A/N: Thanks again to miladyRanger for beta-ing! I didn't really make it clear in the last chapter, but this fic will be updating weekly on Tuesdays, just like the last one, if my schedule continues to allow it. It may not, and if it doesn't, I will let you know—both on Tumblr, if you follow me or check there, and in the author's notes here.

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 2

Twice in police departments in the same month was a new record for Chikage and one she hoped never to break. Honestly, even just standing outside an interrogation room made her ill at ease; questioning was going to be absolutely unpleasant.

But, it was necessary to convince the police that Hakuba's disappearance was a result of his deciding to become a fugitive. Specifically, she needed to take suspicion off of his classroom rival and her, his classroom rival's mother, who had been systematically investigating him—both of whom had motive galore and had been the last people to see him before he vanished.

Put like that it was no wonder they'd been asked to come in for questioning.

Chikage understood that time was essential in these sorts of cases, and so she'd complied when the police had scheduled their "meeting" with a detective named Takagi for 9 a.m. the next day, but she wished she could've said no. Neither the early hour nor the fact that he had to get out of bed in the first place were doing Kaito any favors.

Some of the bruises were fading, and his color had progressed from dangerously pale to just sickly. Still, the facemask he was wearing as part of her planned lie to the police did nothing to hide the fact that he was both drowsy from pain medication, and still in some amount of pain. He was in no fit state for a police interrogation, or even to be in the police department at all; if Nakamori came through ranting about KID he was likely to start defending his alter ego using the pronoun "I."

At least there were chairs, however uncomfortable, in the hallway of the department, so they could sit while they waited for Takagi to show up.

Chikage perked up at the sound of approaching footsteps—and then wilted, as she realized that they were too small and close together to belong to an adult man. Disappointment turned to confusion as she realized that they were in fact too small and close together to be anyone's but perhaps a small child's.

And then, she caught sight of a small boy with thick, square glasses and a familiar brown cowlick.

Someone out there must hate me, she thought. Why else would Edogawa Conan show up now?

Don't engage, don't engage…no, it would be weird not to ask a little boy what he's doing in a police station…except, he told me he was a detective… would a regular person remember that from meeting a person once, though? I've been staring at him too long, I'm suspicious now either way….

"Are you here doing detective work, Conan-kun?" Chikage asked.

"Ran took me out to breakfast and somebody got murdered, so we have to give statements," Conan said. "That's what's taking Detective Takagi so long. He told me I should apologize to you for him."

"Well, that's very nice of you, but I don't think it's very professional for Detective Takagi to send a little boy to run his errands," Chikage said.

Conan smirked for a half a second, like he knew something that Chikage didn't, and then asked, "Were you two really the last people to see Hakuba-nii-san before he vanished?"

"It seems like it," Chikage said. "I hope they can find him soon."

"Even though he was bothering your son?" Conan asked.

"I just wanted him to be nicer," Chikage said. "I never wanted him to disappear." It's even true. I just wanted to figure out what Hakuba's intentions were. I never wanted him to be hurt.

Conan's attention suddenly shifted to Kaito. "So you're her son?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kaito said, voice soft and a little breathy.

"Are you okay, nii-san?" Conan asked.

"I had an accident a few days ago," Kaito said. "So I'm not feeling too good."

"Oh," Conan said. And then, his eyes narrowed. "Say, you look a lot like Shinichi-nii-san."

Kaito blanched, in that particular You-caught-me way that Chikage still recognized from when he was little and she would catch him trying to steal dango from the fridge when she wasn't paying attention.

That's right, Chikage realized. KID disguises as Kudou Shinichi a lot, doesn't he—because Kaito looks like him. Oh. This is serious.

She glanced at her son, who was still just barely managing to sit up straight and hold Conan's gaze. On a good day, he could lead any detective on a merry chase, but today…he might not even be able to worm his way out of one accusation.

Not without help.

I didn't like how Tsuyoshi's parenting compared to mine, she thought. So I'll create a few new points of comparison.

"Wrong again, Mei-tan-tei-kun," she sing-songed in Kaitou KID's voice. "Well, not about the resemblance," she added, holding a finger to her lips. "They say everyone's got a doppelganger, so why not two? Anyhow, don't harass the kid, he's in enough pain without you adding to it."

"Kaitou KID," Conan accused, with a truly impressive scowl.

Kaito, meanwhile, was staring at her in abject, undisguised shock—which is what any normal civilian would do when confronted with Kaitou KID disguising as their mother. Good enough.

"Don't get all huffy, I'm just here to figure out exactly what happened to my missing critic," Chikage said, still using KID's voice as she held up her hands in a gesture of innocence. "I hope you don't think I had anything to do with it."

"Actually, they're saying he ran away on his own, but the woman you're disguising as is suspicious," Conan said, eyes still narrowed. "She was asking around about him, last month."

"You were—she was what?" Kaito half-screeched, staring at Conan, then Chikage.

"I wouldn't know anything about that," Chikage said, dodging the question neatly by staying in character. "But there weren't any signs of forced entry or struggle at his house. Just a compulsively neat spread of all his identification and a short note for his father."

"How'd you find out that much?" Conan demanded. "Where's the woman you're impersonating?"

"She's fine, she's just in the restroom," Chikage said, waving a hand as if to dismiss the question. "I slipped in after she left while her son was dozing off. I got all the rest of the information in a different disguise."

"So this outfit was for talking to me?" Conan asked.

"Bingo!" Chikage exclaimed in English. "You're one of the best critics chasing me, and if you're going to chase Tantei-san, too, I want you on the right track. Right, now, all the evidence says that he ran of his own will. Which means that if you look for him, you're up against his intelligence, not some two-bit kidnapper's. You understand, right?"

Conan nodded. "But if he left of his own will…"

"Even if I'm helping you, a phantom thief still has to have secrets," Chikage said. "And this time, one of them is why finding him is important."

Conan studied her, for a moment. "I've trusted you before, and you've never betrayed that trust when something that mattered was at stake," he said, slowly.

Chikage glanced at Kaito, over Conan's head. He nodded.

"There are some things, critic, that just aren't yours to know right now, okay?" she said.

Conan frowned. "Okay. Now, get out of here, so Takagi can talk to the real Kuroba Chikage."

Why does just knowing that he knows my name make me want to run? He is such a creepy child.

"Of course," Chikage said, standing and dipping into a sweeping bow.

Conan made a dismissive sort of huffing noise as he walked away.

As soon as Conan was out of hearing range, Kaito finally added a question to all of his wide-eyed staring. "Why?"

"You weren't ready for him. I was," Chikage replied, with a small smile.

Kaito's eyes softened. "Thank you," he said softly, still sounding a bit disbelieving.

If it was really throwing her kid this much that she'd helped him out…maybe Chikage had screwed up more than she thought.

"It's not something you need to thank me for," she said, standing. "Now, don't forget to tell me what happened when I 'get back from the restroom.'"

Kaito nodded. The mask still obscured his face, but the way his cheeks moved beneath it told her he was smiling.

"It's showtime," he said.

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"What do you mean, you saw KID?" Tsuyoshi's voice demanded, echoing slightly down the police station's corridor.

Chikage took that as her cue. "Kaito?"

"Mom!" Kaito exclaimed a bit faintly, looking toward her with real relief in her eyes—ah, he's probably not enjoying the fact that the police outnumber him two-to-one right now.

He was, in a sense, surrounded, with Takagi standing to his left and Hakuba Tsuyoshi to his right. And, even unable to use them, a phantom thief valued escape routes like oxygen. Chikage quickly swooped in, standing close enough to Takagi that she forced him to take a step toward Tsuyoshi.

"Your son said that you were just impersonated by Kaitou KID," Takagi said. "Do you mind if we check?"

"Check?" Chikage asked, considering and discarding the idea of feigning total ignorance. Tsuyoshi knew of her friendship with the Nakamoris and her husband's unconventional contacts; she should, given that, know what Takagi meant.

"For masks," Takagi elaborated.

Chikage sighed, nodded, and stood still and silent as Takagi pinched her cheek.

"It's really her," he declared.

"Well, then, if you wouldn't mind?" Tsyoshi asked, opening the interrogation room door and gesturing.

Chikage hooked a hand under Kaito's good shoulder, and helped him up.

"'m fine, Mom, really," Kaito said blearily.

Chikage shook her head and kept a hand on his arm as they followed Takagi into the room.

As expected, there were two chairs on each side of the table. Strategically, she left the one closer to the door to Kaito—on the off chance they had to make a quick escape, he'd need the head start. Takagi seated himself across from her, while Tsuyoshi took the seat across from Kaito.

Well, with all the players present, it was time to begin.

Chikage looked at the police officer across the interrogation table, taking in dark, sincere eyes and hair that needed a trim last month, and considered her options.

Lying, she reflected, was like cheating at poker. You couldn't do it the same way against every opponent.

Lying to Inspector Nakamori was just a matter of dealing in the flashiest way possible, drawing his eyes around like a fish on a line, here and there across the table-everywhere but to the bulge of hidden cards up your sleeve. Lying to Aoko was simply pretending clumsiness once or twice, dropping the cards and perhaps pocketing one or two as you gathered them. Lying to Kaito was a much more delicate matter, one that relied on him believing that he knew the trick and it only extended so far-playing the not-quite-fool and laying down poor hands with a silly grin and a wink to him as you cleaned out the rest of the table together, while counting cards to yourself and cheating him as well.

None of those would work on Detective Takagi Wataru, she could see it already. For him, she would need Poker Face and a perfectly-laid-out spread as she counted cards silently. The man worked with Edogawa regularly; that alone made him dangerous.

And, of course, sitting next to him was Hakuba Tsuyoshi, who was far more accustomed to playing against cheaters, accustomed enough to suspect if Poker Face held up too well.

Being a phantom thief, having two identities…it was always walking a tightrope. But not often so much as it was now. One false move, and she risked not just herself, but also her son. And while Hakuba was not in such visceral danger as they, he would certainly never be found if the two of them ended up in prison, unable to help in the search.

It had been some time since so much rested on her shoulders. But Kaitou Corbeau had been far more than a passing fancy or a burden she wasn't able to shoulder. Chikage was prepared, and the interrogation room was her stage, starting now.

"Thank you for being willing to talk to us both together," she said, softly, placing a hand on her son's shoulder. The plush weave of an oversize sweater, deliberately selected to obscure the wad of bandages on his shoulder, squished slightly underneath her fingers. "I think KID impersonating me was one too many surprises. He's still not recovered, you see."

"Recovered?" Takagi asked.

"A few days ago…three now, I suppose, he came home from school with a fever," Chikage said. "He woke up seeming improved, and he was anxious about missing work, so I allowed him to go to school the next day. It was a mistake."

"He's an excellent actor, when it comes to pretending he's feeling better than he is—ask Inspector Nakamori's daughter, she's as tired of it as I am—so I'm sure no one noticed, but he was still sick and by the day he was running a very high fever. Of course, being himself, he didn't even try to excuse himself from cleaning the classroom after school," for effect, she shot her son a look. He glared back. "It took him longer than normal, of course, and then he got dizzy at the top of one of the taller staircases and tripped."

Takagi gave Kaito an alarmed look. Kaito blinked back, a bit sleepily.

"I see now why your mother didn't want you to come in," Tsuyoshi said, voice a bit hushed. "I am sorry to have asked you here, when you probably ought not to be out of the hospital—"

"He only fell down about a third of the way, thanks to your son," Chikage said, fitting her real relief at Hakuba's help with Kaito's gunshot wound to this fabrication. "His shoulder's badly hurt, and he's got a lot of bruises, but nothing more serious than that. That's what I meant earlier when I said Saguru-kun saved his life. If he'd fallen the whole way…"

"It doesn't particularly bear thinking about, does it?" Tsuyoshi murmured.

"No," Chikage said. "I don't know why Saguru -kun was there, but I'm grateful that he was. Between the fever and the fall, Kaito wasn't lucid enough to get himself home, so Saguru-kun called me. I was, honestly, a bit too frantic to think about calling an ambulance…but it turned out to be an acceptable decision. His fever was down by the time we made it to the house, and none of his injuries were serious enough to warrant a hospital trip."

"But he has seen a doctor?" Takagi asked, fishing for an independent source of corroboration for her story.

"Of course," Chikage said, making a mental note that she needed to ask Jii if he'd maintained the address for that doctor persona Toichi used to use on occasion to lie about his medical care. If not, she could probably just impersonate someone.

"So, that explains why you felt indebted to Saguru," Tsuyoshi said. "But you were still the last person to have seen him. Could you tell us about your conversation, when you last saw him?"

"I was surprised to see him," Chikage said. The best lies contain truth. "Even though he prevented Kaito from being seriously injured, nothing he said or did really convinced me that he did it for Kaito's sake. I thought he was merely acting out of human decency, so I wasn't expecting to get a visit from him the next day.

"You know that I've been concerned about the relationship between our sons, and that I looked into Saguru as a result," she continued, with a glance at Tsuyoshi, "and I've no doubt that you've told Officer Takagi about my investigations. Ultimately, at the point when Saguru arrived at my house, I'd arrived at the conclusion that he didn't pose a threat to my son, but also that his and Kaito's rivalry was serious enough to warrant watching, and for me to consider odd, given that the only apparent causes were their differing opinions on KID and their rivalry over Nakamori Aoko."

Tsuyoshi looked confused. "When I asked him about her, he said that he'd made a mistake, and that she already had an interest in someone else." He turned his gaze on Kaito. "I can't be certain, but it seemed an awful lot like he was ceding to you, young man."

Kaito stared at him, wide-eyed with something closer to faint hope than excitement. Chikage, meanwhile, was slowly realizing that watching her son without Poker Face was nothing less than uncomfortable and unexpectedly sad.

Wasn't Jii supposed to be making sure he could handle this? she wondered, as she watched Kaito get his face back into its proper order.

She shook her head, as if to clear it. "At any rate, his making a sickbed visit didn't fit that impression. So, after I let him visit with Kaito for a very short while—"

"Perhaps Kaito would like to describe that part," Takagi suggested.

"I'd like to," Kaito said, a smile crinkling the edges of his eyes. "But I don't really remember it. Like, I remember that it happened, I kinda remember seeing Hakuba, and…that's about it." His tone turned serious. "I wish I could help more."

"It can't be helped," Tsuyoshi said softly, exhaustion plain in his voice. He turned to Chikage. "If you could continue your story?"

"I found Saguru's visit odd, so after he visited with Kaito—it really was a short visit; Saguru told Kaito that he brought him pudding as a get-well gift and wished him a quick recovery—I asked him to stay and talk for a while," Chikage said. "He agreed. I asked him what, exactly, his interest in Kaito was."

Chikage paused, and took a breath. Time to deal the cards again. Not that you aren't already all in, now.

"And his answer was?" Takagi prompted.

"He was reluctant to answer me at first, but he eventually admitted that he had, when he was much younger, encountered my husband," Chikage said, dropping her gaze to the table. "Toichi was a world-famous magician, so there's a chance you might have heard of him."

"I think I saw his obituary," Takagi said delicately, which was apparently as close as he dared to get to Isn't he the magician who died in the middle of a trick a few years ago?

"That was probably him," Chikage said with a tight-lipped nod. "He travelled around quite a lot for performances—sometimes Kaito and I joined him; other times, we did not. He met a lot of people in his travels, and by Saguru's account, at least one of those people was him. It seems that Toichi made quite the impression."

"That doesn't seem as though it would be a reason to run away," Takagi said.

"No, it doesn't," Tsuyoshi said. "Did he say anything else?"

"He answered my question," Chikage said. "It seems that his interest in Kaito began as an interest in Toichi's child. But he didn't tell me anything else, he seemed reluctant to have said that much…and he left, very abruptly, just afterwards."

"But you didn't tell anyone?"

"What, and violate his privacy?" Chikage asked. "None of that gave me any reason to think he would run away—I just thought he'd gone home because I'd upset him somehow. I learned from investigating him that he was adopted; I thought perhaps talking about meeting Toichi when he was young had brought up some memory of his biological parents and he was upset by that."

"That's…not a bad theory," Takagi said. "What was it you said that you did, Kuroba-san?"

"I didn't," Chikage said. "I've been working as a stage magician in Las Vegas with tricks I learned from Toichi; I traveled back recently to check on my son."

"I see," Takagi said. "And before that?"

"Well, while Toichi was alive I was a homemaker," Chikage said, honestly enough. No one puts 'accomplice to KID' on their resume, much less admits it to cops. "And before that? We married quite young, but I was at the beginning of a professional gymnastics career." And a solo career as a phantom thief, but I'm even less likely to admit to that.

Takagi raised an eyebrow. "So you're a gymnast and a magician?"

Chikage sighed, a long, drawn-out affair. Time to bluff. "Don't tell me you're suspecting me as KID, now. If I were, why on Earth would I have impersonated myself?"

"Officer, don't waste time with wild theories," Tsuyoshi scolded.

"Okay, now that I think about it, it sounds pretty out there," Takagi admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

And, one perfect hand, courtesy years of experience lying and a hearty dose of desperation. Thank you, whoever's listening.

"Is there anything else we can tell you?" Chikage asked briskly. "I would like to help; however, I would also like to get Kaito home as soon as possible."

"I understand," Tsuyoshi said softly.

"You say he seemed upset," Takagi said. "Could you be more specific?"

"Anxious," Chikage said. "He seemed anxious—"

A series of sharp raps on the door interrupted her. Both the rhythm and weight of the pounding seemed familiar…Wait.

"Ginzou-san?" she called.

"Chikage-san?" came Ginzou's voice, only slightly muffled by a room that probably had been soundproof a decade ago. "What the h*** is all of this about Hakuba-kun disappearing?"

Laying his forehead in his hand, Tsuyoshi waved vaguely toward the door, and said, in a tone of great exhaustion, "Let him in."

Takagi stood, unlocked the door, and then scrambled backward as Ginzou burst through, scowling. And then froze, mid-step, in the doorway.

"The f*** happened to you, Kaito-kun?" he demanded, staring.

"Had a fever and then fell down some stairs," Kaito said. "I'm fine though."

"The h*** you are," Ginzou said, with feeling. He turned his gaze to Tsuyoshi, who straightened in his seat. "Sir, I heard…well, I hope it's just a fu—er, messed up rumor, but—is Hakuba-kun missing?"

Tsuyoshi nodded. "He left last night, in a manner that seemed to indicate he didn't intend to return."

Ginzou's eyes narrowed in confusion. "But—with respect, sir, he doesn't seem the type."

"There is a lot about Saguru you don't know," Tsuyoshi said softly.

"Well, that much I know," Ginzou grumbled.

"Are you talking about the things we discussed when I asked you about him?" Chikage asked.

"Not just that," Ginzou said. He turned, and pulled the door shut behind him. "I'm guessing this," he gestured to the room, and, presumably, to Chikage and Kaito's presence therein, "is about him going missing, somehow."

"I was the last person to see him," Chikage said.

"Right," Ginzou said. "Well, if you guys are gonna look for him, there's something else you oughta know. He asked me not to put it in the records, though, so I'd appreciate it if it stayed in this room."

"What is it?" Tsuyoshi asked, leaning forward.

"What happened on the last heist," Ginzou said.

"The incident report said that KID was superficially injured," Tsuyoshi said. "He was here earlier, checking in on the progress of the case…Kaito-kun and Edogawa Conan were the only ones to interact with him, though."

"I missed him?" Ginzou demanded. "D*** sneak-thief—"

"Ginzou-san, focus," Chikage interrupted, intrigued despite herself. "What does the heist have to do with Hakuba's disappearance?"

"The report says that we thought KID was down and then he came over to the roof where we were and knocked Hakuba out," Ginzou said. "What actually happened was more like…Hakuba went over to get KID after he got shot down, and it turned out that KID wasn't hurt as bad as we thought."

"The incident report said that when KID was injured, he fell onto the roof of a privately owned residence about a quarter of a mile away from the heist site," Tsuyoshi said, watching Ginzou carefully.

"That part was accurate," Ginzou said.

"How'd he get over there?" Takagi asked, baffled.

"Looked kinda like that parukouru stuff Kaito-kun used to talk about," Ginzou said.

"Parkour?" Kaito echoed, breathily, but with flawless pronunciation. "He knows parkour?"

"Knowing parkour is one thing, dear, but Hakuba apparently knows how to do it on rooftops," Chikage remarked. She glanced at Takagi. "You might want to take that into account when looking for him."

"Yeah," Takagi said slowly.

Tsuyoshi was just staring at Ginzou, pale-faced.

"So you really didn't know," Ginzou said. "Well, then, seems I got a coupla other things to tell you about what exactly your son came to me capable of doin'."

Tsuyoshi's eyes flew to Chikage.

"There's a reason my investigation didn't end where it began," she said slowly. No covering for him now without exposing myself and Kaito. D***.

Takagi looked distinctly uncomfortable, but Tsuyoshi put a hand on his shoulder. "You ought to listen too," he said. "It could be important to the case."

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A/N: Just in case it's not obvious—KID, per Movie 3, does know who Conan is, but Chikage does not. She and Kaito don't talk a lot about KID or his activities and since he didn't have any indication until recently that she was an active thief, Kaito felt no need to make an effort to bring him up in order to warn her—which is really the only reason he'd tell her. So Chikage still considers Conan a terrifying child and that only.

For the record, Chikage's lie in this chapter, about Kaito falling down the stairs and Hakuba catching him and getting help, would make an excellent H/C fic with the canon versions of the characters. It's officially up for adoption, if anyone wants to write the thing.