on Mouri's voice and had Takagi send a photo of the victim to him. "Were his front teeth knocked out when he was hit?"
"They weren't." Takagi replied. "They're dentures; we found them in his apartment. He was going to have them put back at the start of the week."
After confirming with Mitsuhiko about the estimated time of death, Conan pieced together what had happened. "Mitsuhiko, I want you guys to split up and do something for me." he requested, his next step was determining the culprit. "The first is to confirm her alibi with the witness. The second is a treasure hunt."
"Did I visit my neighbor Samei RIka-san's apartment yesterday?" Tago echoed. "I didn't."
"Then, how did you know she started working at 3?" Haibara asked.
"Because she came to ask me for something yesterday." Tago replied, recalling how Samei had wanted to her to tell anyone who knocked on her door to say she was out. "She made her request and went back to her apartment around three. She was definitely working."
Meanwhile, Mitsuhiko's group located the discarded cloak and metal pipe in a river.
"Take them back and have them examined immediately." Megure instructed, claiming the tossed away evidence.
"Conan-kun figured it all out?" Takagi gawked.
"He figured it out based on the information we gave him." Genta explained.
"Please come with us." Mitsuhiko requested. "Conan-kun isn't with us, though. This time, I'll run down the culprit."
On the rooftop of Samei's apartment...
"The other suspects' alibis were rock solid." Mitsuhiko began. "But you can't say the same, Samei Rika-san."
"My neighbor Kuniko-san can..." Samei started.
"Your neighbor didn't actually see you." Haibara cut her off.
"You're right, but it doesn't matter if I have an alibi." Samei defended. "Wasn't Unmo-san killed by a tall man?"
"We never would've found him," Mitsuhiko stated. "Not the man we saw. Because that man is..."
"He made it just in time." Haibara remarked, seeing the panting Conan dash up the staircase.
"Tell them, Mitsuhiko." Conan encouraged.
"The tall man wearing sunglasses, a mask and coat was Unmo Sadakazu –san himself." Mitsuhiko revealed.
"The victim Unmo-san was also the culprit?" Chiba blinked.
"Not the culprit, the suspect." Conan corrected. "Yesterday at four, Unmo-san came to the construction site to blackmail someone. Since it was cold, he wore a coat. Believing he killed them, he threw away the metal pipe and fled. Later, Unmo-san returned. He must've remembered that his fingerprints were on the weapon. Unmo-san was killed by his blackmailing victim who had only been knocked unconscious. That was around 4:30. Then the culprit removed Unmo-san's coat and disposed it along with the metal pipe. The reason I thought the tall man they saw might be Unmo-san is because I saw this photo you sent. Since it was a cold day, he must've been wearing a coat, and if he was going to blackmail someone, he would've hidden the fact his front teeth were missing with a mask."
"Why did the culprit need to remove Unmo-san's coat?" Takagi wondered.
"When they were fighting, Unmo-san, it's possible their blood got on Unmo-san's clothes." Conan reasoned.
"Forensics just reported that they found blood on the coat." Chiba informed, receiving a phone call. "It belongs to the victim and one other person."
"It's mine." Samei confessed. "But I didn't mean to kill him. He asked me to meet him yesterday and blackmailed me. When I asked him to stop, he told me not to underestimate him and started strangling me. In order to defend myself, I grabbed a metal pipe, but he nearly killed me. I attacked Unmo-san with the metal pipe when he returned because I feared he'd come back to finish me off."
"That contradicts your story." Conan pointed out. "You made your fake request to your neighbor before you went to see Unmo-san. If you hadn't been planning to kill him, you wouldn't have done that in advance."
"That little brat is right." Samei snorted. "I asked that pest to meet me and killed him."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
