A/N: I'M ALIVE! I'VE RETURNED! I know, I probably have to face a lynch-mob now that I've made you all wait so long, but believe me when I say, it hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for me either. I lost TWILIGHT as my beta and co-author, so I had to try and get through the plot on my own. Not a very pretty picture, I assure you. And because I waited for Twilight to show a sign of life, I managed to lose the drive for this fiction. I only recently found it. Those of you who are on my fb-page, already know that I've resurfaced, so... Well, not sure what I meant to write here.
Originally, I intended to publish the few remaining chapters when they were all done, but with the amount of hate-mail I'm getting, I think I have no other choice but to simply put this up now and hope I get the rest squared out relatively quickly. I'm truly sorry for the hiatus, but I promised you all I'd finish this story, even if it darned well kills me.
This isn't so much as a filler for inbetween the action, but it provides necessary information that I couldn't comfortably fit anywhere else. Now, we finally get a real lead and even a suspect name. I will not be responsible for any injuries that might come about by excessive facepalming or even head-desking...
I hope to be able to upload the rest of the chapters soon too, don't worry, there aren't too many left. I think it's just two to the climax...
There are no warnings for this chapter, except for the facepalming... It might provoke a few shivers, but that's kind of a given with me as the author. Now, have fun reading and leave me a comment what you thought of it. If you want that^^ I'm not pressuring anyone here *gg*
Oh, and one more thing, as I've glanced across the reviews page and spied a comment left by the infamous guest reviewer called 'The Reader'... He mentioned that COnan is originally Kudo Shinichi and as such does not fit the target MO. To you I say: I Know! You know! The majority of the reading audience knows^^ But the Sandman couldn't possibly know about that. He has no idea that Edogawa Conan is just an alias, so Conan does fit the target profile^^ You most likely know that, but I just wanted to make that clear *gg*
Chapter 15
Thursday 23rd September 2011
Mouri Detective Agency
08:25 am
Hattori POV
The night had passed without any news concerning the still missing chibi. Megure-keibu had assured them that they'd be the first to be informed should a witness present itself, but all through the night, the phone had been silent, much to the worry of the people gathered at the Mouri Detective Agency.
Heiji had spent a sleepless night, constantly pacing through the office, quietly thinking through everything again. Originally he had surmised that he did it to see if something had been overlooked, but sometime during the night he had realized that he only did it to distract himself. He didn't want to think about what Kudo might be going through, so he busied his brain with something else.
He had thought about Mouri and Neechan as well. The girl was apparently ready to go to pieces any second, luckily Kazuha had arrived yesterday evening and managed to calm her down a little. And Mouri; well; the older sleuth seemed close to full-out rampage. Privately Heiji thought that the man would be capable of murdering the killer himself when they found him.
Kudo would have been snarking at that comment, you know?
Choosing not to think further down that line, Heiji let his gaze wander through the office. In the early morning hours, Mouri had shuffled in and sat at his desk, slumped in front of the phone, smoking one cigarette after the other. Neechan and Kazuha had been here earlier as well, silently sitting on the couch, or quietly talking with each other. Heiji didn't know where they had gone, but it couldn't have been far.
Just as he had finished that thought, the door to the office opened again and Heiji threw a glance from his spot at the wall. Kazuha and Neechan came back, both carrying a tablet with a few sandwiches and tea. At the sight of it, Heiji's stomach lurched. He couldn't eat something. Chances were that Kudo didn't get food either, it would not have been fair. Hoping he could deter Kazuha, he placed a dark scowl across his features, silently conveying that he really did not want to indulge her today. Not with his best friend in mortal danger.
Apparently Kazuha did not get the message however, because she filled a cup with tea and walked over to him.
"Don' even get started wit' me, Kazuha. I ain't hungry." he growled angrily, more furious at himself than at Kazuha.
"Come on, Heiji. It's jus' tea. Ya can' go on like dat." she said, offering the cup.
Heiji just continued to scowl.
"Conan-kun woul' agree wit' me, ya know?" the Osakan girl said, playing the only trump-card she had. One that she knew would work.
Heiji knew she was right. Though granted, Kudo would just chew him out or nag and annoy him until he folded, but Kazuha had a point. The shrunken teen would agree with her. With the thought of his friend, Heiji's shoulders sagged. He felt completely out of his depth with this case, particularly now, that his best friend was the one whose life lay in the balance.
With his face losing the scowl to be replaced by a tired expression, he mutely nodded and accepted the cup. He would not eat anything, he felt sick just thinking about it, but he needed something to lend him energy for the coming hours. And apparently that was enough for Kazuha, because she briefly nodded with a sad expression, before she returned to Neechan's side. For a few moments, the entire office was silent, only intermittently broken by the quiet clinking of cups being placed on the table.
It was this very quiet that nearly drove the tanned teen to mad distraction. He had observed it sometime during the last evening. Everyone tried to make as little noise as possible, they all spoke quieter, moved nearly silently. It was almost as if they mourned the dead already.
Heiji hated it.
Kudo was not dead.
And Heiji despised that they all acted like there was no hope any more.
And while the deadline was a short one, they still had some time to find him. Better sooner than later, but still. The culprit had never killed a victim before the 72 hour mark was up, so Kudo was still alive.
The silence in the small office was nearly unbearable. Heiji, leaning quietly at the wall behind the couch, could hardly stand it. He felt ready to scream out loud, simply because he couldn't take that silence much longer.
Because with the silence, his thoughts and fears returned. He'd gone through the case-files last night, he had seen the crime scene photos. He knew what awaited his friend. His brain pictured in gruesome detail all that could have happened to Kudo already. And while the mind of his shrunken counterpart remained that of a young adult, his body was that of a child. It was much more fragile than Kudo thought himself.
Suddenly, the shrill ringing of the phone startled everyone out of their worried stupor. For a small second, the whole place was frozen in surprise, until Mouri picked the call with an urgency that conveyed the worry and hopes of everyone in the room. Heiji listened intently, even though he could only hear one side of the call.
"Mouri. ... Megure-Keibu! ... Yes! ... Really?!... Understood! ... We're on the way!"
Before Mouri had even completely hung up the phone, all three teenagers in the room scrambled for their jackets, Heiji casting a searching look to the older sleuth.
"Wha's happenin'?" he asked briskly, quickly shrugging into his green jacket.
"Someone just called the station and said, they know the guy on the sketch! Megure-keibu is bringing them in right now, so I'm going there as well." the man answered, his face once more overtaken by the same grim determination that Heiji felt.
If there really was a person that knew the man who had bought the doll, they were a huge step closer to finding Kudo.
Within five minutes, they were piled into Mouri's rental car and were on the way to Police HQ. The drive was a silent one, everyone lost among their own thoughts. The two girls sat in the backseat, silently holding onto each other, Neechan pale as a ghost. Heiji quietly resolved to convince Kazuha to keep close to her, he didn't want her doing something desperate. Especially if they were to get a lead from this witness. And Heiji had no time to take care of her too, chances were that in very short order he'd have to deal with a furious detective.
Throwing a glance at the older sleuth, Heiji noticed the subtle signs of exhaustion and worry in the man's face. Kudo would hate to hear this, but Heiji perceived that the older detective was worried out of his head about the non-child being missing.
Though granted, he wasn't the only one. Even Heiji, who knew better than anyone else what Kudo was capable of, was concerned. He had half expected Kudo to walk into the office during the night, scratched and bruised, but alive and smug. He'd expected him to free himself and come back to tell them of the killer's hiding place. That it had not happened worried the tanned teen.
It meant that Kudo wasn't able to escape on his own.
Which opened up a whole can of possibilities on what could have happened. Either he was too tightly secured, or (which was more disturbing) the faux child was too injured to get out on his own. And they were left to see to it that Kudo was found.
He counted on them.
And Heiji was not about to let him down.
Thursday 23rd September 2011
Police H.Q.
09:25 AM
Hattori POV
A whole pack of reporters were gathered at the front door to the police station, all of them apparently eagerly waiting that someone would tell them the newest of developments. Heiji suspected this to happen, especially since someone had leaked the true number of victims to the reporters. To avoid the pandemonium in front of the building, Mouri drove his car into the garage, knowing that the reporters would not be allowed to be there.
Interestingly, as they were walking through the busy corridors leading to Division I, no officer held them back or asked what they were doing. Not few of them were scurrying out of the way on their own accord. Which might largely have been attributed to the dark scowls on their faces and Mouri leading the charge, wearing an almost deathly angered expression. It was a silent message to everyone that passed his gaze to get out of his way or stop them at their own peril.
Heiji, slightly unfamiliar with the layout of the building, tried to keep as close as possible to Mouri. He neither had the time nor the patience to try and pick his way through the maze of corridors on his own. After a few minutes of brisk walking, they reached a set of double doors, which revealed a large room, filled with busy officers, not few of whom Heiji recognized.
Squad-room...
The atmosphere of the room grew tense as the small group of people passed through the rows of tables, every officer desperately tried to look as busy as was achievable in order to not draw Mouri's attention.
Actually pretty impressive... Heiji thought with a small glimmer of sarcasm.
At the far end of the room was a small office, partitioned off from the rest of the room, housing only one desk. Megure stood in front of it, speaking to a tired looking female officer whom Heiji remembered as Satou-keiji.
As soon as they drew closer, Megure turned to them, his eyes grim and bloodshot.
"Where's the witness?" Mouri asked without preamble or even a word of greeting.
Obviously the older sleuth was in no mood to play 'nice and polite' and privately Heiji could understand that. They had no time for something trivial like that. Because even if they could identify the man now (which wasn't yet certain), they still had to find him. With so little time left, every second counted, each instant mattered, they just had no time for common courtesy.
Thankfully the portly official understood the driving need for urgency, for he had already turned his steps towards them, beckoning them all to follow. He was already talking when they left the room again.
"They called about an hour ago, I called you immediately afterwards. We're checking their back-ground right now, Takagi is already on it. The principal witness saw a re-run of the press-conference that aired yesterday evening and called afterwards. She claims to know the man in the sketch." Megure told them, turning his steps out of the room and once again down the corridors. Heiji had quickly lost his sense of direction in light of all the corners and identical corridors. He listened with half a mind to the portly official, but most of his thoughts was governed by a tiny ray of hope.
Finally, after so many dead ends in this case, they had a potential lead. A real lead. A witness account of someone who knew the man that bought the doll. And since only one person had bought that doll and that toystore was the only one in Tokyo who sold these dolls (simply because the owner manufactured them himself), chances were incredibly high that it was the man who tried to kidnap the Yoshida girl.
The person who took Kudo.
Heiji once more forced any deeper thoughts on his friend's current situation down again. He couldn't afford to crack now. Not when they were so damn close.
Later... Just think about it later...
"They arrived 10 minutes ago, I was just about to go and speak to them myself." Megure continued on, as they arrived in front of a door that simply stated 'Interview I'. Glancing at the two pale girls in their wake, Megure shot a pointed look at Satou-keiji who nodded silently. Of course, the meaning of that look was clear. Megure wanted the female officer to get the girls someplace where they could sit down, especially Neechan looked close to passing out, desperately holding on to Kazuha, who shook slightly. They really didn't need to be present when they questioned the witnesses, it wouldn't help to ease their concern. Heiji traded a silent look with Kazuha, forcing a hopefully reassuring smile on his lips. She nodded mutely to convey understanding, before she gently led Neechan away, even though the young female seemingly wanted anything but to leave from this spot.
His attention was drawn away from the girls as he heard Megure speak in an undertone to Mouri, shooting a piercing look at the dishevelled detective.
"Mouri-kun," he stated sternly, leaving no room for arguments, "I understand that you want to find Conan-kun. We all want to find him as quickly as possible. But I'll not have you lose your temper in there, you got that? Do yourself a favour, Mouri-kun, and reign in your emotions, okay? We get information fastest by being calm in there, all right? Remember, they're just witnesses." the man said, though not unkindly. They were all in a state of intense worry and it showed constantly.
Mouri, although he was obviously incensed at the Inspector, nodded reluctantly. He was still scowling, but it no longer was that intense expression of barely concealed rage. Heiji was almost impressed at the man's talent to mask his anger enough to function properly.
Or he would have been, had his mind not been thoroughly engaged upon the fact that they were still standing outside the doors instead of going through and getting information. It couldn't have been more than five minutes since they had first passed the doors to Division I, but these five minutes felt like five hours already.
"Can we go? I'd really like ta hear wha' they got ta say." He stated irritably. They were wasting precious time.
Megure agreed and opened the door to reveal two people, a man and a woman. The woman, around the age of 35, was very nervous and twisted a handkerchief between her shaking fingers. She was pale and Heiji spotted a glimmer of fear and something akin to guilt in her brown eyes. The man was at least 10 years older than the woman and considerably less agitated. His eyes also bore traces of guilt behind the small glasses, though a lot more resignation shone in them.
Heiji didn't know why they would look guilty, but he'd seen the look so often before, he recognized guilt when he saw it. Seeing as there only were two chairs in the room, the tanned teen resigned himself to standing slightly behind the two older men and just observed the witnesses for a moment, leaving Megure to explain the details.
"Thank you for coming forward," Megure said kindly, "These are Mouri Kogoro-san and Hattori Heiji-kun." he introduced them calmly.
"My name is Kazawa Sayuri." the woman said shakily.
"And I am Ishimura Kenji." the man followed suit, his voice holding a strange tone of professionalism. Quickly Heiji ran a practised look over the man and immediately deduced that he was some sort of doctor. If he had to take a wild guess, he'd say the man was a psychiatrist.
"You called the station and said you know the man in this sketch. Is that correct?" Megure asked, producing a copy of the sketch and showing it to them again. As the woman looked at the drawing, her eyes shone with tears as she nodded. She briefly wiped her eyes before she reached into her bag and produced a photo. And sure enough, the man in the photograph looked exactly like the man in the sketch.
"Who is he?" Mouri asked quietly, though by no means calm. Megure sent him a warning look before turning back to the woman as she answered. Ishimura-san reached for her hand and patted it reassuringly.
Yep... The guy's a shrink...
Calmer now, the woman started to talk, though she seemed somewhat reluctant to do so.
"He's ... he was my husband. We've been living separately for the last year. He'd been having nightmares and he was sleep-walking. Sometimes he seemed so out of it that he forgot to go to work. He went to counselling, but he didn't seem to get better. Eventually I couldn't take it any more and moved in with a friend. At first we regularly talked, I just wanted to give him some space, you know? But he hasn't been answering my calls for a while now. And when I saw the news..." Kazawa-san broke off, quietly sobbing into her handkerchief.
"What's his name?" Megure asked. This time the shrink answered.
"His name is Kazawa Rokurou. He's been my patient for the past 2 years."
Suddenly a whole array of lightbulbs went off in Heiji's brain.
Kazawa Rokurou. Rokurou as in 'roku', Japanese for 'six'.
That was the reason he went for kids with six syllables.
Kudo said that something must directly link the number to the killer, but to think it was something as trivial as the name...
He went for kids with six syllables because he had a number in his name AND his name consisted of six syllables as well.
Okay, that has to be THE weirdest reason ever...
Shelving the information away for the moment, Heiji decided to partake in the questioning.
"'E was yer patient? Wha' did ya treat 'im for?"
"He came to my offices complaining about headaches and slightly paranoid tendencies, accompanied by nightmares. He was extremely anxious in general and confessed that he felt watched. When he told me of the sleep-walking and the fact that he occasionally could not recall what he had been doing, I prescribed him medicine, which should have counteracted these episodes. At first, it seemed to work, but after a while his symptoms started to reappear. And gradually, they became worse."
"One time, he stood for half an hour, just staring at me," Kazawa-san supplied, still crying, but seemingly a bit more in control of her emotions, "and at times it seemed like he was talking to himself. When I realized that, I got scared, especially after he started staring at me."
"Did he still show up for his counselling-sessions?" Megure asked, sharing an uneasy look with Mouri. Heiji shared the general feeling of uneasiness. Something was VERY wrong here and they all knew it.
"Yes, he did, though his symptoms worsened a great deal. He began showing signs that he was indeed speaking to himself. Which is not actually dangerous or necessarily a sign of a mental condition. Many people routinely talk to themselves without realizing it. To a point it's even healthy. However, in Rokurou-san's case he even spoke to himself when in conversation with me, which is not the norm. At first, I wasn't too concerned about it, his condition was stable and he did not seem too troubled by it. At least it seemed benign enough in the beginning. But over time I began to become aware that he was not just talking to himself, be talked to someone which wasn't himself. What concerned me as well, was the fact that he told me he had lost time. Meaning, he couldn't remember what he had been doing for several hours. He even confessed that he once recalled himself as he was standing in a park on the other side of town, his car being parked nearby. I prescribed heavier medicine and convinced him to partake in sessions twice a week. Once again, he began to show improvement. He didn't speak to himself again, at least not when he had his sessions and he didn't tell me of any more memory-lapses he'd been having. But suddenly, four months ago, he called the office and cancelled all his sessions, claiming that he felt a lot better and that he would no longer have need of counselling. I tried my best to convince him otherwise, but I couldn't force him. His condition was not so far advanced that a hospitalization was recommendable and since he was showing signs of improvement, my hands were tied." Ishimura-san shook his head regretfully.
"When was da last time ya talked ta 'im?" Heiji asked, addressing both of them.
"I last heard from him when he called my offices. I tried to call him back several times, but he never answered my calls and I only ever got the voice-mail." the shrink answered.
"I last spoke to him three weeks ago. It was the only call he'd answered in three months. He told me to leave him alone, that he never wanted to see me again. He... he was not exactly polite. I'd never heard him swear, ever since I've known him. It was as if I was talking to a different person. I had tried to visit him before, but he never opened the door and had changed the locks, so I couldn't get into the house." Kazawa-san said, once again dabbing at her damp eyes.
"This morning Kazawa-san came to my offices. She was nearly in hysterics, claiming that Rokurou-san was involved in the kidnapping of these children, no offence, Kazawa-san." Ishimura-san said, uncomfortably glancing at the sniffling woman next to him.
"I wanted to know if Ishimura-san had seen Rokurou lately, and when I showed him the news, he agreed with me that the man looks like my husband. I didn't want to believe it, Rokurou could never harm a child. I know him, he wouldn't do that." the woman said, desperately clinging to a straw of hope.
But in Heiji's mind everything started to make sense now. At least several pieces of the puzzle had found their way to their rightful positions. They needed to be sure it was him though, they had no time for a wild goose chase.
"Wha' was yer husband's job, Kazawa-san?" he asked, feeling that since everything tied together in this case, the man's work would somehow fit into it as well.
"He worked as a veterinarian's assistant."
Immediately Mouri shot him a sharp look, to which Heiji nodded with a scowl. They both knew what it meant. Ketamine was mostly used by vets to sedate the animals before doing surgery on them. Ketamine was a drug that could not be bought in every corner drug-store, only doctors and vets got their hands on that kind of stuff. It would be a simple matter to steal one bottle of it, if the senior doctor wasn't attentive enough.
Another piece...
"Why was your husband having these problems? What was the cause of his troubles?" Mouri asked, leaning on the table and sending the woman a sharp look.
She seemed to be extremely uncomfortable with answering this question and shot several looks towards the shrink.
That shrink hasn't just been the husband's therapist...
After receiving an encouraging nod from the doctor, she sighed heavily and blushed a deep shade of red.
"My husband and I have no children, even though we always wanted some. We tried several times, but..." she stopped, frowning uncomfortably.
"Go on, Kazawa-san." Megure gently probed, they all knew that whatever it was this woman had to tell them, they were treading on very thin ice.
"I ... I had three... f-...ailed pregnancies. I... lost the ba-..abies. The last time..., well, it was the worst... I was hospitalized for two weeks. Rokurou was worried that the next time I might ... well, you know..." she trailed off, slumping in her chair while staring at the table-top.
For a moment, the three detectives were silent as they let the bombshell this woman had just dropped sink in.
A sick feeling began to spread in Heiji's chest as he realized that this was likely the cause behind the fact that the killer took children. It was a sick way of thinking and the tanned sleuth could barely contain a wretch of disgust, but it all added up. Everything clicked into place and Heiji knew, beyond the shadow of doubt, they had the I.D. they needed.
Kazawa Rokurou was their culprit.
He had wanted kids, but couldn't get them. Three of his children died before they had been born. It was enough to drive any man insane, Heiji assumed. So, in light of this tragedy, the man had gone insane, completely bat-shit crazy, and for some reason only the killer knew had started to murder children. Perhaps in revenge upon the parents of the victims, because they had what he couldn't.
For a minute, Heiji just stood, feeling the blood rush out of his face, leaving him pale and weak. He couldn't imagine what caused a man to think like that.
Frankly, I don't want to...
He only paid enough attention to catch Megure-keibu asking the address of Kazawa Rokurou. He asked the two to stay at the station, just in case they had further questions, before leading them out of the room again. Heiji barely realized what was happening.
Somewhere, in the pit of his stomach, he knew, just knew, that they had the right guy.
They knew who had taken Kudo.
Now they only needed to find him before it was too late.
Thursday 23rd September 2011
Ikebukuro-cho
10:55 AM
Hattori POV
Finding the address that Kazawa Sayuri had given them was easy. It was a simple, two-storey house in a quiet neighbourhood in Ikebukuro. Apart from a slightly neglected frontal garden, there was nothing that differentiated it from the houses left and right of it. In a word, it was ordinary.
And still there was something, an uneasy feeling that had begun to creep up Heiji's spine as they had drawn nearer to the house. He knew that feeling. All his detective instincts were on high alert, it always happened when he got closer to the culprit of a crime. It was as if a sixth sense suddenly came to life that told him, if even on a purely instinctive level, that they were on the right trail. But something about the house made him shudder uncomfortably. The fact that this murderer was completely bat-shit nuts was only part of that. He hadn't completely come to grips yet with what Kazawa-san had told him and the police. It would likely take a few days for everything to sink into his brain. For now, he only cared about the fact that right now, even as they all got out of their cars, Kazawa Rokurou might be in this very house, torturing his best friend to death.
That thought alone gave Heiji the desire to storm the building right now, searching from top to bottom until he had found Kudo. Unfortunately, he was restrained by Megure-keibu, who had called in a Special Tactics Unit to help. Satou-keiji and Takagi-keiji moved down the sides of the house to make sure no one was hiding there.
And both Heiji and Mouri were not too happy about the delay. Sure, Heiji understood the logic behind it. If the officers (who were actually permitted to carry firearms) were to enter the building first and Kazawa was in there, they could take him down before the mini-sleuth got hurt even further. Heiji just hated to be left out of the action and be reduced to a bystanding role. That he understood the reason, did not mean he particularly liked it.
It took the Special Tactics people a few minutes to search through the house, but soon enough they gave the clear. Disappointment flooded Heiji.
Kudo was not here.
The killer had taken him somewhere else.
Sharing a glance with Mouri, who seemed close to exploding, Heiji took a deep breath and entered the house. Even if the killer was not here, he'd been living here, so maybe there was a clue as to his whereabouts now.
They searched every room, every nook and cranny, but still the house refused to give clues as to where its owner was. Heiji looked at every little detail with all his senses on alert, hopeful that he might spot something everyone else had overlooked. Something that gave a hint.
He noticed that the kitchen and the living room were dirty, left-over foods and dingy plates littered the sink, giving the place a slight scent of decay. Judging by the state of the decomposing food, Kazawa had not been here for some days.
Not like he could risk killing children in a populated area like this anyway...
After rooting through the ground floor, Heiji mounted the stairs to the upper floor. He steadfastly ignored Mouri's angered barking in the corridor beneath him, presumably the detective folded the cops together.
He keeps doing that and they'll throw him off the case...
Privately Heiji though that that eventuality was impossible to achieve. Ever since they had spoken with Kazawa-san and Ishimura-san, the shrink of their culprit, the mustached man had grown eerily quiet. Everyone who knew Mouri Kogoro knew that silence from this guy usually meant trouble, as he was normally loud and obnoxious.
The upstairs was a bit cleaner, three doors branching off the hallway, with the bedroom to the left, the bathroom at the far end and a nursery upon the right. Seeing the nursery, which was dusty, but otherwise disturbingly clean, gave Heiji the creeps. It seemed like a silent testament to everything that this man had gone through and what had caused him to go completely off the rails. Seeing various toys stacked on shelves and the small crib, Heiji actually had to suppress a sick shudder. Carefully he backed out of the room again, the dust in it made it clear that there were no clues in this room anyway.
The bedroom also seemed as if it hadn't been used in some time, the bed had not been slept in either. Everything seemed left behind, as if the owner just one day decided to never come back here again.
Turning into the bathroom, Heiji recoiled slightly at the strong odour of bleach that crept up his nose. The entire bathroom reeked of it. Smelling it, all the little hairs at the back of the tanned detectives neck stood on end. He turned around to shout for the nearest officer to cross his path and was surprised to see Takagi-keiji standing right behind him. The officer's face was outwardly calm, but one could plainly see the anxiety and exhaustion on his thin features.
Doesn't matter... Don't look a gift cop in the mouth...
"We should get forensics down 'ere. I'd like 'em ta check da bathroom. Da whole place reeks of bleach. So da guy's either a total stickler fer personal hygiene or 'e cleaned 'ere." Heiji said, motioning into the room. Takagi immediately caught onto the meaning of such a clean bathroom in an otherwise dingy house.
"Meaning he wanted to get rid of evidence."
"Dat's wha' I thought..." Heiji trailed off as his eyes wandered through the hallway behind Takagi. On the far end, on the left side of the stairs, almost invisible, was a slight outline for a hatch to the attic. It was still closed, which was why he hadn't seen it before. It was possible that even the Special Tactics unit had overlooked it. It was actually hard to spot, especially since the eyes of anyone ascending the stairs would naturally be drawn to the doors on the right side of the stairs.
Takagi-keiji, turning so he could follow the Kansai tantei's gaze, scowled grimly at the hatch, before turning back to Heiji.
"You pull the hatch, I check it out." he said quickly, barely waiting for the teen's confirmation before moving down the somewhat narrow corridor.
Within seconds Heiji had pulled the hatch down and Takagi had mounted the ladder, disappearing into the shadowed attic. A few moments passed, before the slender officer climbed down the ladder again.
"No one's up here, sorry. But," he paused, looking uneasy, "you better have a look at that and I'll go get the Inspector."
Heiji watched the man go, briefly confused. Takagi looked shaken to the bone, as if he might be sick on the spot.
Wonder why...
With an uncomfortable feeling spreading in his chest, Heiji mounted the stairs, a small flashlight in his right hand. The first thing that caught his eyes was that the place was littered with papers, the entire floor seemed covered with all sorts of paper.
A decrepit mattress lay on the floor directly opposite the hatch that led down into the house again. The wall behind it was covered with little scraps of papers of various sizes and colours, all of them scribbled on in shaky handwriting. Sometimes the writing even changed from Japanese Kanji to English letters. And always only one word was written on the papers.
Sandman.
Small wonder Takagi-keiji looked like that... Even I'm creeped out now...
Slowly Heiji let the beam of light circle around until he found the cord of a small light directly overhead.
The glow of the small light-bulb was barely enough to illuminate the room, leaving the corners and edges covered in dark shadows. The little that could be seen was enough that even Heiji's hair stood on end. Every scrap of paper that he could see was written on, mostly only saying 'Sandman'. In one corner there was a pile of books, carelessly thrown there, as if the reader had no use for them any more. Interested Heiji walked closer to examine the nature of the books. Seemingly this person's interest was varied greatly, as the topics ranged from anatomy to psychology to maths.
All ties in with what Kudo figured about the guy...
Faintly he registered that Megure-keibu and Mouri came up the ladder as well, but he was too distracted by the discovery up here to really pay attention to them. Carefully looking over the books, he found one that was already open. Intrigued, he crouched down and fished a pair of gloves out of his pocket. Picking the book up, he had to suppress another cold shiver. It was a book on veterinarian medicine, detailing the process of Euthanasia.
Disgusted by the find, Heiji replaced the book once more and kept looking around. As interesting as this was (on a purely investigative level) and while it drove the nail into the figurative coffin for Kazawa Rokurou, it availed them nothing in their search for Kudo.
If he spent most of his time here, there must be something that can help us find him...
The tanned teen continued his search through the various papers and all the clutter, intend on finding something, anything, that might help them find this guy.
Because wherever Kazawa Rokurou was, Kudo was there as well.
His searching eyes found the back of a leather-bound pocket-pook, lying amidst the dust. Slowly Heiji picked it up and observed it closely.
No title... So it wasn't printed...
The leather it was bound with was nearly smoothed down completely, giving the impression that this small book had been handled often. The pages were slightly yellowed and some were torn. Scanning the first page with his eyes, Heiji found his suspicions as to the nature of the book confirmed.
"A diary..." he mumbled to himself, before standing up to have a closer look at the contents by being closer to the light-bulb.
Maybe this nutcase had written down where he took the kids he'd taken before or gave a hint to it somewhere. Hastily he skimmed over the first few pages, but found nothing of immediate interest. Just a diary of someone who had nightmares, among other things.
A few pages further in, his eyes found an entry of the 12th of December of the last year. Sensing that the officials came closer to him, Heiji read the paragraph out loud.
"'I lost another hour today. I cannot recall where I was or what I did during that time. It was as if that hour never existed for me. I wonder what happened.'" Heiji skipped a few pages ahead, it was unlikely that he would find anything from so far back. The pages he skipped were so hastily scribbled on that he hardly could make out any words at all anyway. Thumbing through the thin volume, he encountered a break of nearly three months, before the owner of the diary had written something down again.
"'20th of March. I can feel it again. That strange feeling inside my head, as if my thoughts are no longer alone up there. I had thought the medicine the doctor gave me would help, but I can still feel it. Sometimes I even imagined I heard a quiet voice that didn't seem to be my own. It told me to do things. Things I don't want to do. Bad things. I told Ishimura-san of the feeling, but I hesitate to tell him of the voice. He would think I'm insane. Only, I don't want him to think I'm insane. I don't feel crazy. But if this should continue or get worse, I fear I have no choice but to tell the doctor.'"
A cold shudder of apprehension travelled down Heiji's spine as he came across some torn out pages after that. The following page was hastily scribbled on, but not so much that it became unreadable. It was as if the person writing (Kazawa Rokurou in all likelyhood) was very agitated.
"'23rd of March. This is strange. Some of the pages are missing from this journal. It's as if someone tore them out and threw them away. But I didn't do it. Or did I and just can't remember doing it?'"
"Am I the only one who has a bad feeling about all this?" Mouri threw in with a scowl, the dim light making him look almost haggardly bony. Heiji nodded mutely, turning another page. He shared the older detective's suspicion. He also didn't like where this was headed.
"'30th of March. I can hear the voice again, even after I doubled the dose. The meds aren't working. I hear the voice everywhere, at any time. Always it whispers to me. I can never escape from it, no matter what I do.'" Suddenly Heiji stopped as he turned the page.
"Dis is weird. Da next bit is written in a different handwritin' an' it only says one thin'. 'You will not get rid of me, Rokurou.'"
"Looks like he really went bonkers after his wife left him. What else does it say?" Megure-keibu asked, standing directly opposite Heiji.
The tanned sleuth once again skimmed over the next few pages, realizing with slight concern that the writing seemed to grow more shaky the more time passed between entries. And still he could spot nothing that would give him a clue as to where this madman had disappeared to.
"'E keeps talkin' 'bout memory lapses and a voice 'e keeps hearin'. Often he writes dat 'e loses whole days or more. Nothin' 'bout where 'e is now. 'Dis is interestin'. 'Everything's gone to hell since Sayuri left me. It's all her fault, if she would have stayed with me, I could have ignored the voice. Now, with no one to talk to, this disembodied being is the only comfort I have.' It's followed right after by tha' different handwritin'. 'You don't need her, Rokurou. I am with you now.'"
"Isn't there some sort of mental illness like that? Where there's more than one person in one body?" Takagi-keiji asked from his spot behind the Inspector.
"Dissociative Identity Disorder. Commonly known as 'Split Personality'. Kazawa-san did say that the last time she spoke with her husband, he was like a different person. I think she hit right on the mark there." Mouri answered before Heiji could, demonstrating once more that when push came to shove, the man could be sharp as a razor.
"I think yer right. I mean, da guy was havin' whole conversations wit' himself 'ere. And obviously the bad side was winnin', given how often 'e says 'e missed complete days or skips ahead..." Heiji trailed off as he read another paragraph only three weeks old. About the time when Kazawa-san had last spoken to her husband. This time he did not read it aloud, he had considerable difficulty even reading through it himself. It was the second to last entry in the journal and obviously whoever was this other personality that had taken over Kazawa Rokurou was in charge now.
'I gave them companions. Now Rokurou's children have someone to play with. And just as his children, these will also die in pain and suffering. The Sandman comes to take them to the Dreamland.'
Utterly disgusted with this man's sick, twisted mind, Heiji thumbed through the last few pages, but only the word Sandman was repeated over them, right up onto the very last page, where only one sentence remained that completely caused the tanned Osakan to shiver.
'The Sandman has come'
Shutting the book, Heiji took a few deep breaths. It was hard not to think about the fact that his best friend was in the clutches of someone who was so obviously insane.
Think rationally... There has to be some way to find him...
Handing the book over to Takagi-keiji, who immediately brought it down to give it to Forensics, Heiji concentrated on the two older men standing in front of him, quietly speaking with each other. Willing to distract himself from the contents of the book, he joined the conversation.
"There has to be something here that will help us find this guy. I just know it." Mouri said determinedly.
"I bet there is, th' problem is jus' findin' it." Heiji threw in, casting a despairing glance over the room. With all the material that was thrown haphazardly here and there it could take them days to find anything that might give them a clue. Groaning, Mouri raked a hand through his hair, just as Megure-keibu pulled out his cellphone.
"Perhaps Kazawa-san or Ishimura-san know where the guy has gone. They're the only two people who seem to know him." the portly Inspector said as he dialled a number before switching to speaker, so they could all hear what was said. It didn't take long for the call to be taken.
"Chiba here." Quickly Heiji placed the name with the face of the rotund, little officer who sometimes hung out with Takagi-keiji.
"Chiba-kun, is Kazawa-san still at the station?" Megure-keibu asked hurriedly.
"As far as I know, Sir, she is. She's in the waiting room outside." the voice on the other end of the line answered.
"Get her to the phone, we have a question for her. And hurry it up, will you?!" Mouri added, irritated as ever.
Heiji heard a brief shuffling and the sound of someone walking, along with all the other noises only a Police Station could produce. A few moments later, Kazawa Sayuri's voice sounded off.
"Keibu-san?" she sounded vaguely unsure.
"Kazawa-san, your husband is not in the house. Is there any other place he would have gone, a place where he would feel safe?" Megure asked hurriedly. They all knew they were running out of time and with them so close upon the heels of the culprit, no one wanted to waste any more time.
"Not that I can think of anyway..." the woman answered in a defeated tone. Seemingly she had realized that her husband was the killer they were all after.
"Think hard, Kazawa-san. Any place 'e'd go? Anythin' a' all?" Heiji asked urgently. He felt that, if anyone, this woman could point them in the right direction.
"It'd have to be somewhere in the city, some place with few people around." Mouri added before Heiji could. All three individuals now basically bent over the cellphone, eager to hear if the woman could tell them where her husband could have vanished to.
Suddenly they heard a quiet gasp before the woman spoke quickly, as if she had just remembered something.
"There is one place. You see, my father owned a business, but it went bankrupt 10 years ago. We had a factory and some warehouses. Most of that is sold now, but there's one warehouse we haven't been able to sell, because of the current economy. It's the only other place Rokurou could go, if he's not at the house. He sometimes went there when I still lived with him, he said he liked the quiet."
That was it. This was the turning point, Heiji could feel it. A lone warehouse where the guy could enjoy the quiet.
Sounds like the perfect place to murder someone...
Heiji only listened with half a mind as Kazawa-san gave them the address. Apparently it was somewhere slightly outside the industrial district, with another empty warehouse on both sides of it. He quickly thought it through, they had no time for errors here.
But it fit.
Even with this different personality, the core was Kazawa Rokurou. Even his split personality would be drawn to places Rokurou knew. And seeing as one of them happened to be an old abandoned warehouse...
"Ya sure dat's th' only place? There's nowhere else? There's only dis one?" Heiji asked, wanting to be absolutely sure about this.
"All the other places Rokurou would go to or like to be at are outside the city. That's the only one within city-limits, I'm sure of it." Kazawa-san answered, her voice brittle and thin.
Sharing a glance with Mouri, Heiji nodded grimly. It was their only chance to find the mini-sleuth and they all knew it. If this turned out to be a dead end, they'd never find him.
That's the one, I know it...
Both Heiji and Mouri barely waited for Megure-keibu to end the call before scrambling down the ladder again and make their way through the house to the car. Behind him, Heiji could hear Megure-keibu ordering Takagi-keiji to run a complete background-check on Kazawa Rokurou, covering all vehicles he was currently in possession of, before the portly official divided his men into two groups. One was to stay here and overlook the progress of Forensics, the other was to come with them to the warehouse. The Special Tactics Unit was already busily scrambling into their van.
While they made their way to Mouri's rental car, the portly Inspector was constantly shouting orders, telling Takagi-keiji to call for back-up units and an ambulance.
Maybe they'll need two ambulances... Heiji thought grimly.
All their hopes were placed on this one destination, this last, final straw.
At the car, Megure-keibu caught up to the furious detective that was Mouri Kogoro and determinedly placed himself in his path. Heiji had had a feeling something like this would happen, right from the moment he saw a suspiciously dangerous glint in the older sleuth's eyes. It told of the fact that Mouri wanted nothing more than to tear this individual to shreds. Apparently the Inspector had also spotted it.
"You're not coming, Mouri-kun." Megure said, stopping the detective dead in his tracks.
"Like hell I am!" Mouri argued heatedly, balling his hands into fists, "I've been after this guy for almost two months now! I'm not stopping so close to finding him."
Heiji could completely understand the older sleuth's motivation. He'd worked on this for weeks on end, had seen the bodies. If Heiji had been in his shoes, he wouldn't have stopped either. The tanned Osakan was, to a degree, impressed with the man's determination. Even if it was scary to see that usually so passive face harden, while an unfamiliar and almost savage look entered his eyes. Though granted, Heiji likely sported a similar expression, he was just better at disguising his anger.
"Look, Megure. I know that you could actually prevent me from going there, but it will cost us time. Time Conan might not have. So either you're getting out of my way now and we're all going, or you try and stop me." the moustached sleuth challenged in a slightly calmer voice, while Heiji shot the official a steely look as well.
Both he and Mouri were determined to see this thing through to the end and nothing could deter them now. A few seconds passed as Megure-keibu looked sharply into their faces, apparently trying to decide whether he should actually take that chance. When his shoulders sagged, Heiji breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
"All right. But keep it together, Mouri-kun." he warned, before waving Satou-keiji over to the car.
Like a hound released from the leash, both Heiji and Mouri quickly scrambled into the cheap rental car, before turning and following the convoy of police-cars, their lights flashing in the afternoon sun.
Hang on, Kudo... We're coming...
Well, now the detectives are at last on the culprits trail! It won't be much longer now. What might happen when they find Kazawa Rokurou? You'll have to stay tuned and expect the next chapter soon!
Regards, Callie