SailorStar9: With Chapter 147 posted, I present Chapter 148 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 148:The Detective Boys and the Traditional Dream House

Time passes...

The Detective Boys were in the Haga's new residence, cementing the walls.

"Don't you think I did a pretty good job?" Mitsuhiko bragged, smoothing cement on the portion of the wall in front of him.

"You did a great job." Haga Akari praised. "In contrast..." she turned teasingly to her husband.

"I'm not used to it." Haga Akito complained.

"Akito, the wall in front of you..." Akari noticed the blackened stain on the wall. "Doesn't it look stained?"

"What is this?" Akito pressed his cement trowel against the wall. "It's hollow back there." he added, breaking a hole in the wall.

"Let's see what's inside." Mitsuhiko suddenly got excited.

However, when they widened the hole, everyone were horrified to find a skeleton hidden inside.

After Megure's team was called in...

"The body is mostly a skeleton." Takagi commented. "It'll take a while to determine the time of death."

"Forensics believes the body is was originally put in a small storeroom, which was sealed over with a wall." Chiba supplied.

Pajamas? Conan was befuddled by the body's unusual clothing choice.

"I can't believe this." Akari turned her ire to her husband. "This house you chose without discussing with me turns out to be a crime scene."

"Akito-san." Conan piped in. "We have some questions for you."

"I'm sorry this happened when you came to help." Akari reined back her anger.

"What do you want to ask?" Akito inquired.

"When was this house put for sale?" Conan asked.

"About a month and a half ago, I think." Akito recalled.

"Then, why the sudden decision to buy this house?" Fumio pressed.

"It's always been my dream to live in a traditional house." Akito explained.

"It was news to me, but my husband insisted." Akari added.

"I've always liked this place." Akito admitted. "Then when I saw the 'For Sale' sign, I jumped at the opportunity and bought it, and it was the right choice. The yard is so nice, too. It's old, but the house is solid. I thought if we did the repairs ourselves, we'd develop an attachment to it."

"Do you know anything about the previous residents?" Conan asked.

"Not much." Akito frowned. "Apparently, they just moved out suddenly."

"Well?" Mitsuhiko led the Detective Boys to the stone lantern by the pond.

"The lantern's fire box is placed upside down." Fumio peered closer. "Look closer." he pointed. "The candle stand is on top. I'm concerned about the skeleton in the wall." he turned to their team leader.

"Me too." Conan agreed. "If we can figure out why the body was buried in the wall, that should lead us to the culprit."

"You're curious about the previous residents." Haibara guessed.

"The body was barefoot and dressed in pajamas." Conan stated. "It's likely that they used to live here."

"The neighbors should know something." Fumio pondered.

In front of an apartment building...

"We learned the gardener's wife had been reported missing." Chiba informed the Detective Boys after Takagi led the Haga house's former owner into a police car. "The gardening rope found with the body was determined to be the murder weapon, making the husband a person of interest. As you deduced, the gardener couldn't move his wife's body out of the house because he injured his foot, so he buried her in the wall. He had to move out in a hurry because of the dogs; dogs have keen noses, so he couldn't stay in a house with a body."

With the case seemingly closed, everyone went their separate ways.

"Something on your mind, Leader?" Fumio noticed Conan's contemplating look.

"I wonder why Akito-san wanted to live in that traditional house." Conan pondered.

"Regardless his taste, it didn't seem attractive enough to buy in a hurry." Haibara agreed.

"Didn't he say about liking the yard?" Fumio reminded.

Leaving the other three to check up on the Haga couple, Conan, Haibara and Fumio went around the neighborhood again to gather more information.

After that evening...

"So, that's how it is." Haibara mused, the trio managed to piece together what actually happened.

"Conan-kun,Fumio-kun, Haibara-san." Mitsuhiko noticed the other three.

"We were having a snack with Akari-san." Genta added.

"At the traditional house?" Haibara frowned.

"Was Akito-san present?" Fumio pressed.

"Akito-san had gone shopping at the hardware store and just returned." Mitsuhiko replied. "He looks eager to repair the walls and bought a bunch of materials."

"He's making his move." Fumio gasped.

"Hurry." Conan barked. "We're going back to the house."

Back at the traditional house...

"It's been a while." Akito dug up a metal briefcase from the yard after dismantling the stone lantern. "It's not here." he exclaimed in shock, after opening the briefcase and finding it filled with dirt. "What's going on? My money..."

With the Detective Boys...

"That house used to belong to a company president." Conan explained. "The parking lot across from the house used to be where his company was. Eight years ago, someone stole 50 million yen from his company office. The president saw a suspicious figure and reported them right away. But the culprit was never arrested and the money was never found. The culprit hide the money on the spot and managed to escape. The company went bankrupt because of the theft. The president lost his house, too."

"But where did the culprit hide the money?" Mitsuhiko asked.

"It's under the stone lantern." Fumio replied.

"The president who lived there used that lantern on a daily basis." Conan continued. "In other words, at some point, it was disassembled and put back together wrong."

"But we don't know who the thief is." Genta pointed out.

"But there's someone who recently gained access to that lantern." Haibara reminded.

"He didn't have to buy the whole house." Mitsuhiko was confused. "Couldn't he have just gone to recover the money?"

"He probably tried that multiple times." Conan answered. "But, it wasn't that simple."

Back at the traditional house...

"Stop!" Conan yelled, just in time to see Akito about to strangle Akari.

An ejected soccer ball from the 'Anywhere Ball Dispensing Belt' was sent flying towards Akito's face, sending him backwards to the ground.

"It's not what it looks like." Akito stammered, getting to his feet. "We were just having a couple's quarrel."

"Looks like the money's long gone." Fumio noticed the empty briefcase.

"It's just simple deduction." Conan stepped in. "The previous resident of this home was a gardener. Naturally, he'd notice right away that the stone lantern's fire box was upside down. Wondering why the lantern had been disassembled and put back together again, the gardener dug beneath the lantern. To his surprise, he found a duralumin case full of money. Anyone who knew about the theft at the company across the street could easily deduce where the money came from. So after retrieving the money ,he put the lantern back the way it had been."

"Why?" Ayumi blinked.

"To make Akito-san believe the money was still untouched." Fumio answered. "Since, there's no telling what he'd do to the gardener once he found out the money was gone."

"Then, those dogs were..." Akito realized.

"Yup, those were guard dogs meant to keep you away from the lantern." Fumio confirmed.

"In the end, the gardener and his wife ran into trouble over the money they acquired, leading to the murder." Conan added.

"I'm sure it did." Akito smirked. "Money changes people. It changed me, too. I lost my composure a bit."

"You didn't lose your composure." Conan corrected. "You meant to kill Akari-san from the start."

"I clearly remember the excess cement bags in the room that was being repaired." Fumio supplied.

"You planned to kill Akari-san and bury her somewhere in the house while retrieving the money." Conan continued. "So, you were genuinely shocked when we found a body in the walls; someone had already done what you planned to do. But you came up with another idea: you'd bury Akari-san's body in that hole. Nobody would expect a second body to be buried in the same wall. You found the perfect hiding spot."

"That would explain the excess materials." Fumio nodded.

"Haga Akito." Chiba brought down the raging Akito. "You're under arrest for attempted murder."

SailorStar9: Any OOC-ness is regretted, by the way. *Sighs* Don't you just hate plot bunnies sometimes? Read and review.