Death In The Family 6

Yukiko had expected it, but it still made her concerned when the lights of their residence were all off. After Yusaku unlocked the door, the air from inside was enough to make her sensitive nose contract, before she let out a sneeze. Clearly, no one had cleaned the place for a while for the dust to build up like that.

Slowly making her way inside, Yukiko flipped it on once her hand found the switch. She and Yusaku had to squint their eyes in order to get used to the brightness. Then, they noticed the untouched state of the living room, and either of them was sure no one had even lived here for at least a week.

Frowning, Yusaku closed the door behind him, and dragged his finger on the corner of the reading table.

“He really wasn’t here for a while…” The novelist muttered.

Yukiko grimaced, before she fished out her phone from her pocket. “I’ll try to call Shin-chan’s phone.”

She went outside, leaving Yusaku alone as he looked for a clue as to where their son had disappeared.

“The bozu is really not here…” Kogoro muttered, his brows furrowed as he looked inside the small candi across the street of Heiwayou. Although he had predicted it before, it still meant that they needed to search for Conan in another place.

‘I don’t know whether being right is a good thing or not now…’

Behind him, the curious Ran, the duo celebrities Yoko and Yuko, and their manager Rukia were peeking from his shoulders, tiptoeing to see what had gotten their man frustrated.

“You are right, Daddy. Conan-kun is not here after all.” Ran said, amazed at Kogoro’s theory being right, and sad from Conan’s lack of presence.

Yuko, who was already tired from all the walking, asked her lover. “What should we do next?”

“We go to where Eri and the rest of the girls are now. I’m sure they already found something.” Just when he said that, his trusted Anoki 3310 rang, and Kogoro’s eyes lit up.

“Speak of the devil. It’s from Velma. She said that they found the fish!”

All the girls breathe a sigh of relief. Even though they had Conan’s safety in their mind, none of them were used to the grueling work of a private eye. Even the athletic Ran was feeling the strain of the day. If not for her being extremely worried for Conan, she would have bailed from the excursion.

‘Not that I’m as tired as that woman, of course!’ Ran huffed, as she remembered the older lady who slept inside her father’s hospital room. She did not blame him for nailing the woman to oblivion, because Ran knew firsthand how monstrous her father’s stamina was. No, she was mad because another woman got to enjoy sexual pleasure from her beloved, while she had to focus on the search!

Fortunately, Fuyuki had gone home instead of following them to look for Conan.

Ran’s inner monologue was interrupted by Rukia’s voice.

“What fish?”

As Kogoro and his entourage caught up with his wife and her crews, he noticed how excited Velma was compared to the exhausted Eri and the amused Miwako. Despite that, the bespectacled girl still had some sense to let his wife speak first.

“Come on, we could see it from the eighth floor!” Eri said with a resigned look on her face. Kogoro wanted to ask why, but kept himself from bringing it up. Instead, he gestured towards all the people present to hurry up and followed Eri upstairs.

The building they were in was the one symbolized by two rectangles in the code sheet. Like in the manga, the location was not that far away from the bridge with lights alongside the side rails. As they climbed the stairs up to the seventh floor, he wondered why the place was unlocked, before the policewoman told him.

“I asked the security guards for the key. We only have one hour, though; so we better make it count!” Miwako said. Her nod also told him that yes, he did say that out loud.

Raising his hand in defeat, Kogoro motioned the girls to stop for a second. He then explained why, as all of them made a circle.

“Although Eri and the rest had already gone inside before, we still need to be careful in case Vermouth leaves some sort of a trap. So this is what we are going to do…”

After he explained in detail how they were going to explore the eighth floor, Velma, Ran, Yuko, and Rukia took their position and followed his lead upstairs. Meanwhile, Eri, Yoko, and Miwako stayed behind to guard the entrance.

Up on the eighth floor, Kogoro let Velma guide them to the position where she found the ‘fish’, and it took them about five minutes. Along the way, Kogoro noted every corner of the place, not finding anything suspicious but remained vigilant to protect his girls. They arrived at the spot, and Velma excitedly showed them the missing piece of the puzzle.

Kogoro didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry, because the ‘fish’ symbol on the code sheet turned out to be the aquarium at the end of the street. Because of his past knowledge, Kogoro thought the symbol had to be formed where there was water reflecting the lamps, but no!

The last sign was formed by the very outline of the aquarium, and a small building connected to one of the corners. Because the roofs of the two buildings were flat, they put lamps all along the railings. The eye, located to the left corner from where they were seeing it, was from a single lamp right above the door connected to the stairs. of the aquarium.

Because of the turn that the Tsukimi road had, Kogoro and co. were seeing the aquarium diagonally. The large square became the head and the body of the symbol, while the smaller one became the tailend of it.

“Ooh… So you were talking about that fish!”

Rukia uttered, and Kogoro nodded absentmindedly. Just then, they heard a song ring from the stairs. His brows furrowed, as the tone just now was the one from Miwako’s ringtone. Just as he was wondering, Miwako, Eri and Yoko came to them in a hurry.

“How is it, Anata? Is Conan being kept in this building?”

At Eri’s question, Kogoro looked up, and found the thing he was looking for.

“Probably. But more importantly, was that from the department, Miwako?”

The policewoman nodded as she crossed her arms under her breasts. “Chiba just told me that there is a murder at the hospital. I need to go now.”

Kogoro affirmed, “Everyone except for Eri should go back with Miwako-” before anyone could protest, he continued, “-because it’s late now, and I might need your help tomorrow if we could not find the bozu today.”

They surrendered, clearly noticing how serious his tone was.

Miwako ushered the reluctant Ran and Velma, while Rukia took Yuko and Yoko with her. They said their goodbye, and left Kogoro with only Eri on the eighth floor.

After a few moments of silence, Kogoro began. “You can drop the act now, Vermouth!”

‘Eri’ was stunned for a moment, before she let out a soft, tinkling laugh. She reached under her jaw, and ripped open the mask, revealing her true appearance.

“What gave me away?”

As her blonde hair fluttered with the wind, Kogoro stared dead into her eyes, and Vermouth actually felt murderous intent from his gaze.

“I’ll answer that after you tell me where Eri is!”

~To Be Continued~