SailorStar9: So, with Chapter 111 uploaded, this is Chapter 112 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Pairings: Established!Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami

Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.

Chapter 112: The Unstated Alibi

Sometime later...

"All ones." Genta gaped, seeing the time on the digital clock above Takezawa Watch Store

"And what's so special about it?" Mitsuhiko twitched.

"It means I'm lucky today." Genta declared. "I might be having eel bowls for dinner tonight."

"We're leaving you guys behind." Conan reminded.

"That was a police officer." Ayumi spotted an officer riding past on his bicycle.

"It felt like he was riding to a crime scene." Haibara remarked.

"Maybe something happened." Conan wondered.

At the bottom of a staircase...

The police officer was comforting a sobbing old lady.

"I was pushed by a strange young woman from the top of those stone steps." the elderly woman wailed.

"Did anyone see what happened?" the officer inquired the gathering crowd.

"The onii-san over there." Conan spotted Usui Eiichi hiding behind a wall. "Did you happen to see anyone suspicious?"

"Did you see the culprit?" the officer turned to the stammering Usui.

"I didn't see anything." Usui fibbed. "I have to get going." he made himself scarce.

"It seemed like he wanted to say something." Ayumi noted.

"Maybe he did see something." Conan suggested. "Maybe he didn't want to get involved with the police? For example: maybe he himself has done something wrong."

In a nearby café...

"Apparently, his name is Kanieda-san." the café owner stated. "He lives in Shikabone City."

"Shikabone is rather far away from here." Haibara noted.

"Even by car, it's about an hour away from Beika City." Conan related.

"Is he a regular customer?" Fumio inquired.

"I think today's his first time here." the café owner replied.

"Then, how did you know his name?" Conan was puzzled.

"We got a call." the café owner recalled. "If you're looking for that man, could you deliver this lighter to him?" she handed the lighter over to the kids. "He forgot it here."

After meeting up with Mitsuhiko and Genta...

"There's something odd about that Kanieda guy." Conan pondered after Mitsuhiko and Genta reported back. "He had a cell phone, right? So, why did he receive a call at a café?"

"Not to mention, he got on an inbound train." Fumio frowned. "He should've headed in the opposite direction if he was going back to Shokabone City."

"Since that train stopped one station over at Midoridai, maybe he's planning to do something here at Midoridai." he reasoned, the group making a stop-over at Midoridai.

"Ah..." Fumio voiced suddenly, seeing Usui was taken away in a police car.

At the Midoridai Police Station...

"His name is Usui-san?" Conan echoed.

"Usui Eiichi, who lives here in Midoridai." Takagi confirmed. "We even checked his driver's license."

"Then, why did he lie about being Kanieda from Shikabone City?" Haibara wondered.

"Detective Takagi, why did the police pick him up?" Conan was puzzled.

"He's a person of interest in an injury case." Takagi responded. "Just now, behind Midoridai Park, a woman who lives nearby found a man who'd been struck on the back of the head with a log. The victim is Hachiya Takeru-san from Midoridai. According to his neighbors, he wasn't a very nice person. Eiichi Usui, he's the man we identified as our primary person of interest."

"Hachiya-san was attacked around 1 pm today?" Conan blinked after Takagi recounted Usui's statement. "Then, he's innocent."

"He has an alibi." Fumio clarified. "He was in Beika City around that time."

"He forgot something in Beika City while he was there." Conan retrieved the lighter from his pocket. "His fingerprints should be on this. He denied it?" he echoed after Usui protested he had never been to Beika City.

"He said it must have been someone else." Takagi nodded.

"Takagi-san." one of the forensics personnel entered and informed the detective.

"None of Usui-san's fingerprints were on the light you turned in." Takagi told the kids. "The man you saw in Beika City wasn't Usui Eiichi-san, but someone else."

In the Shikabone City library later...

"There really is a Kanieda in Shikabone City." Conan referred to the phone book. "Kanieda Akira: if we check out this person, we may be able to figure out why Usui Eiichi is behaving so mysteriously."

The next day...

"Your neighbor Kanieda Akira-san is in the hospital?" Conan blinked, after the Detective Boys questioned Kanieda's neighbor.

"Apparently, he was hit by a car yesterday afternoon on the other side of the station." the neighbor replied. "If you kids have business with Akira-kun, why don't you come with me? I was just on my way to visit him. According to the nurse, he's not seriously injured, but he still hasn't regained consciousness."

"They look similar." Mitsuhiko gawked in Kanieda's hospital room.

"He and that Usui guy..." Genta trailed.

"What was he doing on the south side of the station?" the aged neighbor was confused. "He thinks it's bad luck. Akira-kun has been living with his mother since his father passed away." he explained. "About a year ago, his mother had some dentures made by a well-known dentist named Saruwatari-sensei on the south side of the station. Shortly afterwards, something unfortunate happened. She fell asleep wearing the dentures and they got caught in her throat. She didn't wake up after that. Because that dentist is over there..."

"He'd consider the south side of the station unlucky." Haibara concluded, the group was now seated under a tree.

"In that case, why would he go there?" Fumio was confused.

"You said Kanieda Akira-san's accident happened yesterday afternoon." Conan repeated. "Did it happen around one?"

"I heard it was just after one." the neighbor replied.

"I knew it." Conan finally pieced together what happened. "That's the same time Usui-san started wandering around Beika City. If I'm right, then..."

At the Midoridai Police Station...

"We met yesterday at Beika City." Conan greeted Usui after Megure brought him in. "We weren't wrong, it was really him. Kanieda Akira-san told you to lie, didn't he? He wanted you to be his double in his plot to kill the dentist. It may be unjustified, but Kanieda-san could forgive Saruwatari-sensei and attempted to avenge his mother. Suspicion would've fallen on him due to his motive. That's when he happened to see Usui-san and came up with a way to avoid being caught. He attempted to fabricate an alibi for the time of the crime by using this man who looked just like him. You seem to be unemployed, so you probably did it for money. Yesterday, on the day of the murder, Kanieda-san had Usui-san cut his long hair to look like his own and sent far away from Shikabone City to Beika City. He had him enter a café he'd picked out beforehand and waited for the right time to place a call. That allowed him to create numerous witnesses for an alibi. By leaving behind a lighter with his fingerprints, he had physical evidence as a backup. With his false alibi secured, Kanieda-san headed out to murder Saruwatari-sensei. Meanwhile, you witnessed an old woman being pushed down some stairs in Beika City. You couldn't testify: if you came forward as a witness, the police would ask for your identity. Even if you wanted to claim to be Kanieda Akira from Shikabone City, the name on your license would be different. You scheme was all for nothing, though. While heading for Saruwatari-sensei's house, Kanieda-san was involved in a traffic accident and never managed to attack the dentist."

"You mean I could've said from the start that I was fabricating an alibi in Beika City?" Usui exclaimed. "What have I been doing these three days?"

"It was a coincidence that you didn't become an accomplice in a murderer." Megure barked.

"You're absolutely correct." Usui sighed.

"Now, we're back to square one with the injury case." Mitsuhiko reminded.

"If Usui-san's pen was at the crime scene, even though he never went to the park, then the culprit must have put it there." Fumio reasoned. "The only person who had the opportunity to do so..."

"The woman who found the body." Chiba realized.

"I got the idea when I saw that Usui guy arguing with Hachiya a few days ago." Kakimoto Sueko admitted. "I could get back at Hachiya and frame Usui for it. I picked up the ball-point pen he dropped then and used it yesterday. Even if Usui had an alibi, I figured you guys would do something about it. 'he must've employed some kind of clever trick.'"

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.