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

Pairing: KaitoxShinichi

Lure

Chapter 50 - Tours and Talks

The house really was both enormous and labyrinthine. What had appeared upon first glance to be a very orderly, very squared off kind of place was nothing at all like that in reality. The front of the house had been polished up for visitors, and the east wing and living areas were already well dressed and mostly functional, but the place still gave off an air of being some old manor house of the sort that had once housed and might still house great secrets and great treasures. Its exterior was intimidating when seen in the slanting, orange haze of the late afternoon light, and its interior wasn't much better. The rooms seemed to breathe, and you expected shadowy figures to turn corners or rise from the darkness of descending stairwells.

The west wing in particular felt oppressive. It was partly the dark color scheme, but it was also the glowering, gargoyle-like ornamentation that the previous inhabitants had seen fit to fill the place with. Several were actually attached to ceiling corners or part of the molding, glowering down at all who dared venture into their domain.

In some ways, it had a mystique about it too, especially at this time of day when the sun was setting but true night had yet to fall. In this between time, the house too felt between—frozen but ready. A breath held by a predator ready to pounce.

Although perhaps it was all the stories of monsters in the dark imprinting themselves upon the thoughts of the humans wandering the estate's old, half dilapidated, half rejuvenated halls.

"So could you tell me a bit more about the workmen you brought in who are still working here?" Shinichi asked Asami as, ahead of them, Yuu pointed out a particularly impressive sample of the claw mark-like gouges that had been plaguing the construction.

"Well, the grounds keeping team has been the most stable," Asami said after some thought. "Although I guess that's only to be expected since they work outside. Although I have to admit that I may not have noticed if they've been switching people in and out for the same reasons. I just know that Yamato-san—that's the man in charge of the grounds keeping team—hasn't made any noises about leaving or mentioned having any problems with his people."

"Have they been working on the property long?" Shinichi asked, eyeing the wildly overgrown landscape.

The woman followed his gaze and laughed. "I know what you're thinking. It doesn't look like much work has been done. But, believe it or not, Yamato and his crew was one of our first hires. Before he fixed up the driveway area, it was actually nearly impossible to get a car much farther than just past the front gates. He also put down the new lawns out front. Otherwise though, he's mainly been focused on clearing out the rest of this mess, but it's been slow going because there's just so much of it. And it's not like he can get any really heavy duty machinery up here with how steep and narrow the roads are."

"That's understandable," Shinichi agreed. "And you say no one from his crew has encountered any problems?"

"That's right. When we asked, Yamato-san said they noticed some of the vandalism on the outside of the building, but they assumed it was old damage, so they didn't think much about it until we brought it up."

"I take it that means that they've never seen or heard anything strange either?"

"If they have, they haven't told us about it."

"Do they have access to the house?"

This question gave Asami pause.

"I…guess they could probably get in if they wanted to," she said slowly. "It's not like we stand guard over the front door. And we typically wait until the last workman's left for the day before we lock up. I haven't personally seen any of them enter the house though. Or, well, except Yamato-san. But he tends to come in to discuss issues with us, so it's not like he's alone."

"I see." Shinichi filed this information away then frowned. "Actually, that reminds me. How many entrances are there to the building?"

"Oh, um, I guess maybe five…?" Asami answered uncertainly. "Aside from the front door, I know there's one by the pantry in the kitchen and one sliding door to the patio. Other than that though, I think there's at least one door to the outside in the east and west wings respectively. Oh, and I guess the outdoor basement doors would count too since you can get from the basement into the house."

That, Shinichi thought with some chagrin, was a lot of entrances to account for. And they hadn't even mentioned any windows. Granted, for a house this large, it wasn't a surprise, but Asami's uncertainty about the number didn't bode well for security.

"Do you know if all those doors are secure?" he asked.

"They should be. We had all the locks changed before we decided to go ahead and move in. You'll have to ask Yuu for the details, though I'm sure he'll point them out if we have time before the sun sets."

"Right."

Ahead of them, Yuu directed Heiji to where several chunks had been torn out of a corner of the building. It was clear to both detectives from the crispness of the ragged edges—especially in comparison to the weathered state of the paintjob on this as yet un-renovated portion of the building—that the damage was relatively recent. It was also, Shinichi thought, not difficult damage to do for anyone with a decent set of tools and a sufficient amount of muscle.

That was one lead at least, Shinichi mused. The culprit, or one of them if there was a team, was strong. On the other hand, pretty much anyone who worked in construction probably qualified.

"So what about the house then?" he asked Asami as their little procession moved on again. "Who have you got working there?"

Asami sighed. "A whole bunch of people have been and gone, but I'd say there are about, let's see, five who've been here since the beginning and haven't been scared off yet. Ogawa-san and Yuka-san remodeled the main bathrooms and the kitchen before we moved in. They're currently working on the less used bathrooms. Saeki-san, Mashiba-san and Fujita-san have been handling basically anything that comes up that we need them for. They laid the flooring, installed the staircase railings and lights, fixed some walls—so on and so forth. They've even been helping with the wiring and plumbing where they can, though fortunately we haven't needed too much done in those regards. Or at least not in the main areas of the house. That would have changed when we started overhauling the west wing, but our architect, Dojima-san, has officially washed his hands of us."

Shinichi nodded, adding the new information to his mental files.

"Have you had any personal problems with any of your workmen?" he asked.

"I assume you mean issues that don't relate to the vandalism?"

"Yeah. Have you had any disagreements? Maybe arguments about contract terms or pay?"

Asami frowned as she thought. Eventually, however, she shook her head. "We've had plenty of disagreements about the vandalism and what to do about it but not about much else that I can remember. Besides, I can't see why they would have come at all if they had had issues with our offers. We made sure we were up front about everything we wanted done and how much we were willing to pay."

Shinichi continued to question the woman about each interior workman in turn, but he soon realized that she simply didn't have more to tell him. Ichimiya Asami was one of those people blessed by nature with both the ability and inclination to see the good in everyone. This was a virtue naturally—certainly worlds better than focusing only on people's flaws, but it meant that she was being a hundred percent serious when she said that she couldn't imagine why any of the workers would want to sabotage the renovations like this.

Similarly, she couldn't think of anyone she knew from elsewhere who would wish her or her husband ill either.

"Maybe it's not personal," Shinichi said, changing tact. "Think about who might benefit from the two of you abandoning this place. It's a sizeable piece of land. That makes it valuable."

"Oh. I…guess that's true, but this area is so out of the way. Not to mention the roads aren't exactly easy to travel."

"But didn't you have one offer to buy it already?" Shinichi reminded her.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that," Asami admitted. "Still, I can't imagine anyone wanting this particular piece of land so badly that they'd go to all this trouble. I mean, even if we did sell, as the place is right now, whoever bought it would have to put in a lot of work to fix it up just like we're doing now. I can understand going to those lengths for real estate in a good location, but this…"

Shinichi couldn't disagree with the woman's assessment. Only someone who was looking for a quiet, reclusive lifestyle would be attracted to a location like this. And it really didn't seem like the cost of trying to drive out the Ichimiyas then renovating would be worth the gain. Still, it was another angle to consider.

With the light outside too far gone to see by, they resumed their tour of the house's interior. There were so many rooms and corridors even just in those areas of the house that were waiting to be fixed and furnished that they all soon started to look the same. The claw mark-like vandalism was more pronounced indoors though, especially in the basement and west wing. One particularly disturbing set of claw marks was actually gouged into the door at the end of the hall where Shinichi and Heiji's guest rooms were located. That door was closed and marked with caution tape on their side, but, when the two boys were shown the same door's other face, they found that it looked like some massive animal had been clawing at it desperately in a vicious bid for freedom. The hall there was littered with wood chips and plaster.

And that door wasn't the only one like it. Several of the doors separating the west wing or the basement from other portions of the house bore similar marks.

As though there were monsters inside those places that were desperate to get out. Monsters no one had yet seen but which several had purported to hear growling and snarling behind those doors late in the night or howling out the windows at the cold, pale moon.

"There's a definite pattern to this," Shinichi muttered, photographing the marks on yet another door for later comparison. "They're delineating a perimeter of sorts. The question is, is it because these areas are easier to vandalize without getting caught in the act or because they're the areas that the vandal wants to drive people out of."

"Could be both," Heiji pointed out. "Excuse me, Yuu-san?"

"What is it?" the older man asked, wandering over to eye the damage that Shinichi had been photographing with distaste. "Have you found a clue?"

"We're working on it," the Osakan promised him. "I was wondering about the first guy ya said actually saw the monster. Do you know where he had his encounter?"

Yuu's brows furrowed. "Well… I can give you my best guess. I asked the poor man to show me the place, but he was too frightened and refused to go anywhere near the basement. Not that I could blame him. But I did convince him to describe his journey. And I tried retracing his steps."

"Did you find anything?" Hattori asked, curious.

"Not a thing," Yuu said regretfully. "Or at least nothing I would call concrete proof. I certainly saw no monster. Although I have to admit that the basement isn't an area I was overly familiar with to begin with. I may not actually have noticed a change, and that's providing I was correct about the path the man took."

"Do you still remember the way?"

"I do. I can show you right now if you'd like."

Hattori nodded decisively. "Lead on."

"Hold on a moment," Asami cut in, frowning. "We're due to have dinner soon."

"Oh, right." Yuu frowned at his watch then caught sight of Hattori's raised eyebrows and laughed. "Our chef can be quite a stickler about people being on time to meals. He absolutely hates it when dishes go cold for no reason. He considers it a great disrespect to the food."

"I can appreciate that," Hattori said with a good-natured grin. "I'd still like to see the area though. We could just take a quick spin around then go back later if Kudo and I feel we need to conduct a more thorough examination. That sound all right to you?"

Yuu glanced at his wife, who considered the question then sighed and inclined her head in ascent.

"I suppose a quick look won't hurt. I would like to clear this business up as soon as possible. I just don't want to let it interfere with our lives either if we can help it. It feels like that would be letting the culprit win."

"Let's hurry then," her husband declared. "It's this way."

They had gone several steps before Hattori noticed that their party was one person short. Puzzled, he glanced back.

Shinichi was still back by the claw marks. He wasn't, however, examining the damage. Rather, he appeared to be texting.

Hattori frowned thoughtfully.

He'd noticed that Shinichi had been tapping away on his phone a lot.

Obviously, his fellow detective was communicating with someone about the case. It was the only reason to text so frequently while they were in the midst of an investigation. But who could he be talking to?

Was he asking a police contact for more information on one of the parties involved? It was the logical conclusion, but somehow it didn't feel like the right answer to Heiji. For one, it wouldn't take that many texts to request some background on a suspect. And for another, they didn't actually have any suspects—yet. Unless you considered that everyone working on the premises had the potential to be a suspect. But that would be too many people to ask the police about based on smoke and supposition. The police were more than busy enough as it was.

At that point, Heiji had to shelve his speculations as Shinichi sensed his gaze and looked up.

"We're going ta see the site of the monster encounter," the Osakan said, partly because it was true and partly to hide the fact that he'd been staring. "Ya coming?"

Shinichi pocketed his phone and hastened to join the others.

-To Be Continued-