Day 8!

Words: 2,351
Character(s): Kaitou Kuroba, Shinichi Kudou, Heiji Hattori
Rating: PG (for swearing)
Prompt: #8; Have the characters discover another character's secret (which can't be obvious), and use 5 out of 6 possible words somewhere in the story depending on if the secret is good or bad
Disclaimer: Not mine!! Gosho Aoyama owns all!
Notes: I chose a good secret, and used "old", "towel", "folder", "shower", and "box"; set sometime after "Rebirth"

Knowledgeable Kudou

"I don't know why the hell I go anywhere with you, Kudou!" An irritated Osakan teenager named Heiji Hattori groused.

"Are you sure it wasn't you? I get more phone calls than on-location murders to solve, since changing back to my own body," Shinichi Kudou retorted.

Kaitou Kuroba, who had a scowl on his face, interrupted them, "I don't know why I go anywhere with either of you, let alone with the two of you put together. I swear…you two are freak'n dead-body magnets!"

The two high school detectives turned to glare at the young magician.

"What!?" Kaitou huffed, then spoke in a perfect rendition of Heiji, "My mom won this free trip to a ranch, but got sick and can't go, so I wanna know if you guys would liketa come since dad's got work ta do and can't make it, either."

"Nice imitation!" Heiji grinned.

Kaitou scowled at him in return as he went back to his normal voice. "Yea…and now, here we are, in the midst of yet another dead body!"

"Honestly, Kuroba…you talk about it as if it happens to you all the time," Shinichi drawled as he inspected the broken ladder that had sent a worker to his untimely death.

The worker had been working on the roof of the information building when the base broke and sent him to the ground, where he broke his neck upon landing.

"It could be an accident, ya know. An honest to goodness accident." Heiji tried to pacify his friend, though he was just as frustrated that yet another one of their trips had been ruined by a possible murder.

"Come on, Hattori…you've seen the ladder. It was obviously broken beforehand and put back together with a cheap adhesive." Shinichi stood up.

Kaitou jabbed his thumb at the police nearby. "Tell that to them…they keep shouting 'accident', 'accident'."

Heiji knelt by the ladder. "So, it was definitely a murder…or, an attempt ta hurt the guy. There was no guarantee that he'd break his neck upon land'n with just this set-up…"

"Not if he was drugged beforehand. His reaction time would be slowed, and he wouldn't be able to get his feet under him or make a grab for the roof when the ladder fell apart."

Kaitou stared at Shinichi. "Isn't that sort of an old trick? Drugging someone to help with murdering them?"

Shinichi shrugged. "Old, but that's what we've got. There was a faint scent of alcohol on the man's lips…and in the canteen of energy drink at his waist. Someone slipped some into his canteen, and it inhibited his abilities."

Heiji crossed his arms in thought. "That box of tools of his up there is proof of that, if the spiked drink wasn't enough. They're scattered oddly, as if he was try'n to figure out which tool was meant ta repair the rotted section of the roof. Yer trained repairman wouldn't have that problem."

Kaitou shook his head in awe. "I forgot that you two are scary when you're together. And not just because of rising body counts, either."

Both detectives glared at him, to which he responded with an innocent smile, then they went back to mulling over the information.

"The question now is…" Heiji started.

"…who did it…" Shinichi glanced at the three people that stood near the police.

"…and why," Heiji finished.

Kaitou merely sighed as the two discussed it while alternately watching the three suspects. If the teen remembered correctly, one was the repairman's best friend, who happened to work on the ranch. Another was the wife of aforementioned best friend, and the third was the owner of the ranch, a heavyset man that had come out to see what the commotion was about.

The magician yawned and eliminated the ranch owner from the list of suspects…he couldn't even fathom a motive, and the man had been tending to the horses with another stable boy the entire morning they had been there.

The other two, however…the teen wasn't so sure of. Then again, his friends were the detectives, not him. Sure, he could piece something together once in a while, but it wasn't his forte.

Kaitou hadn't realized he had spaced out until he heard the telltale voices of his friends when they were in 'detective mode'. He tuned himself back in to hear what they had come up with in the five to ten minutes he had been pondering about it, since both of them had those irritating smirks on their faces that indicated that they knew the solution while they explained the trick.

"…as for who did it…it was you!" Shinichi pointed at the woman.

Kaitou blinked. He would have guessed the man…

There were gasps, and the woman demanded to know what the basis was of the accusation.

"You're wear'n it, lady," Heiji pointed out with a grin. "That pen 'round yer neck…how come ya didn't use it to sign the waiver earlier when we all checked inta the visitor's house ta sign up for horseback ride'n? You asked ta borrow a pen fer it…how come ya didn't use that one?"

The woman paled as her hand went to the pen around her neck. "I…"

"That's because there's no ink in it," Shinichi interrupted her. "Now, it'll be empty, but if it were to be checked, forensics would find traces of alcohol…probably a fairly strong one."

Again, the woman paled. "But…but how would I know he was coming to fix the house? And the ladder…!"

Heiji clicked his tongue. "Simple. Ya snatched the folder that contained the schedules fer today on it this morn'n. I heard them say'n earlier that the thing had gone miss'n, which was why the owner was in such a huff, try'nta remember what had been written on it."

"Then, all you had to do was excuse yourself from your husband," Shinichi picked up on the explanation, "and go down to van of the victim. Since it was unlocked, you got in and used one of his own tools to cut through the wooden ladder, then used a mild adhesive to glue it back together. This was also when you put the mixture into his canteen."

Heiji frowned at the woman. "Jes give it up…you're sunk."

To Kaitou's surprise, and probably everyone else's, the woman did not just give up. She didn't start to rage, or fall to her knees in tears…

Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a 9mm Glock Compact and aimed it around at the others.

The police hadn't been able to get a jump on pulling out their own firearms, and by the time they would have been able to grab them, the woman could shoot all of them dead at that short range.

"You want to know why I did it?" the woman addressed them coldly as she released the safety of the gun. "Because that man was trying to blackmail me into divorcing my husband in order to marry him!"

Her husband paled. "He wouldn't…"

"He was! But I couldn't go to the police with the information he had on me…he was quite good at digging up the information. He wouldn't let it slide, though…I offered him money, but it wasn't good enough!"

Shinichi glared at her. "So you chose murder."

"It worked, after all! And now…you cute little boys are going to just stand there unless you want a bullet through your heads." The woman edged over to the fence that separated them from some of the grazing horses. Or, more specifically, the area for the competition horses where there was one that was already saddled up.

The gun swung to point at Kaitou, who had been slowly reaching into his pocket for his card gun that he never left home without.

"Not a single move, kiddo," the woman warned. "Or I will shoot."

Kaitou froze with a curse.

Heiji eyed the woman, then spoke to Shinichi out of the corner of his mouth. "If ya happenedta bring that tranq watch of yours, Kudou, now'd be a time ta whip it out!"

Before Shinichi could reply, the woman had mounted the horse, then fired at the ground in front of the police as a warning…and to help spur the horse on.

Startled by the noise, the horse took off, and jumped the fence on the woman's command.

The other horses nearby panicked at the sound, and started to run as well.

"Shit, there'll be a stampede!!" Heiji cursed as they had little choice but to avoid the panicked animals.

Shinichi, however, had a different idea, and actually ran at one of the horses.

"What the hell are you doing, Kudou!?" Kaitou exclaimed. He was fairly nimble, but not even he had the guts to go up to one of those creatures when its hooves were flailing all over the place.

Rather than answering, Shinichi swung up on one of the mares without even a saddle, and somehow managed to get it to take off in the direction the woman had gone.

As the owner and the others attempted to calm the horse and the policemen radioed for backup to chase the woman down between dodging other horses, the two remaining teens gaped.

"Did you know he could do that, Hattori?" Kaitou asked.

"Nup. Ya dun think he expects us ta follow him, do ya?"

"I damn well hope not, because I'm not going near those horses right now!"

The two watched Shinichi expertly ride his horse off in the direction the woman had fled on her own horse until they were out of sight.

Shinichi was grateful that he still carried around the tranquilizer watch that Agasa-hakase had made for him. He didn't need the power up shoes or some of the other gadgets any longer since he wasn't in a kiddy body, but the watch was a handy invention that he wasn't quite willing to let go of.

He hadn't been able to flip it open then, but he knew he would get his chance…and as his horse galloped through the woods at around 35mph, his mind quickly calculated what to do.

It didn't take long for him to guide his horse into clearing natural obstacles to catch up with the culprit…the woman had presumed that nothing would come after her since she wielded a gun, and had slowed her own horse to avoid some of the rocks and trees since she had gone off the path of the trail.

Thus, she was startled when she heard Shinichi's horse, and her mouth all but dropped open when she saw him. She fumbled, but wasn't as adept at riding a horse as she had them believe when she first mounted, and didn't dare let go of the reigns with either hand in order to fire the gun…which had been tucked into the back of her jeans after she had fired the warning shot.

Shinichi already knew it wouldn't be a problem, as he had seen her click on the safety and put the gun there after she fired the shot.

"If you come any closer, I'll shoot you!" the woman shouted.

It was a bluff, and they both knew that.

Shinichi just egged his horse on faster, and pulled it around to jump in front of her horse.

This caused her horse to rear up in surprise as it slid to a sudden halt.

The woman yelped at this, and slid off the horse to fall to the ground.

Shinichi leapt from his own horse, which was now halted, then past the frightened thoroughbred. He grabbed the stunned woman under her arms and dragged her away from the horse.

The gun had fallen when she hit the ground, and was now close to the horse, out of reach of both of them unless they wanted to risk being hit by the horse's powerful legs.

The woman, though dazed, looked up in shock. "You pulled me away from it…"

Shinichi let her go and flipped open the top of his watch. "I'm a detective…not a murderer like you."

Before the woman could comment on it, the teen fired the tranquilizer needle into her, which dissolved upon contact just like every other one he had fired.

The woman slumped, fast asleep.

Shinichi let out a breath of relief as he closed the top of the watch again, then went about calming the horses down.

"Yet?"

"No."

"Now?"

"Shut up, Kuroba! I don't see him, yet!" Heiji grumbled.

Kaitou squinted at the distance, then grinned. "Then you need to have your eyes checked. Look!"

Everyone had glanced up at Kaitou's call, and were surprised to see two horses coming towards them.

On the mare that he had ridden out was Shinichi, who had the reigns of the saddled horse in one hand as he led said horse with them. Slumped over the saddled horse was the woman. Both were a bit dirty, but neither were injured.

Kaitou let out a whoop, and Heiji allowed himself a breath of relief.

As soon as Shinichi stopped the horses, the police surrounded them to get the woman down.

"Damn, Kudou…you're still as reckless as ever!" Heiji snickered as he threw a towel, provided by the owner, at said teen.

Shinichi, caught the towel with a grin, and started to get some twigs and leaves out of his hair with it.

"That's not gonna work in the long run, but it'll do fer now," Heiji stated.

Shinichi glanced at himself, then chuckled. "Yea…I guess I do need a shower after that, huh…?"

Kaitou, meanwhile, raised an eyebrow. "So, Kudou…where did you learn how to ride a horse like that?"

Shinichi chuckled. "Dad taught me in Hawaii."

Heiji shook his head wryly as Kaitou burst into laughter.

"Flying a 747, driving a boat, shooting a gun, piloting a helicopter, and now bareback horse riding!" Kaitou shook his head. "Tell me, Kudou…is there anything your dad didn't teach you in Hawaii?"

Shinichi just grinned in response. "When I think of something, I'll let you know."

"…cheapskate."

END