The Shadow at the Museum

[Kuroba Kaito]

Everyone was bustling around and it was all so very amusing. He leaned against a pillar, hands in pockets- He wondered if he'll have to trash the reversible suit- Which was a pity, it was one that had served him well all this time, custom made and modified by hand to fit him to a T. He'd have to get a new technician outfit to replace this one.

Unless he could somehow remove the blood from the pristine white; but he doubted that it could ever be removed completely, white was a damn hard color to work with when it came to keeping it clean.

The body was bleeding out; Kaito had never seen a body fall from a high place like that, but he's pretty sure blood isn't supposed to be there with out a damaging external wound. The body's more or less intact from what he could see- but then again, he isn't that near the body to note the details and pursue the case. Nor does he have any intention- his natural curiosity urged him to, but he didn't want to walk into the throng of police officers, and any movement from him would be suspicious- why had tantei-kun wanted him here again?

A officer moves out of the way and Kaito sees that the neck is broken. Still not something to bleed from.

Then that meant something happened before hand or after death to make him bleed out. Considering that police had presumably swarmed the site and had gotten rid of any civilians and rounded up the potential suspects, chances said after.

In that case...He doesn't know how a body dropped out of the blue; he had been up there, replacing lightbulbs since forever; the body was either strung up while he was gone for the 10 seconds it took to change, or it had been there behind the ceiling panels, ready to drop. Behind the ceiling panels, since people's eyes and camera lens had been on this room the whole time, a person who dragged a bloody corpse in the room would be suspicious... unless the victim had been alive, the murderer using a pulley system to pull him up during the blackout on to the ceiling, and then letting him drop to the floor moments afterwards.

Yeah right.

So chances said behind the panels. He hadn't had a chance to look at blueprints for this heist, he had been too busy to do much other wise than scope out the place by hand and eye. He didn't know what the place above the panels looked like. But he hadn't seen any blood- Towels? But then this would be over in an instant if one looked behind the ceiling panels.

Kaito wonders if this was done by remote control.

This is too flimsy. Kaito could have done a better job.

But it also was clever in the way that anybody could have done it, could have triggered it, if they covered their tracks right. The trap being set months before hand, and the memory to be buried in people's minds, deemed not relevant to the case. The body being there since who knows when- as long as the guy didn't die from dehydration or blood loss first, assuming he was alive when the body fell. If there was something to soak the blood up..

One press of a button.

If the murderer himself didn't trigger it... then what did?

If the murderer went down, the law said the person who pressed the trigger would still be guilty of assisted murder- Kaito didn't know the specifics, but that's what he assumed.

Hah.

He was getting too ahead of the facts here, this was all speculation. He watches Tantei-kun speak with Takagi-san, and grins when he sees the personality change- flip of a coin, he's laying on the act. It's obvious from his mannerisms.

He snickers when the kid walks around and addresses the museum members- he should have planted a bug on him, but the kid was perceptive.

He wondered what Tantei-kun had up his sleeve- he had watched him make several deductions, though why he didn't bother hiding his genius with him was a mystery. It was easy to stay in the shadows- tell the adults to go chasing after him, and case closed.

He liked to think he was a nice mental stretch for the kid.

He navigated murder like it was the norm and the crime scene his home, Kaito thought wryly, a small frown on his face as he kept watch.

He didn't like detectives and crime scenes, that much could be said. He just wanted to get this over with, he had homework to proofread.

[Kudo Yukiko]

"Yes!" Yukiko responded, smiling gleefully. At least someone recalled her! Even if it was really Shinichi who had solved that case with a little help from Yuusaku, Yukiko liked the attention it brought.

"It was nothing!" She laughed, although she was a little bit caught off-guard when he asked her about her name. "Oh! My name is Kudo Yukiko," she introduced herself. "Megure-keibu's friends with my husband Yuusaku, and my son Shinichi."

She wasn't sure how wise it would have been to mention Shinichi, but it was most likely inevitable in this situation. She was thankful that during their last case, she primarily interacted with Megure, who was likely already aware that Shinichi was overseas.

But within the corner of her eye, Yukiko was surprised at who she saw: two black clad figures exiting the museum upon the police's orders. One had a rather muscular build that bore familiarity, and almost immediately she recalled a similar figure that appeared at the Haunted Ship case that she disguised Heiji in as Shinichi. The other one she was fairly certain she had never seen before, but his eyes—from what she was able to see—nearly frightened her. She hardly noticed that the officer had left the scene.

But when she saw someone she definitely knew, Yukiko bent down to pick up Haibara in order to ensure that she was safely within her reach.

Sharon.

There was no doubt about it. Underneath all that makeup and without the use of a latex mask, Yukiko knew it was her.

"Officer!" She heard the disguised Sharon say in a created voice, and then zoned out for a brief moment, only to hear the mention of a technician. This was the first time that she had seen her in person since her funeral, and the second time that she had dealt with her since the Haunted Ship case.

"Why, Sharon?" Yukiko faintly whispered, without realizing that Haibara would have been able to hear her.

[Haibara Ai]

It was getting closer, that sense. She could smell it. There was blood in the air, and the sharks were circling. In a moment they would see her, and they would take her, and there would be nothing she could do but die.

She trembled against Yukiko's leg.

Please go away. Please go away. Please just leave me in peace.

She looked up. A flash of blond hair and black clothing. A gasp escaped her lips and she bit her sleeve, just to keep from screaming. Gin. Vodka. The blond man had made it his special mission to hunt her down, and his thug of a partner was not much better. Were they here to kill her then?

They did not look like they were hunting anyone. Neither of them appeared to have spotted her. She still did not dare look directly at them, did not dare move for fear of drawing their attention.

Yukiko reached down and picked her up. Haibara made no move to protest. Even if she could have moved in such a state, it added to the illusion that she was a normal child. She fought to still her trembling.

She only barely heard Yukiko's whispered comment.

"Why, Sharon?"

Sharon Vineyard. Vermouth. The only Organization member who had ever scared her more than Gin's cold psychopathy was Vermouth's calculated manner. Gin liked killing-- Vermouth, it seemed, did not care. If it wasn't for Conan's intervention, she would already be dead at that woman's hand. As it was, she lived in abeyance, waiting for the day when Vermouth's patience would run out and then Haibara's life would end.

"We should leave," she murmured to Yukiko. Only if they left, they would leave Conan high and dry and without a convenient person to take the credit for his deductions. She almost didn't care. Almost.

Hurry up, Kudo-kun.

[Takagi Wataru]

It didn't take long to make his way up -- a flash of his police badge and the museum workers were practically at his feet, scrambling to get him whatever he wanted. I shouldn't think like that, he thought a little bit guiltily. Though it is nice having people answer to me for once... maybe this is why Megure-keibu orders me around so much.

Space was tight, but not so constricting that he couldn't move around. He had just a bit of elbow room to move about, and he crawled forward to where he believed the man had been kept. Since he was stashed up here for who knows how long, the culprit could only be someone who knows the layout of the museum. Which left only the museum workers, as he had assumed, but also included someone else... Kaitou Kid. He doesn't seem to be the type of guy who would run his heists blindly; he had to know his way around to make his escape. He's still a suspect.

And even if he didn't kill the man, that didn't mean that he couldn't arrest him for his other crimes.

Takagi held his flashlight between his teeth, feeling only a little claustrophobic. Just a bit more...

Eventually he found himself flailing and nearly falling through the ceiling as a panel beneath him suddenly gave way, revealing nothing but a hundred foot drop to the floor below. With a startled yelp that probably reverberated throughout the entire room, he quickly scrambled backwards and took deep breaths as he contemplated over how if he had just moved a little bit more forward or just applied a little more pressure, he would have gone splat like the poor victim before him.

Too bad his flashlight fell. Oh well. Hopefully it wouldn't land on anyone.

"Rope, rope..." Trying to calm his racing heart, he looked around for what Conan-kun had been referring to. Not that there was much space to look around; he only had just enough room to turn his entire body. The panel that had moved beneath him apparently had been leaning just against the back wall and had eventually slid down to cover the hole below. That explains how I almost just died, he thought exasperatedly.

The rope itself wasn't too hard to find -- it was right above him, weaved through thin metal beams and leading through a small space in the back that he couldn't fit through. He reached a hand out to grab it, but Conan-kun's words rang in his mind -- "Don't touch it! Let forensics handle it and test what they find." -- and he quickly retracted it, instead of opting to fish for his cellphone in his breast pocket.

"This is Takagi," he muttered, turning around with difficulty. "I'm up in the ceiling -- ah, yes, that flashlight is mine... haha, sorry... Um, can you get forensics up here? There's something they need to check out. I have to get out, though; there's hardly enough room as it is. Thank you!" He hung up and took a deep breath. Now to get back without my flashlight.

[Edogawa Conan]

He hadn't found out much, thus far.

Just a simple janitor, security, a curator, and guest services, the last of which apparently was a huge Kaitou Kid fan. Meaning if the killer's aim was to frame Kid, then it probably wouldn't be that guy, Conan thought irritably. Can't rule anyone out without decisive evidence, though.

All of their alibis were the exact same -- they were all waiting in the same room as everyone else, waiting patiently for the heist to go underway. They couldn't validate each others' alibis as they had all been standing quite a ways from each other, so they didn't even have that. And when the blackout and subsequent flashing light occurred, everyone had been running around in a panic, so even security wasn't where he was supposed to be the entire time.

Perfect.

Before he could decide on his next course of action, something crashed into the ground beside him and he jumped, looking around wildly. The object was -- a flashlight? Then he heard a familiar echoing voice cry from far above, and he understood. Great job, Takagi-keiji.

But a voice he didn't recognize spoke up from somewhere behind him, and he turned his head to see a woman -- a civilian? Didn't they get rid of all of them? -- taking to a Division One officer, most likely giving her statement. He walked closer and immediately put on his childish facade; older women tended to melt for that persona. "Excuse me, miss! I couldn't help but overhear -- you said something about a technician? Do you remember what he looked like or what exactly he did?"

Off to the side, another officer answered their phone. Forensics? Looks like Takagi-keiji found what I asked him for, Conan smirked. Now he was positive of the murder method -- all he needed was to find out which one of them did it. Which, at the rate this was going, probably wouldn't take very long.

He could see Haibara somewhere quite a length away being picked up by his mother, and he resisted the urge to snicker. What, was she tired of standing or something? He almost wouldn't put it past her, but this was Haibara. Maybe she was just getting bored or something, just standing around. Oh well. I'll wrap this up in a bit.

[Vermouth]

When Vermouth heard the voice of her Silver Bullet, she was the least bit surprised. "Oh? What's this, aren't you quite a meddlesome child. Where are your parents, little one?" She asked as if she was truly concerned about his well-being. As she knelt to reach his level, she placed her hand on her knee and placed the umbrella on the floor.

"This is no place for a child, you know." She gestured towards the body. "But yes, I do recall," she went on describing the technician's appearance that she had previously encountered.

"I encountered him just before the heist began, he was fixing the lights. He claimed to be a fan of Kaitou Kid. I thought it was a little unusual that a technician was summoned just before a Kaitou Kid heist, when everyone knows that the thief is infatuated with lights. For a second, I thought he might have been Kaitou Kid himself." She shrugged.

"I don't know where he went off to, but I went to join everyone where the jewel was located. Does that answer your questions, Cool Kid?"

[Edogawa Conan]

Conan nodded eagerly, over-exaggerating his every movement to seem as childish as possible to the woman. He twitched at being called a meddlesome child, but could do nothing more than take it with a smile. "My mom's over there," he pointed towards Yukiko. Though in retrospect, he should have been more careful than just freely admit that Kudo Yukiko was his mother while still in the body of Edogawa Conan, but he figured that no one would remember his slip up anyway.

They were just bystanders who would forget him after the night was over.

"It's okay, I can handle it," he puffed out his cheeks and put his hands on his hips. Really, he should get an award for his acting. His mom and Haibara didn't know what they were talking about.

He nodded and listened with wide eyes as the woman retold her story of the encounter with the mysterious technician, but as she went on he felt his interest almost literally drain out of him. Of course, he thought in a dull monotone as he glared in the phantom thief's direction. And you couldn't have told me yourself that you messed with the lights?

Conan blinked when she addressed him as cool kid -- only Jodie-sensei called him that -- but he quickly shook it off. No, it was probably a coincidence. There was nothing here that the FBI or the Black Organization would be interested in...

... Right?

"Yep, it answered my question!" He smiled. "Thank you!" And with that, he ran off to join the rest of the suspects.

Okay, so technician's out because it's Kid, he rolled his eyes. Which leaves just these three again. But which one of them did it? He didn't even have to question just what exactly Kid was doing to those lights -- it resulted in blinding everyone in the room so he could make his 'grand getaway'. ... Which ended in disaster, nonetheless.

So he decided to play it old school -- see any inconsistencies with the suspects' alibis or notice any unnatural patterns about their movements. Too sweaty? Too much stuttering? They shouldn't even have anything to be nervous about if they weren't the one who committed the crime. Though wait, he stopped in his tracks, If my theory is correct, which it should be since Takagi-keiji found the rope, that still doesn't explain how exactly the ceiling panel moved. He didn't let go -- no, the chance that he let go right when the lights went out are too much of a coincidence. It's possible, but I won't entertain that notion unless there's nothing else to go off of.

Which means there's something that forced him to let go. It can't be anything in the ceiling itself -- too time reliant. It's as if the murderer wanted his victim to fall at that exact moment; what better way to stir up chaos than to have a body suddenly appear right after a blackout? But that would mean that he knew that a blackout was going to occur in the first place. He blinked and turned to stare at Kid. He could just be trying to play innocent by stumbling over the body and getting the blood all over himself. Try to play it off as an accident.

But that doesn't make sense either, he groaned and shoved his face into the palms of his hands. What would Kaitou Kid have against some museum employee? Then again, I don't know what Kaitou Kid's daily life is like. He could have been someone Kid knew personally, for all I know.

Things still weren't looking good for the phantom thief. Conan still didn't truly believe that he had done it, but logic and reasoning won out over emotions. There just wasn't anything pointing to any of the other three, and the timing was too convenient...

I need to find out what exactly caused the man to fall, he took a deep breath. Then I can make assumptions based on that.

[Kudo Yukiko]

Yukiko didn't like this situation, not one little bit. If Sharon was here, that indicated that they were being watched. How many of those with Sharon were there, and who were those two men that she had seen? Yukiko felt a sudden chill up her spine the more she thought about it. It was Haibara's words that broke her out of her train of thought.

"E-Eh?" Yukiko responded offhandedly, a clear indication that her entire focus had been on Sharon and not on the child that she held in her arms.

There's no way Shin-chan would agree to that before a case is solved...would he? Yukiko inwardly thought, frowning. Strangely, Yukiko felt safer when her son was within her reach. Besides, Sharon wouldn't outright attack them, would she? That didn't sound like her former best friend at all. That one time was a different circumstance. More importantly, there was no way for her to have known that Haibara would have been there. Unless...

...is it because of Okiya-san?

Yukiko wasn't sure if she wanted to retreat to the comforts of her own home, now. Not without Shinichi's reassurance that the man living with her wasn't a bad guy. When she noticed that Shinichi was finished talking with Sharon, Yukiko immediately ran towards him with Haibara in her arms. Surprisingly, Sharon remained in her place.

"Conan-kun!" She immediately called, staying within a safe distance so that way they could discuss privately once he neared them. Until then, Yukiko's eyes didn't sway from Sharon's own, but she did put Haibara down just in case she wanted to talk with Shinichi too.

[Edogawa Conan]

"Conan-kun!"

Takagi-keiji's voice echoed in the vast room as the officer in question ran towards him. "I found what you asked for! Forensics is checking it out right now. We can't get a detailed analysis of what they find right away, but we can identify any mysterious substances that happen to coat it."

"Thanks, Takagi-keiji," Conan beamed in all faux child innocence. I already know what they'll find. I have a good idea of how exactly the man fell, but I need proof.

He let out a breath and turned to the theee suspects -- four, if he included Kaitou Kid in his peripheral vision. I don't know which of them did it, but there's no reason that any of them had to lie about their alibi, meaning they couldn't have done much with so many potential witnesses around. That means that they either hid that item somewhere in this very room, or...

... it's still on their body.

Realization set in, and he felt his familiar confident smirk begin to form. That was the key to solving this mystery. If that's the case, then I can just reveal and find out who it is as I go along.

He turned to call for his mother just in time for her to make her way over to him and call him out instead. Interestingly enough, however, she didn't cross the entire distance it would take to meet him -- rather, she stopped far enough that he would have to walk over to her. Why is that?

No matter. "Mom," he answered, walking over to her. "Just in time. I've just about solved this case; I'm going to need you to become," he sighed and looked away. "The Night Barroness again." Conan knew his mother loved acting like a detective, even going as far as giving herself a name for when she relayed his deductions.

Oh well. He could put up with it as long as the case was solved in the end, he figured.

[Kuroba Kaito]

He eyes the woman in the corner when she calls out for an officer, recognizing her from his stint before the heist- a person who had actually stopped to chat with him, a rare occurrence since not many people thought it odd. It was weird. Well, his cover is blown if Tantei-kun ever thinks to go over to her, not that he had been trying to hide it or he would have done something more than stand in the corner here. He just liked to annoy the kid.

He believed Tantei-kun would figure it out, anyway, even without the woman's testimony.

A flashlight clatters to the floor and he's rather surprised it didn't break- The police had some durable flashlights, he wryly added to the list of "things the Japanese Police are capable of". He thought them rather cute but they did get things done when it came down to it, they just had to work on their security, it really was disheartening if he could just stroll in the offices like that, amazing disguising skills or not.

He identifies the voice as Tagaki's and he chuckles.

He scopes the room again, and he notes that the child had been picked up- poor thing was probably tired, the heist had been planned near 1AM, anyway. How in the heck was Tantei-kun not feeling sleepy?

He wonders if he knew the child- the hoodie covered their hair and they had their face away from him; and they still a child, so it was hard to distinguish gender based on body type.

Maybe one of the detective boys? But then they usually traveled in groups of five. Anything was possible, he guessed.

Tantei-kun had picked up in the woman, he notes, and he doesn't miss the glare sent at him- He winks and blows a kiss in the detective's direction, one of his trade mark grins splitting his face as he resisted the urge to laugh.

His thoughts return to the stains on his clothes and he sighs again, his mom would kill him for this, for getting a suit stained. And it appeared that Yukiko-san knew Tantei-kun rather well, with the familiarity she pronounced the name.

Wrap it up quickly, Tantei-kun, he thought, watching the kid walk over to Yukiko-san.