SailorStar9: With Chapter 54 uploaded, this is Chapter 55 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 55: The Detective Boys and the Haunted House
Time passes...
"Thank you." Conan remarked, toweling himself dry using the towels Yoshimoto Hana had brought for the Detective Boys.
"You kids don't seem to be around here." Yoshimoto Saburo noted.
"We came here to go camping." Mitsuhiko explained.
"It suddenly started raining when we went to see the lighthouse." Genta added.
"Not even an umbrella would help you in this downpour." Hana sympathized.
"You can stay here while it's raining, but you have to leave once it stops." Saburo stated. "Nothing good will come from staying here. Strange things have been happening at this mansion lately. It's best not to get involved. I've never seen one, but the master says there are ghosts. According to him, it's a yellowish white color. Now that you know, let me have those towels." he reclaimed the towels.
"Did you guys just see something yellow?" Genta gasped, seeing a flash of yellow streak across the wall in the lobby.
"I did." Ayumi replied. "It disappeared immediately, though."
"Are there really..." Mitsuhiko stammered.
"It's not letting up." Ayumi looked out of the window of the second story.
"Who are you kids?" Amemiya Hideto spotted the children as he climbed up the stairs.
"We're staying here to get out of the rain." Conan explained.
"I see." Amemiya noted. "I'm Amemiya Hideto, the freeloader who lives here. Nice to meet you."
"Wow." Ayumi gushed after Amemiya invited them into his room.
"This place is like a science lab." Genta gawked.
"I conduct scientific research at college." Amemiya explained. "I also use the annex in the yard as a lab."
"Given your studies, how do you feel about ghosts?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"You heard about my uncle." Amemiya realized. "I don't believe in them, but my uncle seems to think they actually exist."
"This house is quite old, isn't it?" Fumio inquired, looking intently at the chemical bottles in the cabinet.
"Yeah." Amemiya replied. "My uncle bought it five years ago when he retired, but it was built fifty years ago."
"Did he buy it without knowing about the ghost rumors?" Conan wondered.
"I see." Amemiya noted. "My uncle started saying there were ghosts about two week ago. My aunt actually passed away two months ago. My uncle says she's visiting him. She always had weak legs. She always went there." he recollected how he had hurried over to Otaguro Chieko's accident site, only to find the old woman had fallen over the cliff. "We don't know why she fell that day."
"We heard your wife visits you." Conan looked at Otaguro Nobuteru at the dining table.
"She does." Otaguro replied.
"But isn't she dead?" Conan wondered.
"Yes, but she really does come." Otaguro insisted. "She comes after dark. Then she leave around ten."
"What does your wife look like?" Mitsuhiko inquired.
"She looks like a yellowish light." Otaguro answered. "But before long, I heard Chieko's voice. Tonight, she'll tell me about the accident."
"Yoshimoto-san?" Fumio was alerted when the elderly woman suddenly dropped the tray.
"I"m sorry." Hana hurried to clear the mess.
"I'm returning to my room." Otaguro stood up.
"I'll head back to my lab, then." Amemiya excused himself. "Hana-san, I broke a beaker in my room. Could you run the vacuum later? It's in the front of the medical cabinet."
"Very well." Hana acknowledged.
Later that night...
After much prodding from Mitsuhiko, both Conan and Fumio left the others alone to do their own investigating.
"Even if the ghost's real, it's just his wife, right?" Conan asked, the both miniature detectives having returned to the bedroom the kids were sharing. "I don't think she'd hurt you."
"We're just going to check something out." Fumio opened the door.
"Uncle!" Amemiya exclaimed, seeing Otaguro suddenly cough out the tea he was drinking. "Are you alright? Saburo-san, call an ambulance."
"That isn't necessary." Fumio corrected, entering the dining hall with Conan.
"That packed a punch." Otaguro admitted. "Hana-san, what's wrong with this tea?"
"It's no wonder it tastes bad." Conan added. "There's salt in that tea. Because we swapped the contents of the poison bottle in Hideto-san's room with salt. We found the bottle Hana-san took from the cabinet and hid in the kitchen."
"You took the poison?" Amemiya echoed, turning to Hana. "And meant to put it in the tea?"
"Hana-san was worried that the ghost would reveal the truth behind the accident that happened two months ago." Fumio explained.
"I..." Hana started. "I didn't think she'd die. I just wanted to annoy her." she recalled that she had tampered with the mistress' wheelchair brakes after the late Chieko warned her to stop stealing jewelry. "I thought she'd have trouble getting in and out of her wheelchair if I loosened the brakes."
"Hana-san thought the ghost would tell Otaguro-san about it." Conan continued. "But there was nothing she can do about a ghost. So Hana-san made Otaguro-san her target. The salt we substituted in Otaguro-san's tea proves it."
"However, she didn't need to worry about that." Fumio cut in. "Since, there never was a ghost. Am I right, Hideto-san?"
"But the wheelchair moved on its own." Mitsuhiko reminded, recalling how the wheelchair had moved along the corridor.
"This house was built fifty years ago." Fumio answered. "Some places are bound to be damaged; like a crack in the wall, enabling a breeze to blow through it and pushing the wheelchair. Besides, the brakes were broken."
"But the door to his room opened on its own." Genta pointed out.
"That door opens at the slightest vibration because the latch is old and weak." Conan reasoned.
"What about the yellow ghost floating in the room?" Ayumi pressed.
"Remember the greenhouse we saw when we arrived?" Fumio reminded. "That greenhouse was built two weeks ago, coinciding with the ghost's appearance. The ghost itself is the light from the lighthouse. The light hasn't stuck this house directly before, but because of the greenhouse that was built, the light started reflecting off the glass windows and illuminating the walls of the house. The light seeping through the walls then reflected off the glass on Otaguro-san's bookcase and making it look like a ghost."
"We just called the owner the greenhouse." Conan added. "He said he closes the window every night at ten. That's why the ghost disappears at ten, too. By the way, he also leaves the windows open when it rains so it won't get stuffy inside."
"What about the glow on the second floor when we arrived?" Genta asked.
"Hideto-san turned up right after, right?" Conan reminded. "It was probably the lights from Hideto-san's car. We couldn't hear the car because of the rain."
"But there was a woman's voice coming from the room." Ayumi protested.
"By the way, we put the poison we swapped out for salt in another bottle and returned it to the cabinet." Fumio informed. "After all, the cabinet wasn't locked."
"If Hana-san unlocked the cabinet, she would've have locked it so she wouldn't be discovered." Conan surmised. "So I think it was unlocked to begin with."
"But it would be strange for an expert like Hideto-san to ignore safety protocols and leave a cabinet containing poison unlocked." Fumio remarked.
"That was careless of me." Amemiya admitted.
"Returning to the voice," Conan continued. "Since the ghost is the light from the lighthouse, there must be an explanation for the voice. Thinking that, we examined Otaguro-san's room, and we found it."
"A speaker, a mic, and a wireless device behind the bookcase." Fumio placed the uncovered device on the dining table. "This is probably where your wife's voice was coming from. And the only person in this house who could've made this is you, Hideto-san."
"But if he played the wife's voice..." Genta gasped.
"Was he using clips he recorded?" Mitsuhiko reasoned.
"Hideto-san was probably playing his own voice modified to sound feminine." Conan guessed. "Since Otaguro-san believe that his wife's ghost was visiting him, he believed he'd mistake it for hers. When Hideto-san arrived at the scene of the accident, he noticed the brakes were loose. He also noticed how Hana-san began to acting since the ghost started appearing. Hideto-san realized Hana-san was connected to the accident. He thought she'd act as expected if he pressured her. He began producing the voice so she'd think the truth behind the accident would be revealed. So he deliberately broke a beaker in front of the unlocked cabinet and asked her to clean it, knowing what Hana-san would do. It all went according to plan: Hana-san took the poison and attempted to murder Otaguro-san."
"You're trying to say I tried to kill my uncle?" Amemiya snapped. "Why would I?"
"The reason, is this!" Fumio brandished the red envelope full of debtor notices. "We found it in the trash can in your room. These are debt collection notices, right?"
"Hideto-san, you have been borrowing money from a bunch of places." Conan tsked. "Your motive was money. Drowning in debt, you wanted Otaguro-san's wealth. Why didn't you talk to him?" he wondered.
"My uncle's stricter than anyone when it comes to money." Amemiya sighed.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.