Fox made his way up the drive after dark, walking up to the door of the empty home. He made as if he was ringing the doorbell, but instead tried the knob. A small, chilling smile appeared when it didn't budge, Good. He's been here.

No one had approached the front door all day, except for the girl that lived down the road. She'd been a regular visitor to Kuroba Hiromi since the son's disappearance, but had been ruled out as a disguise after constant tailing. She would come over sometimes to talk with the woman, help out with some of the chores, and then would head home. She'd only rung the bell a few times, and after no response had given up and left. Since the only visitor hadn't tried the door, the only way for the door to be locked would be if someone had snuck in through the back. He'd made certain the back was locked before leaving the scene, which meant someone either had a key, or had picked it.

Honestly, who else would fit the bill? A common thief wouldn't bother to lock the front door when he left.

With a satisfied smile, Fox turned away and made his way down the street, leaving the neighborhood behind. The message had been received; all that was left was to wait.

--

The detective wasn't the only one up until all hours of the night working, nor was he the only one out of the house. After Shinichi dropped Kaito off at the house, the magician had hurried to his room, setting up a dummy in the bed and locking the door for insurance. As soon as he heard the front door close, and saw Shinichi walking down the driveway, Kaito dove into his closet, pulling up the loose floor board as he moved along. He did it carefully, so he could replace it just a seamlessly later. He couldn't just sit back and let Shinichi do all the work, not when he couldn't even tell the truth of Pandora to him. The truth about Snake's involvement.

Hah, the truth was overrated.

Kaito pulled a large cloth out of the backpack, black, just like the pack, and slid it on. If he was going to do anything he needed to stay out of sight. He'd used it before, when casing out a heist, and he'd rescued it from his house some time ago. It had been a simple matter to shorten and pin up the loose, almost poncho-like article of clothing so it fit even on his now smaller frame. He was glad he had, even as he wished he didn't need it. The thief slid the hood over his head, put his arms through the straps on the pack, and pushed the widow open. He eyed the side of the house; no problem at all. Without a sound he slid out the opening, and while clinging to the frame he eased it almost completely shut.

You can do this, he thought, fingers tightening his tenuous hold on the sill. He searched for the confidence he always had during heists. He searched for Kid. And then he let go.

The single moment of free fall seemed to last forever, the air rushing through his hair a pale reminder of nights spent soaring through the cityscape. He could almost feel it, despite the graveness of the situation and what led him to the act, inside him a faint feeling of anticipation and excitement beginning to bubble up.

And then he landed quietly on the grass covered ground, muscle memory acting as an autopilot, positioning his body to absorb the impact and allow him to land on his feet. The black cloak and hood settled around him, fluttering in the air momentarily, the deep black coloring using the night's darkness to hide from sight. His heart was pounding as he made his way over the fence and down the street, sticking to the shadows, his blood almost seemed to be singing, the part of him that he'd kept locked away for the past few months finally being set free.

But now wasn't the time. It wasn't a heist, where he could cut loose and just have fun, even if he had to worry about tiny details such as avoiding Snake's men and escaping from whatever Nakamori cooked up for him. He had a mission. But first he needed something, and that something was in Kid's 'Bat Cave' back at Mom's house.

After a moment of thought he slid off the main road, heading down an alley and toward where he knew an entrance to the old maintenance and sewage tunnels were. He needed a way to get around unseen—what better way than to use the tunnels his father mapped out?

Later, after a long trek through the tunnels and through alleys, dodging police, pedestrians and drunkards alike, Kaito stood once again at the back door to his old home, working at the lock and nudging the door open. It was so empty, so wrong, and he forced himself to ignore it. Ignore it, focus. Skirting about the sitting room, passing into the rec room, and some stretching to reach the catch on the portrait frame, and soon he was staring at the half-open door, looking up at a painting of his father in working clothes. Sometimes he wondered how he'd managed to get it done. An international criminal commissioning a portrait…

And in he moved, carefully stepping around the piles of discarded machinery and tools he'd never bothered to clean up. He knew about roughly where his query was, and the only problem was he was going to need to dig through a stash of utterly random objects, some of which were very likely to blow up the minute he touched them. Really, what was he thinking when he kept putting off the cleaning of this room? It was probably a safety hazard, a health hazard, and a sanity hazard all rolled into one.

There. He reached through the junk and stuff to withdraw a small thin notebook, ignoring the faint chink sounds as the various knickknacks settled to compensate for the missing support, relieved when there wasn't any accompanying explosion. He pulled back from the pile and toward the equally messy desk, upon which was situated a layer of dust. It clung to his cloak, brightening the fabric to a dark grey, much to his annoyance. But it was what happened when a room wasn't used in a long time, perfectly natural, even if seeing it made his heart and head ache.

Kaito sat down on the chair in front of the desk, flipping open to the first page, lists of jewel s ran down the paper, all written with a line through them. He touched the paper lightly, just looking at the handwriting, so neat and precise—Dad—before turning to the next page, and then the next and the next, until the crossed out names dwindled to none. So many gems left unchecked, the search left alone for so long. Sometimes he wished he'd discovered it sooner, gotten more done. But, he hadn't even bothered looking for a pattern in his father's heists, didn't think that the partially crossed off list meant anything. He had to hear it from Snake first, from the man who took his father's life, before he noticed the search, and after that he'd only had a month's worth of heists before Tropical land. It was a daunting task for him now, so many likely jewels, and only two nights to check them all. It would be impossible for him to check them all, and the chances were small that he would find Pandora in the ones he could access, but he couldn't just sit around and twiddle his thumbs, putting his trust in Akako of all people. If he didn't find it, fine, then he'd use whatever the method the witch had cooking up. At least he would have tried.

Mom…

No, don't think about it. Can't think about it. He scanned the list again, placing checkmarks next to the jewels that were located within this city, two if they were on display and not in a vault somewhere. He tore a spare sheet of paper from the back of the notebook, recopying down the possibilities, pausing every now and then to consult the old, battered computer taking up the other end of the desk. He had to make sure that his information was correct after all, it was at least half a year since he last updated his Dad's old files, things were bound to have changed since then.

--

It was frighteningly easy. So easy, and so horribly wrong. Alarms were child's play to disarm or avoid, cameras either skirted or manipulated. The doors could be wired or picked…There was no challenge, nothing stopping him from just taking the jewel at the end of the road and disappearing without a trace.

Kaito looked down at the gemstone sitting dully in the darkened case—it could be in his hands in seconds if he wanted it to be. He hadn't lost any of his skills, he was half as tall as the last time, but that helped him hide better. This little fact caused him no small amount of unease but he shoved it aside, focusing on his work.

'This is wrong!' His mind was yelling, but he wouldn't let it pass his lips. His hands didn't tremble as he removed his target from the case, fingers carefully covered by overlarge glove, kept secure around his smaller wrist by a looped rubber band. He just stared down at the jewel in hand; his third try tonight, its facets dull in the dimply lit museum hall. He was here without a heist note, without the audience of the police, without his hat and monocle—it just felt so wrong.

Not the time, he shook his head violently, not the time, not the time. Soft footsteps echoed his movements as he moved across the hall, not worrying about the cameras; he'd disabled them before entering the room. There was a window set into the far wall, letting in the rays given off by the moon. It was into this stream of soft white light that he slid the gem, watching for the as of yet unseen red glow that would herald the presence of the legendary Pandora. The many facets of the clear diamond burst into multicolored light, but his heart sank at the absence of that inner red light.

"You aren't the right one." Kaito muttered, his voice automatically rising into the sound he used for his night personality. It was still higher, more childish than usual; a side effect caused by not adjusting for the change in his normal pitch, but it would still work if he missed some hidden microphone or camera somewhere. He was careful, hood pulled up and covering his face for much the same reason. Blue eyes glittered from beneath the shadowed edges before closing, pulling the jewel out from under the spotlight. Next one.

--

Every day dragged on and on for Inspector Nakamori, member of the Theft and Robbery division and former head of the Kaitou Kid task force. Every other petty criminal, every other crime, they felt empty, unimaginative, and Nakamori found himself feeling a little lost. He knew what was wrong; he'd had to go through something similar some eight-nine years before, when a certain thief vanished from his life for the first time.

He would not admit it aloud, but when he first saw the heist note, first saw the thief in the paper, white hat, and suit as if he'd walked out of his memories, he'd had a difficult time keeping in a shout of joy and possibly even a tear or two. Sure things had been a bit iffy for the first heist or two, lacking that imaginative and bold spark that the Inspector so remembered from his prey, but eventually that was worked past and the mask came off, and it was as if he'd traveled back in time. He'd had a chance to pick up where he'd left off, in the pursuit of the thief he'd devoted so many years to chasing, and he'd spent so many years trying to understand.

And now, he was gone again.

'It always comes back to that damned thief.' He ground his teeth, wishing he had a cigarette or his pipe. Even a month after receiving that stupid note, he still couldn't stop that thief from popping into his mind. He didn't even have any work today to occupy his attention. Nakamori let out an aggravated sigh and leaned back in his chair, tilting his head back so he could see the window behind his desk. So boring. So empty. Now he just needed a damn smoke.

He was so tempted to just take his lunch break, nip across the street to the convenience store and buy a package, but he knew Aoko would kill him. She'd been a regular mother-hen since the thief vanished, threatening him with her displeasure if he smoked more than a few cigarettes a day. She claimed he was smoking far too much in an attempt to get over the shock of Kid's retirement, something that he'd protested violently. Even so, he was loath to deny his little girl anything, especially since she had that expression on lately, that sad, lonely, almost forlorn expression.

It was that brat's fault. Now, normally Nakamori liked Kaito, even if he considered him too childish at times, but because of recent events he held more than a little anger for the boy. Kaito had up and pulled out of school some time ago, without any word at all, and had made Aoko worried sick. Finally he'd gone and asked Kuroba-san what happened, and she'd given him some vague explanation about visiting relatives and then getting a job while he was there. Hah, like he believed that. He liked Kuroba-san well enough, he'd been close friends with her late husband, and had kept up connections with her after his death, but he'd been annoyed at her for the blatant lie. Although after he'd gotten over his anger (for his daughter's sake, she was the one worrying herself sick over the kid's absence) he'd gotten a little concerned himself. It was highly out of character for the brat to do something like this. If it had been a prank, which would have been in character, it wouldn't have lasted so long.

But he'd kept his concerns to himself, supporting the explanation if only for Aoko's sake. She'd been furious at Kaito after that, but it was more because he hadn't called, hadn't said anything at all about his impromptu absence. The silence persisted to this day, but instead of angry, Aoko's reaction was somewhere between depression and an attempt to move on. She'd throw herself into looking after him, into her school work, and even spent time with her other friends, but then he'd catch her sitting by the window staring at the Kuroba house, or she'd walk up to the door in the morning as if she was going to meet Kaito for their walk to school before catching herself and heading on her way.

'That brat. If I ever get my hands on him I'm going to strangle him.' He deserved it for what he was doing to Aoko, and he was in the middle of imagining the scene when there was a knock on the office door. The chair snapped back into the fully upright position as he called gruffly for the person to come in, quickly rearranging the contents of his desk to make it seem as if he'd been doing something. The person who entered was one of his junior officers. This one in particular was good at what he did, and despite his age, would make a decent inspector one of these days. He just needed a bit more confidence, but at least he wasn't arrogant. "What is it Takeshi?"

"Ah, Inspector. I was assigned a rather odd case; I'd really like your opinion on it."

He let out a rough sigh and motioned Takeshi to continue. After the disbanding of the Task Force his subordinates had been surprisingly supportive, and had made a point to bring any weird cases to him. They knew that a mind used to chasing Kid, who was the definition of weird, would get more out of an odd case than the work of a standard run of the mill crook.

Takeshi took the motion as permission to speak, "We received reports last night of about five silent alarms going off in buildings throughout this section of the city." At this he pulled out a folder and extracted a map from it, a red circle drawn over quite a large area, a busy, downtown one, with smaller dots scattered throughout. "They ranged from a couple museums, to private offices and happened about 45 minutes apart. The odd thing is that the alarms that were directly wired to the police station were the only ones that went off. Everything else was expertly avoided or disabled; cameras were cut or tampered with. The security guards weren't even aware of any break-ins until the officer on duty called to ask about the alarm."

Hoo, that was weird. Since the cameras and such showed signs of tampering, that ruled out some freak mass alarm malfunction. Also since whoever broke in showed such skill in dealing with the other, far more complicated alarms it pointed toward the action being on purpose. Nakamori took the break in Takeshi's briefing to leaf through the reports, eyes narrowing in thought as he noticed the similarities in the methods used. It pointed toward being the work of the same person. Letting the silent alarm through nagged at him a little, forming an odd connection in his mind. He could almost liken these break-ins as the opposite of what Kid would do. Silent, out of sight, without all the fanfare the Kid seemed to love. But the silent alarm seemed almost like Kid's heist note…only after and not before.

Eeeh!? "Nothing was taken?"

Takeshi shook his head, "The museums are still doing inventory, but in the immediate vicinity of the alarm, there wasn't anything missing. There were signs of tampering with the display cases, but the items within were all confirmed real about an hour ago."

"What kind of items?" That explained the lack of notation in the papers, if it was recent news. He wasn't expecting the answer, although a part of his mind wasn't overly surprised.

"They were all large gemstones."

Nakamori really wanted a cigarette right about now.

--

The lit up screen of the computer sat in front of his face, but Shinichi wasn't really looking at it. He was tired. He'd been up at least half the night, running around and prodding some of his non-police contacts, so he was working on maybe about three hours of sleep. After that he skipped school, heading to the library to do a bit of research on gems and immortality. He might believe the legend to be complete rubbish, but if there were people willing to kill for it, well, it was worth checking out, if just so that he could try and figure out the criminal's motivations.

Even beyond trying to understand the criminal, he was stumped when it came to finding and rescuing Kuroba-san. He wished he could just go to the police with this, to utilize their help in searching for the missing woman, and maybe even identify the blood on the table and look over the scene for anything he might have missed due to his lack of equipment. They had more experience when it came to person-hunts, but it would just be too hard to explain how Shinichi or 'Kai' had known Kuroba-san in the first place, much less how they'd found out she was missing. Really, a crystal ball prediction? He didn't believe it himself, but apparently that's what this 'friend' told Kaito, and the boy had been unusually tight-lipped when Shinichi pressed about it.

Also a police investigation might lead someone to look too hard for 'his cousin's' records and find out there weren't any. Since Kaito had been staying out of official sight it hadn't been an issue before, but if anyone went looking…there might be some unwelcome questions. Maybe he should look into asking his parents for a favor…

Maa, it was what it was. Shinichi let out a sigh and closed the window of the website he'd been perusing, looking down at the time in the lower bottom right corner. He'd done pretty much all he could here, at least without any more leads, maybe he should go check out the neighborhood again? He hadn't been able to go around asking the neighbors for any possible witnesses, because by the time he'd finished with the initial investigation, it had been well after dark. While that wouldn't have mattered during a routine police investigation, Shinichi didn't have the authority to make people talk to him if they didn't want to. Sure, he could have tried, but he would have more than likely gotten people angry and some doors slammed in his face, and angry people weren't very inclined to talk.

Having decided on a course of action, it was time to leave. The library was too far from his destination to walk, so as soon as he got out onto the street Shinichi checked his money and hailed a cab. He didn't have to wait long, telling the driver an address nearby and sliding into the back seat, settling in for the ride.

This case was just weird. The few explanations he'd received from Kaito were very vague, and lacking in any pertinent details. For example, why would a jewel-thief (or thieves as the case may be) believe that some legendary stone was in the hands of a supposedly 18 year old magician? If it had been an heirloom, given to him by his father (since his father seemed to have been the first to gain the attention of this group), then why was Kaito so adamant that he didn't have it? The group also had to be pretty positive that he had it in order to risk kidnapping someone and possibly drawing attention to themselves. The timing wasn't right either. Why now? If they'd known he'd had it, why not try to take it earlier, before he went and disappeared on them?

It just didn't make sense, and Kaito wasn't helping him fill in the missing pieces. He trusted him, living with and getting to know him as a person had painted a pretty flattering picture, even if it was steeped in illusions like magicians always were. And he believed that there had to be some reason for Kaito to keep it quiet, even from Shinichi. His mother was in danger, with such a motivation all but the most damning secrets would come out into the open, if only to aid in getting her back. It wasn't as if Kaito wasn't concerned for Kuroba-san either, the sleep-deprived and wan face he'd seen this morning was proof enough. But…maybe it wasn't his secret to tell? Kaito was fiercely loyal. The only possible reasoning he could come up with was that it had to do with some secret on his father's part. After all, apparently Kuroba Toichi had been the one to run afoul of this 'Snake' initially. Kaito had his father on such a high pedestal, and when he spoke of him it was often with barely concealed admiration and respect.

But…his father was dead, so why continue to keep the secret? It would have to be something big, but he doubted it was anything like murder. Kaito's reaction to the one homicide scene wasn't that of someone used to the idea.

The cab rolled to a stop near his destination, the change in momentum returning his full attention to his immediate surroundings. Shinichi thanked the driver and handed over the correct fare, plus a tip before stepping out onto the sidewalk, ignoring the faint chill of the autumn air that had been absent in the confines of the cab. There was Kuroba's house, sitting two houses down from where he stood at the end of the road. A quick sweep of the neighborhood revealed nothing suspicious, no out of place cars or loiterers that would indicate surveillance. That was another reason for not wanting to look for witnesses the night before, Kaito had been pretty insistent about possible surveillance. It didn't look like it, but it didn't hurt to be careful.

His best bet would be to check the houses next door, and possibly across the street. Kaito said he missed a call from his mother's phone at around 8:30 pm, which meant the incident occurred between 8:30 and 10. By then it would have been dark out, casting doubt on anyone from further away than the immediate vicinity. Although, talking to the neighbors would present a problem—it's not like he could tell them the truth about what happened. Vandalism would likely work, attempted possibly.

The first house he checked was owned by an elderly couple. While neither the man nor the woman had seen anything, the woman was quite vocal in her anger that such a thing should happen to "that sweet young lady" and made him promise him to catch the "rascals who dared bother her." It seemed like Kuroba-san was well liked in the neighborhood. Well, widowed mothers in general ended up gaining sympathy and favor in small neighborhoods, especially from the elderly residents. After he'd discovered the couple didn't have much else to tell him, he'd thanked them for their time and left, after promising yet again that he'd find the ones responsible.

He let out a sigh of relief when the door closed behind him, that woman could talk! He'd gotten a run down on all the possible trouble-makers in the neighborhood and nearly every one of their past misdeeds. Interestingly enough, Kaito had been the trouble maker with the longest list of crimes, but even the woman had admitted that the victim's son wouldn't stoop to vandalize her house. He could feel a faint pinch of pain in his head after that discussion, but was glad to be out of there.

"Kaito?!" Shinichi kept enough sense to not freeze completely, and continued on his slow walk down the road. He'd known there was a chance of someone accidently mistaking him for the missing magician, since he was pretty sure that anyone who'd lived nearby for any length of time would have met and remembered the kid. He was pretty unforgettable. It wasn't until the voice sounded again, and a hand grabbed his arm that he allowed himself to pause, "Where have you been, Kaito?! Not even a phone call—"

The female voice suddenly cut off when he turned around, the hand releasing its hostage and drawing back with a snap, "I'm sorry! You just looked so much like my friend."

"It's okay." Shinichi responded, noticing that she only seemed to relax once he spoke. Remembering Kaito's skills with disguises, it made sense. While it wouldn't take much to make either of them to look like the other, a voice wasn't so easy to fake without some kind of voice synthesizer. It wasn't like the magician could change his voice on a whim. That was a rather difficult skill; even his mother wasn't able to do it completely. In fact, the only one he knew of who possessed both the uncanny ability to freely change his voice and appearance was the Kaitou Kid himself. Since that crazed thief was one in a couple million, it made sense that the combination would be as rare.

She wasn't a remarkable girl, but she reminded him quite a bit of Ran. Perhaps it was just the color of the hair and her build, because on closer inspection she was a bit different. She was shorter by a few inches, and her face more rounded. She seemed to be wavering between two options, probably whether to introduce herself or not, and finally one option won out, "I'm Nakamori Aoko. It's just…you look so much like him."

"Kudou Shinichi," He returned. Nakamori, so this was that inspector's daughter. She must take after her mother, because he couldn't really see much of the tall, broad shouldered Inspector Nakamori in her. He'd heard she'd inherited his temper, but that seemed to be the last thing on her mind right now, "It's not very often I hear I have a twin running around."

That got a smile from her, erasing much of the disappointment from her let-down. He even got a strangled laugh for his troubles, "Not quite a twin, just close."

He shrugged, "It's still an interesting idea. Do you live around here, Nakamori-san?"

"Yes. What about you? I haven't seen you before."

"No. I'm here on business. Which house is yours?"

An eyebrow lifted, but the girl obediently pointed out the house, it was a little ways down the street from Kuroba-san's. "What kind of business?"

"I'm a detective. Kuroba-san called to ask if I could conduct an investigation for her."

Aoko stared a moment, before her blue eyes flashed, an expression of wariness and perhaps a bit of concern, "Was it about Kaito? Kuroba-san always said he was traveling somewhere, working on his magic and a part-time job, but she'd seemed more distant recently…and she wasn't home yesterday…"

"No, no, nothing like that. There was just some attempted vandalism around her house the night before last—Saturday. She went to a relative's house for a few days, and called me to ask around and see if I could find anything."

"Then she could have come to Dad, he's an Inspector. Why you?" He could hear a note of suspicion, and see it in the way her eyes narrowed. She'd definitely picked up her father's attention to detail, and maybe even his tunnel vision if her fixation on Kaito as a cause meant anything. Ah well, time to lay the suspicions to rest. He was completely making up the next part, the last couple hadn't required any explanation beyond the basics, but the best way to make a convincing lie, was to tell the truth as much as possible, "She wasn't too concerned about it because it there wasn't much damage. I'm a freelance detective, and she didn't want to bother the police."

"So…" She seemed to buy it, the look of suspicion lessening, and being replaced by something else, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Aa…" Shinichi reached into his jacket, pulling out the small black notebook and pen he used to make notes, "Did you notice anything strange between 8:30 and 10pm on Saturday? Like a person or a vehicle outside the Kuroba residence?"

"Aaah…now that you mentioned it…" She put her finger to her chin in thought, "I did notice a black car sitting out there when I came out to take out some trash. Around…9 ish? I'd thought it strange; Kuroba-san doesn't get many visitors…" She was quiet for a moment, thinking. She seemed very eager to help now that the initial introductions were out of the way. Well, if she was friends with Kaito, and they lived so close together, then she probably knew his mother as well. Especially if she visited, like she said she did. "Ah! I remember seeing someone! The windows of the car were tinted, but when I went by the front window I saw a man get out of the car. He was dressed all in black and had a hat, and it was a little far, so I didn't see much…I thought it might have been Jii-san, he comes by sometimes in the evening and has a black car. Does that help?"

Shinichi snapped his notebook shut, stowing it away, "Thank you. You've been a great help Nakamori-san. Would it be okay if I stopped by again if I needed to?"

"Aa…It'd be okay. Is that all?"

"Yes. Thank you again."

--

The ringing of the phone jerked Kaito out of his sleep. He was groggy for a good few moments, the result of his activities the night before, and the phone was on its third ring by the time he snapped out of his daze. He just wasn't used to staying out all night anymore. He stumbled over to where the cordless phone receiver laid on the night stand, putting it against his ear and hitting the button, "Hello? Kudou residence."

"Ara? You aren't Shin-chan, are you? Who is this?" The feminine voice that came out through the receiver was not familiar at all. He paused, checking the caller ID. It was an international number, and the caller called Shinichi by a pet name. The best bet would be his mother, or perhaps some aunt he didn't know about. "I'm Kai. Shinichi-niichan is working on a case right now."

"Mou, I should have expected that. He probably went and took off as soon as school ended. Honestly, he gives no thought about his poor mother trying to get a hold of him."

Kaito only half listened to Kudou Yukiko, making a mental note not to let her know that
Shinichi hadn't even gone to school today. Just judging by her tone she'd likely go on for a while, most mothers did when it came to skipping school or just general responsibility. He'd never actually met either Kudou Yukiko or her husband, but just from what he could glean from her personality through her voice and words—Shinichi definitely took after his father. He waited until there was a pause in her speech, and politely inserted a "Would you like me to give him a message when he gets home?"

"No, but thank you Kai-kun, I'll just try his cell phone. So how did you meet Shin-chan? I haven't talked to him in a while, so I missed out on all the details."

Aaah, and there was the question he'd been hoping she'd just forget about. It wouldn't have been as bad if she'd just waited and asked Shinichi later—he would have preferred that actually. He was pretty tired, and thinking straight enough to come up with a plausible lie would be a little difficult to accomplish. Ah well, best to stick with the basics then.

"My parents are oversees and Shinichi-niichan is letting me stay with him. He's busy a lot but he takes me places and is a lot of fun!"

"Ah, Shin-chan is such a nice boy, isn't he?" Yukiko mused, forgetting her earlier grievance against her son, "Well, I much be going Kai-kun. I'll be looking forward to meeting you soon."

He stared at the phone after she'd hung up, trying to process the parting words. Soon? With a shrug he placed the phone back on the nightstand and crawled back into bed, Shinichi would tell him about it tomorrow. He was too tired, and tonight would be just as late a night and he needed his rest.

--

Nakamori sat in his car, not the squad car, but the plain, every day one he used when not on a police matter. He had the window rolled down, a cigarette left absently in one hand as he looked across the road, to the tall office building that sat in the failing light, the streetlights slowly flickering on as they were needed.

He wasn't here as a police inspector, even if the reason was a police matter. He'd gone over the reports over and over again, caught in the mystery of the silent alarms and stealing-less break-ins, placed points on maps and checking jewel locations, and it led him here. Within the bounds of the area set up by the break-ins the night before, this was the last building with a jewel that fit the size requirement. It was quite surprising how many large jewels ended up in this city, probably lured in by the fame a Kaitou Kid heist would bring to the owner. Nakamori hated to admit it, but the old situation was a win-win situation. Sure the gem would get stolen, be MIA for a few days, but it'd be returned, and the owner would have gotten to be on the TV for days.

That was then, before the thief's retirement. But even with the lack of heists, the jewels remained in the city, prime targets for whoever was looking for them. Nakamori had a hunch this building, where a large, fist-sized emerald was on display in the top floor reception area, a way to show off wealth to other business partners no doubt, would be the next to catch the attention of that weird, silent not-a-thief. It was just based on a hunch and guesswork, so he was here unofficially, his attention captured for the first time in what felt like forever since he last tangoed with a certain moonlighting Kaitou.

He glanced at his watch, the first alarm had gone off at about half an hour after midnight, he had a few hours left to go, but there was no harm in waiting. A pack of cigarettes, kept hidden from Aoko, and a couple cups of coffee would get him through.

As the sun inched lower, hiding behind the tall skeletons of the buildings, Nakamori settled in to wait.

--

A/N: Done. Over 6k and I didn't quite finish what I wanted too, but meh. I was hoping to cover the two days between finding the note and the meeting in one chapter, but it didn't work out that way. I don't know when the next chapter will be—I have finals next week so…I kinda have to be responsible and study.

Oh, I'm curious. Do I 'tell' too much? I'm in a writing workshop class and some of the consistent comments have been that I don't 'show' enough, and I'm curious if that is also the case in my fanfiction as well.

In any case, comments please! Until next time.