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"Finally!"

This loud, happy exclamation from Detective Takagi carried throughout the Tokyo police headquarters. It eventually drifting into Detective Satou's ear and made her curious enough when she heard it to get up from her desk and walk over to the A/V room where her partner was still sitting and watching the videotape to find out what was going on. All she had been doing at the time was paperwork- in triplicate, of course- and her hand was in the beginning stages of a fierce protest in the form of cramping from all the writing and signing, so she deemed it a good time to take a break. He's been cooped up in there all day, I wonder if he really has found something...

"Finally what, Takagi-kun?" she inquired as she entered the room a few minutes later.

"I've figured out what was bugging me about this video! Finally!" he cried, looking as giddy as a kid poking around under the tree on Christmas morning. "Come and look at this, Satou-san." Satou walked over to his side, where he had the all-too-familiar sequence of Kid disappearing, then reappearing on the cameras and shooting the guard queued up and ready to play. "Here's right before he vanishes off of the cameras." Takagi flipped the frames back and forth, then fast forwarded a bit. "And here's where he reappears from disappearing into that blank spot underneath the window about 10:12."

"I see that- We've all seen it, Takagi-kun," Satou replied with an indulgent smile. "So what is it that you've seen that's different?"

"Look here- Here's two different pictures with Kid roughly in the same position, printed the same size so they can be superimposed on each other too. One is from before he disappears for that five minute span, the other one is from after he reappears and is confronted by the guard before the shooting. Notice anything strange once you look at them side by side?" asked Takagi with a satisfied grin that would have done credit to the Cheshire cat as he pulled out the two pictures and held them up for Satou's inspection.

"The suit looks a lot smaller in the second picture," stated Satou in a hesitant, puzzled tone after looking closely at the images for a few moments. Her next statements were more firm and certain as she quickly, fully realized where Takagi was going with this. "The arms are nearly bursting at the seams in the second picture, and there's wrinkles in the back across the shoulders that weren't there in the first picture- it almost looks like the jacket is too snug across the shoulders. It's not even close to that tight in the first picture." She cocked her head slightly, then finished with "The hat looks like it's riding much higher on Kid's head in the later picture, too, like it's too small for his head..."

"Exactly," nodded Takagi. "And since people don't grow that much in a five-minute span, I suspect that-"

"Someone else was wearing Kaitou Kid's uniform from after he reappeared through the murder and escape?" replied a young male voice possessing a thick Osaka accent from behind them, causing the pair of detectives to turn around and stare at the newcomer. "I think so, too, and so does my junior associate here," grinned Heiji with a pat to Shinichi's head, the older boy pointedly ignoring the glare Shinichi shot his way after the statement and gesture. "Conan called me up and asked me to take a look, so I came up from Osaka this mornin' and poked around. Hope you don't mind me comin' down here, oto-san cleared it with Megure-keibu."

"Heiji-niichan thinks that Kaitou Kid didn't do it," explained Conan. "He found a bunch of stuff at the crime scene that he thinks you should know about."

"There were at least four people there at the scene that night that were involved in this," stated Heiji with a nod as he grabbed an empty seat in the room. "Kaitou Kid, who was the first one on the scene, Kaitou Kid's assistant, Kuromaru Akagi, and Kuromaru's associate, who was also the killer. My thinkin' is that the real killer got a hold of Kid's uniform somehow and took advantage of the opportunity to disguise himself and frame Kid." Of course, I know that that's what really happened because I talked to Kaito and his buddy, Jii-ojisan and figured this all out, but I sure as hell can't tell them that I know who Kaitou Kid really is...

"Four people? But how do you-"

"Well, take if from the beginnin'," replied Heiji with a shrug. "First, I think what happened is this: That jewel exhibition is openin' in the museum's other wing next week, right? Well there's some big ruby in the collection, and it was moved in last week. I bet Kid couldn't resist the temptation to go scout the territory in order to start plannin' the heist, so he showed up and-"

"And what? Got himself knocked out?" inquired a disbelieving Megure-keibu, who had overheard the conversation from the doorway. "This is Kaitou Kid we're talking about- As if anyone could get the drop on him," he huffed.

"They could if they surprised him while he was otherwise occupied with casing the premises," replied Heiji. "I don't think Kid's arrival on the scene was planned, but the real killer took full advantage of the opportunity that presented itself. And don't forget that this guy was workin' with the guard- I'm 98 percent certain of that fact that the two of them were workin' together to steal that statue. Two on one is never a fair fight, after all."

"So you think that the two of them knocked the real Kid out somehow?"

"I don't have the hard evidence to back it up yet, but I think what happened is that either the real killer or Kuromaru surprised Kid when he was casin' the premises. Whichever one of them it was somehow dragged Kid into a fight- a fight leadin' right back towards their partner, who helped beat him up pretty good. Then the real killer says somethin' like 'Hey, let's let Kid get blamed for this!' an' then dresses up in Kid's uniform, supposedly so Kid can take the blame for the theft but really so that Kid can get blamed for the murder the real killer is about to commit on top o' the burglary."

"Shiori, have you seen or heard from Saguru lately? It's most unlike him to be late for lunch."

"I haven't seen him since you sent him upstairs to collect his illegally smuggled mystery materials, madam," replied Shiori in a perfectly calm tone as she served the baked ham she had prepared. "Shall I go check on him for you around the house?"

"Please do. He knows that being late for a meal irritates me."

Shiori nodded, and walked off towards the front of the house, opening and closing the door behind her to being a circuit of the house. Ten minutes later, she walked back in the front door and shrugged her shoulders. "I have not been able to find him anywhere. Perhaps he's still in his room?"

"Brooding about me taking away his mysteries for the duration of this trip, no doubt," his mother grumbled as she rose from her seat. She then headed upstairs to her recalcitrant offspring's temporary room and give him a piece of her mind. As soon as she entered the room, she realized that something was amiss. The room was...too neat and bare. Everything had been neatly made and tucked away and all of Saguru's personal items removed, like he had packed up and left without any plans to return.

"He," she muttered under her breath, "is in some serious hot water now." With that, she turned to exit the room.

Only to have the door slam shut in her face.

"Sorry, Mother, but I have to go back to Japan. I've already arranged the flight," stated her son from the other side of the door, tone muffled by the thick wood. "Shiori will let you out when I'm on the taxi and gone; don't blame her, I forced her to go along with it." This was followed by a click that she instantly recognized as the room's door being locked.

"SAGURU HAKUBA! YOU OPEN THE DOOR RIGHT THIS INSTANT, YOUNG MAN!" she demanded, pounding her fist on the door for emphasis. But he was already gone downstairs and fully packed, judging from the fact that she heard a horn beep out front a few minutes later that indicated that a taxi had been called. He's been planning this all morning, she fumed as realization dawned on her. And Shiori was most certainly in on this- I'm willing to bet that that ten minute 'search' really consisted of Saguru tossing his packed things out of that window down to her...

Just then, her cellphone rang, and she recognized the tone that she had set for her former husband. Deciding to get right down to the business of thier headstrong child that she knew he had called to check up on, she picked up the phone, placed it to her ear and said "Your son is dead meat the next time he steps foot in England" in the most polite Japanese that she could muster given the current situation and her anger level.

"Don't tell me that he-"

"Oh, not only did he smuggle his Sherlock Holmes paperbacks in, not only did he somehow get a hold of a recent newspaper that contained a story that he began investigating secretly (Shiori, I'm sure, she thought with anger) but he has just now locked me in his former room, called for a cab to come out here, packed up all his things and arranged an early return fight to Japan. All entirely planned behind my back and without my consultation, I might add." She picked herself up off of the floor with her free hand, managing an angry huff in the process. "Your son has apparently inherited all of your less noble traits."

"I was afraid of something like that happening. Shiori indulges him far too much." A brief pause that was punctuated by a cough. "I'll deal with him when he gets back to Japan, though he inherited your stubborness, so who knows how that will go?" This was punctuated by a warm chuckle that merely infuriated her.

"Don't start. Don't you dare start. Just tell him that he had better call me prepared to formally apologize before I will ever even consider letting him stay under my roof here in England again. Now good-bye." With that, she terminated the call just in time to hear the lock turning. Shiori stood on the other side of the door, her face full of unapologetic pride.

"I'm sorry, madam. I hope you'll forgive me for assisting him. But there are some things in life that are more important than a vacation."

What could she possibly say to that? "Just make sure that he properly packed up everything that he had in here, Shiori," she replied after a few minutes of thoughtful silence before exiting the room that had temporarily been her prison.