Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Pairing: KaitoxShinichi
Lure
Chapter 10 - Nakamori's New Plan
It was one of the strangest sights Shinichi had ever seen. And that was not an easy thing to be considering all the things that he had seen.
The main office of the KID Task Force had been converted into a sort of classroom. All the task force officers were seated at desks facing a whiteboard where an officer Shinichi vaguely recognized as being from Division One was, as far as the young detective could tell, teaching them how to draw…? He did seem to recall that the man at the board was one of the officers who specialized in sketching out suspects' faces according to the descriptions given by witnesses. Those lines on the board were indeed beginning to take the shape of a human face.
"What's going on here?" he asked no one in particular.
"Nakamori-keibu announced the other day that he wished for all his officers to learn to draw," Hakuba replied as he came to stand beside Shinichi. He was wearing a slightly bemused expression as he regarded the roomful of drawing policemen. "I must admit that I do not know what inspired him to make such a decision however."
"Do you know why he asked for me?" Shinichi asked. "Don't tell me he expects us to take these art classes too…"
The blond blinked, suddenly looking mildly worried himself. "I had not considered that possibility. I assumed he wished to speak to us about the next KID heist."
"There was a heist notice?" Shinichi straightened slightly in surprise. Kaito hadn't mentioned a heist to him. He found himself feeling a bit left out.
"Or so I was informed," Hakuba replied, turning to study the shorter detective's face. "You mean you didn't know? I thought you've been getting your own personal copies for a year now."
"Ah, I, well, mostly," Shinichi stammered, flushing slightly under his colleague's searching gaze. "I guess he could have forgotten. Or it could be an imposter."
The blond nodded. "An imposter seems more likely, but perhaps we should hold off on our suppositions until we speak to the inspector."
"So where is Nakamori-keibu anyway?" Shinichi turned back to the officers in their art class, searching the rows of bowed heads. As far as he could see, Nakamori Ginzo wasn't among them. "I thought you said he wanted all his men to participate in this?"
"Here he comes now."
Following Hakuba's gaze, Shinichi saw Nakamori-keibu coming towards them accompanied by a younger officer that Shinichi only vaguely recognized. If he remembered correctly, the officer was a new one to the KID Task Force. Shinichi had never spoken to him before. He did recall hearing that the man had originally applied to work in a different division, but ended up in Division Two due to a mix up in paperwork that he was still waiting to have resolved.
He was a young man only two or three years Shinichi's senior. And that, Shinichi would suspect later, was most likely why the idea had come from him. At that moment, however, Shinichi had only been thinking about whether or not there was really going to be a KID heist.
"Kudo-kun, Hakuba-kun," the inspector greeted them with a suspiciously jovial tone. "I'm glad you could make it. Please, follow me."
The two detectives trailed after the police officers past the rows of sketching men and into Nakamori's private office. Once inside, Nakamori closed the door to block out the sounds of the art lecture going on outside.
"We got a new notice from KID this morning," he began, moving to his desk and putting an evidence bag out of one of the drawers. Inside the bag was a familiar, white card.
"Are you sure it's from KID?" Shinichi asked.
The inspector nodded. "As far as we can tell, yes. Do you have reason to believe otherwise?"
Shinichi hesitated a moment then shook his head. "No."
"Have you deciphered the note?" Hakuba asked.
Nakamori gave the two detectives a smug smirk. "Indeed we have. Don't underestimate us. The reason I asked you two to come is because we will need your cooperation for the plan we have to finally catch that lousy thief."
"May we see the note first?" Shinichi asked. He took the evidence bag from the inspector and read the note through the plastic. It wasn't a particularly difficult one as KID notices went, and it did appear to be genuine. So why hadn't he heard about it until now?
"According to this, the heist is tomorrow night," said Hakuba, frowning. "That's rather soon, isn't it?"
"It is very short notice, but fortunately we have been planning for just such an occasion!" Nakamori declared, eyes ablaze with righteous triumph. "No more will we wait idly by for that damned thief to write all the rules and set our watches! We're going to start taking matters into our own hands."
The blond raised an eyebrow. "And you propose to do this how exactly?"
"Well, we had a couple different plans in the working," the inspector said gruffly. He paused, coughed, and glanced at the other officer in the room who had been silent up until that point. "Unfortunately, many of them are only halfway done. We do have one proposition that could be used in this situation though so no need to worry there. Umizawa here will explain the details to you."
Both Shinichi and Hakuba turned their gazes on the officer in question, causing him to smile sheepishly. "It still needs to be ironed out, but after examining the last year of heists, I feel like this idea should work."
An alarm went off in Shinichi's head at the mention of the last year of heists. It was only natural considering what most of that year's heists had involved. Unfortunately, it was too late not to have come. So he stood there and listened in stunned horror to what the police had cooked up this time. He had only one thing to say when Umizawa had finished.
"You want me to do what?!" And here he'd thought the police couldn't possibly produce a worse idea than the one they came up with last time. "Absolutely not. I refuse!"
"Now, now, Kudo-kun," Nakamori said in an infuriatingly reasonable tone. "I know it's a bit unorthodox, but you have to see that it's got potential."
"It's crazy is what it is!"
"Not necessarily," Hakuba mused, looking thoughtful. "If we use this plan, we may actually be able to get KID to act at a time of our choosing rather than his."
Shinichi spluttered. "You have to be kidding me. I'm leaving." Pivoting on his heels, Shinichi marched out the door—or at least he tried. Umizawa was standing in his way.
"Please, Kudo-kun," the young officer said. "At least think about it."
-0-
"They asked you to do what?!"
"Go to the heist location but pretend that I'm not there for the heist but for a date, basically." There was a little more to it, but Shinichi absolutely refused to even think about it.
Kaito twitched. "And whose stupid idea was that?!"
"I think his name was Umizawa."
"The new guy? I knew there was something I didn't like about him." Indigo eyes narrowed. "I'll show him what happens to people who don't follow the rules at my heists."
Shinichi gave the thief a nonplussed look, wondering what kind of rule Kaito was referring to. As far as he remembered, the only rule at KID heists was the one about not physically hurting anyone, but this didn't seem to be related to the current issue.
Getting up from his seat at the kitchen table, Shinichi went to pour himself another cup of coffee. "Why didn't you tell me there was going to be a heist? I mean, I would have thought I at least deserved a copy of the notice," he grumbled.
The thief, however, was still fuming and preoccupied with plotting all the terrible things he was going to do to Umizawa. The young officer's immediate future was not looking bright.
On the other hand, if Kaito's reaction was any indication, it seemed the man had actually had the right idea when formulating this latest task force scheme. Boiled down to the essentials, Umizawa's reasoning had gone something like this. One, a man who went to as much trouble as KID had gone to in order to declare his intentions towards someone in the view of the biggest audience he could muster was probably at least a bit (possibly a lot) on the possessive side. Two, as a wanted criminal with a secret identity, he could not act upon his intentions as easily or openly as your average citizen. Three, this had to be frustrating. Four, KID would not be happy to see the person he wanted with anyone else. Five, the thief would therefore be unable to resist interfering if such a situation were to arise. Six, this would give the police the ability to determine both a time and a place
The whole idea was far too convoluted for Shinichi's tastes. It also struck him as rather underhanded and tasteless. But once again no one had wanted his opinion. Of course he hadn't agreed to the charade, but he had the sneaking suspicion that it was going to happen anyway. Nakamori and his men were a determined bunch after all.
Deciding to leave Kaito to his scheming, Shinichi took his coffee and wandered into the library. He paced along the shelves, reading the spines as he tried to decide which book he felt like reading today. He'd only just picked one and curled up in the armchair when Kaito appeared in the library doorway.
"What did you say to them about this harebrained plan of theirs?" the thief asked without preamble.
"What do you think I said?" Shinichi retorted, annoyed at the reminder of the looming fiasco and still a bit sulky about not having gotten a notice.
Kaito paused for a moment, studying the way the detective was determinedly reading his book and not looking at him. "Shin-chan, are you mad?"
Blue eyes lifted from their reading to stare at him blankly. "No. Why?"
"You seem…upset."
"Why didn't I get a heist notice?"
Kaito blinked, honestly surprised. "Did you want one?"
Shinichi huffed. "So now I don't get to know when you're planning a heist? Or do you not care if I go anymore?"
"What? No, of course not," Kaito objected vehemently. "My heists wouldn't be the same without you."
"But then how come I had to wait for the police to tell me about it today?"
Ah, so that was it. Kaito almost smiled, but he knew better than to do so visibly. "I didn't mean to leave you out, promise. I only just decided to have the heist this morning because I know Nakamori's been fretting over the fact that I didn't send a note about one for this exhibit. You know what he's like. I think my heists give his life meaning in a way."
"What, so this is a pity heist?"
Kaito chuckled. "I wouldn't put it quite that way. It wasn't supposed to be serious though. Just a little fun to let my dear task force know that they haven't been forgotten."
"Oh." Shinichi considered this explanation for a moment before deciding that it did make sense in a KID sort of way. "I guess that's alright then."
Now Kaito did smile. "Glad to hear it. And don't worry. You'll be the first one to get a copy of any notices in the future. You can even watch me write them if you'd like."
"Er, no, that's okay. I think that might take a lot of the fun out of solving it."
"Not necessarily. I'm not going to explain it as I go. But I see your point." Stepping further into the library, Kaito cast a speculative eye over the towering walls of well-packed shelves. "Hey, do you have any books on advanced chemistry in here?"
Shinichi hesitated before answering. "Yes. But why do you want to know?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"…Does it involve Umizawa-san?"
"It will soon."
"In that case, no, I don't want to know. The chemistry books are on the upper levels of that shelf over there. Please put everything back in order when you're done."
-TBC-
Notes: Happy Thanksgiving!