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My second Detective Conan/Case Closed fic!
Standard disclaimers apply (but I’ll say it, anyway…). I don’t own Detective Conan/Case Closed.
Again, I use the Japanese names and not the English ones…so here are the translations:
Kogoro – Richard
Ran – Rachael
Shinichi – Jimmy
Ayumi – Amy
Genta – George
Mitsuhiko – Mitch
Other Japanese words:
Shounen Tantei – Detective Boys (Junior Detective League in the dub)
Aa/Un/Hai – Yea/yes
Meitantei – (great) detective
kun – (polite suffix usually attached to the end of a boy’s name)
chan – (polite suffix usually attached to the end of a girl’s name, especially among friends. Also attached for children)
The Car Kidnapper
“And in other news, the notorious kidnapper is still at large. Parents are advised to be extra careful of where their kids go, and not to let them get in any car with a stranger. Reports from the area say that they have seen a red minivan in the area during every kidnapping. The license plate is still unknown. If you have any information, please call the police. And now for the weather…”
Kogoro rolled his eyes, “Amazing how they go from one subject to another, these reporters. They talk about crimes as if it’s the weather here.”
Ran shook her head as she walked by the desk where her father was watching the TV sitting there, “Kind of creepy…a kidnapper taking kids into the car. How come nobody’s seen the license plate?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it?” Kogoro yawned, “They change the plates each time. It’s not too hard for these criminals to forge fake license plates.”
Ran nodded, then gasped, “I should have told Conan-kun to be careful with his friends today at the park…!”
“He’ll be fine,” Kogoro mumbled, taking a drink from the beer on his desk.
“How can you just say things like that!”
Kogoro looked at her, “Damn kid’s always getting into trouble with criminals…you want me to say that?”
Ran sighed and looked at the ground, “No, not really……” It’s true, though. Conan-kun and his friends seem to find a lot of cases……I hope this is one case that they don’t find.
“No fair!”
“Hey!”
Conan laughed as he kicked the ball through the net on the field they were using at the park to play soccer, “GOAL!”
“Can we play something else?” Genta came over, breathing hard.
“Yea…Conan-kun beats us at soccer every time!” Mitsuhiko groaned.
“Even when it’s three against one…” Ayumi agreed.
Conan grinned and bounced the ball off his knee, “Aw, come on……!”
The three glared at him.
Conan laughed nervously, dropping the ball. “Okay, okay! We’ll play something else!”
The three nodded, and then started talking about what to do.
Conan sighed. Why does a high school student like me have to play these kind of games…?
I guess I should explain…I’m a 17 year old super detective. My real name is Shinichi Kudo…or, it used to be. I was following some shady guys around one night at the amusement park, and one of them snuck up behind me and whacked me on the head! Then, they fed me some kind of poison! Instead of killing me, the poison shrunk me! Now, I have to keep my identity hidden to protect everyone around me and find leads to the strange men in black that did this so it can be reversed, in the body of a 7 year old…as Conan Edogawa.
“Conan-kun! We’re playing baseball! Come on!” Ayumi waved.
“Ah…coming!” Conan grabbed the soccer ball and ran after them.
The sun was starting to go down by the time they finished, dirty and exhausted but laughing about different plays.
“…and when Genta-kun slipped…”
“That was funny!”
Conan sighed, chuckling along with them. It wasn’t that bad, I suppose…
“Ahh!”
“What is it, Ayumi-chan?” Conan looked over.
“L-look!” Ayumi pointed.
They glanced over and gaped.
Through one of the traffic mirrors, they saw a strange looking man wearing a brown trench-coat, a brown hat, and glasses with boots put a kid into a red minivan, then run to the other side of it to get in. Moments later, the red minivan drove off.
“That was a kidnapping……wasn’t it…?” Mistuhiko gulped.
“We have to stop them…!” Genta started out.
“Wait!” Conan grabbed the back of his shirt.
“What!” Genta exclaimed.
“We should call the police, Genta-kun,” Ayumi stated.
Genta sighed, “I guess…”
“I need to check something,” Conan stated, “You three go to the payphone and call the police!”
“Conan-kun!”
But Conan was already up and running towards where the red van was. Odd…I didn’t hear any noises of the guy getting in the van. Yet there must have been someone driving because it took off. There has to be some clue… he knelt down and looked around where the van was. He touched something that seemed to be water, and sniffed at it. Cooler water…this is from an air conditioner. And by the size of the puddle, it must’ve been here a long time. But why? Why risk being exposed as the van from the newspapers on kidnapping by sitting here with the air conditioner running? It doesn’t make sense!
“Conan-kun!”
Conan looked over to see his three friends running towards him. “Did you call the police…?”
“They said it was from the kidnapping case they’ve been looking into lately, and to just stay together and away from the car and there’s nothing they can do since the van drove off and we didn’t see the license plate,” Mitsuhiko informed him.
Conan looked at the puddle of water on the ground. Kuso……while the police have no leads and we just wait around, they could be kidnapping other kids! “Okay…then we’ll have to do it ourselves!”
“Yea!” Ayumi nodded.
“Aa!” Mitsuhiko agreed.
“Shounen Tantei is on the case!” Genta thrust a fist into the air.
“UN!” the others followed.
The four split up and asked around to see if anyone else saw a red van and where it went, then met back in an hour back at the park.
“Anything?” Conan asked.
“Nothing,” Genta sighed.
“Nobody saw a thing,” Mitsuhiko shook his head.
“One person said they saw the van going that way,” Ayumi pointed east, “but they weren’t sure if it was the same van from the news or not.”
“Well, it’s the only thing we have to go on,” Conan stated with a frown, “But it’s been an hour since they took off……that road joins a main highway. From there, multiple roads intersect with it. They could have gone anywhere. It’d take too long for us to find them.”
“And we can’t use Conan’s skateboard because it’s almost dark,” Mitsuhiko sighed.
“What do we do now?” Ayumi asked anxiously.
Conan frowned and walked around the remaining puddle of water.
“What’s that?” Genta asked.
“Water from the cooler…the air conditioner was on. And by the amount of water here, it was on for a long time,” Conan stated, “Probably all morning.”
“So they were waiting there…but why wait all day?” Ayumi blinked.
“That’s the question,” Conan frowned, placing a hand under his chin in a thinker’s position. “Why would the kidnapper park in such an obvious place for an extended amount of time and leave the vehicle on while leaving it to kidnap the kid, then come back where everyone can see to put the kid in the car? Something doesn’t add up, here…”
“Why not? The guy’s probably just an idiot,” Genta blinked.
Conan frowned. He could be right……but I still think this entire thing is suspicious. It’s perhaps a little too obvious. The kidnappings have been going on for a week. Why would the criminal continue to kidnap kids with that red minivan parked in such an obvious place for extended periods of time if the police are looking for them? Something’s missing. Something important… he paced around the area where the car was, glancing around. He blinked when he saw a brown button on the ground, but when he turned around, it wasn’t there. What…?
“We should go home soon…shouldn’t we? With the kidnapper out, my parents want me home before dark,” Ayumi stated.
Conan suddenly ran across the street when the ‘walk’ sign came on.
“Ah…Conan-kun! Wait up!”
“Where are you going, Conan?”
“Wait for me!”
Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko followed him across the street.
Conan looked around and saw the brown button on the ground. Pulling out a handkerchief from his pocket, he picked it up. “Look.”
“Someone tore their cloths?” Genta blinked.
“No…!” Conan sighed, then pointed to it again, “It’s the same color of the ones on the coat that the kidnapper was wearing! Plus, there’s nothing around here that the kidnapper could snag their coat on that would tear the button off like this.”
“Then…?”
Conan nodded, “The kid must’ve struggled and pulled the button off.” But why is the button blue on one side…? Could it be that…?
“But what is it doing over here? We saw the kid struggling as they put him into the car over there,” Mitsuhiko blinked.
“I got it!” Genta exclaimed, “They caught him here and carried him across the street!”
“Idiot!” Mitsuhiko huffed, “That’s too obvious! Someone would see!”
Conan frowned. Someone would see…? Wait a minute! He stood up and ran to one of the buildings, ducking into the alley and standing on some trash cans.
“What are you doing…?”
Conan peered into a glass object on the wall there, then grinned. Souka…that’s how they did it! But how did they…? He jumped down and ran to the end of the alley, then looked around.
“What are you looking for, Conan-kun…?”
“Hey, I used to hide from my cousin here,” Mitsuhiko pointed out, “Back when I was really little. Look…there’s a hole in the wall here.” He pushed some boards of wood and cans out of the way, revealing a hole that even a grown man could go through, “I don’t have the nicest cousin…he’d always pick on me when we went out shopping with our parents. So I would go here.”
“Great!” Conan grinned, “Now…let’s see where it leads.” He crawled through the hole in the fence, then blinked on the other side as he stood up.
The others followed.
“A parking lot?” Ayumi blinked.
Conan blinked. Wait a minute…! Could it be that the kidnapper…? He ran into the lot.
“Hey…Conan-kun! That’s dangerous!” Ayumi yelped when she saw him run into it.
Conan looked around and saw the exit, then ran out of it and looked around. This is a parking lot on one of the streets that eventually intersects with the one the minivan went down. It’s starting to make sense now. He ran back to the lot and started looking around the parked cars.
“Conan…hey, wait up…!” Genta panted as they caught up with him.
“What…?”
Conan interrupted them, “Look for puddles of water on the ground!”
The three exchanged confused looks, then nodded.
Conan pulled back and chuckled, “This is it. No doubt about it.”
“What’s it?” Mitsuhiko asked.
“No doubt about what?” Genta blinked.
“I know!” Ayumi smiled brightly, “You figured out the criminals!”
Conan grinned, “Something like that, yea.”
“Did they go out this parking area?” Mitsuhiko asked.
Conan nodded, “Yea. But we can’t track them tonight. Everyone free tomorrow?”
The others nodded.
Conan grinned, “Alright…I have a plan.”
They gathered around as he whispered something to them.
The three grinned and nodded as they pulled back.
Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta all went to different areas of the park while Conan went across the street to the parking lot.
Peering out from behind some garbage cans, Conan grinned when he saw a white car pull into the space that they found the water in before. This has to be it.
A middle-aged man got out…he was tall and wore a baseball cap on with a navy blue jacket and jeans.
Conan frowned. Different from before…? No…this is the same guy from yesterday. No doubt about it. A closer look at the man’s jacket as he passed confirmed that. There’s a button missing. It’s him, alright.
The man looked around, then ducked through the opening.
Conan picked up his communication device that looked like the badge that Agasa made for them that they wore. “Someone came here. How about you?”
“Nothing here,” Genta replied.
“Me, neither,” Ayumi responded.
“…a red minivan just pulled up! Exactly where it was yesterday!”
“Go hide, quickly!” Conan urged Mitsuhiko.
“Hai!”
“Genta, Ayumi-chan…do you two see a man with a navy blue coat and a baseball cap with blue jeans anywhere?”
“Nothing here…but there’s a guy just sitting in the car,” Mitsuhiko reported, “I can’t tell what he looks like…the windows are tinted.”
“Don’t get too close,” Conan warned him.
“Right!”
“I see the man! He went into the men’s bathroom!” Ayumi reported.
“All of you, don’t let him see you! We’re the only ones here so far.”
“Hai!” came the response from all three com devices.
Conan nodded and switched his to low volume, then peered out from behind the garbage cans. Seeing the coast was clear, he quickly ran over and ducked back out of the fence. Sneaking around, he made sure to keep low and to the side, then darted over behind the red van and knelt down behind it, then stuck the tracking device on it. Going back the same way he came, he ducked back into the parking lot and hid behind the white car, waiting.
“More people are coming…” Genta reported.
“Are they criminals…?” Ayumi asked.
“No. Mitsuhiko, keep your eyes on the red van. Genta, keep watching that man. Ayumi-chan, do you have the glasses I gave you?” Conan spoke into his com device.
“Hai.”
“I put the tracking device on the van,” Conan reported, “Now, Genta…are you sure you know how to use that skateboard?”
“I got it,” came the whispered response.
“The guy in the van hasn’t moved yet.”
“He probably won’t ever move from his position if I’m right,” Conan responded, “But keep an eye out on him, anyway.”
“The guy with the navy jacket is looking at the kids in the playground. What a creep!”
Conan nodded, “Okay. We’re putting the plan into motion!”
“HAI!”
Conan turned off his com device and finished using the set of lockpicks that Agasa gave him to pick the car trunk lock, then went in and crouched down, covering himself with a blanket he had brought with him. He closed the trunk and waited.
It didn’t take long before Mitsuhiko informed him that he saw a kid get put into the van, then there was a noise, and he heard the car door open and someone get thrown inside. He listened and heard a voice from outside.
“I got the kid…get going.”
Conan shifted in the trunk. “The van should be leaving…you three in position?”
“Yep.”
“We called the police with the plate number…they’re tracking it now. But if it’s really a fake…” Mitsuhiko’s voice sounded worried.
“That’s why we’re taking care of this ourselves,” Conan responded, “They can’t catch them as they are.” The car’s vibrations increased, and he was thrown against the side of the trunk as he realized that the car was moving. Rubbing his head, he turned his attention back to the com. “Are you following it?”
“Yea! It’s starting to speed up…!” Mitsuhiko yelped.
Conan grinned. Soon…
About ten minutes later, the car came to a stop. Conan heard the guy removing something from the back seat, then left the car. Cautiously, Conan popped open the trunk and looked around. A warehouse…how appropriate…making sure to keep the guy in his sights, he jumped out of the trunk and looked around. The other van isn’t here yet…just as I thought. He snuck around, following the man who was carrying the unconscious kid, then pressed himself up against the wall near a doorway when the man went in. He peered around.
It was a dark room with a single lamp and a phone. The man finished tying the now-conscious and frightened kid up on a chair, then picked up the phone.
Conan listened to the conversation, his eyes narrowed when the phone was hung up.
The man turned to the scared kid, pulling out a knife. “Your parents don’t have enough to pay for your ransom, kid…I was kind of hoping they wouldn’t. I haven’t gotten to kill in a long time……”
Conan’s eyes went wide and he looked around. This is bad…! Spying a fragment of the wall or ceiling on the floor (he didn’t care what it was a fragment of at this point), he clicked his right sneaker to charge it.
The kid’s screams were muffled by the tape over his mouth as the man approached him with the knife.
“Ike!” Conan shouted and kicked the rubble into the man’s knife hand, causing the knife to go flying out of his hand and land far away.
“What…!” the man spun around, “Who’s there!”
Conan stepped into the light of the room, hands in his pockets, “The game’s up, mister kidnapper.”
“What…how’d you…!” the man exclaimed.
Conan nodded, “Find you? Yea, I did. And your trick is pretty good. You threw the police and everyone else off your trail with it.”
The man gritted his teeth.
Conan continued, “First, your partner parked in line with the traffic mirror by the park while you parked in the parking lot behind the alley. You fixed another mirror in the lot, then another in the alley so they reflected off of each other. You parked near a red van, similar to the one your partner uses, to make it look like you were putting the kid into the van parked outside the park. But actually, that was just a trick used with the reflection of the mirrors.”
The man trembled a bit, his eyes wide.
“You grabbed the kid in the park,” Conan stated, “Nobody thought you would actually take the kids right out from under their noses. You knocked them out, probably with a chemical like chloroform. Then, you carried the kid like one would carry a sleeping toddler in their arms so nobody was suspicious, dressed up differently each time you did so that nobody would look twice. After giving the illusion that you put the kid in the van, you took down one of the mirrors and gave the ‘okay’ to your partner to leave. Then, you put the kid in your car, the white one, and drove back here quickly while your partner took a longer route to throw off potential followers.”
The man was shaking with anger and surprise.
“Am I right…mister kidnapper?” Conan’s eyes narrowed but the grin remained on his face.
“Who…who are you…!” the man declared, standing up.
“Edogawa Conan! Meitantei!” Conan smirked.
“Why you little…!” the man started for him.
Conan rushed forward, and kicked a brick that was laying on the ground.
“What…!” the man exclaimed, then coughed as the brick hit him in the gut, knocking him out.
Conan lowered his foot and blew out a relieved breath, then went over to the kid, “It’s okay now.” He removed the tape and started untying the ropes.
“B-behind!” the kid gasped.
Conan turned around, and barely avoided the baseball bat, wincing as it caught him in the arm and caused him to go flying into the ground.
The guy from the red van was standing there, an annoyed expression on his face, “You are a very nosy kid……” he put the bat down and pulled a gun out of the suit jacket he was wearing, pointing it at Conan. “…but it ends here, brat…!”
Just as he was about to fire, there was a rallying shout, and he was knocked over from behind, with Genta and Mitsuhiko on top of his back.
Ayumi quickly jumped onto his hand and kicked the gun away from the guy, then picked up the brick Conan had kicked earlier and knocked the guy out with it.
They all blew out collective breaths of relief, then grinned from one to the other before thrusting their fists into the air.
“The Shounen Tantei solves another case!”
We tied up the criminals and then called the police. When they arrived about ten minutes later, they first lectured us on how dangerous it was, then praised us for catching the kidnappers. Of course, our parents gave us a good lecture after that for doing something so dangerous. It wasn’t as bad as the first couple lectures we’ve gotten…so I guess they’re getting used to us doing things like this. Our reputation as the Shounen Tantei is getting bigger……and I have to admit that it’s not all that bad. Ah, who am I kidding……that was a blast!
THE END
Hope the trick wasn’t too complicated, there.
And hope everyone enjoyed it!