Disclaimer: I still don't own the CC-Characters, the rest is mine

Looks like noone managed to solve my riddle...ok, maybe it was a little overboard...You know, the difficult thing about making riddles is not just to make them logical to yourself but to give enough hints so that others can solve them. Maybe I didn't give the right hints...anyway, with this part you'll learn the solution of the riddle and the first murder is to occur...I hope you have fun!

Murder Part 1

'It's actually pretty easy once you figured the mice-thing out' Reona said, picking up the card from the table. 'Hm, yes. And the decisive clue is this card' said Hattori pointing at it.

'Excuse me but could somebody tell me what is going on?' asked Yoroshi confused.

'Sure. Please, everyone, look at the picture on the card.' Shinichi said, still smiling. The others gathered around Reona as she turned the postcard around and stared at the nine mice depictet on it. 'So? What about it?' asked Sarainu.

'Well, this tells us how to read the message. First of all, we have to realize that the message actually containes the combination to the lock.' The darkhaired boy explained. 'The combination?'

'Yes. You see, to get the combination you have to replace two words with another word.' Hattori added.

'Replace two words...ah...' Mori scrached his head. 'I don't get it. Really, can't you express yourself in a clear manner?'

'Alright, so be it. The words you have to replace are 'mice' and 'stripes'. And the word you replace them with is 'Numbers'. It was you who gave me that idea when you counted the sugar cubes.' Shinichi sighed. Really, the old man never changed.

'So then you get: 'in the tree of honesty it counts its numbers'...counts its numbers...'nine numbers run by and the cat sees every single from first to last'...nine numbers...' Rans father murmured. The others seemed to think hard as well. 'Ah! Now i get it!' Honai exclaimed.

'I still don't.' answered Yoroshi.

'Well, the copmbination consist from the numbers between one and nine...makes sense. You have to put them into a certain order to get the correct code.' the journalist mumbled.

'But there are various ways to combine these nine numbers!' Yamamoto pointed out.'Yes. That's what's troubling me. How do we know the right order?'

'It must have something to do with the picture on the card, right?' Asked Yoroshi.

Shinichi nodded. 'Exactly. With that we can at least narrow it down to two possibilities.'

'Hey, Kudo! I won't have you all the fun by yourself.' Hattori grabbed the card and pointed at the mice. 'Now it's my turn. Look, like before, you have to replace the mice with numbers. You'll get the code if you insert the numbers from one to nine into a quadrangle.'

'I don't understand how that narrows it down.' Negousagi inspected the card once more.

'Well, that's why there's a reference to June 15th, 'Half years' half'. You start with six, since June is the 6th month. Next clue is 'no matter what the direction'- that means that starting with six in the upper left corner you have to fill in the rest of the numbers so that every row produces 15. Look:

681

249

735

It doesn't matter in which direction you summ up the numbers, you'll always get 15.'

'So the code is, starting with 6: 681 249 735?' asked Negousagi

'Or 627 843 195, since you get the same solution if you write:

627

843

195.' added Reona.

Negousagi pulled out the card once again and, mumbeling something, pointed on the holes in the picture. 'He's right! Everything fits!' he finally exclaimed.

'Tch, don't be stupid. There's no way it could be something like that!' Sarainu said, shaking his head. 'I really don't think children like you should talk into adult-buisness.'

Shinichi sighed. Some people just said one and the same sentence over and over again...it was frustrating. 'If you don't believe me, why don't we just try it?' He asked, pointing towards the cassette.

'Well, it's not like we have anything to lose if we go with those codes, Inspector-dono...' said Negousagi.

'Tch. Do as you please...'

The group surrounded the cassette once again. 'Who wants to open it?' asked Yoroshi.

'Since the kids think they solved the riddle, they should do it...' replied Sarainu, looking aside with his arms crossed over his chest. 'But I'm telling you, you're wrong.'

'Well, we'll see about that soon enough' Reona said, kneeling down beside the lock. She started to turn the little wheels one after another.

'Wait a moment. May I?' asked Honai.

'Huh?'

'We'll, I'm a reporter after all. My duty is to bring the news to everybody. So I should be the one to open it.' he explained.

'Er, sure. I don't mind' Reona stepped aside and now Honai kneeled down.

'Let's see...first combination... 68...1...24...973...and finally 5.' He pulled at the lock. Nothing happend.

'See? I told you, there's no way you can be right.' Sarainus' mouth cringed to a smile.

'Don't be so hasty, Inspector. There's still one combination left. What was it... 6...27...843...19...an five...' there was a soft click when the last wheel slid into it's place. Honai pulled again and the lock came of. 'Seems like the kids weren't so wrong after all.' Yoroshi said with amusment in her voice. Sarainu just made another 'Tch'.

'Alright, I'll open it now.'

Honais' hands grabbed the cassette and slowly started to pull it open. Shinichi held his breath in excited anticipation. He wondered what'd be inside the box. The lines from Kogoros message came back into his mind.

Pandoras box is opened and blows away truth

when joined forces lead to death

Up until now he had understood them just as another threat against the criminalistic community, but what if...in sudden terror his eyes widened.

'WAIT! DON'T OPEN IT!' He screamed. But it was to late. The journalist already had swung open the cassette. In the fraction of a second Shinichi grabbed the persons next to him and pulled them back and down to the floor.

It took only one fracture of the same second more until...BANG!

Hot pieces of metal and something wet rained down on his head, a woman screamed. Then another BANG and yet another. The explosions continued for at least one minute, then silence returned to the room only disrupted by the coughs of someone beside him.

Slowly he dared to raise his head again. The picture he saw was pure horror. The smell of burned flesh met his nose and his eyes started to tear, blurring the bloody and burned floor infront of him.

'Damn it...' he muttured. He had been too late. He had been to late and now, right infront of him on the carpet was lying the object responsible for the large sea of blood. 'Damn it...'

Today only a very brief part. I'm really sorry about that but I have to fix the presents for my friends, read Romeo and Juliet, analyze it, do the same with 'The death in venice' and on top of it memorize the whole Katakana-tabellary and about 50 Kanji-symbols...not to forget the 6 pages of excersises about basic grammar and my maths homework. And they call that 'vacation'- yeah, right. Anyway, I hope you liked that part. Next time is going to be more, i promise...although I'm not sure when I'll manage to write again. Next chapter including: A conversation between Ran and Kazuha, the identity of the corpse and the cause of the other explosions. Keep on reading! Next time: TRAPPED!