SailorStar9: With Chapter 34 uploaded, this is Chapter 35 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?
Pairings: Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami
Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.
Chapter 35: Conan and Ebizō's Kabuki Jūhachiban Mystery
"Brake fluid?" Conan was stunned to discover a leaking brake hose from the car that had just drove past the field the Detective Boys were practicing soccer at.
"There's a railroad crossing up ahead." Haibara informed.
"Call someone." Conan instructed, catching the skateboard Haibara had tossed to him. Riding his skateboard, he went after the skidding car. Turning a corner, he anchored his Anywhere Ball Dispensing Belt onto the railing and inflated a soccer ball, sending the runaway car straight into an nearby warehouse.
The next day...
"Where are you right now?" Fumio played the disgruntled partner-in-crime to the fullest, making a call to Conan using Ran's cellphone. "I guess you have something more fun to do than play soccer with us like you promised."
"Ran-nee-chan told us all about it." Ayumi took over.
"She told us you went to the Ichikawa sushi restaurant by yourself." Genta complained.
"Genta-kun, that was a funny story about Kogoro-san." Mitsuhiko corrected.
"And you got sushi from Kanizo!" Genta snapped.
"Give that back." Ran reached over and reclaimed her cellphone.
"He got involved in another case without us, did he?" Fumio deathpanned, looking at Ran.
That night...
"Are you sure this is okay?" Genta wondered, the group were sitting down in the Detective Agency with a plate full of tuna sandwiches between them. "We're being treated to dinner just for bringing a can opener."
"It's supposed to be their dinner, too." Ayumi noted.
"Is he still not answering his phone?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"This is really good." Genta gushed, taking a bite of the sandwich.
"Tuna salad and tuna spaghetti." Ayumi held up the salad bowl.
"It's all tuna." Mitsuhiko noted. "Fumio, your mother really likes tuna, doesn't she?"
"Not exactly." Fumio corrected. "She hates yellowtail tuna for some reason."
"Is his phone ringing?" Haibara asked, in front of the laptop and seeing Ran hung up her phone.
"I feel like something's wrong." Ran sighed.
"Yeah." Haibara agreed. "If Edogawa-kun has his GPS on..." she switched on the laptop and started searching. "Okay, his GPS is on. There he is." she centered in on the phone's location.
"Where is he?" everyone pressed.
"In Ginza." Haibara answered. "It's an alleyway in 3-Chrome. That's odd. He's not moving."
"Maybe he dropped it." Ran suggested.
"Then, he would at least call us." Haibara argued.
"Then, maybe he dropped it while being kidnapped." Fumio surmised.
"Let's go." Ayumi urged.
"Is this really the place?" Genta asked, the group having followed Haibara's directions and arrived at the spot where Conan had dropped his phone.
"Definitely." Haibara confirmed.
"There are just a bunch of bars on the other side." Mitsuhiko noted.
"Try calling him." Haibara suggested.
"I don't hear anything." Ayumi looked around as Ran made the call.
"He could have set it to vibrate." Haibara guessed.
"There." Fumio's ears picked up tone from Conan's phone just as Sonoko ran in.
"There it is." Ran entered the small alley and picked up the ringing phone that was lodged between the gate cracks. "Let's look for him."
"Ask Inspector Megure for help." Haibara cut in.
"It's obvious he got caught up in something." Fumio agreed, picking Conan's glasses.
"Get out your badges." Haibara instructed the others. "Split up and keep calling Edogawa-kun."
"Let's assume someone kidnapped him." Ichikawa Ebizō met up with Ran and the others after excusing himself from the kabuki rehearsal hall. "It's definitely connected to the two-faced mask somehow. Could you show me the phone you found? The last call it received was from Ran-san at 4:05." he checked the call history.
"He said he was at the kabuki theater." Mitsuhiko supplied.
"This is right after that." Ichikawa scrolled down the 'Received' history. "He called someone just eight minutes later. Since there's no name, he must have entered the number."
"We tried calling the number, but it was off." a star-stuck Haibara added.
"It's Kaneko." Ichikawa compared the number to his contact list.
"Kaneko-san?" Ran echoed. "You mean the cameraman?"
"I called a staff meeting earlier, but he wasn't there." Ichikawa stated. Let's try going to Kaneko's house. "he suggested.
"Edogawa-kun?" Haibara suddenly gasped when her badge started beeping.
"Guys!" trapped in a half-demolished building, Conan managed to drill a hole into the concrete wall blocking the way out. Switching on his Detective badge, he reached out an arm through the hole to contact the others. "Look for a building that's being demolished. It's nearby." wincing when the falling debris hit his wrist, he was forced to drop the badge. "I'm in the basement of the building being torn down."
"A building under construction in this area..." Ichikawa mused, after the connection was cut off. "That's it." he turned. "Someone let Mouri-san and the others know about this." he informed, the group hurrying off. "I'll stop them." he sped up, arriving at the construction site after sending Sonoko to inform Mouri. "Stop the construction!" he yelled, jumping onto a bulldozer. "There's someone in the basement."
"You are sure?" Inspector Megure questioned, having met up with Conan's group at the construction site.
"Yeah." Conan nodded. "There's a camera in the room on the bottom floor. Normal people don't use cameras with lenses like that."
"Which means it was Kaneko." Inspector Megure concluded.
"We found something." Takagi ran in after Chiba informed the Inspector that the kids had taken a ride back with Sonoko. "We found Kaneko Eiji's body, and..."
The next day...
With the entire cast members ready, Conan was prepared to present his version of the 'Nanatsu Men'.
"The deduction I just described of Takahashi-san stealing the mask does not apply to this situation." using the voice-changing bow-tie, Conan took over. "Iwami-san, the ATM's camera caught you withdrawing cash from the hospital ATM and giving it to Kaneko-san. Kaneko-san knew you didn't steal the mask."
"But he threatened him anyway?" Ichikawa echoed.
"He knew he'd pay up if he did." Conan stated. "Yabusaki-san and Minowa-san, don't worry. Neither of you were threatened by Kaneko-san."
"The culprit had have been someone who was being threatened by Kaneko-san." Ichikawa concluded.
"This is the shot of Iwami-san entering the kabuki theater." as if on cue, the overhead projected flashed the photo on screen. "When Iwami-san was shown this photo, he did as he was told and paid. But Kaneko-san's camera captured what happened next. This." he showed the next photo. "Look closely. Iwami-san isn't holding a case or anything else. Kaneko-san only showed you what benefited him. Kaneko-san's camera showed me everything I needed to know."
"Then, that leaves..." Ichikawa turned to Hosoo Takuya.
"Hold on a minute." Hosoo chided. "Didn't you hear what Mouri-san just said? Those who weren't captured by Kaneko-san's camera aren't the culprit."
"Hosoo-san, how do you know he didn't take a photo of you?" Conan asked. "Did I say that?"
"There's no way I'd be on his camera." Hosoo was confident.
"There's no way because you paid him a large sum for the chip." Conan explained.
"Stop joking." Hosoo scolded. "Have you forgotten that someone tried to kill me by manipulating my car?"
"Mouri Kogoro's Nanatsu Men." at that, Conan smirked. "Mask One."
"This morning, I investigated that slope again." Takagi presented his findings. "I found that the drops of brake fluid started at the top of the hill, but there was no fluid before that point."
"Why did you take that route?" Conan questioned. "The most direct path from your house to the theater is a straight and mostly flat road. Why did you go out of your way to go up that slope?"
"Also, nearby, I found tape with brake fluid on it." Takagi added.
"Opening a hole in a brake hose isn't easy, so you wrapped tape around the hose you manipulated in your garage beforehand." Conan stated.
"Hold on." Hosoo's chuckle cut in. "You saw the footage of the security cameras at my house. I didn't go to the garage."
"I see." Conan noted. "Mask Two."
"There's a convenience store in front of your house." Shiratori took over. "I compared your footage to their security camera footage. This is the footage from the same time." on Haibara's cue, the AV assistant played the two video footage side-by-side. "On the left is the footage of the outside we received from Hosoo-san. On the right is the convenience store footage. You can see how it's the same road at the same time, but the car only appeared on one side."
"Can you think of anyone else who would have access to the hardware in your house?" Conan asked. "Mask Three."
"The two-faced mask was secured at Haneda Airport." the torch was passed to Chiba. "We also questioned the buyer Richard-san. Apparently, he purchased the mask from Hosoo-san for a large sum of money."
"Hosoo-san, do you remember what you said?" Conan reminded. "What do you mean by that?"
"I can do whatever I want with my own possessions." Hosoo protested. "That's no reason to call me a murderer."
"Mask Four." Conan declared, cuing Inspector Megure.
"Shioji-san told me everything." Inspector Megure stated.
"He made me make that fake mask." Shioji confessed. "But the president instructed me to take special care of the real mask until the day of the performance. I was dating Takahashi-san." she wept. "But you..."
"Hosoo-san, I know your company hasn't been doing well." Conan expressed. "You sold the mask for money and took out a life insurance policy on Takahashi-san. Sometimes, it's not paid out in the case of suicide, so in order to ensure it would be so soon after taking out the policy..."
"Murder was a better choice." Ichikawa realized.
"What proof do you have?" Hosoo demanded. "What proof do you have that I did it?"
"Isn't this your button, Hosoo-san?" Fumio revealed the button in his hand.
"I'm always telling them that if they're ever kidnapped or attacked, to leave some kind of mark on their attacker." Conan stated. "You can even bite down on whatever they throw over you." he came out from Mouri's back. "Your teeth marks or saliva can serve as evidence later." ducking back behind the seat, Conan voiced into his bow-tie.
"What's wrong, Mouri-san?" Hosoo started to laugh. "You of all people should know better. Shioji, tell him when I changed my jacket. I was wearing a new jacket when we went to the hotel. Kid, when did you get that button? Are you willing to use a child to pin Kaneko's murder on me, too?"
"When did I say jacket?" Fumio wondered outloud.
"Hosoo-san, Conan only said something that the culprit covered him with something." Conan, using Mouri's voice, reminded. "This button of yours was found in the engine room of the car when Takahashi-san was killed." at Haibara's cue, the AV assistant flashed a series of photos on the screen in rapid succession.
"These are the traffic drums next to the railroad crossing." Takagi added, the next photo of the drum barrels showing up. "You intended to crash into these."
"This is the inside of your garage." Shiratori took over, the next photo showing the box of disposable gloves. "You can see the disposable gloves you used to keep the braking fluid off your hands."
"This is the building your previous office was in." Chiba stated, the next photo showing the skyscraper. "It's the building that's currently being demolished."
"The basement contained the staff office." Takagi ended the presentation. "No wonder you knew so much about it."
"Kaneko-san saved all the pictures he sold to you on his computer." Conan explained to the shell-shocked Hosoo. "He was going to use them to blackmail you again."
"My company was going to go under." Hosoo sank to his knees.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.