Meitantei

Chapter 9: Mithridatism

Without the vibrant lights splashing color around, the now quiet and softly lit karaoke bar looked dank and dingy. The walls looked discolored and in need of a fresh coat of paint. Shelves with various types of liquors lined the wall behind the receptionist area/bar.

Despite the sheer volume of people who had been crowded around the communal karaoke panel, they all stood quietly huddled together. The silent hush was almost unnerving as they looked back and forth between the now empty space where the body of the victim had been carted off from and the group of police officers and assorted university aged detectives. Shinichi's eyes took in all of these details as he looked at the crime scene while he kept his ears attentive to the discussion going on behind him. One hand gripped his cell phone, waiting for two texts.

The screen popped up with a text from Minami-san explaining what she and Minori-san had found. It reiterated his reasoning so far. First text down, one left to go before he began to make his deductions.

He'd already figured out who the culprit was. Now he was simply waiting for the text from the coroner to prove it.

"The victim was Yoshida Ichigo-san, twenty-five years old," Satou-keiji began to rattle off to Megure-keibu, the inspector having finally arrived to take charge of the scene.

"He came here with his friend Watanabe Ren-kun, and his girlfriend, Hamanaka Ami-san, both also twenty-five-years old," Takagi-keiji added.

"The three are regulars to this karaoke club," Satou-keiji noted.

"What happened to my boyfriend?" Ami-san wallowed as Ren-kun awkwardly patted the sobbing girl.

"How did he die?" Ren-kun asked, his eyes red.

"The cause of death was snake venom. According to the reports the venom came from the venomous Nihon Mamushi snake. As there are clearly no bite marks on the body – it has to have been a planned murder," Chiba-keiji added.

"Wait a second," Masaru interjected, "couldn't it have been an accident? Did he drink too much snake shochu?"

Shinichi's eyes focused in on Masaru's irritation. Masaru was decent at finding obvious flaws, and Shinichi felt that he would do well in the police force. However, the ire that Masaru showed whenever he found something that others had not, something he was sure was important, he fixated on it. Having been on several cases with him before, Shinichi had found it unprofessional, not to mention made it difficult to work with the sophomore. Even so, the other members of his university detective group took point before Shinichi stepped in to explain another thought of logic.

"Drinking venom won't kill you. It must directly enter the bloodstream to be lethal. Otherwise everyone who drank snake shochu would die," Daisuke explained, ever patient and exuberant with his fellow sophomore.

"I know that," Masaru all but snarled "What I meant was-"

"Oh, shut up, Masaru. Stop trying to act cool. You're gonna be wrong, like always," Naoki snapped. Naoki, the male senior in the Touto University Detective group, didn't have any patience for Masaru when he got an attitude. Naoki was rather protective of all of the members whenever anyone else tried to berate them. As the eldest member, he tended to act more brotherly and overprotective, but when a member began to bicker with another member in the group, he quickly stepped in to cut them down. That member was usually Masaru.

"The venom from the alcoholic drink snake shochu is far too diluted compared to the amount found in Yoshida-san's system. The amount of venom found in Yoshida-san's drink compared to that in his bloodstream means that more than the regular amount of venom was administered to Yoshida-san directly," Takagi-keiji added, looking at the details he had written in his police notebook, breaking up the awkward silence that had followed Naoki's put down to Masaru.

"But how are we going to figure out who the culprit is? Usually we would look for something that the culprit would carry the poison inside, but any snake shochu bottle will have trace amounts of the venom," Daisuke noted thoughtfully.

"There-in-lies the problem. Theoretically it could have been anyone," Satou-keiji nodded.

"But it couldn't have been just anyone. It was premeditated. If it wasn't swallowed, then someone had to have given it to him via an injection, someone he knows," Ran piped up. All eyes turned toward the two people who had come in with the victim.

"You can't be accusing us!" Ren-kun and Ami-san chorused, both the friend and girlfriend of the victim vehemently denied having anything to do with his death.

"We're still looking into all the people in the karaoke bar, but for this type of murder, it only makes sense for it to have been carried out by someone who knew him," Naoki pointed out.

"If it was premeditated, there has to have been a syringe or something to give it to him, doesn't there? Unless there was a cut in his mouth. I mean, isn't that possible? He could have drunk the alcohol and it could have gotten into his blood system from a cut in his mouth," Daisuke said excitedly.

"That's what I was going to say! It could have all been an accident," Masaru huffed.

"The amount he would have had to drink to enter a cut in the mouth versus what was in his bloodstream would have been substantial. While his friends have noted that he was drinking a lot, his tab shows that he didn't buy enough drinks for that to be the case," Satou-keiji explained.

"Ahem," Megure-keibu cleared his throat. The group of police detectives and the members of the Touto University Detective Club all looked over at the police inspector. "What are you all doing?"

"What do you mean?" Satou-keiji asked, giving the inspector a nonplussed look.

"You-" Megure pointed to the police detectives, "are not assigned to this case. And you-" he pointed to the Detective Club members, "are university students."

Takagi-keiji laughed sheepishly, putting away his police notebook. Chiba-keiji looked at Yumi-san and Naeko-san sheepishly. Satou-keiji, on the other hand, was having none of it.

"Megure-keibu, you know we want to help in any way we can! The Metropolitan Police Department are family, after all," Satou-keiji noted, looking at everyone, her eyes lingering on Shinichi, as though to remind Megure-keibu that Shinichi might as well be considered family too.

As Daisuke, Naoki, and Masaru protested that they weren't just university students, Shinichi turned to look at Megure-keibu and Satou-keiji, watching them give each other rather pointed looks.

"And with the way this case is looking, it could take all night to wrap up! We might need the extra help. After all, even after we figure out the culprit, we'll have to go to the police station and write up all those reports," Yumi-san added.

"That's why I said I don't want you involved. I'll need you all fresh for your shifts tomorrow," Megure-keibu sighed.

"But – I mean – if we ask these fine young university students to help, and since they are insisting that they are more than capable of figuring things out, I'm sure they won't mind helping fill out all the paper work down at the police station," Chiba-keiji added. Megure-keibu looked at him thoughtfully, before coughing and then looking at the students.

"Very well then," Megure-keibu agreed. "You may help."

Shinichi's eyed the way the police officers exchanged knowing looks, and then watched as Masaru also noted the police officers odd behavior.

"Hey...where did Minami-chan and Minori-chan go?" Ran asked, looking around, noticing their absence. No one bothered to respond to her question. While Shinichi knew, and would usually have told her, his mind was on other things.

During his time as Conan, Megure-keibu had often made known his exasperation when outsiders got involved. Despite the renowned abilities of "Sleeping Kogorou," he frequently became exasperated with his help. However, the only time Megure-keibu had ever asked Shinichi not to help out with a case was the very first one he helped out with – the murder he solved on the airplane on the way to the United States. Yet Shinichi had gotten the distinct impression that Megure-keibu had also meant that he hadn't wanted Shinichi to be involved in this case. The words Megure-keibu had spoken to the police detectives, "not assigned to this case," flitted through Shinichi's mind.

Narrowing his eyes in realization, he turned toward the police inspector and the police detectives. Wondering if he should call them out on their slip now, or do it later, Shinichi stopped to think. Finding the culprit was the main priority. Later he would speak with Megure-keibu in regards to what was going on around him. His phone buzzed. The second text message he had been expecting glowed on the screen.

"Takagi-keiji," Shinichi said, sidling up to the police detective. As soon as he spoke, all eyes turned to him.

Minami-san and Minori-san, both of whom had been missing before, appeared seemingly from nowhere and gave him a confirming nod which he returned. The two edged closer to hear what he had to say. Someone in the crowd of karaoke goers made an unnecessary hushing noise to the already silent group, followed by an even more unnecessary statement.

"Quiet! He's gonna say somethin'!"

Apparently Shinichi had been recognized. It wasn't unusual for cases to occur where the bystanders looked to him to solve the case. He clearly remembered the incident at Tropical Land where the people around him had been excited and awed, waiting for his deduction as to who had killed the man on the roller coaster. Even when Hattori had pretended to be him during the case where the director of the off-season Halloween mystery cruise was killed, people had been excited with his "appearance" aboard the ship.

While Shinichi wouldn't say that he had completely humbled from his Conan experience – he loved the fact that people recognized what he was capable of doing, and he enjoyed playing to the crowd as his mother did – he had learned that sometimes other people needed to be included in the deduction process. The shounen-tantei-dan were proof of that.

Like the professional he was, Shinichi began to fill in the bits and pieces that the others hadn't yet picked up on.

"While accidents happen," Shinichi began, "I checked the victim before his body was moved. And there was a fresh cut on the inside of his mouth."

"See! I told you it was just an accident!" Masaru interjected.

"But due to the amount of venom in the bloodstream, it couldn't have come just from the alcohol. Not to mention, Yoshida-san would not have died if he had drunk the alcohol despite having a cut in his mouth due to how diluted the venom in the drink was."

"That means that the cut was a bluff to make it look like an accident," Naoki pointed out.

"But if that's the case, was it a coincidence that he had a cut?" Daisuke questioned.

"The coroner indicated that the cut was too precise yet too deep to have been caught on anything accidentally. It was done on purpose," Shinichi continued.

"Wait a second. If it was on the inside of his mouth, the only person who could give him a cut there on purpose was his girlfriend!" Naoki pointed an accusing finger at Hamanaka Ami.

"No! No, it wasn't me! I would never do something to my beloved Ichigo-kun!" Ami-san shrieked in defense.

"Oh, come off it. You knew he was cheating on you with not one, but two other girls. Hadn't you just reamed him out for being unfaithful to you?" Watanabe Ren-kun, Yoshida Ichigo-san's best friend asked.

"It wasn't me! Which means it was probably you, Ren-kun! I know you were crushed when you found out your girlfriend was one of the people he was cheating with."

Shinichi sighed, and shook his head. He really hated affairs and the anger and bitterness it brought out in people. The two began to point the finger at the other, claiming the other person had to be responsible. As Takagi-keiji tried to calm the two down, Shinichi held up his hands.

"If you let me finish, I will explain who the real culprit is," Shinichi said, getting a headache listening to the two bicker back and forth. Both Ami-san and Ren-kun were adamant that they hadn't done it and were eager to hear Shinichi prove that the other person was the culprit. Grateful for their attention, Shinichi continued. "The coroner just sent me a message indicating that in addition to the cut on the inside of the mouth, he found a pin-prick where it was clear that additional venom was injected. The injection was made in his arm. As Yoshida-san had given blood today, the mark on his arm would have likely gone unnoticed. However, since the culprit injected the venom there, it means that one, the culprit had to have been acutely aware of Yoshida-san's daily activities as he donated blood today, and two, it means that the culprit had to get Yoshida-san intoxicated to the point that he would not have noticed the cut to his mouth along with the prick to his arm. Since no syringe was found here, it means that the victim had to have been injected with the venom and the syringe then removed from the club."

"What do you mean the syringe had to have been removed from the club? Neither of his friends left from karaoke," Masaru pointed out.

"You're right that neither of the two friends who he came with left, but that doesn't mean that Yoshida-san didn't have other friends who he met here and who have since left."

"Wait a second," Ren-kun interrupted, "You mean, it wasn't Ami-san who killed Ichigo-kun?"

"Of course it wasn't me!" Ami-san interjected vehemently.

"There was only one person here who had the time, placement, and knowledge to carry out this murder. The murderer was someone who was close to Yoshida-san. This person had to be someone who knew his schedule intimately along with knowing what types of drinks he liked to order. But the biggest key to this mystery is how the culprit managed to sneak the syringe out of the establishment. The only person who knew what type of drink Yoshida-san always drank here, the only person who was able to get him drunk enough to not feel the prick to his arm, and to be able to put the cut in his mouth, would be someone who he would be willing to kiss him – the female bartender, the one whose shift ended several hours ago; she is the culprit."

"What?" Ami-san gaped in disbelief.

"The bartender was one of the girls he was cheating on you with," Minami-san piped up. "Minori-chan and I asked around and found out that Ichigo-san started seeing the bartender not long after you guys started coming here. He told her that you and Ren-san were a couple, but after a time, she figured out that not only had he lied about you, but that he was also seeing another girl, one of her friends."

"Since he always ordered the snake shochu, she formulated this plan. After he arrived, she made sure to get him nice and drunk quickly, something only the bartender could have done. Then, she gave him a kiss, along with cutting his mouth, to make it seem like an accident and injected the venom. If you remember, the bartender had lots of piercings, including a tongue ring. She used that to cut his mouth. Since the venom took time to fully get in his system, she was able to go about the rest of her job normally, leave at her scheduled time, and not be here when he finally died, giving her plenty of time to dispose of the needle she used to inject the venom," Minori-san explained.

"Except, unluckily for her, she still wore the tongue ring she used to cut his mouth. As a bartender who served him snake shochu, wouldn't she have been at all concerned with cutting him? Of course she would! Unless, of course, she planned to hurt him. Minami-chan and I intercepted her when she was returning to get to her night classes. Minami-chan and I made sure to catch her before she left her class and were able to convince her to give us her tongue ring. I'm sure forensics will be able to identify the victim's blood on the tip of the tongue ring, or to at least match that her tongue ring was the object used to cut Yoshida-san's mouth," Minori-san wrapped up.

Shinichi watched as the police officers congratulated the girls on their brilliant deductions. There was something slightly less satisfying about the culprit not being there when they made their deductions, but looking at the text that Minori-san had sent him, he supposed it couldn't be helped.

Frowning slightly, Shinichi was surprised that they hadn't mentioned during their deduction that when they confronted the woman that she had attacked them when they had questioned her in regards to Yoshida-san. Shinichi was glad to see the two were okay. Idly, he wondered how the two petite girls could have taken out the larger woman who had apparently had a knife on her.

Then again, looking over at Ran, he supposed that he shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Just by looking at her, it was hard to tell that she could break concrete with her bare hands. Still, something about it nagged at him.

"How did you know to follow her?" Satou-keiji asked the women.

"Initially, we thought it was the tattoos and the process of mithridatism," Minami-san began to explain.

"What's mithridatism?" Chiba-keiji asked.

"Mithridatism is the process where you take small dosages of poison over a long period of time to build up immunity to a poison. There are historical cases of beautiful women who were given poison in small dosages so that when they grew up, they would be immune. They would then, have...um, relations...with men, and it would kill the men."

"But why would you think the tattoos had anything to do with that?" Masaru asked, seemingly rather miffed that he was missing something.

"There are cases where people get tattoos with poison or venom mixed into the ink to help build up the immunity. We were wrong. It didn't have anything to do with the tattoos. It was Kudou-kun who realized it was the piercings. When we told Kudou-kun that we had asked her co-workers where she was and had decided to follow her and why, he explained what we should look for after we made our inaccurate deductions."

"Ah! So it was Kudou-kun!" Megure-keibu said, as though he'd known all along. "How could you tell?"

"I suspected her due to the fact that the man was drinking snake shochu. Since it has venom in it, it made me wonder if that was the cause of death. As it takes some time for the venom to take effect, I realized that the actual time of when the venom was given to him was some time before we had arrived at the karaoke bar. I happened to remember the bartender was getting ready to leave for evening classes and that she had piercings. Having seen her wearing a sharp tongue ring, I suspected that it would be an easy way to give the man a cut in his mouth and make it look like an accident. Since he was too drunk to realize that his body was shutting down, it was likely that the bartender had given him something else to prevent him from feeling the effects of the venom. After checking with one of her co-workers that the two had been seen kissing last week, my suspicions were confirmed."

Naoki and Daisuke congratulated him on such an awesome deduction. Shinichi laughed off their praise, his eyes never leaving Masaru. The sophomore had been put-out when it appeared that Minami-san and Minori-san had figured out the case, but he seemed furious that it had really been Shinichi who had solved the case. He watched as Masaru stormed out of the place. Minori-san and Minami-san looked over at Shinichi, clearly having seen Masaru's attitude. Shinichi shrugged and turned away.

"Kudou-kun, isn't it strange how things like this happen around you so often?" Takagi-keiji asked, a bit tentatively. Shinichi just shook his head.

"'The unexpected has happened so continually in my life that it has ceased to deserve the name.'"

"Huh?"

"It's a Holmes quote," Minori-san said excitedly.

"It's from The Stark Munro Letters," Minami-san added.

"I'm pretty tired. I'm heading out now. I'm sure everyone else wouldn't mind helping fill out the paper work. It's not even that late, so Takagi-keiji-tachi can go down and give their statements," Shinichi said, giving a wave and making an abrupt departure.

"Wait!"

"Kudou-kun!"

"Shinichi!" Ran sputtered.

Shinichi spun around, crossing his arms, and looked at them all.

"I'll be fine," Shinichi said firmly. For the most part, they managed to look sheepish.

"I told you he would figure it out," Yumi-san grumbled to Naeko-san. The two mini-patrol officers looked at each other knowingly.

"Wait a second, what's going on?" Naoki asked.

"Isn't it obvious? The police detectives are concerned for my well being. They asked me to come out so they could keep an eye on me. Yumi-san and Naeko-san didn't merely arrive after us; they were following me. Since Satou-keiji insisted this was a "hastily arranged meeting this morning," then they should not have had their party clothes with them. At some point and time, they had to have stopped by their apartments. If they had really just come from work, it was because they were following me. Further proof of that is that Yumi-san is wearing short heels instead of the usual high heels she wears when she goes out clubbing or to karaoke. If she had really brought a change of clothes, she would have also brought a change of shoes. However, she was wearing the clothes for the outing for some time prior to meeting up with everyone and thus needed low heels to be able to follow me easier. This means she has been wearing the clothes for her outing to be more incognito."

"Can you blame us, Kudou-kun?" Satou-keiji asked, crossing her arms. "You attract trouble like a magnet, yet whenever someone tries to help you out, you always say you're fine. If we were the ones in danger, then you would be making sure that we were all okay."

"You do go out of your way to protect others," Ran muttered.

"That's different," Shinichi protested, despite knowing it was true. He didn't like people worrying about him, but he definitely would have done whatever he could to make sure his friends and loved ones were all okay.

"We know that you don't want us to get hurt, but give us some credit," Satou-keiji sighed.

Shinichi hesitated. He honestly appreciated what they were trying to do. They wanted to look out for him and make sure he was alright. If there were so many people around, it would definitely be a deterrent to the Kid fanatic. But there were things that he needed to do in order to figure out the case he was working on that he didn't want police detectives around for.

Realistically, if he were out in the open, he also knew that he could try and bait the attacker. However, the police officers would not go for that idea since, as of right now, they knew little about the culprit.

Then again, that was the exact reason that he wanted to put himself in the open. There were not enough clues for them to catch the culprit. If he were out in the open without a police escort, he was more likely to catch the culprit trying to attack him.

But the other thing that had Shinichi worried was that he was currently trying to get Kaitou Kid out of jail. He couldn't investigate in the way he wanted to do if there were police around him. It could reveal Kid's secret before Shinichi had the chance to fully figure out what was going on behind the scenes. Shinichi wanted to head over to Kuroba-kun's house and speak with his mother. That was something that he couldn't do if there were police officers around...or was it?

"I'm sure that Kudou-kun can look out for himself, though," Minori-san pointed out. "There's really probably no reason to worry."

"I'm currently working on a case for a client. Having police officers around would be a violation of their privacy-"

"You can't solve a case for your client if you're dead," Megure-keibu pointed out, rather harshly. Shinichi winced. Megure-keibu was very rarely blunt like that unless he was worried.

"However, if someone is with me but just out of earshot, I'm sure that would be acceptable. And I do appreciate your concern," Shinichi admitted. "But if you're going to be monitoring me, I want to know how bad the attacks on Hakuba-san and on Nakamori-keiji were."

"Agreed."

"It's settled then." For now.

Continued in Chapter 10: Get Out of Jail Card…

And now that the stage is set, we can finally get more into the meat Kaito's case. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

~ Jelp