Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Lure

Chapter 25 - Truths and Lies

"This really is a nice place," Kaito remarked to the giant of a servant as the man led him through the house.

The man grunted but said nothing.

Kaito couldn't say he was surprised.

"Sorry, but could we hurry it up a bi?" he asked, affecting an air of embarrassment. "It's, uh, kind of getting urgent. If you know what I mean."

Mizuki grunted again. He did, however, walk a little faster. A few minutes later, he turned the corner and opened a door—to reveal a broom closet. He shut it again and opened the next door. This time, he struck gold. He stepped aside then and nodded to Kaito.

"So…will you be showing me the way back?" Kaito asked as he walked past the man into the restroom.

A grunt and a nod.

"Right. Thanks. And sorry again about the inconvenience."

Grunt.

Kaito shut the door. Honestly, he had never met a worse conversationalist. Fortunately, the man had divulged at least two important pieces of information even without saying a word. The first and most obvious was that this Mizuki was not familiar with the house. This could be understood if he had been hired on recently as a security measure because of the impending heist. He certainly had the face for a security guard. But if he was a guard then he was doing a poor job of it since he was spending his time guiding guests around instead of, well, guarding. Unless, of course, it wasn't the house or its treasures he was guarding.

The second thing the man had inadvertently told Kaito was that the thief would not have to worry about the guy wandering around while "Fukawa" was doing his business.

Kaito smirked.

He'd had sleeping gas ready, but this bathroom had a frosted window. That made things easier. With the ease of long practice, he shed his Fukawa disguise and changed into more nondescript, dark clothes. Then he jimmied open the window, planted a bug and a miniature mike in the restroom near the door, and climbed out the window. From there, he dropped lightly the one story to the ground outside. He was at the house's flank, he observed. Here, there were plenty of bushes and trees to provide shade and hiding places. Good.

That would make it easier to get back into the building unseen.

Kaito scanned the building's face. This side of the house didn't have many windows, but there was a low terrace just above the treetops that must lead to a larger room.

Cautious, Kaito climbed up one of the trees beside said terrace and peered over the rails. As he had guessed, the room beyond was some kind of dining hall, probably meant for big parties. At the moment, it was empty.

Perfect.

The tree was just close enough to the terrace for him to leap easily from one to the other. Then it was merely a matter of unlocking the terrace doors and letting himself in. According to his mental map, this should place him a floor above where he was supposed to be. But he wanted to get back down to the basement. Though first, he had to find a working phone.

Five minutes later, one gruff Mizuki left the dining hall.

-0-

Shinichi was only half listening as Nobu's wife explained her plans for catching the thief or thieves. His attention was, rather, focused on Nobu. The man had not said a word since they had sat down in the office. And he was clearly sweating though the room wasn't really all that hot. The man kept looking at his wife then down at his hands before he would bite his lip, twiddle his fingers, and sigh. The woman herself must have noticed this, but she gave no indication that she thought it odd.

And the way the two were sitting… They were seated side by side on the loveseat that had been placed against one wall of the office, but though they were sitting close, they weren't touching, and Nobu looked stiff.

"Excuse me, Miss," Shinichi said, cutting the woman off before she could explain how awful it had felt to get a heist notice from a robber of all things. "I know we've been over this before, but could you please refresh my memory on the origins of the ring?"

"Oh." The woman paused then frowned. Her gaze flickered to Nobu, who wouldn't look at her. Eventually, she plastered on a smile. "It is beautiful, isn't it? It was a gift from grandfather to grandmother."

The conversation stalled.

And Shinichi was now more sure than ever that this woman was not Nobu's wife.

Not only was he stiff and borderline terrified in her presence, he had said his wife enjoyed collecting stories about the things in the house to share with people. This woman neither knew nor cared about such things, and she was definitely the one calling the shots.

Following that vein of logic, Nobu's wife must have been in the pictures that had been removed from the walls. And then they'd been replaced by this woman just last week to make it appear as though she were the house's rightful mistress.

But to what end?

Was she the thief? It was possible. But if she was just here for the ring, why hadn't she simply absconded with it instead of setting up this elaborate charade? Unless she was here for more than just the ring. If she wanted more, maybe she needed the extra time or leverage to get everything carted away. But why let the man of the house call on a detective? Was it so that she frame KID? It wasn't an impossible scenario, but it still didn't seem right. It was a lot of extra trouble for no good reason.

But that left only one worrying possibility.

This wasn't about Nobu or anything he owned at all. This was about them—more specifically, about Shinichi.

But what business did this woman have with him?

-0-

Kaito's first stop was the kitchen, where he found a phone and not a single servant. Their cell phones had had no reception here in the mountains, but fortunately the landline connected.

"Hello, Nakamori-keibu? This is Fukawa. Do you have a moment?"

The inspector on the other end of the phone grunted. "Make it quick. My meeting's about to start."

"Oh, okay. I just wanted to know if you'd learned anything new about the KID imposter case?"

"What? What KID imposter case? Why haven't I heard anything about this?!"

"Oh, uh, I guess maybe it was just a prank call. Sorry." He laughed and hung up, but on the inside, indigo eyes narrowed. Considering Nakamori's personality, he would never forget about any potential KID case even if it was a fake one. That meant he hadn't been consulted about Nobu's case. So the man had lied about approaching the police. The only reason to do that would be to make sure Shinichi didn't bring the case to the police when first called in.

This didn't bode well.

Next, he called Takagi-keiji.

"Hello?"

"Takagi, it's Kudo Shinichi," Kaito said in Shinichi's voice. "Can you please send some officers to this address?" He rattled off the address. "This household received a threat. I checked it out, and I believe it's real, and they're going to strike tonight."

"Wait, what?" Takagi gasped. "What's going on?"

"Sorry. There's no time to explain. Just come."

And he hung up. It was time to check up on the other task Shinichi had given him.

Funny how much his dear detective could convey with a raised eyebrow and a pair of sparkling blue eyes.

-To be Continued-