Authors Notes:
This chapter is... something else... I'll probably come back and clean it up later... sorry. I have to drop this and run.
Let me know what you think.

Warnings: Foul language… blood and violence. Animal mutilation… and murder… you know how it goes.

The Lycanthropy of a Shrunken Detective

Chapter Nine

"So…" The beady eyes of one Inspector Yamamura Misao narrowed as he looked around the room, hand's on his hips, as he tried and failed to convey a sense of superiority. "Who found the body?" There were three other officers in the room. Two of them were doing a search while the other stood by with his hand's behind his back listening intently to the following investigation.

Kudo slumped. 'Why him?'

"Uh… all of us?" One of the teen girls, whom Kudo recognized as the attendant who'd been cleaning the lobby earlier, said.

"All of you? Aside from the deceased, you all are the only ones on site… Weird. Let's start with names and occupation and what you're doing here… I guess." Yamamura said pulling out his notebook.

"My name is Ishikawa Kazuko and this here is Yuki." The mother said without prompting.
"We're just here for a bath, waiting for my husband… Was this suicide?"

"We won't know until we at least get a report from the officers examining the body." Yamamoto said looking unsure.

The mother looked to her son worried brushing his hair back. Ran bit her lip looking around nervously as it occurred to her that she hadn't seen Conan yet.

"Okay…" The inspector looked around. "You. What's your story." He pointed to the foreigner.

"I am Leandra Iñiguez, I come from Brazil… er… Sorry, my Japanese not so good… I come here to experience your country and its wonderful traditions… I'm sorry this tragedy happen."

"Oh! Well, welcome! I have never met someone from Brazil before!" Yamamura said excitedly. "Is it a nice country?"

The woman shrugged. "I think so, but I may be biased."

"You know I once had a chance to go to Brazil but-

The nearby police officer coughed into his hand. "Inspector…"

"Oh, sorry I got off track." Looking at his notes he murmured to himself. "Okay next… How about you?" He asked looking expectantly at the young man who had flirted with the hostess when the group first came into the bath house. "The name's Sato Shiori…" The young man said crossing his arms. "I uh… work in gaming, I guess… I just wanted to relax…"

There was a snort from one of the other men, one wearing glasses, and Sato glared at him. Yamamura frowned scribbling in his book. "Well, a bath is for relaxing." He said before moving on. "Now, you two?" He said pointing to the elderly couple.

"I'm Makoto Abe," the woman said. "And this is Makoto Akio, my husband. We come here every Sunday."

"Ever since we retired." The older gentleman agreed. Yamamura nodded taking down the names then turned to look at the next person.

The man in question was the one who had scoffed at Sato; he was tall and thin with thick dark hair. Nervously he pushed up a thick pair of glasses. "My name is Fujioka Nobuyoshi, I take care of the finances…"
"The finances?" Yamamura looked confused.

"Er, yes, for the bath. This is a business… I was just taking a break when… pore Naomi…"

Hattori shifted perking up slightly. 'Naomi? He addresses the victim by her given name?'

"Yes… Kobayashi Naomi. She was the hostess that died… and your niece?" The Inspector said looking to the next man. "Isn't that right Mr. Mizushima?"

"That's right." The man was slightly pail but standing tall his dark eyes steady as he looked down at Yamamura. "I'm the owner of this establishment Mizushima Taiki. Naomi just recently graduated after working here for a time I had decided to start training her to take over for me in the future…"

The girl standing next to him ducked her head as both Mr. Mizushima and Yamamura looked to her. "I-I'm Mizushima Sora… Mr. Mizushima's daughter… I'm a… radio DJ…" She fidgeted pulling nervously at her fingers. She was a petite girl with long thin dark hair and dark eyes.

Yamamura looked confused. "So you were training your niece to take over, and not your own daughter?"

"Well, she show's no interest." The man said stiffly.

The girl's head fell slightly as she studied the ground intently. Thin fingers came to rest on her shoulders as the other young woman stepped forward. "It has less to do with that and more to do with him being ashamed of her. Right?"

"Hitomi…" Mizushima Sora said carefully.

"And you are?" Yamamura asked.

"The name's Moto Hitomi. I'm the attendant- or janitor if you want to be more accurate. I take care of the upkeep of these baths."

"Wait, what do you mean he's ashamed?" Yamamura asked voice suddenly sharp as he fought back an excited smile.

"I'm not ashamed." Mr. Mizushima said stubbornly. "And if I were, it would be a personal manner."

"Ah…" Yamamura narrowed his eyes at Mizushima Sora and said. "Would you have killed her in a fit of jealousy?!"

"What? No!" The girl said shock faced. "I would never- I mean Naomi was family- why would I?"

"That's what I want to know!" Yamamura said. "Maybe you want the family business."

"No- I much prefer music… I was upset when I missed out on the hostess position… but…" The girl fidgeted.

"It wasn't her." Yamamura twitched at the voice of Kudo. The officer squinted giving him a suspicious look. Hattori was also giving Kudo a curious look. "Well, we'll get to more serious questions if this turns out to be a murder." He said before he scribbled some more into his notebook.

"Uh… so you said that you all found the body at once… how-

Ishikawa who was now holding her child in her arms gestured toward Ran. "That girl she noticed it first I think, but the body fell from the tree's to hang over the baths."

"Fell out of the trees!?" Yamamura looked shocked then blinked looking at the indicated girl. He squinted and then blinked some more in surprise. "Oh! Ms. Ran!" The ever enthusiastic man greeted happily. "Is The Sleeping Kuogoro here as well? How about little Conan?" He was looking around as if he expected Mouri Kogoro or Edogawa Conan to pop out from behind one of the indoor plants.

"No, no." Ran waved apologetically. "It's just me and my friends. Dad's home working on a case. Conan… was here…" She frowned at Hattori who rubbed the back of his neck avoiding eye contact.

"Oh, is it an important case? Sound's exciting!"

"Well…" Ran shrugged not really wanting to get into such a potentially long-running conversation at the moment. Her father's case had had something to do with a man suspecting his wife of cheating anyway, nothing too exciting. Besides, there was an Osaka teen she needed to shake down.

Said boy was suddenly looking serious as he spoke to Yamamura. "Shouldn't we be tryin' ta narrow down the suspects?"

"Hum…?" Yamamura blinked rapidly a few time's before his face lit up again. "Oh, it's you! The Osaka-accented kid!"

Hattori felt his brow twitch. "The name's Hattori Heiji, I'm a detective!"

Shinichi placed a calming hand on his shoulder. "Yamamura, this is a murder. We need you to focus."

Yamamura hummed. "You're sure about that? I mean it makes sense that if she was hung that it would be more likely that she committed suicide…"

"That doesn't account for the blunt force trauma." Kudo snapped. "Or how she dropped in over the baths long after she was already dead."

The man's eyes narrowed in on the teen detective in confusion. "Who are you?" Then his eyes widened as he took in the words. "Wait? Trauma? How would you know that?"

"Hattori and I took her down from the noose- we were hoping to save her if we could, but she'd been dead for a good 10 minutes or more before she swung in from the trees."

"You couldn't possibly know that just from looking at the body…" The inspector said in all seriousness then narrowed his eyes with a small grin. "Unless you're the killer."

Kudo glared back. "I'm no killer, the evidence was obvious."

"The blood flowing from the wound on her head covered the rope around her neck until it was dripping from her fingers, suggestin' that it had time ta bleed; head wounds bleed a lot but if she received the injury when falling there wouldn't have been time for it ta cover the rope and run down her arm. If ya ask me cause of death was probably the blunt force trauma ta her head and not the rope around her neck." Hattori said.

"Why would the killer put her body out for everyone to see?"

Kudo stiffened before he took a calming breath. His eyes flicked over the suspects but Hattori wasn't able to figure out what he was looking for. He doubted the officer in front of them even noticed. "Look," he pulled out a fishing line from his pocket wrapped in cloth. "I found this tangled in the knot of the rope. I think it has something to do with the trick of this case. Plus right before the body fell I heard a strange noise."

"Noise?"

Kudo nodded. There was a small upset in the room from this news. "Did you hear anything?" Mizushima was asking Fujioka who was shaking his head.

"The only noise I heard was the sound of a truck backing up." Kazuha said looking up in thought.

Ran nodded. "Me too…"

"Not that. It was like a… click or clack, swish… kind of sound. There was something off about it…" Kudo placed a hand to his chin in thought.

"Wait, wait." The tall dark haired Sato said in agitation. "You said she'd been dead for 10 minutes? That's impossible! I saw her like 5 minutes before she hung herself!"

"What?" Hattori and Kudo said in unison.

"That's impossible!" Mr. Mizushima snarled. "It takes at least 7 minutes to walk up to that part of the hill from the building and Naomi would never…"

"Look, I went back out to flirt with her some more but she just gave me more of her cold shoulder." He scoffed. "For a girl who slept with the guy in charge of finance to get her job she sure is stuck up."

"What the hell gave you that idea!?" Mr. Mizushima growled. "I asure you that she earned her job!"

"Doesn't mean she wasn't sleeping around though." Moto said crossing her arms with an irritated look. Fujioka was turning red and the young Mizushima looked nervous.

"Exactly!" Sato said in exasperation. "Frickin' chicks man…"

"That 'frikin' chick' is my dead niece!" Mr. Mizushima growled.

Kudo sighed shaking his head. "Oi." Hattori frowned looking the other over. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing…" Sinichi was irritated. The moment they gathered in the lobby he knew who the killer was. He could smell it clinging to their body, the stench of blood and bleach. There was only one problem. He couldn't very well just out and say that. Like all the other cases when he'd figured out the culprit early on in the case without any evidence he'd just have to find the clues to smoke them out. This was a bit frustrating though, he'd never had it shoved so blatantly in his face with little to no evidence to stand on so early in the hunt.

He crossed his arms and looked around the room. "Ya okay?" Hattori asked.

Was he? Shinichi wasn't sure… He still wasn't comfortable with current circumstances but as he studied the postures and faces of the suspects he blinked in sudden slightly horrified realization. "Has it really been a month since I last did this?"

Hattori snorted. "Look who's finally wakin' up." Then he frowned as he too studied those in the room. "Still, I wonder who here would have a reason to kill?"

Grumbling slightly Shinichi put a hand to his chin studying the ground more than the suspects. "I wonder…"

Hattori gave him a narrowed side glance as Shinichi schooled his features. "Wait… ya know who did it? Already!?"

"Be quiet." Shinichi reprimanded holding up his hands. "I can't prove it, okay?"

"But ya have it narrowed down to one. How? The questioning's barely started!"

"I don't know any more than you." Shinichi said frowning. Which was true enough. It wasn't evidenced to say he could smell blood on someone. So as far as he was concerned he had nothing. Not until he had at least the how, and with any luck the why.

After glaring at Shinichi for a solid minute Hattori crossed his arms with a huff. "Ya better tell me when this is all over." Hattori grumbled getting the hint that Shinichi wasn't going to say anything on the matter.

Shinichi nodded walking away. Hattori watched as he moved around to the other side of the desk.

"I think we should start trying to piece together Kobayashi's day." Yamamura said.

"Well, she came in at 9 this morning…" Fujioka said.

Mr. Mizushima nodded. "Yes, in fact, my wife is supposed to be here in less than an hour to relieve her…"

"She took a 30-minute break at about 1:20 pm…" Moto said looking thoughtful. "I just got off for the day a few minutes ago and joined my girlfriend in the bath."

Shinichi knelt down only to stumble back from the smell he'd found. "Shinichi?" Ran asked, as she saw him do this, looking worried.

"I'm fine." He gave her a shaky smile before motioning for one of the officers who was scouring the potted plant for clues. "Hey, do you have Luminol?"

The officer nodded digging through a small duffle bag. "Of course."

"Find something?" Hattori asked.

"Just the murder scene." Shinichi said calmly as he stood switching off the lights and lowering automatic blinds on the large windows. The group gasped.

"What are you doing-?" Mr. Miushima's anger faltered as Shinichi began to lightly spray the ground behind the desk. The area had an immediate reaction, lighting up like a galaxy.
"I think I'm starting to piece this together." Kudo said.

Yamamura's eyes shone with excitement. "Oh…"

"Good for ya, want ta fill in the rest of the class?" Hattori said irritated.

Looking up in slight surprise, as the officers nearby took photos, Shinichi stood. "Well… I know that the murder happened here. Using that cigarette stand as an improv weapon." Heiji frowned as an officer took that as a cue and sprayed the object. Just as the floor had the lip of the stand also glowed. "I just don't understand… everything regarding her injuries suggests that this was a violent and angry crime… spur of the moment… why would the killer take the time to set up an elaborate way to reveal the body? More importantly how… the display suggests premeditation… the execution suggests unplanned violence… It just doesn't add up…"

"Maybe the killer just wanted them dead and didn't care how… maybe they wanted everyone ta see the body." Heiji said.

"That would mean that they want to be noticed somehow… if they wanted to be caught they wouldn't have cleaned up after the murder…" Kudo mumbled incoherently.

"AH!" Yamamura suddenly said pointing at Kudo as he hopped from foot to foot. "I know you! You're that kid the Detective of the East- Kudo Shinichi!"

"Ah…" Kudo cringed back.

Just a few feet away Ran stood by Kazuha staring at her childhood friend as he tried to deal with Yamamura's excitement. "Hey, why haven't ya said anythin' to him yet?" Kazuha asked.

"I…" Ran looked at her Osaka friend a lost look on her face before glancing back to Shinichi. "He sounded so irritated, and he looks… stressed."

"Even more reason ta talk to him!" Kazuha said.

Ran bit her lip watching as Shinichi rubbed his chest. She felt her heart skip a beat… something told her he was going to leave again soon.

(Number of words: 2660. Date posted: 02-010-2018)