The Most Important Person in the World To You Is…?
Chapter 9
The Jester's Chortle
Shinichi sat in the back of Takagi's police cruiser, listening to the sirens scream over the highways down to Jester's Neverland, the old abandoned amusement park Jackie Parker indirectly suggested as Ran's captor's next hiding place.
Kazuha and Heiji sat in the back with him, glancing over at their detective friend every now and then. Two other cruisers sped behind Takagi's, taking Inspector Megure, Chiba, Kogoro, and a few other officers. There was even a truck following a distance behind, carrying a team of police snipers. Shinichi leaned his elbow against the window frame, hiding his clenched teeth behind his palm. Was he really close to getting Ran back, or was this just another step? He knew it had something to do with the case, but what he'd find in the amusement park, he had no idea.
"How much farther?" Kazuha squeaked from the back. Officer Sato shook her head, sitting in the passenger seat beside Takagi.
"Not much longer, I think. We've been driving for a little while. The park should come into view soon." Sato said. Takagi turned down an exit, speeding around corners. The car bent with the road, until a Ferris wheel finally came into view over a large arena of trees.
"I think I see it," Takagi said. Sato bent forward in her seat a little. Unable to see much, she opened her window and leaned outside, finally catching a glimpse of the park.
"We're coming close! Prepare yourselves for anything," Sato warned. Shinichi shifted in his seat, leaning forward. Heiji and Kazuha stretched their necks over the driver's seat, seeing the metal wheel and several old poles that once might've held flags.
Takagi pulled up on the side of the road, waiting for the other officers to catch up. Once Takagi caught sight of them, he turned off the cruiser. As they got closer, the sirens turned off, followed by complete silence, besides shallow breaths and rubber tires running over gravely road.
"Shall I just park the car here?" Takagi asked Sato. She nodded.
"Not a good idea to approach the park head on. In case the culprit really is here, we wouldn't want to cause a scene or make ourselves obvious."
"Isn't there a possibility of an ambush, like with Murakami-san?" Heiji asked.
"True. If that happens, we improvise. Driving won't do us well when the cruisers are behind us by a few yards." Sato replied. She opened her door, taking a slow step out, shutting the door quietly. The other officers did the same, a few of them keeping one hand on their gun holders. Megure gave out instructions, the officers following pursuit. Shinichi, Heiji, and Kazuha got out of the car, quietly following behind the officers, a few of them surrounding the adolescents in case something was to happen.
Then amusement park entrance finally came into view from behind a plant-infested parking lot. The ticket booths on either side of the blue-rusting gates were literally falling apart. The side walls of the booths were hanging off the corners and the back door of each was missing, lying somewhere in the long brown grass, or just non-existent.
Shinichi stepped into the grass, his foot immediately being swallowed up by a naturally made amusement park attraction of swamp water, tadpoles, and full grown toads croaking. Shinichi pulled his shoe away and fell backwards. Heiji grabbed his arm to steady him.
"Shit, I've never seen an amusement park actually…this bad." Heiji said. Shinichi looked up, the officers making their way through the gates. Shinichi followed close behind, his mouth dropping at the sight. Hurricane waters had dispersed, leaving damage beyond repair. Bits of pieces of rides stood corroding, the walkways of the park partly-flooded from the recent snow and rain Beika had seen. Some of the water was probably already there.
Heiji was about to step into the water toward a sunken roller coaster control panel, but Shinichi stopped him, grabbing his arms and pulling him back.
"Don't go over there! The control panel is still working…" Shinichi said. The officers all looked towards the water, where broken black cords lay under the shallow water.
"This water is charged with broken cords! No one step in the puddles!" Sato called out. Heiji nodded thanks to Shinichi and moved the other way. Back towards a funhouse, Heiji walked beside Shinichi with Kazuha following close behind him. Shinichi looked up towards the flagless poles just he heard Heiji nearly jump out of skin, falling back on his butt. Shinichi turned and almost laughed at what he saw.
A clown head about eight feet tall and six feet across lay on its side. The red nose was chipped and broken, the neck butchered from the body. Its deep blue eyes stared back at Heiji, making him shake his head and breathe heavily, his chest rising and falling.
"Looks like someone didn't like the jester," Shinichi joked.
"Shut up!" Heiji mumbled, standing up. "That's gonna give me nightmares…"
"Not unless the body waits for you at the exit from Neverland. You'll be living it," Shinichi said, chuckling under his breath.
"Shut up!" Heiji complained. Sato put a finger to her lips towards the high school kids.
"Try to keep quiet, the kidnapper would be here!" she muttered. Shinichi nodded in agreement and followed after her. Heiji slowly moved around the clown head making sure it didn't jump to life on him, but Kazuha just pushed his back roughly to keep him moving.
Ran…where are you?
Shinichi thought helplessly, looking around at anything that would give away the captor's hiding place. Just as Shinichi was moving past the funhouse, he caught sight of something on the ground, but the smell caught his attention first. It was so strong, that it caused him to fall to his knees.
"Lemon…?" he murmured, reaching out to the plant that made him lose his senses for a moment. He picked it up, bringing it close to his slightly blurred vision. It was a large vine of Kudzu, a weed that gave off a lemony-smell, but the strong odour directly made the human senses weak, often causing blackouts in large doses.
"Kudzu doesn't grow around here…it's grows freely in Fukushima, I think," Shinichi mumbled. Even with all the wind and rain, the odour would be lost, or it would've been swept away by the damaging water long ago. Was it dropped recently?
Shinichi frantically pulled his head up from the sound of a gunshot, immediately causing himself a headache. He stood up, his knees shaking violently. Another gunshot sounded and Shinichi felt a sharp pain enter his arm, another bullet shooting past his head, just barely missing. He dropped to the ground again, Officer Sato stepping in front of him, shooting off her own weapon. Three bullets off into another old office room and the noise stopped.
"Kudo-kun, are you alright? Can you walk?" she asked, bending down in front of him. Shinichi nodded, feeling Sato's arms wrap around him, her wrist dangerously close to his gun holder. Heiji rushed over to help, taking Shinichi from her. She stayed close, gun ready for anymore attacks.
"What happened? Where they shoot from?" Heiji asked Shinichi. Shinichi pointed towards the computer room. Guns went off, first from the computer room inside the large office building. Sato ducked and Heiji pulled the wounded detective to the ground. Shinichi looked up, freezing in place. He couldn't move his body. He couldn't feel the pain in his arm as he felt anger boil up inside him. His heart pumped, beating in his chest violently. He thought he was going to hyperventilate, but his body ran into overdrive, pushing Heiji away.
"I saw her! I saw Ran!" Shinichi shouted, kicking his freezing body away and running sloppily to the side of the office building, moving down an alleyway. Heiji, Kazuha, and Kogoro, when he heard Shinichi yell, followed behind. Shinichi pumped his legs past their limit, his frustration and rage kicking him over the edge. He rounded a corner and stopped, seeing Ran and her captor, along with Masami Yamagata, being hauled off in the distance. Shinichi's vision was strong enough to make out Ran's face. He felt another surge of power when he saw Ran's expression; scared, for her life, for Yamagata-san's life, for Shinichi's life when she saw him.
Just as Shinichi ran forward, Sato's gun rang out, just missing him and hitting the side of the building. The captor turned around a split second, revealing enough of his face for Shinichi to stop cold in his tracks.
Isao Hideyoshi…?
There was no mistaking it. Hideyoshi-san's face was planted strongly in Shinichi's mind, from both Ran's championship against him, and the police report about his death. There was a small picture of him along with the newspaper article of Hideyoshi-san in high school.
"Kudo-kun! Don't just run in front of my shot like that! I could've hit you!" Sato screamed over the gunshots. When Shinichi looked away from Sato and to the culprit and two victims, Ran had been looking straight at Shinichi.
Ran's eyes looked right into Shinichi's, blue and teary-eyed. Her face had dried blood and her clothes were tattered, dirty, and partly wet. Her hair was tangled around her face and shackles were binding her wrists tightly.
Ran disappeared around the corner, willingly going with the man and Masami, whom was beaten up worse than Ran.
"Ran…"
With whatever strength he had left in his body following the gunshot wound, Shinichi ran towards the corner they turned. He made it to the concrete side and slipped in the mud, hitting the ground hard. Heiji ran behind him, following by Kazuha and Sato. Sato stood in front of Kazuha and shot at the car in which the man had shoved the two girls. Shinichi forced himself up and stumbled again, screaming at the top of his lungs, feeling his body burn, like his skin was melting on contact.
"RAN!" he shrieked, hearing the screeching of tires leaving the parking lot.
Then there was silence.
Chiba and a couple other officers raced to their cruisers out of the park and turned on their sirens, chasing after the man, but Shinichi knew they wouldn't catch up.
Ran was gone. And so was the culprit.
"Kudo-kun…we have to get you treated…" Sato whispered, helping him to his feet. Shinichi clenched his jaws, walking on his own towards the office building entrance. Sato realized what he was doing and headed in front, holding her gun out in case of another ambush from someone left behind. Shinichi stepped into the room where the girls were kept.
He noticed immediately the little tape and video set up on an old computer desk. He walked over and took a look at the portable video player. Takagi stepped in with gloves on and slipped the cassette into the player. He took the remote provided and pressed 'play', a scene of the room coming on right away.
The man put the video to his face, but it was covered this time. Shinichi knew he had a voice changer as well, because the man's voice was squeaky and high-pitched.
"Kudo Shinichi…I don't have much patience with you, I'm afraid. I suspected you'd be better than this. What's wrong? Not as great as you think you are, now that involves your girl?" he asked. Shinichi grit his teeth and clenched the hand that was over his bandaged wound, treated on the way here.
"I already know you found out about Yamagata-san, so I'll just refer to both of them. I've left a clue behind as to where I'm taking the girls. It'll be the last hideaway on this little journey of ours. You have two days, forty-eight hours, to find out the location. If you don't come in time, I'm afraid Mouri-san's time has run out, as well as Yamagata. Take care, tantei-san…"
The video cut off after some scream spilled out from the girls' mouths. Shinichi sighed.
"Forty-eight hours…I will find her by then. I'll get her back and keep my promise to her… Shinichi mumbled. Heiji put a hand to Shinichi's uninjured shoulder.
"I'm with you all the way, buddy. I'll do whatever I can to help. We're on your side." Heiji said. Shinichi wanted to smile for his friend, but he just couldn't. He knew if Heiji was in the same situation with Kazuha, Shinichi would help him, not a second thought at all. Heiji probably felt the same.
"Thanks, Hattori…" Shinichi said, squeezing his friend's arm before leaving the room. Heiji followed and leant against the wall.
"How's your arm?"
"Nothing compared to the guilt of not catching up to the kidnapper…and soon, he might become a murderer."
"You shouldn't think like that. You said you'd find her no matter what, so I'll second that. I'll find her no matter what, too." Heiji said. Shinichi bit his lip, staring at the dirty, water damaged carpet.
"Hattori…I saw Isao Hideyoshi's face. He's the kidnapper." Shinichi blurted. Heiji's eyes doubted his statement. Shinichi knew it was practically impossible, but he could've faked his death, couldn't he?
"It was definitely Hideyoshi-san who died. It was confirmed. We can look into it again, but I'm positive he's gone. His body was at the scene, he was never seen again, and the most important proof of that is that he was buried…in a cemetery, Kudo." Heiji explained.
"I know what I saw, Hattori! It was Isao-san! It was him, I know it! He looked slightly older, but only because he probably hasn't been seen in a year. He's probably…been hiding…" Shinichi shook his head at his own words. Isao couldn't possibly be alive. Heiji was right. It was confirmed.
"You know now that your statement is horrible, Kudo." Heiji said with a chuckle. Shinichi finally smiled.
"You're right…we have to keep looking. Maybe…a relative of Hideyoshi's? Someone in his family who looks like him…"
"The only two whom we know of are Keiko-san and Juro-san. You saw a man, unless Keiko was able to cover up her feminine figure, and then Juro-san is in the hospital in a coma. There's no other relative. They're the only two."
"No…they're the only two who could've done this…" Shinichi said.
"What do you mean?"
"Keiko-san and Juro-san are our suspects. They're the only two who could've done this." Shinichi said. Heiji smirked.
"Then I guess we better revisit our suspects, huh?"
Be sure to review so I can make it better for you guys! I have high hopes for this story, and Shinichi is perking up ever so slighty ;) No fear! Conan and the gang in the next chapter :D