SailorStar9: With Chapter 119 uploaded, I present Chapter 120 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 120: A Woman Standing by the Window, Part Two
"Did she fall from the roof?" Conan wondered.
"I knew it." Nakabayashi Naka stammered.
"Oba-san, you were at the intersection yesterday." Conan recognized the elderly woman. "What do you know?"
"The same thing happened to her yesterday." Nakabayashi replied.
"Did someone push her?" Ayumi pressed.
"So, she was nearly killed yesterday, too." Conan noted when Nakabayashi nodded.
"Who pushed her?" Genta pressed.
"I don't know." Nakabayashi walked away. "Don't bring me into this."
"Sounds like Saki-san might be murdered." Conan concluded.
"The culprit came to finish her off." Mitsuhiko mused.
"But who and why?" Ayumi sobbed.
"Those three..." Conan frowned.
"They're suspicious." Genta agreed.
"I told you I was just looking for a ring I happened to drop." Dojima protested when Inspector Megure and his team arrived. "That's when she came crashing down right before my eyes."
"The deceased is Midorikawa Saki-san, twenty-eight years old." Takagi reported. "She lived in an apartment across the street. She worked as a dancer at a pub on third street."
"Someone fell to their death?" Akabane Towa whined. "So scary. How ominous." she then hurried into her unit.
"Detective Takagi, about Midorikawa Saki-san..." Conan called out.
"Inspector Megure, the victim seems to have fallen from the roof." Chiba came in. "There were scratch marks on the railing on the roof. We also found a woman's earring on the ground."
"They match." Megure compared the earring to the one on Saki's ear.
"The building's security cameras also captured the victim heading to the roof." Chiba supplied.
"Was Saki-san wearing gloves then?" Conan asked.
"She wasn't." Chiba shook his head. "The victim took the elevator to the 11th floor and got off there. The stairs have to be taken to reach the roof, but she didn't fall until an hour later. Then, there's her phone. Her last incoming call was from a nearby payphone. She came to this building shortly after receiving it."
"Which means the person who called invited her up to the roof where they got in to a fight." Megure mused. "So, it was possible that she was pushed."
"Excuse me." Chiba picked up his ringing phone. "According to the victim's colleagues, she used to be a good-natured woman and well-like by everyone. But for whatever reason, her personality suddenly changed about three years ago. She started exhorting customers and co-workers. People didn't think highly of her."
"I'm going to watch the autopsy." Megure informed his two subordinates. "You two question the people she was exhorting."
"Detective Takagi, Saki-san was pushed at an intersection yesterday." Conan supplied. "And there are three people who had been glaring at Saki-san."
In the apartment building...
"I didn't know anything about her." Tachibana spoke.
"She saw you doing something unsavory from that window, didn't she?" Conan guessed.
"She was blackmailing you with it." Takagi added.
"I did receive a threatening letter yesterday." Tachibana admitted.
"Could we take a look at it?" Chiba requested. "So, you hastily attempted to silence her yesterday." he added, he and Takagi read the letter, but when you failed, you tried again today."
"I was here in my apartment when she fell." Tachibana argued. "I have an alibi for yesterday."
"What did she see?" Conan pressed.
Tachibana pulled off his wig to reveal his balding head. "I took this off without thinking. But I didn't kill her."
"This arrived this morning." Konno Michiyo stated, showing the detectives the threatening letter she received. "I'd never do that. I was here when that woman died. After all, Saki-san called me and told me to stay here. I suppose it can't be helped. It's better than being framed for murder." she then revealed that she was the one who pushed Saki at the intersection the previous day."
"What did she see you doing?" Chiba pressed.
"I heard a wealthy man was looking for a love child he conceived a long time ago." Konno replied. "I disguised myself as Konno Michiyo in order to blackmail him, but..." she pulled her bathrobe open to reveal that she was a he. "My real name is Numagaki Daihachi. I'm a man." he showed the detectives his driving license. "And she saw me."
Outside the building...
"They found sedatives in her body?" Takagi echoed, taking a call after Numagaki was taken into custody.
"I'm the one who called the police." Akabane burst out of the building. "I live in Room 202. My name is Akabane. I've been traveling since the day before yesterday and when I returned, all my jewels have vanished."
In Saki's apartment unit...
"She lived rather frugally for someone blackmailing people." Haibara looked around the room.
"Maybe that's her boyfriend." Ayumi spotted the photo frame Haibara picked up. "Excuse me, madam." she turned to Omori Hiroe, Saki's landlady.
"His name is Suenaga Ryo." Omori answered. "They lived here together. But he suddenly moved out. He forced his shady debts onto Saki-chan. That was three autumns ago."
"She started exhorting people to pay off his debts." Conan realized. "Did you tell anyone that Saki-san was waiting for Suenaga-san to return?"
"I told that detective woman last night." Omori recalled. "She asked me to tell her all about it since her investigation was very important to Saki-chan."
"I've got it." Conan pieced the missing pieces together. "it even explains how they got Saki-san to come to the crime scene."
"They?" Takagi, who had accompanied the Detective Boys, echoed.
"Dojima Tatsuko, the woman who killed Saki-san." Conan dashed out of the building.
On the pavement where Saki's body once was...
"The woman in Room 202 lost her key about a week ago." Mitsuhiko reported back. "Apparently, the key was turned in to the building manager."
Later that evening...
"What do you mean you want my advice?" Dojima was called up to the roof by the Detective Boys.
"Apparently, Midorikawa Saki-san was murdered." Genta started. "But there are some things us Detective Boys can't figure out."
"Since you're such a great social critic, we thought we could use your advice." Mitsuhiko added.
"Fine, then." Dojima bragged.
"When she died, Saki-san was wearing gloves." Conan stated. "I wonder why."
"To protect her hands from UV rays." Dojima reasoned.
"It's possible the culprit put them on her." Conan pointed out.
"Why would they do that to push her off the roof?" Dojima questioned.
"Because she didn't come to the roof." Conan declared. "That's why they put the gloves on her. They needed it to make sense that Saki-san's fingerprints weren't on the door to the roof. After exiting the elevator on the 11th floor, she visited you in Room 1107. On a whim, you made a spare of the key you found and robbed Room 202. And then, Saki-san saw you. Your theft surely will be discovered and even if Saki-san's memory was hazy, if you started appearing on TV, she was sure to notice. In a hurry to silence her, you noticed there were others who didn't like Saki-san. You realized she'd seen their secrets, too."
"You used that against them." Mitsuhiko piped in.
"Impersonating Saki-san, you delivered the threatening letters so they would silence her." Conan continued.
"Numagaki fell for it." Genta added.
"He failed, and Saki-san hid the attempt on her life." Conan noted. "Since she knew she incurred the ire of others, she thought that's what it was. You then plotted to frame Numagaki-san. You impersonated Saki-san and called Numagaki-san on the phone so he wouldn't have an alibi. You then invited Saki-san into your apartment. You used the information you got from the landlady the night before and lied about having information on Suenaga-san. Saki-san gleefully ran over and you put her to sleep with sedatives. You made it look like she was pushed from the roof. You placed Saki-san on the platform made from the materials and ice you bought last night. You then pretended to look for a lost item on the ground and waited for the ice to melt and Saki-san to fall. That gave you an alibi and nobody noticed the contraption on your balcony because of the balloons you used to hide her."
"This is ridiculous." Dojima taunted. "It's all just conjecture."
"One of the balloons was missing from its string." Conan supplied. "There was a thin scratch on Saki-san's neck. I thought maybe it was caught on her coat when she fell. So, we searched for the balloon together."
"You kids were right about this." Takagi arrived with Chiba in tow, along with the retrieved balloon. "The abrasion on Midorikawa Saki-san's neck and the shape of the string was a perfect match."
"We found fingerprints matching the ones on your lease on the balloon." Chiba added.
"A single balloon isn't evidence." Dojima burst out laughing.
"But that connects you to the deceased Saki-san." Conan reminded. "The police can search your apartment now."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.
