Disclaimer: I do not own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Lure
Chapter 48 - A House in the Mountains
The remainder of their journey to the estate of their clients went by largely in silence because the road was every bit as trecherous as they had been warned. If anything, the path they had to take was less of a proper road and more like a trail—a badly maintained trail. Parts of it were so twisty or broken up that they ended up having to walk the motorcycle or risk breaking their necks.
All around them, trees towered, and their branches stretched out as though determined to blot out the sky. The realm beneath those boughs was a muted green that straddled the line between beautiful and eerie.
The light was already well on its way to seeping out of the sky by the time their destination came into view.
The first sign they came across that the estate was near was a scarred wooden sign. It was only as they drew closer that the two detectives realized it was not a nameplate or road sign but a warning sign.
"Beware the fog," Shinichi read.
"Well, they did say the fog around here is one thing that makes the traveling difficult," Heiji commented.
"What do you think made those scratches though?" Shinichi wondered.
The scratches in question were deep, parallel gouges in the wood of the sign. They appeared all in sets of four, he noted, though other than that, there was no order to them. They slashed this way and that all over the sign as though some massive animal had been using it as a scratching post.
"Vandals maybe?" Heiji suggested. "Though it's a bit out o' the way for someone ta go just to ruin a sign…"
"Whatever happened, it was recent," Shinichi said. "The edges of the scratches aren't weathered at all."
"Whole sign looks pretty new," Heiji agreed. "Could be it's part of the problem. Let's hurry up and get to the house so we can find out. Come on. It looks like the road's better from here. We can ride properly."
"Right." Giving the sign one last searching look, Shinichi climbed back onto the motorcycle behind Heiji.
The next thing they saw of their destination was a pair of iron gates topped with an extremely threatening set of spikes. Those same spikes marched along the top of the walls that, presumably, wound all the way around the estate grounds.
"It doesn't look like they welcome visitors, does it?" Shinichi murmured.
Heiji snorted. "Ya wouldn't live all the way out here in the middle of nowhere if ya wanted lots of visitors. Though it could also be a comment on the kind of trouble you're expecting. I hear the guy who had it built wasn't a popular man."
If that was the inspiration behind the architecture, Shinichi thought, then the man must have felt himself very unpopular indeed. So much so that he was expecting to need to hold off a siege.
Considering the imposing nature of the gates, Shinichi was a little surprised when the voice that answered Heiji on the intercom was that of a bright young woman.
"Come right on in," she chirped enthusiastically just as the gate buzzed and began to open.
The grounds inside the walls of the estate were nearly as wild as the forest outside. Everything beyond the driveway was overgrown and showed no particular order. Shinichi would bet it hadn't been tended in years if ever. The sheer disarray of it all had him expecting a mansion out of a horror movie or, at the very least, something somber and more fortress than home. So he was pleasantly surprised when they rounded a final bend around a wildly spiky grove of mish mashed trees and bristling undergrowth to be presented with a very lovely, very modern mansion.
Large, rectangular and stately, it stood four stories tall and had peaked roves tiled in a cheerful shade of pink. The house itself had a fresh coat of white paint and a number of windows, all polished so brightly that you almost couldn't see that they were there expect when they reflected the sunlight back at you so strongly that they themselves became opaque.
At the center of its glittering edifice was a pair of towering, double doors carved with leaping wolves. The rectangular lawns that stretched out to the left and right of the steps up to those magnificent doors were the only tamed vegetation in the entire area. Their incredible, perfectly squared corners and thick, lush, well-trimmed nature were like boundaries delineating a separation of the wilderness from the perfection of the house beyond.
Heiji whistled. "It looks like they must have gotten farther with the remodeling than I'd thought."
"Remodeling?" Shinichi asked.
"The new tenants. You see, they inherited this place only recently. The previous owner—who, from what I heard, was also the man who planned and built this place—died pretty suddenly. And he didn't leave a will. So his estate and everything in it went to his next of kin. That's the people who called for us."
"The ones your parents knew."
"Yeah, them. Although I'd say 'knew' is probably too strong a word. Like I told ya, they're the relatives of old family friends. I've only met them once myself, though I do remember 'em being good people. Wife's an artist. The husband's some tech company bigwig that made a pile of money when his startup went public. Or so I've heard. Anyway, when they heard they'd inherited this place, they were pretty curious because the uncle's never been very sociable even in the family. They thought it would be interesting to come see the place. And when they did, they decided it would be a waste just to sell it off. They liked the idea of a house in the wilderness where the wife would get more inspiration for her art. And since her husband can do a lot of his work from home, they decided to sell their old place and just move in here. They started renovating the place though since it was in pretty bad shape before. And that's when the strange stuff started happening. Or at least that's what they told me over the phone. We'll have to get the rest of the particulars from them."
"All right."
The front doors flew open before the two detectives could reach it. Expecting whoever had unlocked the gates for them, neither of them was prepared for the man who came storming out so fast that he nearly bowled them over.
"And don't call me!" he all but shouted back into the house, apparently taking no notice at all of the two boys who'd just hurriedly leapt out of his way. "I am never coming back here again!"
"But wait! Please!" a woman exclaimed, bursting out of the doors on the man's heels. "Sir, please, if you want to change the contract—"
"That's got nothing to do with it," the man cut in impatiently. Whirling around, he planted his fists on his hips and glowered at the woman. "I don't care about the money. Consider the entire contract void. I'll have my bank return your down payment the moment I get back to the city."
The woman wrung her hands. "But—"
"Nothing you say is going ta change my mind," the man said before she could say any more, although his demeanor did soften slightly. "Listen. It's nothing personal. You know that. And your offer was very generous. But this place is cursed. Take my advice and get out of here yourself before anything worse happens."
Dramatic warning delivered, the man spun on his heels and resumed his rapid departure around the corner of the building. Soon after, the sound of an engine rumbling to life reached their ears. Then a van was rolling around the corner past Heiji's parked motorcycle and off down the driveway headed away from the mansion.
The woman watched it go with a distraught expression. It wasn't until the vehicle had disappeared completely from sight that she sighed and turned away. That was when her eyes landed on the two watching detectives, and she blushed in embarrassment.
"I'm so sorry you had to see that," she blurted out. "We've…been having a hard time. Everyone's a bit on edge after…" She trailed off then shook her head. "Sorry, I'm doing this all wrong, aren't I? You've come such a long way. You must be tired. Would you like something to eat or drink? Or if you would prefer to rest a while first, I can show you to your rooms."
"Well actually, I could use a restroom," Heiji admitted.
The woman smiled. "Of course. Please follow me."
Their initial impression of the mansion's interior was that it was every bit as magnificent as its exterior. The floors were polished wood, and the walls were hung with beautiful watercolor paintings of wildlife and landscapes. What they glimpsed of the living room was also well furnished and decorated. On their way through the house, however, they saw several closed doors that had been marked with caution tape and more than a handful of piles of what appeared to be building materials and tools.
"Those doors lead into the west wing of the house and the basement levels," their hostess explained when she noticed them looking at the closed doors. "As well as a few other places that are currently being renovated. The main living areas and bedrooms didn't need much work though, so we got them done quickly so that we could move in. We figured we could do the rest a little at a time after that. Although at this rate, I'm not sure if we'll ever finish…" She sighed then shook her head. "But we'll talk about that later. Here you go. We got these two guestrooms ready for you. Feel free to pick whichever you like."
The two guestrooms were nearly identical and reminded Shinichi of high end hotel rooms. Each had a queen-sized bed, a lovely desk complete with plush desk chair, an equally elegant nightstand topped by cat-shaped alarm clocks and stylish lamps, and spacious bathrooms. Both rooms would also have had excellent views of the grounds if those grounds had been anything worth looking at. Instead, each had been given its own set of watercolors. One room featured mountain landscapes while the other focused on birds.
Heiji whistled. "Those are all yours, right? They're amazing."
The woman blushed, clearly pleased. "They are. And thank you. That means a lot."
Shinichi ended up dropping his backpack off in the bird-themed room. He spent a moment simply admiring the paintings. Heiji had been right. They were incredible. Then he moved to the window and gazed out at the tangled mess of vegetation that was the yard. The disconnect between the scenery inside and outside the house was simply jarring.
Hearing the door to Heiji's bathroom opening, he drew away from the window and rejoined his friend and their hostess outside.
A few minutes later, they were all seated at one end of the long table in the mansion's grand dining room. There were small plates of little cakes and cubes of fruit skewered on toothpicks already set out for them next to a warm pot of tea. Tea was poured before a man introduced to the boys as the family's chef popped his head in to ask the two guests if they had any food allergies or other dietary preferences. When they said that no, they did not, he nodded in satisfaction and disappeared back into the kitchen.
Before the boys and their hostess could settle down, however, yet another man came striding into the room. This newcomer was tall and lean and scowling like a thunderhead.
"The painters have gone too," he declared. "Said they'd just keep the deposit for the work they did on the outside of the house and that we don't have to give them any more so long as we never speak to them again."
The lady sighed. "Dojima-san left too."
The man grimaced then heaved a heavy sigh and sank into the chair next to hers. "I know. I heard you trying to convince him to stay. I take it he wouldn't listen."
"He advised that we leave too."
"Like hell I'm leaving! I'm not being driven out of our house by pranksters and ghost stories! Someone's behind all this, and when I find them, they're going to be sorry for causing us all this trouble!"
"Calm down dear," the lady said, placing a hand on the arm of the man who had to be her husband.
He made a face then sagged back in his seat. "Sorry. You're right. I just—can't imagine why anyone would have it out for us like this."
"Which is why we asked Hattori-san for help."
The man blinked and finally seemed to notice the two boys seated on the other side of the table from him. "Oh hey, you're here! Sorry, I should've greeted you earlier, but I was trying to convince our painting team to stay and finish the project we hired them for. Which turned out to be a huge waste of time. But anyway, I'm really grateful that you're here. I mean, we tried talking to the police, but they wouldn't take us seriously. So it's nice that you actually came."
"My Dad said he does believe some of what you told him should be looked into," Heiji explained. "It's just this place is pretty far out of his jurisdiction. But he promises we can ask his department if we need them to look up any records or whatnot for us."
"Oh. Well, that was thoughtful of him, I guess," the man conceded. "Thank him for me."
"Maybe you should tell us more about your case first," Shinichi suggested, feeling a little like a boat set adrift on unknown waters. "I see that you've been having trouble with your contractors, but I'm still not sure what you were hoping we could help you find out."
The man's gaze shifted from Heiji to Shinichi, where it stuck and turned pensive. For a long moment, he simply stared until the younger detective was beginning to feel distinctly uncomfortable. Then he abruptly straightened in his seat.
"Oh, I know who you are! You're Kudo Shinichi!" he exclaimed. "That super famous high school detective that led the work on that huge case just a few years ago! The one that got all those international agencies involved!"
Shinichi shrugged a little uncomfortably. "That's me. But I think we should focus on what's happening here. You asked Heiji for help for a reason, right? Can you tell us more about your situation?"
Apparently realizing that his outburst might have been considered rude, the man smiled sheepishly and settled back in his seat. "You're right. We should start at the beginning shouldn't we?"
"We should," his wife agreed. "Which means we should all introduce ourselves."
-To Be Continued-