Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Ashes to Ashes ( Chapter 36 )

Chapter Thirty-Six

Ashes to Ashes

“Yuusaku-kun,” James said, greeting his old friend with a handshake. “It's been a long time.”

“It has,” Yuusaku said, smiling slightly though he looked a little drawn. “I hear you're an officer these days.”

“So what are you doing here?” James asked, looking over the heap of ashes and blackened debris that several firemen were sifting through. It was a tragic and highly suspicious mess.

“I was about to ask you that,” the novelist said quietly. “Or do you find it as suspicious as I do that the Kuroba's house burns down not even two weeks after the Syndicate attempts to kill them and make it look like an accident?”

“You know about that?” James said sharply, gesturing to Yuusaku to step away from the firefighters before they started talking about the Syndicate. “More to the point- do you mean the Black Organization?”

“The FBI's not the only ones to have noticed the existence of the Shadow Syndicate,” Yuusaku said quietly. “Why, even particularly bright children are catching on to them- you know?”

“You mean Conan-kun?” James said. “Although we're worried about him. We heard that he was kidnapped by, well... Kid.”

“Not quite,” Yuusaku said. “You haven't happened to notice any correlation between odd incidents on Kid heists and Syndicate activity, have you?”

“Jodie suggested something to that effect,” James said. “And I'm starting to think that our information isn't as confidential as we thought.”

“Like I said, the FBI's not the only ones involved,” Yuusaku said, chuckling softly, “and as far as I hear, you and the CIA have only been getting in each other's way. But I could use help from either or indeed both of you. Conan was indeed kidnapped- but we suspect that it was Vermouth, not Kid.”

James swore. Vermouth. He didn't like the idea of telling that to Jodie. She was worried enough about the boy without learning that he was in her hands. “How do you know?”

“Apparently it was me who shot out the cameras,” Yuusaku said, “Which suggests someone brilliant at disguise, since I have a number of witnesses to attest that at the same moment, Hakuba-kun and I were chasing down Kid. And since Kid doesn't use real bullets, like the ones that shot out the camera, it means it was someone who's just as good at disguise as Kid. The only person I know like that is Sharon Vineyard, as I understand it also known as Chris Vineyard or Vermouth. I got all of this from my nephew and son, by the way, so you don't need to be worried about your security being compromised.”

“Nephew and...? Conan-kun's your nephew?”

“Son of a distant cousin. We just say nephew for convenience's sake.”

“And your son... isn't he Kudo Shinichi? The kokosei-tantei who vanished a couple of years ago?”

“He vanished because he saw something he shouldn't have,” Yuusaku said quietly, “and was very nearly silenced for it. They think he's dead and they're not getting any reason to believe otherwise. He's been investigating under an... alias ever since.” There was something odd about how Yuusaku said “alias” that made James suspect that he wasn't telling the whole story. Still, if the kid had managed to hide himself for two years, he was probably doing all right without FBI intervention. But if he had information, the FBI needed it.

“So how is Conan-kun involved?” James asked.

“He... saw it too,” Yuusaku said. “But They don't know he did. He's a sharp and stubborn kid, in case you hadn't noticed. He's been passing information back and forth, and getting into rather more trouble than he should in the process.”

“So Conan-kun's mystery source is Kudo Shinichi?” James asked. “We were worried about how a little kid was getting so much information.”

“Listen,” Yuusaku said urgently. “Very few people know for certain that Shinichi's alive and it's going to stay that way. For now, we have to find Conan.”

“Of course,” James said. “I'll contact Jodie. Our contact is going to call her soon. She might know what Vermouth's done with the boy. I'll keep our operatives across Japan on red alert as well.”

“One other thing,” Yuusaku said. “Kid's tracking him already. If you're on the right track, I'm sure you'll come across him.”

“Any more information that you're willing to share, or are you going to be as reticent as Conan-kun?” James asked ruefully.

“Reticence, I'm afraid,” Yuusaku said with a small smile. “Must be in the blood. But I hope we can help each other. Oh, and one last thing... The one investigating the Syndicate in Osaka is the chief's son, Hattori Heiji. He's escaped detection so far just fine, but Conan mentioned that you were curious so I thought I'd better tell you before you inadvertently exposed him.”

“More and more these days, I get the feeling that the FBI's abilities are not widely regarded,” James grumbled. Yuusaku patted him on the back reassuringly.

“Your legal muscle is respected, if nothing else,” Yuusaku said reassuringly. “Now... I have a few other people to talk to. If you'll excuse me...”

“We should meet up again,” James said. “You know, old friends getting together...”

“Good idea,” Yuusaku said. He waved as he strode away, skirting the edge of the devastation to where a blond boy with Asian features was talking to one of the firemen. James dialled Jodie.

“Jodie-kun,” he said, “two things. Conan-kun's mystery source- It's Kudo Shinichi.”

“So he is involved too. I wondered, but... that explains a lot. What's the other thing?”

“It wasn't Kid who kidnapped Conan-kun- in fact, he's searching for him. It was Vermouth.”

He held the phone away from his ear as Jodie launched into a colourful, bilingual tirade. He gingerly put the phone back as she quietened down, though the rant hadn't quite ended.

“...filthy, soulless, child-murdering...”

“Listen, Jodie-kun,” James said, cutting her off. “Put all the operatives on red alert. Vermouth may be able to disguise herself but Conan-kun won't play along. Besides, apparently Kid's not too happy about having to take the rap for this, and he's tracking them. Both him and Conan-kun are liable to leave signs. This is high-priority, I don't need to tell you.”

“Any idea where she's going?”

“Afraid not. We think she's left Tokyo, although where she's going...”

“Kir's due to call soon, I'll ask her then. Later.”

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“Kuroba's no child kidnapper,” Saguru said quietly. “I'm not saying I like the idiot, but I know him and he wouldn't do something like that- not unless he was doing it to protect the boy, and he wouldn't destroy the cell phone if he was doing that.”

“Did he really leave on that train?” Yuusaku asked. Saguru sighed.

“Of course not,” he said, flicking his fringe aside. “We didn't see him go, we just walked him to the train station. He says he's travelling with a few magicians who were friends of his father's, which clearly means that he'd planned to vanish for a while...”

“I don't think he was planning to vanish to find Conan, though,” Yuusaku said.

Saguru shook his head quickly. “What did I say?” he said. “I think he expected those people to show up, though. They clearly know who he is-” he gestured to the burnt building. “-so I suppose he realized that it would be stupid to stay.” He ran his fingers through his hair again. “I'm thinking of informing Nakamori-keibu about this, but I do worry about how he'll take it if I tell him that his late best friend and his son are the thief that he's been chasing for twenty years. I could give him an abridged version for now, about the snipers, but he's already on the brink of losing his job because he insists on having a hand in investigating Kuroba-kun's “accident”, even though he's been repeatedly warned that it's “not his department”.”

“He already knows about the existence of the snipers, at least,” Yuusaku said, “if not quite who they are or who they work for. On Toichi-kun's last heist, a sniper who was shooting for him hit an officer and killed him. Nakamori-kun tried to investigate back then but he was told, as you said, that it “wasn't his department”. Which means, by the way, that one or more of his superiors is with Them.”

“But he's investigating anyway!” Saguru said. “Kami, he's in danger...”

“You might want to warn him about that,” Yuusaku said. “Listen. Isn't your father Superintendant General Hakuba?”

“Yes,” Saguru confirmed. “That's why I thought, if I could locate these bastards in the police...”

“There are a lot of them,” Yuusaku warned. “Which is why I want to put you in touch with my old friend James there.” He gestured to a western man who was flinching away from his mobile down the road, an older man with grey though thick hair and moustache. “He's with the FBI. They've been investigating the presence of the Syndicate for some time- without declaring themselves to the police, may I stress, because there are so many of Them in the police. If you want to locate these people safely and know who's confirmed to be clean or not, you might want to talk to him. I don't mean to sound rude, but can you confirm that your father is clean?”

“Wha-” Saguru stared at the author/detective/who knows in shock. “Of course...” then he frowned doubtfully. “I... don't really see that much of my father,” he said slowly as his detective instincts took precedence over sentimentality, “but... no. I'm sure he wouldn't have been able to hide any shady dealings from me.”

“But you still have doubts,” Yuusaku said, a little sadly. “You really don't see that much of him, do you?”

“Well, no...” Saguru shook his head. “Listen, I'll talk to your FBI friend for now. But I can assure you that my father is clean. Once we've located all of the moles in the police, he has the rank and power to strike against all of them at once.”

“All of the ones in the Met,” Yuusaku said. “To get every one in Japan, we'll need to ensure that the Commissioner is also clean- or ensure that the chief in every prefecture is clean. I can already vouch for the chief in Osaka, Hattori-kun's father, and a few others that I know well, but there's still nearly forty more to check. Our best chance is to locate the moles, gather sufficient evidence, and take it to the highest authority that we can confirm...”

“You sound like you've been planning this for a while,” Saguru commented quietly.

“I've... known about Their existence for a while,” Yuusaku hedged. “It's a slow process to confirm who's truly clean, considering that they have some... amazing actors. For now... keep in touch with the FBI. I'd rather not see any more children get hurt.”

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“So this blew...?”

“One hour afterwards. Hei-chan...”

“It's no coincidence, Otaki-han.”

Heiji kicked aside a lump of charcoal as he wandered through the debris of the small electrical company.

“Accidents generally happen when someone's there, or just after everyone leaves and ain't switched everythin' off properly,” he said, “But this happened at two in the mornin'- nobody was here, or had been for hours. So it was deliberate, I'm thinkin'. Plus, there ain't no trace of anythin'- even in arson, the arsonist don't usually hang around, so you gets scraps of paper or disks or tables or whatever that ain't fully burnt, even if the fire department don't get there till after it's burned out. But there's nothin'. Either someone stayed to make sure everythin' burned, or the place got cleaned out beforehand. Besides, the company president lives in the apartment blocks behind us.”

“It's not unusual, Hei-chan,” Otaki said doubtfully. “Some presidents live in the same building...”

“Yeah,” Heiji agreed, “but this guy's unusual `cause the whole time we've been here, he's been glarin' daggers at us. Police discretion, Otaki-han,” he added as Otaki jerked. “Don't look. Besides, he owns a coupla other places if ya dig through the paperwork enough- an' who needs ta bury the ownership a' harmless li'l electrical an' pharmaceutical places under paperwork? You investigated all a' the employees yet?”

“They were all at an all-night Mah-jongg party,” Otaki said, “and saw the Kaitou Kid on TV. They've all insisted that everyone was there, so none of them could've done it...”

“Unless they're all in it together,” Heiji said. Then he shrugged and turned to walk back to the police car. “Well, thanks for comin' with me, Otaki-han. Mind if I have a nosy at the reports?”

“I don't suppose it'd be a problem,” Otaki said, following him, “since, officially, it's an accident...”

“So far,” Heiji said. “I'm gonna have a look through the files on the other two places that bit it on the same night. I dunno about you, but I find three unrelated businesses burnin' on the same night pretty suspect- even more when it was the same night as that stuff at the museum... an' if it's th' same night that two more filer fer bankruptcy an' another “closes fer refurbishment”, even more when more'n one's owned by the same guy through the most complex legal work I ever saw...”

He trailed off as his phone rang. He gestured to Otaki to get into the car as he picked up the phone and sat in the passenger's seat. “Yo?”

“Hattori-kun? This is Kudo Yuusaku.”

“Kudo's oyaji?” Heiji said in surprise, waving at Otaki to drive. The glare of the company president was starting to creep him out. He hoped the guy didn't think he was being subtle. “What's up?”

“Shinichi's missing. We think Vermouth has him.”

“What?!” Heiji yelped. “What the-”

“I don't have time to explain, but we don't think she's killed him and we don't know if she's going to. On the other hand, we don't know where she's gone either. That's why I wanted to put you on alert. There's a dragnet across Tokyo but I don't think she's stayed...”

“How th' hell d'ya know that?” Heiji said in shock.

“She framed Kid for the kidnapping and he's not best pleased. He stole the spare tracking glasses so we think he's gone after Shinichi, which is really more reassuring than it probably should be. He has the means to find her but he doesn't exactly have the legal angle to do anything about it, which is why he's liable to make his presence known to the FBI or the police. We've heard nothing from him so we think they've left Tokyo. I just wanted to warn you to keep your eyes open. She's still in Japan- there's no way she could get him out of the country now that Nakamori-kun and the FBI have the police on red alert for child kidnapping- and if she's gone south she may well come through Osaka at some point. It's a long shot, but keep your eyes peeled.”

“Got it,” Heiji croaked. He felt terrified. Kudo was tough but, dammit, he was just a little kid now, and if those bastards knew who he was...

“By the way, is it true that you've been investigating the Syndicate presence in Osaka?”

“Yep,” Heiji said, tugging at the peak of his cap distractedly. “Found five cops that definitely ain't clean, though I think there might be more, an' seven completely unrelated businesses that went bust fer various reasons within a couple days... plus a couple others still goin'. Unrelated `til ya dig through the paperwork fer a short century, anyway. I figure if ya find somethin' buried that deep, it ain't possibly legal.”

“I think you and Hakuba-kun have a lot to talk about. He's investigating their presence in Tokyo. I think he'd like to know your methods.”

“It helps if ya have at least three senior cops that ya know fer certain are clean. Only problem is that if I wanna confirm anythin' I'm gonna hafta explain ta Oyaji what I'm up ta, and that's gonna be a long story. Hey, ain't his oyaji th' Superintendant General of the Met? He's sorted.” Heiji frowned. “Geez... I hope he's all right...”

“We all do.” Yuusaku's voice was quiet, not carrying the man's normal serene confidence. “By the way... have you ever met Okiya Subaru?”

“Whosits?” Heiji said, confused by the sudden subject switch and the unknown name. “Never heard of `im.”

“Hmmm... It might not be strange, he's only been there a few months...”

“Yo? Who is he?” Heiji asked as Yuusaku sounded like he was drifting off.

“He was lodging in our house with Shinichi's permission since his own flat, nearby, burned down a few months ago... he's sort of friends with Agasa-Hakase and “Conan”, though Ai-kun's not too fond of him. He said he was going to relative's for New Year's and would have been back today, but he hasn't, and the phone number he left doesn't pick up... it exists, he's just not picking up. Agasa-Hakase doesn't seem to know much about him but he said Shinichi trusts him... maybe it's nothing. It just bugs me.”

“Seems pretty suspect, but if Kudo trusts `im...” Heiji said, a little dubiously. “After all, that guy's more paranoid than a schizophrenic on the run from the FBI...”

“Quite. Well, keep an eye out... for yourself as well as him.”

“Is everything all right, Hei-chan?” Otaki said worriedly. Heiji sighed.

“It's all goin' ta hell in a handcart, Otaki-han,” he said. “Can ya do me a favour an' drop me off at home? I'm goin' through the paperwork again. And remindin' myself ta talk ta Oyaji soon.”

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Happy Birthday to my little brother! Hope you like your Xbox! “InuYasha vs the Kaitou Kid” is by him (“Conan's Vengeance” is by me but refers to it) and is a brilliant piece of comedy writing. Please read it and comment, because I forward all comments and reviews to him and he loves them! </shameless plug>

I'M ON SUMMER HOLIDAAAYS! *Happy dance* What a country. The first day of summer holidays, the fog's thick enough to swim through -_-

What happened to Shuu is still pretty much unknown, FaithlessGirl. Suffice it to say, at the time everybody thought he was dead and most people still do. I have my own theories which should become apparent throughout the fic. XD Vermouth never tells her secrets... after all, a secret makes a woman a woman... (I still like that better than the line she has in the English manga, which is “It's a secret that gives a woman her air of mystery.” I dunno, I just like the original line better. Like how I prefer “There is always only one truth” to “One truth prevails”. I'm just weird like that :P)

XD I know a chapter with a major scene in it worked if someone starts ranting... Vermouth's intentions, ObsessedConanFan? She'll tell... eventually. Don't bite your fingers off! How will you click on the link to the next chapter?

Need a thesaurus, Mel72000? XD Here's your update!

Vermouth's a twisted person, HaibaraDaiFan. I actually quite like writing her, since she's such an enigmatic character and leaves so much up to personal interpretation... Of course, if my Vermouth is exceptionally twisted, does that mean I'M exceptionally twisted? MUAHAHAHAHA!

Wow, Silver Shadowbreeze... it was really that good? *happy* This is a major moment, yes, and no-one's going to escape the ramifications...

The hunt is on, Kinsey Adler! Bet Ai's glad she hid those glasses now XD But will he be in time? *dramatic music* I know, I hate the English voices... I refuse point-blank to watch the anime in English these days, and whenever I play the Wii game the first thing I do is go into Options and change the spoken language to English.

*Feels luvved* arigato, topaz-tantei! Reviews like yours are the light of my life ^_^

What Vermouth is up to and what the Syndicate are up to may surprise you, FHP2208...*must...resist...puppy...eyes....*

Hardcore, Pretztailfan95! I have a N64, SNES, NES, Gamecube, Wii, and my brother just got an Xbox 360... I also have an original Gameboy, 2 Gameboy Colours (one used to be my brother's), 2 GBAs in a similar vein, and an original DS and DS Lite. Love Nintendo! ^_^ emmm.... typo alert! XP Damn, and I thought I was getting so good at touchtyping... ;P THAT'S WHERE YOU WERE! I thought you were dead or something XD Camp? Was it cool? Back in time for a MAJOR PLOT MOMENT! What will happen to poor Conan?! Arceus is a horse with eight legs and a wheel stuck through its middle... basically a mediaeval traffic accident :P I tend to have a really balanced party, except in Gold... OMG apparently you can have ANY Pokemon at all follow you in HeartGold and SoulSilver, and my brother promised to trade me his AWESOME SHINY BLACK CHARIZARD FROM PEARL! I can wander around Johto and Kanto with a BLACK CHARIZARD following me! I don't care how geeky it sounds, I AM HAVING A SEIZURE FROM THE PURE AWESOMENESS OF THE IDEA! I want this game NOW! XD That makes sense, actually... would that make Conan an Eevee? *will now spend days comparing DC characters to Pokemon* YES I'VE BEEN WAITING A WEEK! Yeah, I have noticed that he's not big on the honorifics. He just refers to Genta and Mitsuhiko by their names, doesn't he? And he generally just addresses Ai as “Haibara”, only adding the “san” when the other kids are around. Hadn't really thought about that before, TBH. Hmm... Yes... It is odd for Vermouth to do, isn't it? I'm hooked to the game! I'm gonna play it until the fog lifts XD

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).