Chapter 34: Grapes From the Vine

The moment the two teenagers got home, Shinichi broke off from his clone to go in search of Akai. Not-Shinichi didn't follow him, opting instead to put their purchases away.

They hadn't gotten the produce.

After making sure he wasn't followed, Shinichi burst into the kitchen, where he was sure the older man would be.

"Your family sucks," he announced, tone waspish. Akai chuckled from his spot at the island counter.

"So you've remembered, have you?" he asked with a smile. Shinichi glared at him.

"You knew." A nod. "And you didn't mention it because…?"

"It wasn't important," he said easily. Shinichi's eyes narrowed.

"How was that not important?"

"Masumi would have kept pressing whether you remembered or not," he said, as if that was obvious. It was, but still… "When she and mother get an idea in their heads, it's next to impossible to persuade them they might be wrong. And as you've seen, they're not nearly as subtle as they seem to think they are." His expression darkened despite the ever-present smile. "There's a reason they don't know I'm still alive."

Shinichi's shoulders relaxed a fraction.

"That tracks, I guess… Do you know about Mary's current… status?" He should know if he didn't already—it was his own mother, after all. The slow frown he received was pretty telling on its own.

"I've got suspicions," he said blandly, but held up a hand when Shinichi opened his mouth. "It's best for now if you don't tell me. I'll let you know if that changes." Shinichi gave a hesitant nod and turned to leave the room. He stopped in the doorway and called out to the man over his shoulder.

"Also, we're getting takeout for dinner—we couldn't get your produce thanks to your sister."

A snort and a vaguely fond chuckle followed him out of the kitchen.

xXx

Shinichi was so sick of looking at his computer screen. On the one hand, he could very quickly find and track a few different cars that were very clearly involved in Ran's case. On the other hand, he almost always lost track of them before he could follow them to their base of operations.

Not to mention, he still didn't have a plan for visiting the hospital that wouldn't raise any unwanted attention. He needed a reason to wander around the ICU he had been in after surgery, but how?

Kid might be of help, with his skills in infiltration, but without a way of contacting the man, he was left to flounder on his own. He supposed he could go to the next heist just to ask, but… well, since he'd promised not to show up in exchange for the thief's help, he wasn't certain the man would cooperate.

He heaved a sigh and buried his head in his arms, the computer in front of him beeping away at finding another victim location. He'd follow the trail later, certain he'd be just as unsuccessful in that endeavor as all the rest.

He missed the ignorant bliss in which he used to conduct investigations, using his name or Kogoro's' name to get vital information from eager-to-please gossips. Honestly, how the Black Organization hadn't caught him with that carelessness, he'd never know.

I'll just need to keep my eyes and ears open for an opportunity, he thought sullenly. He hoped the time wasted waiting would be worth it.

A knock on the door brought him out of his brooding thoughts. He straightened up and looked over his shoulder. Not-Shinichi stood in the doorway, looking wistfully around the room before settling his gaze on Shinichi. The look of helpless frustration on his face let the small detective know what he wanted before he even opened his mouth.

"I need to do something," he said resolutely. Shinichi nodded—doing nothing was bound to make him stir-crazy. He glanced at the computer, considering. Sifting through and reviewing traffic footage probably wouldn't be too taxing on the teen's injuries… He nodded to himself and gestured his double over to the computer.

After giving Not-Shinichi a rundown of the program and how to use the professor's add-on, Shinichi explained what he was looking for.

"It's fine if you can't follow them to their base—I haven't found it yet, since they disappear into camera blind spots. Just write down where they've vanished; I should be able to pinpoint a generalized area if we have enough surrounding data."

Not-Shinichi nodded, a grim determination overtaking his countenance. "What will you do?" he asked, not quite guilty enough to refuse the task given. But he wasn't sure what Shinichi had planned, since so much had happened in the months the clone was missing. Shinichi hummed thoughtfully.

"I guess while I'm trying to figure out how best to approach the situation, I'll be looking up hospital personnel files from around the time you remember and compare them to now. See if anyone's left the job, look into why they may have left… that sort of thing."

Not-Shinichi nodded again, and Shinichi could see a small amount of guilt behind his eyes vanish at the admission. Shinichi cleared his throat uncomfortably and turned on his heel to fetch his laptop.

They worked in silence for a few hours, and Shinichi was gratified to know his assessment had been correct: Not-Shinichi worked diligently without any obvious issues. Shinichi himself had discovered that, while there were new employees at the ICU now, no one had resigned or been fired since his stay. While that wasn't exactly a problem, it did make him more anxious to question the employees there.

He had a rather unpleasant thought, then. While a nurse or other medical personnel would have the easiest time getting Shinichi's DNA, it wasn't impossible that someone as innocuous as a janitor might have been able to pull it off. Janitors and custodians were not listed on the website. He let out a small groan.

Maybe I could just… go? he thought desperately. Even if I end up spooking whoever did this, I might still learn something. He shook his head. That sort of thinking would only get him in trouble. A spooked suspect would alert their bosses, which defeated the purpose of the investigation.

I wonder how feasible it would be to hack into the hospital's cameras… He pinched the bridge of his nose. That wouldn't help unless they also kept cameras in the patients' rooms.

Perhaps, from now on, he should start befriending the gossips of each profession so he has someone to "talk" to in the case of a similar situation. Short of injuring one of his own friends or having Kid infiltrate seamlessly, that seemed the most beneficial solution. But then, he'd have to keep in touch with them. While not impossible, it was incredibly tedious trying to maintain friendly relationships with gossips he didn't particularly care about.

Ah… that was an option, wasn't it? People who liked to gossip didn't usually care who they were talking to, did they? The only problem he'd really have to face, besides tracking down the employees most likely to indulge, would be to keep them from gossiping about him. He only needed to engage them and provide an equal amount of interest to any and all topics they brought up. That way, if the person gossiped about meeting him, no none would know what exactly he was after. It would take hours, but he could do it.

If he played his cards right, he wouldn't even need to show up at the hospital, lessening the chances of him being noticed even further. The beginnings of a plan sparked in his mind.

"Hey," he said, looking at the back of his clone's head. When Not-Shinichi turned a questioning gaze at him, he put the plan into action. "Your memories are fresher than mine—do you remember any particularly chatty nurses hanging around the Beika ICU?"

xXx

Tori Fumiko was rather aptly named, in Shinichi's opinion. He vaguely remembered the middle-aged woman from his time in the hospital. She was friendly enough, but didn't work directly with the patients—probably to keep them from the exact situation he now found himself in.

He "bumped into her" on her way home from a late shift, and she recognized him immediately. That might have been alarming if he wasn't frequently in the papers for being the "Kid Killer," which she evidently bragged about to anyone who'd listen about him being in her hospital ward once. Not ideal, since that meant anyone who worked near her would learn about today's meeting, but he could still work with it.

Despite the overnight shift she'd just left, she apparently had all the time in the world to talk his ears off. That might work to his advantage—if she was tired, she might have a hard time remembering what exactly she said to him, and might not even notice him subtly leading her gossip into certain topics.

As she chattered on about the various Kid heists she'd attended, he very easily led her by a café with an open door. She took two seconds to redirect her attention to some hunger she must have ignored during her shift, and he didn't even have to say anything for her to invite him to brunch so she could keep talking to him. He made a token protest he knew she'd interpret as being modest before "relenting" and allowing her to buy him food.

He politely listened and feigned rapt interest in a few ramblings—asking pointed questions regardless of the topic all while planting breadcrumbs for her to latch onto a new topic. It took three hours before she started ranting about her long shifts—which were apparently extra long recently since she'd taken time off to attend the last Kid heist.

"You'd think the other nurses would be more understanding," she said with a sigh, "especially since I know a few of them are also Kid fans."

"Maybe they also wanted to take time off but couldn't?" offered Shinichi as he sipped his iced coffee. Fumiko's expression turned considering.

"Y'know, I hadn't thought of that… Huh…" She drank some of her coffee. "I suppose hearing about it from me is a pale comparison to being there in person. It's just a pity they mind so much afterwards—the only one who doesn't get onto me is Miko-chan, but she's… sort of weird." Shinichi hummed thoughtfully, careful not to let the interest show on his face.

"Weird?" he prompted, putting some childish innocence behind the word.

"Yeah, she's happy enough to let me take time off, but isn't the least bit interested in hearing about Kid's heists," she said with a frown. Shinichi suppressed the urge to roll his eyes: she was probably happy to not work with the woman for a night if that was the case. He deigned not to comment on that. She continued anyway.

"Very diligent, that one," she said, almost conspiratorially. "She double checks some of the patients when she thinks no one's looking." Shinichi made a noncommittal hum through a sip of coffee, trying very hard not to perk up at that. "Though I think I've only caught her checking up on children. She's got a soft heart, despite that standoffish antisocial act. I'm not fooled a bit." Fumiko nodded to herself as she bit into a pastry. "Now that I'm thinking of it, I think she checked in on you, too, back when you were in our ward."

"Heeeh? That was very nice of her," said Shinichi. His mission completed, he put extra eagerness in his next words to feign boredom with talk of her workplace. "Tell me more about Kaito Kid's last heist. You were there, right?"

With that, Fumiko happily recounted the entire heist, play by play, admonishing the Kid Killer for missing such a grand performance. He apologized, citing that he knew "Hakuba-niichan" would be there, so the jewel owners were in good hands.

He let her talk his ear off for another hour about whatever she felt like before he finally begged off, since he had some homework he'd "procrastinated" on.

Her goodbye took another ten minutes.

xXx

"You know, it could be Tori-san," mused Not-Shinichi after the smaller teen had come home and relayed the information. His clone sat lost in thought for a few moments.

"I'm not discounting that," said Shinichi. "It would be refreshing, even, if the gossip herself was the mole—at the very least it would be a different change of pace."

They sat silently while Shinichi pulled up the hospital's employee files. Sato Miko. Possibly mid-thirties—very serious expression. He pulled up Fumiko's information, too, just in case.

"Tori-san walks to and from work," he said, quietly mulling over the fact. "Or at least, she did today." He looked up at the clone, who swung back around to the computer to check the traffic cams.

"Walking semes to be her go-to," he confirmed after bringing up and sifting through the saved footage. "I'd keep an eye on her regardless." He pulled up several windows surrounding the hospital before turning back to Shinichi. "What does Miko-san look like?"

Shinichi turned his laptop around. "Sato Miko—worked in several different hospitals over the past five years. She transferred to Beika last year. Doesn't say why, and I assume if there was an obvious issue surrounding the transfers, then she would have been fired a long time ago."

"It's definitely suspicious," agreed Not-Shinichi. He turned back to the computer to search for her. "She's not showing up as a pedestrian, or at any bus stops, so I think it's safe to assume she drives," he mused. "But I can't see into the cars to see who's driving, and we don't have eyes in the hospital garage, either."

"I'll take care of that," Shinichi said dismissively. "The hardest part's already done. It's just waiting for the information now." Not-Shinichi just nodded, already predicting which method Shinichi was likely to use.

It felt strange, not having to explain or justify his actions or choices. There was little to no resistance since both minds had the exact same ideas.

He wasn't sure he liked that.

He wasn't sure he didn't.

He quickly excused himself from the room to talk Agasa into setting up a hidden camera in the hospital parking lot for him.