Hey there !

Let's go a bit deeper in that case... And try to see who's behind all this though the answer won't come too fast.. Oh well, you'll know who the next chapter's guest at least ; )

o.O.o

aerinechan : Béé t'inquiète, il est pas loin le ptiot... ; ) Et oui, on monte d'un cran tout d'un coup, reste à savoir qui a organisé tout ça... quant au troisième larron, et bien on va en parler rapidement :p

emmahoshi : Yup, I remembered : ) Haha, yea, sorry I chose the title before thinking about that twist so... it may deviate a bit now ^^;Ah, nah, I won't be that mean, I don't plan to have Heiji back into the depths of sorrow ^^;; He'll be frustrated but no turning back. Hey, you'll see, but of course I plan to have more of our little conan in that story ; )

estelle : No worries, our small detective is never far away... who'd slap some sense into heiji's head else ? :p

Chapter 11 : Charity

After a silent and gloomy dinner, I escaped to my room, leaving Kazuha in my mother's hands, to call my best friend. I knew I had to. I needed his sources of information, mine being very probably neutralized by that damn Superintendent General.

With a sigh, I dialled his number, waiting a bit for him to answer as he was probably looking for an isolate corner to speak freely.

"- Hey, made it safely at home, Mr Big boy ?" I couldn't stop myself to joke, though my tone wasn't absolutely right.

"- Yea, my Nee-chan came to fetch me at the station, no way I could get lost, right ?"

I smiled at the sour voice of my friend. Sometimes, it was harder for him to play his role and I guessed that, after 2 days with me, running after bad guys like the teen detective he was, returning back to his sad reality had to be hard.

"- So, why are you calling? And don't tell me you already miss me.

- Ya're so cold, Kudô, sometimes…" I complained with a fake hurt tone. Before getting serious. "Ta be honest, I'd prefer ta call ya fer somethin' else but… Toyama-han got arrested.

-… What?!

- Suspicion o' corruption, accordin' ta his new boss. But if ya read between the lines, ya'll see 'stuck his nose where he shouldn' have'. Kudô, he discovered… Oyaji was a target from the beginnin'. "

His silence told me he was already thinking hard about the implications.

"- So that organization we stopped was just a decoy ?

- Ended with the same conclusion, yea.

- This is big, Hattori… Planning the murder of a Superintendent General ? This is no joke…

- Ya don' have ta tell me this…

- I'm saying I don't want you to just jump in front of the one who took your father's position and throw baseless accusations at him…

- I know that, ahou ! Why d'ya think I'm callin' ya fer ?!" I spurted with anger, bored of my two best friends to play the "nanny". Or to try to replace Oyaji.

I sighed, knowing I shouldn't have yelled. "I know, Kudô. So could ya look into that guy ? I'll try ta get the name o' the politician who put him here too.

- Spell his name."

o.O.o

Four hour later, I was rubbing my eyes with exhaustion. And frustration.

Nothing. That Kasai didn't seem to exist between his nomination as a policeman in Okinawa right after he got his diploma and his sudden appearance as a Superintendent General. His career was supposed to have been developing in the south but. Did you know how many damn islands there were in the archipelago of Okinawa ?! That guy could come from the other side of the world, for what I knew…

And, seeing the lack the documents about him, that could be true.

Even when I used the old good logins from Oyaji to check the police's files– thanks kami for the HQ not to have cancelled them yet – there wasn't anything. Out of the academy at 22, 48 years old, flawless career, exemplary behaviour, not the slightest ripple in his life as a policeman…

All lies, right ?

Before listening to my tired body and stopping, I took the names of the ones he had been supposed to have worked with in the south, wanting to try to give them a call as soon as possible.

And then lied down, my heart and my head still running.

I couldn't say if I was happy or not... Perhaps the slightest bit less guilty, I had to admit it, but that wouldn't bring me back my father. Oyaji was stern, no use hiding it. But he still was… had been my father. A model of righteousness. His whole life had been dedicated to hunting down the criminals and for that, he had to be remembered of. And even if he didn't really seem to want me to go towards a career of private detective, he never stopped me once. Never. Hinted his disagreement, sometimes, but he never ordered me to stop.

And to know he had been killed on purpose was so much annoying me. Saijô was mad. He had killed a lot already, much more than anyone should. Enough to be seen as a killing machine by some, who so intelligently used him… They offered him his freedom against another murder, which so conveniently implied he'd have an additional "reward" : me and the chance to have his revenge.

I didn't know when I fell asleep, lost in my thoughts, but, when I opened my eyes, it was in broad daylight.

o.O.o

"- Heiji ?"

I could feel Okan's surprised look when she saw me entering the living room.

Well, no wonder, seeing I was in my high-school uniform, for the first time of the week.

"- Yea, I'll be goin' back ta school today. Safe food ?" I asked casually with a suspicious look at the food on the table as I sat near it.

"- Yes, I called the maid back. It was a bit hard fer me ta have someone around those last days but I'm feelin' better… An' I can' handle everythin' in this wide house by myself or ask Kazuha-chan ta do it...

- I guess..." I smiled at her. "Aikido club this mornin' ?

"- Yea, she left one half hour ago. I think she needed something ta decompress so I encouraged her ta go there. An' ya, why the sudden motivation ?

- I need somethin' ta change my mind. I couldn' find anythin' about that new Superintendent General, so I'd just be like a horse with a tooth ache here, waitin' fer my ... sources o' information ta come back ta me... Nah, I'm better at school in the meanwhile. Unless ya tell me ya need a presence at home ?

- Nah, the maid is here an' Yamato promised he'd visit every time he'll pass around here so I'm good. An' I'd feel better ta know ya're at school. I was afraid fer a while last night ya'd... I don' know, just run into the police station an' start accusatin' that man..."

I had a grin at her worries, amused to see even my mother was thinking I was able to take the worst decisions.

"- I'm the great detective of the West, I can act with tact sometimes ! I don' think goin' frontal would help... Nah, I'll be waitin' ta see what he wants..."

Because that was one of my biggest questions... Ok, the position of Superintendent General would open a lot of doors. But his nomination had been so fast, it was due to bring some suspicions... And, seeing the ones behind this seemed pretty intelligent, it meant they had no other choice.

So time would quickly give me that answer but I was still wondering what it would be...

o.O.o

Two weeks later, I was starting to feel impatient and my frustration was reaching a peak...

I had received some information from Kudô, without really getting more answers than what I already had. Through his acquaintances in the MPD, he could confirm the man had really been to the academy so he really was a cop. After that, even for the MPD, the Okinawa islands were too far for them to have anything interesting.

We thought for a second to ask Kudô's acquaintances from the FBI also but weren't really convinced about it, seeing these were internal affairs so we didn't try. Those agents were specialized in international criminals, not internal conflicts.

Our second suspicious man was the one who put him here. Hidaka Atsushi, a politician. There weren't a lot of thing about his youth and his political debut but impossible to know if it was because nothing happened or because he paid to have a "new beginning", hiding whatever could have hindered his career under a bunch of money. The man's name was nevertheless appearing often here and there, in political debates. Unlike that Kasai, the man had been active recently, and before this sudden intervention. He had been holding a seat in the Diet for two years now, allowing him quite the political power, like for example, establishing a new Superintendent General in a provincial branch of the Police...

I looked with a sigh at the picture of those two men on my bed, in front of me as I lied on my stomach, my chin on my hand.

Hidaka was... well, a kind of stereotyped politician. Hairs starting to whiten on the temples, though not that rare, a bit plumb, and that fake smile they all had, with a lot of white teeth.

Kasai was sterner. His skin was dark, like mine, and his eyebrows were pretty close, giving him a severe look even on that picture on which he tried to smile. His posture was straight, his shoulders wide, you could feel his past as a policeman.

I was using that word, 'past', because I had tried to give a few calls, passing as a policeman from Osaka's police trying to 'take the temperature' about that new 'boss of mine' but no one seemed to really have heard of him, confirming my little group's fears.

Whatever the man had been doing these last years, it wasn't within the police.

My phone vibrating made me jump, a bit surprised in my contemplation of the two pictures.

"- Hi Hei-chan!

- Hey, Otaki-han, how are ya doin' ?

- Great, now that I have good news fer ya !

- I'm all ears !" I said with enthusiasm, eager to have some news from the police's side, frustrated not to find by myself anything convincing enough against that fake policeman.

"- We've been asked this mornin' ta be part o' the security in a charity party in Osaka in two weeks. Only VIPs, ya wouldn' imagine how difficult it would be ta get a seat in there...

- I'm not really interested in charity so I wouldn' fight ta get a seat… Though I guess that, if ya're talkin' about it, it means I'd like ta be there?

- Remember ya asked me ta check if there was anythin' a Superintendent General could do that anyone else in the Police Station wouldn' ? That is part o' it. Kasai has a seat with his name on it because o' his position. He doesn' even have ta ask...

- Could there be anythin' interestin' in there ?

- Money, jewels, targets... Everythin' ya want, ta be honest...

- Ta the point he'd get rid o' the former Superintendent ta get there ?

- That, I can' tell, but I can tell ya that party is quite somethin'.

- Ok... Ya mentioned some targets ?

- Yea... We've been asked ta be extra cautious about three guests who could be at risk, due ta some threats. Wait a sec', I'm getting' my notes out. Ok, so : Arimachi Chikako-han, head o' her family's Zaibastu, actually strugglin' in her project ta build a dam in a protected area, since most o' the locals speak against the natural disaster it would cause. She received some anonymous threats through mails. Yasumoto Daiki-han, a male politician, probably the next head o' the most influent republican party around here. His positions about the national services, includin' the police, aren' really popular. Someone attempted ta kill him last month...

- Sounds like a nice guy...

- Yea, I can tell ya no one is really fond o' him around here, I wouldn' even surprised if that attempt was comin' from someone from the 'house'... An' the third is Sahashi Iwao-han, a famous author, mostly because o' the mysterious aura he has. His books are always polemical, that's why he only appears once or twice in public durin' the year. His next book seems ta already bring him some problems, he has received some serious threats askin' him not ta publish it.

- Ok..." I said, looking at the names I wrote in front of me. "Thanks fer the intel, Otaki-han. An' keep a low profile !

- Yup ! Laters !"

I couldn't even put my phone back in my pocket that I felt it vibrated once again.

Kudô's name was on the screen. Nice timing, I was planning to call him after investigating those three guys but having him search on his side also wouldn't hurt, to be honest.

"- Hey, Kudô !

- Hello Hattori. Would you still happen to have some room for three persons at home ?

- Why ? Wanna visit with Occhan an' Neechan ?

- Yea, a friend of mine told us he'd come around your place...

- Someone I know ?" I wondered, at the slightly ironic tone of my best friend.

"- Yep. The Kaitou Kid.

- Oh, then it's not me ya come ta see in Osaka, it's yer favourite Thief... Ya damn fangirl.

- Ba'aro, I'm not coming to Osaka to admire him, I'm coming to stop him !

- Didn' really work the last time... Or the time before.

- Eh, it's the first time you'll meet him, you'll see he isn't that easy to catch !

- Hai, hai ! So, what's his new target ? Ya received the notice already ?

- Yea... The Kid will come at a charity party next weekend. A wealthy heiress will be here, one who always hangs around with a sapphire necklace, a sapphire supposed to belong to the five biggest of the world...

- What a great idea... Let's hang around with half a billion yens around the neck..." I observed with irony, finding the idea pretty stupid. "Ta be honest, I was already plannin' ta invite ya ta that party Kudô. We have another reason ta go there..."