Disclaimer: I do not own either Detective Conan / Case Closed or Yu Yu Hakusho – if I did, I would be rich and famous! I am currently neither, but frankly, that suits me just fine. I hope this story will be found worthy of both fictional worlds.
"The Scene of the Crime"
"Oh, honestly, Yusuke… it was just an accident! You didn't have to go and beat Kuwabara up over a little thing like that!"
"I did not – ow! – beat him up! It was a man-to-man duel of honor, Keiko!"
"Yeah, whatever. Now hold still while I disinfect these cuts!"
Yusuke reluctantly let her have her way with him. He glared sulkily about the school nurse's office, cringing slightly every time she applied an ethyl-alcohol-soaked cotton swab to a new laceration. Finally, he could stand no more.
"Ok, that's enough. You need to get to class, right?"
"Well, yes, but I'm not quite done with you yet! You still look terrible…"
"Ah…" Yusuke limped over to the floor-length mirror. She's right… no wonder the nurse fainted when we walked in the door! His face, though it no longer had the appearance of raw beef, was still badly swollen. His cuts were nearly all bandaged, but his uniform was a completely lost cause: not even a master tailor would be able to mend it, and his mother was completely inept. Damn… more money down the piss-pipe. Third uniform this year, too.
"Yusuke?"
"I'm fine. You should get to class."
"Only if you're coming with me."
Damn stubborn girl… "I'll be along in a minute."
"No, Yusuke. I know you too well for that. You're coming with me now." She seized him by the wrists and dragged him toward the door.
She won't be able to open the door and still keep hold of me! Yusuke thought triumphantly. But his victory was short-lived: as they neared the door, someone opened it from outside.
"Ah, Yurameshi. Good. Please, come this way?"
xxxxx
"Officer Keinan, please believe me… Yusuke would never…!"
The corpulent officer sat calmly behind the mahogany desk, petulantly cleaning his fingernails. "Sorry, miss. He's the only male student who was late to your school this morning, and that makes him our prime suspect."
"In a murder?" Keiko slammed her fists onto the desk. "Yusuke's not that kind of person."
"To the contrary, his record says he's quite the delinquent." The police deputy tapped the file meaningfully.
"Sure, he's gotten into street scraps all his life, but he'd never kill another human being!" I'm wasting my breath… this guy doesn't believe a word I'm saying! Keiko had demanded that she be allowed to accompany Yusuke to the station, claiming that she was his sister. They knew now that she wasn't, but were far too busy to take her back to school.
The office door flew open and another officer burst in. "Yo, Keinan, we just got a call from Central. It seems some McGuire fellow wants the killer brought to the crime scene."
"Damn! McGuire's always poking his nose in to our business! Why bother? We know the punk's guilty."
"He is not! Just give him a chance, and he'll prove he's innocent!"
"Shut up, girlie! One more word out of you, and we'll just dump you off on the street, ya hear?" the bulbous man roared. "Keisuke, cuff the kid and take him over. Bring this brat, too, get her out of my hair!"
"Yes, sir!"
xxxxx
Jimmy Kudo calmly surveyed the scene of the crime. "It looks like a murder committed in the midst of a robbery, but the report said the cash register was untouched?"
"That's correct."
"And the surveillance cameras actually caught the shooting on tape?"
"Yes. We're having the tapes time-synchronized now; they should be here within the hour."
"Good." He'd never been in this particular establishment before, but the layout was very familiar: it looked just like the convenience store on the corner near his house. He gave the officer waiting outside the high sign.
"Wow… this place is a mess!" Rachel said, stepping through the wreckage of the busted glass door. Looking around, she saw that every aisle was completely trashed.
"Stay there, Rachel, I still need to look around some more."
"Ok."
Hmm… broken glass, spilled flour and rice… ah! "Inspector, are these the footprints of you or your men?" He pointed to a faint set of prints in the middle of an aisle.
"Eh? Certainly not! The only person to enter this room before you and I did was Mr. Taka over there, and he came in the back." He pointed to a young man in the garb of a sales clerk. "He's the one who made the call to the police."
Jimmy stepped carefully over to the man; he looked tired, and scared. "Mr. Taka, what is your relationship to the victim?"
"Mr. Yamaguchi was my employer… he let me work odd shifts in between my college classes. I could watch the store and study at the same time. He was always very nice to me… I… I don't know what I'll do without this job!" He broke down into tears. "If I'd been here sooner, it would've been me gunned down instead of him. You have to find the killer, please!"
Either this guy's a master actor, or he's completely sincere. He had a good deal going here; if money was the motive, he would have cracked the register, even if the original crook didn't. "So, what happened this morning?"
"I came in to work for a few hours before going to my 11 o'clock Particle Physics class. I came in through the employees' entrance in the back; it was locked, as always, so I used this key." He removed it from his key-ring and handed it to Jimmy. "After I hung up my hat and jacket and put on my apron in the break room in the back, I came to the front of the shop… and I found him, just like this. I immediately called the police."
"We have his 9-1-1 recording, if you'd like to hear it, Jimmy."
"Maybe later. What time was the call?"
McGuire flipped through the packet of papers. "7:56 AM."
"Two hours ago, hmm? Mr. Taka, did Mr. Yamaguchi have any enemies that you know of?"
"Oh, no, he was the kindest man… never got angry at anyone, except shoplifters. But even then, he'd let it slide sometimes – this isn't the best neighborhood, and a lot of kids go hungry frequently. When he catches a kid swiping chips or candy, he gives them cans of soup, fruit, or vegetables to take home instead. Very few kids try to steal a second time – they just ask him, and he sends them home with enough for at least a meager meal. He really does try to help!"
"Any relatives?"
"Well, I understand that he inherited the shop from his father. He was married once, I think, but his wife either died, or left. He never mentions her, anyway. No children of his own that I know of, but his niece and nephew stop by every now and then, separately."
"How well do they get along?"
"Well, the one time they both showed up at the same time, sparks flew… those two did not like each other. But each of them got along fine with Mr. Yamaguchi!"
"I see. Mr. Taka, please leave your number with the officer outside, in case we need to ask you some more questions. I believe you have a class to attend."
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" He bowed, and eagerly dashed outside, still wearing his store apron.
"You're letting him go, Jimmy?"
"He's not the killer, Rachel."
"How do you know?"
"Well, I've checked the employee time log; his story about flexible hours was true. And, he's got a small notebook tucked under his apron; he was intending to study today. If he had been the killer, he would have known that he wouldn't need his notes, and he wouldn't have brought it."
"I guess."
Jimmy stepped around the counter and crouched down next to Mr. Yamaguchi's lifeless body. Hmm… about three hours ago, judging from temperature and lividity. So, somewhere around seven o'clock. He stood up and examined the bullet lodged in the wall. Nine millimeter, through-and-through… just a bit more useful than one that lodges in the body.
An officer clattered in with an array of video equipment on a cart. "Here's the security footage, Inspector."
"Thanks. Care to take a look, Jimmy?"
"Absolutely."
xxxxx
The time-synchronized recordings began. The first screen showed the intact glass front door, which now lay in ruins. The second displayed a panoramic shot of the store, but the bottom half of the screen only showed the alcohol aisle. The last screen showed Mr. Yamaguchi behind the counter, flipping through a magazine. All three were fairly clear – as clear as grainy black-and-white security footage can be.
"As you can see, there's not much to go on," McGuire began.
"Shh! I can watch for myself!" Jimmy chastised.
"Right. Sorry."
The inspector, Jimmy, and Rachel watched in silence as the events of that morning played out on the screens. As it was the early morning, only a few customers came and went – old men buying cigarettes, a few schoolboys buying comics to sneak into school and read behind their textbooks. Jimmy snickered quietly. I used to do that… never did get caught. One teenager tried to sneak out with a girlie mag – Mr. Yamaguchi caught him and none-too-gently escorted him from the premises. Pretty spry for his age… "Mr. Yamaguchi is around fifty years old, correct?"
"Fifty-five, actually."
"Hm."
As the timer at the bottom of the screen read "7:04", the store was devoid of customers. The screen displaying the door darkened, and the door swung open, revealing a customer wearing a white baseball cap and light blue boys' school uniform. The middle screen showed him crossing the room, stopping in the middle of an aisle. The figure began speaking. Damn! Normally the lack of sound isn't an issue, since I can read their lips, but the image is too distant! He couldn't make out words, but the expressions were clear enough. They were having an argument.
This is not the first argument they've had… his face flushed immediately upon seeing the visitor. So, this is no disgruntled customer... and not a robber. Who else would want to kill a storekeeper?
The customer approached the counter and drew a small handgun. Browning, maybe… or Luger. Mr. Yamaguchi began backing away, holding up his hands. It's more of a defensive stance than a posture of surrender… I thought I recognized that Ju-Jitsu move he used on the teenager! Mr. Yamaguchi seemed to be trying to persuade the visitor to leave, but the gunman shook his head, aimed, and fired, point-blank.
"Oh!"
"Rachel, shh!"
"Sorry…"
I've never actually seen a murder being committed before… Rachel took a minute to compose herself before looking back to the screens. The murderer was trashing the place; he smashed the door from the outside as he left, almost as an afterthought.
"That's all, huh?"
"Yep."
"Well, it's clear that the murder was not planned; that gun was meant to intimidate, not kill. It's also clear that Mr. Yamaguchi knew his killer – but I doubt he could tell us who it was now. Hmm… I think the killer wanted it to look like an attempted robbery gone sour. But didn't he know about the cameras?" Jimmy glanced behind at the ancient piece of surveillance equipment that looked out over the shop. Either old, or second-hand. He pulled over a stepstool, hopped up, and examined the brackets. The screws are rusted: it's been here for ages. A cursory inspection proved the other two cameras were the same age and type. If the gunman had been in this store even once, he'd know about these cameras. It all depends on whether this murder was planned…
While Jimmy continued his visual dissection of the shop – and his mental dissection of the mystery as a whole – Rachel looked on with a mixture of admiration and another emotion she couldn't quite define. I simply love watching Jimmy get so engrossed in a tough mystery… he's so good at it, but the best part is that he really comes alive! At the same time, I can't help wishing he'd pay this much attention to me… "Sigh."
"Something the matter, Miss Moore?"
"Hm? No, Inspector, I'm feeling much better now. I just enjoy watching Jimmy work."
"Mm."
Nekonemo appeared at the door. "Inspector! The local police have brought the suspect they located earlier!" He handed McGuire a manila file.
"Yusuke Yurameshi, eh? Bring him in!" the inspector roared. "I want a good look at the punk who killed this poor man!"
A/N: Will proof be found of poor Yusuke's innocence? Will they catch the real killer? Will Jimmy get to tell Rachel his true feelings? Will Yusuke tell Keiko? Will I ever stop speaking in only questions just like the guy who does the next-episode previews for Yu Yu Hakusho? (I think they do it for DBZ, too… must be a fighting-anime thing…) Will you please, please, please read and review? I'll get the next chapter out soon, I swear!