SailorStar9: So with Chapter 102 uploaded, this is Chapter 103 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 103: Ballad of the Woman Who Loved Cake
Time passes, one afternoon...
"I'm absolutely certain." Mitsuhiko confirmed, he, Ayumi and Genta entered a mansion one afternoon "It's this building."
"Just the thought of this mansion becoming a factory that makes tasty cakes..." Genta added.
"It's kind of exciting." Ayumi agreed. "Isn't that..." she spotted a body buried under a pile of rubble.
"Is that real?" Genta muttered.
The three then let out a frightened squeal when the 'corpse' freed itself and the three Detective Boys passed out from fear.
"This should be the place." Fumio noted, he and Conan were approaching the mansion, the two boys seeing a red convertible drive pass.
"Pull yourselves together, you guys." Conan shook the other three awake once he and Fumio located the trio. "What happened? A corpse came back to life?" he echoed after the three related what they saw.
"It's true, Conan." Genta insisted.
"A hand reached out from underneath the debris." Mitsuhiko added.
"It started moving and a woman in red emerged." Ayumi continued, Fumio slotting a string thread into a clear plastic ziplock bag.
"Looks like that zombie was injured." Conan noted, spotting the trail of blood drops leading to the door.
"If we follow this trail of blood..." Ayumi started, Conan leading the others out.
"Then we'll learn the true identity of that zombie lady." Mitsuhiko concluded.
In front of a West Confections Paradise branch...
"Isn't this place..." Conan frowned, the blood trail leading them to the cake store. Isn't that woman... he spotted Ito Yayoi eating a slice of strawberry cake. The same woman is in the same seat eating the same cake as last week.
"She's pretty." Mitsuhiko gawked.
"But she's wearing such dirty clothes." Genta pointed out.
"Those stains..." Conan mused.
"Aren't they a similar color to that debris?" Mitsuhiko wondered.
"Then maybe..." Ayumi breathed.
"She's the lady zombie?" Genta exclaimed.
"Her ankle is injured." Mitsuhiko noted the bloodstain on Ito's high-ankle sock.
"It's gotta be her." Genta determined.
"After her." Conan instructed.
After a while...
"She entered a building." Genta pointed out.
"This is Western Confections Paradise's main factory." Conan supplied.
"In other words, she's Western Confections Paradise's employee?" Fumio wondered.
Conan managed to find a back entrance for them to sneak in when they suddenly heard a horrified scream.
"What's the matter, Yayoi?" Ogawa Hiroshi hurried to the scene.
"The president..." Ito stammered.
"Onii-chan!" Ogawa kicked off his shoes and hurried into the house. "Call the police." he informed Ito, before picking up a handkerchief that was dropped beside Ogawa Akira. "And let everyone in the office know about this. I'll tell my wife."
"This has turned into a serious situation." aside, Mitsuhiko noted.
"Do you think the lady zombie is connected to the case?" Genta wondered.
"I don't know yet." Conan admitted.
"Let's split up and gather information." Mitsuhiko suggested. "Detective Boys, roll out."
A while later...
"The deceased is Western Confections Paradise company president, Ogawa Akira, 35 years old." Takagi reported. "He apparently suffocated to death when his face was pushed into a sink filled with red bean paste."
"What an eccentric murder." Megure noted. "Was the victim making huge amount of read bean soup or something?"
"Despite being the president of a Western confections factory, he apparently had become absorbed in Japanese sweets-making recently." Mori supplied. "Imagine being killed by the red bean paste you made yourself."
"What are you doing here?" Megure asked.
"I thought I'd assist with the investigation since I'm already here to pick up the kids as their guardian." Mori answered. "So, where's the boy?"
"He was around here a while ago." Takagi blinked.
"Inspector, I've brought the people who discovered the body." an office reported.
"I'm sorry to trouble you when you're already tired, but we have a few questions for you." Megure started the questioning. "You're the victim Ogawa Akira's younger brother and Vice President, Ogawa Hiroshi and the president's secretary, Ito Yayoi, correct? The estimated time of death is 12 pm."
"It's not that you're suspects." Takagi added. "But where were you at that time?"
"Around that time, I was crushed beneath some concrete." Ito answered. "At the ruined building where we're planning to build our new factory. I was supposed to meet the president there. We were going to elope. We were in love. But no matter how long I waited, the president never showed up. I became overwhelmed by sadness and went on a violet rampage. Then the concrete fell, crushing me beneath it. Apparently, I was unconscious for some time until I was awoken by the dreadful voices of the Detective Boys. Those children can attest to what happened after that."
"Hiroshi, where were you doing around that time?" Takagi inquired.
"I returned to my apartment to have lunch with my wife." Hiroshi answered. "We had last night's leftover sukiyaki over rice."
"Conan." Mitsuhiko whispered behind a nearby bush.
"How'd it go" Conan asked.
"A lot of facts have come to light." Mitsuhiko answered. "The president is trying to develop Japanese sweets to sell at Western Confections Paradise, but the VP was strongly opposed which caused friction between them."
With the police...
"Hiroshi." Ogawa Hanako hurried to the scene.
"Hanako, over here." Hiroshi gestured to his wife.
With Conan...
"His wife sided with the VP and also opposed the president." Mitsuhiko continued.
With the police...
"Madam, where were you around 12 pm today?" Takagi questioned.
"I was at home with Hiroshi." Hanako answered. "We were eating beef bowls for lunch."
With Conan...
She's matching her husband's lie and fabricating an alibi. Conan realized. The VP and his wife both think the other did it and are protecting each other.
"The VP's wife is a rude lady." Ayumi complained. "She bumped into me when she got out of her red car at the bottom of the steps. But she smelled nice, like she'd just gotten out of the shower after shampooing her hair."
"We got a bunch of information, too." Fumio piped in.
"Apparently, the murdered president planned to convince the VP and his wife who opposed him and build a Japanese sweets factory in that ruined building." Genta reported.
With the police...
"Anyway, Ito, you seem to know a a lot of the situation at your company and the conditions of your employees." Megure pointed out.
"Though my title is the president's secretary, I'm responsible for taking care of the entire company." Ito explained.
"She always assists us with the details." Hiroshi added.
With Conan...
"You know, that lady..." Ayumi started.
"Isn't a zombie after all." Genta noted.
"She's an ordinary pretty woman." Mitsuhiko agreed.
"Come to think of it, she said she was grateful your terrified voices woke her up." Conan remarked.
"The thing is..." Ayumi recalled.
"It was actually..." Genta continued.
"The other way around." Mitsuhiko admitted. "We did scream in terror."
"But that was because she came back to life." Genta stated.
"Guys, tell me more about it." Conan pressed.
With the police...
"Everyone, if you could please wait down below." Takagi voiced, after the questioning was over.
"Confirm their alibis." Megure insisted.
With the three sweets store employees...
"We need to discuss what we're going to do next." Ito decided. "Let's hold an emergency meeting in your office."
"Right now?" Hanako gaped.
"The sooner, the better." Ito insisted. "I'm sure we'll come up with a good solution while eating something sweet."
"What's wrong with that kid?" Hiroshi growled, his attention was diverted by Conan using the reflected sunlight using his Detective Boys Badge. "How did you get in here?" he chased after the fleeing Conan. "What's your problem?" he managed to catch up with Conan.
"Your wife didn't do it." Conan informed.
In the Vice President's office later...
"Hiroshi, what was that about?" Hanako asked when Hiroshi entered his office.
"Apparently, some kids had entered the woods." Hiroshi replied. "But I couldn't find them."
"It was probably the Detective Boys." Ito voiced, serving up two slices of matcha cake. "I need to contact someone regarding something. You two go ahead and eat without me. I'll be right back."
In the main building...
"Where did that kid go?" Mori walked through a passageway. "You kids." he spotted Fumio, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Genta in front of a large viewing window of the bakery kitchen. "It's just you kids. Where's four-eyes."
"He went that way." the four kids pointed down the corridor.
"Detective Takagi." Conan voiced before Takagi.
"Conan." Takagi gawked." Mori's been looking for you."
"Sure." Conan nodded. "Anyway, he said he wanted forensics to look into something for him."
In the Vice President's office...
"Excuse me." Ito entered the office and spotted both Hiroshi and Hanako collapsed on the table, before letting out a satisfied grin.
In front of the bakery kitchen...
"Do the Detective Boys like cakes as well?" Ito spotted the quartet in front of the window.
"Yeah." the four chorused.
"I enjoy cake, too." Ito admitted. "Or rather, I love it dearly. I haven't thanked you yet. For testifying that you found me crushed beneath concrete in the ruined building. I sensed you fearfully entering the ruined building then."
"We were laughing then." Mitsuhiko corrected.
"Then a woman came back to life." Ayumi added.
"You used the Detective Boys to fabricate an alibi." Conan cut in. "Isn't that right?"
"I finally found you." Mori caught up with Conan. "How dare you be wandering about the crime scene like some little wandering..." he was cut off when Conan shot his tranquilizer dart into his neck.
"This case is the sad ballad of a woman who loves cake." Conan started his deduction after Fumio and Genta settled Mori against the wall. "This ballad started one week ago at the Western Confections Paradise cake shop in Haido City when the woman who loves cake learned of the Detective Boys' plan to explore a ruined building. This morning, the woman who loves cake went to said ruined building using a long thread and plywood boards, she rigged some debris to fall automatically. Fumio found some of this contrivance in the ruined structure. On the path between the ruined building and Western Confections Paradise, she left a trail of blood beforehand so the Detective Boys would follow it. She returned to the office and waited for the right moment to speak to the VP's wife. The VP's wife headed to the ruined building in a red car where she triggered the tripwire and was crushed beneath the debris. And then, awoken by the laughter of the Detective Boys who had arrived, she failed to notice their presence and hastily left out of fear. At that time, Conan and Fumio saw a red car driving down the hill. Since the VP's wife didn't return to the office until after the murder, she must've returned home and taken a shower. Meanwhile, the woman who loves cake headed to the president's office as though nothing had happened. She waited for an opportunity to kill the president, left behind the VP's wife's handkerchief she'd stolen beforehand and left. The VP and his wife suspected each other. The lies they told ultimately fabricated an alibi for the woman who loves cake. For the woman who loves cake, predicting the VP and his wife's actions and manipulating them was a simple task. After all, she's the secretary. Then, the woman who loves cake waited. She wore clothes similar to the VP's wife, stained her ankle with blood, and ate cake while she waited, as though waiting for a lover, for the Detective Boys to follow the trail. And that's how the Detective Boys were used to fabricate an alibi for the sad woman who loves cake."
"What proof is there that I killed the president?" Ito demanded.
"You're right, there's no evidence." Conan admitted. "But what about the VP and his wife's testimony? I know the woman who loves cake poisoned the VP and his wife and tried to kill them. What do you see on the other side of the glass?"
"But how..." Ito was stunned to see both Hiroshi and Hanako unharmed and working in the kitchen.
"I told them." Conan replied, turning off the voice-changing bow-tie. "I had them pretend to be poisoned without eating the matcha cake. The police told me earlier that they found poison in the cake."
"I couldn't forgive the president." Ito sank to her knees. "How could my beloved Western Confections Paradise make Japanese sweets of all things? At first, they opposed the idea, but the VP and his wife were just as guilty for accepting the president's suggestion. Western Confections Paradise was my dream, and my precious Western Confections Paradise needed to be a paradise of Western confections, true to its name."
"We heard everything." Megure entered with Takagi.
"Ito Yayoi, could you tell use more about that elsewhere?" Takagi requested.
SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.