Dinner that evening was a lively affair, held at the Mouri Detective Agency. Between the takeout they'd ordered and the dishes Ran had prepared, the table was overflowing with a feast.
But the atmosphere was slightly tense, thanks to the question Kazuha had just dropped like a bomb.
Stare—
Tsuneo, Kogoro, Ran, and Conan were all fixated on Heiji. Their eyes were like spotlights, demanding an answer.
In that moment of life and death, pinned in that attic, what exactly were you trying to say?
"I... I just wanted to tell you not to worry, that's all," Heiji mumbled. He reached out, snatched a piece of fried pork cutlet, and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing furiously to avoid further eye contact.
"Honestly," Kazuha sighed, her expression turning into a mask of pure exasperation. "After all that drama, you're telling me that's what you were so desperate to say?"
"Heh heh..." Conan glanced at his rival. He knew Heiji's personality inside out—the guy was a hopeless case when it came to being honest about his feelings.
Tsuneo, meanwhile, was sitting before a bowl of super-sized katsudon. He had reached the stage of "zen-like focus" where nothing existed except the rice and the meat. He was a man on a mission to replenish his lost calories.
"So, what exactly was the evidence Mr. Kusukawa had on that woman?" Ran asked, leaning over to refill Tsuneo's bowl with another mountain of rice.
"It was a videotape," Heiji answered between bites. "It showed that Lawyer Ito was actually instructing her clients on how to evade taxes. It was a goldmine of corruption. Kusukawa-san hid it in a safe deposit box at the Toto Bank. To make sure he didn't forget the code, he wrote it down in that cipher we saw."
Apparently, after Kusukawa was beaten unconscious, the culprits assumed he was dead. When Heiji and Kazuha had "delivered themselves" to the villa, the criminals decided to use the high school detective to crack the code so they could retrieve and destroy the tape.
"Was Kusukawa planning to blackmail her?" Kogoro asked, his eyes narrowing. He knew his old colleague; the man wasn't above a little 'negotiation' for gambling money.
"No, actually," Heiji shook his head. "The lawyer had helped him out with a serious fraud case once, and Kusukawa-san apparently looked up to her. He didn't ask for a dime; he went there purely to try and persuade her to turn herself in."
How incredibly naive, Tsuneo thought. Looking back at it now, between the guns and the hired muscle, Misari Ito was never going to be "persuaded" by a friendly chat.
"Ah... I'm back among the living!" Tsuneo finally exhaled, putting down his bowl after finishing the soup. He looked satisfied.
"Well, try not to wander into a stranger's house next time," Kogoro remarked, watching Tsuneo's predatory eating habits with a mix of awe and concern. "Inspector Megure and his team found several canisters of gasoline in that villa. According to the two lackeys, the plan was to burn you and the house down to ash."
Strangely enough, Lawyer Ito had been remarkably cooperative during the interrogation. She had confessed to everything, including the planned arson, with a terrified urgency.
"Yeah, Takagi-kun mentioned that she was planning to frame it as an act of revenge by a third party," Conan added with a nod.
"Honestly, those police officers shouldn't be telling a kid so much," Kogoro grunted, letting out a beer-fueled hiccup. "But then again, arsonists have been pretty bold lately. If that house had gone up in flames, she could have easily pinned it on that serial pyromaniac."
"A serial pyromaniac?" Heiji asked, his interest piqued.
"Since the beginning of the year, there have been several consecutive arson cases in Tokyo," Ran explained. "The methods vary, but apparently, a small statue of a red horse is left at every scene."
"A signature... a provocation," Heiji said, leaning back as he set down his chopsticks. A dark, competitive glint appeared in his eyes. Only an arrogant criminal would leave such a distinct calling card.
"It's a stroke of luck that no one has been hurt in the three fires so far," Kogoro added. He was getting a bit tipsy now, and Heiji's curiosity encouraged him to keep talking. "The first happened in 1-chome of Risen-cho, the second in 2-chome of Toraya-cho, and the third in 3-chome of Okuho-cho."
Following the police's logic, if there were to be a fourth fire, it would likely occur in a '4-chome' somewhere in Tokyo. Patrols had been tripled in all such areas.
"If that's the case, I might know which house is being targeted next," Heiji said with a smirk.
Before he was attacked, Kusukawa-san had accepted a request from a client who claimed to have seen suspicious figures lurking around their property at night. The address? 4-chome, Haido-cho.
"Oh," Tsuneo interjected, still chewing on something he'd scavenged from a side plate. "That house might not have been a target before, but now that you've been mentioned in the same breath as it, it definitely is."
"Can you finish swallowing before you talk...?" Heiji muttered. "And hey, I'm not some kind of bad luck charm!"
"Whatever the case, we detectives are heading out tomorrow to check on that client!" Heiji proclaimed, grabbing Conan's head and rubbing it vigorously. "Right, Co-Co-nan-kun?"
It was obvious the Osaka boy still struggled to say that name without stuttering.
"Dad and Tsuneo-niisan can go, but Conan-kun has a school field trip tomorrow," Ran intervened, shaking her head. She never understood why Heiji was so insistent on dragging a first-grader along to crime scenes.
"We might find a lead on a serial arsonist! How can he go holding hands with his classmates on a field trip at a time like this?" Heiji argued loudly, looking at Conan.
The "great detective" in the child's body gave a look of pure boredom. He wasn't particularly excited about the field trip, but he wasn't as hot-blooded as Heiji either. Tokyo was a big city; just because an address was in a '4-chome' didn't mean it was the target.
And besides, Conan thought, is Heiji really trying to prove Tsuneo's joke right? That just because a detective accepts a case, the crime is guaranteed to happen?
"What's wrong with that? He's just a kid," Kazuha said, finding the whole thing bizarre. A primary schooler should be enjoying trips, not hunting firebugs.
"I agree with Heiji," Tsuneo said, talking nonsense as usual. "We should start training them to catch arsonists from a young age."
"No! Children need to have beautiful, normal memories!" Kazuha countered fiercely. She wanted Conan as far away from blood and fire as possible.
"Then I agree with Kazuha," Tsuneo said instantly, nodding as Kazuha slipped an extra piece of pork cutlet onto his plate as a reward.
Heiji? Who was that? Tsuneo didn't know the guy.
"Looking at the sky, it seems like the rain isn't going to stop anytime soon," Kogoro said, raising his glass as he listened to the pitter-patter against the window. "There's no point arguing. You can't go on a field trip in this weather anyway."
"Don't worry, I have this!"
Ran pulled out a Teru Teru Bozu—a traditional paper doll used to pray for good weather. "Back when Shinichi had soccer matches, this always worked. As long as it's hanging in the window, tomorrow will be clear skies!"
"..."
Heiji sat there, a chopstick gripped between his teeth, staring at the little paper doll with a deadpan expression.
"Are you sure you're staying here?" Tsuneo called out as he prepared to leave for the night.
The arrangements were set: Kazuha would share Ran's room, while Kogoro and Conan had the other. Heiji, by default, was relegated to the living room sofa.
"That doll..." Heiji whispered, pulling Tsuneo aside once the others were out of earshot. He glanced back at the window.
He was clearly planning to sabotage Ran's weather charm. He hadn't come all this way just to let Kudo go off on some playground excursion while a serial arsonist was on the loose.
Tsuneo could only admire Heiji's suicidal bravery. If Ran found out he'd messed with her hard work, the consequences would be legendary.
"Good luck with that," Tsuneo said, patting him on the shoulder. "Just watch out, or you'll be beaten into a mantis shrimp..."
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