The Case of the Missing Detective
A Detective Conan Fanfic
by Krista Perry

File 02: The Death of Shinichi

~*~

     
     "A few hours ago, we received an anonymous call from a man
who claims that, on that very night... he murdered Shinichi Kudo,
the high-school detective."

     Ran stared numbly at Inspector Megure.  She was silent for a
long moment, her face pale and incredulous, as if she was waiting
for the man to tell her that it was all some sort of sick joke.
When he merely returned her gaze solemnly, waiting for her
reaction... she forced a tremulous smile.

     "That... That's impossible," she said, and noticed, to her
dismay, that her voice was thin and shaky, with a tinge of
hysteria lurking at the edges.  "Shinichi... he's not...  He
can't be.  Right, Conan?"

     She glanced down at the boy for reassurance, and blinked as
she saw the look of pure, thunderstruck horror on his face as he
stared at Inspector Megure.  He acted as if he hadn't even heard
her.

     "Conan?" she whispered weakly.

     "Miss Ran..."  Officer Takagi shifted awkwardly in his seat. 
"I realize this sounds strange, but--"

     Ran turned on him fiercely.  "It's not strange, it's
*impossible,*" she repeated, looking at young officer, sudden
anger filling her.  "I mean... I've talked to him since then. 
I've seen him!  Last month, when he showed up at my high school
play.  And then he went to school the next day, and *everyone* at
school saw him, and he took me out to dinner that night at the
rooftop restaurant..."  Ran's eyes widened with realization as
she looked at Officer Takagi.  "And you both were there, because
of the murder."  She turned accusing eyes on Inspector Megure,
who was looking slightly flustered in the face of her vehemence. 
"You were there at the restaurant that night, and you *told* me,
the next time I saw you, that Shinichi had helped you solve the
case.  You *saw* him that night!  So how can you say that he was
murdered last spring?!"

     Inspector Megure pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, and
mopped his wide brow.  "Ran, please.  We are both on the same
side here."

     But Ran would not be mollified.  "How can you say that, when
you're taking this... this *sick prank* seriously?  You know as
well as I do that Shinichi isn't dead!"

     "Ran," said Megure, "that is why we are here.  That day last
month, when we all saw him, you spent the most time with him,
correct?"

     Ran blinked, taken off guard.  "That's right," she said.  So
they admitted that they had seen Shinichi as well, and yet they
were still concerned over this anonymous tip?

     "Out of anyone, you probably know Shinichi best, don't you?"
asked Officer Takagi.

     She felt confused at all the twists the conversation was
taking.  "Well... yes.  I know...  I mean, we grew up
together..."  She trailed off, uncertain as to where they were
heading with his new line of questioning.

     Inspector Megure leaned forward and regarded her intently. 
"What we need to know is this.  And I'm sorry, Ran, but it is a
difficult question."  He sighed heavily.  "Are you certain that
the person you saw last month, and spent time with...  Are you
absolutely certain that he was Shinichi?"

     Ran felt her mouth go dry.

     Absolutely certain?  

     The night of the roller coaster murder... she remembered it
clearly.  She remembered how Shinichi had run off after a shadowy
figure at the edges of the amusement park; how she had tried to
chase after him, but her shoelace had snapped, and he had waved
her off cheerfully, saying that he would see her soon.

     But, as she watched him disappear into the darkness, she had
felt the worst premonition... a feeling in the deepest parts of
her soul that she would never see him again.

     But she *had* seen him... for one brief day last month...
and then he had disappeared again.

     He called her on the phone, of course, but simply hearing
his voice over a phone line...  There was always something
detached and surreal about their conversations.  He seemed like
his usual self, but whenever she would press him to come see her,
he would be evasive and make excuses.

     And then there were her suspicions about Conan.

     She felt so confused, as if the world had just stopped
making sense on that night last spring when Shinichi first
disappeared.  How could she be absolutely certain of anything
anymore?

     She looked over at Conan again.  The boy was pale and
silent, looking up at her with wide, anxious eyes.  Shinichi's
eyes.

     At that moment, she didn't know what to believe.

     "What are you saying?" she whispered, her gaze not leaving
Conan's.

     Megure reached up to tug on his moustache in an unconscious
gesture of anxiety.  "So... you *aren't* certain that he was
Shinichi?"

     "I didn't say that."  Ran tore her gaze away from Conan, and
looked up at the inspector, suddenly feeling incredibly weary. 
"But you obviously have some reason to believe that he *wasn't*
Shinichi.  Why?  How is that possible?  What did this 'anonymous
tipster' say to you?"

     Officer Takagi bit his lip.  "Miss Ran, if you would just--"

     "No!" she said, frustration and fear and anger sharpening
her voice.  "I'm not answering your question.  You come to me,
telling me that there is the possibility that Shinichi is dead --
that he's been dead since last spring.  You say that the person
that I thought was Shinichi all this time actually isn't.  Until
you give me a good reason to believe that this isn't anything
more than a prank, I have nothing more to say to you."

     And next to her, she heard Conan's small, agonized whisper.
"Ran..."

     Inspector Megure sighed.  "I apologize, Ran.  I realize that
this is very hard, and that we have been unfair.  You must
understand, we are just as upset about this situation as you
are."

     "I seriously doubt that," Ran said.

     Megure blinked.  "Um... yes.  Again, sorry."

     "Inspector," said Conan, and everyone looked at him.  The
boy's expression was tense and serious, and Ran thought she saw
the barest glimmer of fear in his eyes.  "Please.  What did the
tipster say?"

     Megure sighed heavily.  "He said that on the night of the
roller coaster murder last spring, he led Shinichi Kudo away from
his girlfriend by acting suspiciously, then lured him to an
isolated area behind some buildings near the entrance of the
park.  He then... smashed Kudo over the head with a metal rod,
knocking him unconscious, after which the man claims... to have
force-fed him poison, just to make his death sure."

     Ran swallowed back a cry of anguish.  She looked at Conan,
and saw his blue eyes burning intensely behind his glasses.

     "But if that's true," said Conan quietly, "then why was a
body never recovered?"

     "The man claims that he waited until the police left the
area, then hid the body in the trunk of his car," said Officer
Takagi, looking at Conan.  "He said that he drove to the
mountains and buried the body in the woods."

     "Did he say why he killed him?"  Conan's voice was carefully
neutral.

     Ran looked at Conan, aghast.  He was acting as if it was
possible.  As if he accepted that Shinichi had really been
murdered that night... 

     "He claims that it was revenge," said Megure, "but for what,
he wouldn't say. He would only say that, when he first...
committed the act, he didn't want to get caught, but that since
then, he had heard rumors that Kudo was still around, and so he
decided to come out and make the truth known."

     Conan blinked.  "And what truth is that, exactly?"

     Megure pinched the bridge of his nose, and glanced at
Officer Takagi wearily.  "Takagi?  You took the call."

     The young officer blinked, taken aback momentarily, and he
looked back and forth between Conan and Ran.  "Um... Well... as
we said, he claims that he... murdered Shinichi Kudo.  And that
Shinichi's father, Yusaku Kudo... is trying to cover up the
murder by impersonating his son, so that he can conduct his own
investigation without involving the police."

     Both Conan and Ran's eyes widened in shock.  "What?!" Conan
exclaimed.

     "Wait just a moment!"  Ran looked back and forth between the
two officers incredulously.  "Let me see if I have this straight. 
You're trying to tell me that all this time, since last spring...
all the phone calls... the... the date at the restaurant...  It
was Shinichi's *father?*"

     Inspector Megure shook his head wearily.  "That's only what
the man claims.  We don't have any evidence that it's true."

     "Well, it's *not* true," Ran said.  "I know Shinichi, and I
think I know the difference between a middle-aged man and a high
school student!"  She looked suddenly relieved and triumphant. 
"That settles it, then.  This is nothing more than a stupid
prank!"

     Megure regarded her intently.  "That is what I would believe
as well, if I did not know Yusaku Kudo."

     Ran blinked.  She glanced at Conan for reassurance, but the
boy was sitting, silent and stunned.  Suddenly uncertain again,
she turned to Megure.  "What... what do you mean?"

     "Before Kudo left the country a few years ago to work on his
mystery novels, he would sometimes help us with cases, in much
the same way Shinichi did later.  However, he was much lower-
profile than Shinichi.  He often worked anonymously, and
sometimes would even work under cover and in disguise, without
informing us of his plans or intentions."  Megure shook his head. 
"I recall one particular murder case at a high school, where the
suspects included most of the women's volleyball team.  To get
the evidence he needed without arousing anyone's suspicion, he...
well, he disguised himself as one of the team members."

     Conan twitched violently, and stared at the inspector bug-
eyed.  "He... he *what?*" he asked hoarsely.

     Ran's eyes widened slightly, and her cheeks flushed pink.

     "He fooled everyone," Megure continued, looking rather
embarrassed himself.  "I found it amazing that a high school girl
had managed to solve the mystery, but then afterwards, she... uh,
he came up to me and revealed his true identity.  Kudo had pulled
off the disguise with the use of expertly-applied makeup and
latex, and other, well..."  The inspector cleared his throat. 
"If I recall correctly, he was about 32 years old at the time. 
But until he took off that wig, he looked just like a high school
girl."

     Conan, still looking stupefied, made a small, strangled
noise.

     "So you can see now," Megure continued, looking at Ran
seriously, "why I needed to talk to you.  If this tip is just a
prank -- and I pray that it is -- it was still perpetrated by
someone who knows what you and Shinichi were doing that night at
the amusement park last spring, and he also knows of Yusaku Kudo,
and his investigating techniques.  Even if he didn't kill
Shinichi, as he claims, he apparently harbors a great deal of
animosity for the Kudo family, and could very well be a threat. 
It may even be that the reason Shinichi has been so scarce, ever
since that night, is that he is in hiding."

     Ran had gone pale again, the flush draining from her face. 
"I see," she said.  "Or... or it could be that..."  Her voice
shook, and she trailed off, unable to complete the thought.

     But Megure nodded, regarding her with sympathy.  "Yes.  It
could be that the anonymous tipster is telling the truth.  The
details he gave us... it was enough to convince me that
*something* is going on."

     "But..."  Tears were gathering in the corners of Ran's eyes. 
"But... no.  We saw him.  Shinichi can't be dead, we *saw*
him..."

     "Shinichi is almost the spitting image of his father,"
Megure said, tugging at his moustache in distress.  "It may seem
fantastic, but I believe that it wouldn't take much for a master
of disguise like Yusaku Kudo to impersonate his own son.  Which
is why I ask you again.  That day last month, when Shinichi
returned... are you absolutely certain that it was him?"

     "I... I don't..."  Ran clenched her hands into fists on her
lap.  In her peripheral vision, she could see Conan watching her,
his young face tight with anguish. 

     And suddenly, a cold realization swept through her. 
"Shinichi said... that he needed to tell me something very
important," she whispered.  "I was hoping that he might want to
tell me that he..."  She stopped, and shuddered, gulping back a
sob.  "But... if it was actually Kudo-san, maybe... maybe he
wanted to tell me about what happened to Shinichi... and maybe he
changed his mind, and that's why he left the restaurant after the
murder without seeing me..."

     "Ran... nee-chan," Conan said, and there was a tinge of
desperation in his voice.  "You don't know that.  You're jumping
to conclusions."

     "Am I?"  She looked down at him, tears slipping down her
cheeks.  "Then why else would Shinichi leave me like that,
without even a goodbye?  Why else would he avoid me for so long? 
Tell me!  What else could he possibly be doing?"

     *Tell me, Conan,* she pleaded silently, as she looked into
his eyes.  *Give me a reason to believe that the tipster is
lying.  Give me a reason to believe that Shinichi is still alive,
and not months dead, lying buried in an unmarked grave somewhere
in the mountains...*

     "He's..."  Conan swallowed miserably, shaken by the sight of
her tears.  "...on a case," he finished weakly.

     And she laughed bitterly.  "*What* case?" she cried,
pounding her fists on her lap.  "He's been on this so-called case
for months!  No mystery could confound him for that long!  What
am I supposed to believe, then?  That he's really dead, and that
his father has led me, and everyone else to believe that he's
alive just so that he can catch the killer himself?"

     Conan looked into her tearstained face.  "No," he whispered. 

     "Then what?" she asked him softly, her voice hitching with
grief.  "I don't want to believe it, but at least it's an
explanation that doesn't sound completely... impossible..."  And
she slumped forward, sobbing into her hands.

     Conan sat transfixed for a terrible moment, staring at Ran's
weeping form, immobilized by his own fear and misery.  Then,
slowly, he stood and went to her side and knelt next to her. 
"Ran-nee-chan," he whispered brokenly.

     He wanted to take her in his arms and say, It's me, Ran. 
I'm not dead, I'm right here, I'm with you, please, please don't
cry.

     But he couldn't.  Because Inspector Megure and Officer
Takagi were sitting right there, in awkward, resigned silence.

     And because someone, somehow, knew his secret.

     The Dark Syndicate.  They knew he was alive.  And they were
trying to find him.


~*~

To be continued.

Next: 
The Case of the Missing Detective
File 03: Hidden Betrayal