The Impossible Acquittal, Part 3
Title: The Impossible Acquittal,Part 3
Author: Phantom_Kaito
Rating: K+ / PG-13
Disclaimer: Being female I am neither Butch Hartman or Aoyama Gosho. Guess what that means?
Notes: Sequel to The Impossible Murder.
Previous Chapeters: Prologue; Chapter 1 Chapter 2
There had got to be a law against this...
There is. I told you already.
Yeah, but unless we can make these jerks acknowledge it, we're stuck.
“I'm asking you for the last time, punk, what did you do to Valerie Grey!”
“And I'm telling you for the last time, nothing! She was my friend!”
Keep cool. They want to get you agitated and trick you into confessing something you didn't do.
I know, I know, but you know how much effort it's taking just to keep my eyes from glowing. I wish I could just ghost out of here. Any chance we could switch?
Don't even suggest it!
“Are you ignoring me?”
“You've been asking me the same questions since you grabbed me at school, if anyone's a kidnapper, it's you!”
Danny, that was the wrong thing to say.
The interrogator leaned forward, grabbing the young halfa by his collar. “What was that?”
The door to the room slammed open. “Get your hands off him!”
Jazz?
The red-headed Fenton stormed into the room. “Do you have any idea how many civil rights you are in violation of?” she fumed.
The man's lip curled up. “What I am doing, missy, is holding an investigation into the kidnapping of Valerie Grey. And I don't need a woman who thinks she can do a man's job bothering me.”
Jazz grabbed her brothers arm. “Add sexual discrimination to the list of charges my family will be filing against you Officer-” she glanced at his name tag, “Rees. Any further inquires shall be directed through a lawyer.” With no further ado, she pulled her brother from the room.
~
“God, Danny are you alright?” Jazz started to fuss over her brother as soon as they got into the car.
“I'm fine. I desperately need to blow something up, but I'm fine. What are you doing here?”
“Mom and Dad called me as soon as you were arrested. I flew over as soon as I could. What happened?”
“I'm not sure. One day were at home when I got back from school. The next day they arrested me. They wouldn't let me have a lawyer or call Mom and Dad. Which Ta-I know is illegal.”
Still no going to tell her, huh?
Not the right time for this!
“Well there's no doubt we have grounds for a severe lawsuit, but if I know you little brother, that's not what you're worried about.
“Yeah.” Danny gazed out the window, “What happened to Valerie?”
~
Conan sighed, the remains of his airplane kiddie meal in front of him. He was pretending to sleep, it cut down on the number of airplane attendants who wanted to coo over the adorable child. Although it was kind of funny seeing Ran get jealous but not be able to say anything....
Now she knows what it feels like!
“Soooo how many dead bodies do I have to look forward to?”
Conan's eyes flew open. “Takagi-keiji?”
“Yup.” The cop flopped into the empty seat next to Conan. “Let me guess, you heard about Danny too?”
“Yeah.”
“Found a way to deal with the shivers?”
Conan shook his head. He knew the almost paralyzing cold he felt around malevolent ghosts (Thankfully the only lingering side effect of a near-death experience that had separated him from his body) was going to be a huge liability in a town as haunted as Amity, but that was the least of his worries. There was an almost unnatural hardness in his eyes as he spoke to his friend. “I doubt we're going to find Valerie alive.”
Takagi felt his heart constrict, the part of his mind that was Danny falling deathly silent.
“She's a fighter, which makes it too much of a risk to keep her alive. Especially since no ransom demands have been made.”
“I...I think we can rule out money as a motive. The Grey family doesn't have enough of it to make the risk worthwhile. You know, there's another angle to her disappearance,” Takagi pointed out, trying to bury overwhelming emotions coming from the part of him that was Danny. “One the police wouldn't even know about.”
“You mean the Red Huntress? That the target was Valerie's night time persona, rather than her daytime one. The most likely culprit, then, would be a ghost, which again doesn't give much hope for her being alive.”
“If it were ghosts there would have been boasting. Danny would have heard about it.” Takagi said shortly.
Conan turned his gaze onto his companion. “Are you okay?”
“Danny's in love with Valerie.” Takagi didn't look at the shrunken detective, but rather stared straight ahead.
Conan blinked trying to see the connection. When it hit him his eyes widened to almost comical proportions. “Oh...”
“I know everything he feels, everything he's ever felt. This would be killing him even if he weren't being blamed for it.” he sighed. “I'm going back to my seat. And Conan, please don't tell Danny about this. If he found out Val could be dead, he'd do something...stupid.”
“Fine.” Conan didn't like the idea of lying to Danny, but recognized that they couldn't afford a panicking Phantom flying around a paranoid Amity.
As Takagi went back to his seat, Conan curled up against Ran who had been sleeping against airplane window. “Don't ever leave me.” he whispered as he fell asleep himself.
If he had stayed awake a few more minutes, he would have been aware of the arm that draped around him and the soft return whisper of “Never Shinichi...”
~
“Explain to me again why I'm not on a plane to America?” Sato gave Megure a rather severe look.
“I understand there's an emergency, but I can't afford to let three of my best off at the same time.”
“Three?”
“Yes, you see I'm taking a sabbatical as well.”
“Shiratori-kun?” Sato turned to see the superintendent standing behind her.
“I'll be leaving this afternoon. Will you get some coffee with me?”
Sato was about to refuse when she noticed a strange look in his eyes. Rather than his usual flirting manner he had with her, it was almost a challenge.
“Sure,” she answered shortly, allowing him to lead her to the break room. He didn't try engaging her in conversation until after the coffee had been poured.
“I know you and Takagi lied about the Impossible Murder.”
Sato was suddenly grateful she had a ceramic mug and not a styrofoam cup, else hot coffee would have spilled all over her hands.
“When you two turned me over to the hospital, you told them you found me knocked out near the police station, with a concession from the explosion as a reason for my being unconscious. However I distinctly remember being awake after the explosion. Oddly enough the last thing I remember was heading towards Masters holding cell well after the excitement stopped. Also the hospital you dropped me was not the one closest to the police station, but rather the one were you were getting a statement from Conan, meaning you were closer to that area. The window of your car was shot out by bullet that matched those found in police issue guns and I had strange burns on my clothing not matching any known fire or chemical burns.
Also, ever since then, Takagi has been acting strange, almost as if he were another person at times. You've been more protective of him and I noticed both of you seem to have a close friendship with Kisaki's new intern, none other the the daughter of the prime suspect before Masters. And now both of you suddenly want leave to go to Amity Park, the very town the Fentons are from.”
Sato said nothing and just continued to drink her coffee.
“I'd ask you to tell me the truth but at this point I'm not sure I can believe you'd tell the truth. I pulled strings to get my vacation time passed instead of yours. I'm going to be following Takagi to Amity and find out just what you two are hiding.”
Not waiting for a reply, he dumped out the rest of his coffee and left the room.
~~~~
Author: Phantom_Kaito
Rating: K+ / PG-13
Disclaimer: Being female I am neither Butch Hartman or Aoyama Gosho. Guess what that means?
Notes: Sequel to The Impossible Murder.
Previous Chapeters: Prologue; Chapter 1 Chapter 2
There had got to be a law against this...
There is. I told you already.
Yeah, but unless we can make these jerks acknowledge it, we're stuck.
“I'm asking you for the last time, punk, what did you do to Valerie Grey!”
“And I'm telling you for the last time, nothing! She was my friend!”
Keep cool. They want to get you agitated and trick you into confessing something you didn't do.
I know, I know, but you know how much effort it's taking just to keep my eyes from glowing. I wish I could just ghost out of here. Any chance we could switch?
Don't even suggest it!
“Are you ignoring me?”
“You've been asking me the same questions since you grabbed me at school, if anyone's a kidnapper, it's you!”
Danny, that was the wrong thing to say.
The interrogator leaned forward, grabbing the young halfa by his collar. “What was that?”
The door to the room slammed open. “Get your hands off him!”
Jazz?
The red-headed Fenton stormed into the room. “Do you have any idea how many civil rights you are in violation of?” she fumed.
The man's lip curled up. “What I am doing, missy, is holding an investigation into the kidnapping of Valerie Grey. And I don't need a woman who thinks she can do a man's job bothering me.”
Jazz grabbed her brothers arm. “Add sexual discrimination to the list of charges my family will be filing against you Officer-” she glanced at his name tag, “Rees. Any further inquires shall be directed through a lawyer.” With no further ado, she pulled her brother from the room.
~
“God, Danny are you alright?” Jazz started to fuss over her brother as soon as they got into the car.
“I'm fine. I desperately need to blow something up, but I'm fine. What are you doing here?”
“Mom and Dad called me as soon as you were arrested. I flew over as soon as I could. What happened?”
“I'm not sure. One day were at home when I got back from school. The next day they arrested me. They wouldn't let me have a lawyer or call Mom and Dad. Which Ta-I know is illegal.”
Still no going to tell her, huh?
Not the right time for this!
“Well there's no doubt we have grounds for a severe lawsuit, but if I know you little brother, that's not what you're worried about.
“Yeah.” Danny gazed out the window, “What happened to Valerie?”
~
Conan sighed, the remains of his airplane kiddie meal in front of him. He was pretending to sleep, it cut down on the number of airplane attendants who wanted to coo over the adorable child. Although it was kind of funny seeing Ran get jealous but not be able to say anything....
Now she knows what it feels like!
“Soooo how many dead bodies do I have to look forward to?”
Conan's eyes flew open. “Takagi-keiji?”
“Yup.” The cop flopped into the empty seat next to Conan. “Let me guess, you heard about Danny too?”
“Yeah.”
“Found a way to deal with the shivers?”
Conan shook his head. He knew the almost paralyzing cold he felt around malevolent ghosts (Thankfully the only lingering side effect of a near-death experience that had separated him from his body) was going to be a huge liability in a town as haunted as Amity, but that was the least of his worries. There was an almost unnatural hardness in his eyes as he spoke to his friend. “I doubt we're going to find Valerie alive.”
Takagi felt his heart constrict, the part of his mind that was Danny falling deathly silent.
“She's a fighter, which makes it too much of a risk to keep her alive. Especially since no ransom demands have been made.”
“I...I think we can rule out money as a motive. The Grey family doesn't have enough of it to make the risk worthwhile. You know, there's another angle to her disappearance,” Takagi pointed out, trying to bury overwhelming emotions coming from the part of him that was Danny. “One the police wouldn't even know about.”
“You mean the Red Huntress? That the target was Valerie's night time persona, rather than her daytime one. The most likely culprit, then, would be a ghost, which again doesn't give much hope for her being alive.”
“If it were ghosts there would have been boasting. Danny would have heard about it.” Takagi said shortly.
Conan turned his gaze onto his companion. “Are you okay?”
“Danny's in love with Valerie.” Takagi didn't look at the shrunken detective, but rather stared straight ahead.
Conan blinked trying to see the connection. When it hit him his eyes widened to almost comical proportions. “Oh...”
“I know everything he feels, everything he's ever felt. This would be killing him even if he weren't being blamed for it.” he sighed. “I'm going back to my seat. And Conan, please don't tell Danny about this. If he found out Val could be dead, he'd do something...stupid.”
“Fine.” Conan didn't like the idea of lying to Danny, but recognized that they couldn't afford a panicking Phantom flying around a paranoid Amity.
As Takagi went back to his seat, Conan curled up against Ran who had been sleeping against airplane window. “Don't ever leave me.” he whispered as he fell asleep himself.
If he had stayed awake a few more minutes, he would have been aware of the arm that draped around him and the soft return whisper of “Never Shinichi...”
~
“Explain to me again why I'm not on a plane to America?” Sato gave Megure a rather severe look.
“I understand there's an emergency, but I can't afford to let three of my best off at the same time.”
“Three?”
“Yes, you see I'm taking a sabbatical as well.”
“Shiratori-kun?” Sato turned to see the superintendent standing behind her.
“I'll be leaving this afternoon. Will you get some coffee with me?”
Sato was about to refuse when she noticed a strange look in his eyes. Rather than his usual flirting manner he had with her, it was almost a challenge.
“Sure,” she answered shortly, allowing him to lead her to the break room. He didn't try engaging her in conversation until after the coffee had been poured.
“I know you and Takagi lied about the Impossible Murder.”
Sato was suddenly grateful she had a ceramic mug and not a styrofoam cup, else hot coffee would have spilled all over her hands.
“When you two turned me over to the hospital, you told them you found me knocked out near the police station, with a concession from the explosion as a reason for my being unconscious. However I distinctly remember being awake after the explosion. Oddly enough the last thing I remember was heading towards Masters holding cell well after the excitement stopped. Also the hospital you dropped me was not the one closest to the police station, but rather the one were you were getting a statement from Conan, meaning you were closer to that area. The window of your car was shot out by bullet that matched those found in police issue guns and I had strange burns on my clothing not matching any known fire or chemical burns.
Also, ever since then, Takagi has been acting strange, almost as if he were another person at times. You've been more protective of him and I noticed both of you seem to have a close friendship with Kisaki's new intern, none other the the daughter of the prime suspect before Masters. And now both of you suddenly want leave to go to Amity Park, the very town the Fentons are from.”
Sato said nothing and just continued to drink her coffee.
“I'd ask you to tell me the truth but at this point I'm not sure I can believe you'd tell the truth. I pulled strings to get my vacation time passed instead of yours. I'm going to be following Takagi to Amity and find out just what you two are hiding.”
Not waiting for a reply, he dumped out the rest of his coffee and left the room.
~~~~