SailorStar9: So with Chapter 98 uploaded, this is Chapter 99 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 99: Picking Wild Plants and Clovers, Part Two
"Someone built a grand villa here." Detective Yamamura noted, his subordinate having taken him to the bungalow from where the tracks started from. "And in front of the gate, there's a bloodstain?"
"It would seem that this was the scene of the murder." Yamamura's assistant remarked. "The weapon was probably a 20 cm-long kitchen knife. It was wrapped in newspaper and left in a garbage bag inside the villa."
"Was anyone inside the house?" Yamamura inquired.
"Inside a closet, we found a rather weak woman whose hands were covered in blood." Yamamura's assistant answered. "She's currently being taken to the station for questioning. She says she's Uruma Shigefumi's girlfriend but had nothing to do with the murder. She remembers last night up until she had some wine. When she woke up, she was trapped inside the closet. Her fear of dark spaces made her panic, so she couldn't get out. But there wasn't any wine in the villa and the closet wasn't locked. It's possible she's making it up."
"This place is less than 50 meters away from where the body was discovered." Yamamura pondered. "A woman would be strong enough to drag the body there. In other words, that woman got into a fight with the victim and killed him." he theorized. "But she didn't know what to do with the body. Some people picking wild plants showed up in a car. Among them was a woman the victim was trying to con. Believing that she could frame that woman, she dragged the body to the car. But the body was discovered sooner than she expected and the police arrived right away, so she hid herself inside the closet."
"I don't think that's right." Conan cut in. "After all, that woman's hands were covered in that man's blood, right? If a weak woman wanted to drag a body, she'd carry it by the legs. But there weren't any bloody hand prints on the body's pants."
In the thicket...
"You shouldn't be wandering around the crime scene." Yamamura chided, carrying Conan back to the others. "Sensei." he called out. "Please keep an eye on your children."
"Got caught, didn't you?" Fumio teased.
"Shut up." Conan muttered. A four-leaf clover? He spotted a four-leaf clover near his feet.
"But how?" Fumio frowned, both boys kneeling down for a closer look.
"Wait a minute." Conan recalled. If this is the four-leaf clover Ayumi found, then all those unassembled cardboard boxes in the car and the dirt on her right arm up to her elbow... could it be? I knew it. He turned to see the tire tracks on the grass. There are tire tracks behind the tires. I'm certain of it. She's the culprit. She brought us here so we would find it: this body that she made appear, as though by magic.
"There's a lot about that case that's puzzling but when you came here and parked your car, as this photo shows, there isn't anything near the car." Yamamura presented the photo. "If the body was placed against the tree behind the car while you were picking wild plants, then while you were distracted by your plant harvesting, someone must have secretly left the body here. Since the victim attempted to con your with marriage fraud, they must've tried to frame you."
"No..." Zenda gaped.
"So, have you figured out who the culprit is?" Kobayashi-sensei asked.
"It was probably the woman claiming to be the victim's girlfriend who we found hiding inside the closet of the victim's villa through these woods." Yamamura nodded.
"But weren't that woman's hands covered in blood?" Conan questioned. "If she moved the body, her bloody hand prints should be on it."
"You mentioned it earlier." Yamamura conceded. "She probably washed her hands before moving the body. But since the police arrived sooner than she anticipated, she panicked and accidentally touched the bloody knife with her bare hands while putting it in a trash bag."
"But if she had time to do that, wouldn't she have fled the scene?" Conan deathpanned.
"I'm telling you, she panicked." Yamamura insisted. "In any case, we'll handle the rest of the investigation. You are all free to leave for the day."
I don't have a choice. Conan sighed. I didn't want to do this in front of Wakasa-sensei, but... "Inspector Yamamura," he spoke up. "Over here." he pulled the detective off. "It's right here." he pointed to the tree trunk the body was lying under. "Look closely." he backed off slightly as Yamamura leaned forward, before firing the tranquilizer dart into the detective's neck. "Inspector Yamamura?" he sat the detective right. "Are you okay?"
"Is something the matter, Inspector?" Yamamura's assistant approached.
"You're damn right something's the matter." switching over to Yamamura's voice, Conan answered. "I set up the joke for you guys, but you didn't correct me. The idea that the culprit left the body here while they were picking wild plants is a huge joke. After all, the body was right here where I'm sitting now the whole time. Naturally, it was here long before they came to pick wild plants."
"Didn't you just say there wasn't anything here before we arrived?" Genta pressed.
"Besides, didn't you check earlier?" Zenda inquired. "There wasn't a body in the photo we took when we arrived. So why?"
"Of course it wasn't in the photo." Conan assured. "At that time, the body was hidden behind the car."
"What are you talking about?" Kobayashi-sensei demanded. "Are you saying someone moved the car while we were picking wild plants?"
"Remember what we said?" Haibara cut in. "We didn't hear the sound of the car's engine then."
"It's possible to move the car without starting the engine." Conan refuted. "Even for a little girl like you. A picture is worth a thousand words. Why don't we perform an experiment? You there." he addressed Yamamura's assistant. "Could you borrow the car keys and do as I say? Also, make sure you write down my deduction so we don't forget it. Once you're seated in the driver's seat, insert the keys into the ignition. Turn the key to the 'ON' position one step before 'START'. Depress the brake pedal while unlocking the gear shift and shift from park to neutral. Once you've done that, you can get out of the car. Leave the key in the ignition. Now we're about to begin. Kobayashi-sensei, could you please move the car towards me?"
"I can't do that." Kobayashi-sensei protested. "I don't have a license."
"It's all right." Conan assured. "Simply put your hand on top of the front tire and push it."
"I don't think this will work." Kobayashi-sensei was skeptical, kneeling beside the tire.
"But how?" Haibara was shocked to see Kobayashi-sensei shift the car backwards.
"The tires are linked together." Conan explained. "You can easily move all of them with only the strength required to move one. So when you took the photo when you arrived, the body was probably hidden behind the car like this."
"Then, the tree that was behind the car when we took the photo was that tree." Haibara reasoned, pointing to the tree beside the tree Yamamura was lying against.
"And because of the cardboard lying against the car windows, we couldn't see the body against the tree." Fumio nodded.
"Yes." Conan responded. "And to prove it, the thing Ayumi was looking for was right next to the front tire."
"It's the four-leaf clover." Ayumi exclaimed, spotting the clover.
"But what is it doing here?" Mitsuhiko wondered as he and Genta ran over.
"The reason you couldn't find it earlier, no matter how hard you looked, was because the car had moved slightly." Conan stated. "In other words, this is where the car was parked when you took that photo. Another piece of evidence is the tire tracks left behind the rear tires when the car was moved forward. I asked the forensics team to take some photos. There's only one person who could've done this: only one person who could've parked the car here and pushed the front tire to move the car. Zenda Maika, it could only have been you. First, roughly six hours ago, you took the victim to his villa roughly 50 meters from here and stabbed him with a knife. You dragged the body through the wood and left it here where I'm leaning now. Then you picked up Conan and his classmates who came to check things out for their wild plant picking class in your car and parked it in its current position so the body would be hidden. After parking the car here, Zenda left the car in neutral instead of park, turned off the engine and left the key in the ignition when she exited the car. Once she took a photo that made it look like there was no body next to the car, she was ready to go. She simply waited for someone to say they were thirsty and invited a child to go with her to retrieve the drinks in the car. After getting the bags containing the drinks out of the car, she claimed to have lost her earring. While pretending to look for her earring with the child, she used her right hand to turn the tire and slowly move the car, making the body appear like magic. Kobayashi-sensei, you have dirt on your left arm right up to your elbow, right?"
"Yes, I do." Kobayashi-sensei confirmed. "How did this happen?"
"It's because you used your left hand to rotate the tire." Conan answered. "There should be a similar stain on Zenda's elbow. There should be mud on her right elbow because she used her right hand to rotate the tire. A very strange stain to acquire if all she was doing was searching for an earring on the ground. Additionally, you're probably also the person who trapped the victim's girlfriend inside the closet at his villa. You heard about her love for wine, and fear of dark, cramped places. You knew the victim you were meeting early this morning probably won't drink the wine, so last night, you gave him the drugged wine, knowing only she would drink it and fall asleep. After stabbing the victim, you used his key to enter the villa, wiped the victim's blood on the sleeping woman's hands, and stuffed her inside the closet. That way, even if she woke up, her fear of dark, cramped places would keep her trapped inside the closet until the police found her. By leaving the knife in a garbage bag at the villa and taking the wine with you, you ruined the credibility of her statement and were able to frame her. Judging by how much the victim bled, the culprit was probably covered in his blood. When you killed him, if you drove this car here with the victim, it should probably turn up somewhere on the driver's seat. Wiping the seat down isn't enough to get rid of a luminol reaction."
"You're wrong!" Ayumi protested. "Zenda-sensei really was looking for her earring. The car didn't move then. I wanted to give this four-leaf clover to Zenda-sensei." she sobbed, looking at the plucked clover in her hand. "There's no way she did it."
"Yoshida." Zenda breathed in resignation. "I'm sorry. I can't accept your four-leaf clover. I'm a bad person who took someone's life. I don't deserve good fortune before I'm punished for that. So you should give that to someone you want to make happy."
"Zenda-sensei, are you saying you really killed that man?" Kobayashi-sensei was stunned.
"Yes." Zenda admitted. "Because I realized he was a con artist who commits marriage fraud. I plotted to kill him and frame his girlfriend for it. But quitting my teaching job was a right choice. I used a child to fabricate an alibi for my own crime. I've failed as a teacher."
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.