Okay, I must confess, while writing this I had the attack of the OC's. This pretty insignificant character suddenly had almost a page of writing explaining his back ground. I shortened it to a paragraph, but for some reason, his part is way bigger than I expected... strange...
Thank you all for reviewing, favoriting, and alerting, or just plain reading. I hope you enjoy future chapters, and I'm glad people seemed to like Lion's POV.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the random OC and his kid.
Satou Miwako glared at the sun in her eyes as though it were the cause of all of her problems. This was, of course, completely useless as the sun had little to do with the kidnapping of her partner/boyfriend. Still, the slightly irritating light in her eyes as she drove gave her reason to glare at something, it gave her a medium for releasing her anger. She had long since realized that glaring at random pedestrians and drivers only gave her shocked, confused looks that made her feel guilty if anything. With a sigh she stopped her useless stare down with the center of her solar system and looked to the area surrounding her car. Her eye was glancing down the sidewalks on the sides of the road when it latched on to the sight of a familiar group walking towards her car. She felt a pang in her chest to know that the group was missing its leader.
She forced a smile upon her face and pulled up next to the gloomy looking children. She had time to try and cheer them up before work. After another sleepless night Satou had no desire to sit at home until it was time to leave, so she'd left early. Ayumi looked up when the car parked close to the little trio. Wait, trio? Hmm, Ai must have stayed home, perhaps worried about Conan. Ayumi's eyes brightened when she saw who it was that parked so close, and Satou felt her phoney smile fall from her face as guilt clawed in her stomach. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, the children would think she had a breakthrough or good news, but she had none. The child seemed to notice the rapid change of expression and realize what it meant, but still she stopped and called attention to her two upset companions. Their expressions brightened then darkened at the sight of the officer, realizing just as Ayumi had that she really had no news.
"Hi Satou-keiji." Ayumi called as the three approached her car. Satou's heart clenched at the girl's dead tone, so unlike her normal chipper voice.
"Hi." The two boys parroted.
"Good morning. Where are you guys off to so early?" They were probably investigating. These kids had caught the detective bug from Conan, the most contagious boy she'd ever seen. It seemed as though detectives literally grew around him. She expected the kids to break off into proud smiles and claim that they were going to find their missing friend. Yet to her surprise no such look came, instead the trios face's morphed into varying degrees of sadness and anger.
"School!" Genta spat as if it were a deadly curse. "Our parents all made us go to school instead of letting us help investigate!"
Satou felt a small amount of shock at both the boy's words and his anger. Though perhaps it was more desperation than anything. Mitsuhiko nodded in agreement with the larger boy's words.
"They said that we wouldn't be able to do anything that the police weren't already doing and it would be better to just go to school instead of running around asking people questions. Besides we're already behind because of some cases we had to skip school for."
"But Kobayashi-sensie would've understood!" Ayumi burst out, "She even calls herself the Detective Boy's manager! They still wouldn't let us go."
"They said we'd just bother the investigation." Genta continued, his voice still grumpy.
Mitsuhiko finished their tirade with " Hakase let Haibara-san stay home and help, but he couldn't convince our parents t let us do the same."
Satou was fairly surprised, she barely knew the children's' parents but as far as she could remember they'd never actually stopped them from investigating. Then again, most of the time they stumbled across a crime it was purely accidental. Still, this was personal, one of their friends had been taken and... oh.
No wonder the parents were worried, this man that the children were so desperately trying to find was a known killer, and he'd kidnapped one of their children's friends. If he kidnapped one, he would kidnap more. These parents were worried for their children. Their stupidly brave and loyal children who would probably confront a fully grown armed kidnapper and murderer in order to save their friend. Their parents were scared, and they had every right to be. Yet she could understand why they would hide their true reasoning from the children. Satou was sure Conan's danger was giving these children enough to keep them up at night, they didn't need to fear for their own safety as well. But looking down at the three young, sad, frustrated faces looking back at her, she knew she had to give the children some hope.
"Okay, I'll make you a deal. If you can come up with any breakthrough or clues that we haven't been able to find yet, you convince Kobayashi-sensei to let you call me and I'll let you guys help."
Instantly the three faces brightened. "Really?" The children chorused, and a small true smile wormed its way onto the female officer's face. She knew that the children probably wouldn't think of anything, but it was nice to see them smile.
"Yes. Now, I have to go. You guys better hurry or you'll be late to school."
"Okay!" The three scurried off and Satou watched their small bodies weave through the crowd for a moment before driving the opposite way. She'd still be fairly early, but not nearly as early she would have had she not run into the children.
A few moments later the woman was walking through the police office, heading towards a reading Megure. The man looked up as she neared, surprise momentarily flickering across his face.
"Ah, Satou-kun, you're here early."
"The um, traffic was light." She replied, not wanting to tell her boss about her lack of sleep. He merely nodded, his mind obviously elsewhere.
"Well, I was looking over your reports about last night. If anything it adds credit to Takagi-kun's theory. The "reporter" described looked nothing like Itoumo, whom we've confirmed as the kidnapper. Which means there was more than one person. Whether it was just two or this whole group idea we can't know."
"Was their any credit to what the man said about writing for a magazine?"
"No, we've check all of the magazines, newspapers, and even web-azines but no one's posted anything about those old crimes. We even called many of them asking about whether it was in mind for future issues but we haven't found anything."
Satou nodded, her mind working furiously. Whether it be because of her intense concentration or lack of sleep she didn't know that anyone was coming up behind her until Shiratori's voice spoke.
"Megure-keibu, what are we to do today?" The inspector looked up at the man's words as Satou jumped in surprise.
"Ah, Shiratori-kun. You're here early as well."
"Yes, Chiba-kun is somewhere around here as well. Ah, there he is." the officer said as the familiar round face came into view. The group waited until he reached them to continue. We can begin investigating any moment."
The portly man nodded, and held up a large stack of papers. "If the people who replicated Takumi's murders interviewed him, then it stands to reason that that is true of other's whose crimes were replicated. This is a list of people who had confessed and whose crimes had been copied but had good alibi's or lawyers and we were unable to arrest them. It also contains a list of others who had confessed and may be targeted by them in the future. I want you thee to interview them and find out if anyone had contacted them about their crimes. Find out everything you can about this group."
"Yes sir!" The officers responded. Shiratori went to grab the papers and the other two officers turned to go to the garage, only to be stopped by the inspector.
"Wait! I know this will probably cost us time, but in response to... recent events I don't think any officers should go to question these people alone. I want you to stay together. Also, I-"
"What!" Satou exploded, "We don't have that kind of time! We only have five days left to save them. It could take weeks to question all those people. We don't have that kind of time."
"You aren't the only group doing this. I have several who are coming to do just what you are going out to do. It's just you three arrived early so I'm letting you get a head start. I would have said this if you had let me finish." He handed the now fairly embarrassed woman about a fourth of the stack. He fixed his face to show a superiors light glare of chastisement, but inside his heart felt lighter than it had since Takagi and Conan had been kidnapped. That was the first bit of the real Satou he'd seen in days, and it was good to know she still had her fire.
"Sorry sir." She mumbled before turning to leave, the other two trailing behind her. Reaching the garage they decided to all take Shiratori's car. It would have been fairly useless to take more than one, and Satou welcomed the chance to be spared having to pay attention to driving. Hopefully tonight she would be too tired to dream, she hoped so at least. All to soon they stopped in front of an apartment building, and the three found themselves on an elevator taking them to the first person on their list.
Reaching the correct floor the officers knocked on the room of the man they were looking for. For a moment there was no response. They knocked again and Satou called out to the man, "Harou-san?"
A moment later a loud voice called out to them from inside the apartment. "I'm coming, hold your horses! Geez, do you have any idea how early it is?" A second later the door opened partially, a chain preventing it from opening all the way. From the crack between the door and wall peeked the stubble filled and disheveled face of a man just waking up. "Can I help you?" he yawned.
Shiratori flashed his badge, "Well Harou-san, we would just like to talk with you about the murder case that happened a few months ago that was identical to you-" The door slammed shut.
"I'm not talking to any officers about that stupid murder a few months ago." The man's voice sounded, muffled by the door, "I didn't do it! I even had the perfect alibi so you guys can take whatever proof or what-not you think you found and-"
"We're trying to prove your innocence!" Satou interrupted. It worked with the last guy after all. Yet to her surprise her proclamation was met with a steady steam of cursing, followed by the man's angry yelling.
"You don't need to "prove" anything! I AM innocent, the court proved me innocent, and I don't care what you want, you can just leave!"
"Please," Chiba suddenly decided to try, "This case is barely related to that one, we just have some simple questioning that will not be directed at accusing you in any way. You would just be doing this as a witness."
"I don't care! You guys didn't listen to me when I said I didn't do it this time, I'm not gonna listen to you now!"
"Sir-" Shiratori began, stopping short when a soft, new voice sounded inside the room.
"Oji-san, wha's wit da yellin'" a sleepy voice mumbled.
"Nothing, Michi-kun. Go back to bed I'll make breakfast soon."
"No! I wanna know wha' the yellin's 'bout, its scawy "
"I'll make your favorite, pancakes, if you go back to your room for a few minutes."
The young voice merely grunted in excited approval and there was a slight pitter patter of feet running across the floor.
Satou's mind was a whirr. That voice could only be a young child, too young for school by the sound of it. Her mind relayed the man's original crimes. A relatively small spree of murders, always targeting women. When he confessed he said that the original victim had been his sister, and he found out that she was greatly abusing his nieces and nephews the day one of them died. In his anger he'd killed her, and because no one knew what he'd done, the children were entrusted to him afterwords and he'd proved to be an exceptional father. All of his following victims had been mothers abusing their children as well, and if there was ever a case that a child had no family to go to, he would take them in.
For years the man's identity as a killer went undetected, though he started simply informing the police whenever a person fitting his old victims would rise instead of killing them. He still took in the children rescued from these situations. Because of his care in the past, he was still able to care for such rescued children, that must have been one of them. Suddenly Satou had a spark of inspiration, she knew what would convince the man to talk to them.
"A child is in danger! You could save their life." For a moment there was silence behind the door, Satou took it as indecision and continued. "Please, we just want to talk." Finally a heavy sigh was heard.
"Fine, just wait a second." There was a small amount of shuffling then the man's voice sounded once again, though this time it seemed to be coming from much deeper in the apartment.
"Michi-kun, I have to do something important I have to do real quick. You're gonna go next door to have breakfast with Ashiya-san, okay?"
"But you said we'd have pancakes!"
"Ashiya-san will make you some. She's a better cook anyways, right."
"Yeah!" The child cheered, his enthusiasm renewed.
A few moments later the door opened fully to reveal the man they'd come for followed by a young child, perhaps four or five years old. The child had dark, tousled hair and large blue eyes that matched his pajamas. The little boy looked up with wonder at the strange people standing outside his door, but his expression quickly changed to one of accusation.
"You made oji-san yell di'nt you!" He said, waving his finger back and forth accusingly. Chiba smiled down at the child and pointed to Shiratori.
"Nah, that was all this grumpy looking guy." said grumpy looking guy simply scowled, making Chiba laugh. "See! He made that face too much and now he's stuck with it. It looks like he just bit into a lemon huh?" The child giggled, and Satou felt her heart lighten at the innocent sound. Even Harou smiled slightly before telling them to wait there and knocking on a door at the end of the hall. While he was gone Shiratori continued to scowl at the chubby member of their group.
"I'll have you know he was yelling at all of us."
"I know, but kids find you scary anyways. I just wanted to make him laugh." Chiba teased back.
"You do know my girlfriend is an elementary school teacher, don't you?"
"Maybe, but even her students like me better than you. Whenever the Detective Boys see me they always hover around."
"They do that to every officer. Besides, no matter what you say everyone knows that they like Takagi-san best."
"Thats just because he listens to whatever Conan-kun says. In fact, did you know that he-"
"Could we stop talking about this." Satou's voice interrupted them, "We ARE supposed to be investigating after all."
"Sorry," The other two officers mumbled, just in time for the man to come back.
"This isn't going to take long, is it? Ashiya-san can't watch Michi-kun forever."
"It shouldn't." Satou answered as the man led the trio into his apartment.
"I have some questions for you first," He began once they were all in his small living room. "You said a kid was in danger, what happened and how does it have ANYTHING to do with either the murder a few months ago or the ones I used to commit?" This was difficult, they didn't want to tell anyone about their suspicions about the group, but it was obvious by the look in the man's eyes that he wasn't going to say anything until his questions were answered. Luckily, Shiratori stepped in.
"We have reason to believe that the murder a few months ago is connected to one that happened the other day. We were investigating it when the child, Conan-kun, snuck off with an officer who was going to question witnesses. The two never came back and we later found evidence proving that they had been kidnapped by the killer. If our deductions are correct we have a week to find them before the officer is killed, but we have no hint as to the fate of the child. However, we see no reason for them to keep the child alive after the officer is killed. And that is assuming Conan-kun hasn't already been killed."
The man was silent, processing the information. Finally, to the relief of all he asked, "What can I tell you that would help?"
"Have you been approached recently by anyone asking about your murders?"
"I don't know. Ever since that one a few months ago, it seems I've been questioned a million times."
"No, before that. Maybe a month or two before your crime was replicated."
"Actually I think... yeah. There was this one kid, he came up to me when I was taking Michi-kun and some of the other kids I take care of to the park. He was about eleven-years-old and said he recognized me from a news article online and wanted to do a report about me and my crimes. When I asked him why he said it was for school, that they had to interview someone and the one who talked to the most original person would get some prize. He only told me his first name, and whenever I tried to ask what school he went to, he would change the subject."
"Do you remember what he said his name was?"
"Yeah, it was Hayao. I remember it because he kinda stumbled on it. At first he said it was Kitt-, but he stopped himself in the middle of the name and changed it."
The three all raised their eyebrows at that. Interesting.
"Is there anything else you can remember? Or anyone else who asked you other than that child?"
"No, no one else. But the kid... hmm, well he did seem really jumpy the whole time. I thought it was just because he was questioning a known murderer, but it almost seemed more than that. As if it was extremely important that he did everything right. He went up to a man after he finished asking my stuff, I think it was his father. I don't remember much about him other than his long white hair."
That caused the officers to pause. A man with long white hair... the reporter the man in jail had talked about! The three shared a glance and questioned the man further, but he seemed to have told them everything he knew. A while later they left with the promise that the man would call if he remembered anything.
Satou glanced at her watch as they drove off. That had taken over an hour, and they still had so many to go. She began to doubt that they would be able to question everyone before Takagi's deadline was up. And she still had her doubts that this was helping to find him at all.