A/N: Okay, first off, let me explain *Screams dramatically and holds both hands outwards*... I had a very legitimate reason it took so long and I am perfectly willing to elaborate. I had actually written for this fanfiction and in a crazed fit I even reached chapter 8, but then I realized that somewhere along the way the story horribly carreened towards EPIC-OOC and I had to delete chapters 6 and 7 and start over again. Whihc was the main reason it took so long.

Now, as for this chapter, the credit goes mainly to TWILIGHTreader1, who gave me the honour of being my very own personal sounding board and unofficial beta. The idea for the second half of the chapter was something we cooked up together and therefore the credit goes on equal parts to her as much as to me^^ And then she did me the honour of checking everything and correcting what she thought didn't work. As I believe she will notice, I really have put most (like almost all) of her suggestions in the final version of this chapter. So thanks a lot! *hugs*

ATTENTION: I am using a word called "Survey-shot" in the later part of this chapter. To those of you that are unfamiliar with that term, it is an expression used in photography and describes a specific type of photo, where the cameraman is standing at a higher vantage point and photographing an entire scene. In movies it would be called a "total", something that makes you see all of a possible scene in one shot.

So now that I've explained everything, all there is for me to say; is: Enjoy and feedback is appreciated, as always^^Spelling errors found may be kept and laughed at, though I do think I found them all^^

Chapter 6

Tuesday 31st August 2011

Late Evening

He had to smile as he saw the police press conference. In truth he had to stop himself from laughing aloud at the mere bravado in their voices. Even the famous detective, Mouri Kogoro, was present as a special consultant. Not that he would be of any help to the police of course. It was impossible and they all knew it. After all, every person in that room knew him too well.

In reality, it was obvious to anyone with eyes that the police were completely at a loss. Not one person knew the best way to advice the greater public. At best, they could give vague assumptions of the elusive killer. Their eyes were darting between each other, back and forth, suddenly anxious under the media's scrutiny and they had every right to be anxious. After all, they were being scrutinized, that was also very obvious. With each passing day they could not locate any trace of him, the press delved into ever greater assumptions. As a result the city was in a pit of horror. This he delighted in, because it meant that one single person basically held an entire city under siege. A surge of emotion filled the unknown assailant, and the feeling was glorious indeed. He knew they would not be able to catch him; they hadn't even begun to understand the full magnitude of his achievements yet. It was simple: They did not understand him.

Therefore they could not catch him.

A dark chuckle escaped his lips.

Such fools. Arrogant and incompetent fools...

It was true. After all; they could not find him, yet they still possessed the audacity to announce that his behaviour would not be tolerated, claiming to punish the man behind the murders with the full force of the law. Unspoken however, went the fact that they had nothing to go on and the press had an inkling on that. They had no evidence to substantiate their claim, and the case stagnated over time while the police went to ever more absurd ways of 'protecting' the children. It was nothing but camouflage to hide the fact they were helpless against his might.

Grinning he lifted his gaze to look at the far wall across the room. He had bought all of the papers so far and has carefully cut out all of his articles. He wanted to have visible proof of the terror he caused to the people of Tokyo. The most recent headlines boldly screamed: 'Killer still at large' and 'Police baffled'.

Over 100 articles in just shy of a few months; many of them cross posted in various abbreviations within other papers; he could go on and on like this and watch while the city turned on the police and tore them to shreds.

It would be interesting to witness...

His attention was drawn back to the screen once more as the head of the investigation, Megure, gave the word to their resident consultant detective, Mouri Kogoro. For a moment, it was unsettling for the killer to be faced with his gaze; so filled with anger and pure hatred, but within the span of a moment he realized that Mouri was as clueless as the police.

It was an unexpected development to have such a famous detective on his trail, but it provided the murderer with some diversion. To see the feeling of utter helplessness in the eyes of the investigators as they realized they could not find him. It reminded the killer of all those children he had taken to the Dreamland. Just before they left, their eyes held the same hopelessness, as if their souls were cast away.

And he loved seeing it. He needed to see it.

Come to think of it...

He turned his gaze away from the screen; absently listening to Mouri making a grand declaration that he would catch the assailant; to look at a small lamp right next to his television. Dangling from it was a small digital stopwatch showing nothing but the numbers 70:47. His countdown for the boy he held captive. When the numbers reached 72:00 the boy would depart for the Dreamland.

It was time for him to check on the little one, perhaps he was awake once more. His excitement grew as he thought of seeing the spark of terror blazing in his captive's eyes again, just before he would leave.

And tomorrow he would watch again, waiting until the police realized their failure.

Monday 13th September 2011

Afternoon

2 whole weeks had passed. Two damned weeks! Fourteen days without any progress regarding finding that deranged maniac. Fourteen days and they still had nothing, except another missing child, probably already dead. The public was frantic, the police slowly started to resemble a headless chicken and Kogoro was even more drunk than usual.

Conan himself, out of sheer frustration, was awfully close to banging his head into the nearest semi-solid object. The hardest part was probably the inactivity. He had tried to get into the other crime scenes, believing he would be able to find what he had not been able to in Hanako's case, but that plan quickly evaporated as soon as he got there. Seemingly the guard on Hanako's scene had only been lax and had just happened to be alone on duty that specific day. In every other place where a body had been discovered, Conan couldn't even get near, because they were each guarded by no less than three officers. Therefore; Hanako's remained the only crime scene he had been able to peruse himself, though he still was unable to figure out what exactly was bugging him about it.

The investigation (or lack thereof) and the fact that this killer seemed to blend in with the general public so flawlessly affected him also on a personal level. He made sure to know exactly where his friends were and constantly reminded them to stick together at all costs. To avoid being picked up by Ran every day (and being hounded about how tired he looked); Conan kept close to a group of Middle Schoolers, who just happened to take the same route he did to reach the Agency. It allowed him some time to think over everything. Not that he had no time to do that, after all, the nights were quiet at the Agency when one could ignore the snoring sleuth.

Frowning he remembered a conversation he had with Ran the other day, when they had been watching TV together. She was genuinely concerned about him; even offered to take him to a doctor, simply because he looked so damn tired. She was right; in a way he really was damn tired; sleep was an occurrence that did not happen often any more. Well, not restful sleep anyhow. That had been rare enough even before this whole mess had begun, but now it was just fitful. His deductive imagination served to throw him into terrible nightmares whenever he closed his eyes for more than twenty minutes. Adding in the fact that his friends were children of the same age as the victims and one got a truly bad combination. He shuddered involuntarily as he recalled a particularly nasty nightmare he had experienced some two days ago. He had dreamed the next victim found was Ayumi. To make matters worse (as is finding the dead body of a friend wasn't enough already), he had snuck into the crime scene, where Ayumi had suddenly opened her eyes and screamed.

Horrific.

Not that he wasn't used to having the occasional nightmare from time to time (after all, he was hiding from Gin and his goons). The only difference now was that the intensity as well as the frequency had increased drastically.

The only good thing that came from sleep disturbances at such irregular intervals was the presentation of lots of quiet time to think. He would have preferred to go over the official files in the office also, but he knew he wouldn't be given the chance. If only Ran wouldn't lock the damn door every evening. She had even made Kogoro install a second lock to keep the office safe from burglars; at least that had been the reason she had given.

Sure... Like burglars are who they want to keep out...

It was clear as day that she only wanted to keep him out of any official files. Sure, she was concerned, and he could understand that, but it was no reason to overreact like this. He also hadn't figured out exactly where she kept the keys, or he would have snuck them from her. A wry grin wound its way on Conan's features as his brain reminded him that such a premeditated action was the definition of burglary.

During the past fourteen days, Conan spent his time looking through the meagre data he had collected so far and trying his best at figuring out who this killer was from a psychological angle. Not that he was an expert by any stretch of the word, but as a detective he had come to know a bit of psychology. Of course, his knowledge consisted mainly to the common reasons for murder, such as jealousy and greed, but this killer was on an entirely different level. The other day, Conan had also taken some books from his library at home; his real home; when he had decided to go to the Professor's and check on Haibara. Conan was relieved to find she was relatively okay and slowly recovering from what had actually been a bout of pneumonia, but of course he'd never tell her that. Unfortunately this would mean that Haibara would be out for a while yet. Though he'd somewhat miss working with the grouchy scientist (again something he would never tell her), he was happy to know that at least one of his friends would be accounted for. She'd been through enough in her life, without another maniacal killer going after her.

Focus, Kudo...

Wearily Conan raked a hand through his hair, willing his mind to stop going in circles. Insomnia and general anxiety slowly began to take their toll on his mental processes and he had to be at his best to catch that killer. Or at least to figure out some way to be included in the investigation. But the fact that he had almost nothing to work with grated on his nerves, making him constantly reigning his temper in, to avoid unleashing his anger at unsuspecting people. He had managed to convince the Shounen Tantei to leave this case to the police and though they had been somewhat reluctant; they had agreed, which had calmed him somewhat. The risk of them getting in trouble was simply too great. Ran wavered between concern over his welfare and worry over her father (who drank way more than the usual in the evenings). Also, seemingly as a by-product of his fruitless effort, Conan himself slowly began to doubt his faculties as a detective. Usually such thoughts were overruled by his confidence and the vague hope that if he was included in the investigation, he would have something to work with. Yet lately, that confidence took a little bit longer to show.

After all, he had almost nothing to work with, as they kept him so stoically out of the loop. How was he supposed to find anything, if that continued? Three days prior, he had accidentally bumped into Takagi-keiji on his way home. Even the officer that so often showed lenience with him had taken a pretty hasty retreat, making it painfully obvious that even the police was involved in Kogoro's annoying scheme.

And all Conan had to show for his efforts was a crude personality profile, of which he wasn't even sure whether it was accurate or not. It wasn't exactly as if he knew any psychologists he could ask.

Such it was that when he returned to the Agency, he was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he unknowingly walked into the office out of sheer habit. Conan failed to notice the great Sleeping Kogoro slumped over his desk, doing what he was famous for: sleeping.

The snoring served to bring Conan's mind back to the present, effectively drawing him out of his little pity-party. He then took a quick glance around, realizing where he was and was surprised at his luck. Fortunately, the older detective was nearly dead to the world, and since nothing had been cleaned either, it stood to reason that Ran was not back either.

Quickly Conan checked his watch. It was barely close to four in the afternoon. Normally Kogoro started drinking much later in the day (even under present circumstances), so the fact that he half-lay there, drunk off his head, meant it was bad news. Conan could already imagine what kind of news those were. Scowling the shrunken teen threw his pack onto the couch and stalked over to the window. If the man was intend on drinking himself to death, he could at least open a window, out of simple consideration for the people that could be walking in unknowingly.

Man, smells like someone lit a brewery on fire...

Of course, the dead children haunted Conan's thoughts also and every new disappearance meant a new stone on his conscience, but it was no reason to drink oneself stupid. Alcohol would only delay the problem itself. In Conan's opinion, Kogoro should be working, not getting drunk in the middle of the damn afternoon. That was the only choice they had if they ever wanted to capture that sick murderer.

For a few moments, Conan stood at the window, looking out at the street, but not really seeing much. If one assumed the newest kidnap victim was now the newest murder victim, the death toll had risen to ten children. It was a heavy burden for any investigator, he could relate to that. After all, the names and ages, often even the pictures of their faces, loomed in the back of his head. But unlike Kogoro, Conan's frustration only caused him to work harder, to push himself even further in pursuit of the truth. That was perhaps the biggest difference between him and Kogoro (aside from the fact that the old man didn't even have a quarter of the brainpower he sported). Frustration simply fuelled his determination, with Kogoro it did the reverse. When that idiot was frustrated, he only proceeded to get as drunk as possible in the shortest amount of time manageable.

A gust of wind blew through the open windows and a gentle rustling seized Conan's attention. He turned away from the window to see that several things had been blown off the desk and onto the floor. Grimly he walked over to pick it up. At that moment, all his anger towards Kogoro and his drunken state vanished. Instead, he thanked all the stars above that the guy had decided to drink himself to oblivion this specific afternoon.

They were photos...

...high resolution crime scene photos scattered all over the floor.

Those were of a crime scene he hadn't yet seen. And man, were they ever so gruesome. Suddenly Conan could almost understand why Kogoro had deemed it necessary to drink himself into a stupor. Everyone would need a drink after seeing this. With unerring accuracy, Conan had managed to pick a close-up shot from the kids face, or what was left of his face. Recalling the list of clothing mentioned in the news and comparing them to what he saw, this must have been Katsuro's scene then. Though there wasn't much left to distinguish the boy any more, at least where facial features were concerned. The small kid's face was blotched and swollen almost past the point of recognition, covered in dark dried blood. On his neck and throat the tell-tale marks of strangulation were visible, violent purple against the pallor of the dead child's skin.

Poor kid... If only I had some evidence to work with, maybe then I could have found him in time...

Suddenly more determined than ever, Conan stalked around the sleeping detective, meaning to root through the photos while he had the chance. Conan hoped that the drunkard would not wake up while he was in the middle of snooping. He had no idea what effects that would draw, especially since they went to such extreme measures to keep him out of the loop. Well, at least this time he could blame it all on Lady Luck. Luck and a very drunken detective who had fallen asleep while rooting through photos in an unlocked office.

Not wasting any more precious seconds, he quickly gathered a few handfuls of photos (at least the ones he could get to without having to move the unconscious shape of Kogoro) and carried them to the coffee table.

He had a fair few of them, some he had already seen a while ago when he still had been able to sneak into the office; others he hadn't yet glimpsed. Then, for a moment, Conan froze completely. A noise was coming from the unconscious detective. The old man was stirring: he had mumbled something intelligible and moved slightly. Fearing he would wake up, Conan instantaneously created a fall-out plan: hide under the table. But luck was on his side again, the man was simply changing positions.

This enabled Conan to get a few more photos, some had been lain on, others even drooled over; a most disgusting habit of Kogoro's. Especially when drunk. The man drooled in his sleep; Conan had found that one out pretty quickly and rather nastily, which involved a drooled-on hand touching his face in the middle of the night. Conan shuddered at the recollection.

Disgusting...

But still, he had something to focus on, at least while the old man was still sleeping. Gently wiping down the traces of saliva, he began to look at each photo carefully, before placing them neatly on the table. There were piles upon muddled piles of photos. Another thing that contrasted him from Kogoro, the man seemed to make a mess wherever he was and no matter the circumstances.

Chaos just follows in his wake I suppose...

After almost a half-hour of looking at photos, Conan was ready to call it quits. He was pushing his luck with the old man as it was, and each second more was another second closer to getting caught. Looking back at Kogoro, Conan sighed and got to his feet.

"All this time and not a single clue..." he said quietly to himself in a subdued voice as he began to gather all the photos together to return them to the desk. Just as he was about to walk over, Conan noticed something odd on the topmost photo. At that instant, he became aware of a dark spot on it. Experimentally, he rubbed over it to ascertain whether it was not simply a crumb of dirt left by God knows what.

But it remained. Therefore, whatever caused that dark spot in the picture wasn't superficial, meaning it was not on the paper, but rather in the picture itself. Interested Conan looked closer. It didn't appear to be a shadow of some sort, as he could see nothing that could have caused a shadow like this to begin with. It was just some dark spot, some distance away from the body (as it was a survey-shot he handled).

All right... Technical problem then? Surely, if it was a camera issue, it should show up in other photos also...

He looked through the next photos of the same crime scene. But there the spot should have been was now a clear image with no dark marks. None of the other photos of the crime scene had it, just in that one survey-shot.

Well, this is interestng...

If it had been a technical problem with the camera itself, there should have been the same dark spot in several other pictures at roughly the same place, but there wasn't. Also, it just didn't look like a camera problem. The spot appeared to be solid and some distance away from the lens: like it was part of the picture instead of on top of it.

Okay, not technical then...

Perhaps it was merely a spot of dust or dirt on the lens? But even as he thought it, all his instincts rebelled against such an explanation. The inexplicable stain was just too far away from the camera to simply be dirt on the lens.

Absently Conan looked at another photo.

Different scene...different day... different body... different camera... same black spot.

It was also at roughly the same place where the other had been, some five paces from the body.

Okay, one is an accident, two is a coincidence...but three is a pattern...

Interest genuinely piqued, Conan began to look for other photos that also featured the mysterious dark spot, just to see if there could indeed be a pattern to the randomness.

After rooting through the photos that were available to him, even managing to steal some more without alerting the still passed-out detective, he ended up with a grand total of four pictures that featured that same spot. As far as he could tell, it was roughly at the same position every time. Frowing, Conan tried to remember whether he had seen something similar in Hanako's scene, but couldn't recall anything from the top of his head. Also, he had been on his hands and knees for the most part. These pictures were taken from a higher angle, perhaps that was why he hadn't seen anything. The scene had lain in a relatively shadowy spot, finding something dark would naturally be somewhat difficult. In each of the photos the spot appeared in a sunny patch.

Also, it appeared so often that the possibility of a coincidence could be negated almost entirely. He wondered if the police knew about it and if they had already figured out what it was.

Well, it's not like they would tell me, now is it?

Grimly he took his notebook out and marked which scenes had that spot, which amounted to four out of ten. That hardly counted as compelling evidence, but Kogoro still lay atop the majority of the photos, so Conan couldn't ascertain whether there were more like it.

Faced with nothing other to do, he tried to imagine an aerial view of the crime scene he had visited. After all, roughly five paces was not exactly accurate information and he hated surmising. Therefore Conan took out a blank sheet of paper and began to crudely sketch out the scene, including everything he deemed important, such as trees, cars, footprints, etc. Having done that, he closed his notebook and absently shoved it back into his pocket.

So focused on what he was doing; Conan, sitting cross-legged at the table, barely even noticed as time passed. In fact, he was so preoccupied with his task and the thoughts swirling around in his brain that he failed to notice the footsteps approaching the office. Conan was used to such noises from the time he had spent in the office before, he had simply learned to blend that out completely. However, reality made itself known quite harshly, when he was ripped from the comforts of his own mind to the very irate form of Ran, who towered over him in a display of abject horror and plain outrage.

Shit, busted...

Immediately his fight-or-flight instinct kicked in; especially since he knew that Ran was dangerous when she had that specific look about her. At the same time, he was bloody sick of being hauled out of the room whenever the case came up, and the sleep-loss affected his ability to play the cute-routine with Ran.

"Erm, Ran-neechan...Err...I can explain...?" he offered weakly, almost seeing the steam rise from Rans head.

His words had a queer effect on Ran however. Whether he had intended it or not, he had actually shrunken back from her towering figure (made all the more imposing because he was so damn small at the moment) and had managed to put just the right pitch of fear in his voice; because he suddenly saw her deflating before she threw her father an angry glare.

Poor guy, doesn't even know he's being glared to death right now...

"I know Conan-kun. Its not your fault." Ran answered in an eerie quiet tone, while stalking over to her still sleeping father. Conan witnessed Ran jab a finger in her fathers side, which only caused Kogoro to mumble incoherently and make a sweeping gesture.

The guy always was hard to wake up... Conan thought wryly.

But seeing that Ran at least was angry with her father and not him, he deliberated that it might be an excellent opportunity to tell someone of his suspicions about that odd spot. That was, if he could get Ran to ignore the fact that he'd been looking at evidence photographs for the better part of an hour.

"Erm, Ran-neechan? ... I found something weird in these photos." he said, making a conscious effort to sound more puzzled than excited. Unfortunately Ran was in the middle of an attempt to haul her father into an upright position (probably to have better access to his ears in order to scream at him) causing her to lose her grip slightly. After that, gravity took over and Kogoro slammed head first onto the table. Which not only succeeded in waking him up, but also gave him a nice red blotch right in the middle of his forehead.

I think I really should film this occasionally, it makes for great comic relief...

But Conan was not allowed to dwell on that thought any longer, as Kogoro's bleary gaze wandered the room, eventually settling on Conan, amidst crime scene photos.

Damn, I wonder if I get to say something now...

"Conan, what the hell are you doing there?! I told you to stop sticking your nose in my investigation!" The man almost roared and surged to his feet. Conan was familiar with that and could count on the fact that Kogoro's inebriated state made him easier to be avoided. Fortunately, Lady Luck seemed to not have left him completely, as Ran protectively moved in front of her surrogate little brother, staring her father down. And boy, was she ever so furious. It was always equally disturbing and interesting to watch Ran in such a state, as most people shrank back from her when she was radiating such anger.

"This is your fault too, Otou-san! You were the one who fell asleep here and left these photos out in the open!" she accused her father, obviously having already forgotten what Conan had said to her just moments before.

Well... now or never...

"Ran-neechan? I said I found something weird in these photos."

Oddly enough, the sentence caused the scene to calm down almost immediately. Ran turned to him with an expression he couldn't quite categorize, while Kogoro looked vaguely interested. After all, the old man was used to Conan saying that or various variations of it on almost every other crime scene.

For the moment however, a noogie seemed not to be on the top list of priorities for Kogoro, so Conan seized his chance, grabbed the four pictures with the spot and walked over to the desk. Taking precautions to give the detective room to breathe (as a figure of speech) Conan stayed close to Ran.

"How come you were looking at them anyway?" Ran asked, not entirely able to hide her suspicion.

Contemplating his answer quite carefully, Conan decided that at least part of the truth could be safely told, even though it killed him every time he had to lie to Ran.

"Well, I came back and Oji-san was sleeping, so I opened the windows. And then the wind blew some photos to the floor. When I went to pick them up, I started to look at them. And then I saw that," Conan pointed the black spot out to Ran, "it kinda looked out of place." He handed Kogoro the first photo that he had come across and pointed it out again. By now, the irritation seemed to be gone, and Kogoro looked somewhat calmer than before. Therefore Conan deemed it safe to climb onto the chair and hand the rest of the photos over.

"Meh, could just be some dirt or something. That was a construction site, you know? Dirt is pretty common there." The older sleuth replied, handing the photos back.

"I thought so too, but the same thing is on the other three photos and they're not on construction sites, now are they?" Conan argued, shoving the pictures back towards Kogoro.

Seemingly vaguely interested, Kogoro started studying the photos, while Conan used the time to quickly root through the remaining photos Kogoro had slept on, looking for anything that seemed similar. By now, Ran had apprehended one of the photos from her father, looking intently at the blackish spot, bending slightly over Conan to compare the photo in her hand with the ones spread on the desk.

"Must be a camera malfunction then." Kogoro obstinately replied, giving Conan the bizarre wish to bang his head on the table-top. However, the older sleuth continued speaking, as if he was no longer aware of anyone being in the same room with him. "But then it should be on most of the pictures also..." He paused for a small moment before continuing, clearly lost in his thoughts, "Also it doesn't look as if it has anything to do with the camera." Kogoro now also bent over Conan, his eyes (at least partly cleared of the alcoholic haze of before) scanning the pictures on the desk.

"Found another one. That makes five." Conan said triumphantly, grabbing yet another photo and giving it to Kogoro, whose forehead wrinkled in thought. As he leaned back, he had one photo in hand, while the other absently stroked his moustache.

"This many can't be a coincidence, but I don't remember seeing anything like that on location, and we all combed through the place with a fine tooth comb. And what is that anyway?" he wondered aloud, unconsciously mirroring Conan's own thoughts.

He too puzzled over what this weird stuff might be. Could it really be dirt... actual dirt that was put there? He took another look at one of the photos, concentrating only on the blackish spot in the background of the image.

"Is it just me or does it look like its faintly sparkling?" Ran asked, her voice very close to Conan's left ear. Quickly he chanced a glance towards her, but averted his eyes swiftly. He loved and hated it when she came so close to his face that he could see every detail on her visage. Loved it, because he loved her (he was still mature enough to realize that after all); and hated it, because he got all flustered when she came so close. That was something he really didn't want right now, especially since he had other things to worry about, namely what she had said.

"Sparkling? What do you mean?" he asked, narrowing his eyes to peer closer at the photo. Her slender finger wandered to the blackish spot and pointed. Again, her voice was very close as she answered, but he willed himself to be ignorant of that fact for the moment.

"There. It almost looks like it's kind of sparkling. But if it is sparkling, then what is it? And why has no one seen that before?" She sounded as puzzled as Conan felt.

If it was indeed sparkling, it was impossible to be missed by the investigators. Then again, it only seemed that way because of the photo. But what would appear as if sparkling, and how could no one pay attention to it otherwise?

"Well, whatever that is, it's obviously still there, as I don't remember anyone remarking on it. So all I need to do is call Magure-keibu, drive out there and see for myself." Kogoro stated, already grabbing his jacket and fixing his tie. Seeing an opportunity, Conan turned to the older detective, and just as he was about to speak, Conan was faced with that strange gaze again. That concerned look.

This is SO weird...

"And no, you will not be coming with! If there's really something there, it's a great piece of evidence that the police can find. Don't worry, they should be grateful to you, because you found it." Allowing his tone to soften, the older detective continued, just as Conan was about to voice some protest. "Besides, we can't be sure that this guy is not lurking at some crime scene just to see how we progress. And the last thing I need...err, I mean...we.. uh, we need, is you getting in the line of fire. So you'll stay here, do your homework or whatever and I'll go check it out." Mouri finished his little speech, and made his way towards the door.

"But I..." Conan started, but found his sentence cut short by the older detective, who now stood in the doorway.

"But nothing. You'll stay here and that's all I will hear about this." Kogoro nearly growled and walked out; leaving Conan behind with a still slightly puzzled Ran, who now laid a tentative hand on the boy's shoulder.

Great... Now I found something, but have to wait again... Just awesome...

Wow, didn't realize it was that long of a chapter until I finally uploaded it here. I think the next chapter will be a bit smaller, but that really depends on what that annoyingly persistent plotbunny has to say to that^^

Like I suggested, type in a quick comment below and tell me what you think of it. I seriously hope the next chapter will not take so long to finish and for all of you itching for action: HAVE PATIENCE! I need to have all the clues out there until I can get to the action, though granted, there aren't much clues left *giggle*