Fandom: Detective Conan

Title: Inertia: Part II

Author: Eeveebeth Fejvu

Theme: #02 – I'm willing to sacrifice anything just for you

Pairing/Characters: Kudo Shinichi and Miyano Shiho

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I don't own Detective Conan. I requested Haibara to make me a pill that would somehow turn me into the creator of the shrunken tantei-san, but my order is in line behind the antidote to Apoptoxin-4869. …So, for now, I write fan fiction. (I do own Nara Maeko, though.)

Summary: "…Kudo's never been the same since…"

Author's Note: This is Part 2 of 3 of the "Inertia" collection; however, each section mostly stands on its own.

Nara Maeko had been a fidgety sort of person ever since she was small, and now it was extraordinarily difficult to keep still as she stood in the doorway of the Beika District Police Department, nervously awaiting some sort of greeting or first instructions. To top it all off, her dark blue uniform – brand new and unwashed as of yet – was starting to itch and she was dying to scratch in rather impolite places.

She stayed put, however, and waited uncomfortably until one of the officers – a woman with very short brown hair and a thin scar on her forehead – finally spotted her looking out of place and invited her into the room.

"First day, huh?" the officer asked her with a knowing grin. "I thought our new recruit wasn't coming in until next week. Oh, well. …Anyway, welcome to Beika. We're a pretty close-knit family here, but we always welcome new blood. …What's your name?"

With a start, she realized she had forgotten her badge at her apartment – she had been in such a rush to get here on time in hopes of making a good impression, only to stand around and stare for ten minutes before anyone noticed her existence. "Oh! I'm Nara Maeko, transfer from Osaka, uh… Takagi-san." She gave a quick bow, her ponytail swinging about her face.

The officer laughed and Nara froze in confusion, wondering what she had done wrong. "No, no, don't worry, Nara-san; it's nothing. Just don't believe what my badge says. My name is Satou Miwako." Satou grinned. "If you ask for Takagi-san around the office, you'll be asking for my husband. We both work here, so I use my maiden name for professional purposes… not to mention everyone here has always called me Satou." Nara nodded quickly.

For the next twenty minutes, Satou showed her around the building and introduced her to her new fellow officers. First off was Chiba, who came in with an abundance of donuts for everyone (allowing Nara to acquire the other thing she had forgotten that morning – breakfast). Then she met Shiratori, whose somber disposition made him somehow rather intimidating, and Megure, who was surprised to learn that the transfer had come in early but nevertheless seemed to be a pleasant sort of superior. Nara washappy to meet Satou's husband (Takagi-san turned out to be quite cute, really; rather too bad he was married) and she immediately felt a kinship with Yumi (within three minutes, Nara had already happily agreed to meet up with her and her friends at the local karaoke box that night). After that, however, her mind was so full with new names and faces to remember that the various other officers seemed to mix together. Nara sighed. It would take time, after all, to get situated here, and this was only her first day.

Once she and Satou had made their way back towards the front of the offices, she found herself peering about the desks curiously. Satou obviously could tell something was up, as she asked, "Anything wrong, Nara-san?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing! I was just…" she trailed off. Seeing Satou's raised eyebrow, she added, "It's just that… well, I'd heard that… someone else worked here in Beika as well… I'm probably just being silly…"

Satou blinked for a moment, then a knowing grin appeared on her face. "You're from Osaka, right? So you know Hattori Heiji-tantei?" Nara nodded, her cheeks growing warm. "Since you know the Detective of the West, I'm guessing, then, that you're looking for a certain Detective of the East, known as Kudo Shinichi?"

Nara felt her blush grow deeper. "Well, it's just that, I've worked under Hattori Heizo-keibu for awhile, so I've gotten to see Hattori Heiji-tantei at crime scenes before. …His skill in deduction is very impressive to watch, really." Of course, Hattori Heiji himself had been impressive to watch as well, but he was married to a lovely woman named Kazuha. "And I've heard that Kudo Shinichi is just as impressive, maybe even more. Hattori Heiji-tantei was always talking about Kudo-tantei and how good a detective he is, so… I'd kind of like to meet him."

Satou smiled. "Certainly you can meet him. Only…" She looked around at all of the desks. "…Hm… I guess he hasn't come in yet…" Nara felt her eyebrows rise. Satou didn't seem too surprised or troubled by the fact that Beika's most famous detective had not yet shown up for work.

"He probably stumbled across some poor impaled body or something a few blocks away," Chiba threw in as he walked past, donut in hand. "On average, he usually stumbles across at least two bodies a week on his way to work." Seeing Nara's horrified wide eyes, he laughed, and, apparently not understanding the source of her astonishment, added, "Yep, Takagi-kun and I keep a running tally. The average is about two and three sevenths bodies, but we figured that we'd rather not think about three sevenths of a body, so we just call it two."

"Chiba-kun!" Satou waved him away irritably, and Chiba wandered off, grinning. Turning back to Nara, she continued, "It really isn't uncommon for dead bodies to turn up with Kudo around, but I suppose that happened with Hattori-tantei as well?" Nara nodded. Satou sighed. "It's a disturbing phenomenon, but it does keep the department busy with cases." Suddenly, Satou looked puzzled.

"…What's wrong?"

"It's just that… Kudo-san probably would have called us by now if he were on a case… It's not as if he needs us to help him solve it; it's just regulation formalities, but…" Satou raised her voice and shouted across the office. "Hey! Has anyone gotten a call from Kudo yet?" There was no affirmative reply.

"Could something bad have happened to him?" Nara asked, concerned.

"Well… if it's not a case, he might be having some… troubles at home…" Satou suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable.

"What… kind of troubles? …I mean, if I'm prodding where I shouldn't, just say and I'll-"

"No, no, it's alright…" Satou sighed, and Nara watched the woman's eyes turn towards Takagi across the room. "It's just that… There was this case a few years ago…" Satou unconsciously ran her fingers along the thin scar on her forehead, remembering. "It's probably been about, oh, I don't know… about four years ago now… It was before Takagi and I were married… Well… four of us were out on this raid and… it turned out… bad; the people we had been tracking injured our top lab technician in the most… horrible way… and she… You have no idea how horrible it was…"

Sighing, Satou continued, "It was… such a tragedy… Kudo's never been the same since… He used to be… a lot, well, happier… He's always been intense about his cases, but now… He's so serious and solemn all of the time, even though he often tries to mask his feelings… He always seems to deal with criminals in a rougher manner than he used to… I think he feels he was responsible for what happened – everything he's done since has only proved it – but nothing anyone could ever say will convince him otherwise…"

Nara felt a wave of unhappiness pass over her. "Well… maybe he needs something to take his mind off of it. …Doesn't he have a girlfriend or something?"

A halfhearted grin – it was actually more of a grimace – came to Satou's face. "He has a wife…"

"Oh! …Is that why you think… he might be having troubles at home-" Before Nara could say anything else, the door to the offices burst open, causing both her and Satou to start at the bang. A tall young man in a dark blue suit strode quickly into the room, and Nara only had a second to glimpse the deep frown on his face before he stalked past her. Tucked under his arm were several bulky manila folders, which trailed papers that drifted to the floor like white feathers.

"Kudo-san, where have you been?" Megure called out in a surprisingly welcoming tone for one whose subordinant just came in drastically late. Nara blinked.

"Man found murdered on the corner near Haido Park," Kudo replied sternly in greeting, slamming the folders down on Megure's desk. "…Shot… three times... Four witnesses, all of them suspects. A few guards from a bank nearby are keeping the suspects contained for me. I found a strange substance in a bag hidden in the bushes nearby. I came in to see if anyone wants to come with me." Chiba and Takagi both stood up. Kudo gave them a curt nod. "I'm going back out to question the suspects; then I'm going to get the substance tested."

"Alright," Megure said in a tone that clearly meant he had given up his control over the detective. His focus wandered to the folder on his desk, and the papers that had settled on the floor. "Are these the files from the Kira case-?"

"Yes." As Kudo turned around towards the door, Nara glimpsed his blue eyes. They seemed so dark and unfocused, as if he was off in his own world. Nara wondered if he was in the sort of detective mode she had seen Hattori Heiji-tantei in before; yet it seemed like more than this case was weighing on his mind.

Satou shifted a bit where she stood, and Nara gave the woman a puzzled look. She was frowning. Kudo had his hand on the doorknob before Satou finally spoke. "Where was the man shot, Kudo-san?" The detective paused, his back to the room. Chiba and Takagi, who had started to follow him, paused as well. Nara's eyes shifted to the hand Kudo had placed on the doorknob, checking for a wedding band around his ring finger. She caught sight of a plain gold one.

Kudo did not turn around, but his quiet reply was easily heard throughout the suddenly silent office. "…In… the lower back…"

With that, Kudo yanked the door open and was gone. Quickly, Takagi and Chiba trailed after the detective, the latter telling Nara, "I told you how he stumbles across bodies; this is his third this week," as he hurried past. After the two had closed the door behind them, the room remained silent for a beat before the officers all returned to their previous business.

Satou glanced down at the papers on the floor and sighed again. "I thought… that might be it…" Seeing Nara's glance, she whispered, "She was shot in the lower back… several times…" After a long moment, Nara finally realized that Satou had to have meant the lab technician from four years ago. "Anyway…" Satou bent down to pick up the papers, and Nara, remembering that she was not here to socialize, hurriedly did the same.

Megure nodded in thanks as the two women handed the papers to him. He started to finger through the folders, looking for the proper places for the papers to go. Both Nara and Satou started back towards Satou's desk when Megure made a surprised sort of noise, and they turned back around. "This doesn't belong to the Kira case," he muttered, holding up one of the folders. It seemed a lot older and more worn than the others.

"Oh," Satou said in recognition, "That's… I know that folder. It's one of his… personal files. He keeps… a lot of case documents in there…"

"It probably got stuck in the pile by accident," Shiratori interjected from his desk.

"He probably needs it then. Take it out to him at Haido Park, Satou-san," Megure said, holding the folder out to her.

Satou started to take it when Nara heard herself blurt out, "I'll do it, Megure-keibu." She gave a short bow.

Megure looked slightly amused. "Do you know where Haido Park is, Nara-kun? You haven't been here in Tokyo long."

"I've been here to visit some relatives before," she replied, "I remember where it is."

"Alright," he replied, the amused look still on his face. He handed off the worn folder to her, and she held it gently in her hands. "Be on your way. When you've done that, come on back, unless someone needs you at the crime scene."

"Yes sir." She gave another bow to Megure, and inclined her head towards Satou. Satou smiled, though she still seemed a bit unhappy. It seemed that Kudo was not the only one whose mind was currently on this mysterious case from four years ago. Nara quickly made her way out the door.

Ten minutes later, she was regretting her eagerness to bring the folder to Kudo.

She was lost in the metropolis called Tokyo.

Stuck in a traffic jam, Nara thought about calling Yumi to ask for directions (she had already gotten Yumi's cell phone number, of course), but a quirky sort of personal pride kept her from doing that just yet. She was positive that she remembered what Haido Park looked like; if only she somehow drove near it, surely she would remember…?

It took her another fifteen minutes to finally make her way to the correct location. Fortunately, once she got there, the yellow tape and flashing cruiser lights made the crime scene easier to spot. Cursing her stupid pride, she spotted Satou's husband and quickly made her way to him, folder in hand.

"Takagi-san," she said with a hurried bow, "Could you tell me where Kudo-tantei is?"

Takagi turned his head from watching Chiba questioning a witness to look at her in surprise. "I'm sorry, Nara-san, but he already left."

"What?!"

"That's right. He said he had gotten enough information from the suspects and the crime scene to figure out who the murderer is, but he still wanted to test the substance he had found before he made any accusations."

Takagi sighed, and Nara gave him a questioning look. "What's wrong?"

"…Well… Kudo-san, he… he probably wouldn't have needed to have the substance tested before…" The man frowned. "I mean, he's only twenty-five, but I remember how he used to be, especially when he was a chi- uh, teenager… He used to be such a brilliant detective, a perfect Sherlock Holmes… And it's not as if he isn't brilliant anymore; he still solves cases perfectly, but…"

"…But what?"

"…He never seems to believe in himself anymore." Nara blinked. "It's like… he doesn't trust himself or his deductions the way he used to… He's much more cautious… Now, Chiba-kun or Satou or I will sometimes come up with the same deduction at the same time… It's very strange…"

Suddenly, Takagi was staring at the folder in her hands. "If you want to get that to him soon, the quickest way would probably be to drive over to his house; that's where he was going. Most likely, he won't even come back out here. Sometimes, he'll call Chiba-kun or me and tell us his deduction if he's figured it out while he's somewhere else. …And don't worry," he added, with a small smile on his face, "his house isn't that far away."

So, once again, Nara found herself in the middle of Tokyo traffic, repeating Takagi's directions to Kudo's address over and over in her head like a prayer mantra. Fortunately, as she drove, she began to remember more and more of the layout of Beika. Before too long, she found herself driving slowly down his street, checking the nameplates next to the gates on the walls that surrounded the street's giant houses. She knew that Kudo had a famous novelist for a father and a famous actress for a mother, but she really hadn't been expecting his residence to be in such a grand neighboorhood. Then again, Satou had said he had a wife. It would make more sense for him to live in one of these mansions if he was not a bachelor.

"…Hmmm… that's not it…" she murmered to herself, her eyes scanning the nameplates carefully, "…not it… that's not it… not it… no, not 'Agasa'… not 'Ku- …wait, 'Kudo'?!" She braked (to her embarrassment, a little too sharply) and stared at the house, wide eyed. …Impressive. She envied the woman who was able to live here.

After finding a suitable parking spot on the street, she cautiously made her way through the partially opened gate and down the sidewalk to the house. She clutched the worn folder tightly to her chest. The closer she got to the house, the more she began feel that… something was wrong here… Almost at the door, she blinked in surprise, realizing that every window in the house was dark, save for a small light in one of the downstairs windows. She paused, glancing around. She didn't see any parked cars nearby. Maybe he had already left, to go back to the crime scene or to the offices to report? Nara sighed; being a delivery girl wasn't exactly what she had thought her first day as a Tokyo cop would be like, and she hoped she wouldn't become their permanent messenger, either.

She was about to turn and go, when suddenly, the front door caught her attention: it was open a crack. She frowned slightly. Had he forgotten to close the door all the way as he went inside, or perhaps when he left in a rush?" The second possibility seemed to be more likely, so like any good citizen, Nara placed her hand on the doorknob to close it (it would be embarrassing for some thief to raid a famous detective's mansion). Her intention was somehow lost on the way from her brain to her hand, however, and she pushed the door open just a bit. A little peek inside wouldn't hurt, would it? Ironic, she thought, that for a detective's mansion, the house seemed quite mysterious on the outside.

…And, of course, since the door was slightly open, it wouldn't be a sin to take a few steps inside, to get a better view…? Nara blinked several times as she stepped into the giant, dim foyer. Once her eyesight had adjusted, the first thing she noticed was that the place seemed barren. For a second, she even wondered if she had accidentally stepped into a vacant house. However, the giant staircase looked polished and clean, and the few household items scattered about the space were new and orderly, so the place surely had to be lived in.

The second thing she noticed was the quiet. There was not a sound in the house, save for the furtive ticking of a grandfather clock. It was unnerving really; when her shoes gave the faintest tap on the floor as she took another step inside, she almost scared herself out of her wits and screamed. Instead, she bit her lip and looked back and forth, wondering if the detective might appear from the doorway to the left, the right, or from up the stairs.

After discovering herself standing in the middle of the floor, she found that she could no longer stand the total silence. "K- …Kudo-san…? …Kudo-san, are you there?" Her voice came out in a whisper, but the giant room amplified it to a normal level. She paused for a long moment, giving him time to hear her and answer, in case he was in the middle of something important. She opened her mouth to quietly call out again.

Suddenly, there was an eruption of tiny clacks coming from the room to her right; within seconds, a small furry bundle came barreling through the doorway towards her. Nara's fright gave in to childish excitement immediately as the small, well-groomed dog, tiny claws clicking on the hard floor, came to a halt a few feet from her and eyed her warily. She squatted down to the dog's level only seconds later, a grin on her face and the back of her hand held out in a soothing manner for it to sniff. Dogs had always been her favorite animals.

"Well, hello there, little puppy-kun," she whispered, her tone growing babyish, "I didn't know Kudo-san had a dog. And aren't you just the most adorable little thing?" The grin faded from her lips, however, as the pup continued to stand still, staring at her in mistrust. Her voice returned to a normal whisper as she added, "Don't worry, puppy-kun, I'm only here to give your master this folder." She gestured to it. "Then I'll be on my way." Surprisingly, the dog's wariness waned slightly, as if it understood her words. "I work for the police, just like Kudo-san. See? Friend!" She held the back of her hand out a little more.

The dog seemed to understand her words yet again. Slowly, it padded forward and delicately sniffed her hand. After a moment, it gave a tiny, experimental lick. The smile returned full-force to Nara's face. Gently, she turned her hand around to pet the dog between its fluffy ears. The dog closed its eyes in pleasure.

"You really are just the cutest thing," Nara murmured, "You're a… Papillion, aren't you?" The soft tail wagged a bit. "I've always wanted a small dog like you, but I've always thought about getting a Pomeranian because they're so fluffy. But maybe I ought to get a Papillion; your fur is so silky and you seem so sweet."

Suddenly, she noticed the bright red collar around the Papillion's neck, which had been previously hidden by the dog's fur. "Oh? …Well, what's your name then?" Nara lifted up the small silver tag on the front of the collar and tilted it, catching a glimpse of the engraving in the light. "…'Love'? …Well, hello then, little Ai-chan. It's so very nice to meet a sweet girl like you." Ai's tail wagged again.

Abruptly, Nara realized that she still had the folder to deliver to Kudo. She shouldn't be standing in his house – uninvited – and petting his dog. Conspiratorially, she whispered, "Ai-chan, is your master around here anywhere? I need to give him the folder."

Without a second glance, the Papillion leaped up and shot off toward the right-hand room that she had come from. Startled, Nara stood up and took a few steps forward, wondering if Ai had simply decided to run off or actually wanted her to follow; however, the loud sound her shoes made on the hard floor caused her to pause. She waited for a long moment to see if the Papillion would come back, but she didn't.

Feeling stupid for just standing there in the middle of the foyer, Nara cautiously made her way towards the doorway to the room, clutching the folder tightly to her chest. The silence had descended once more around her, save for the ticking of the passing of time. And time was passing slowly; each step she took felt like its own eternity. Before she knew it, though, she was standing in the doorway and looking in.

There was Ai, lying curled up in a silky ball on a red cushion on the floor. Nara blinked, about to question the dog about why she had run off like that, when Ai's head suddenly lifted up from the pillow and she turned her short, pointed muzzle towards something in the room to Nara's right. Nara turned her own head to see what the dog was looking at.

"Oh…!" Almost dropping the folder, Nara stepped back several paces, her mouth remaining open after her quiet hiss of surprise. "Oh, oh!" she finally continued in a rushed whisper, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to intrude! I just came in because I was looking for Kudo-tantei to give him this folder, and I saw the dog, and then it rushed in here and I thought maybe… I… I'm sorry, I… I… I…?"

Slowly her mouth closed and she blinked.

The woman sitting in the hard straight-backed chair had not recognized her existence or moved in any way. Her head was bent over the large book situated in her afghan-covered lap; its text was illuminated by the light of the single small lamp Nara had seen from outside. She could not discern the woman's profiled face clearly through her hair, but seeing no movement, she almost thought for a long horrified second that the woman was dead. A moment later, a pale graceful hand reached up and turned the page of the book. Nara gulped.

"Um… Excuse me… but, uh… is Kudo-tantei here?" The woman in the chair did not answer. "…Um, ma'am …?" Ai stood up on her cushion, but the woman did not take any notice of it. A little louder, Nara asked again, "Is Kudo-tantei here, ma'am?" Still nothing.

Nara listened to the clock ticking in the foyer. If Kudo wasn't here, she needed to leave and head back to the office. Making one more attempt at communication, Nara stepped forward a bit more, and suddenly, it hit her.

The woman was in a wheelchair.

Nara hadn't realized it at first because someone had taken great inventive pains to cover up the fact that the chair had wheels attached. In surprise, she glanced up at the woman's face, but behind a pair of large, black-rimmed glasses, the blue-green eyes were fixated on the text in her lap. Suddenly feeling extraordinarily uncomfortable, Nara backed up towards the doorway. She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it.

Not knowing what else to do, Nara turned and headed out of the room. Hearing the clicking of tiny claws behind her, she glanced back around as she walked to see the Papillion standing in the doorway, staring at her solemnly. She was about to say goodbye to Ai, when suddenly, she slammed right into something hard and solid.

With a gasp, she stumbled backwards, clutching the folder tightly, gawking at the blue suit in front of her. She glanced upwards to see unfocused eyes staring down at her in puzzlement.

"Kudo-tantei! …I'm so sorry! I wasn't looking where I was going, and… I…" The detective's eyes were not on her face anymore, but the folder.

"Thank you, Nara-kun," he murmured, taking it out of her hands and effectively shutting her up. "I was looking for this. I thought I had left it at home, but when I didn't see it in here, I went back out to check my car. I suppose I left them at the office by accident; thank you again for bringing them to me." With quiet elegance, he flipped the folder open and began to leisurely scan the precious documents inside.

Nara watched him for a long moment, feeling that something was not right. Finally she realized what it was. "Um, Kudo-tantei… How… do you know my name…? And what I was doing here?"

Kudo looked at her with mild surprise. "I saw you at the office with Satou-san, of course. I remembered that our transfer from Osaka was coming in today, even if no one else did, and my friend Hattori Heiji had already called me several days ago to tell me who you were. …It was all too elementary, really." He turned his attention back to the folder. Nara blinked. Elementary, indeed. She hadn't thought that Kudo had even noticed her at all as he had stormed in and out of the offices.

A tiny clicking sound caused Nara's eyes to drop to the floor. The Papillion had come to sit next to her, flowing tail wagging as she gazed up at her master. A moment later, Kudo noticed the dog as well, and for the first time that Nara had seen, he smiled. He dropped down into a squat, and Ai immediately came padding forward, giving a half-jump to rest her front paws on Kudo's knee. The man petted her fondly behind the ears, and Nara saw that the distractedness in Kudo's eyes had been replaced by the sort of affection that she could only remember seeing on young fathers' faces before.

"Hello there, sweetheart," she heard him whisper to the dog. Ai gave a short bark, and Kudo laughed as the pup launched herself upwards onto his chest. With one arm around the silky bundle and the other arm holding the folder tightly, Kudo stood back up with a grin. Ai gave him a small lick on the cheek. "This is my little girl, Ai-chan," he informed Nara, and she was certain now that Kudo looked exactly like a proud father. Nara smiled back in acquiescence.

Suddenly, Ai barked sharply in Kudo's ear and began to wiggle in his grasp. "Okay, okay! I'm going!" Kudo stepped past Nara and began to make his way towards the right-hand doorway, burying his face in the pup's furry neck for a moment. Nara watched in silence until he was out of sight in the next room, after which her mind kicked back in and she realized that she was still standing there in Kudo's foyer having completed her mission but not having been dismissed. She wondered what to do. Kudo hadn't seemed upset to find her in his house, but did he want her to stay now or go?

Not wanting to make any more mistakes (such as not asking for directions), she figured that it would be best to follow. He might need her to do something involving the case at Haido Park. Quickly, she tiptoed her way across the hard floor and poked her head in the doorway.

Kudo was standing there, still with dog and folder in hand, looking at the bespectacled woman reading in her wheelchair. Nara saw that the vague expression had slammed back down over his face, though this time, there was some other emotion mixed in. She studied him with an investigative eye. At first she thought his face displayed amusement or tenderness, but a second later, his expression seemed to show signs of sorrow or pity, maybe even shame or… guilt? She wondered what it was about this woman that seemed to have Kudo so mixed up.

"I'm home, love," he spoke to her, in a tone that rather surprised Nara. His voice was calm and even, but rather loud. The woman, however, didn't move a muscle. Nara wondered how she could ignore him like that; he was standing right in front of her. He did not seem at all bothered by this, though. Instead, he raised his voice a few more decibels and said, "Shiho."

Suddenly, the woman's head shot up, and her eyes, magnified by the glasses' super thick lenses, trained themselves on Kudo immediately. The cold, serious look in her eyes seemed to soften – just the tiniest bit – before a dry smirk flickered onto her face. "Hello, Kudo-kun," Shiho answered in surprising disdain, and Nara almost flinched. Shiho's voice was raspy and low, like a very old woman that had been smoking for many decades, and the heavy sarcasm in her voice did nothing to mitigate it. "Back so soon?"

Instead of answering, Kudo merely walked over to her, adjusting the dog in his arms. Immediately, the textbook in her lap was closed and tucked between an afghan-covered leg and the side of the chair to make room as Ai jumped straight out of Kudo's arms to fill up the cleared-off space. As the dog landed with a thump on Shiho's lap, Nara expected the woman to at least twitch at the sudden weight. Shiho did nothing except place her hand on the Papillion's back and stroke her softly. Here again, Nara saw parental affection in the eyes, though it did not last as long as it had on Kudo's.

Kudo continued to move towards her until he was at her right side, leaning down and giving her a chaste kiss. It was not even a kiss on the lips, but on the cheek. Shiho's eyes had closed for a moment as he did this, reopening to stare up at him as he straightened up. "What do you have for me?" Her raspy voice was filled with amusement lightly veiled behind irritation.

"Strange substance," he replied immediately - his speaking volume still raised - and he dropped the worn folder into her lap next to the dog, "Found near a body at Haido Park. I believe it's narcotics, but I'd like you to test it, if you have the time." He dug down into his suit pocket and came up with a small plastic bag shut with a wire tie. Inside was an off-white powder.

"Oh? …Would you like that tested as soon as possible, or whenever I feel like it?"

"Well, I've got Takagi-san and Chiba-san out on the scene at the moment, and I'm guessing they don't want to have to spend the night there," Kudo retorted casually, dropping the plastic bag onto the folder.

Shiho gave a raspy sigh and petted the dog. "I suppose, then, if it's so time-critical… No, Ai-chan, don't sniff the drugs. They can be bad and do all sorts of… unexpected things, you know…" Shiho was suddenly staring at Kudo intently. "If you think it's narcotics, why does it need testing? Isn't your instinct good enough?"

Kudo didn't answer, but slipped his hand onto her right shoulder under her short, strawberry blonde hair and let it lay there. Shiho seemed to make a point of ignoring this unusual gesture by staring back down at the folder and the bag in her lap. Ai leaned her head against Shiho's chest, her muzzle buried in the woman's sweater, and Shiho ran her fingers along the Papillion's back absentmindedly.

The emergence of the tableau startled Nara. They looked exactly like a traditional family: father, mother, and child. And yet, though each one was there and connected by touch, the three pairs of eyes were each staring off distantly in different directions.

"All right," Shiho finally muttered, and coughed. Nara hoped that the cough would rid the woman of her rasp, but when Shiho continued, it was still present. "Just… give me a few minutes to set the testing up."

"That's fine," Kudo murmured, his voice suddenly losing its volume. The Papillion lay down on Shiho's lap, resting her muzzle on the worn folder. Suddenly, Nara realized that he was being serious about this woman in the wheelchair testing the powder. She really hadn't been sure, with the sarcasm in both of their voices, that they weren't just teasing each other about some inside joke. Nara wondered how Shiho would test the powder: certainly not by using it (Nara almost laughed at this idea). Knowing from Hattori Heiji-tantei how deep Kudo always was into his work, Nara realized that it probably wouldn't be surprising for the detective to have some kind of forensics lab in his house, especially if someone else living there knew enough about science to help him utilize it.

Wait, Nara thought. When Satou had been talking about the case from four years ago, she had said…

"…injured our top lab technician in the most… horrible way…"

Lab technician… injured… Nara stared at the woman, with her raspy voice and bad hearing and thick-lensed glasses and wheelchair. Surely not…

Suddenly, Kudo was looking right at Nara, and she realized with a start that she had forgotten that she was only an observer, that she had nothing whatsoever to do with the scene in front of her. She opened her mouth to apologize, but Kudo subtly shook his head, a distant smile on his face. She froze, and watched as he leaned over Shiho again, expecting him to kiss her. Instead, his hand reached past her face, brushing the strawberry blonde hair out of the way.

"You need to turn this up a bit; who knows when you might need to hear something?" he spoke loudly, and his hand fingered the small plastic device hanging over her ear.

With an annoyed frown, Shiho swatted his hand away. "I know. If it's silent in here too long, it starts buzzing." Suddenly, she reached up and adjusted her black-rimmed glasses.

And Nara finally noticed the lonely, small gold band on the ring finger of Shiho's left hand.

So that was why Kudo – and everyone else – could not forget the case from four years ago.

Something inside of her was telling Nara that she needed to go. She looked at Kudo intently for a moment, and the detective discretely lifted his eyes to meet hers. This time, he gave a barely perceptible nod and smile.

Nara returned the smile and pulled away from the doorway. She tiptoed towards the front door, careful not to make any sound on the hard wood. She didn't want to disturb the two people and the dog in the next room. She wondered what to say once she got back to the office, then realized that it was easy: she had successfully delivered the folder to Kudo-san. That was that. What else could she say?

As she closed the front door to the giant house, the last thing she heard from inside the foyer was the perpetual ticking of the grandfather clock.