Choochoo, it's the Crime Train!

"I should have guessed you'd show up to poke your nose in, Mouri-san," grumbled Megure as he saw the too-familiar detective approach with an equally familiar bespectacled boy at his side. "I would swear that you're the Grim Reaper himself with all the murders that you get yourself involved in." Secretly, Megure was relieved, but he would never permit himself to show anything but annoyance in front of the former detective turned private eye. There were too many strange things in this case for his comfort, and he knew that if anyone could get to the bottom of it all would be Mouri Kogoro. Well, once he slumped down to the ground, closed his eyes, and became the amazingly competent 'Sleeping Kogoro,' at any rate. For some odd reason, it was generally a whole different story when he was awake.

"Don't blame me. This brat here wouldn't shut up or leave me alone until we came down here once he saw on the TV that it was your people working the case." Kogoro finished this sentence by giving Conan a whack on the noggin. "Kept saying that there was no way Kaitou Kid would do this and that he had to come down here and look," he growled before quickly changing facial expressions. "So why do they think Kid did it?" His sleepy, irritated tone had become one of alert curiousity.

Shinichi listened intently to the reply; he was glad Kogoro had asked the question. "Well, there's only the little matter of at least three security cameras showing him in the act of pulling the trigger," began Megure in a solemn tone. "And his signature note, though it is way different from...wait a minute, why am I telling you unreleased information? AGAIN?" he demanded as Detective Takagi approached his superior, the detective doing his best to conceal a grin as he saw who had arrived on the scene.

"Because we seem to have devloped that habit," Takagi replied respectfully as he flipped open a large yellow pad. "Good evening, or morning, Conan-kun and Mouri-san. You're both up late." He gave the pair a polite nod then returned to issuing his report. "As we figured, sir, no fingerprints anywhere because Kid always wears gloves. And a search of a three-block radius for the gun we saw Kid use hasn't turned up anything so far. We're going to go out to a five-square block before we call in the next search team and relieve the first group."

"And the curator confirmed that nothing more than that small jade Buddha statue was taken?" Megure focused his full attention on the keibu.

"They won't be able to complete the inventory for at least four more hours, but they've finished two of the wings and have confirmed nothing missing from those other wings. This wing, and this particular case, seem so far to be the only things disturbed besides the window Kid entered at. Satou-keiji is walking with the curators while they're inventorying to make sure possible evidence isn't disturbed."

Shinichi simply had to check that window and area around where the killer had entered the scene. As Megure seemed to not have any more information to provide at the moment, he ran towards where he had seen several policemen coming from. Sure enough, he eventually found a few of them on either side of a window that had been forcibly opened using what Shinichi guessed was the large crowbar that was currently sitting on the ground in a sealed evidence bag. Why did you give yourself so much work? This is pretty far from that statue, especially considering the fact that there was a window on the wall of that room where the statue was. Shinichi tucked his hand under his chin as he stared at the open window. And why that one lone statue? Surely there are any number of things in this museum that are worth much more. The one question he did NOT find himself asking was why Kid had done what he had done, because he knew that Kid had not done this.

No, someone had gone to amazing lengths to set Kid up; what he had to figure out was who had set him up, why they had done it and most importantly to him at the moment, how. He suspected that if he could figure out the reason that this particular window was chosen for entry, he would begin to make headway into what exactly had happened. He began a careful study of the area around the window and noticed one thing almost immediately: There were no security cameras pointing at the window. In fact, it seemed like almost all of the cameras were actually turned away from the area of the window and those cameras also didn't seem to be completing thier normal, arching sweep of the area. This was yet another time Shinichi wished he had his teenaged body back, but luckily he had several policeman nearby he could point this fact out to. Time for the usual method.

"Wow! Kaitou Kid must be a genius!" he exclaimed loudly, drawing the attention of several of the officers near the window including Takagi-keiji, who had come for a report on what they had found so far at the window.

"What do you mean?" asked one of the officers, many others commenting on the fact that a kid his age should be in home and in bed, not at a crime scene that was still a work in progress.

"He picked a spot where the cameras aren't ever looking at all! That's smart!" C'mon, guys, get it, he added mentally with a deep internal sigh.

"Now that you mention it," muttered Chiba-keiji, who had come in from the curator's room that was up the hallway and overheard the remark, "it does seem like those cameras aren't turning properly. They should always be turning a full 180 degrees from what I was told; those two there don't look like they're turning any more than ninety degrees."

"Yeah. I'm going to go find a ladder and check it out," nodded Takagi before dashing off. A few minutes later he returned with a medium-length ladder, walking rather awkwardly as he had the ladder hefted up onto his right shoulder and was trying to make sure the front and back of the ladder didn't hit anything. After the pair of detectives figured out the ladder's locking mechanism, Takagi headed up to the first of the cameras that wasn't turning. "Looks like they're not tied or anything," he called down. "But they're not turning like they're supposed to either. Hey Chiba-keiji, go see if you can get one of the guards to help you check out these cameras in thier main room. Maybe someone tampered with thier configuration settings or something."

"Will do," came the reply. After Chiba made sure his fellow detective got back down the (rather shaky) ladder safely, he approached one of the three blue-uniformed guards who had been on duty that night. Takagi then returned to the Megure-keibu to give an updated report. Conan decided to take advantage of the opportunity to further study the area outside of the window and slipped out the front of the building and around to its side, where he could see a single set of footprints leading up the the window. Unfortunantely, he couldn't get too close due to the cops still swarming. Grr, if I was my normal self, they'd practically beg me to take a look and help them, he thought darkly before he stepped on something that made a sound like the breaking of glass. An electric shock coursed through his spine the instant that he moved his foot, bent down and picked up a now-shattered and slightly bent monocle that generally made its home on Kaitou Kid's face. I knew it. He was definitely set up. Shinichi's mouth set into a thin, grim line, and he actually began to worry for the young thief for the first time. What happened here, Kid?

Later that morning...

"So I heard you actually let civilians onto your crime scene this morning," began Nakamori-keibu as his fellow keibu shuffled into the room in a half-conscious, coffeeless and highly grumpy state. "Then again, it was Sleeping Kogoro. I suppose I could see making an exception for him."

"Yeah, that kid who lives with him apparently wouldn't let up till he brought him down." A dejected sigh as Megure slumped himself into a chair. "Not that he did us much good...Sleeping Kogoro never showed, only the mostly incompetent former Mouri-keiji." Megure then noticed the coffeepot on the keibu's desk and immediately helped himself to a cup using a small stock Nakamori kept by his desk. The rest of that desk was filled with case files of various thicknesses, all having one thing in common: The word 'KID' written on them in thick black permanent marker. "So let's get down to business. What do you think?"

"I told you exactly what I think last night when you woke me up." Nakamori began to flip open one of the many case files on his desk. "Kid was set up. He didn't do this." His tone brooked no argument, but Megure was going to have to stir the hornet's nest and play devil's advocate whether he wanted to or not. If Nakamori could convince him, however...

"Why exactly do you think that?"

"Because everything about what happened last night completely goes against Kaitou Kid and everything he's ever done in the past. The only common thread between this and his previous cases is that something got stolen." He emitted a derisive snort and flipped open another file, finally tossing a marked Polaroid evidence photo at Megure that contained a picture of the huge gem that Kid had heisted in that particular case. "He always sends the cops a warning. He doesn't kill. He steals jewels, gems, or things heavily laden with either of the above." Nakamori shut his eyes and took a deep, instrospective puff on his pipe before opening his eyes and continuing. "He's like a damn crow. He loves shiny, glittery things. Shiny, glittery things worth a lot of yen." He shook his head as he looked at the newspaper that was sitting on his desk that contained a picture of the small jade statue. "That statue is valuable, of course, but it's just not Kid's typical sort of target at all."

"Has there been an increase in violence by Kid in any of his more recent break ins? Any guards severely injured or anything?"

"No. The worst he's ever done- ever does - is either tie them up or render them unconscious, or occasionally disguise himself as one of them. And there's been no change in his behavior leading up to this, no."

"What about that gun he's carried around bef-"

"It's a trick gun. It shoots out playing cards and smoke bombs, things like that, not bullets, Megure-keibu." Nakamori rose from his seat. "You just have to trust me on this one. I've pursued Kid for the past five years, ever since he suddenly reappeared from his retirement, and I pursued him back before he retired. Whoever shot the guard last night was not him. Period." He indicated the files scattered on his desk. "Feel free to poke around in these all you want. By the time you're done I think you'll be as convinced as I am that someone set Kid up last night."

"I think I'll take you up on that offer." With that, Megure took the file containing the oldest heist and began to study while Nakamori went to the scene of a gas station robbery.