Hey !
Back with another chapter and... some action ? A little bit only, but well, part of the investigation is about staying discreet, right ? What ? Heiji doesn't know how ? haha, can't disagree... xD
o.O.o
emmahoshi : Ah, yea, I took the idea from the episode where Heiji's mother is asking for Kogoro's help just to in fact see how good he's an a detective. I liked it so yea, there's a little deviation, it was funnier like this :p (else indeed, she'd be soooo perfect xD). That could be one of DC's mystery yea^^; We never heard about Kazuha's mum. But Kazuha doesn't seem to have any problem talking about the others' mothers. So I'd say either she died when she was pretty young or the parents divorced. I tend to assume the first since picturing divorced parents wouldn't be... you know, a good example. Even Eri and Kogoro would are separated aren't divorced and still obviously see each other... Oh, yea, he'll be willing to talk but the boys may have to push him a bit xD
Chapter 6 : Waiting in the shadows
"- So, how do you want to do this ?
- I was just plannin' on walkin' in...
- Great..."
The disappointed face of my friend told me this wasn't the answer he expected.
I had been telling him earlier that Ogi was up so we grabbed my spare bike - in the hope I wouldn' break that one too... - and headed back to Kyoto as soon as we could, after I left with a bunch of reassuring smiles to my relatives.
But I hadn't really planned anything, I just knew I had to be there... And there we were, on the other side of the street, in front of the hospital.
"- Ok... Since it was just us deducting things, I don't think the police noticed yet that Ogi is suspicious so there shouldn't be any heavy guarding at his door.
- We'll still have ta pass in front o' the staff without bein' noticed...
- Well, if someone stops us, for once, your Kansai-ben will be useful..." Kudô smirked as he looked up at me.
"- I'll be 'visitin' some relative' eh ?
- More credible with the correct dialect, right ?
- Yea... As ta Ogi, any idea on how ta make him speak ? I bet he won' just tell ta two kids he betrayed the police an' gave sensitive information ta a criminal group...
- We'll find something..."
The boy's expression was a bit scary and not fitting at all such a small face... Note for myself : never forget that, despite his innocent features, my best friend is the kind not to give anything away and above all when we're talking about criminals.
I wasn't used to that kind of sneaking and hiding in my investigations : I always did things in broad daylight and this way was a bit disturbing me. But well, since at least one of us was confident, I followed him and we stepped into the hospital, trying to look as casual as possible. It was around midday so there weren't a lot of visitors. Of staff either. I had already been in that hospital, this was the exact one they brought me in when Saijô attacked me during the case that revealed he was totally mad...
So it wasn't exactly hard to know where I was going and it was the same for Kudô.
"- Think we should try ta ask a nurse where he could be ?" I proposed with a low voice as we headed to the elevator.
"- Nah, it's ok... He should be in the same area you were brought in last time, since it was dedicated to cases' victims...
- Second floor then..." I concluded as I pushed the said floor's button.
We were entering the main hallway, discreetly looking the name plates on each side, when I noticed a man standing near a door, at the far end of it.
"- Not guarded, eh ?" I observed with a pinch of irony, keeping my voice low.
"- Not heavily guarded I said..." The fake child retorted with a glare. "And that'd mean someone knows how to put two and two together in Kyoto's police, that's not such a bad news.
- Unless ya want ta interrogate the guy he's guardin', then it is bad news.
- You're a bit pessimistic these days, Hattori... Just look !"
I couldn't even say anything, my friend was already heading straight to the policeman with a wide childish smile.
"- Oji-san, do you know where is the room 253 ?
- Ah, since this one is the 251, it should be the one just over ther..."
But the man didn't finish his sentence : he had done the mistake to turn his back at my little friend and the consequences were quick : a soporific needle right to his neck.
I accelerated to grab the man in his fall, not wanting it to make too much noise.
"- Crap, warn me first, ya ahou !" I ranted, panting for that quick run and my wounded elbow hurting to have to support such an extra weight.
"- I knew you could do it !" He just confidently smiled before opening the door and holding it for me to bring the unconscious policeman in.
I put him as I could in a corner, still ranting, knowing we'd clearly have some problems if anyone found us... When I turned my head to the bed, it was to see the man I already watched on the pictures, Ogi. The policeman was sleeping right now. He was in his thirties, with wavy hair and pale skin, paleness that was even accented by his wounds, clearly important seeing the huge wrapping around his torso. Some tube was still stuck into his nose and an IV was linked to a machine, machine near which my best friend was.
"- Oy, do ya know what ya're doin' ?! " I panicked when I saw he was pushing some buttons here and there.
"- Mostly...
- Mostly ?! Oy, dude...
- It's ok, I'm just lowering the level of painkillers to wake him up, I'm not touching anything else, don't worry... "
Kudô seemed confident so I didn't insist, though not really fond of the idea, and came closer to the bed, on the other side.
Apparently, he knew what he was doing since the man started to stir and opened owlish eyes barely two minutes later.
"- Who are you ?!" Ogi spurted when he saw the face near of his bed, mine, wasn't one he knew.
"- Someone who knows ya've been doin' nasty things recently..." I retorted with a hard look, trying to sound threatening, which wasn't that hard when I was facing the man who let Saijô escape. "Like helpin' prisoners ta escape, by givin' confidential info ta a criminal gang...
- The hell are you talking out, brat ? Ayanokoji then you... Why is everyone coming to me with crazy theories..."
I looked over the bed to my best friend with a bit of surprise. We had just learnt who was Mr "I know how to put two and two".
"-... I'm hurt and tired." Ogi was going on in his whimpering. "I'm a victim here ! I don't want to hear your baseless accusations... In fact I don't even care, just leave me alone!"
That was exactly what I didn't want to hear. And it kind of made me lost it.
"- Ya don' care ?!" I hissed as I grabbed his collar unceremoniously. "Really ? Do ya have any idea o' who I am ...?
- A brat playing detective ?" The man retorted with a condescending glare, bringing his hand on his collar to remove mine but I didn't let him.
"- Exactly. Name's Hattori Heiji."
I noted with a certain satisfaction the policeman paled at my name and stopped to struggle a second from the shock. Good, that meant he very probably knew who Saijô was to me.
"- The man ya freed has been tryin' ta kill me since. An' didn' hesitate ta kill anyone on his way..." I gulped discreetly, wanting to still sound menacing but the subject I was going to mention was... still too fresh so I lowered my voice. "Because, I don' know or want ta know why, ya decided ta help those guys, my father died. So don' give me bullshit like 'I don' care'. Three men died already. An' ya know exactly what's really happenin' an' who did it... That sounds like life imprisonment ta me. Perhaps even death row..." I finished before letting him go.
Ogi was even whiter than before, almost of the same colour than his sheets.
"- And those men you're trying to protect have tried to kill you..." Kudô pointed out, making the man jump, I didn't think he had noticed him yet.
Settling back on his pillow and closing his eyes with a grimace after that sudden move when he had been shot in the chest - but I had to admit I wasn't in the mood to be showing some solicitude - , the man finally dared to speak.
"- They never mentioned piercing bullets... There shouldn't have been anyone dying... I never asked for any of this !
- Who did then ?
- I don't know... I received a phone call, one night. Someone proposing me a lot of money. I had so many gaming debts... And no one was supposed to be hurt so I accepted... What a waste, I didn't even get a buck yet..."
I had a disgusted grimace at that man... While he seemed honestly shocked there had been some victims, he still was more worried about his money and the end of his career. That disgusting self-centred bastard...
"- Who are they ?" Kudô insisted when we both saw the man was starting to just cry on his situation and wasn't helping at all.
"- I don't know... We were just talking through the phone, I don't even know what any of them looks like...
- But that means ya have a phone number ta give us, right ?
- Yea... "
I took a piece of paper out when he started to dictate it.
A phone number. Such a small hint, this was going to be hard...
"- Oy, Hattori !"
I turned my head to see my best friend had left Ogi's side to check on the policeman he knocked out earlier.
" - I think he's waking up, we should put him back in the hallway and leave..."
His advice was underlined by a grunt from the man on the floor, so I got up with urge.
I grabbed his arm while Kudô opened the door to check if there was anyone and, at his sign, I stepped out to put the man on the floor, along the wall.
"- Let's hope he'll think he had hypoglycaemia... " The boy prayed with a smirk at me.
I rolled my eyes but nevertheless smiled to him. The way my little friend was leading his investigation was scary indeed...
" - Let's go !"
o.O.o
A little while after, we were in Umekôji's park, a bit isolated, having left the main ways.
"- Ok, I'm callin'." I said, grabbing my phone to dial the number Ogi had given to us.
Before Kudô's hand stopped mine.
"- We need to think first about what we're going to say, Hattori.
- Easy, I'll tell them I know everythin', that should be enough ta force them out !
- Oy, don't you think you have your hands full enough with Saijô ? I'm not going to let you provoke a criminal organisation...
- Then what ?" I retorted with a glare, bored to have to think about all those little details when we were tracking the ones who caused Oyaji's death.
"- Time to use my old good voice changer..."
A few minutes later, I was holding my phone between the two of us and Kudô, after setting the frequency he wanted to use, dialled the number Ogi gave us.
"- Yea ?" A kind of annoyed voice answered after a few rings.
"- It's me... Ogi."
I could almost hear the guy at the other side of the line paling with surprise.
"- What ? Disappointed you didn't manage to kill me ? Or that I woke up ?" Kudô retorted, taunting the man with a satisfied smile on his face, totally in his role. "I didn't little your little surprise either, guys... So, if you want me to stay silent, it'll be the double of what you already owe me or nothing. "
We heard a short commotion at the other side of the line, two persons were clearly arguing as to what to do.
"- Ok." They agreed after a little while. "Where do you want to meet ?
- Haha, you're the funny ones, aren't you ? I'm not really wanting to be killed... I want you to put the money in a metallic case and you to leave it in Umekoji's park, just behind the Steam Locomotive Museum, in the corner of the park where it meets the tracks. Someone I trust will retrieve it. If anything happens to him, you know the consequences...
- ... Just leave us a little while, time to prepare the money.
- You have two hours."
And that was when Kudô hung up.
"- Sooo... We wait fer them ta put the case in the park an'... What, ya find a way ta stick one o' yer emitters on the guys ?
- Exactly."
I sighed at that plan that once again sounded crazy. It was just scary how many things a small child could do without being noticed. Planting emitters was one of my best friend's trademarks, yet not a single person, apart perhaps for Gin once, ever noticed him. Ever.
Let's just hope it'd go as smoothly as usual...
My silent prayer was interrupted by an intense growling.
"- Hmm... Does it disturb ya if we eat in the meanwhile ?" I proposed with a grimace of embarrassment.
o.O.o
The plan went so easily it was almost shameful.
Kudô had been playing with his soccer ball and "accidentally" hit the guy who had been hiding the case and was coming back to the park's entrance. I bet the guy forgot him the second after, despite the fact he was now leaving with a little 'gift' stuck to his trouser.
Despite what "Ogi" had ordered, the man hid a bit further, waiting for the one who would retrieve the money.
Who of course never came. After a long wait - I was so glad we ate in the meanwhile -, seeing it was getting dark , the man gave up and, after retrieving the case, got into his car and left.
We took my bike once again, tailing him from afar, staying of course out of his sight : what would be the need to see him when we had the emitter telling us his exact position ?
And that bought us where we were right now. An old housing estate, made of something like ten small adjoining houses, looking deserted.
But a closer look - and the red point on my best friend's glasses-, were telling us it was much more than that.
"- I bet the houses are linked together..." I said with a low voice after we hid on the other side of the street to watch the place.
"- Yep, I saw the same guy in two different houses' second floor, no way he could have gotten out so fast..." Kudô confirmed, his hand on his glasses, using his night-vision zoom. "And seeing those guards... You wouldn't happen to have a camera on you ?
- Nah... But my phone should be enough, I took one with a good camera so I could use it fer the cases...
- Let's try..."
One half hour later, after only a few words exchanged, the fake child got up.
"- Ok, now, let's show all those to Kyoto's police. That should be enough to convince them to come here.
- What ?! But we're so close ta...
- The two of us won't be able to catch them all. And with all the weapons they probably have here... Nah, we need the Special Forces to come and empty this building for us. Just wait a bit longer, Hattori, we'll get the ones who killed your father, we're barely delaying their arrest for a few hours..."