Thanks for taking a peek at my story! :)
I don't update all the time, but I try my best to make it interesting and keep up with a month schedule if possible? I have other writing that I do have other fan fictions I want to write. Keep patient with me, please? Thanks! Means a lot :)
Shinichi Kudo sat in a conference room with Inspector Megure, Officers Sato, Takagi, and Chiba. Kogoro Mouri sat beside Shinichi, chewing on a wooden toothpick to keep himself from reaching for his pack of cigarettes. The man who had contacted Police Headquarters sat on the opposite side of the table from the inspector.
"Could you please tell us your name?" Megure asked, taking out a notepad and pen. The officers and Shinichi did the same.
"My name is Hayate Murakami. I'm a landscape photographer and artist from Machida city, couple hours from here."
"Murakami-san, could you explain your encounter with the woman you found in as much detail as possible?" Megure asked.
"I took a train out in into Beika and started hiking up a mountain not far from here. I don't know which exactly, but if I see it again, I may be able to recognize it from memory," Murakami said. "I took a couple dozen shots from my camera of an abandoned shrine. I didn't notice her at first because I was so captivated by the shrine, but when I did notice her, I ran inside the shrine into every room to see if my assumptions about a hurt person was right, and it was. I saw a young woman, about high school age, lying on the floor with her hands and feet bound with ropes. She was chained to the floor as well."
Shinichi squinted. He pulled himself together and kept writing.
"I rushed over to her immediately and took out my pocket knife to cut the ropes, but stopped me."
"What do you mean she stopped you?" Megure asked.
"She shook her head furiously and told me not to bother because by the time the police got there, they'd be gone. The man who kidnapped her also was coming back at that very instant, so I feel like she was trying to protect me," Murakami said with tears in his eyes. "I don't understand how anyone could be so cruel to a woman."
"It's alright, Murakami-san. We'll help her. Is there anything else?" Officer Sato said.
"Yes…there is. The girl told me to find Kudo Shinichi, a detective from Beika Police Headquarters, or something. I mean…he looks pretty young to be a detective, but if she trusts him, then I will too," he continued. Shinichi's throat closed up. He found harder to breathe with each thing Murakami said about the girl. He was almost sure it was Ran.
"Before I could say anything more, the man who held her captive appeared in the doorway and started shooting at me. I ran out of the room to keep him from hurting the girl. As I tried to find a way out, the man kept shooting at me…I stumbled once I got outside and a bullet grazed my arm, but once I ran off the property, the shooting stopped. And then I ran all the way down the mountain with my camera and came here." Murakami explained.
"Is that all?" Megure asked. Murakami looked as if he was trying to remember something else, but gave up.
"I think so…" he said. Shinichi spoke up next.
"Do you remember what the girl looked like?"
"Yes…she had long dark brown hair, blue eyes, from what I could tell, and looked fairly toned for a girl her age."
Muscle build from karate…it really is Ran, Shinichi thought.
"It'll be alright, Murakami-san. Do you mind if we take a look at the pictures from your camera to see the shrine?" Megure asked.
"Of course," Murakami said, handing his camera case to Officer Chiba who had already stood up to get the pictures developed.
"Shinichi-kun, do you think Murakami-san is hiding something?" Kogoro whispered into Shinichi's ear. Shinichi shook his head.
"The look in his eyes says he's genuinely concerned for Ran. I don't think he's lying. It definitely looks like he wants to help, but it looks like there's something he's forgotten." Shinichi said. Kogoro nodded and sat back upright in his chair.
"Do you have any details on who the kidnappers looked?" Officer Sato asked. Murakami nodded his head.
"He was very tall…close to two hundred centimetres," he said. "He was quite heavy-set in terms of muscles, I guess…and he was wearing all black; hat, trench coat, gloves, and scarf that covered most of his face." Murakami said.
"Murakami-san…" Shinichi said. Everyone in the room looked at him. "Did you happen to see which hand he was using to fire the gun?"
Murakami stared for a few moments, then put a hand to his lips. He thought about it.
"I wasn't really paying attention to that…but I'm pretty sure it was his left hand."
"So the man is left-handed," Kogoro said. Shinichi nodded.
"If the man is left-handed and very tall, then it probably won't be difficult to cut our number of suspects down to size."
"Could it be possible he's using some kind of mechanism to make himself look taller?" Officer Takagi asked.
"I don't think so. If that were so, he'd probably be closer to seven feet tall." Megure said. Takagi nodded and listened to anything others had to say. When no one said nothing, Officer Chiba walked back into the room.
"Do you have the photos?" Megure asked.
"Yes. He uses an old-fashioned camera where the photos are revealed with a solution and hung to dry," Chiba said. "Most of them are still being revealed, but I have a few here that may tell us the general location if anyone recognizes the area."
Megure took the half-dozen photos Chiba handed him. As he looked at each one, he passed them around the room for the others to look. When the first photo reached Shinichi and Kogoro, they leaned in to look. The shrine was still in pretty good shape, but the roof looked as if it were ready to collapse at any moment. The forest surrounding the area was mostly trees with no visible trails.
"Wow, it must really be in the middle of nowhere," Kogoro said. Shinichi looked at the others pictures coming around. He didn't recognize the place at all.
"Are you able to remember where you went to get to this shrine?" Megure asked.
"I think so. I could take you there, but I'm afraid the man might still be there." Murakami said.
"Whether he is or not, we're going. Ran-kun needs help and the man needs to be tracked down," Megure said. All three officers and Inspector Megure stood up.
"Are we heading to the shrine Murakami-san found Ran?" Kogoro asked Shinichi.
"I think so."
Just as Shinichi was stepping out of the room, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Murakami had a worried look on his face.
"Kudo-kun, I'm sorry for pulling you aside, but there's something that I must tell you. I didn't want to say this in front of the police because I was afraid, but if Ran-san believes in you, so will I…" Murakami said. Shinichi gave the man his whole attention.
"I'm listening," he said.
"When I was running past the man shooting at me towards the exit…I'm sure that I smelled something on him. It didn't smell like tobacco or anything normal that you would smell on a person. It smelled kind of sweet, but sour, like a lemon." Murakami said.
"The smell of a lemon?" Shinichi clarified.
"Yes…I don't know of anything he'd use on her that would have that smell though…" Murakami said. Murakami was trying his hardest to recall everything, as he wanted to help the poor girl, but Shinichi just smiled and patted the man's shoulder.
"Thank you for telling me, Murakami-san. If there's anything else, let me know, or Inspector Megure."
"I will." Murakami said, walking ahead.
What would Ran's kidnapper be using that would smell like a lemon?
When the police cruisers made it to the edge of the mountain Murakami had found Ran, he led the way up the main trail, then up a concealed path in the trees. The police officers followed close behind in case the man was still there; guns ready.
When they reached the top, the shrine was only a few yards away. Murakami was told by Officer Sato to stay behind her on the way over. She checked around every corner of the trees, pistol ready at her side. She pulled it in front of her, down by her legs. When they reached the shrine, she stepped out slowly. The place was quiet with no sign of wildlife or people of any kind.
"I think it's clear outside, but we should be careful going in," Sato said. Takagi ran up beside her to cover her back. He pulled his pistol to his side, both hands near the trigger. Sato and Takagi stepped up to the first entrance they could find. Instead of finding a door, they looked inside a window and jumped through. They signalled for everyone to stay while they checked out the place. A few minutes later, Takagi came up to the window.
"Clear!" he shouted. Shinichi was the first to approach the place. He jumped through the window and looked around each room until he found Takagi and Sato standing in the room Murakami had found her. The floor had chains and ropes. There were a few blood stains scattered around the floor and walls.
"I'm sorry, Kudo-kun…she's gone." Sato said, putting a hand to his back. Shinichi shook his head side to side, almost in tears. Kogoro was the second to come in and find his daughter nowhere in sight.
"Damn it!" Kogoro exclaimed, pounding the wall with his fist. Some dust fell from the ceiling; what was left of it anyway.
"We'll find Ran-san. Don't worry," Takagi said, bending down to the floor. He pulled on a pair of plastic gloves from his pocket and touched a blood stain. A spot of red came up with it.
"It's still fresh," he said. Shinichi pulled a handkerchief from his pocket as well and looked around the floor. A computer chip lay on the window sill nearby. He picked it up with the fabric and showed it to Sato and Takagi.
"A portable hard drive?" Sato asked, taking it from him. There was no label or anything that showed that there was content on it. Murakami stayed in the hallway with Officer Chiba while Megure entered the room.
"We should take samples of that blood if you're able. We have to be sure it belongs to Ran-kun," he said. Takagi and Sato prepared a plastic cap and took a cotton swab, dipping it in the wet blood. Not a lot came back, but enough to test whose it was.
"We can't be sure that it's blood either. It could be red paint for all we know," Megure said. "Do we have Murakami-san's camera?"
"We left it back at police headquarters," Chiba said.
"Does anyone else have a camera to take pictures of the room?"
No one spoke.
"Alright, then gather as much as possible. Once we know what the red stains are and what's on the computer chip, that's all we'll be able to gather from the room." Megure said.
"If anything else comes to mind as we look around, let us know, Murakami-san," Sato said softly. Murakami smiled. He looked down the hall, started walking down the same path he'd taken to run away. Shinichi watched him look in each room, at the bullet holes in the walls, then the last room before the doorway outside. He stared inside the doorway for a long while, then stepped inside. Shinichi stepped down the hall until he came to the same doorway. He peered inside, seeing Murakami look around the floor and walls. He saw Shinichi behind him, then smiled.
"I have a feeling I'm forgetting one last thing…but I just can't put my finger on it. I'm almost sure it was in this room…" he said.
"I'd like to say 'no rush', but Ran might not have much time left to be found." Shinichi said, stepping into the room.
"What's your relationship with Ran-san?" Murakami asked. Shinichi stared out the window of the room, then smiled, closing his eyes.
"Ran is a classmate of mine at my high school. I've known her since we were kids. I've watched her grow up into the beautiful, smart, talented, strong-willed woman she is now. I can't imagine my life without my best friend." Shinichi said. Murakami, being the emotional man he was, almost cried.
"You're in love with her?" he asked. Shinichi nodded.
"I fell for her…" he said in a small voice. Murakami patted Shinichi on the back.
"We'll find her, Kudo-kun," he said. "I'll try to remember every last thing my aging brain can handle."
Shinichi smirked at the witness's joke. It almost helped him feel better.
"Murakami-san! Shinichi-kun! We're leaving now! We'll find what's on the computer chip back at headquarters!" Megure shouted. Shinichi and Murakami followed the rest of the group out of the shrine and down the mountain to the line of cruisers on the side of the highway. They all climbed into the cars and drove back to headquarters.
Megure immediately exited the Chiba's cruiser and rushed inside the conference room where they listened to Murakami. He popped the computer chip into a computer he'd phoned to have prepared for showing on a projector. Sato, Takagi, Shinichi, Kogoro, and Chiba walked inside the room and took their seats. Chiba helped Megure set up the desktop of the computer to project what they found.
"Alright, let's see what the man left…" Megure mumbled. Shinichi quietly watched the projected screen on the white board behind Megure to see what they'd find.
"Oji-san…" Shinichi whispered. Kogoro leaned in to listen to Shinichi. "Why would the kidnapper leave something so important behind?"
"I don't know…maybe he wanted us to find it." Kogoro said. Shinichi put his hand to his chin as he always did, thinking about what they'd found. When the computer's desktop came on, everyone watched Megure's search. When the computer chip's folder came up, they found a video file.
"A video?" Takagi said. Everyone kept quiet while Chiba hooked up a pair of speakers to the computer. Megure clicked on the video file and sat back to watch.
Immediately, a dark room appeared on the screen. Some mumbling, shaking of the camera, then a black-gloved hand took the face of a dark haired girl. Shinichi felt a lump growing in his throat. He felt sick just watching it happen.
The girl's mouth, clamped by his big hand, had been thrown against the wall. The girl tried to pull herself up, but the man grabbed her by her hair, dragging her to the center of the room. He pulled out a knife and held it to her cheek, slicing the fresh blood from her pretty face. The girl's roped hands fought back, swinging back and forth, screaming her head off for anyone who might hear. The man pulled the knife away from her face and slashed at her furiously as she pulled her body back farther and farther. When she ran out of room and hit the wall, the man held her forehead and cracked her head against the wall. She fell to the floor, then the screen went black.
Everyone in the room was completely silent. Kogoro stared, his whole body shaking with rage, and Shinichi was unable to move. His body froze in fear. Fear of Ran losing her life to this insane man.
"Well…" Megure said, breaking the silence. "What can we make of this so far?"
"That this crazy man is hurting my daughter…" Kogoro said, trying to keep his anger under control. Sato, who sat beside him, touched his hand, comforting him.
"It's alright, Mouri-san. It'll be okay…" she said. Kogoro wanted so bad to scream out and say that it wasn't okay, but he kept it back, for himself and his daughter.
"We can't be sure that's Ran-san," Takagi said.
"What do you mean?" Megure asked. Takagi stood up and took control of the computer. He started up the video a second time, but fast-forwarded to a point that caught his attention.
"Does anyone happen to know if Ran-san has a tattoo?" he asked.
"Tattoo?" Kogoro asked.
"Yeah…I saw something on the girl's neck that I've never seen on Ran-san." Takagi said. He started up the video and then paused two seconds later. He stepped back to see if anyone would notice. Shinichi's mouth dropped open. He had been so focused on recognizing the girl that he missed something in plain sight; a black tattoo of a rose.
"Ran doesn't have a tattoo…not that I know of." Shinichi said. Kogoro sighed in relief.
"We can't be sure it's not her yet. We need the forensics of the blood first," Megure said.
"It's being done right now." Chiba said.
With not much more to go through, Kogoro said he and Shinichi would be heading home for a little while when forensics took place. When they came through the door, the phone was ringing. Kogoro answered immediately.
"Hi Eri…it's going fine. You don't need to worry so much," Kogoro said, his voice shaking. His wife could hear all too well, being the lawyer she was. "It's going fine…alright? You can come over to help if you want, but you're wasting your time, really…" Kogoro said. Shinichi walked into the kitchen and poured two mugs of coffee, listening to Kogoro talk to his wife.
"Alright, alright. I get it. I'll see you soon." Kogoro said, putting down the receiver. He sat on the couch. Shinichi set a mug in front of him.
"Oba-san is coming to help?" Shinichi said, sitting across from Ran's father.
"Yeah…but I don't know if I'll be able to handle seeing her now. I might cry, get angry, or just…" Kogoro sighed. "I don't know."
Shinichi looked out the window at the sunset.
Ran…where are you now?
The phone rang again. This time, Shinichi answered.
"This is Kudo," he said.
"Shinichi-kun? This is Megure. I'm gonna need you two to come back to headquarters. We may have a lead on the video."
"Sure. We'll be there shortly," Shinichi said. He hung up the phone and approached the couch.
"Come on, Oji-san. They might have figured something else out," Shinichi said. Kogoro nodded and forced himself up, lagging to the front door. They caught a taxi to headquarters. On the way, Kogoro called his wife back to tell her where they were headed so she could find them.
"Mouri-san, Shinichi-kun, glad you could make it," Megure said once they stepped into the conference room. The two detectives took their seats and listened to what the officers had to say.
"We got the forensics back a while after you left. They're negative. It's not Ran's blood, judging by the sample Mouri-san gave us of his daughter's." Sato said.
"We may have identified the woman in the video as well…" Megure said. He took a photo out from where he was seated and slid it across the table.
"We got a call shortly after you left about another disappearance. The woman went out sometime last night, but was only reported missing an hour ago by her boyfriend," Megure said. Kogoro and Shinichi held up the photo of a young woman with long, dark hair and blue eyes. Her face was almost identical to Ran, but slightly more mature.
"Her name is Masami Yamagata, twenty years old. She was out for some drinks with some friends last night and insisted walking home on her own after midnight. According to a friend who had followed her to make sure she'd be alright, a large man said something to her, and being drunk, she followed him willingly. That was the last time she saw Yamagata-san." Megure explained.
"So we'll be able to identify Yamagata-san by her rose tattoo?" Shinichi asked.
"Yes. That's what we're hoping. Murakami-san already went to book hotel for the night, but he mentioned something that he said he forgot…" Takagi said.
"What was it?" Shinichi asked, recalling Murakami trying to remember something important earlier that afternoon.
"He said he saw Yamagata-san in the room he was exploring today. He only caught a glimpse of her as he ran past, but when he saw the picture of her, he was almost certain she was the same person lying on the floor.
"I see…" Shinichi said.
"There was also something else we noticed in the video," Megure said, playing a certain part of the video again on the projector. "The location where he beat Yamagata-san was not the shrine had been to earlier. It was another place."
"You're right…I've noticed that now." Shinichi said. Takagi bit his lip, noticing Shinichi's odd behaviour throughout the day. He was usually the first to jump into things and seemed to notice everything, but today, he was off track and his mind was somewhere else half the time.
"Yes…the location where she was beaten was probably nearby in another shrine or abandoned building. The structure is different. So the kidnapper probably made it seem like the blood in the room we found was there when he beat her, but he apparently made the fake crime scene later on. The question is…why would he do that? What does he get out of doing this?" Megure asked.
"You're right…it is odd." Shinichi said. Takagi shook his head.
What is wrong with this kid? He's usually so upbeat and excited for solving mysteries, but he's really depressed and lacking a fight today. Is it because it involves Ran? Is he so worried obsessed about her safety that he's seriously forgetting the crime?
Thanks for reading! Please leave a review on what you thought! I don't get very much feedback...could you contribute? :(
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