Time for more!
"What, you're watching that again? You'll get yourself cross-eyed if you stare at that video much more, Takagi-kun." Satou shook her head with a chiding sigh as she watched her partner intently watch and rewatch the surveillance tapes from the museum- or to be more specific, a very small piece of one of those tapes. Ever since they had finished piecing together and collecting the last of the tapes from the night of the robbery, the detective had done little but watch the tape over and over again, that same determined look on his face.
"Yeah, I know," he muttered in reply, never averting his eyes from the recording while he replied. "But there's just something there. Something that doesn't sit right, and I can't put my finger on it! It's driving me nuts." Takagi paused the tape, then wound it very slowly forward and backward, analyzing the action frame by frame. "It starts right here, after he disappears off these cameras here by the window at about 10:07; when he comes back into view at 10:12, there's something off I just can't figure out. But I know it's there." He turned to Satou with a smile that quickly turned into a brief, polite laugh. "Does that sound crazy or what?" was his final comment before refocusing his attention on the monitors.
"Well, I think that all sitting here watching it over and over is going to do is tire your eyes as well as your mind. Maybe it would be a good idea to work on something else and then come back to it later after you haven't looked at it for a while. Sometimes looking at something so much can blind you to what's in that something."
"You're probably right, Satou-san. I think I want to go back to the museum and look over-"
Just then, there was a commotion from the front, and a few 'Welcome back, keibu' s could be heard over the general buzz of conversation and questions. This was followed shortly by Megure appearing in the back viewing room as he finished brushing off the last of the questions, the keibu immediately approaching the pair of detectives he'd assigned earlier in the day to try and piece together what had happened in the museum last night.
"I spent the last two hours talking with Nakamori-keibu and skimming over every Kaitou Kid robbery he's worked on since Kid's reappearance." Megure then grabbed a seat and slowly sat down into one of the plush chairs on offer in the A/V room while rubbing his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "This new guy seems to not be the same guy Nakamori chased over eight years ago, but the more I read over the newer files after talking with him the more this more wrong this whole robbery began to seem. Like Satou mentioned when we were doing our initial evaluation of the scene, this robbery doesn't fit Kid's usual M.O. at all, and neither does what he stole." A single cough. "Did you ever find out what was going on with those cameras there by the window he broke into? The ones that weren't turning correctly?"
"Yes, sir. The cameras were programmed that way the evening before the robbery." After Megure and Takagi responded to this with amazed expressions, Satou calmly added "And what's more, there is every appearance that they were programmed that way by our dead guard, Kuromaru Akagi."
"Say WHAT?" demanded Megure as Takagi rose from his chair, a slightly shell-shocked look on his face.
"Inspector Chiba confirmed it with the guards about a half an hour ago; apparently there's a special code that has to be entered to reprogram the camera's arcs or recording times that the guards are forced to memorize. It also changes every two weeks, and it's also only actually written down in one place, a single sheet of paper that's in a hidden safe in the curator's office. Needless to say that safe has already been checked as well, and there's no evidence of the safe having been opened recently." A brief pause ensued as she let the information sink in. "Which means that Kuromaru either did it himself, or provided the number to his accomplice. And the guard who switched shifts with him yesterday recalled that he was-" a brief pause while she dug a notepad out of her pocket and flipped it open- and I quote, 'messing around in the camera interface,' end quote, when he arrived and Kuromaru didn't seem too happy to have been walked in on."
"So then...Were Kid and the guard...working together?" muttered Takagi in a daze after a good ten seconds of silence had passed while the trio tried to contemplate this newest twist and what it could possibly mean.
"For starters, Kudo, I'm pretty sure that the guard that got killed was in on whatever happened there last night- well, the robbery of that statue, anyhow." Heiji followed this with a simple nod.
"Really?" inquired the shrunken tantei seated across from him with a cocked eyebrow. "What there made you think that?" This was followed by a nervous glance at the kitchen, where Ran was currently doing dishes. Luckily, the noise and distraction provided a perfect time for a (rather hurried) summary of Heiji's findings during his first foray. Shinichi was hoping the Osakan's findings would mesh with his own, but he didn't dare to say a word about his own conclusions from his brief visit to the crime scene until Heiji was totally finished.
"Well, the security cameras looked funny to me immediately, as did the other stuff that the police had already flagged as weird. I overheard that the dead guard seemed to have set up those cameras by the window that was broken into so that they weren't pointing at it," he explained simply. "Which leads me to my second point. I think that there were at least three people involved in whatever the hell happened there last night. The guard who got shot, Kaitou Kid, and a third person we need to figure out-the guard's partner."
"Why do you think there were three people involved in this?"
"I said at least three, Kudo." This was accompanied by a roguish, self-satisfied grin. "You probably weren't able to check outside stuff too good cause it was still dark and there were still cops all over the place, but I counted four sets of shoeprints-in four different sizes and patterns, mind you- outside and two different sets of tire tracks that go caught in the little dirt area where the museum is expanding its parking lot over on the northwest side of the building, one set overlapping the other in a couple spots."
"Well, one of those could be Kid's partner- He works with at least one person on a fairly steady basis who generally aids his getaways." Shinichi rubbed his chin in a thoughtful gesture. "Why are you so sure those weren't left by crime scene vans or something, or by officers working there?"
"Kudo, do you think I'm stupid or something?" Heiji nearly growled, his hackles clearly raised. "I made sure that none of the cops had parked or walked where I found the footprints and tire tracks."
"No. I just wanted to know, that's all. Remember, I didn't get to investgate alongside you like I normally do." A brief pause ensued as Shinichi looked down at the floor, concentrating on what Heiji had told him. He not only wanted time to think, he wanted to give Heiji some time to calm down. "That sure puts a whole new spin on things." He looked up again, a new thought having entered his mind. "Was there anything done to the jewel exhibit that was in the other wing, Hattori? That exhibit that was scheduled to open today?"
"Aha." The grin again. "That was one of the other interesting things. The jewel exhibit wing was one of the only wings that had absolutely no signs of damage on anything whatsoever." He offered a shrug. "Which is really weird to me, cause doesn't Kid normally go after jewels and gems?"
"Yes. Normally." Yet another strange twist in this increasingly bizarre case…
What had happened last night?
Kaito simply could not remember. He wanted to, especially since the end result had been him waking in nothing but his boxers in a strange bed in a room he did not recognize.
He suspected that this fact had something to do with the carefully mended and tended bruises, scratches, and general signs all over his body that he had been in one hell of a fight at some point in the recent past (he wished he had a clock so he could see the time.) But a fight where? And over what?
It was just as he was making yet another serious effort to try and recollect where he had gone and what had happened recently when the first dull throbs of a headache announced themselves as deciding to take residence directly in the back center of his head. Kaito reflexively reached to rub the spot only to find that that spot was full of PAIN AND SUFFERING AND OWWWMAKEITSTOP-
He couldn't stop himself from emitting a small yelp of pain as his hand flew away from the amazingly sensitive spot while the spot itself began an angrily throbbing protest against the attempted rough handling. He then slowly returned his hand to the spot, gently, gingerly examining it and coming to the rather quick conclusion that he had one heck of a fine goose egg going. A goose egg which most likely explained why his mind was a complete blank after telling Jii-chan he was going to do...what? Grr, that was where his mind began drawing a total blank, his mental film fading and growing fuzzy before snapping in half and becoming totally dark, the image only re-threaded and restored once he had awakened in this strange room.
Well, he supposed it was time to a) find some clothes and b) figure out where he was, not necessarily in that order (but it was his preferred order.)
This was when he discovered that actually moving much beyond his pinkie was going to be the least fun he'd had in a very long time. Every bone, muscle, and joint in his body was letting him know in no uncertain terms that they did not want to go to work. At all. Every movement was absolute agony, and Kaito cringed mentally when he realized that it was only going to get worse before the pain would begin to subside. Simply sitting totally upright felt like running and completing a marathon, he was so drained and tired after the process had finished. What in the HELL happened last night?
"Oh, you've finally woken up! Thank goodness, I was about ready to call a doctor in." This familiar voice was followed by the tossing of a small bag onto his bed. "I hope they're about the right size; I had to guess."
Well, whatever had happened, Kaito now knew that Jii-chan had been the one to scrape him up afterwards.
"Jii-chan," he finally managed to get out with a great deal of effort, "where did you find me?"
"Now, now. Just rest," the older man said firmly. "This is the guest bedroom of my house. The toilet is down the hall and to the right if you need it. I'll prepare some lunch shortly." With that, the older man quickly exited the room. Too quickly for Kaito's taste. Jii-chan had clearly avoided the question. Now Kaito had to figure out why.