After some thought, I've decided to split the second chapter into two smaller chapters here.
Chapter 3: Introductions and a blood test
"I can't believe that police sergeant wouldn't listen to our theory that this man was murdered!" The Japanese boy raised his arms in frustration as they grouped together outside the station after they were ordered out by Stone. "He should have called in the detectives!"
"Yeah." William agreed. "That bullet clearly had traces of blood, and what does the mediocre do with it? Throw it away!"
"Like, the first thing I'm going to do is report Stone's conduct to the departmental board." Shaggy replied.
"No kidding, Shag." Daphne nodded. "Stone clearly shouldn't have been promoted to a rank of leadership, let alone carry a badge."
"It also looks like we're going to have to figure the case out ourselves." Velma added.
The Japanese boy nodded in agreement before speaking to William, "Say, you seem like you know your stuff on murder investigations. Have you investigated murders before?"
"As a matter a fact, yes." William nodded. "Oh, and I haven't quite catch your name, mate. Is your name..."
"Kudo Shinichi." The boy replied. "I'm a high school detective from Tokyo, Japan."
"And I'm his longtime friend, Mouri Ran." His friend added as she bowed at the group.
"Wait a minute: You mean, the famous Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei period of Japan, Kudo Shinichi?" Velma asked excitingly.
"That's me." Shinichi nodded as he pointed at himself.
"Wow. Looks like we've got three modern-day Sherlock Holmes here!" Fred remarked. "By the way, I'm Fred Jones."
Turning to the gang, he added, "And this is Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake, Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers and Scoobert 'Scooby' Doo."
"The famous Mystery Inc." Ran added.
"You know us?" Daphne asked.
"Yes. We've read about your exploits in solving monster mysteries, and even in Japan, you people have a large fan base." Shinichi nodded.
"Like, that's interesting to know." Shaggy said.
Turning to Elizabeth, Shinichi said, "And we haven't caught your names, miss. We know that you and him are the Canadian Sherlock Holmes."
"Yes, we are." Elizabeth nodded. "My name is Elizabeth Jennifer Lee. I'm from Canada, but I also grew up in Hong Kong."
"And my name is William Walter Wu." William introduced himself. Speaking in Japanese, he added, "我可以用日文來跟您溝通。請多多指教。" (I can communicate with you in Japanese. Pleased to meet you.)
He then proceeded to bow at Shinichi and Ran, both of them with surprised looks on their faces.
"啊，您也會講日文啊?" (Ah, you can also speak Japanese?) Shinichi asked.
William nodded. "我在京都出生。我在搬去加拿大之前也在東京和臺灣長大的，所以我也可以用中文和閩南語來溝通的。" (I was born in Kyoto, and before I moved to Canada, I grew up in Tokyo and Taiwan, so I can also communicate in Mandarin Chinese and Hokkien.)
"原來如此。" (I see.) Shinichi nodded as he proceeded to shake William's hand.
During that time, Velma commented, "Jinkies! I didn't know William can speak Japanese fluently."
"Well, he grew up in Japan and his foster family is Japanese, so that's why." Elizabeth explained. Turning back to William, Shinichi and Ran, she added, "In the meantime, it will help if we can take a closer look at the body."
"I agree." Shinichi nodded. "The body can provide us more insight as to how the victim died. Perhaps we may even pick up a few more clues."
"Like, we never investigated murders before, other than a few failed attempts on someone's life." Shaggy said nervously.
"Don't worry about that, Shag." Daphne reassured him. "We've got three of the world's best detectives who may help us."
"That's right, given that this is the first time you guys came across a murder." William nodded in agreement. "Lizzy and I will be happy to assist you."
"Same here." Shinichi smiled as he and Ran both nodded in agreement. "But first things first, we're going to have to get our hands on that bullet."
"And there are officers around the premises, not allowing access to us." Ran said.
"I'm afraid that calls for strategy and a distraction." Fred said.
Moments later, only Stone and two officers were in the metro station as they prepared to wrap things up and have the body sent to the coroner's office. Just then, they heard a scream coming from a nearby dark alleyway.
"Murder!" A voice shouted.
"What?" Stone asked before turning to the officers and added, "We'd better go check that out."
"Yes, sarge." One of the officers nodded before racing over to the source of the scream.
As the officers exited the station, neither of them saw Shinichi and William sneaking back into the station.
As quick as a fox, the duo went over to the garbage bin and luckily for them, the garbage bag was only recently placed in the bin, thus they were able to pick up the evidence bag with the bullet.
"找到了!" (Got it!) William said as he got the evidence bag with the bullet out from the trash.
"很好。走吧!" (Good. Let's go!) Shinichi nodded as they quickly moved to the body, where William used a metal tab to draw a sample of the victims blood and placed it in a small evidence container in his utility belt.
"你來這裡之前就已經準備好了。" (You sure came prepared.) Shinichi commented.
William nodded before he finished drawing the sample of blood and the duo quickly left the scene.
Over at the dark alleyway, the officers and Stone looked around, but there was no sign of anyone or a body.
"What the-?" Stone asked. "I could've sworn that there was someone crying murder here!"
"Maybe you shouldn't have drank the beer that was confiscated, sarge." One of the officers said.
"Whatever." Stone replied. "Let's go."
Unbeknownst to the officers, the gang, Elizabeth and Ran were watching them from behind a nearby corner and have overheard the conversation. Shaggy was the one that cried "Murder!" by throwing his voice towards dark alleyway, thus confusing Stone and the officers.
"No wonder Coolsville's in such a bad state." Elizabeth remarked when she overheard the officer's comment on confiscated beer.
"Like, no kidding." Shaggy agreed just as William and Shinichi returned with the bullet.
"You guys got the bullet?" Fred asked the returning sleuths.
"Yeah." William nodded before reaching into his utility belt and pulled out a device.
"What are you doing, Will?" Fred asked curiously as he watched William was doing.
William didn't respond as he passed the bullet to Elizabeth, who proceeds to give the gang a short explanation on what William is doing.
William then snapped on a pair of rubber gloves. Then, he activated the blood sample reading and comparison function of his mobile crime-scene investigation device.
Turning to Shinichi, William passed him a metal tab and said, "Take this and use it to take a sample of the victim's blood."
Shinichi nodded as he replied, "Exactly what I was planning on doing when I saw you with the device."
Wasting no time, the two sleuths got to work in drawing blood samples from both the body and the bullet. William then collected the tabs and inserted them into the blood sample readers of his mobile crime scene investigation device.
Leaning in to look, Elizabeth and Mystery Inc. glanced at the screen of the device as it compares the two blood samples. They were a match!
"Now what will Stone say about this?" Velma asked as they got the results in.
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