Chapter 14: And Nothing But the Truth
"And that person is you, Raina. You killed Spider."
Marie whipped around to face Saguru, indignant on her friend's behalf. "No way! Why on earth would she—" Then she saw the expression on Raina's face. "Raina, tell them you didn't do it!"
Alex didn't understand either: "Hakuba, you and the others were sure Spider was killed between one and two am. We saw Raina and Ms. Suarez in the house just before half past one. She wouldn't have had the time to leave and get back." It had taken him twenty minutes to run between this house to where they found Spider's body—travelling back and forth would take around an hour at least.
"Yeah, you guys suspected me because I didn't have an alibi for that time!" Marie agreed. "So how come you're accusing her now?"
"Because our first theory was wrong," Conan said. "Spider was not killed between one and two am, but more than an hour earlier. And his killer never left the house. Come up to the attic again, all of you, and we'll show you."
In the deadened silence that followed as they obeyed, Conan did not look at Raina, stricken and still, but at Heiji, who was hauling out ropes and wooden beams from a pile in the corner and began climbing the ladder to the roof, talking as he went:
"When we searched the ground floor last afternoon, we found traces of dried blood on the engawa. That raised the possibility that Spider was actually killed here inside this house, not where his body was found. But that posed a problem; how and why did his body end up on the other side of the island?"
"The underground tunnel was blocked by both water and irritated smugglers. A person could climb these walls with the aid of a rope and get to the other side of the island by themselves, but while carrying a corpse? It'd be extremely difficult. Not to mention, why bother carrying a dead body all the way across the island when you can just toss it into the sea here? And then there was the matter of those falling cinder-blocks, and of course the bucket."
"The bucket?" Ling echoed.
"What Hattori means is that around half past midnight on the night of the storm someone threw down a pile of cinder-blocks from this tower down to the tsuboniwa courtyard," Masumi said. "It almost hit Alex, and we assumed that it was Spider attempting to kill one of us. When we ran up here to investigate, we found that the metal bucket used to haul things up to the rooftop had been removed from its axle and placed on the floor, with the rope coiled neatly inside."
Raina's eyes had gone wide with shock. Ling still looked completely lost, and he wasn't the only one. Conan sighed.
"The bucket must have been used to haul the cinder-blocks and other materials up to the roof, but why would whoever was using it take it off after they were done? Especially since they must have been in a hurry, with the attention the crashing cinder-blocks would have drawn to the roof. It's a small detail, but it didn't make sense. And then we thought of something that would explain it all."
"You see, all of our reasoning about the timing rested on the assumption that Spider—and in turn his killer—go to the other side of the island by walking there, which would take at least an hour both ways," Saguru said. "But Kashikijima is shaped like a crescent, or a horseshoe. If one cut across the water between the two tips it would take a fraction of the time."
Ines Suarez stirred. "That would be much faster, it's true," she said. "But there was a tempest outside that night. No one would have chosen to swim across the bay in that weather."
"No one did," Masumi said, as Heiji finished tying the beams together into a recognizable shape. "No one travelled across the island with Spider's body by land or sea that night. But what about by air?"
Alex recognized what Heiji had constructed from the rope and wooden beams from science projects and history textbooks, and almost laughed in disbelief.
It was a simple trebuchet catapult. A long wooden beam acting as the arm swiveled around the southern roof beam, the rotating axle which had been used to draw up the metal bucket functioning as the pivot.
"The cinder-blocks weren't thrown as a murder attempt—they were used as a counterweight, to fling Spider's body across the island." Conan looked at Raina, who had closed her eyes. "But they were too heavy, broke out of the rope used to tie them together, and fell down into the courtyard. Isn't that right?"
She opened her eyes, and looked at Alex. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect the rope to break, and I really didn't expect it to almost hit you."
A keening sound came from Marie, and Raina clasped her pale hands gently in her own. "I was hoping if I stayed quiet no one would figure it out, but that's clearly not the case. It's as they said; I killed that man."
There was an ocean's worth of love and grief in that half lovely, half ruined face. "Dear God, why?"
"That's the one part we couldn't figure out, but…it has something to do with the fire Marie was in six years ago, doesn't it?" Masumi offered tentatively, looking at the pair.
Raina nodded. "I was there too. I went to Marie's house for sleepovers all the time, and on that day…Marie's parents had gone to bed hours before, but Marie and I stayed up chatting on the couch until she dozed off. I'd wandered upstairs to the attic—I can't even remember why anymore. Maybe I heard a noise, or I wanted to fetch something? Anyways, there was someone there—a man in all black, with these three glowing red lights on top of his mask."
"Spider."
"Yes, though I didn't know it at the time. He looked inhuman, like something from a nightmare. I tried to shout, but those red lights started spinning, and I got dizzy…and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the floor of the attic, and Marie was shaking me, and the house was on fire."
"She had come back for me, you see. While she was bringing us out, a burning section of the wall fell on top of her. That's how she got those scars," Raina said. "Everyone told me I dreamt or hallucinated the figure I saw, and I believed it too. Until two nights ago."
Alex suddenly knew how it had happened. "You saw Spider in that black suit!"
"And then you secretly took a weapon from the display case in the living room," Heiji said.
"Yes—I didn't link Geoffrey Geskel to the arsonist from my memories, not until I saw him through the tower window, in that strange suit with the red goggles. He was climbing down the tower, and as I watched he landed outside the house, walked around to the southwest end, and started climbing over the roof again."
"So that's how he got to Kett's room without being seen," Saguru murmured.
"I thought that he had reappeared to kill me or Marie, to finish the job he did years ago. I didn't feel safe, and then I remembered the display case in the living room, so I snuck down there. The speargun looked functional and it seemed like the best option—I couldn't imagine going up close to that black-and-red figure—so I took it out and loaded it, just in case."
"Just then I heard the sound of people talking, only the voice wasn't anyone I recognized. I crouched down behind the display case, and heard whoever it was mention Spider, and 'the other side of the island'. It seemed to be coming from the shrine!"
"You overheard the smugglers," Saguru said. "They were probably talking about the blocked tunnel, and transferring the goods by crossing the island instead."
"Once the talking was gone I waited there for some time. I didn't want to run into anyone, so I slid back one of the shoji panels and walked around the house using the engawa. With only my torch for light, and the storm shutters on one side and the shoji on the other, it felt like I was travelling in a dark tunnel. I'd almost made it to the stairs…only I ran into Spider. Or rather Geoffrey Geskel—he had taken off that strange mask, but I recognized the black clothes. He moved slowly, like he had been injured in the chest." Conan winced slightly.
"Something hit the storm shutters outside then—probably a branch, and I startled. He saw me, standing there terrified in my pink pajamas with my arms behind my back. I don't think he knew I had eavesdropped or that I knew who he really was," Raina said thoughtfully. "Or maybe he did, and just thought my grandmother wouldn't have wanted me dead. Either way, he just laughed, and ordered me to go back to my room like a good little girl. And I shot him."
"He must have died instantly, because he just dropped to the ground and didn't move again. I stood over him for I don't know how long before I realized there was a problem. I had killed a man, in a house stuffed full of detectives. I had to get rid of the body somehow. And well," she shrugged. "You know the rest."
"You carried his body up to the roof, made that catapult, and flung him off," Conan said, sounding morbidly fascinated. "I assume you discarded the speargun? Probably along with the nightclothes which got soaked and bloodied."
"Yeah, I wrapped it all into a bundle and threw it into the sea. How did you know?"
"Your pajamas were misbuttoned when you met us downstairs, like you had to change in a hurry. But why aim the body at the other side of the island…oh, you wanted to implicate the smugglers, didn't you?"
She nodded. "I didn't know they were smugglers, but I thought if the body was found outside, since the house was sealed up you would suspect that there were other criminals on the island, and think that they were his killers."
"That might have worked, if the tunnel hadn't been flooded," Masumi commented. Without that, the smugglers would probably have managed to make a clean getaway, and when they'd found traces of the operation they would have assumed that Spider had been killed in a double cross. Then again, if the smugglers hadn't been trapped underneath the house, would Spider have stuck around long enough to run into Raina in the first place? That storm had thrown wrenches into everyone's plans.
"But why did this Spider set fire to my house all those years ago in the first place?" Marie asked in a wobbly voice, her face downcast.
Masumi paused. "This is just a guess, but I think…your uncle may have hired him. That may be how he figured out that there was something criminal going on in this house so quickly. Once the London police have a chance to perform a full re-investigation we may know for certain."
"…But why?"
"Again, this is conjecture, but did Mr. Delacey tell you about the fund he had set aside for you when you were growing up?" Saguru asked Ling Gengxin and Ines Suarez. They both nodded. "Initially Mr. Delacey simply decided to split the money equally between the four of you. Then when you two left, he made a change to the terms. I believe he removed the two of you from the inheritance, leaving the money split between the remaining siblings Edmund and Elena. Edmund Kett likely thought the same thing as well."
From the spreading horror on their faces, they understood. "So he hired that assassin so he would be the sole inheritor? But he was wrong!"
"Mr. Delacey made another, final change to that will after Elena Semple's death," Heiji said. "Kett probably thought it was to leave him all the dough, but instead it's what you guys saw earlier. I wonder if Mr. Delacey suspected the truth."
"So he decided to leave everything to the next generation instead, and hope it works out better for them this time," Conan finished softly.
"Wait!" Marie cried out as the two uniformed officers took Raina into custody. "You can't—that man was an assassin—he murdered my parents and my uncle. She doesn't deserve to go to prison for that!"
Alex suddenly spoke up. "I agree," he said. "Spider was a cold-blooded murderer. He'd also attacked us earlier that night. I don't think it's fair."
"It's still murder, even if the victim was scum, Mr. Rider," Mrs. Scialdone said as gently as she could. "The judicial process has to be followed. But I'm sure the extenuating circumstances will be taken into account, Ms. Semple. An argument can be made for self-defense—"
"She did it for me. Revenge and protection, for me." The girl was openly crying now. At a nod from Saguru, the officers released Raina, who walked over to Marie.
"It's only fair. Marie, you got that scar because you came back for me."
"And for you, I'd do it all over again. But he wasn't worth your freedom, Raina."
"Yeah, I realized that." Raina shrugged. "But it was too late by then—he was already dead." She carefully wiped a tear from the burned half of Marie's face, and leaned down for a soft, gentle kiss.
Masumi was the only person who didn't look surprised. "What?" she said, glancing around at the shock on the boys' faces. "They've been thick as thieves from the start. I thought it was pretty obvious."
"Well, at least that wasn't a complete loss," Vermouth said, feeling the wind whip through her loose hair as the police yacht she had appropriated drew farther and farther away from Kashikijima.
Bourbon, who was the one steering the yacht, shot her a doubtful glance. "From your account, we've lost Kashikijima as a future site for smuggling, one of our operatives has been killed, and you were nearly captured by a group of teenagers and a child," her sometimes-partner pointed out. "Not exactly something to boast of, Vermouth. I doubt the Boss would be happy to hear that particular detail. Or Gin."
"Tell them, then," Vermouth said, completely relaxed. Bourbon wouldn't purposely raise Conan to the attention of the Organization any more than she would. He was just trying to needle her.
"—Or maybe I should tell that new hire of yours," he continued, just as casually. "Why did you pick him up, anyways?"
"Maybe I want to form a team of my own. We'll be the blond trio."
"That's going to make undercover work more difficult."
She tilted her head at the look on Bourbon's face. "Why, don't you like Gregorovitch?"
"I don't have an opinion about him one way or the other," Bourbon said. Vermouth was nearly certain he was lying. "Just wondering why I'm the one here driving the getaway boat instead of the newbie."
"He's running an errand for me elsewhere." Bourbon waited, but she didn't elaborate. Instead Vermouth took out a wrapped packet from underneath her jacket. "And as for Kashikijima…I did manage to get these." She plucked out a rough gem—a fist sized rock with a thick vein of black opal running through it—and waved it cheerfully in front of Bourbon.
The opal flashed like a fractured rainbow in her hand. "Where did you get those?"
"Hirokawa Masako was supposed to pass these along, but I thought it would be a waste to let them languish in police custody. Not a bad consolation prize, wouldn't you say?"
Bourbon gave a wry smile of acknowledgement and returned his attention to steering. Vermouth closed her eyes, enjoying the feel of the sun on her face.
Tooru Amuro (or whatever his real name was) can go and try and fish for information about Gregorovitch all he liked, but she wasn't going to bite. He had already discovered one great secret of hers; she wasn't going to let him find any more.
She had sent Yassen Gregorovitch to New York, but it was time to call him back. It was time that he took his initiation test into the Syndicate.
Vermouth leaned back into her deck chair, her eyes still closed, and smiled. Oh yes, she had plans.
On their last day on Kashikijima, Masumi found Marie Semple in the library, scowling at the cell phone in her hand as if it were growing something green and slimy.
"—and of course you must come and visit, I don't think you've seen my Charlie for years, have you? And you two are the same age too!" A high, tittering laugh came from the phone. "The spa waters here are legendary, and let me tell you a little secret: they have some very discreet plastic surgeons here, too, so if you want something done about your face now—"
Marie noticed her, turned the volume down on her phone and hit the mute button. "Sorry, did you need this room?"
"No, it's fine." Masumi gestured. "Who's she?"
"An old family friend. Mrs. Ardene Douthett-Rawles, who seems to have suddenly remembered my existence again now that I'm a presumptive heiress instead of just a scarred orphan. I'm actually rather amazed she got the news so quickly." From the weariness in Marie's tone, this wasn't the first such old family friend who had called.
"Oh." Masumi frowned. She would have expected Marie to hang up on the woman instantly.
The other girl grimaced. "I know. But Mrs. Douthett-Rawles and her lawyers took her two ex-husbands to the cleaners in divorce court, despite the fact that she was the one having an affair at least once. I'll need all the legal help I can get for Raina."
"Try Kisaki Eri," Masumi said instantly. "She's one of the best, and she's experienced with criminal cases, both Japanese and international. She's the mother of one of my friends, so I can give you an introduction if you need it."
"Thanks; I may take you up on that." Marie unmuted the phone, and managed to make a polite, if slightly sarcastic reply to Mrs. Douthett-Rawles, and ended the call soon after.
A hesitant look passed over Marie's face then, and she self-consciously brushed her scar with one finger. "Do you think I should get something done about this, now that I can? If there's money left after the legal fees, that is."
Masumi took in that face: half pretty, half hideous, with a slow flush rising on the side with pale smooth skin. "I should, shouldn't I? It'd be nice to walk down the street without scaring children."
"You will scare children if you keep it like that; I can't lie," Masumi said slowly. "Anyone older who judges you by your face alone isn't worth your regard. And children learn; Conan-kun was never scared of you, was he?"
"Conan," Marie said, "is a very strange child."
"That's true," Masumi chuckled, then grew serious again. "It's your choice, Marie. Raina loved you, before and after the fire. Ms. Suarez and Mr. Ling both like you. And we may have treated you a bit harshly during this case, but that was for the investigation, not because of your scar. Just remember that there are people who can see past it."
"I…have been unfairly sharp with you guys as well. Sorry about that."
"It's nothing, really." Masumi hesitated. "So are you going to get reconstructive surgery?"
"Maybe—I'll have to consider it some more," Marie sighed. "But that's all in the distant future. First I'm going to wait for Raina."
That night, Alex and Saguru once again waited until all the other guests had gone to bed before sneaking out of their room. They walked across the length of Kashikijima under the pale moonlight, Saguru glancing over at Alex every now and then. Alex had been taciturn and distracted all day, and Saguru thought he knew why.
He broke the silence: "You're still not satisfied with what happened with Raina, are you?"
Alex slowly shook his head. It was too dark for Saguru to see his expression clearly; he could only hear Alex's voice, steady and serious. "I'm with Marie on this. Raina killed an assassin. Someone who tried to murder you. Did you realize, Spider could have easily killed her as well?" he said. "The only reason he didn't was because he didn't expect her to be a threat, and because he was injured from Conan kicking that football straight into his ribs during our fight earlier. Given that, I can't be sad that things ended up with Raina alive and Spider dead, instead of the reverse. And I do think it's unfair that she could spend the rest of her life in prison for this."
"I doubt Raina will get the full life sentence, given the circumstances. She's young, unlikely to be a danger to the public in the future, it wasn't premeditated and it could be argued that she had been in fear for her life. She'll probably get around five to ten years."
Alex stopped walking. "But you do think she should serve five to ten years."
Saguru answered with the certainty of a lifetime's worth of listening to his father. "Yes. She committed a crime; she should be punished for it."
There was a long pause, and then Alex said: "I've done the same thing before—killed a killer, someone who was evil. So by your code, I should have been punished as well."
Saguru knew Alex had been a spy, and a very good one, and good spies were generally not known for their mercy. Still, it was difficult to think of the teen beside him as someone who had blood on his hands. Alex has killed before, Akako had told him once, but he had been rather preoccupied then. Afterwards, it had been easy to forget, covered by other memories: Alex stumbling over kanji characters and helping out on cases and—yes, being an unusually skilled fighter. Not liking the implications, he reached for more details instead. "Did you try to cover it up?"
Alex's mouth was a thin, harsh line. "No, the government did that for me. Couldn't have things leaking out that would make it inconvenient for MI6 to keep using me, I suppose." The pagoda was in sight, but neither of them moved towards it.
"Soldiers kill in the line of duty—" Saguru heard himself say, and stopped. Alex had been fourteen when MI6 first started using him.
"Oh, it wasn't like that," Alex said bitterly. "Julius Grief—that was his name—would have gladly killed me, but he'd been hit by a car and was wounded. Crawling on the ground. He was taunting me about how he'd help kill Ja— my friend. I could have disarmed him easily, but I killed him instead."
One of these days, he really needed to get the details behind Alex's missions. Saguru's head swam. "Why are you telling me this? I can't do anything to waive Raina's punishment, or enforce yours long after the fact when your missions are all classified. I don't want to either." If that made him a hypocrite, he would accept it. It suddenly came to him that Alex's view of justice may be more like KID's or Akako's than his own. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.
"Just giving you a heads up. I hope we won't need it." Alex looked to the pagoda, where Conan, Heiji and Masumi were waiting for them. "But if this meeting ends up going how I think it will, you might be glad to have some prior warning."
"We used the tunnel," Masumi greeted as Alex and Saguru walked up. "Now what's this all about?"
"Alex and I thought that time had come to put our cards on the table," Saguru said. "It's become clear that several of us here have information relating to the same matter, and I believe we may be able to help each other, or at least try not to unintentionally obstruct each other's efforts." He took out a small box-like device with several small antennas sticking out of it from his pockets and turned it on.
Masumi raised her eyebrows. "Signal jammer?"
Saguru nodded. "The latest prototype from Hakuba Labs. Given the importance of what we are about to discuss, I would like to take as many precautions as possible."
"The same matter?" Conan said slowly, watching them with those too-mature eyes.
"Oh, you know what I'm talking about," Alex said. "That woman—Vermouth, you called her. She was working with Spider, who Hakuba'd been after. And," he hesitated, "she seems to know someone who's a person of interest to me as well."
"You mean someone who's related to your spying activities?" Heiji asked bluntly. Then, unceremoniously: "Yeah, Conan and I both found out about your past with MI6."
"Oh for goodness sakes, is there anyone who doesn't know about it by this point?!"
Masumi raised her hand. "I certainly didn't. What spying?" Then she did a double-take. "Wait, did you say MI6?!"
Saguru coughed. "I believe the most efficient way to proceed would be to do this round-table style."
Alex groaned. This was like the get-to-know-me speeches at the start of a brand new school year, only ten times worse. "Fine, I might as well start."
"Before that, there's someone else who should be here." Saguru turned outward to the dark landscape, and raised his voice. "You might as well join us now!"
Silence, except for the stir of leaves and nighttime insects and the low hum of the jammer. Then a figure dressed in long pants and a dark t-shirt slipped out of the vegetation. Alex recognized the round face and bowl-cut hair of Haruko Taniguchi.
"Haruko?" But no, her movements were too stealthy, too silent. "Who are you?"
She pressed a dramatic hand to her chest. "You've forgotten me already, Alex-san? Was I so unmemorable?" The voice was smooth and male, and instantly familiar.
"Kaitou KID." Conan sounded more resigned than anything else. "I thought it might have been you."
"But why are you here?" asked Heiji.
The phantom thief shrugged. "I caught rumours of a gemstone smuggling operation around Kashikijima, and made preparations to come investigate undercover. Unfortunately, thanks to the storm, I didn't arrive until most of the fun was already over."
"Fun was not how I would have described it," Alex muttered under his breath.
"You came for Spider as well, correct?" Saguru guessed. KID nodded. "It appears he was a part of the same organization as this Vermouth woman that Edogawa-kun knows. You say you know of another member, Alex?"
"Kind of." Alex took a deep breath, and decided to begin at the beginning. "You all might as well know—though it seems most of you do already. When I was fourteen, MI6 recruited me as a spy—unwillingly, I might add—after my uncle's death. Turns out it ran in the family. I quit when I was fifteen, because the missions had…taken too much." His school-life, his normalcy, his innocence. And Jack. "While I was with Hakuba in Lymstock this summer, I saw someone I knew from that world. He's an assassin called Yassen Gregorovitch, and I had thought that he was dead. Then during her escape Vermouth hinted that she's responsible for his reappearance."
"So you think this Gregorovitch person is now working for the same people as Vermouth?" Conan asked.
"It's extremely likely," Saguru said. "You know who they are?"
The boy hesitated. "Yes. Hattori and I have been trying to bring them down for a long time now."
Alex's mind boggled at the thought. "By a long time…were you a toddler when you started crime fighting or something?" That made his own adventures at fourteen seem positively behind schedule in comparison.
Dear god, if MI6 or another intelligence agency ever found out there was someone even younger they could use…
Conan grimaced. "Not really. It's a very long story, and rather difficult to explain."
"I think I can provide a summary," Saguru said softly. His next words drove all images of little baby spies out of Alex's head:
"Edogawa-kun, you're Kudo Shinichi, aren't you?"
A/N: Congrats to Ai Huiyuan, who correctly guessed that a catapult was used to dispose of the body and chose Raina as the main suspect!
As always, thank you all for reading! One more chapter to go!
