SailorStar9: With Chapter 61 uploaded, this is Chapter 62 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 62: The Melting Cake!
Time passes...
"We are at the Professor's house right now." Mitsuhiko confirmed after Conan contacted him over the Detective Badge. "You should come, too. We're flying the drone the Professor made. Apparently, it flies really high."
"Professor, hurry." Ayumi urged.
"That wasn't supposed to happen." Fumio blinked when the drone suddenly took off into the air. "Guys, duck!" he shouted a warning, pulling Ayumi to the floor to dodge the runaway drone. Said drone then crashed into a wall and dropped in front of the children.
"What was that about?" Genta winced. "How does this thing work?"
"What happened, Mitsuhiko?" outside Poirot, Conan asked.
"The drone started flying on its own." Mitsuhiko replied. "No one touched the controller."
"It flew without anyone touching the controller?" Conan echoed.
"What is this?" Professor Agasa chided. "I told you not to fly it without me."
"We didn't." Ayumi protested.
"We didn't touch the controller." Genta added.
"I just made this, too." Professor Agasa sobbed, taking his damaged drone back in.
"It'll take time to fix that." Haibara noted.
"But what about today?" Ayumi whined.
"Don't count on it." Haibara replied. "It won't be able to fly today."
"Anyway, the flight is being canceled." Mitsuhiko informed Conan over the communication badge. "Where are you, Conan?"
"I'm at Poirot." Conan replied.
"Poirot has this really yummy cake lately." Ayumi gushed.
"We were just talking about that cake." Conan interjected.
"It's not fair that you're the only one who gets the cake, Conan." Genta complained.
"Then, we'll go get some cake, too." Mitsuhiko suggested.
"But the cake is..." Conan stammered.
"There's no cake?" Genta pouted, looking at the chalkboard sign hanging at the counter.
"You should've said so." Mitsuhiko complained.
"I was trying to when you hung up." Conan argued.
"But I was so excited." Ayumi sighed.
"Sorry." Azusa apologized.
"The electrician's fixing it right now." Amuro explained. "It should be fine tomorrow."
"I examined the refrigerator, and there's nothing wrong with it." said electrician reported.
"Then, why are the cakes falling apart?" Azusa asked.
"Maybe..." Ayumi suddenly let out an exclaim.
"Maybe?" Fumio echoed.
"What's gotten into you, Ayumi?" Conan asked, when Ayumi led the Detective Boys out.
"Look at these cakes." Ayumi pointed to a tray of displayed cakes in a nearby confectionery. "They look like the cake before it melts, don't they?"
"Are these cakes copies of Amuro-niisan's cakes?" Genta pressed.
"Keep your voice down, Genta." Fumio hissed.
"It is suspicious, though." Mitsuhiko agreed.
Fumio just sighed and forked out the amount required to purchase the cake.
"Dough that uses a lot of eggs is typically this color." Amuro admitted, looking intently at the cut up cake.
"And if you apply the same amount of cream in the same way, it does look similar." Conan added.
"So, it's not plagiarism?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"I don't think so." Amuro noted. Stabbing a piece with a fork, he took a bite.
"It tastes completely different." Azusa stated.
"Yeah, Poirot's cakes taste way better." Ayumi agreed.
"That solves the mystery." Genta declared. "That baker is breaking in during the night and destroying Amuro-niisan's cakes."
"So they can't sell their cakes since they taste better?" Ayumi reasoned.
"That makes things simple." Mitsuhiko announced.
"What's simple?" Fumio asked, dread creeping in.
"We'll conduct a stakeout tonight." Mitsuhiko declared.
"Who?" Conan blinked.
"Us, of course." Genta dug out his Detective Badge, Mitsuhiko and Ayumi following suit. "The Detective Boys."
"You can't." Azusa chided the enthusiastic children. "You're children."
"It's all right." Mitsuhiko assured. "We can do it."
"Do you not care if you never get to eat Amuro-niisan's cake again?" Genta glared at Conan.
"That can't happen." Ayumi insisted. "We have to catch the culprit."
Both Conan and Fumio exchanged looks and sighed in resignation.
"I'm blaming you for this, Conan." Fumio shot the bespectacled boy across him a look.
"Whatever." Conan shrugged. "Azusa-san, can we set up a camera here tonight?"
"A camera here?" Azusa echoed.
"You don't need to do that." Amuro argued.
"This is the store's problem." Azusa agreed.
"But..." Ayumi pouted.
"Don't worry." Amuro assured. "I'll feed all of you delicious cake soon."
"Have you came up with a solution already, tou-san?" Fumio asked his father. "Or have you been experimenting again?"
"I've got an idea." Amuro grinned at his son.
"Tou-san, you do know kaa-san won't mind you borrowing her fridge space, right?" Fumio reminded.
Silence...
Fumio just sighed. Adults...
In class, the following week...
"I set up a camera watching Poirot for three days after that." Conan informed the group as they watched the camera footage after school.
"We can't see the store." Mitsuhiko noted, noticing the cafe window was fogged up.
"It's hard to tell from this video." Conan mused. "It happened twice out of three days. The first time was for 11 seconds at 1 am on the 21st. The second time was 12 seconds at 2:26am today, the 23rd."
"The 21st and today?" Azusa echoed, meeting up with the kids later. "Those are both days the cakes melted."
"We knew it." Mitsuhiko and Ayumi looked at each other.
"In other words, it's likely something happened during the time we couldn't see inside the store." Conan reasoned.
"I know." Ayumi piped in. "The culprit came in during the time and melted the cakes."
"But the store was locked." Azusa reminded.
"Are there any signs the lock was broken?" Mitsuhiko asked.
"No, there aren't." Azusa answered.
"In other words, this is an impossible crime." Mitsuhiko declared. "Or else the culprit's someone who has the key."
"No way Azusa-neesan could've done it." Fumio voiced.
"Fumio..." Mitsuhiko looked at the blond boy at the counter.
"In under 15 seconds." Fumio quirked a brow at the freckled boy.
"That's kind of true..." Genta agreed.
"Why am I the one who has to point out the obvious?" Fumio bemoaned.
"Hey, there's always a car passing by when we can't see inside the store." Genta pointed out.
"Yeah." Conan noted. "What of it?"
"It always passes by when we can't see inside the other stores, too." Genta stated.
"Is that the culprit's car?" Ayumi asked.
"It's possible." Mitsuhiko agreed. "Right, Conan?"
"Yeah, but cars pass by even on days when the cakes don't melt." Conan stated. "We can't draw any conclusions from this."
"But it happens every time the cakes melt." Mitsuhiko pointed out.
"It must be connected." Ayumi declared.
"Hey, Conan." Fumio voiced. "Can you ask the Professor to make the car easier to see? I might have a plausible theory to explain this, but I need to ascertain what kind of car it is"
"Well, we don't any other clues." Conan relented. "All right."
The next day...
"Ayumi was right." Conan declared. "The cakes melted when we couldn't see anything inside the store."
"But why couldn't we see inside?" Ayumi wondered.
"Because the windows fogged up." Conan answered.
"Why?" Mitsuhiko pressed.
"Because of this." Fumio led the group behind the counter and pointed to the electric kettle. "This kettle expels steam when the water boils, doesn't it?"
"Is that what made the windows fog up?" Azusa blinked.
"Yup." Fumio nodded.
"And this electric kettle is a loT appliance, right?" Conan asked.
"So you used your phone to boil the water." Ran looked at the older woman.
"I got it." Ayumi cut in. "She was turning the kettle on using her phone during the night."
"That makes it possible to melt the cakes without being in the store." Mitsuhiko added.
"It's not Azusa-neesan." Fumio droned. "The culprit was reflected in the windows of the store."
"We talked to the taxi driver of the car." Conan confirmed. "Every night after midnight, he naps near Poirot. When he's radioed by dispatch, he passes by in front of Poirot. The window fogged up by the steam from the electric kettle makes it reflective like a mirror, reflecting the taxi passing in front of the store. When I examined the time he was radioed, it was the times the window fogged up. In other words, it matched the days the cakes melted."
"So, did the taxi driver do it?" Genta pressed.
"To be more precise, the culprit is..." Fumio answered.
"The culprit is the taxi's radio." Amuro cut in. "Right?"
"Yup." Fumio nodded. "The kettle's electrical circuits were being activated by the taxi's radio. The frequency of the taxi's radio and the on/off switch of kettle matched coincidentally."
"Is that possible?" Mitsuhiko blinked.
"It's called radio-frequency interference." Amuro explained. "It happens all the time."
"It's what happened to the drone that flew on its own at the Professor's." Conan added. "You were talking to me with your badge, remember?"
"That's it." Mitsuhiko gasped. "Our badges were causing radio-frequency interference with the drone."
"Yeah." Conan nodded. "These badges have a broad range, so their radio waves must be strong."
"We'd better tell the Professor to change the drone's frequency, then." Fumio suggested.
"And that radio-frequency interference was causing the cakes to melt." Conan went back to the case on hand.
"How?" Azusa blinked.
"The kettle is always kept here, right?" Fumio asked. "And since the kettle expels steam when it boils, the hot vapor is drawn into the vent of the refrigerator and turning the fridge's insides into a sauna for the few seconds the windows are fogged up. That was what made the cakes melt and when they were refrozen that way..."
"Then, I'd better stop using this." Azusa took the kettle.
"Couldn't you put it somewhere else?" Ran suggested.
"And I see tou-san's done with his experimental cake." Fumio beamed at his father.
"But it's a slightly different cake now." Amuro winked.
"It's a half-baked cake that's melted from the start." Amuro presented his new creation.
"It looks like a shriveled cake." Mitsuhiko noted.
"It's made that way on purpose." Amuro explained. "But the sponge inside is cooked." he cut the cake into half, letting the cream inside spill out.
"So, the solution you mentioned..." Fumio blinked at the older man.
"Yeah." Amuro nodded. "With these, unlike cakes that are already frosted, I can store the cream and cake separately. I just have to add the cream and fruit before serving them to customers. And now, you can tell them apart from the cakes from that other bakery."
"Hey!" Mouri entered the cafe. "You've got something tasty looking there."
"In that case, why don't all of you try it?" Amuro beamed.
"That's right." Mouri suddenly recalled the reason he was there. "I forgot why I came here. Here." he handed the notice over to Azusa. "It's for next month's Tokyo Summit."
"Those roads are going to be closed the day of the Summit." Mouri explained.
"Azusa-san, I have told the manager, but I'm taking that day off." Amuro informed his co-worker.
"Amuro-san." Conan whispered to the older man. "Mizuno-san is also involved in the Summit's security, like you are, right? Then Fumio..."
"Ami would make the arrangements, I suppose." Amuro wondered.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.