The Shadow at the Museum

[Haibara Ai]

Haibara felt numb. She was not even sure if she could feel her arms and legs anymore. The only thing that seemed real was that small knot of fear that had settled below her breast, like a heavy weight. She couldn't breathe.

She was not even sure if Yukiko had heard her pronouncement. The older woman did not ask for any sort of clarification, and Haibara didn't give any. She was not even sure if she wanted to give any clarification.

Say nothing, let Conan solve the case, perhaps not arouse their suspicions.

Say something, leave here, perhaps avoid whatever trap they had set.

She was paralyzed with indecision.

In the end, it was Yukiko who decided her by walking up to Conan. He would surely see the state that she was in, and be curious about it. And besides, they had decided trust each other as partners in this cause of theirs. He needed to know what she had seen.

She still flinched as she passed under Vermouth's gaze. Under her notice. Once she was set down on the ground, Haibara adjusted her hood. Vermouth would still guess who she was, but perhaps it would make it more difficult for her to get a positive ID. Perhaps, if the rest of the Organization had not figured out her secret, she was still under Vermouth's sufferance.

She did not bother with niceties with Conan. She merely grabbed the sleeve of his jacket and yanked him further away. Away from the crime scene. Away from Vermouth.

"Edogawa-kun," she hissed in a harsh whisper. "I need to tell you-- they're here. Gin and Vodka are here, outside the museum. And that woman, who you just got so cozy with, is Sharon Vineyard. Your mom recognized her."

She was trembling. She could feel her hand shaking against Conan's arm.

"We need to get out of here."

[Kudo Yukiko]

When Shinichi arrived, Yukiko's fixated gaze towards Sharon came to an end, but not fast enough to hear Haibara's whisper to Shinichi concerning Gin and Vodka. It was strange to be seeing Sharon at a Kaitou Kid heist, why was she suddenly so intrigued by them to attend and why did it make her feel so uneasy? Yukiko would have to investigate that later.

It was the mention of the Night Baroness that made Yukiko grin gleefully, readily kneeling down to her son's level in order to hear his deduction. But then wait....

"Say Shin-chan, since Sharon is here—which I'm sure you've probably figured out, right?—shouldn't we figure out some method for you to relay your deduction in full without making it seem suspicious? I...saw two men earlier and one of them has a physical build that seems so familiar—I recognize it from the Haunted Ship case! I don't want to leave Haibara-san out of my sight or reach, so how are we going to do this?"

[Edogawa Conan]

"Hey!"

Conan shouted in surprise as suddenly Haibara grabbed his jacket and pulled him away from the crime scene. He was about to object more before he realized just how bad a shape the girl seemed to be in -- her hand was shaking and he suspected that the rest of her body followed suit; he hadn't thought much upon seeing the hoodie pulled over her head earlier, but now he could see why she had done so.

"Gin? Vodka?" He bit his lip upon hearing the familiar dreaded names, and immediately started looking around wildly for them. Here? But why? It's just a Kaitou Kid heist; they'd never shown any interest in this sort of thing before... But then she spoke about Sharon Vineyard, and he immediately felt a surge of annoyance well up within him. Damn it, she's probably dying with laughter on the inside at me right now. He resisted the urge to turn around and glare at her.

What he wanted to do was run out and find the two men in black that apparently were loitering around the building, but... "I can't just leave in the middle of an investigation, Haibara. Relax; I've more or less already have this wrapped up. If you can wait a few minutes, I'll relay my deductions and then then we can leave, okay? They won't try anything with so many people around."

He turned to his mom with a smile. "Just stand right in front of me, okay? Both of you." Conan positioned himself behind the two girls and adjusted the dials on his ever-trusty voice changing bowtie. "Alright, then. Let's finish this."

"Megure-keibu, if I may so much as have a word," Kudo Yukiko's voice rang boldly throughout the room, catching the attention of everyone within. "I believe I've quite solved this case!" When voices of astonishment and disbelief started, the real Yukiko slammed her foot down to silence them. "Listen up!

"Takagi-keiji, have forensics finished their analysis of the rope yet?"

Takagi-keiji blinked. Conan bit his lip, hoping he wouldn't ask why his mother had known about the rope. His silent prayer was answered when the young policeman continued on without comment. "Um... well, not a detailed analysis per say, but it's been confirmed that it contains saliva belonging to the victim."

"Now why would that be?" Yukiko's voice pondered, the woman owning it acting correspondingly. "Obviously the victim must have been biting it at some point then, right? The only reason he would do that is if he needed to -- no one would just bite a rope for no reason. Here's how I believe everything happened.

"First, set it up so that the victim seems like he has a choice between life or death. Force him to hold onto the rope with his bare teeth so that he won't fall, but make it so that he won't be able to move. Hence the stab wounds on his back -- they're plentiful, but not fatal. The victim was stabbed so that he wouldn't be able to move freely; he would be in too much pain to do so."

While his mom was relaying his deductions, Conan sneakily maneuvered out from behind them to inspect the jewel case where the priceless artifact had been kept. That's odd...

"So obviously the murderer has a remote control or something on him, something so that he can choose when to make the victim fall. By controlling the inner workings of the ceiling, he would have the opportunity to yank that rope straight from the victim's mouth, making the panel move and thus starting the fall to his death."

"Um... Kudo-san," Takagi-keiji interrupted gently. "If he wanted an opportunity to cause the victim's fall, then wouldn't the culprit be Kaitou Kid?" He pointed at the phantom thief off to the side. "The blackout would have been the perfect time to do so, and only Kid would know about it."

"Areree~~?" Conan suddenly piped up in his high pitched, childish voice. "What's this? It's such a strange looking thing! Is this kind of thing usually put into jewel cases?"

Takagi-keiji and a few other officers moved over to where the boy had spoken up, inspecting the display. "... What is this?" The young officer reached down and pulled out a handful of wires, disappearing down into a hole at the bottom of the display. "I'll follow these and see where they lead to."

"No need," Conan spoke into the bowtie once more, sliding down to hide behind the jewel case. "They lead right back to where you've been just earlier, Takagi-keiji. It's a trap designed for Kaitou Kid -- when Kid took the jewel, the body was set to fall right then. But obviously Kid knew that something like this didn't belong, so he disabled it sometime before the heist began. Am I wrong?"

"But then... if it wasn't Kid, then who did it?"

"That's simple enough," Conan smirked. "None of us have left the room between the beginning of the heist and now. Just do a body inspection on those three employees over there, and you'll find the remote somewhere on his person. I suspect it's somewhere it wouldn't be too obvious while standing -- probably in their pant leg or inside of their jacket."

The officers did as told as they inspected the three suspects. Only from one did they come away with a strange contraption -- the curator.

"I-I can explain," the man stuttered, holding up his hands.

"You can explain down at the station," Takagi-keiji muttered, clasping his handcuffs closed over the culprit's risked.

Conan sighed and put the bowtie away, standing up from his seated position to make his way back over to Haibara and his mother. "Alright, happy? We can leave now." He turned to try and catch a glimpse of that woman -- Sharon Vineyard, Vermouth -- or any other Black Org members that could be lurking about. He didn't know what they were here for, but he didn't want to leave them to their own devices.