Chapter 19: A Different Direction

After a very thorough sweep of the house and the disposal of two listening devices, Shinichi finally settled down in his room, sprawling limply on the bed. He should probably check the time to see if Heiji was out of class yet, but he just felt so… heavy. He let his leaden eyelids droop closed, promising himself just a few minutes rest.

He woke up to his phone ringing. He groaned as he sat up, pulling his phone from his pocket, and answered without bothering to look at the caller ID.

"H'llo?" he mumbled out, yawning.

"Oi, Kudo," came an irritated voice. "Were you asleep just now? You sure yer not actually seven?" Shinichi blinked a few times, his head still feeling heavy.

"… Hattori…? Ah… What time's it?" he slurred, rubbing his eyes.

"It's eleven-thirty, ya jerk. I've been tryin' to call ya fer a few hours, now."

"Sorry," he said, yawning again. "I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Does this have somethin' ta do with that file ya said you were gonna send?"

"Yeah," said Shinichi as he pulled out his other phone. "I'm sending it to you now."

Heiji was silent as he listened to the recording, so Shinichi had some extra time to stretch out his stiff limbs. As he picked his phone back up, he noticed a note propped up on his nightstand, written in Ran's handwriting.

I tried to wake you, but you were sleeping too deeply, it read. If you wake up before breakfast, there's some rice and grilled mackerel in the fridge for you.

I'm going to have to fix my sleep schedule if stuff like this keeps happening, he thought. As he put the note aside, Heiji cleared his throat, the sound crackling in the receiver.

"Well, that was disturbing," he said grimly. "If there were children there, they definitely didn't come from Osaka."

"They didn't come from Tokyo, either," sighed Shinichi. "I confirmed that with Takagi earlier." He ran a hand through his hair. "Maybe Kid's list will turn up something."

"And?" pressed Heiji. "Did Neechan remember anythin' else?"

"Unfortunately not." Shinichi slid off the bed and stumbled out of the room, prompted by his growling stomach. "I know we got more information from that, but…"

"It doesn't seem like it fits anywhere, right?" finished Heiji.

"Right," said Shinichi as he headed into the kitchen for a late supper. "It feels like no matter how much info we get, there's even more we don't know."

"Yeah, like a void," agreed Heiji. "I guess all we can do is to keep lookin'. A good place to start right now might be to keep an eye on any new missin' persons cases that pop up."

"Good idea. We can investigate the areas people were last seen in with much better results if they're fresh." Or as fresh as forty-eight hours later could be, considering that was how long it took for a report to be made.

"How'll ya sift through 'em, though?" asked Heiji, tone pondering. "Ya won't be able t'tell if it was the same kidnappers until two weeks pass, right?"

"Right," said Shinichi. "But we can't really afford to ignore anything at this point. And… Well, I don't know about Osaka, or anywhere else, but I know for sure Ran was taken away in a red minivan." Shinichi pulled out the cold food, not even bothering to heat it up. "It's highly likely that there are multiple people with different vehicles, but it's still a start. Just keep your eyes peeled and keep tabs on the traffic cameras along with the missing persons, alright?"

"Will do," said Heiji, voice sounding much more energetic now that he could actively do something to help. "I'll keep ya posted." He hung up, and Shinichi ate his cold food thoughtfully.

We should've been doing this from the start, he thought, chewing idly. I guess I was just too focused on where Ran went… It was something no one would blame him for, but that negligence had wasted an awful lot of time.

If we can just figure out where they go, we might actually be able to do something about this. The biggest problem with this plan, of course, was that every car would look suspicious, and it wasn't really all that feasible to follow every move every car made on something as limited as traffic cameras. And no matter what, trying to get all of the footage for every one of the people who already came back would be impossible even for a police officer, so they would have to focus their efforts on the most recent missing people, whether they came back or not.

Shinichi polished off his plate and, after some hesitation, made some herbal tea to help him go back to sleep. He needed all of his faculties tomorrow to think properly. He needed to decide whether he should wait for Kid to contact him or just call in a favor from Takagi. If he called Takagi, he needed to decide whether to call as Conan or as Shinichi. Since the request was more obviously related to Ran's disappearance, the officer might be more willing to fulfill a job of that size if Shinichi was the one asking for it.

The tea turned out to be a very good idea, since he had excited himself thinking about everything they could do to track down potential leads. Really, why hadn't he thought of this before? He shook his head. He was thinking of it now, and it shouldn't be too late unless Ran was inexplicably the last one after the perpetrators were operating for who knew how many years. He sipped his tea slowly, trying to will his brain to stop buzzing. Sleep first, theorize later.

He paused after finishing the tea, then grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. If he woke up in the wee hours of the morning or couldn't sleep at all, having the water nearby might be helpful. Even if it didn't put him back to sleep, he would at least be hydrated. He chuckled to himself as he went back upstairs.

Maybe I should keep a minifridge up here, he thought with a small smirk.

As he walked down the hall, he stopped, noticing a light coming from under the bottom of Ran's door. He frowned and checked his watch. It was a bit past midnight. As he approached the door, he heard the bed creak periodically. His frown deepened and he knocked twice before opening the door, not even bothering to wait for a response. Which was probably the right call, since it looked like she hadn't even heard him come in.

She was sitting on the bed, hugging knees that were tucked into her chest. The blanket was over her legs, so either she woke up or she meant to sleep but couldn't. Judging from the way she was rocking back and forth, staring wide-eyed at nothing, it was probably the latter. He had witnessed similar behavior from her a few times, usually after Sonoko dragged her off earlier in the day to watch a scary movie.

"… Ran?" he asked, still holding onto the door handle. She jerked her head, gasping a little in surprise, and that wide-eyed stare turned onto him. She blinked, then flushed from embarrassment.

"Ah—Shinichi…" It didn't seem like she was going to send him away, so he fully entered the room.

"… Did you watch a horror program on TV or something while I was asleep?" he asked, giving her an unimpressed stare. Her blush deepened.

"Ah, n-no… Th-this is…" The corner of her mouth lifted as she unsuccessfully attempted to laugh off her discomfort. "I just… can't stop thinking about the session recording you let me listen to this morning."

Ah… that's what it was. Not that he blamed her. Even Heiji had said it was disturbing, and he didn't scare easily. He should have realized it would haunt Ran like this. His expression softened.

"I'm sorry you had to listen to it," he said, approaching the bed. He handed her the bottle of water he'd brought up with him. She shook her head as she accepted the drink.

"I'd listen to it again if I thought it would help," she said quietly. "That won't stop it from being creepy, though." She took a long sip of the water. "Every time I close my eyes, I hear it." The last sentence was whispered as she clutched the bottle close, once more staring hard at nothing in particular. "… I'm scared."

Shinichi glanced at the wall she'd been staring at, unsure what he could say to put her at ease. He blinked when he noticed a blanket hanging off part of the wall, and his chest tightened when he realized that it was covering the large mirror his mom had installed in every bedroom. He wasn't sure when Ran decided to cover it up, but he definitely didn't need to guess why. He decided not to bring it up.

"… We're pursuing a different possibility with the case," he said, wrenching his eyes away from the wall. He hoped this would help distract her, at least. "Hattori and I, I mean."

"A different possibility?" she asked, perking up a bit. Some of the tightness in Shinichi's chest ebbed a bit when he saw her attention successfully shift away from the recording.

"Yeah. We can't do anything about the past cases at the moment, so we're going to watch for new missing people, and then see if they leave a trail we can follow like we did with you and the red minivan."

"People go missing all the time," Ran pointed out, echoing a similar concern as Heiji. "Won't following unsure cluses just waste time?" Shinichi shook his head.

"We can't afford to wait for the ones related to us to turn back up again. At least this way, we can see if there's a pattern or not. And we might even be able to solve some normal kidnapping cases while we're at it."

Ran nodded thoughtfully as she considered his reasoning. "I guess that makes sense," she said. Shinichi noted that the tension in her body had reduced significantly.

"And when Kid comes back, I'm hoping he can help with a good chunk of this, specifically with the traffic footage," he continued. Ran grimaced.

"Kid's coming back?" she asked, sounding less than thrilled. "I thought he'd just magically drop off his report or something."

"I think it works out better this way," said Shinichi as he fished the Kid Card out of his pocket and gave it to Ran to look at. She scrunched up her nose a bit as she read it. "He really rubbed you the wrong way, huh?" She heaved a sigh, handing the card back to him.

"Not exactly," she said hesitantly. Her gaze briefly flicked over to the covered mirror on the far wall. "I just… well, I don't know him, not really. And he knows about all of this…" She gestured between herself and Shinichi. "And I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that."

"You don't really know Subaru-san, either," he pointed out. She made a face.

"Subaru-san lives here. Kid doesn't." It was as simple as that. Shinichi just shrugged and checked his watch again.

"Well, it's a little past 12:30," he said, as the conversation seemed to have ended. "You should try to get some sleep." He bade her goodnight and turned around to leave.

"Wait!" cried Ran, hurriedly grabbing onto Shinichi's sleeve. He blinked in surprise and turned back to look at her. For a split second, the expression she wore was one of panic before it morphed into an embarrassed realization. Her mouth flapped open and shut a few times, cheeks turning bright red. She let go of his shirt, quickly averting her gaze.

"I—that—" She floundered for words. "Sorry…" She clasped her hands tightly in her lap. "I don't… I really don't want to be alone right now." He watched her fidget for a few moments.

"Alright," he said softly.

"Really?" she asked hopefully. "It's not annoying?"

"Nope," he said matter-of-factly as he climbed up to sit on the edge of the bed. "Especially since I already slept all afternoon. I drank some tea, but I doubt that'll be too helpful."

"Sorry," she said again, even thought it wasn't her fault. He shook his head and idly swung his feet around as they hung over the edge of the bed, his legs too short to touch the floor. He probably resembled very much the child he looked doing that.

"Don't worry about it."

"… Thanks," murmured Ran, relaxing again. He gave her a reassuring smile. Ran finished the water in one long swig, and quietly placed the empty bottle on the nightstand. He stared at the bottle thoughtfully.

Maybe I should keep a minifridge up here…