Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Kidnapped ( Chapter 35 )

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kidnapped

“Vermouth?” Kaito said quietly. “Wait... you're one of Them. The Shadow Syndicate.”

“Oh, yes,” Vermouth said softly. “I've been a Raven since before you were born.”

“But if you were with Them,” Kaito said, “and you knew Tou-san... knew who he was...”

“We met only once, when you were very small,” she said. “I doubt you remember me. I was calling myself Sharon Vineyard back then, and I was a good friend of Toichi-sensei's... though I'm sure that's no longer true. I do feel genuinely sorry for my inadvertent part in his death, however.”

“So it was you,” Kaito stated quietly. It wasn't a question. “You sold him out.” Rage ignited behind his Poker Face.

Vermouth fired, hitting the ground barely an inch in front of Kaito's foot as he lunged forwards. Not a muscle on Kaito's face twitched as he stilled, though he was sure his Poker Face would soon melt under the rage burning behind it. “It's all her fault.”

“I said inadvertent,” she said, re-aiming the gun at his head, “And I do regret it, believe me, although I doubt you will. If it's any consolation, I'm the one who made them believe that it was Toichi-sensei they were looking for, and not you.”

“Save your breath,” Kaito spat bitterly. “You're all murderers. I won't forgive you for what you've done, so don't even try. I will destroy the Pandora.”

She tipped her head to the side, her lips curving into an unnerving smile. “Yes, you will, won't you?” she mused, almost patronisingly. “I guess I did make a mistake.”

“What are you on about?” Kaito demanded, slightly flexing his right elbow and feeling something heavy drop into his hand, hiding the wince of pain at the jolting movement. “In the moment she's distracted...”

“Yes, it wouldn't be fair,” she decided aloud, apparently finishing some conversation in her head. She walked back to her motorcycle, gun still trained on Kaito to stop him moving. “Well, it seems you won't accept my apology for my part in Toichi-sensei's death, so I doubt that you'll accept my other apology.”

“Other apology?” Kaito said. “What, were you the one that ran over Kaa-san as well?”

“Oh, no, that's Sake and Gin you want there,” she said, gun still raised as she reached down to the sports bag, half-hidden by the motorbike. “No, I'm afraid I must apologize for using you as bait for my true target.”

“Your true target?” Kaito said, cold fear suddenly gripping his heart. It only squeezed harder when she raised the half-closed bag, showing the sleeping- or dead, he couldn't tell- face inside. A familiar face. A child's face.

Tantei-kun.

“He was waiting here for you for the longest time,” she said sweetly.

“You-!” Kaito roared, lunging forward, forgetting about the gun as he flung his flash grenade at her while pulling on his sunglasses. She'd hidden the gun already, though, zipping the bag completely closed and pulling on a motorcycle helmet with a darkened visor as the flash went off. As the flash illuminated every corner of the parking lot, the shot-out cameras, the fragments of his gun, the limp white shape of a deflated football, she swung the bag over her shoulder as she leapt onto her bike. Kaito ran for her, but it was too late; she gunned the engine, speeding out into the road and roaring into the night. Kaito vaulted the barrier, but her headlights were already vanishing around a distant corner.

“That bitch... she used this heist to... damn it!” sirens were drawing nearer, and people were leaning out of nearby apartments and bars, staring at the parking lot that had been lit up a moment ago. Kaito dove down a side alley, running until he was long out of sight, taking a winding route to the Blue Parrot. “Damn her...”

Then he skidded to a halt, swearing profusely. The fragments of his card gun were still at the lot, he realized, and that deflated football. The police would know that he had been there- that Kid had, anyway. They'd know that Edogawa Conan had been there too. There was evidence of a fight. And before long, it would transpire that Edogawa Conan was missing- vanished when chasing the Kaitou Kid. He was willing to bet that that bitch had shot out the cameras in disguise, so they'd probably assume it was him in disguise. Before long, the Kaitou Kid, renowned for never raising his hand to those who chased him, would be nothing but a child kidnapper. And there was no way for Kaito to give his testimony to the contrary. He just had to pray that people would ask questions about the mystery shooter at the museum- maybe Kudo Yuusaku would link it to when he saw Snake in Osaka. He had to hope.

And he had to find Tantei-kun. He was now certain that the kid was involved with the Shadow Syndicate, possibly even deeper than Kaito was. Even if he wasn't, Kaito couldn't let a kid get killed because of him. “But how do I find him?”

He paused, then changed his course, heading to Beika. “Hold on a moment... I've seen him use those glasses as a tracker. Maybe they release a signal too, or something else he has on him. He was still wearing his glasses when she escaped, although it's probably too much to hope that she won't dispose of anything with a tracker in it at some point... still, I bet that old scientist that he hangs around with... Agasa-Hakase... he made that stuff, didn't he? So maybe he'll have backups...”

Kaito slipped through the shadows, making for 2-22 Beika.

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Yuusaku paused as he neared the parking lot. Something was wrong. He could hear police sirens. The police shouldn't be looking for Kid around here. Had something else happened...?

He froze in surprise when he reached the entrance to the lot. It was blocked off by police cars and yellow tape. Even more surprising, Nakamori was there, yelling at the cops as usual but looking unusually grim.

“Nakamori-kun?” He asked, slipping under the tape. “What happened?”

“Kudo-kun...” Nakamori said, running a hand through his already unruly hair. “It's unprecedented. But then, everything about this heist has been odd...”

“Nakamori-kun?” Yuusaku asked, growing increasingly worried.

“We got called out here about half an hour ago,” Nakamori explained. “The security guy watching the cameras reported that all of the ground-floor cameras were shot out by... well, from what he could see before the cameras were shot, they were shot out by you.”

“That's impossible,” Yuusaku said. “Half an hour ago, I was chasing Kid through the museum with Hakuba-kun.”

“Yes, I don't doubt that,” Nakamori said, “which suggests that it was someone good at disguise- like Kid. The problem is, he was using a real gun.”

“Kid doesn't use real guns,” Yuusaku said slowly. “That card gun's a toy, technically speaking.”

“I know,” Nakamori said, running a hand through his hair again, “but we found his gun here in the lot, broken into pieces... and with a bullet in it. We haven't determined yet if the bullet was actually in the gun and something else broke it, or if someone shot his gun out of his hand... given that guy at the museum, it could be the latter, like Nightmare all over again, but that doesn't explain why Kid shot out the cameras with a real gun and it doesn't explain the other thing we found like the first theory does...”

“What else did you find?” Yuusaku asked, trying to keep his voice calm. Kami, they hadn't expected the Syndicate to be out here, and if Shinichi got here before Kid did, if he was here alone and the Syndicate had tracked Kid the same way they had...

“A deflated football,” Nakamori said quietly. “The patterns mark it as a child's ball. Conan-kun must have followed when Kid left for real. In any case, several people saw a huge flash and heard a bang on the ground floor here about fifteen minutes ago. A few people peeked out of the bar across the street and reported seeing a figure in dark clothes fleeing the scene before the police approached, with a large sports bag on his back. I'm sorry, but all the markers so far mean that either Kid and some partner of his hand a falling out and your nephew got caught in the crossfire... or Kid's decided to drop his “nobody gets hurt” policy.”

“Dammit,” Yuusaku muttered, speed-dialling “Conan's” cell phone. It was turned off, which wasn't too unusual if he was chasing Kid and didn't want to be disturbed, but when he dialled Shinichi's mobile that was turned off too. That was wrong. Shinichi always had that mobile on, especially if he was chasing Kid or similar, because he knew someone would only call that mobile if it was really important. He tried dialling the earring mobile as a last resort, knowing that it couldn't be switched off. It rang for a couple of minutes... then there was a crunch and a dial tone. Yuusaku frantically tried to redial, but all he got was a recorded announcement telling him that the number he had dialled did not exist or was no longer in service. Someone had heard the phone ringing... and destroyed it.

“Damn it!” Yuusaku tried to compose himself as he hurried over to the marked fragments of gun and football, still left lying in the parking lot as officers photographed the crime scene. It was hard. He'd already nearly lost his son once, and now someone had him... if it was really Kid that had taken him, he could relax, because he felt that Kaito wouldn't have kidnapped Shinichi unless it was to protect him... like if Shinichi had been caught in some crossfire between Kaito and the Syndicate. But he knew that it wasn't Kaito, because he wouldn't have destroyed Shinichi's phone as if hiding him; besides, Kaito hadn't been the one who shot out the cameras, because, as he'd told Nakamori, at the time that the cameras had been shot out he and Hakuba had been chasing the real Kid through the museum. Someone else had disguised as him, shot out the cameras and waited here.

Yuusaku knelt down to examine the football. It was one of the temporary inflatable ones that Agasa-Hakase had made, but it wasn't dented like it would have been if Shinichi had kicked it. He had popped out the football, but someone had gotten him before he could kick it. It was probably the same person who had shot out the cameras and shot the gun out of Kaito's hand.

“I didn't think the Syndicate would turn up here...” he thought. “I shouldn't have let him go out alone, damn it... he makes it so easy to forget that he's not an adult anymore...”

“I'm going to go check at Kogoro-kun's place, in case he went home already,” Yuusaku said as he left. He didn't go to the Mori's place yet, though; he knew Shinichi wouldn't be there. Instead, he ran for the car, still parked near the museum, and drove back to Agasa-Hakase's.

“There's no doubt that the one who shot out the cameras is with the Syndicate,” he thought, “and if they're that good at disguises, it can only be ... Sharon.”

He floored it.

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Ai was just leaving the bathroom and heading for bed when the front door burst open. Her first reflex was hide, but she calmed herself when she saw it was Kudo's father in the door. Something was wrong, though. He looked very pale and stern, and Kudo wasn't with him; she'd have thought that he must have gone back to the Mori's already if Yuusaku didn't look so frightened.

“Yuusaku-kun?” Agasa said, coming through from his lab. “What on earth happened?”

“Hakase,” Yuusaku demanded, “do you have spare tracker glasses?”

“Has something happened to Kudo-kun?” Ai asked. “Where is he, anyway?”

“I don't know,” Yuusaku said, “that's why I need the glasses.”

“We have a spare pair here somewhere...” Agasa said, retreating into the lab. A moment later, he reappeared, as white-faced as Yuusaku.

“They're gone,” he said faintly, “and this was left behind.” He held out a small piece of paper. Yuusaku took it, sitting down on the couch to read it. Ai stood on the cushions next to him, leaning over to see it.

I'm afraid I have to borrow these. I will not tolerate the theft of life in my name. They will be returned when he is.

Kid

“Ah,” Yuusaku said. “Disturbingly, that's actually reassuring.”

“What's going on?” Ai demanded. “Has Kid kidnapped Kudo-kun or something?”

“No, but the person who did has framed him for it,” Yuusaku said grimly. “They shot out the security cameras at the parking lot where they got him disguised as me, so that they'd suspect someone good at disguise- specifically, Kid. But Sake turned up at the museum... and as I recall, one of his associates is as good at disguise as Kid, isn't she?”

Ai felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She leaned back from the note, sinking to her knees shakily. “Vermouth,” she croaked. “Oh, Kami, no...”

“Wait- Vermouth's kidnapped him again?” Agasa said in shock. Yuusaku looked at him in surprise. “You remember, when Yukiko-kun and Hattori-kun went to the monster party in his place... Vermouth tranquilized Shinichi with his own watch and escaped with him. But she didn't kill him- she just left him knocked out and ran.”

“What's she up to?” Ai said. “She didn't kill him then, and now she's kidnapped him again- by the way, kidnapping is not Organization policy. You kill targets and either make it look like an accident or a suicide, or make sure the body won't ever be found. They've got furnaces for that at several Organization compounds. So what's she doing?”

“What has she been doing?” Yuusaku said quietly. He seemed to be thinking about something. Then he sighed and got up again. “Well, Kid's on his trail for now and I guess he's got a better chance of tracking him than we do. I'm going to inform Yukiko and Ran-kun that he's missing, and then I think I'll call James-kun. I haven't heard from him in years.”

Ai sat trembling on the couch as he left, Agasa returning to the lab with the intent of building another pair of tracking glasses. She curled up, trembling like she was freezing, even though it was warm enough in the lab.

“Oh, Kami,” she prayed, pressing her head into her knees, fighting to control the shaking. “Please... please let him be all right... please don't let her kill him... please...”

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“What the hell's going on?”

Ginzo slammed his fists into the desk in frustration. The whole thing was wrong, dammit. All of the evidence was pointing to Kid as the kidnapper, but Kid had no reason to do that; as far as Ginzo had seen, he treated the boy more like an annoying kid brother or friendly rival that anything else. The two of them weren't in any sort of life-or-death struggle. So why would he kidnap the boy?

And when did he start using a real gun, anyway? Kid never used real bullets, and he never hurt anybody; in fact, the twice that someone had been killed and Kid had been framed for it, he'd been pretty quick to turn up and out the true criminal. That thought gave Ginzo some comfort- if someone else had taken Conan, they'd have Kid on their ass as well as the police, and though he hated to admit it Kid had a better track record of cornering these guys than they did.

That was the other thing- the shooter at the museum. Was he connected to this? Was it connected to the shadowy figures that had tried to kill Kid? Had the child discovered something about them and...

“Nakamori-keibu?”

“What?” he growled. The nervous-looking (and rightly so, Ginzo was in a mood that was bad even by his standards tonight) young man cleared his throat.

“Umm, it's not technically our department, but we thought you should be informed,” he said. “Kuroba-kun's house burned down.”

“What?!” Ginzo yelled, jumping to his feet. The officer waved his hands nervously.

“No fatalities!” He said quickly. “Aoko-san told us that Kuroba-kun got on a train to Osaka earlier this evening, he wasn't there... The fire department got there fast enough, but they didn't manage to save much. The nebulous seems to have been the kitchen, so they think maybe there was a gas leak or something left on... The house has collapsed but they're digging things out right now. Anything that's survived, a few photo albums, things like that. We just thought you ought to know, since it's a little odd, so soon after their accident and everything...”

“Stop babbling and go,” Ginzo said. The man fled. Ginzo sat down again, staring at the paperwork.

“Gas leak my ass,” he thought. “If that car accident wasn't an accident, then I doubt this was an accident either... the same night as that failed shooting... like someone trying to finish the job...”

He shook himself as the strange old accusations re-entered his head. “Stop it,” he thought. “Toichi-kun's dead, and Kaito... no, I've seen Kaito and Kid at the same time, and anyway, Kaito's been on a train to Osaka since a couple of hours before the heist. Forget about it...”

Still, the odd, nagging suspicions wouldn't go; there were too many coincidences, and while they were explainable, as a police officer Ginzo had no time for coincidences. And he couldn't help wondering if he was just telling himself it was impossible, like he didn't want to know-not just because it meant that his best friend had lied to him, but because it would mean for certain that his friend had been murdered, and Ginzo hadn't been able to stop or solve it. “Damn it, Toichi-kun... if you were in danger... couldn't you have told me? Did you really think I'd just throw you in a cell if your life was at stake? Or was it better to pass the danger on to your son?”

He sighed, standing up again and reaching for his coat. What good were questions to the silence of Toichi's tomb? Maybe he should head down to the Kuroba's... what was left of it anyway. Aoko would probably be there. Then he'd have to contact Yuusaku and find out if there were any leads on Conan.

Still, one mystery remained. Someone brilliant with disguise had shot out those cameras, and that meant that either his theory about the involvement of the shadowy snipers really was wrong, and Kid had taken Conan... or Kid's enemies had someone who was just as good at disguise as Kid. Neither thought was comforting, and either way, this heist was the beginning of a whole new game- and the stakes were starting high.

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*Happy Dance* finally got volume 29, courtesy of Amazon! OMFG IT'S THE BUS HIJACKING CASE! I LOVE that one! Shinichi's little James Bond moment is so cool! Yes, I'm a fangirl for the Heisei Holmes as well as the Heisei Lupin :) and the 3K's case! I almost cried for poor Shinichi when it turned out that Ray was the murderer... I'm glad Heiji got him back on his feet :) I got Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation for the Wii too. I'd heard that it followed the first few volumes of the manga, but it seems to be more of a stand-alone thing, like the movies. No sign of Kid-sama (T_T) but Heiji's on the start screen! OF course, my first thought was “PLEASE say you can change the voices to Japanese...” I don't know, I just hate the English voices. Short answer is, yes you can. Of course, I've been playing it a lot, which is why I still haven't finished Hakuba's profile. Ah well, summer hols start on Friday, I'll have plenty of time then. I haven't gotten to the bit where someone gets murdered yet, but I'm willing to lay good odds that it's Mr Chase.

XD nice shock reaction from Kinsey Adler! I was out for strong shock reactions, because Nakamori's right- this is a whole new ball game... Yes, thankfully Sato escaped the strange name assault. But Kiichiro Numabichi (the murderer who stabbed Shinichi) didn't, somehow. He's Cornelius Graver. What the hell kind of name is that?!

Here's your new chapter, Mel7000!

No biscuit? Well, Vermouth IS a bitch, ObsessedConanFan... cool name, BTW XD It's not a bomb in the bag, but arguably worse news...

It is reminiscent of her comments about Shuu's death, isn't it, FaithlessGirl?

Keep breathing, HaibaraDaiFan XD glad the chapter cheered ya up. Didn't see THAT one coming, did ya? Waitaminnit... did you just say that this is better than THE MEETING? *punches air* sweet! Does that mean you'll stop bugging me about it now? XD

Any specific words, FHP2208? I'm not so good at picking out what'd be too confusing to foreigners beyond stuff like ned (Stands for Non Educated Delinquent), emo (a cross between punk and goth) or Foo (mentioned earlier in the name of a band- it's how Mr T says “Fool”). So can you specify what words were so confusing? Thanks :)

I do not claim to own any of the characters in Meitantei Conan. They are the intellectual property of Aoyama Gosho. All characters, couples and locations, if Canon, will be faithful to the manga, so if you're into fics with weird pairings like Shinichi and Heiji, the back button is at the top there. The fic may not make sense if you have not read up to chapter 696, which you can do at a site called (read between the lines) O/n/e/ma/n/g/a, but I advise you to buy the official Tankoban novels (up to volume 29 are out in English at the time of writing) so that Aoyama-sensei can afford to continue gracing us with his imagination. Now, I hope you enjoy the fic! (If you don't, please see my previous comments re the back button).