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"Jii-chan? We need to talk."
Jii winced at Kaito's anger-filled tone, realizing that the young thief who was following in his father's footsteps must have finally figured out somehow that he was the police's current favored suspect in the murder of a guard at a museum last night. The same museum that Jii had rather hurriedly picked the boy up half-alive from once he had arrived at the scene after he heard the first calls of a homicide coming in on the police band radio that he possessed.
"Don't you dare go anywhere outside of that house. I'm dropping Aoko off and then coming right back over there," the teenager hastily snapped before he hung up the phone. I was afraid he would see or hear something the moment he set foot out the door, he thought with a dejected sigh. I didn't ever think he would actually be able to get up and leave so soon with those injuries and the shape he was in...
Jii supposed that Kaito had every right to be angry at him, after he finished reflecting on the events of last night and this morning from the boy's point of view. After all, Jii had avoided questions after he'd realized that the knock to the head had blacked last night out from his mind. Jii had also cut Kaito off from any newspapers or radios, trying to help the boy stay at ease while he recovered from his nasty injuries. Someone, or perhaps multiple someones, had really done a number on the thief; Jii had been equal measures of happy and absolutely shocked when he had discovered no broken bones in the course of his (very cursory) examination of Kaito while he had tended to his wounds.
Of course, he also had to admit to himself that he had been initially fearful that Kaito really had played a role in the murder. (Hey, self-defense was self-defense; even if his father had believed in the motto of No One Gets Hurt, look where that had gotten him!) That had only lasted until Jii had come peeling up in the shoddily disguised equipment van wearing a hastily donned janitor's uniform after hearing which museum had been involved.
There's a jewel exhibit that's opening over in Reika Museum next week that will feature a large ruby called the Phoenix Tear. They're actually moving the stuff for the exhibit in today, so I'm going to go break in and scout the territory out before I prepare to send my card...
As Jii quickly poked around the scene, trying to find his young master in the far too short span of time left before he knew the first of the police would arrive, he panicked slightly. Why would he hide like this if he hadn't been involved somehow? A few minutes later he had discovered the frightening sight of an almost naked, unconscious and severely injured Kaito under a window that had been forced open. It was then that Jii realized Kaito had most likely been set up by someone else wearing his uniform.
Jii also had his suspicions who had done that setting up, but he didn't want to bring them up to Kaito. Snake and his minions were one of the only areas in life where Kaito was not completely rational- the two others being Aoko, his mother, and thier respective safety. Well, resurrecting Kaitou Kid might be considered another non-rational area, Jii mused with a grim smile before replacing his television. He's determined to follow it through, even though it wound up costing his father his life...
That dead guard...Jii pondered whether or not to tell Kaito about the guard and his connection to his late father. Oh, he'd aged several years, as had Jii, but Jii had recognized that face the moment that the news reports plastered the picture that had been used to issue Akagi's badge all over them. The name may have changed, the face may have grown older, but you were definitely that man...Jii would never forget that face, the face of one of the very last men to ever speak to Kuroba Toichi, a face that had been full of dark threats and anger at the time. The question is whether that really means anything or not...No point in burdening the boy even further, especially with those wounds he has to recover from...
"Alright, Jii. Spill it. Everything. Starting with the conversation I vaguely recall us having before I left."
Jii gave a startled start when he realized that Kaito had already reentered the house, a pair of unfamilar boys standing on either side of him. "B-but they-" He pointed a finger vaguely in the direction of the older boy wearing a hat and the younger boy wearing glasses. What is he thinking?
"They're detectives, Hattori Heiji and Edogawa Conan," explained Kaito, lifting his arm slightly to indicate which was which. "And they already know about me." As Jii's head spun from the enormity of that last statement, Kaito hobbled over to the couch and sat down slowly. "Jii, I'm going to get arrested for murder if we don't figure this out. Now talk."
"He's dead right," stated Heiji as he pulled his hat forward. "There's an APB out on Kaitou Kid, an' the Tokyo cops are working on building thier case even though they haven't found the weapon yet. So the best thing that you cando right now is tell us exactly what you saw that night, startin' from when he left."
"We don't think we did it, but we need to figure out who did. Quickly," added Conan. "You're just going to have to trust us and tell us everything."
Trust a pair of detectives? And isn't the little kid one of the ones who's hunted Kid before? Jii let out a deep breath before deciding that if Kaito trusted the pair of tantei well then, he would have to as well; not like they had any choice now that the secret was out. "Well, it started because you had decided to go to the museum to stake it out..."
"It's a murder case, Mother! I have to get back to Japan and-!"
"You," retorted Saguru's mother with a glare that would have formed icebergs had she aimed it at the ocean, "will be going nowhere to help anyone until your scheduled plane fight on Sunday morning. Now head back up to your room, and if you want to eat the nice breakfast Shiori went to all that trouble to prepare you'll bring me all of the contraband reading material you've smuggled here." A pause as she set her left hand on her hip. "And I do mean all of it, Saguru. Including the newspapers that you hid in the headboard when we came here last year."
How the hell did she-? No, this is not the time to be worrying about that! "I've found information that the Japanese police need to have! They may arrest the-"
"Up. And bring everything to me within ten minutes or you can forget about that ham Shiori's baking for lunch as well. You can eat some plain cold cuts instead." His mother turned and exited the living room to indicate that the conversation was over.
That woman is completely hopeless. Hopeless! Saguru fumed as he stalked his way up the steps. Watson was clearly picking up on her master's agitation, dancing about on his shoulder, ruffling her feathers and screeching lightly while flapping her wings. Does she not understand that another innocent person may very well be accused of murder if I don't get back there and straighten the police out? He dipped his shoulder by Watson's perch and allowed her to step off of his shoulder and onto the perch before grabbing and tossing his mystery-oriented books and newspapers into a messy pile on his bed; he was not going to give into the temptation to straighten it all up, he was not!
Shiori had brought him the information he'd requested, and it had led down some strange paths that he had desperately wanted to traverse back in Japan. He had spent a late night analyzing the Buddha thefts and the trial surrounding them, and came to the conclusion that there was definitely something more going on there than was meeting the eye. Especially considering the fact that the buddha theft eerily matched the M.O. of the supposed 'Buddha Thief,' who had been securely behind bars in another nation when the theft and murder at the Japanese museum had occurred.
The buddahs- all three that had been filched during the spree in England that had ended a year ago, and the one that had been stolen in Japan- were part of the private collection of an extraordinarly wealthy American businessman who had inherited that fortune from his grandfather. The statues had all been donated to various charities and museums after his death. Apparently he had had a matched set of sixteen of the little green jade Buddahs, and in months leading up to that death from a heart attack, he had spent quite a sum restoring the little antiques. Whenever he had been asked why he had spent the money to refurbish them, he had merely smiled in reply and said "I like them."
There was something going on with these little buddah statues that were being stolen, Saguru knew that much. There was far too much strangeness and violence surrounding them to suggest otherwise. But thanks to a certain parent who refused to understand that there were some things in life that were more important than sitting in the middle of the boring English countryside in a home made of giant logs watching the grass grow and leaves fall, he wasn't going to be able to go back to Japan and investigate much further into the matter like he wanted to so desperately. Not until it was too late...
If I don't get back there and set them on the right path, another innocent thief will get arrested...Kaitou Kid wasn't innocent of most thefts he was in the vicinity of, naturally, but Saguru was approximately 98.5 percent certain that he had not committed this particular one. He suspected that somehow, someway, the killer had gotten a hold of Kid's outfit and used it to commit a crime in his name, just like someone had done to the Buddha Thief one year ago. Perhaps the same person? Of course, I need to figure out all of the hows and whys involved in that scenario...and why a guard died in both cases...
"Two minutes left to bring me everything if you want a good breakfast, Saguru."
He winced as he realized that he'd gotten so caught up in thinking about everything that he had completely lost track of the time. Letting out a frustrated huff, he finished gathering everything into an extra pillowcase and prepared to haul it downstairs to placate his mother.
"You look positively melancholy, botchama," Shiori grinned as she walked into the room. "If you want to get to Japan so badly to help, that can be arranged..."