SailorStar9: We are finally back with Chapter 102 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: Established!Furuya Rei (Amuro Tooru)/Mizuno Ami
Disclaimers: I own absolutely nothing, except this plot and pairing.
Chapter 102: Beyond the Curtain
Time passes, one evening...
"Wow." Ayumi gushed at the spread in front of her. "It looks so good."
"Shall we eat?" Professor Agasa suggested.
"Thanks for the food." the Detective Boys, minus Conan and Haibara, chorused.
"By the way, why aren't Conan and Haibara here?" Genta wondered.
"Haibara has a TV show she wants to watch and Conan's home alone at the detective agency." Fumio supplied, biting into his seafood lasagna.
"It's too bad they couldn't come with us." Ayumi sighed.
"Everyone, look at that." Mitsuhiko spotted a pair of shadows in the room opposite their restaurant table. "A man and woman?"
"You can see their silhouettes so clearly." Agasa noted. "They look like shadow puppets."
"Do you suppose they're eating?" Mitsuhiko pondered.
"They're probably throwing a party." Ayumi suggested.
"Things seem to be going well between them." Mitsuhiko remarked, seeing the 'man' pour out wine from a bottle for himself and his companion.
"Wait, are they..." Genta stammered as the 'man' leaned in. "Could it be..."
"This isn't appropriate for children's eyes." Agasa flustered, blocking the window. "Huh?" he turned, shocked to see the 'man' had started raining punches on the downed 'woman'.
"What's going on?" Ayumi exclaimed, seeing the 'man' started to strangle the 'woman'.
"Aren't they making up?" Genta was stunned.
"They're clearly fighting." Mitsuhiko pointed out.
"Maybe the woman said something wrong and the man got mad." Fumio guessed.
"Call the police immediately." Agasa instructed.
A while later...
"Yes?" a feminine voice answered the intercom.
"Excuse me, I'm with the police." the police officer responded. "Could I have a few minutes of your time?"
"What do the police want with me?" the woman inquired.
"Someone reported that they saw a man attacking a woman inside your room through the curtains." the officer replied.
"In that case, I have a large pet dog." the woman explained. "Perhaps that's what Chocolat playing with me looked like through the curtains."
"That's not what happened." Ayumi protested.
"That wasn't a dog." Mitsuhiko agreed. "It was a man."
"What do you think?" the police inquired. "Could I take a look around inside?"
"Very well." the woman relented. "In that case, officer, would it be all right if only you came in? I don't want strangers looking around inside my home."
"Understood." the officer entered the unit when the doors opened.
The next day...
"Conan." Ayumi started, the Detective Boys entering the Mouri Detective Agency.
"What happened?" Conan paused the clip on his hand-phone.
"We'd like to get your advice on a situation." Mitsuhiko replied.
"Last night, when we went to a restaurant with Professor Agasa..." Ayumi recounted what had happened.
"So, you witnessed the incident through the curtains but the police wouldn't take you seriously?" Conan guessed.
"We really did see something." Mitsuhiko insisted.
"Then why are the police saying nothing happened?" Conan asked.
"It's not like we could do anything about it." Genta argued. "The cop said there was only a woman inside."
"Are you sure it wasn't just a mistake on your part?" Conan sighed.
"No, it wasn't." Mitsuhiko snapped. "We all saw it."
"But, that's too little information." Conan pointed out."Anything helps. Tell me everything you remember."
"According to the police, the woman who lives in that apartment is Kokubun Yuko, 26 years old." Mitsuhiko pulled out his notebook. "She works at an event planning company. This is the photo of her on their website, taken when she was hired."
"So, where were the two silhouettes doing?" Conan asked.
"The man bought wine and dishes to the table." Ayumi supplied.
"The woman remained seated the whole time." Genta added.
"We thought they were enjoying a party together and then the man suddenly turned violent" Ayumi remarked.
"Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't a party." Genta stated. "It kind of looked like a police officer questioned a suspect."
"To me, they looked like a couple just before a proposal." Mitsuhiko added.
"I think they looked like an old man and woman basking in the sun." Ayumi noted.
"To me, they looked more like a woman trying to break up with her lover." Fumio supplied. "Maybe she found out that he's married and she doesn't want to be a homewrecker?"
"How did you guys all see different things?" Conan sighed. "Silhouettes, huh? Depending on the perspective and angle, their size and overall impression can change completely, like shadow puppets."
"Ayumi, one question." Fumio deathpanned. "How do you sunbathe at night?"
"They were having an afternoon nap at night." Genta cut in. "They'd be staying up all night from that afternoon.
"You two got everything backwards." Mitsuhiko tsked.
"Backwards?" Conan echoed, a sudden thought coming to him. "So that's how it is. If everything you said is true, then this is the only possible answer."
Afterwards...
"Sorry to bother you while you're so busy, Detective Takagi." Professor Agasa apologized, the group having brought Takagi to the apartment.
"Did Kokubun really say they have a pet dog?" the building manager inquired. "I've said repeatedly that we don't allow pets here."
"Looks like no one's home." the officer from the previous night noted.
"She loves sports, huh?" Conan mused, looking through the unit and seeing the assorted rackets in the closet.
"Is that blood?" Fumio spotted a smear of red near the table.
"Looks like it." Takagi agreed.
"This blood someone tried to wipe clean." Conan concluded, after checking the dustbin. "The broken glasses and plates in the trash. And it doesn't look like she has a pet dog."
"Conan." Ayumi voiced, the others looking over the assorted photo frames. "Look at this." she pointed to the dart embedded in a photo frame.
"She must've really hated him." Takagi noted.
"Conan, what we saw last night..." Mitsuhiko started.
"Yeah, last night you guys watched a crime take place." Conan confirmed. "You just had it backwards. People tend to get stuck on their first impressions. And it doesn't make sense that the man was delivering dishes and wine to the table when the woman who lives here was sitting the whole time. If you swap the genders of the people, then it also explains why the police officer said there was only a woman inside."
"In other words, the 'man' was actually a woman with shirt hair and the 'woman' is a man with long hair." Fumio translated.
"Exactly." Conan nodded. "Look." he turned to the selfie on the wall. "This is a recent photo of her. She only let the police officer inside the apartment because he'd been told the victim was a woman. That did in fact allow her to get away with it. Though she made it through that visit, she must have sense the investigation turning up the heat on her."
"In other words, she's already acted on the next step?" Takagi concluded.
"Detective Takagi." the officer stepped in. "I checked the security cameras. "I saw Kokubun Yuko leaving early this morning with a large suitcase."
"Head back to the station and report what you saw." Takagi instructed. "I'm going to check the security cameras in the area." he told the kids.
Later in the evening...
"We're here." Ayumi looked out of Professor Agasa's Beetle as they drove past the Haido Town Flower Park where Kokubun had her first event of the day.
"We'll split up from here on out." Conan instructed the team, after the event organizer informed them that Kokubun had already left. "Let's find her."
"We found her." Genta whispered into his Detective Badge as he and Fumio hid behind a rose bush. "She's heading towards the exit from the plaza."
With some shadowing puppeteering, the group led Kokubun to the rose arches where Conan was waiting.
"You're Kokubun Yuko?" using Mouri Korogo's voice, Conan started, a shadow of the detective appearing in front of the even planner. "My name is Mouri Korogo, a detective. I'm actually looking for someone, nobody else except you, know where he is. Don't play dumb; I'm talking about the man you had dinner with last night."
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Kokubun insisted.
"The police investigation is already closing in." Conan continued. "They're just over there. By the way, what is inside that suitcase? If I'm correct, he should be in there."
"You're not very nice, are you?" Kokubun sighed. "It's his fault. After naming me his guarantor and borrowing a bunch of money, he balked in his debts and pushed all the responsibility on me. Apparently, he spent the money on other women. He destroyed my life, forced his debts onto me, and then tried to dump me. So I destroyed him."
"I believe we should hear more at the station." Takagi stepped in. "Kokubun Yuko, the time is 19:58." he slapped his cuffs on her. "You're under arrest for murder."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.