SailorStar9: With Chapter 143 posted, I present Chapter 144 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 144: The Whistling Bookstore 4
In Tamaki Yujiro bookstore cafe...
"Genta, your stomach keeps making noises." Mitsuhiko complained, the Detective Boys hearing Genta's stomach growl loudly.
"Reading this book makes me hungry." Genta whined, showing the group the 'History of Eel Bowls' book he was reading.
"We just ate lunch." Ayumi reminded.
"I knew it'd come to this." Fumio sighed.
Just then,Komachi Ami entered the cafe.
"Welcome." Tamaki greeted. "It's you." he recognized Komachi.
"Was a book called 'The Lonely Sea' among the books I sold to you the other day?" Komachi asked. "That book is a keepsake of my father. It's important to me. It accidentally got mixed with the others. I'm sorry, but could I buy it back from you?"
"Actually," Tamaki started. "I'm sorry, but another customer already bought that book."
Just then, Kirishima Kenichi entered the cafe.
"That's the man who bought the book." Tamaki recognized the buyer.
"Excuse me." Mitsuhiko.
"Mister, do you remember buying a book titled 'The Lonely Sea'?" Conan inquired.
"That book is important to this lady." Ayumi explained, pointing to Komachi.
"That book from the bargain bin. Kirishima recalled.
"Could I buy it back from you?" Komachi pressed. "It's a keepsake of my father."
"I can't do that." Kirishima replied. "I sold it already." he pulled out the auction site he used to sell the book.
"Could I at least get the address or contact information of the buyer?" Komachi requested, Kirishima picking up a batch of used books to purchase.
Shut up." Kirishima shoved Komachi off. Grabbing his receipt, he walked out.
"People like won't listen." Haibara stopped Genta from going after Kirishima. "More importantly, something caught my attention. He said he bought the book from the bargain bin, right?"
"But, aren't the books in that bin 500 yen at most?" Fumio pointed out. "The store should've bought them for even less."
"I believe I bought that particular book for 200 yen." Tamaki recalled.
"And yet he sold it for 200,000 yen." Haibara stated.
"Did you misjudge the book's value?" Conan wondered.
"In my many years running a used bookstore, I have misjudged the value of books before." Tamaki admitted. "But 'The Lonely Sea' is definitely not a rare book. It's relatively new and a lot of copies were distributed to the public."
"Looks like I have to give up on it." Komachi sighed in defeat and exited the cafe.
Afterwards at 5pm...
Tamaki walked the kids back, delivering Kirishima's house keys on the way.
"Wasn't that..." Mitsuhiko started, the kids having heard Tamaki's horrified scream.
"Fumio, call an ambulance and the police." Conan instructed, turning to see what Tamaki was pointing at and saw Kirishima's fallen body.
"On it." Fumio pressed his phone's speed dial.
After Inspector Megure's team was called in...
"Anyway..." Inspector Megure deathpanned. "You kids again?"
"Inspector Megure, the deceased was the resident of this apartment." Takagi reported. "Kirishima Kenichi, 32 years old, occupation unknown. He has a contusion on the back of his head, so the likely cause of death is a cerebral contusion. Based on the bloodstain on the corner of the table, he probably hit his head on it when he was pushed."
"What's the estimated time of death?"Inspector Megure asked.
"Between 16:30 to 17:30." Takagi answered.
"Is anything missing or stolen from the room?"Inspector Megure pressed.
"There are signs of a struggle, but as of now, nothing is missing." Takagi replied.
"Maybe the culprit took something rectangular." Conan guessed. "Look at the bloodstain on the table. It's cut off in an L shape. Maybe something rectangular was on the table and the blood splattered onto its corner."
"What could it be?" Inspector Megure wondered.
"Most probably a book." Fumio reasoned. "He sold a book for 200,000 yen. So, it shouldn't be odd if he had rare books in his apartment."
"Inspector Megure , we found a safe under the bed." Chiba reported. "We haven't found the key, so we can't open it."
"This must be it." Tamaki pulled out the key he was suppose to deliver.
"These may be stolen goods." Takagi opened the safe and finding the jewels inside quite familiar. "These look like merchandise that was stolen from a jewelry store recently."
"Compare them against the report of the stolen jewels immediately." Inspector Megure instructed.
"Inspector Megure," Chiba came back with the report. "As we thought, the jewels and watches in the safe were stolen."
"It seems like the victim was one of the robbers." Takagi concluded.
"I knew it." Conan whispered, noticing just how Kirishima managed to sell the book for such an inflated price. "I figured out the trick he used to sell an ordinary book for 200,00 yen. The victim was probably making black market deals."
"The victim was a robber; if he wanted to sell the stolen jewels for money, he can't go to pawn shops as they won't buy stolen goods." Fumio realized where Conan was coming from, "So, he turned to flea market websites and used coded language to arrange backroom deals."
"Take a look at this page." Conan pulled out the auction list. "See anything written beneath the product description? The unusually expensive items listed by the victim have this 'black' hashtag and #diamond0.5 meant he was selling a 0.5 carat diamond. That was the price of the stolen goods."
"If the victim was making black market deals, then it's possible he was killed because of it." Inspector Megure reasoned.
"Or he ran into trouble with his fellow robber." Takagi pointed out.
"Did anyone suspicious come into contact with the victim today?" Inspector Megure turned to Tamaki.
"These two were captured by the security camera at the apartment entrance." Chiba showed his superior the photo of Komachi and a Cheetah Express deliveryman.
"Komachi?" Fumio gaped in surprise.
"We know that woman." Mitsuhiko replied.
"This book we showed earlier." Conan explained. "She was the original owner of the book. She said she accidentally sold it."
"Perhaps she couldn't give up on the book and came to negotiate with him directly." Haibara suggested.
"She didn't seem like someone who'd do something like that." Ayumi remarked.
"Look into her background immediately." Inspector Megure instructed.
"Detective Takagi," Conan called out. "Some pages were torn out from that notebook. It looks like there's blood on it, too. There's an imprint of some handwriting, so maybe we can tell what was written on the page they took."
"Conan, hold it just like that." Takagi took a photo of the revealed numbers after Conan shone the Wristwatch Flashlight onto the side of the page.
"Yujiro," Conan turned to Tamaki. "I bet you know what code this is."
"That's probably a book cipher." Tamaki confirmed, after Takagi showed him the picture he took. "it's using books to create and decode ciphers. For example, the first cipher, 12-4-32, indicated the 32nd letter on the fourth line of the 12th page. You string the letters together to create a sentence."
"Then, the book the culprit took is most likely the cipher decode book." Fumio suggested. "Leader, is there some other way to decipher the code without the book?"
"The victim seems to have been fastidious, so fortunately, he kept his receipts." Conan pointed out. "in total, there are around 20 books missing from this room." he concluded,the group having narrowed down the missing books.
"Could I take a look?" Tamaki offered. "We can narrow it down further." he removed four receipts. "One of the rows listed in the code was 30; a standard book has around 18 rows on a page. If the key had far more than that, then it probably had two pages per sheet. This one, this one and this one." he pointed out the corresponding books. "I have these three books at my shop, so I'll have them brought here."
The following morning...
"Excuse me," Takagi stopped the deliveryman before he could retrieve his belongings from his work locker. "I'd like to ask you a few questions."
"What's this about?" the Cheetah Express deliveryman found himself cornered by Chiba and Inspector Megure.
"it's about Kirishima Kenichi who died yesterday." Takagi clarified.
"If you have this sheet, then you must be the culprit." Conan beamed, picking up the torn off notebook paper that had dropped out of the deliveryman's pocket.
"Takagi, Chiba, make a list of everyone who bought books from the victim and question them." Inspector Megure instructed after Takagi took the deliveryman into custody.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.