File Forty-Six: That Black Car
YOU WIN!
Congratulations, Player One!
"I did it!" Ayumi jumped up and down, holding the game controller close to her chest. "I won!"
Conan did not appreciate the bright grin the girl was wearing at the moment. "Congratulations," so he settled with a basic answer, however, hoping that his irritation did not show.
Not that he tried that hard.
"You don't sound happy," Ayumi accused.
"Don't worry about it, Ayumi-chan," Mitsuhiko muffled a laugh with his hand. "Conan-kun is just angry that he isn't as good as us playing games."
"Yeah," Genta agreed, with a grin. "He's such a sore loser!"
"Leave me alone," he grumbled while passing ─ rather roughly ─ the controller to Genta, before moving so he could play on his place. He then noticed something, causing him to look around the room, confused. "Isn't Haibara-san back yet?"
"No," the girl replied. "She has been gone for a while."
"That's weird," the freckled boy nodded his head.
"Ai-kun is in the phone," from behind them, Agasa said as he sat on a chair with a mug with coffee.
"Who is she talking to?" asked Mitsuhiko, genuinely curious.
Professor Agasa shrugged.
The four Detective Boys said nothing about it, just taking a moment of silence to ponder over the mystery that rounded on their heads. At their blatant display of curiosity, Agasa couldn't help but chuckle a bit.
"Listen, listen," Genta suddenly spoke up gathering everyone's attention. Once everyone was looking at him, he put a hand beside his mouth and whispered ─ or tried to whisper, since every single person in that room could hear perfectly well. "When I was in my way to the bathroom earlier, I spotted Haibara talking over the phone. There was a big, radiant smile on her face."
Conan's eyebrow raised, a blank look sent towards his friend. "Are we talking about the same person?"
Then, a gasp startled the three boys. Ayumi had her hands over her mouth, shocked about whatever she had thought about.
"Do you think... Do you think Ai-chan likes someone?"
"Eh?!" both Mitsuhiko and Conan loudly reacted at that.
And Genta blinked twice, looking to his male friends. "Hey, what has gotten into you two?" he wondered, confusion written all over his face..
"A-Ah, well," Mitsuhiko started stuttering, his face as bright as a tomato. "A-Actually..."
As the freckled boy clumsily fought to explain himself, Ayumi's eyes fixed on Conan. The child in question didn't even try to say something, just grumbled some inaudible words while turning his attention away, an annoyed expression plastered on his face.
The dark shade of red on his cheeks was pretty noticeable in her eyes, though.
"What's all of this about?" everyone flinched at the very familiar voice.
"Ai-chan!" Ayumi was the first one to react. "You see, we..."
Everything else that was said on that conversation was lost to Conan, as his attention drifted somewhere else. Wide eyes simply stared at Haibara, who was making her way to the couch, joining the group in whatever they were doing.
But there was no trace of the irritated expression that would permanently be stuck on her face.
There actually was a soft, happy smile instead.
For some reason Conan couldn't comprehend, there was a strange, unfamiliar feeling settling in the pit of his stomach.
It didn't last long, because the doorbell rang and he knew exactly who had just arrived. So, with a tired groan, he offered himself to get the door.
Of course, he found himself face to face with his ever-smiling mother. She was wearing a hat and sunglasses, for reasons that ─ he was sure ─ would never, ever understand.
"How did you get it, exactly?"
Not quite understanding the words that were just uttered, the mother simply looked over her child by the corner of her eye. He might have caught on her confusion, because he huffed, irritably.
"Your license."
"Ah, so that was what it was!" Yukiko's bright grin didn't take long to appear, her gaze returning to the road. "You, see, that's actually a very exciting story! It all began when-"
"Nevermind. I don't want to hear it."
He still wondered what kind of person in that entire world would give that woman an actual driving license considering, well, everything. But he guessed living without knowing was preferable than suffering through an hour-long storytime.
"Umm... Can I ask you something?" Yukiko glanced to Mitsuhiko from the rear mirror. "Where are we going now?"
"Come on and tell us already!" Genta nodded.
"Please?" Ayumi pleaded, hands clasped against each other.
The woman giggled at that. "It's a place where everyone will be extremely happy."
Seeing that they were not going to get any answer from her, the three children whined, clearly stating their discontentment.
"Conan-kun's mom is being mean!" Ayumi complained.
With a sigh, Conan turned to look at them. "Guys, remember that I'm not supposed to be her son," he told them. "She's just some old woman I'm related to, okay?"
He saw his friends tensing and, suddenly, the car's temperature dropped a few degrees. Slowly, he turned towards his mother.
A gelid, murderous glare met his eyes.
Conan's sense of self-preservation had to be damaged, his friends decided, considering that he just gave her a blank look, eyebrow raising before he said, in a very plain voice:
"What? You want me to lie even further?"
The three children then awed, amazed, at the sight of the woman easily concussing the little boy without losing control of the car. At all.
And Haibara simply chuckled softly, not surprised but ultimately amused.
Yukiko's phone then started ringing, causing the woman to look away from her groaning son so she could pull over in a side of the road.
"Ah, Karata-san!... Eh? Because of a little unexpected hiccup in the timing, Number 0 might take more time?"
Huffing due to his annoyance, Conan rubbed his sore head, grumping and mumbling all sorts of complains directed to his mother, that happily chatted with whoever was on the other side of the phone, blatantly ignoring him. So he crossed his arms, turning his head to look away.
Something on the mirror caused all his irritation to dissipate.
Maybe he was just imagining things, but he could've sworn that a very suspicious-looking, black car had just pulled into the side as soon as Yukiko had done so.
"Okay, okay. In any case, we're heading there now. Thanks for the help!"
The call was ended right after that and the woman went back to the road to continue her way. The black car did the same, Conan observed.
And by the way his mother's hands grasped the wheel a little bit harder, he knew she did as well.
"I wonder what it could be," Mitsuhiko wondered, completely unaware of what was going on. "Number 0..."
"Could it be the number of a robot or something?" Genta speculated.
"Better try with 'recently completed film'," Conan plainly stated. "Number 0 is an industry term people in the film or drama production profession use."
The three simply blinked at their friend before their mouths hang open in awe. Just then, his mother stopped because of a red light and turned to give him a curious look. Which he pointedly ignored.
"Then," a smiling Ayumi bounced on her seat. "Which movie is it?"
"Considering what I have just said and the 'timing' Mom just mentioned, which probably concerns the color correction for a movie, I can only think of one single movie that everyone would enjoy," an arrogant smirk was painted on his features. "We're going to see a preview screening of Kamen Yaiba: The Movie 2, am I wrong?"
In between the squeals of excitement that filled the car, Yukiko couldn't help but study her son, particularly the confident smile he was wearing ─ and couldn't help but think of how much he was beginning to look like his brother and father. After blinking a few times, the woman couldn't help but smile a little.
If this had happened a year ago, his reaction would have been much, much different. It was more than a bit surprising to see him that he wasn't a tiny embarrassed to tell anyone his deductions.
So she watched him, saying something at his friends that was lost to her, a raised eyebrow as if he couldn't understand their excitement, yet the barely noticeable smile he wore betraying him.
Yukiko couldn't remember him smiling that often.
"Hey," Ayumi's voice brought her off her thoughts. "The traffic light turned green a while ago."
"Eh?" she whined, looking back at the light that, by that time, had changed to yellow. She frowned. "I'm sorry," at the sound of her serious tone, Conan couldn't hold back a wince. "I lost focus."
Yukiko's foot slowly lowered, gradually pressing on the pedal.
And Conan's hand slowly inched closer to the door.
"Conan-kun what's wrong?
"You look pale."
"Why are you gripping the door handle so tightly?"
"Because I'm too short to reach for the hand grip above my head."
"... And why would you do that?" the three asked in unison, sharing their confusion.
Not that Conan had the time to answer. The car started moving again, just a second before the light turned red again, in an incredibly high speed that caused the three scream in the back seat. Their screams, together with Conan's loud complains about her reckless driving, mixed together in a terribly chaotic commotion inside the car.
Which Haibara simply watched unfold with a blank look.
At least she's still driving in all four wheels, was his thought, just as the car started to give a ninety-degree turn. "Hey!"
Yukiko just hummed, happily, and continued driving as if nothing had happened.
"Conan-kun's mom is so much fun!"
... Where's the fun, exactly?
Had Conan had just a little less sense of dignity, he might had dropped into his knees and kissed the ground. But as things were, he didn't. He just stepped out, wearing a very pissed off expression on his face, glaring daggers at his mother.
Who didn't even react to it, just took her sunglasses off before entering.
Both of them kept at it, even as they made their way inside the studio. Karata, as Yukiko had called him, greeted them with a wide smile on his face and explained that he was the timing man. By that time, Yukiko was giggling to the children, telling them about the times she was an actress ─ or something like that, he hadn't really paid any attention ─ and Conan had just given up trying to get his mother see reason.
"I see now," he snapped out of it when Haibara talked to him. "Your deduction skills might have come from your father, but everything else must have been inherited from your mother."
Conan briefly glanced at the woman talking with the rest of his friends, his irritation showing on his face the next instant. "How so?" he mumbled. "I see absolutely nothing in common-"
"Your ability to act so easily in order to put people in your favour, as well as the reckless behavior you exhibit when you hear the word 'cut'... Should I continue?"
"No, thank you," the boy rolled his eyes.
As he looked away from her with a frown, grumbling something under his breath that only he could understand, Haibara couldn't help but glance at him again. His indignation that could be noticed from a mile away caused her to chuckle.
Because the movie preview wasn't going to be ready until a few hours, the children plus Yukiko were given a tour through the studio. Negami Yoshihiko ─ the film man ─ and Hojima Akira ─ in charge of printing ─ showed them around, taking them to places such as the screening room, the dark room ─ more like the door to the dark room, since they didn't actually go inside ─ or the developing machine. Everyone was more than amazed throughout it all.
It was almost time now and they were about to go back to the screening room when Furumura Norihiro ─ the salesman ─ appeared and told them that it wouldn't be ready until 11 PM, at the earliest.
"Is it going to be that late?" Yukiko glanced at her wristwatch. "This is bad. If it's at that hour, I won't be able to make it to my flight," then, she turned to look at the group of kids. "And I can't just leave the kids here that late, either."
"Then, how about the kids come over to my place first?" Hojima offered. "My apartment is nearby. They can sleep there until it's time for the screening, and I can take them home in my car afterwards."
"Well... If you would?"
"But are you really going to put these kids in your disgustingly dirty room?" Negami raised an eyebrow to his coworker."
"That's mean! It's just a little messy," before he could get an answer, he turned to the children. "Well, if it's alright with the kids."
All of sudden, Conan fell all gazes on him causing him to let out a long sigh, before deciding to face his friends.
"Hey, let's stay, Conan-kun!" Ayumi voiced.
"Tomorrow is Sunday anyway!" Mitsuhiko instantly agreed with her.
"That's right! And we can go back to school and brag to the others!" Genta added. "Well, Conan?"
Their friend gave them a long look, then let his shoulders drop, seemingly resigning himself to his fate of getting very, very late home tonight.
"... It's okay," he conceded them. "But make sure to call home and tell them you'll coming late."
"Okay!"
He didn't notice the curious look he was receiving from his mother. When did Co-chan became the mother of his group? she wondered, an amused smile on her face as she watched his son talking with his friends, just like any other kid of his age. And, truly, she was glad he was.
Then, she saw something that caused her smile to widen even more. Haibara was intently staring at his face, before turning away as soon as it had happened.
"Co-chan," like the self-respecting mother she was, of course Yukiko called his son over as soon as his friends were busy talking with Hojima.
"What is it?" he moved closer, his voice already telling her he could feel she was up to no good.
She kneeled down next to him. "You seem popular with the girls," was all she whispered in his ear.
"Ah, you mean Ayumi-chan?" despite the slightly embarrassed posture, he shrugged it off easily. At some point of another, he had grown used to that girl's undeniable crush on him, Yukiko guessed.
"There's another one."
"Eh?" now, he was confused.
"Ai-chan~!" she noticed the way Conan jumped at the mention of her name, before his head snapped towards the direction the girl in question was, standing beside Ayumi, completely unaware of the conversation taking place between mother and son. "She has stared at your face ten times today."
"She's probably just wondering what I am doing with my life."
"Silly," Yukiko giggled at his innocence. "The only reason girls stare at boys, aside from when they have something on their faces, is because they like them."
The boy went strangely silent at that, turning to watch the girl once more, blinking a few times. Just as Yukiko was about to press even further, undoubtedly with all intention of teasing him some more, she paused at the sigh of a certain expression on his face. Much different from the flustered mess she had been expecting.
"That's impossible," he finally said, closing his eyes and placing his hands back on his pockets.
"Eh? Why?"
"Because Haibara-san already likes somebody else."
For an instant, it was silent between them two. The woman simply looked at the little boy with a shocked expression, who simply stared back at the young scientist, deeply immersed inside his own thoughts.
It all went away the next second, however, when a finger poked his cheek.
"What's this~?" by that point he hadn't even began to understand the meaning of her wide smile, but he still could feel irritation building up inside. "Could it be?"
"What?" he snapped.
"Are you, by any chance, jealous, Co-chan?"
"... What are you even talking about?" Conan tried to play it as a stupid, outrageous idea, but even he could feel his face warming up.
She took a moment to really appreciate the sight of her cute, bashful son, before humming in thought.
"But it would be weird if she didn't," she pondered. "Did you know? At that time you were at the hospital, Ai-chan asked me to get her some particular kind flowers she wanted to bring you. She hoped they would make you feel better, she said."
Yeah, because that heart attack was all I needed to feel better.
But at least, that explained how in the world that girl had managed to get a hold of a bouquet of Edelweiss ─ Edelweiss, for crying out loud. Of course his mother had something to do with it.
Still, that girl certainly didn't have to go give Mom the wrong idea...
This is so troublesome.
"Why would she want those flowers, specifically?" his mother kept on asking.
"Hanakotoba," he replied, plainly. "She had wanted to pass on a message to me," he huffed, them mumbled. "She could have just said it to my face, that weird girl."
Yukiko smiled at his son.
"Sometimes, we don't need that many words to convey a feeling," she explained to him, patiently. "In some cases, they run interference with the real message that's intended to transmit."
"She most likely just wanted to mess with me, though."
"Whichever the case, aren't you glad?" she asked him. "That you were so strangely interested in this stuff when you were younger."
Conan tilted his head at that, realizing that he could faintly remember that. When he was around four he would sit hours and hours to an end in front of his mother's big book about Hanakotoba. Frantically reading, writing some stuff down on his little notebook. Stuff he couldn't really recall at the moment, but guessed it was just some childish dumb nonsense.
Why was I that interested in flowers, anyway?
"By the way," Conan's expression went serious, changing the conversation topic altogether. "You noticed it as well, didn't you? That strange car on the way here."
With a frown, the woman nodded. "So you noticed it, too."
"Of course. There's no way anyone else would quietly wait behind a car until the light turns yellow. Unless it was so as not to gather our attention."
There were tailing them, Conan could say without a single doubt in his mind. From the way his mother stood up, oddly pensive, he could tell she was thinking about the same thing.
"The car's target was definitely Haibara-san," Conan stated. "The chance that it was them who were following us is high," then, a frown made appearance on his face. "The ones that Oniichan has messed with and made him take that poisonous drug. Those men in black."
Her arms crossed in front of her chest, while she stood up. "No. There's another possibility," the child looked back at the mother, completely stunned at her words. "The people in that car may have been..." the thick tension then was dissolved when her face broke in a big grin. "... some of my die-hard fans!"
"... I'm positive that's not the case."
His mother looked as if she was about to argue.
"You purposely put on sunglasses and a hat so they wouldn't recognize you. Are you telling me the famous magician Kuroba Toichi was such a bad teacher that your disguises can be easily told apart by a mere fan?"
Yukiko couldn't say anything about that.
In a flash, it was time for her to leave. Because of that, all five children and the employees that had been showing them around were standing outside, watching Yukiko ─ now with sunglasses and hat once more ─ who was about to leave on her car. Before she had gotten to the street, she turned around and waved everyone goodbye.
Before she called Conan who obediently, if reluctantly, moved closer.
"That girl who keeps staring at you," Yukiko said to him. "Make sure to stay with her until the end."
"I know, I know," he grumbled. "How annoying..." then, his half opened eyelids stared blankly at his mother. "You're going to be late for your plane, you know?"
"Right, right. Bye, Co-chan!" with a bright smile, she turned to the rest. "Bye, everyone! I'll see you later!"
With that, Yukiko drove away, her smile still on place even when she couldn't see the children anymore. Even when she passed by that suspicious black car parked on the side of the street.
It wasn't until another couple of miles that she let her mask drop, her beautiful smile vanishing into nothing, replaced by a line, formed by her lips pressing together so tightly that it actually hurt.
She really, really didn't want to leave Conan again. Especially when that car was still wandering around.
But Conan is a smart kid, Yukiko reminded herself. He might be young, but he's definitely going to find a way out of this situation. He's going to make it out safe.
If I interfere, however... If I bring the spotlight to myself...
If they realize that Kudo Yukiko is in Japan and seen with a little child...
Not only the media will go crazy about this. Those people will begin to put two and two together. Then...
Then...
Her hands clenched around the wheel.
Unaware of the dilemma that was going through his mother's mind at the moment, little Conan only stared blankly at the spot the car had just been in. He only reacted when he heard Ayumi calling his name, to which he quickly nodded, before following suit.
Curious eyes watched Haibara walk quietly, a few feet ahead of him.
"The only reason girls stare at boys, aside from when they have something on their faces, is because they like them."
Unconsciously, his hand went to his face and gingerly rubbed his cheek.
Just as his coworker had warned, Hojima's room was truly a mess. Once the light was turned on, the kid were met with a sight that caused them to gape, yet not in a good way. Books and random CD covers were scattered everywhere, boxes and even empty juice cans lied in the floor, discarded and completely forgotten.
Here I thought Occhan's room was messy...
Hojima's room wasn't all much better, but at least it was barely tolerable. There was a bed, big enough for all five children to fit, lining up sideways, and it should have been enough, really. It wasn't like they needed much more than that, anyway.
Like that, Negami left so he could get some work done, while Hojima and Furumura ─ who set the camera down after recording his video diary for today ─ settled on the couches.
"What should I do?" Ayumi could barely contain her enthusiasm. "I'm too excited to sleep!"
Conan lied on the mattress, eyes closed yet awake as an owl, unable to doze off because of the constant noise provoked by his friends' chattering. So he bit his lip, trying to block out the voices of Mitsuhiko and Genta, who wouldn't just stop talking.
"If I remember correctly, it was The Counter Attack of Baron Potato, right?"
The young sleuth pulled the blanket over his head, groaning softly in frustration.
"No, that's not it. The subtitle from the preview was... It was..."
"It was..."
Too bad the cloth didn't seem to be soundproof.
"The subtitle was..."
"It was..."
At that point, Conan couldn't take it anymore. In a violent motion, he raised from the depths of his cocoon of blankets. "It's the Requiem of the Potato Queen, alright?!" he basically yelled. "Now that's settled would you please-?!"
Then he noticed his words were falling in deaf ears, because the three friends were sound asleep, leaving alone Conan to stare at them, with a blank expression, and a dry, forced laugh to bubble up his throat.
"Now that they went silent," Haibara's voice came from his other side. "Why don't you go try to sleep? You are noisy."
Conan said nothing, just sat there in silence, watching the scientist whose back was facing him. For a moment or so, he simply stared at her, until his conflicted blue eyes fixed on his lap. "Say, Haibara-san," he voiced softly. "There's... There's something I want to ask you."
Sensing the serious tone behind the boy's words, the girl turned slightly over her back, just enough so he could look at him into his eyes. She simply waited, gazing at him with a slightly confused expression when he paused, as if hesitating.
He then took a deep breath, and opened his mouth.
"... Is there something on my face?"
"... Huh?"
"I'm asking you if there is something on my face."
"Yeah, I know. My sense of hearing is definitely not damaged," Haibara replied, with a weirded out expression drawn on her face. "I'm not so certain about your reasoning ability, however."
"So, your answer is?"
"No, Kudo-kun. There is absolutely nothing on your face."
Haibara could only stare. Conan was stroking his chin, mumbling something strangely like 'that's weird', deep in thought, just like he would act when trying to crack a difficult mystery.
Had that been the case, the young scientist would have simply given him an amused smirk before shrugging it off as normal detective behavior. As things were now, however, she couldn't help but genuinely worry about his mental state.
... Did he finally lose it?
Not that he had much time to ponder it ─ whatever that was. A scream teared apart the silence that had settled in, startling them both badly and waking up the rest of his friends at the instant.
The next moment, Conan had opened the door and turned on the lights.
Furumura lied on the couch, a knife stabbed through his blanket and, ultimately, his chest.
At this point, Inspector Megure couldn't really be surprised anymore about the constant presence of the young boy in almost every murder case he was called to.
So, when he saw Conan and the rest of his friends standing beside the body, he simply sighed and began to do his work without any further word.
The way the victim had died remained a mystery, though. And with that he did not mean the method, because anybody could see that he had been stabbed by a knife from a mile away. The problem stemmed from the fact that the room was far too messy for the killer to do their deed without making any sound.
When he had been told that Hojima had been sleeping right beside the victim, he had believed he had figured out the true identity of the killer.
But then, all lights in the room had suddenly gone off.
"Hey, stop that!" right after hearing Negami's voice, the lights came back up and they saw said man, hand on the light switch, looking down at Conan with a stern expression. "You shouldn't be disturbing the police like that."
"Yes," obediently, the boy nodded.
Seeing that the child would not cause any more trouble, Megure simply shrugged it off and continued doing his stuff, shrugging it off as a normal case of childish mischief. Takagi was about to do the same thing, but because he was a second slower than the inspector, he got hear what Conan said next:
"By the way, you're amazing, sir!"
"Eh?" Negami was confused.
Takagi swore that he saw something akin to a very arrogant, knowing smirk crossing Conan's young features, and Negami's shoulders tensing, slightly, at the sight of it.
"Because you got here very quickly, despite the darkness," the boy then grinned. "Just like a cat!"
With confusion evident on his eyes, Takagi watched as the kid left to join his group of friends, leaving Negami behind, frozen as a statue and pale like snow.
Then blinked, utterly dumbfounded.
Not that he had much time to ponder over it, because the victim's camera had been found and, with that, a video ─ they believed the record button had been pressed by accident ─ where nothing could be seen, but his screams could be clearly heard. There was no sound apart for that.
Because of that, nobody noticed the young sleuth wandering across the room, taking in every single detail of the place, until they eyes fell on something in particular. There was tape stuck all over the house, he noticed before heading into the bathroom, phone in hand.
Looks like Professor Agasa is going to solve another case yet again, he decided, not wasting another minute and calling the old professor.
They didn't seem to notice Haibara either, who was looking down the street through the window, leaning against the wall in hopes of not being seen, eyes not straying away from the black car parked outside.
"At any rate," Megure spoke at some point after the body had been taken away. "Taking into consideration the information we have now, the culprit must been the one sleeping on the sofa next to Furumura-san, Hojima-san. It could be no one else but you."
"Hey, wait..." he tried to argue.
"That's correct."
After hearing the different, yet familiar, voice, the inspector and Takagi turned around to see Agasa standing on the doorway, a grin on his face, who claimed he had received a call from Conan requesting to pick them up, and that he had briefly told him about what had happened.
Which, while it wasn't technically a lie, wasn't the entire truth. Conan had told him to come pick them up, yes, but he also told him all details of the case and how to solve it.
Any other day, he would have a bit more reluctant to play the role of the detective...
"No matter how you consider it, there's only one possible solution. Hojima-san must have been the perpetrator."
Yet the young boy had also told him about the weird car parked outside, so he figured it would be best if he just played along.
"Still, there's something that bothers me. You know, the third button on Furumura-san's shirt was torn off in the struggle. You haven't found it yet, right?"
Conan was a clever young child and he knew what he was doing, he convinced himself. Agasa could only trust him.
"I suppose we haven't..." Megure pondered.
"It's possible that it dropped into this messy room somewhere... or that the culprit is holding it."
As a result, Hojima was taken out the scene with the excuse of taking him to the station for a body check. Conan suggested to come along, and the entire group of friends had been allowed to.
But there was something he still needed to do before he walked out the building.
"Detective Takagi," the man looked down to see the little boy, who had momentarily separated from the group, smiling up at him, hands holding each other behind his back.
"Ah, Conan-kun?" he blinked in return. "Is something wrong?"
"There's a pair of bad people parked outside..
It took a moment more than necessary for Takagi to process what it had just been said. "Bad people?"
"Yeah!" there was a slight frown. "I saw them drinking from some bottle, I think it was wine... It's bad to drink and drive, isn't it?"
"... I-I suppose you're right."
For a moment or so, the police detective just stared down at the boy, as if wondering what else did he want. The kid, in turn, simply seemed to raise an eyebrow at him, annoyed for some reason.
"Then?" the child's voice was plain, so different from the innocent tone he had used before.
"Then... what?"
"Aren't you going to check on them?"
"A-Ah... Ah! You're right."
Of course I am.
It was even later into the night as they waited inside the yellow Beetle for Agasa to return. Haibara was silently looking out the window while Conan talked with the old professor over the phone and the rest of their friends dozed on the back seat, unable to stay up until that late.
Not that Conan was doing much better, she noted, considering he had just bitten another yawn down.
Well, Haibara simply held back an amused chuckle. I guess I ended up developing a resistance for staying overnight so many times...
The ghost of the smile from before vanished within seconds, however, when a car passed by them. As if in slow motion, Haibara felt every single one of her hairs standing up on an end, and saw the light of a cigarette.
Before she could even say anything, a hand covered her mouth. It didn't really take a genius to realize belonged to the boy sitting beside her.
"It's fine," only when the car went around a corner did he release her. "That cigarette. It's the same as when they didn't sound the horn at the stop light."
Just like then, they had avoided to smoke so they could pass unnoticed. If they were openly doing that, they might have lost track of them, he explained. As for the reason, Takagi had been practically bullied into administering them a blood-alcohol test and questioning.
"Could they have been...?" her voice came in a whisper.
He gave her a long look, before shrugging. "There's nothing we can be certain of," he simply stated. "Except that they aren't just fans of my mother."
His expression went serious after that.
"We can't be sure if you were their target either," he stated. "For all we know, they could've figured out that I'm Singani's younger brother and that I'm trying investigate them."
Haibara didn't like that one bit. And it must have been showed on her face, because he simply took a look at her and forced a smile.
"Don't worry, it should be okay," he tried to be as convincing as possible. "If they had the slightless suspicion you're Sherry, you wouldn't still be here, right?"
Too bad he didn't seem to believe his own words himself.
A/N:
SapphireRuby24: As it is now, not even I know yet. Only time will tell, I guess XD
Aria: Sorry, no telling! XD
Yuni: I'm not sure about that, since it's about Shinichi and KID and it should have happened way before the Black Star Heist, but I will see.
ajjr12: Sorry, but I don't understand who you're talking about. Even so, all police detectives are probably be briefly mentioned in the story, unless it is, I don't know, Takagi.
Asahina Chihaya: Don't worry, I have already something planned for Shinichi discovering that ─ sort of XD. Thanks for sharing!