Conan suddenly remembered something, "Ahh! Agasa-Hakase sent me an invention to help me solve crimes! I should probably see what it is,"
Conan quickly went to his room where he had stored the package, and when he opened it… he found a pair of his school uniform.
"Huh? What's this on the inside of the collar?" Conan wondered. Curious, Conan decided to strip off the well-hidden seal, and he found that it hid a couple knobs, a speaker, and a microphone.
Wondering what the invention was, he noticed there was a note on the inside of the seal, so he read it.
Note: Shinichi-kun, this invention allows you to change your voice to whatever you feel life! Old man, child, old woman, teenage girl, whatever! If you set it up properly you can even imitate someone else's voice! Directions underneath…
Grinning, he quickly hurried through the directions and tested it. He sounded like a little girl! After turning it a little more, he found he sounded almost like Kogoro! After fiddling with it a little, he set it up so he sounded near identical to Kogoro, and then sealed it back up.
"I better put this on just in case," Conan decided, doing just that.
Conan then went back down t0 see that everyone was leaving, when he heard Ran say, "Conan-kun, we're going to Yoko-san's house. Would you like to come?"
"Hai!" Conan tried to make himself sound excited because he was going to a celebrity's house, not excited to solve whatever case she had.
In the car on the way there...
"So, let me get this straight, someone is following Okino Yoko-san, moving the furniture in her house around, sending her secretly taken photos of herself, someone's chased her, and sending her silent phone calls?" Conan summarized.
"Yeah, that's basically what happened," Ran nodded, "Oh yeah, Otosan wanted me to tell you not to interfere with the investigation."
Conan nodded.
As Okino Yoko opened her apartment door…
"Kyaaaaaaaaah!" Yoko shrieked.
"What's wrong?" Kogoro asked, walking up to the door, then growling, slightly dazed by the sight, "This is… the police! Call the police!"
A man in his mid twenties, probably Yoko's manager, came up to him and suggested, "If we could possibly keep this secret…"
After looking at Yoko who was bawling, muttering about how could that happen in her apartment, answered in a calmy friendly voice, "Yeah, sure, we'll keep it secret," Then he suddenly bellowed at the top of his lungs, "ARE YOU TOTALLY INSANE? THIS IS A MURDER FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!" Then after catching his breath, Kogoro shouted, though not quite as loudly as before, "Ran! Call the police!"
"Yes Otosan!" Ran nodded and ran out of the house to look for a phone.
"Ahh, Ran-neesan, I have a cellph-" But it was too late, she was already gone.
When the police arrived…
"I see, so you're saying that when you arrived it was already like this… and you happened to come with…" Megure started, thinking, "Ugh, anyone but him. We may be friends but he's an incompetent fool of a detective."
"Me! Mouri Kogoro!" Mouri greeted his ex-superior cheerfully.
"Mouri Kogoro, and the kid who managed to capture a murderer and his violent mother less than two hours ago," Megure sighed, quietly grumbling, "Why me?" He then noticed how much he was sweating and asked, "Do you always keep the temperature so high?"
"No, never. In fact, I turned all my power off before I left," Yoko told him.
"That's not the only strange thing. There are small dried water marks around the body, and the chair next to the body is the only piece of furniture that is standing up, the rest of the furniture is knocked over on the floor. And then there's what you mentioned, it's too hot. Is it to make it impossible to tell the time of death? No, maybe if the body was doused in water…" Conan theorized to himself, talking out loud as he looked around the room with a magnifying glass.
"Hmmm… the kid seems a bit familiar. But I don't know many kids his age, and even less with glasses that thick," Megure pondered, "Hmm… must be a child celebrity or something," He shrugged it off, deciding his work was more important.
"Hey! Didn't I tell you not to mess with my work?" Kogoro growled at him, punching him on the head.
"No, you had Ran tell me," Conan rolled his eyes, lightly rubbing the wound on his head.
"So, have you found the cause of death yet?" Megure asked his two forensics subordinates.
After trading a few words with each other, the older of the two subordinates answered, "It seems to have been an instant death from the knife in his back."
Megure then turned to Yoko, "And that's your knife?"
"Y-yes," She nodded.
"You can't possibly be accusing h-" The manager started.
"And who're you?" The inspector interrupted, glaring at the man.
"I'm Yoko's manager, Yamagishi."
"And do either of you recognize him?" Megure grilled.
"Well, we were too scared to take a look to be honest," Yamagishi answered. The two then kneeled down to take a look and gasped. Yamagishi fell onto the body and knocked the knife out of its wound.
"He took something from the corpse! And a little of whatever it was fell out of his pocket!" Conan realized, casually walking up to where he was and took the small strand of what Yamagishi took off the floor.
Conan then took a look and found out that it was a strand of hair.
"It's hair? But whose is it? Is the killer that person?" Conan wondered.
"There is only one entrance, and we haven't discovered any fingerprints on the knife besides Yoko-san's, so I can't see how it could be anyone but her!" Megure thought outloud.
"No! I couldn't kill anyone!" Yoko vehemently repudiated.
"She's right inspector! Yoko-san came specifically to me for help!" Kogoro agreed.
"Hmph, the one who calls for help is often the one who did it," Megure grunted in reply.
"Ever heard of duplicate keys?" Conan muttered a little too loudly, causing Ran to hastily put her hand over his mouth to stop him from continuing.
"Why you little…" Kogoro growled.
"My manager, Yamagishi-san had one, but…" Yoko started, and her manager nodded.
"That's it! Yamagishi-san is the murderer!" Mouri accused him.
"No! I lost the key a few days ago!" The manager swore.
"What? Are you lying you bastard?" Kogoro growled back at him.
"It's true!" Yoko agreed.
"Well, if she says so," Kogoro grudgingly agreed.
While that was going on, Conan went back to searching the room for evidence, eventually finding an earing under the couch.
He turned to one of the forensics detectives who was giving him a curious look, and said, "Hey, there's something under the couch."
The forensics officer just ignored him. No, not just ignored him, Conan swore that the officer rolled his eyes!
"Sheesh, I know I'm young, but I'm only a year younger than when I originally first started to solve cases." Conan muttered under his breath, glad that no one heard him, then remembered something, "The voice modulating collar!"
After messing with the modulator for a moment, he whispered to make sure it was an adult voice, which is was, and it was male, which it also was.
Then, using that voice, he shouted, "Inspector! Look under the sofa!"
"Huh? Who was that?" The inspector looked around for a moment, shocked and confused, but then shrugged it off and decided to do as the mystery voice suggested.
"An earing?" Megure realized as he took it out from under the couch.
"Ahh! That's Yuuko's earing! But what is it doing here?" Yoko pondered.
"And who is that?" Megure interrogated.
"Ahh, she's an actor who started at the same time as Yoko, they often work together," The manager explained, then a little anxiously he added, "And there's a rumor going around that Yuuko bears a grudge against Yoko for taking her acting role!"
"She must be the killer! Go arrest her!" Kogoro shouted, then turned to the inspector, "Isn't that right?"
"Well, she's certainly a suspect. We'll bring her to the station, no, bring her straight here!" Megure shouted.
"Yes sir!" His subordinated then went to go get her.
When Yuuko arrived
"You can't possibly think I'm a murderer because of an earing of mine that was at the crime scene!" Yuuko protested, "I'm going to the bathroom."
As she walked over to the bathroom, which she shouldn't have known the location of, Conan noticed that Yoko and her look identical from behind.
Conan got out his notebook and decided to write his view of the case, writing down everything he had noticed.
When Yuuko got out of the bathroom she sat next to unique looking lighter that just looked like a normal decoration, and lit a cigarette.
Conan noted this as well, and decided he should probably comment on it.
"Wow, cool lighter, I thought it was just a decoration." Conan casually commented, "Hmm, Yuuko-san, how'd you know it was a lighter and not a decoration? You haven't been here before after all."
"The boy's right, how'd you know it was a lighter?" Megure grilled the actor.
"A-aaah, a-a friend of mine has one just like it!" Yuuko made up.
"Who is this friend? I'll have some men of mind check for themselves." Megure continued.
"Hey, Yoko-san, could you please tell me where the bathroom is?" Conan asked.
"That's right! How'd you know where the bathroom was?" Mouri grilled the woman, "Shall I tell you? It's because you were the murderer! You killed him to start a scandal!"
"No! I only fought back against him when he attacked me! I didn't kill him!" Yuuko protested.
"So you have been here before?" Megure asked.
"Yes! I came here with the spare key I stole at the studio! At first I was just harassing her with silent phone calls and secretly taken photos! But then, as she kept doing her job fine, I got angry and broke into her apartment to find something to start a scandal with. But then that man came this morning, I fought with all my strength and barely escaped." Yuuko admitted.
Suddenly a subordinate of Megure's ran into the room and shouted, "Confirmation of his identity has been found. He's Fujie Akiyoshi, age 22, he's a graduate of the same school as Yoko, Kounen High, and recently quit his job at Kakubeni Corporation."
"Must be a coincidence, right Yoko?" The manager lied.
"No! I know him! Because during high school I went out with him! Sorry Yamagishi-san, I can't hide it any longer!" Yoko shouted, admitting to her lie.
"So you killed him to settle your relationship?" Megure grunted.
"No! He broke up with me during high school!" Yoko protested, "But when I became famous he kept trying to get back together so I moved here to get away from him! But why he's dead here, I have no clue! Please, Keibu-san, tell me who did it!"
"I, I don't know. Sorry." The inspector apologized, confused.
After looking around for a little while, Conan noticed a bump under where the corpse was, and more specifically, under the spot the knife entered the body.
"Everything fits, now I just need to get those two to understand." Conan smirked, then wrote down his deductions in his notebook.
Suddenly, as he finished, the notebook was snatched out of his hands, and Conan realized that it was Ran who had taken it.
Ran was now reading the deductions off his sheet, and Conan was jumping, trying to reach the notebook, but to his grief, she was too tall.
"Wow, these deductions are like Shinichi's!" Ran realized, then thought, "Well, he did say that the kid was smarter than he was at his age."
"I know who the culprit was!" Kogoro suddenly shouted, "It's the manager, Yamagishi! The man trailing Yoko-san was a nuisance to you, and more than that, he was her high school boyfriend. If the media found out it would be a scandal. And when you got the chance you caught him hiding in here. Am I wrong?"
"Yes Otosan, you are," Ran spoke up.
Everyone was looking at her with wide eyes, including Conan.
"Yamagishi-san had a spare key, so of course he is a suspect, but if he had come to Otosan to have the body discovered after killing him, then he would have had something to prove his innocence, or at least his alibi. But, he didn't have anything like that. The same could be said for Yoko-san, as she is the owner of the apartment. So then the killer would be…" Ran began to explain, but was then interrupted.
"Ikezawa Yuuko!" Megure shouted.
"No, that isn't correct either," Ran continued, "Yuuko-san had hidden the fact that she had been here before, but she told us ourselves that she was attacked by the man. If she had indeed killed on the spur of the moment, she wouldn't have told us. Even though we had proof that she was here, we had no proof she had seen the man."
"Then what you're saying is…" Megure gasped, as well as her father.
"Yes, though this is only an educated guess. As there is no proof to convict any of those three, and there is to prove this theory, it is probably right. The hair that Yamagishi-san took from the hands of the corpse when he pretended to slip," Ran continued.
"So the murderer is Yamagishi-san!" Megure shouted.
"No! The problem isn't why he took the hair, but why the hair was there in the first place! If a person was stabbed suddenly in the back, he would've released whatever was in his hands in shock. But he didn't. This was a suicide made to look like a murder committed by Yoko-san!" Ran seemingly deduced.
"Made to look like a murder… It can't be!" Megure shouted, gawking.
"Yes, the killer was the deceased Fujie-san himself!" Ran finished.
"A suicide? Ran-kun, as a high schooler you might not know this, but people can't stab themselves like that," Mouri looked at her daughter skeptically.
"That's what he wanted us to think. If he was stabbed in the back it couldn't have possible looked like a suicide. But using a simple ice trick it's possible. With the high temperature, the water marks near the corpse, and the only chair in the room that was left standing being the one next to the body, it is possible. Fujie-san most likely made a hole in a block of ice, then stood on the chair and jumped backwards onto the ice, aiming it so it'd pierce him through the back. The high temperature was the melt the ice quickly. For proof there should be a mark on the floor near the body chalk," Ran then pointed over to where the approximate location of the hole, using a picture in the notebook as a guideline to where it was.
"This thing here?" Megure asked.
"Yes, it probably matches the handle of the nice perfectly. He went overboard in the framing of Yoko-san though. He jumped onto the knife holding her hair. When Yamagishi saw this he immediately thought Yoko-san was the one who did it," Ran continued.
"I'm sorry Yoko." The manager looked guiltily at the floor.
"If Fujie-san's fingerprints are found on Yoko-san's hairbrush or something like that then this proves he committed suicide," Ran went on.
"B-but why?" Yoko asked, tears in her eyes.
"That was because he was still in love with you," Ran looked a little mushy at this part, "If you haven't noticed, you and Yuuko-san look identical from behind. So, having mistaken Yuuko-san for Yoko-san, he tried to talk to her, but Yuuko-san was frightened by the unfamiliar man and ran away. Shocked by this, Fujie-san's rejected love turned into hatred."
"But he dumped me! Why would he do this?" Yoko was about to sob as she asked this.
"That's not entirely true. I asked him to dump you," The manager admitted, looking guiltily at the floor yet again.
An officer suddenly ran onto the scene, "Megure-Keibu, a diary of Fujie-san's was found at the scene, it pretty much confirms what the girl said about his feelings."
After Megure-Keibu checked the brush for fingerprints...
"Wow, Ran-kun, I never knew you were such a brilliant detective!" Megure laughed, patting her roughly on the back.
"No! Tha-" Ran tried to refute, but was interrupted.
"That's my daughter! Hahahaahaa!" Mouri bragged.
"Wow Ran-neesan! You're amazing!" Conan shouted, pretending to be in awe of her brilliant deduction.
"Ahh but-" Ran looked helpless, and gave a confused look at Conan, the only other person who knew she wasn't the one who deduced it.
The next day, Conan and Ran on their way back from getting the groceries...
"Hey, Conan-kun, why did you give me the credit for solving the murder? I mean, I know you don't like media attention and all, as you told me when we first met, but as you're still a student there are privacy laws that prevent you from being mentioned by the media without your consent." Ran asked.
"Ahh, well, sometimes a police officer will leak something to the media even though they aren't supposed to, but if the media doesn't know I solved it they can't tell anyone about it!" Conan lied, he just didn't want the attention in general.
Ran nodded in understanding, then pointed at a large television screen on a nearby building, "Look, Yoko-san is already back to work after all that! She must be strong!"
"No, she's just trying her hardest to perform and forget her grief. Idols always need their fans," Conan thought silently, "Huh?" Conan noticed a tear come out of Ran's eye.
"But I couldn't do that. I could never be as strong as she is. Thanks to Shinichi being gone, I can't even get any sleep at night. I'm hopeless, right?" Ran asked rhetorically.
"I-I'm sure at the very least he'll call you soon," Conan attempted to cheer her up.
Ran's PoV later that day…
"It's weird that he hasn't come back in an entire week. Something must have happened to him, but this is Shinichi I'm thinking about, nothing like that could've happened to him. Please. Shinichi. Come back soon!" Ran's eyes begun to tear up.
Suddenly the phone began to ring.
Ran picked it up and greeted the person she thought was probably a customer, "Hello, Mouri Detective Agency."
"Hey Ran! It's me!" Shinichi's voice came through the phone, and echoed inside Ran's mind, "I just figured you'd be bawling your eyes out, wishing for me to come home, so I thought I'd give you a call to cheer you up!"
"You jerk! Why would I be crying for someone like you!" Ran growled over the phone, then in a more worried tone, she asked, "Where in Hokkaido are you anyways?"
"Ahh, I left there yesterday," Shinichi said dismissively.
"Then where are you in general?" Ran asked.
"On a case, don't worry about it," Shinichi answered, yet again dismissively, "It's a toughy though, I don't think I'll be able to get back for a while."
"A case?" Ran murmured.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," Shinichi repeated, then asked, "Hey, how's the kid doing. Conan-kun was it?"
"Ahh, he's fine. He solved a kidnapping by accident, which I'm starting not to believe, on the first day he got here in Tokyo, and just yesterday he solved a five year old murder, and also solved another murder that took place in Okino Yoko's apartment, though in the end it turned out to be a suicide. What's more, he gave me credit for solving the murder!" Ran started to complain.
"Ahh, yeah. One time there was a murder he solved, and when I just came over to pick him up he said that I solved the murder when I didn't even know there was one," Shinichi lied, laughing.
"Really? What case was it?" Ran asked.
"Ahh, doesn't matter, anyways, I'll come home as soon as I finish my case," Shinichi assured her.
