Chapter 23: A Familiar Foe
Author's note: I mention a "scandalously long skirt" in this chapter. For anyone who doesn't already know, in Japan, female high school gang members often wore very long skirts, against uniform regulation, in order to more freely move around. That trend started in the 70s. I'm not entirely certain when it ended, but you probably won't see it in more recent manga or anime.
Also, the woman they're talking to would have been in high school in the late fifties or early sixties, so the image that comes up is even more ridiculous in that regard.
The stench of stale, dry death flooded out of the room as if trying to chase them away. After the initial shock wore off, Shinichi looked up at Ran wondering why she hadn't screamed, since—while it wasn't a constant factor—she usually reacted that way with such things.
She was frozen to the spot, looking like she very much wanted to bolt but couldn't. Which meant that she was likely too scared to do anything more than stare. That was good for him, actually, since it meant he had time to investigate before Kansuke was alerted. It would have been a very different story if the person wasn't so obviously dead.
"Don't move," he said in a low voice as he took in the scene from the doorway. The only footprints in the room were the set that led to the corpse. He pulled out his phone and snapped a picture, just in case, before considering his options.
He could go right in and investigate—the police here would definitely let him get away with that, especially since he was with Kansuke. On the other hand, since even from here he could tell the victim had died of dehydration, it was probably best to leave the dust undisturbed.
He fiddled idly with his glasses as he pondered, but then remembered a seldom used function in them—the zoom feature. He hadn't used it since that snowman case in Gunma. Now was as good a time as any to use it again. And if needed, he could still go inside with minimal to no scolding.
He pressed the appropriate button and got a close-up view of the body. Woman, possibly mid-thirties, though with the emaciation it was difficult to gauge an accurate age. Dark brown hair, possibly lightened by the sun if the tan was anything to go by. Died no more recently than three days ago, judging by the limp state and relatively undecomposed skin.
The lack of disturbed dust around her suggested minimal movement since sitting… So she just came in, sat down, and… waited to die. He swallowed down any feelings about that that tried to surface. Focus. What else?
The clothes seemed oddly new considering she had nowhere to go and nothing to eat….
He frowned at that, zooming in again to examine the garments. Plain, dark blue V-neck t-shirt; ordinary, everyday jean pants; cheap, convenience store tennis shoes… Something about that nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn't place what it was.
Turning off the zoom on his glasses, he pulled his phone back out and brought up Kansuke's number. He hit call and waited.
"Ah, Yamato-keibu—there's a dead body up here."
"… Shit."
xXx
It didn't take very long for the police to arrive—probably because Kansuke was the one who called them. Thankfully, because, like Shinichi, the inspector also came to the conclusion that there was no foul play, his division wasn't called. If they could leave Nagano before Morofushi knew Shinichi was there, the risk of Ran and Shinichi both being discovered went down considerably.
He and Ran were only briefly questioned—they're being acquainted with Kansuke kept questions of what they were doing there in the first place to a minimum.
They were back on the ground floor when Shinichi overheard some of the officers talking as they carried the body out.
"—no other outside injuries besides that weird burn mark, which obviously couldn't have killed her."
The blood drained from Shinichi's face.
"A weird burn mark?" he asked as he tugged at the jacket of the officer nearer to him. "It wasn't on her chest, was it?" The officer glanced down at him, recognition flashing across his face.
"Yeah—in a ring shape. How'd you know?"
Without answering, Shinichi turned on his heel and rushed towards the stairwell again, then followed the footprints backwards to find out where the dead woman had entered. He cursed under his breath when he exited into a back alley that looked pretty well-traveled. There wouldn't be any clues he could pick up in the time he had left in Nagano.
He looked around the alley and felt a surge of relief when he spotted a traffic camera located on the street beyond the building.
I guess that'll be the first of the footage I check when we get back home, he thought. He just needed to find out when the woman came in and follow her trail using the camera footage Kid had provided. Really, not going to a few heists was too little a trade for the help the thief had given.
He returned to the building lobby to find an irate inspector.
"Alright, kid, you're done here," he said before Shinichi could say anything. "Take your cousin and do whatever, but do it away from here." He had his phone in his and again, gripping it tightly. Shinichi's eyes darted from the phone to the inspector's face, and he quickly concluded that whatever the "thing" he'd mentioned before was, it had turned from "nothing urgent" to something more pressing. He didn't even think of attempting to barter for more time.
"Okay," he said easily, which had the unfortunate effect of causing Kansuke to narrow his eye suspiciously. "Did something happen?" The man sighed irritably.
"Just Uehara being a worry-wart," he scoffed. "It's probably nothing, especially since it involves Komei." Shinichi hid an uncomfortable smile. That was definitely an issue he wanted to say out of, whatever it was.
Those two seriously need to grow up, he thought sardonically. I don't know how the rest of their department puts up with them all the time.
Since lingering would only make the inspector angrier, he opted to leave graciously, tugging on Ran's hand as he headed for the door.
"What happened?" Ran whispered as they squeezed past the other officers. "You went white as a sheet before running out the back door." Right. She hadn't been near enough to hear the conversation.
"She had the same mark as you on her chest," he murmured angrily. What were the odds a new victim showed up and died in the same building Shinichi was investigating for clues about the first victim? Actually, scratch that—with his luck, he probably should have seen it coming. Ran's face paled.
"What?" she asked breathlessly. "And we're just leaving?"
"She entered through a back alley that looked like it gets frequent use, probably from the students playing hooky from one of the three high schools I know of in the area." She grimaced. He continued. "I did see a traffic camera on the corner, so unless it wasn't working the day she came, I should be able to track her movements back to… wherever she was before." This was, of course, assuming she'd come to the building right after her kidnappers dumped her. If she'd been wandering around for more than two weeks before dying here, he wouldn't be able to see what vehicles could have been used to transport her. Regardless, some of the tension in Ran's shoulders eased as he spoke.
"So that's two victims here in Nagano connected to that building," she said thoughtfully, then shivered. "That's… kind of creepy. Do you think that was a coincidence, or…?" Shinichi shook his head.
"I definitely don't think it was on purpose," he said, grimacing a bit as he tried to keep up with Ran's nervous stride. She tended to move faster when she was anxious, and he was too embarrassed by his short legs to ask her to slow down. "Unless they forgot about the first guy, since it was so long ago, they wouldn't have given anyone something to suspect on purpose. They probably would've already been found out or caught if they were the sort to do something like that."
"I suppose you're right," she said, slowing down again, though whether it was because she was less nervous or because she had noticed Shinichi's struggle to keep up, he couldn't have said.
"That being the case, I think we should forgo the ramen shop—we can always come back another—"
"Shinichi," said Ran, interrupting him. "Look at your clothes." He blinked a few times at the non-sequitur.
"… My clothes…?" he asked, looking down. He was covered in dust. "What the—?"
"You kicked up an awful lot of dust when you bolted out of here," she said. "So rather than getting dust on everything in the bullet train, maybe we should go somewhere to wash most of it off. Somewhere like the ramen shop…?" Shinichi sighed.
"You're right," he said. "And it does save us the extra trip back just to see if anyone remembers Hori-san." Ran nodded grimly, absently pulling on the brim of her cap as people passed them on the sidewalk. He wanted to say something about it, but this time opted not to. Since they had just discovered a dead body, she was most definitely worried someone who'd gotten wind of it might recognize her.
With that decided, Shinichi pulled up the GPS on his phone and they headed to Dragon Ramen a few blocks over.
The owner, a very sweet and accommodating old woman, let Shinichi use the staff restroom to wash off the dust, since they didn't have public restrooms. Of course, he'd lied about how he got so dirty, but the story that he'd followed an out-of-season rhinoceros beetle into an old building satisfied her just fine.
"Really, children are children no matter the era. Right, young man?" Shinichi heard her say to Ran before closing the restroom door. He sighed at the comment—he knew she didn't mean anything by it. They never did. But it was really starting to wear at him. He began the rather annoying task of washing the dust out of his clothes.
When he was sure the worst of it was gone, he came back out expecting to give his thanks, possibly comment on the shop's history, and then leave once he got the information he wanted… only to find an enormous bowl of ramen waiting for him in front of the seat next to Ran, another giant bowl in front of her. He gave her a questioning look, raising an eyebrow. She shook her head, and discreetly pointed at the old woman.
"There you are!" said the woman, a big smile on her face. "I was just telling your niisan about how much you remind me of my late husband when we were young." She sighed wistfully. "He'd go hunting for beetles, too, regardless of the time of year." Shinichi forced a smile and prepared himself once again for his act.
"It's 'cause beetles are so great!" he chirped, climbing into the stool next to Ran. "It's even better when you find them out of season 'cause then you get to brag to your classmates." The old woman laughed in delight, just as he'd intended. He felt Ran glance at him from the corner of her eye.
"Quite so!" said the woman, nodding authoritatively. "My, it's just like talking with Ryu-kun…"
Ryu-kun? Shinichi hid a frown behind the action of snapping open his chopsticks.
"Was that your husband's name?" asked Ran as Shinichi took the time to gently stir up his noodles, mixing in the egg that had been placed on top.
"Yes, that's right," came the fond-sounding reply. "This was his shop, you know—he'd originally wanted to call it 'Kami Ramen,' but I'd pointed out that made it sound like the food was made from paper." She chuckled. Ran and Shinichi exchanged mildly amused smiles.
"So, you suggested using his name as a pun?" asked Shinichi. Even though it wasn't important, he found he was interested in spite of himself. Maybe it was the matter-of-fact fondness the woman's tone had when speaking about it.
"I did, though he was against it at first," she said. "Said it felt too pretentious. But it was catchy, and everyone responded positively to it, so he relented."
"You opened this place together, then?" asked Ran, genuine curiosity laced in her voice. Shinichi hid a smile: this kind of story was right up Ran's alley, after all.
"Oh heavens, no!" she exclaimed with a laugh. "No, we were only dating at the time. And even after getting married, Ryu-kun was more than happy to let me pursue my own career path. Of course, since that was very uncommon back then, our parents were less than thrilled…" From the mischievous glint in her eye, Shinichi could guess that she enjoyed stirring up trouble in her youth. Unbidden, an image of the old woman wearing a high school uniform with a scandalously long skirt popped into his head. The image completed itself with a mask and a bat, and he choked on his own snort. He didn't want to laugh, so he busied himself by starting on the bowl in front of him.
"Anyway," she continued, "I actually didn't start working here until a few years ago, when Ryu-kun passed away. I took over then." That was unfortunate, but Shinichi hadn't expected much, with the way this whole trip was going. He decided to try and fish for some information anyway.
"You mean he worked by himself?" he asked, putting as much innocence into his tone as he could. "That must've been pretty difficult."
"I'm sure he had some help, Conan-kun," said Ran, tone slightly admonishing. From the corner of his eye, he could see her slightly guilty expression at having to treat him like a child. He'd have to ease her mind about that—when they were in public, it was a necessity.
"Well, even with help, it was difficult when he started," said the woman thoughtfully. "Oh, excuse me." She went to attend to another customer. Shinichi turned to Ran.
"She's pretty chatty," he whispered as Ran attended her noodles. "Did you say something to her?"
"… I may have asked her about the 'boys are the same in every era' comment, half-teasing if her husband was like that…" said Ran. She stared sharply at him. "You know, kind of like what you did your first night as Conan."
He flinched and let out a nervous laugh.
"Ahaha… In my defense, at the time I really was just trying to tease you—I didn't expect… I mean…" He cleared his throat, mouth dry. At the very least, Ran seemed to find his floundering under her gaze amusing, because she snorted out a suppressed laugh.
"I'm not mad," she said at his confused stare, and then frowned. "It feels like such a long time ago…" Shinichi nodded to himself. So much had happened in the last six or seven months that it felt like a lifetime had passed. He absently ate some more ramen.
While the two teens were lost in their thoughts, the old woman came back to check on them. Unfortunately, Shinichi soon realized they weren't going to get much more information out of her, since she'd explained that before her husband died, she'd had no close contact with the shop. Which meant she probably wouldn't remember a random employee from twenty years ago, even if he did go missing. Pressing for more on the subject would look too forced, even for a curious child, so he bit back his disappointment and dropped the issue.
They finished their ramen and promised her they'd come back the next time they visited Nagano, and left, slowly walking back to the train station. Shinichi's shoulders slumped dejectedly as they walked.
"C'mon, stop sulking," said Ran. "You said yourself you weren't expecting to find anything from a twenty-year-old cold case."
"I'm not sulking," he grumbled, even as he turned his gaze away from her.
"Could've fooled me."
He glared back up at her. Just as he was about to retort, her eyes flicked towards something behind him and the color drained from her face as fear replaced mirth.
The change in demeanor was so abrupt, it had Shinichi whirling around to see what had frightened her. There was nothing but the busy street. Confused, he turned back to her.
"What—"
"They're here," she whispered, shakily pointing towards an old building across the street.
"What? Who's here?!" Shinichi asked, sharply turning again. "The guy who took you?" She shook her head, looking fearfully down at him.
"No," she said, almost too quiet to hear. "The men from the roller coaster."
Shinichi's heart stopped.
"What?!" he breathed, anxiously looking at the building she'd pointed to.
Gin and Vodka? Here?!
"You're sure it was them?" he asked without looking up at her.
"Positive," came the reply. "They aren't exactly forgettable." She glanced down at him. "Wh-what should we do…?"
Shinichi gritted his teeth. He didn't want to put Ran in danger, but he knew she wouldn't let him go by himself. He couldn't pass up this chance.
He very quickly pulled out his phone and texted Agasa to pull and save all of the Nagano traffic footage on his computer for him before resolutely turning back to look up at Ran.
"I need to find out why they're here," he said, tone giving her no room to try to talk him out of his decision. She grimaced in a way that told him she knew he'd say that.
"I'm going with you," she said firmly.
"Fine, but you'll need to do exactly as I say," he replied, just as firmly. She blinked a few times, evidently having expected much more resistance on his part. "You'll just tell me you won't let me go by myself, or try to follow me anyway if I say to stay here, right?" he pointed out. She had the grace to blush
"S-so what's the plan?" she asked after awkwardly coughing in response to his point. He turned back and regarded the building with a grim expression.
"Did you see them go into the building, or behind it?" he asked.
"They walked in through the front door," she said quietly.
"Then we'll need to check out the back." He frowned, willing his racing heart to calm down, then turned back to look up at her, making sure to catch her eyes with his. "Whatever you do," he said darkly, "whatever you see—you can't make a sound. No screams, no gasps, no breathing hard—don't even swallow. Vodka might not catch it, but Gin has the ears of a bat."
Suddenly, she looked less than sure about her decision, but nodded gravely. He supposed she didn't really want to lose face after telling his she was going.
"A-and after that?" she managed to squeak out. Shinichi tilted his head. "I-I mean, we follow them in and not get noticed—what then? We're not… going to call the police? Or c-c-confront them?" Ah… He fervently shook his head.
"Definitely not. That's the best way to get everyone killed—including the police," he said, and she paled even more.
"Then why—?"
"It's too suspicious that they're here the day we discover a body related to your case," he said, keeping his voice low. "Those two in particular never go out in public without a reason. This… this is a very rare opportunity." He looked down at the ground. "For both of us."
"Both of us?"
"Well, yeah—we still don't know who's responsible for what happened to you. At the very least, if I can hear some of their conversation, I'll know whether or not their organization is involved. And even if their being here is a coincidence, I can still…" He cleared his throat to get rid of the lump that formed there and stared intently at his hands. "I might still get a lead on my case, you know?" The last part was whispered, and he suddenly felt very selfish. He balled his hands into fists, feeling Ran's eyes on him, but he wasn't confident enough to meet her stare.
Something warm and heavy settled on his head, and he finally looked up. Ran was giving him a weak, yet encouraging smile as she ran her fingers through his hair. She was trembling.
"Then let's go," she whispered. "I'll follow your lead."
He sent her a weak, appreciative smile of his own, and nodded. He faced the building again, deciding how best to approach it. He reached up and grabbed her hand, surprising her.
"We need to get past the front side as naturally as possible," he said, eyeing the pathway that would lead them most safely to the back alley. "Just in case someone's watching from the front." Ran's fingers shakily closed around his hand, and she nodded resolutely.
He led, hoping very much he looked like an eager child pulling against his guardian's grip. There was, thankfully, plenty of pedestrian traffic on this part of the street, so they didn't look too out of place on the sidewalk near the building, and they slipped into the back alley unnoticed.
Shinichi could feel Ran's pulse racing against his palm. He was certain his own pulse was just as rapid.
He stopped at the entrance to the back alley and quickly surveyed the surrounding buildings, just in case. Nothing. He hoped the lack of snipers meant no one was going to die today, but with someone like Gin it was hard to say for sure.
He cautiously led Ran into the alley, and silently instructed her to move along the wall of the building. He tried very hard to ignore the deafening sound of his heartbeat, so loud it drowned out the sounds of the busy street on the other side of the building.
They slowly made their way to the back door, Shinichi's eyes peeled for potential danger. It wouldn't do for Ran to meet the same fate he had, or worse. He glanced up at her, once more wishing he could tell her to wait for him from the safety of the train station, knowing at the same time she would adamantly refuse to do so.
As they neared the door, Shinichi grounded himself with the feeling of crumbling bricks scraping against the bare parts of his skin. This building seemed to be in even worse condition than the one they'd just been in, a fact that cemented itself when he saw that most of the metal of the back door had rusted and crumbled away, giving him a mostly unobstructed view of what looked like a stairwell. He peered inside, straining his ears.
Nothing.
He had hoped they wouldn't need to go inside, but he supposed that the extra potential hiding places could be advantageous in the event one was needed. He motioned for Ran to wait, and he slipped inside to make sure the surrounding area was clear. She peered in after him and watched him work. He suspected she was also making sure he didn't go ahead by himself, and tried not to feel guilty that the thought had, in fact, crossed his mind.
When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he signaled to her, and she slipped in quietly to join him again. They repeated this pattern as they picked through what Shinichi now recognized as an abandoned hotel building until they reached an empty doorframe that opened up into the lobby. It was there he spotted them, looking like shadows in the gloom.
Gin and Vodka stood near the front door, waiting for something. Or someone.