Hi everyone, hope you're having a good summer! Thanks to all of the reviewers as well as those who favorited and alerted. ... I don't have much to say...so... please enjoy!

Disclaimer: you all know what I'm supposed to say here

Satou looked down at the small notebook in her hands, trying to straighten her thoughts. She had one finger stuck in the four latest green cases, and was flipping through them noting their similarities. Suddenly she stopped as a thought struck her. She looked back on the other cases and facepalmed. Why did being worried always make her so stupid? Every singly case was a serial killer who was thought to have disappeared, and they were all unsolved. Flipping back over the older ones with the same coloring, she found that they were the same. They were so spaced out, so sporadic... no one other than Takagi seemed to notice that they were popping up so often. How did he figure it out? Why didn't he tell her? They were partners weren't they? She wasn't one to be saddened by 'oh,-does-he not-trust-me's or 'why-didn't-he-tell-me's but sill, she could have helped. It certainly seemed as if he were investigating this secretly, but why wouldn't he tell anyone? Sure there wasn't exactly very much to go on, but... none of that really mattered now though. The question was, did it have anything to do with the kidnapping?

She couldn't imagine that it didn't, it was too big a coincidence. Did the culprits know he'd figured it out? No, how could they? As far as she knew he hadn't told anyone. If he hadn't told her then it was likely he hadn't told anyone. Still, why would they kidnap him if they didn't know he suspected it? It wasn't possible that they were planning on kidnapping someone and he, the only one to figure out they existed, just happened to come along. Takagi's luck couldn't be that bad could it? Actually, yeah it could, It has been in the past.

If whatever group he was on the trail of really existed, then it would make sense that they had a plan when they kidnapped Takagi. There were many old kidnappings they could be attempting to replicate. Was it important that he was a cop, or could it have been anyone? Wait, Conan was there as well. That widened the search to dual kidnappings, kidnappings of an adult and child, of both adults and children, as well as any number of singular kidnappings including children, men, and officers. Satou sighed, this was hurting her head. Now that she understood Takagi's notes, maybe she could tell Megure about his theory. Perhaps they could even find someone the person was probably copying.

As Satou walked towards the inspector, her eyes roamed to the other officers milling about. There were several wandering around the building, even a couple of forensics guys, not that there was much they could study. Apparently Itoumo's fingerprints weren't on file, and the only other evidence for them to categorize was the clothes of Takagi and Conan. One of the forensics was talking to Megure now, though about what Satou had no clue. She let her gaze wander again as she walked up to the portly man, not wanting to interrupt the conversation. She saw a group of uniformed officers chatting in a corner, some of them relatively new to the force. She smiled slightly seeing the nervous ticks of the rookies. One of the young men had half of his handcuffs out of its holder and was idly swinging the free part, another was shifting his gun around in its holster, and yet another was constantly polishing his badge. She smiled in the memory of her first cases, the nervous ticks she was sure she had as well, though she never noticed them.

Suddenly she froze. Handcuffs, an officer's gun, a badge, and an officer being kidnapped, they all reminded her of a case, one that happened a years ago. Of course she'd been to young to be on it, but she'd heard. Everyone had heard. The officers had been terrified of the criminal, who was picking them off one by one. They never did find any leads. If that was the one who kidnapped Takagi, or if it was even someone copying that mystery person, then Takagi could be... She suddenly whirled on the man speaking to Megure, no longer caring if she was interrupting.

"You categorized the evidence from where we found the clothes right?"

"Y-yes." The man stammered, seeming shocked.

"Was there anything of Takagi's that was missing? Something he should have had?"

For a moment the man simply stared at her surprised, and she begged that she'd been wrong.

"Actually yes there was. In addition to his wallet being empty his gun, handcuffs, and badge were all missing." Satou paled at the mans words, and she dimly heard Megure's angry yelling.

"And you're just telling us this now? Why didn't you say anything was missing earlier?"

"W-well I wrote it up in my report. I just thought it made sense that the kidnapper would steal the weapon and the money, and I thought he probably used the cuffs on Takagi-keiji. The badge I thought would be some kind of trophy for the culprit."

Megure huffed. "I guess that makes sense, but you need to tell us everything. Whats there, what should be there, and what missing. Got it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, but what you said made sense. It seems no harm done this time."

"No." Satou mumbled, her words getting increasingly louder. "No no no no no no no!"

"Satou-kun, whats wrong?" Megure asked. By now Shiratori had joined the group as well, and was listening intently. For a second, Satou simply shook her head in the horror of knowing her fears had been confirmed. The empty wallet wasn't an issue, Takagi never had much in their to begin with, but with all of the other absent items, it could only mean one thing. The female officer held up her partners notebook, trying desperately to steady her shaking hand.

"I was going through Takagi-kun's notebook, and I saw he'd highlighted several cases. Including this one. I thought maybe it would be a hint to whatever happened, and studied the other cases. I found that they were all cases of old unsolved serial killers suddenly killing again."

"That must be why he'd highlighted today's case. The Cuckoo Clock Killer, after disappear for twenty years, suddenly struck again." Shiratori butt in.

"Exactly. It seems several of these cases have happened recently, but were spread too far apart to garner a lot of notice. I think Takagi thought they were connected, and I agree with him."

"But that means, since we know Itoumo was the murderer, that this kidnapping-"

"Was a replication of a past event, right. And apparently Takagi's gun, badge, and handcuffs were missing. He's replicating the Officer Murders from 8 years ago." The surrounding men paled at Satou's words, each one know what that meant for the shy man in the culprit's clutches.

"But wait," A voice said behind Satou and she jumped in surprise. Turing, she was surprised to see a pensive looking Mouri standing behind her. She realized he must have heard most of the conversation. "What about Conan-kun? I guess that all makes sense when you think about Takagi-keiji, but what could they have been replicating with the brat?" Satou bit her lip, truthfully she'd been much more worried over her partner than the child. Not because of her, fine I'll say it, love for the man, but because Conan just seemed so much more... capable. She knew one could definitely count on Takagi when the going got rough, but between the two, Conan would have the easier time with everything. Still, Mouri had brought up a good point. What were they hoping to gain by taking Conan? Was it another kidnapping altogether. As she was thinking Shiratori spoke.

"Well, he couldn't very well kidnap Takagi-san and just leave Conan here. If we assume that this abduction of an officer was planned, then it makes sense that Itoumo purposely got himself onto the lists of witnesses we had to question. He probably planned for the officer to come here and he would kidnap them as he did with Takagi-san. Conan-kun being there probably surprised him, but he didn't have much of a choice about taking him as well. Perhaps they'll even alter his kidnapping to follow the pattern they'd been making. Perhaps they'll do something else entirely. Whatever the case I think we can assume that Conan-kun was in no way an original target."

The others nodded. The line of reasoning made sense, but from the corner of her eyes Satou saw Mouri's hand clench into a fist and her heart chilled as she realized what this revelation meant for the child. If they just wanted Takagi and Conan wasn't a target, that would make the child unimportant. It would make him disposable. He could already be gone. Mouri jumped as Megure's large hand landed on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, we'll find him. Conan-kun's stronger than you think."

Mouri nodded, but said nothing, throwing a worried glance at his daughter as she huddled with her friend. The girl had not yet noticed that the officers seemed to find something new. Satou swallowed. She knew that the girl was just as worried about Conan as the officer was about Takagi, possibly more-so. Satou looked at the worried father.

"Don't tell her that Conan-kun wasn't supposed to be a target, it would only worry her," Mouri nodded, but Satou wasn't done yet." Don't count Conan-kun out. If they were taken together, then they're probably still together. If anyone could get out of this alive, it would be them. Both of them are smart and come through in amazing when times are tough. We can't let ourselves think that its hopeless for either of them. In the old cases the officers would go missing for a week before they were killed. We can't give up until the week is passed and we find Takagi's... until we know its too late."

"That's right! We can't give up, and these notes means we finally have leads. We can do this." Satou tried to smile as her small speech excited the others, but in truth she couldn't muster up the energy. She wasn't exactly the 'motivational-speech' kind of person, and it was especially hard when she herself was the one most worried. But she couldn't have just stayed silent, she could tell from the looks on their faces, they had given up. She couldn't let that happen, it they ave up Takagi had no chance. He would get out of this okay, he had to. She suddenly realized that Megure had begun barking out orders.

"It's too late to follow up tonight, anyone we would talk to would be asleep or getting ready for bed. First thing tomorrow morning I want all of you to meet in my office and we'll discuss what to do next. Got it?"

"Yes Sir!" The surrounding people chorused before turning away to get ready to leave. Satou bit her lip as she walked to her car, and for a moment she cursed that she'd given Megrue the notebook so quickly. She knew that no matter how much she argued the investigation wouldn't start until tomorrow. She needed to be doing something now! Who knows what was happening to Takagi this very moment? Yet she was stuck waiting for morning. She wanted so badly to argue with the inspector, but she had no grounds on which to do so. Any argument she could come up with would probably get her taken off the case because she sounded like a lovestruck worrywart who was too close to the victim. She would not let that happen. So, dedicating herself to do as much as humanly possible tomorrow, the woman bit her lip against the protests in her mind and walked to her car, knowing she wouldn't get any sleep that night.

Had she stayed a few moments, longer, had she even turned around, she would have seen Shiratori and Megure talking quietly to one another, occasionally shooting glances her retreating form.

"Megrue-keibu, I'm not sure how wise it is for Satou-san to be working on this case."

"What are you talking about , Shiratori-kun? I have partners working on cases involving each other all the time."

The officer frowned slightly at his superiors words. Sure, Satou and Takagi hadn't really been vocal about their relationship at work, but had the inspector really missed all of the rumors flying around? Well, if he didn't know, Shiratori certainly wasn't going to upright tell him... not yet at least.

"Well those two are... fairly close as far as partners go, I'm afraid maybe too close."

Megure sighed. "I know they're close. But you know Satou-kun as well as I do. DO you really think she would do anything but think about this case if I tried to put her on a different one? She wouldn't get anything done. She is so stubborn I probably couldn't get her off of this case if I tried. It's better to put her where her talents lay and she'll pay attention. Plus I have a gut feeling. This is going to be a difficult case, I'll need all of my best on it." The man sighed once more. "If Takagi-kun were here I'd put him on it too, but he's not. Neither is Conan-kun who, though I hate to admit it, has helped us out more times than I can count. The fact is I need every good mind I can get on this case, and her mind wouldn't be good if we put it on any other. She's staying on this case."

"Yes sir."