Case Closed Fan Fiction ❯ When Pandora's Box Is Opened ❯ Surprise Visits ( Chapter 51 )

Chapter Fifty-One

Surprise Visits

Yukiko walked quickly through the empty parking lot. She had felt a little uncomfortable all day, as if she were being watched. It was probably the usual unnatural paranoia of wearing a mask for too long- Shinichi had developed an impressive paranoia between the last time that she'd heard from him and the day that she and Yuusaku had played that trick on him- but it still made her uncomfortable being out alone. Maybe she'd head back to Agasa-Hakase's for a while before heading home, talk to Ai a little. The girl seemed so reticent, so lonely. Yukiko felt that she could use a little love- or at least someone to make her eat. Yukiko was firmly of the belief that a child that age, regardless of their mental age, needed to eat a lot to give them the energy to grow- and Ai and Shinichi needed as much of that as they could get.

She was just pulling her keys out of her purse when she glanced up. She didn't know why, but something made her look up, to see someone leaning against the silver rental. A familiar face.

She dropped the keys.

“So clumsy, Yuki-chan,” Sharon Vineyard said with a half-smile. “You haven't changed a bit.”

“More than I can say for you, Sharon-chan,” Yukiko replied, thankful that her acting skills kept her voice calmer than she felt.

“I see your son's passed on the dirty gossip,” Sharon replied with a little laugh. “Detectives are worse than tabloid reporters, eh? At least the face that you're wearing right now protects you from them.”

“What did you do to him, Sharon?” Yukiko asked. “Yuusaku... he says it was you that kidnapped Shin-chan. You did something to him, didn't you, to cause this amnesia? What did you do to him?” her voice broke a little at the thought of what her old friend could have done to her son, but she managed to swallow the tears.

“How is he doing?” Sharon asked. “Managing to keep his little nose clean?”

“He's confused and his own memories, such as they are, are scaring him,” Yukiko said, her voice loaded with a degree of venom that the older woman hadn't known she could possess. “I want my son back, Sharon-chan. Why? Why did you do this to him?”

Sharon- or whoever she really was- watched Yukiko silently for a moment, with a blank, unreadable look on her face that reminded Yukiko rather forcibly of Kuroba Toichi. Yukiko felt another lurch as she remembered her lost sensei and friend. Dead...

“Was it true, by the way?” she asked harshly. “Did you really tell Them... who Toichi-sensei was?”

“Not deliberately,” Sharon said distantly and... uncomfortably. “I made an injudicious comment that another agent used to join the dots... that is all.” She smiled sadly. “Why did I do it, Yuki-chan? Is a reason necessary?”

“What?” Yukiko said in confusion.

“There are many reasons for killing a person,” Sharon said, looking to the side, “but in saving someone, there is no need for a logical mind. I suppose you could say... that's why.”

“Sharon-chan-” Yukiko began, and Sharon glanced back with a little laugh.

“That's what I always loved about you, Yuki-chan,” she said with a chuckle. “I'm the woman who caused the death of a dear friend of yours and wiped your son's mind... but you still call me “Sharon-chan” like a dear friend.” She smiled tenderly. “So as your friend, I'll give you one piece of advice. Take your son away from here and let him live out a life in safety and peace. It may be Edogawa Conan's rather than Kudo Shinichi's life that he lives, but it's preferable to having no life at all, is it not?” Yukiko stared at her old friend, tears welling up. “Leave this mess to the grown-ups. We caused it... we alone shall reap the benefits... or the retribution.” With a little ripple of her fingers, she backed up, vaulting over the railing to a lower level of the car park. Yukiko ran over to the barrier and leaned over, expecting to see a broken body, but all she saw was a motorbike, accelerating away.

Gripping the railing so tightly that her knuckles went white, Yukiko sank to her knees, trembling violently. She bit down on the inside of her cheek to stop herself from screaming, from fear or anger or what she didn't know. She winced as the taste of blood blossomed into her mouth.

“What is she doing? What does she want?!” her mind screamed. “She hurt him... but...”

“Try this. Look, if you put the wig on first, then apply makeup on top...”

“Oh, I see! It looks real! Wow, Sharon-senpai!”

“Don't call me senpai, it makes me sound so mature and responsible...”

“Hee-hee... I'll call you Sharon-chan, then!”

“Only if I get to call you Yuki-chan!”

“Are you two practicing making disguises or gossiping?”

“A good woman can multitask, Toichi-sensei...”

“What happened to you, Sharon-chan?” Yukiko wondered. Even after all this time, after everything she'd found out about Sharon Vineyard, AKA Vermouth, she still had a hard time reconciling the kind, clever woman that she'd known for twenty years with an international criminal- a thief, kidnapper and murderer, a member of the most dangerous criminal organization on the globe... and that she had been such since before Yukiko had met her. “I guess it's true that nobody is what they seem... I thought I knew my friend so well, but I barely knew a thing. I never thought that she would hurt anyone, least of all Shin-chan, but...”

“Take your son away from here and let him live out a life of safety and peace...”

“But it's odd...” she thought with a frown. “She never told Them where Shin-chan was, as if... even know, it almost sounds like... she's protecting him. But... why?”

Is a reason necessary?

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“I figured that I wouldn't be the only one suspicious of Edogawa Fumiyo,” Jodie said, sipping her coffee, “but I have to say, I thought it would be your husband rather than you...”

“If he's not on a case, Kogoro is just an unobservant baka,” Eri snorted. “In any case, I've known him since we were young, and I've learned more than a little about detective work from him. Such as watching for the little incongruities. Such as the fact that the phone that she answered in the bathroom was not the one that I've seen her use before, to take calls or book flights.”

“Then you noticed that both her dialect and tone changed when she was talking on the phone?” Jodie said.

“Of course,” Eri said. “And the fact that she referred to Ran as “Ran-chan” rather than “Ran-san”, which she normally insists on. And she was putting on makeup again. I know lipstick tends to come off easily, but even the cheapest powders tend to take several hours to merit reapplication...”

“That's because it's not normal makeup that she's using,” Jodie said darkly. “She's touching up a mask.”

“What?!” Eri said in shock.

“Trust me, I've spent years hunting a woman who uses very similar masks,” Jodie said sternly. “If they're being worn a long time, they need touching up every so often, especially if the rubber is distorted for whatever reason... sweating, rubbing it- you've noticed the odd way that she rubs her temples?” Eri nodded. “Or the cold weather could be causing it to become brittle, which is why she needs to move it about to keep it as a realistic mask instead of a static one... in any case, she was touching up a mask. Of course, it's better to just apply a whole new one, but depending how much her real face looks like the mask, that could take hours...”

“So she's a fake?” Eri asked.

“Whoever she is, she's not Edogawa Fumiyo,” Jodie said. “I've checked her out, and the newspaper that she claimed that her husband and her work for doesn't exist. The address that she gave is for a block of apartments that, as it happens, is still under construction. It doesn't exist either. The phone number is real, but that's easily done by simply buying a new mobile phone in disguise... most likely the phone that you've often seen her using.”

“So the phone that she used in the bathroom is really hers,” Eri said thoughtfully. “Whoever she is...”

“I have my theories, but they're classified,” Jodie said. “Whoever she is, I'm certain that she's not Edogawa Conan's mother. The most important thing, until we can determine who she really is, is to keep her from being alone with Conan-kun...”

“And find out what happened to his real mother,” Eri said. Jodie raised an eyebrow. “She's come by the agency a couple of times before, Ran said, and while Conan-kun was apparently rather annoyed at her for leaving him behind, it seems that she confirmed that she was his mother. He's a bright boy, I doubt anyone could fool him into believing that they were his mother, disguises or not- look how good he is at catching the Kaitou Kid out. But now he has amnesia, and didn't know her from his schoolteacher when he was first reintroduced last week. Ran and Kogoro only had sporadic contact with her before, which means that there was nobody there who would be able to definitively confirm whether or not she was, indeed, Edogawa Fumiyo. I find it hard to believe that any mother would abandon their child when kidnapped, which makes it most likely that whoever replaced Edogawa Fumiyo was certain that the real woman wouldn't be coming... and no-one would be able to notice the switch.”

“If my theories are right, then she's already dead,” Jodie said with frown, “and probably her husband too, which would explain the fact that he's never turned up either...”

“So who do you think it is?” Eri asked. “The one who kidnapped Conan-kun?” Jodie choked.

“Officially, that was Kid,” she said, trying to compose herself.

“On the basis that it was somebody in disguise,” Eri pointed out, “and Kid's not the only person on the planet who can disguise himself. If he was, we're talking about a scenario where he's killed two people and kidnapped and mentally mutilated a child, something that I find more than a little difficult to believe. Besides, when Ran and I were in Osaka, we heard from Hattori Heiji that Kid had apparently given the police some useful tips on how to track the kidnapper.”

“Very interesting,” Jodie mused.

“So who are you with, really?” Eri asked bluntly. “You were tracking someone who you referred to as “a suspect”, mentioned classified information and indeed had access to information which was not exactly public knowledge- that Conan-kun wasn't actually kidnapped by the Kaitou Kid. What are you, Interpol? FBI?”

“A secret makes a woman a woman,” Jodie said with a wink. “For now, keeping Conan-kun safe is a priority, no? I might have to call in a couple of favours to face this woman down and expose her... can you make sure that she isn't left alone with him?”

“Of course...” Eri said. “But...” she frowned. “I can't help feeling that I've seen her face before, even though I know I've never met Edogawa Fumiyo before... and the voice she used to talk on the phone... I just know that I've heard it somewhere before. And whoever it was... wasn't a murderer...”

“Everything will come clear, I hope,” Jodie said, “when we remove her mask...”

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“Bocchama, there's someone here to see you,” the old lady said. Saguru glanced up in surprise. Nakamori-keibu was here, along with Sato-keiji, Takagi-keiji and Megure-keibu, going over the old case files, looking for incidents that they recognized, connections- and most importantly, names. Officers that were involved in more than one suspect case were suspicious, or perhaps people who were involved with or who benefited from a suspect case. Who else would be coming tonight? This was only the second time that they had met, only the first time that Megure-keibu had come. None of them had told anyone else about this, had they?

“Who is it?” he asked guardedly.

“I'm sure I don't know,” the housekeeper sniffed. “He simply said that he came for his files.”

“His files? But these are all departmental files...” Saguru thought. Then he remembered. “Ah! I'll come see him.” He strode out of the room, down to the front hall. His suspicions were proved right when he caught sight of the man standing in the doorway.

“Kudo-sensei!” he greeted the author. “What are you doing here? I'd heard that you had returned to LA.”

“Yes, that's what I've been telling everyone,” Yuusaku said quietly. He was looking far more pale and drawn than the last time that Saguru had seen him, with some deadly seriousness about him.

“Is it to do with Conan-kun?” Saguru wondered. “He seemed very close to the boy, after all... has he been investigating what had happened to him? Is that why he told people that he had returned to America?”

“So who have you gathered?” he asked, following Saguru through to the study.

“Nakamori-keibu, your friend Megure-keibu, Sato-keiji and Takagi-keiji,” Saguru said, counting them off on his fingers. “I have guarantees on the last three from Hattori, and he says that they've also been cleared by your son...”

“They have,” Yuusaku said, striding into the study. “How is everyone?”

“Yuusaku-kun?” Megure said in shock. “I thought you and Yukiko-kun had gone back to America?”

“Yukiko has, but I had a few things more to investigate here,” Yuusaku said. “I just need to talk to Nakamori-kun... can you spare me a minute?”

“Not a problem,” Nakamori said, standing up. He glanced at Saguru.

“Do you mind if I join you?” Saguru said. Yuusaku watched him for a moment before nodding.

“Not at all,” he said. “Come one, then...”

“Is this about Kuroba?” Saguru said as they wandered into the library.

“Sort of,” Yuusaku said, “and Nakamori-kun's decisions to that effect...”

“Well, as I'm sure you've guessed, it wasn't completely out of the blue,” Nakamori sighed, lighting his pipe.

“If Baaya catches you, you will die slowly and painfully,” Saguru pointed out. Nakamori just shrugged dejectedly.

“In any case, from what Hakuba-kun's told me about these people...” he said, indicating Saguru, “they have people high up in the police, don't they? That's why they escaped prosecution... how they've been able to trace Kid heists and avoid police intervention...”

“Precisely,” Yuusaku said. “But with Hakuba-kun's father's help, I'm sure we can catch a large number of the rats... they'll have their guards up now, but if they don't know who precisely is investigating them...”

“Fine,” Nakamori said. “Frankly, I don't know if I can bring myself to arrest Kaito-kun, and there's no way in hell that I'm burying him too. That's what you wanted to know, right?”

“Somewhat,” Yuusaku said with a sad smile. “I found out a very long time ago... about fifteen years. I kept it a secret... in order to help Toichi-kun try to stop Them.”

“What was he trying to accomplish by stealing?” Saguru snorted. “What was he looking for?” he remembered something that had cropped up in his investigations. “What is the “Pandora”? A jewel of some sort?”

Yuusaku looked thrown off-balance for a moment, something that Saguru wished that he'd gotten on camera. Then he nodded.

“The Pandora is something that They desire above all else,” he said. “It is indeed a jewel. Supposedly, it is a doublet- and the jewel within is only visible when held up to the moonlight.”

“... A blood jewel...” Saguru muttered.

“Correct,” Yuusaku said. “Apparently, it glows blood red. How did you know that?” he asked curiously. “Have you heard of it?”

“No... someone that I know was rambling about something to that effect...” Saguru hedged. “Koizumi-san.”

“Strange girl,” Nakamori snorted. “Well, maybe she knows something. Ask her, will you?”

“I've been looking, but I can't find information on it anywhere...” Yuusaku said with a frown. “It's connected to a legend of immortality... whatever the case, the doublet part seems to be true. And there's a very attractive prospect for that which is about to return to Japan...”

“That diamond,” Nakamori muttered. Then he grinned, the fire igniting behind his eyes. “I see. Kaito-kun will try to steal it, of course, and these bastards, whoever they are, will have people there to take him out...”

“But you'll be there too,” Yuusaku said with a smirk, “to catch the Kaitou Kid, of course.”

“Of course,” Ginzo said, his gaze blazing. With the smoke from his pipe, he looked like some kind of demon out of Hell- which was what Saguru figured he was about to put the snipers through.

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I'm not sure why I threw Eri and Jodie together, FaithlessGirl... they just seemed like a cool combo. I bet they would be. I mean, they've both got minds for crime-solving and bodies for kicking butt, as the back of volume 29 put it... XD

VETA would be an important clue, HikariPachi, if they'd actually read it right...

Aoyama-sensei can't resist the detective references, KageNoNeko, and it's a lot of fun to find them... there's a lot in the Japanese names which aren't apparent in the English names, like Kogoro's name being a reference to Akechi Kogoro, a famous Japanese mystery writer (in the case where the murder was based on an unpublished novel of Yuusaku's, Yukiko's pseudonym is Ms. Akechi, also a reference). The Beika district is a reference to Baker street, where Holmes lives, and there are other references to London, such as “Haido City”- Haido being Hyde, as in Hyde Park- and the Teimuzu river, which is the Japanese pronunciation of the Thames.

Muahahahaha, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Muahahahaha.

That's all you're waiting for, Yuki Taiki? But there's so much fun to be had first! *wants an evil grin smiley*

I bet Akako could make a great detective, Kairi922. All she has to do is turn the charm on the male suspects... “Are you suuuuure you didn't do it?” “Well, actually... check this out...” “It's the murder weapon! Cuff him, boys!” “Yes, ma'am!” XD MacGyver was indeed awesome, especially the fact that he could actually pull off a mullet, not something everybody can do without looking like some kind of druggie junkie. :P I WANT CHAPTER 701! DX *tantrum* I wanna know what's going on! I wanna find out for certain what's up with Shuu and who the hell Okiya is! I WANT KID TO APPEAR AGAIN, DAMMIT! DX

Don't hate me, Pretz-chan! *puppy eyes* ahhh, you have volume 30 already... LUCKYYYY! Me wants! DX It will happen when It will happen, my dear... XD OMG! NOT YOU TOO! NOOOOOOOO! My brother won't stop saying that DX I'll set Mr Rodgers on you! (See the Ultimate Showdown to know why that means you're screwed XD) I'm not joking, I was temping at a nursery for work experience and it was “Baa baa rainbow sheep/ have you any spots/ yes sir yes sir lots and lots/ one on my tail/ one on my nose/ one on the end of each of my toes”. Seriously. Apparently the original version had connotations of racism and slavery or something. It's a CHILDREN'S NURSEY RHYME. It's about as likely to make the kids racist as “London Bridge Is Falling Down” is to turn them into Vikings. That is what if often termed “PC gone mad”. It's got the BBC handing out apologies one a daily basis, most in the name of Jeremy Clarkson. It's one of the many reasons that very few shows will hire Frankie Boyle. Which I think is a tragedy, because while he has the remarkable talent of being able to insult three separate social or ethnic groups within six words, he's funny as hell when he does it. XD Oh, you have to refer to blackboards exclusively as “chalkboards”. I vividly remember my history teacher having a rage about being told off for calling hers a blackboard. It's bloody Orwellian thoughtcrimes, I tell you.

Paris? Nice, Mel72000 XD I've only been to France once, on a history trip which was made up primarily of old WWI battlefields and graveyards and Disneyland Paris. I'm going to Nice in October though, which I look forward to. The boulangerie owners may have been the most sour-faced old women I have ever had the misfortune to meet (are they all like that or do I just have a talent for picking bad boulangeries?”) but they made GOOD Pain au chocolat XD

I'm not going anywhere during the summer, JapaneseAnimeFreak16! XD Quite the opposite, my grandparents are here for the next two weeks from Enid, Oklahoma. It's nice having them around. They live on the other side of the planet and they're in their 80s, so Mom always worries that each time we go over is the last time she's going to see them... :(

Eri and Jodie have no idea how far off they are, Marie Ravenclaw... XD yeah, that guy was freaky. ^_^; scary enough without bombs...

Nice to hear, BobbyNeko! :D

Oooh... what does the kanji read, Girl Wonder 2005? I know, I've had it pointed out to me that his name is Keiso or Keito (which is it? And why can't I find where it was mentioned? T_T)

Since you've disable PMs, Kuro-No-Tsubasa, I'll answer you here... and it drives me berserk, too, because I can't figure out what it is either! ^_^; Of course, it's also possible that Ran made it up in lieu of any better explanation of how she knew it was Shinichi. Anybody know what the oddity in Shinichi's playing style is? Someone better than me at music? ^_^;

I sometimes worry that it's too twisted, Fireline... ^_^;... then I remember “ahh, it's my fic, and this is the way it works” XD And as good as Yuusaku and Yukiko are, they're not exactly professionals (I hope not, anyway ^_^;), which means that they didn't really have the means to make a more elaborate cover, or even the motive- after all, only three people needed to see Edogawa Fumiyo, one of whom knew the truth anyway and the other two of which were unlikely to bother looking too deeply. I finally found some of the Arsene Lupin novels in English on Amazon! :D I'm just starting the first book “The Extraordinary Adventures Of Arsene Lupin”. I've wanted to read these for ages, Kaito fangirl that I am XD

You don't sound any dozier than I feel right now, Kayla Edogawa... *not slept in 36 hours due to movie night with friends* ^_^; Curvy roads suck, but really long straight ones are even worse... we drove across Utah last summer to get to Nevada. Longest ten million years of car ride in my life. -_- You're right, they can't all go unnoticed forever...

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 698, 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).