26: Mistaken for Murdered

Conan glared resentfully at the body, collapsed on the floor, with blood pooling around his head, and a card in his hand with KID's caricature grinning up. "Does this mean that KID murdered Aruto?!" Cried the mansion's owner, Zetsumei Akumi, in grief-stricken outrage. "KID DOESN'T KILL PEOPLE!" Nakaomri-keibu bellowed, indignant on behalf of his prey, "HE NEVER HAS BEFORE!" "There's a first time for everything…." Akumi muttered with a gruesome scowl on her face, "if that thief's the one who killed my husband, I won't tolerate him leaving as a free man!"

"I r-really d-don't think it-t was K-KID." Stuttered Kaisho Sunao, a man who had been hired to set up security to prevent KID from stealing Zetsumei Akumi and Aruto's jewel, Summer Set. Sunao was a nervous man, who seemed smaller because he slouched, with a stutter that got worse when he was upset. He was also rubbish at security and a complete coward in the face of conflict. As such, he was trying to hide from Akumi's glare behind Conan, an attempt doomed to fail due to the shrunken detective's small stature.

"Don't worry Zetsumei-san!" Exclaimed an overly pompous baka-tantei, "the great detective Mouri Kogoro will solve the murder of your husband before Megure-keibu even gets here!" He looked over the body with a critical eye before standing up and foolishly declaring, "It was definitely Kaitou KID! The card proves it!"

Conan gaped at his 'uncle's' utter contempt of finding all the evidence before making claims. "B-but", Sunao stuttered, "n-nobo-body has sseen him yet-t! For all w-we know he's not e-even here!"

Akumi snorted, running her fingers through her long red hair, "that proves he killed my husband! He fled the scene of the crime before we could even have a chance at catching him! Why would he not show up at the time he said unless he were the murderer!" Sunao's mouth moved as though he were trying to come up with something to say. Seeing his pathetic attempts to speak, Conan took pity, "ah-le-le! Couldn't KID have not appeared because he thought it would distract us from finding the murderer?" "Shut it, brat!" Kogoro snapped. "The kid has a point though", Inspector Nakamori grumbled. Kogoro rolled his eyes, "whatever, Ran's at home, if we're not back soon she'll start to worry. Come on brat let's go."

"I want to stay!" Conan whined childishly. Kogoro glared at him. "Ah I c-could b-bring him home wa-once the c-case iss solv-ved." Sunao offered haltingly. "Aren't you a suspect though?" Nakamori asked. Sunao's eyes widened, "oh… uh… I g-guess so." Nakamori-keibu sighed, "I'll take him, just get out of here already, we have a murder to solve." Kogoro huffed and walked out with a bored expression and a slumped posture.

"I suppose the suspects are Kaitou KID, any member of the Task Force- I'm afraid to say, Kaisho Sunao-san, and the victim's wife, Zetsumei Akumi-san." Nakamori-keibu stated, sure homicide wasn't his expertise, but he was no idiot either. "KID has yet to be seen, so it could have been him, but both of the others had equal opportunity as well." Conan, where he was examining the body, called out, "due to the rate of rigor mortis, Aruto-san was killed half an hour ago! At that point everyone going to be directly interacting with KID was accounted for and in position!"

Nakamori-keibu sighed in relief that it wasn't one of his men, "that means it was KID, Kaisho-san, or Zetsumi-san. Even without proof, I'm inclined to think it wasn't KID." Conan silently agreed, looking intently at their two main suspects. He saddled up to Akumi, "where were you thirty minutes ago?" He asked.

Akumi scowled and turned her nose up at him, "where else? They told me to wait in the study until the heist ended, I came running when I heard his shouts" She gestured to Sunao. Conan turned to him. Sunao swallowed, "I w-was in th-the back-ck r-room che-cking the electri-ss-ity box, ssso K-KID c-couldn't black out-t the house." He answered, but his eyes were trained on Akumi, rather than the shrunken detective, "I f-found the b-body on-n m-my way back-ck." "So neither of you have an alibi." Nakamori stated, "I guess our only choice is to wait for Megure-keibu and Division One."

Conan frowned as he noticed Sunao become more flustered at that news. Either he's the murderer, or he knows who is. Conan thought. To bad it wasn't a more complicated murder, in it's simplicity there was no evidence! Mere seconds later, however, Sunao made a move. "Ah… w-what if I p-possib-bly ha-had a wit-tness?" he asked. Akumi's face paled minutely, but everyone's attention was on the stuttering man, so they didn't notice.

"What witness?" The inspector asked suspiciously.

"I r-ran in-into someb-body in the b-back room." Sunao confessed, "I- I am ssure he's still th-there." Nakamori nodded tensely, "lead the way." They walked through the mansion halls: first Suano, then Nakamori-keibu, then Akumi, and last was Conan. Sunao opened a door that looked into a cavity that couldn't even be considered a room. It was more like a closet. The electricity boxes were set into the wall and, tied up, unconscious in the bottom was… "Kaisho Sunao!" Nakamori exclaimed. He glared at 'Sunao', "then you're…!"

A wicked grin split 'Sunao's' face, "Kaitou KID-sama." He agreed happily, in a whirl of white he was dressed in his trademark suit. Nakamori-keibu's face was rapidly turning an alarming shade of purple.

"This means that neither KID nor Sunao can be the murderer!" Conan exclaimed, trying to draw the irate inspector's attention back to the more pressing case. "It's Akumi-san!"

Akumi for her part grinned wickedly, "that fool of a man was a hopeless swindler and cheat! He was unfaithful to me, gambled off all of our money, and had plans to do the same to the Summer Set, a gem that has been passed down in my family for years! I just wanted insurance that I would have a future! I wasn't going to have one with him! I also won't have one if I get arrested here!"

She pushed past Conan and started running. Naturally, the shrunken detective was hot on her heals, KID following him, and Nakamori-keibu after him. Seeing them gaining, Akumi pulled a handgun out of her pocket and fired backwards at them. For the most part she went wide and completely missed. Then one headed straight for Conan's head.

"Tantei-kun!" KID shouted. With a burst of speed, the magician leapt over the detective's head and took the bullet for him. The thief stumbled and collapsed with a red stain spreading across the breast of his white suit.

"Get the murderer!" Conan shouted at Nakamori when the inspector gave indications of stopping. The inspector hurried off and Conan dropped down next the KID and put his hands over the location he thought the wound was. KID winced as he shifted, "owe… that hurt!" His violet eyes opened and Conan lost it.

"Why the hell did you do that?!" The detective shouted, "doesn't your 'no injuries' rule apply to you too?! Why'd you… why'd you take that bullet for me?!"

KID smiled, "isn't it obvious? I'm a thief, you're a detective, at the end of the day who is going to be missed more? Who is in the better position to help people?" "That doesn't mean you should let yourself get killed!" Conan yelled, "you can help people too!" KID nodded, "I know, by jumping in front of you, I just did help. I helped you." Conan grit his teeth, "but why did you do it?" He whispered. KID grinned, "well, I wanted to save you. If you got shot in the head like that you'd die, plus you're my favorite critic, what would I do if you died?! It would be so boring!" "What would I do if you died though?" Conan asked.

The thief laughed, "I'm not going to die, so stop holding me down, you're going to break my ribs at this rate." "But… you're hurt! Don't move!" Conan shouted as KID started wriggling out from under him. "I just landed wrong and twisted my ankle." KID said. Conan gaped, "but… you're bleeding!" He held up his hands, covered in red liquid.

KID yelped and with an odd motion, that seemed to defy gravity, was suddenly standing upright and inspecting his red-stained suit in dismay. "Crap! This is going to be near impossible to wash out!" Conan stared at him in disbelief, "if you're not dying and that's not blood… then what is it?"

KID looked sheepish for a moment before he smirked, "don't tell me the great detective can't tell the difference between tomato juice and blood…." He mocked. Conan scowled, "well sorry! I was panicking! I thought you were dying!" KID laughed, "well that was another reason why I took that bullet for you", he tapped his chest with a grin, "bullet proof vest, Tantei-kun."

Conan blinked and shook his head, "fine whatever, just… why did you have tomato juice on you anyway?" The magician chuckled, "if I'm hungry it makes a good snack, if I'm not… well, you can do all sorts of pranks with it. Evidently it works wonderfully as fake blood too!"

Shouts from down the hall signaled that some one, probably the police, were working back into the mansion. "That's my cue to leave." KID said. He grinned down at the tomato-juice covered, miniaturized detective. "Looks like you owe me one again, Tantei-kun." The magician announced as he threw down a smoke pellet. The smoke cleared and the thief was gone. Conan was still more than a little relieved and bemused, even as one of Nakamori-keibu's subordinates was ordered to drive him home.

(Aruto means benevolent. Zetsumei means death or end of life and Akumi means dark, evil beauty in Japanese. KID's impersonatee's name Kaisho means fly over the sea, and Sunao or Nao for short means obedient or meek in Japanese.)