SailorStar9: With Chapter 192 uploaded, I present Chapter 193 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 193: I Want My Husband Back
Sometime later...
One afternoon, Inukai Hajime was driving along a side road and was forced to steer to avoid hitting a cat in the middle of the road and thus resulting in him running over Butsumaru Daijiro.
"I'm sure he'll be fine once he's treated in the hospital." Inukai assured Mori Fusae, the sole witness to the accident.
"This must be his." Mori picked up the wallet Butsumaru had left behind after Inukai drove off. "I should report this to the police."
In Mouri's Detective Agency the next morning...
Mouri received a call from Butsumaru's wife.
In the Butsumaru household...
"I'm Butsumaru Emiko, the woman who called earlier." Emiko introduced herself.
"I'm President Butsumaru's secretary, Kadokura." Kadokura Shinya added.
"I'd like you to find my husband and bring him back safe and sound." Emiko requested. "The police are looking for him, but I have no idea what he was doing in Kasuba in the first place. He doesn't know anyone there."
"More importantly, I doubt your husband is still with us." Mouri voiced.
"It's my husband." Emiko heard the phone ring. "You want me to buy his body?" she echoed, taking the call.
"I told you I want you to buy the body of your husband I hit with my car." the blackmailer chuckled, Mouri putting the phone on speaker. "You need it, don't you? You can't have a funeral without it. I'll sell it to you for 10 million yen, so get the money. If you tell the police, I'll dump the body in a faraway ocean where it'll never be found again. I'll call your cellphone later." the person on the other end hung up.
"The two of them seemed somewhat prepared to hear the news." Mouri pondered. "But what kind of monster kills a person and demands money from the relatives? We should report this to the police."
"No." Emiko insisted. "If I can get my husband's body back for 10 million yen, then I don't mind paying."
"Even if we don't tell the police, there's no need for you to comply with their demands." Mouri insisted. "The great Mouri Kogoro shall take back your husband's body from the culprit. The question is how we'll find the culprit. We might find some clues if we go to the scene of the accident in Kasuba."
At the site of the accident...
While talking to Mori, Mouri spotted the masked Inukai fleeing and tackled the driver to the ground.
After leading the group to the burial site...
Inukai started digging and was stunned to find the body missing.
"Your husband's body is crying about wanting to go home." the blackmailer called Emiko's cellphone.
"This isn't an accident." the fuming Mouri snatched the phone over. "You stole the body."
"It's quicker to say I killed him." the blackmailer taunted. "Only an old woman witnessed the accident so I figured I could pretend I did it. More importantly, I intend to raise the price of the body to 30 million yen."
"30 million is fine, just give me back my husband." Emiko pleaded.
Back in the Butsumaru household...
Conan was walking about when he entered Daijiro's study and instantly spotted the safe with a facial identification lock and realized the reason for Emiko's insistence of the return of Daijiro's body.
"Inspector?" Mouri was shocked to see Megure, Takagi and Chiba at the Butusmaru gates. "He's the one who hid Butsumaru body." he informed, having taken Inukai in.
"I guess there was no point in looking into Butsumaru's connections to Kasuba." Chiba remarked.
"Mouri-kun, why didn't you let us know right away you captured the culprit?" Megure chided.
"I thought I'd question him for clues first." Mouri replied. "The truth is, Inspector, there's another ongoing case stemming from the accident he caused."
"I get the picture." Megure noted after Mouri explained everything after Inukai was taken away by the Kasuba police.
"What was the president's connections to Kasuba you mentioned earlier?" Kadokura inquired.
"Butsumaru was renting an apartment in Kasuba." Megure revealed.
"The manager contacted us after seeing the news." Takagi added. "The name of the agreement was different but they said he might be his resident. When we took a look at the room he started renting about a week ago, all we found were video equipment and alcohol. Since he was renting it under a false name, we think it might have been a hideout he used to get away from things."
After flipping through the more recent newspapers about a company's president and the CEO being arrested for tax evasion, Conan pieced together what happened.
In an abandoned lodge on Mount Zangiyama...
The group found the knocked out Kadokura on the floor after a few minutes.
"That's my husband." Emiko recognized Daijiro's body slumped over a pile of cardboxes.
"The moment I entered, I was suddenly struck from behind." Kadokura moaned, awakening.
Suddenly, Conan tranquilized Mouri and began his deduction. "The culprit didn't disappear." he revealed.
"What's that police officer doing with the suitcase?" Emiko was confused when she saw Takagi with the handcuffed Hakase Mayumi.
"Who's that woman?" even Megure was puzzled.
"I don't know who she is either, but she's most likely X." Conan stated. "We're only halfway done, though. The mastermind who planned everything and manipulated X still remains. Is this woman your girlfriend, Kadokura-san? That's right, Kadokura is the mastermind. Butsumaru kept the money he made evading taxes in that safe. However, perhaps because he felt uneasy about keeping the money at home, about a week earlier, he moved it to another hiding place. Kadokura-san chuckled to himself when he learnt that. You'd had your eye on that money that wouldn't be reported to the police, even if it was stolen. You couldn't steal it while it was in that safe. However, Butsumaru didn't tell you where his new hiding spot was. In order to find it, you came up with the idea of directing Butsumaru there and having your girlfriend follow him. You put your plan into action yesterday morning. You told Butsumaru that someone had been arrested for tax evasion to make him anxious. He probably wanted to confirm he wasn't being investigated secretly. Butsumaru played into your hands and your girlfriend followed him. On the way there, Butsumaru died in an accident and your plan failed. Perhaps you noticed something suspicious about the man who caused the accident, you came up with another way to get rich quick after your first plan failed, had her move the body and demand a ransom. The wife seems to think there's still a large amount of money in that safe, so you knew she'd agree to pay a high price."
"Chiba, where are you?" Megure took the incoming call.
"As Mouri-san requested, after thoroughly searching the apartment in Kasuba, I found roughly 350 million yen in the closet ceiling." Chiba reported.
"He was renting that apartment in Kasuba as a hiding place for the money." Conan confirmed.
"There's no point in denying it." Takagi rebuked. "As Mouri-san's instructions, I was waiting at the bottom of this cliff. I saw with my own eyes the decisive moment proving you two are accomplices."
Later that night...
"In the end, all three were motivated by sheer greed." Amuro noted, serving up a plate of tempura to go with yakisoba they were having for dinner.
"Greed is one of the seven Sins." Ami pointed out, removing the fruit mizu manjuu from her freezer.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.