SailorStar9: With Chapter 164 uploaded, I present Chapter 165 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?
Disclaimers: I do not own Sailor Moon or Detective Conan, I only own this plotline and the pairing.
Pairing: Established!Furuya Rei/Mizuno Ami
Chapter 165: The Monorail Sniper Case, Part One
Time passes...
Mouri and Conan were riding the Yurikamome Line towards Wangan Island when a bullet shot through the glass window and hit Maruta Daisuke on his arm.
"What happened?" Mouri reacted, coming to the victim's aid. "Are you all right?"
"It hurts..." Maruta moaned.
"You'll be fine, as long as we can stop the bleeding." Mouri assured. "Excuse me, can I borrow your scarf?' he requested one of the female passengers.
"Oji-san, should we press the emergency stop button?" Conan suggested, Mouri using makeshift tourniquet to stop Maruta's bleeding.
"Right." Mouri nodded and pressed the emergency stop button, causing the monorail to pull to a stop on the tracks.
"What's the matter?" a Shin-Wangan Toto Station employee voiced over the intercom. "Did something happen?"
"Someone's injured." Mouri replied. "A passenger has been wounded. Call the police and an ambulance."
After a while...
Two of the Shin-Wangan Toto Station employees rushed to the halted train. "Is everyone all right? Where's the injured person?"
"We're fine." Mouri replied. "We stopped the bleeding. He's sitting inside."
"Kogoro-oji-san, we need to find the culprit quickly." Conan urged. Where did the shot come from? He started analyzing once he reached the escape staircase. Which way is the wind blowing?
"This way." Mouri barked. "There's been a shooting near the end of the monorail line." he made a call to the police headquarters. "If you close the roads immediately, we can trap the culprit on the artificial island.
At the police headquarters...
"Inspector Megure, you heard him." Takagi remarked. "What should we do?"
"Instruct the monorail company to stop service." Megure ordered. "Contact the Wangan police station and have them set up checkpoints at all Wangan Toto Station exits. We'll also set up checkpoints on all nine bridges surrounding the artificial island. We'll seal off the entire island and trap the culprit."
After leaving the Shin-Wangan Toto Station...
Mouri and Conan retraced the monorail's tracks on foot.
The moment the shot was fired, the monorail was around that spot on the rail. Conan recalled. The bullet entered through the second window from the front and hit the victim's arm. He pictured the proceedings in his mind. If we can determine the angle of the hole in the window, the location of the shooting victim and the monorail's location at that time, then we can calculate where the shot was fired from. The shooter's location was probably... "It's that building." he declared.
"Follow me, kid." Mouri ran to the suspected shooting location.
Inside the apartment building...
Judging by the height of the monorail car, the shot was probably fired from... Conan pondered. "Oji-san, the fifth floor. The second window from the end was open."
"It's unlocked." Mouri noted, stealthily opening the said door. "There's no one here." he remarked, entering the empty unit.
"They fled." Conan realized.
"This place is empty." Mouri looked around. "There's no sign of the shooter."
"There's no mistake." Conan was confident, replaying the scenario in his mind in slow-mo. "The shot was definitely fired from here."
"Looks like a man lives alone here." Mouri concluded, surveying the unit.
"Oji-san, could you thoroughly search this apartment?" Conan requested. "I'm going to look around outside."
"This is Takagi." Takagi made a call to Mouri's phone. "We've arrived at the monorail. Forensics is currently examining the crime scene. Also, as you suggested, we've blocked off all the roads."
"Have you figured out anything else?" Mouri inquired.
"It's about the victim." Takagi replied. "His name is Maruta Daisuke-san, 28 years old. He works for a construction company. He was shot in the upper left arm and he's not in danger of dying. Mizuno-san has already extracted the bullet and he's currently resting. He apparently does not know anyone who owns a gun nor has he done anything to incur someone's ill will. That's all according to him. We'll continue with our investigation."
Outside the unit door...
They're faint, but there are scuff marks left by something heavy that was dragged down the hallway. Conan noticed the drag marks on the floor. "There's a location I'd like forensics to examine immediately." using his Voice-Changing Bowtie to imitate Mouri's voice, he placed a request to Takagi.
"Let's go." Mouri exited the unit. "Standing around here is just a waste of our time."
Outside the apartment...
"Oji-san." Conan ran over to some bushes nearby. "What do you think this is?" he asked, eyes trailing to the blood splatter on the bush plot.
"Bloodstains." Mouri gaped.
"They lead that way." Conan turned.
"The culprit is over there." Mouri concluded. "Wait a minute." he stopped. "We're pursuing a shooter. Then, what do the bloodstains have to do with that? Hello?" he took the call from Takagi.
"Mouri-san, you were right." Takagi informed. "About Room 505: as you suspected, we found gunshot residue. That's not all; we also observed a luminol reaction on the floor. The bloodstains were apparently wiped away after splattering on the floor. Judging by the volume, the victim was probably..."
"I wonder if it's coincidence that there were bloodstains in the room." Conan voiced.
"Takagi, have you figured out anything from the bullet that was fired?" Mouri inquired.
"Ballistics examined the bullet extracted from the victim's upper left arm." Takagi replied. "It's a 30-caliber 7.62 millimeter full metal jacket Mauser military bullet, also known as a Tokarev bullet. It's hard to imagine the culprit used a handgun to snipe the victim."
"Which means the victim was coincidentally struck by a stray bullet?" Mouri gawked.
"It is what Mizuno-san surmised; she'd came across similar cases in the US." Takagi admitted. "Based on current evidence, the culprit shot someone in Room 505 and the bullet passed through them, that bullet flew outside the room, pierced the monorail window and struck the victim's arm. But, is it even possible?"
"It's possible." Ami looked up from her evidence collecting. "Tokarevs are designed for excellent penetration."
"Mizuno is correct." Mouri agreed. "It's impossible to do intentionally, but with the right series of coincidences..."
"It's not impossible." Takagi noted.
"Looks like we found the connection between the culprit and the bloodstains, oji-san." Conan remarked. "Over here, oji-san." he located another blood trail. "What's that smell?" he frowned.
Spotting a blue Toyota Prius parked nearby, Mouri and Conan hurried over, only to see a bound and gagged Tamura Kiyomi lying in the backseat.
"This smell..." Conan peered under the car. Spotting the leaking gas tank, he turned and found an empty jerry can near the car with the leaked petrol trailing around the nearby building. "Oji-san, the gasoline!" he barked. "Hurry." he urged, seeing the fire erupt towards the car.
Mouri broke the car window, unlocked the door and carried Tamura out before the fire could take them out. "Have there been any developments with the apartment?" he asked the arriving Takagi, after confirming that Tamura was another bystander.
"As you suspected, they seem to have wrapped the victim in a sheet and are transporting them somewhere." Takagi answered.
"Detective Takagi, why is the culprit taking the victim away from the apartment?" Conan wondered.
"They've obviously trying to hide the evidence." Mouri snorted.
"Don't you think carrying the victim around with them is too risky?" Takagi pointed out. "Perhaps there's a reason they have to take that risk. Normally, you'd want to get rid of the victim as soon as possible."
"You're still carrying them with you." Mouri reminded. Where would you take them? If you carried something as large as a body through a normal place, you'd draw attention to yourself. Where would it be natural to carry something large around here?"
"That place would work." Takagi realized and all three detectives turned to the direction of Toto Market.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.