Detective Boys - The Case of the Missing Movie

[WBoon]

    As soon as she left the pool, Ayumi rang Conan. Her nerves were still raw, and she had to hold her mobile phone with both hands to keep it steady.

    "Conan-kun, a man just threatened to drown me in the pool!" she blurted out when she heard his cheery voice. "He said we had to stop looking for Wang Felix-san!"

    She heard Conan's gasp of alarm. "I'll come round and take you to headquarters now! I'll call the others! Meanwhile, don't go anywhere else and stick to the crowds!"

    By eleven o'clock, everyone had gathered at headquarters. They listened in horrified silence as Ayumi told her story. "He held me under the water. He said it was just... a friendly warning..."

    Haibara had dressed so quickly she word pink shorts that didn't match her green tee. She gripped her friend's arm, turning slowly towards Conan and stared at him firmly. Conan didn't dare look back, pretending he was unconcerned with her glare by looking away.

    "It's all your fault, Conan!" Mitsuhiko accused him. "We are in danger. We should drop this case now."

    But Ayumi shook her head. "No!" she said firmly, surprising everyone. "I think we should keep going. I don't care how dangerous it is, I refuse to let anyone push me around!"

    Mitsuhiko's jaw dropped.

    Conan spun his head round instantly and stared at her in disbelief.

    "But, Ayumi, you heard what the man said," Haibara began, staring at Ayumi in disbelief.

    Genta made a strangled, swallowing sound. "I don't want to be found floating in the quarry!"

    Conan snatched up his mobile phone. "I think Inspector Megure should hear about this," and he punched in the numbers.

    The inspector arrived within half an hour. His face looked very serious.

    "Ayumi-chan, we're up against some very desperate people," he said. "I can't let you risk your life. Conan-kun, this is an order... I want you to call Muniko-san now and tell him you're resigning from the case."

    To everyone's amazement, Conan agreed. "Alright..." he said subtly, almost with a sorrow expression, and nothing else.

    "But, that doesn't stop us from thinking about the case, does it?" Mitsuhiko asked.

    "So long as thinking is all you do, Mitsuhiko-kun," Officer Satou, who had came along with the inspector, told him sternly.

    Then the inspector flashed them a smile, specifically Conan. "You've done a very good job, all of you. Some excellent detective work. And you've given me lots of clues to work on. But now's the time to stop. I don't want to hear about you going out and stirring up anymore trouble. There's to be no more snooping around, is that clear?"

      "Yes, inspector," Conan answered, again in the subtle manner. He picked up his phone and called Muniko-san's number, but there was no answer. He left a message. "Muniko-san, this is Edogawa Conan. We can't work on your case anymore. Goodbye." He cut the call ans smiled weakly. "All done, Inspector Megure."

    Megure patted Conan's shoulder. "Good. I feel a lot better now. And if anyone threatens you again, let me know immediately."

    As he and Officer Satou stepped out, Satou hesitated at the door.

    "By the way, I almost forgot. We found out who owns that building in Asakusa."

    Everyone stared at her.

    "Muniko-san does." She turned away and walked out with the inspector immediately after.
~~~~

    Mitsuhiko leaned forward on the desk. "So Muniko-san owns that building!" A frown crossed his face. "Surely he must have recognized it when he saw it in the movie."

    "Maybe that's what shocked him so much," said Haibara. "The sight of Wang Felix-san coming out of one of his own building."

    Genta winked at Conan. "Are we allowed to go down and have a look at it?"

    Mitsuhiko rolled his eyes. "Didn't you hear what Inspector Megure just said? We can think, but we can't snoop!"

    Conan, still wearing that grim visage, looked at Ayumi. "What do you think, Ayumi-chan?"

    Ayumi was shocked for a moment. "You're asking me?" she blurted out. She scratched the side of her face while she considered her answer. "Well, I guess there's nothing to stop us from having a look at the place. I mean, a lot of people go to Asakusa for the shopping and food, don't they?"
~~~~

    Half an hour later they were in Asakusa, standing opposite the small building with door Number 76. It still looked deserted and all the shutters were tightly closed.

    "I wonder if there's a back door?" Conan asked.

    "Well, we can always look, so long as we don't go in," suggested Mitsuhiko.

    They crossed the busy street and eventually found a narrow alley that cut between two shops. In turn, the alley opened into a lane that ran behind the shops.

    "Here we are," said Conan.

    He pointed to a wooden door with "76" painted on it. The door was set into the back wall of the building. A small, barred window looked down from the floor above.

    Haibara shrugged. "Well, we've come this far, let's see what goes on inside..." She reached across and tried the handle. When it turned, she came to a total halt. "It's unlocked," she commented.

    Conan frowned. "It might be a trap."

    He turned the handle and pushed the door. It opened into a long, gloomy hall. At the far end, he saw the front door at Asakusa. He stood listening. The only sound he could hear was the distant rumble of traffic. He stepped inside and beckoned the others to follow. They tiptoed along the hallway towards the main door. The front of the building was deserted. A thick layer of dust covered a counter and several empty desks.

    "It must have been an office of some kind," Ayumi observed.

    Haibara opened and closed the desk drawers, finding nothing except some twisted paper clips. "Well, it doesn't seem to be used for anything now," she told her.

    At the back of the abandoned office, a flight of stairs led to the top floor. They crept up, hearing the stairs creak beneath their weight. When they reached the top floor, they discovered boxes and crates piled everywhere. Cracks of light speared through the closed shutters.

    "Look!" Genta cried. He ran across to a small wire-framed bed with a new mattress on it. "Somebody's been living here!"

    They stared at the bed. "Maybe it's the woman in the gray car," Ayumi wondered aloud.

    "Or Wang Felix-san," suggested Mitsuhiko.

    "Great thinking, Mitsuhiko," said Conan. "If Wang Felix-san is hiding out here, that explains why we saw the woman in the gray car paying a visit."

    They probed around amongst the clutter of boxes and crates. Suddenly Genta let out a triumphant yell. "Now we know what happened to the missing movie!"

    Everyone rushed across to where a stack of film containers had been dumped behind a bulky crate. Conan flashed his flashlight wristwatch on the labels. Printed on each container was My Lost Love.

    "But lost no more!" grinned Genta. Ayumi was the only one who laughed at his joke.

    "Do you think we should take them back to Tanaka-san at Hoshi Pictures?" asked Mitsuhiko. "He'd be very grateful."

    "No, we mustn't touch them," cautioned Conan. "They're evidence. We should tell Inspector Megure they're here."

    "But if we do, he'll know we've disobeyed him," said Ayumi. "He told us not to go snooping around, remember?"

    "We, we can tell him that we had thought they're here," Haibara suggested.

    Conan placed his hand below his chin. "We've found the movie, and maybe Wang Felix-san's hideout. We've almost cracked the case."

    "Except we haven't found Wang-san himself," Mitsuhiko reminded him.

    "And we still don't know who the woman is," added Genta.

    Haibara surveyed the gloomy storeroom. "And for all we know, the million dollars could be hidden up here as well," she sighed.

    "Right under Muniko-san's nose," laughed Mitsuhiko. He hesitated for a moment, as though his words had triggered a thought. Then he shrugged. "Well, what should we do now?"

    Genta looked at the film containers and grinned. "Well, I think we've done enough snooping and thinking for one day. Why don't we forget this case for a while and go see a real movie?"
~~~~

    Midnight found Haibara still sitting up in bed reading. Kuching, her pet stray cat, demanded attention. She stroked his gray fur while she tried to concentrate on the story. But it was no use. The case kept intruding on her thoughts. Something had been bothering her since their visit to Asakusa. A stray thought, nagging at the back of her mind all night.

    Yes, they had found the movie. And yes, they knew that Wang Felix had been to the mysterious 76 Asakusa. And yes, the woman with the gray car had a key to that building. But there was still something they'd missed. Something that was staring them in the face.

    Staring them in the face, she told herself.

    She threw back the covers, smiling at Kuching's angry protests, and went over to her desk. She picked up a pencil and paper, and without knowing why, began to sketch. She stared at the photo of Wang Felix that Muniko had given them. Working quickly, she drew his face on the paper, shading in the details carefully. It was a handsome face, except for that long, curved nose.

    Why did his face look so familiar?

    The nose.

    It was the nose.

    She reached for more paper and began sketching another face from memory. And then she picked up her mobile phone.

    When she heard Conan answer, she inserted each word carefully into the speaker: "Kudo, I think I've cracked the case."

[CTU]

great story so far. I am looking forwards to seeing the end

[WBoon]

    There was no school on Monday, and by nine o'clock everyone had arrived at headquarters. Conan's text message had told them nothing, except to meet at headquarters in the morning.

    Haibara was wearing a bright orange tee shirt and indigo pants when she rose to reveal her discovery. She held three mysterious sheets of sketch paper in one hand.

    "It was something Mitsuhiko said at Asakusa, when we were upstairs," she began. "About everything being right under Muniko-san's nose."

    "That's right," confirmed Mitsuhiko as reminiscences of his thoughts came back to him, as he placed a hand across his chin. "That did get me thinking for a second, but I didn't think anything of it..."

    "You should had," Haibara replied, unrolling the first sketch and placed it on the table. Everyone stared at her drawing of Wang Felix's face.

    Then she unrolled her sketch of Muniko-san, the one she'd drawn from memory, and placed it alongside.

    Ayumi stared at them blankly. "So...?"

    "So," Mitsuhiko continued the explanation, "they both have something in common!" As he explains, Haibara unrolled the third sketch. "Their noses are basically the same!"

    The third sketch was her masterpiece. She had drawn the nose, long and curved. The rest of the face combined the features of both men. Wang's bald head, with Muniko's mouth and chin.

    She pushed the first two sketches aside, and laid the third sketch between them.

    Mitsuhiko leapt up and could had almost hugged her. "Haibara-san, you're a genius!"

    Conan simply grinned at the sketches, while his heart was actually racing with excitement inside.

    "Why didn't we see it before?" Genta demanded.

    Ayumi laughed. "It's brilliant! It's like they're the same person!"

    Then, she looked from one sketch to another.

    "But," she began breathlessly, "what are both of you saying?"

    Haibara's eyes gleamed with triumph. "I think they're related somehow."

    "Right, right," Mitsuhiko nodded. "Muniko-san could be Wang-san's father, or his uncle, or even his brother!"

    Conan sat on the edge of the table.

    "Do you remember what Inspector Megure said about Muniko-san?" he asked. "About him having another reason for wanting to find Wang Felix-san?" He stared at the sketches. "Haibara, Mitsuhiko, you've found that reason. And maybe it's got nothing to do with stealing a million dollars."

    Haibara nodded. "Muniko-san and Wang-san are related. Maybe Wang-san did steal from Muniko-san, but that's not the point. Muniko-san wants to find Wang-san because of something to do with their family. Maybe some kind of jealousy, something we don't even know about..."

    "And I've just thought of something else!" Mitsuhiko jumped up. "What if it was Muniko-san who tried to kill Wang Felix-san at Okutama Lake? And what if Muniko-san thought he'd succeeded and that Wang Felix-san was dead? That would explain why he was so shocked to see him in that movie!"

    Genta wiped sweat from his forehead. "Then this is a murder case!"

    "Except nobody's been murdered... yet," added Haibara.

    Mitsuhiko looked at Conan anxiously. "That means we have to find Wang Felix-san before he is murdered!"

    "Yes," agreed Conan. "Maybe he won't be so lucky the next time."

    An awkward silence filled the room.

    "Well, what do you think we should do?" Genta demanded at last.

    Conan was about to answer when his mobile phone began ringing. He gave it a startled look, then picked it up.

    "Hello?" A moment later he leapt up and covered the phone with his hand. "It's Muniko-san," he whispered.

    He listened to the angry voice on the line.

    "But, Muniko-san," he protested, "didn't you get my message? We're off the case. We can't work on it anymore."

    His face paled as he listened to Muniko-san's furious instructions. When at last he cut the call, he put his phone on the table and turned to face the others.

    "Muniko-san wants to see us," he announced. "He's very angry. He said we haven't kept our word. We were supposed to tell him everything we'd discovered."

    Genta shrugged. "Well, tell him we didn't find anything. That's why we gave up on his stupid case."

    Ayumi clutched Conan's hand. "It's not safe for us to see Muniko-san, not if we think he tried to kill someone."

    Conan shot her a despairing look. "But we don't have a choice. He said he'd sent a taxi to collect us. It should be here any moment."

    Ayumi shook her head. "I don't want to go to his house. We mightn't leave there alive!"

    Genta laughed. "He wouldn't dare try anything like that. Anyhow, there are too many of us!"

    A horn sounded in the car park outside. Conan glanced out the window. "The taxi's here..."

    He made a snap decision. "I think Haibara and I should see him. We can easily make up some stories and tell him we didn't learn anything." He headed for the door and Haibara followed. "You guys wait here. And if we're not back by one o'clock, call Inspector Megure..."
~~~~

    Conan and Haibara settled into the back seat of the taxi. The driver glanced in the rearview mirror.

    "You're the kids Muniko-san wants to see?" he scowled suspiciously. "What about the rest of you?"

    "They're at school, uncle," Conan told him and the driver nodded.

    The cab lurched forward, turning out of the car park into the morning traffic. It sped through the city streets.

    Haibara gazed out the window. After a few minutes, with her vision fixed on the glass, she whispered: "One thing bothers me, why would Muniko-san want to see us so urgently?"

    "Maybe he thinks we have something," Conan replied softly so the driver couldn't hear him.

    Haibara said nothing for a while, then pointed to her right. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Here's the road that goes up to Muniko-san's house."

    But the taxi accelerated and sped past.

    A second of fear gripped Haibara's throat.

    "That was the road to Muniko-san's house... uncle," said Conan, looking at the back of the driver sternly.

    "But we're not going there," the driver told him, staring straight ahead. "Muniko-san wants to see you somewhere else."

    Both kids remained silent for a moment. Then, Haibara sounded up. "Why are the doors locked?" she asked, discovering about their entrapment seconds ago, when she sneaked her palm across the door handle to test it out.

    "Safety regulations," the man muttered, as he overtook a truck and sped around a corner.

    Conan reached into his pocked for his mobile phone. Suddenly he remembered he'd left it on the table at headquarters. A moment later, Haibara realized her phone was back at headquarters, too. They gave each other a brief stare of horror.

    As they reached the outskirts of the city, the traffic thinned. Soon, dense jungle hemmed both sides of the road.

    "This looks very familiar," Conan told Haibara.

    Haibara felt a chill down her spine. "It's the Ogochi Dam," she said. "I think I know where we're going."

    Their eyes met and Conan shuddered. "The lake." He swung round and tugged on the door handle. "Stop the car," he yelled. "We're getting out!"

    But the driver ignored him, his lips twisted in a cruel smile.

    Within minutes, the taxi turned off onto the road to Okutama Lake. The morning light bathed the grim, desolate landscape.

    The taxi rounded the last, sharp bend and the evil waters of Okutama Lake stretched to the distant tree line. A small boat bobbed in the water that lapped at the end of the road.

    Three men stepped out of a big car parked under the trees and walked towards the taxi.

    "This is it, kids," said the driver, cutting the engine. "The end of the line."

[akai-kun]

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"This is it, kids," said the driver, cutting the engine. "The end of the line."

WOW!!! Awesome chapter ending. The suspense is killing me already as I'm still writing this comment.

But, first, back to your new chapters, and also here a big WOW, man, that were many! 

Spoiler:

Oh, and sorry for responding so late, the first days when your updates came out I was hiking out in the woods and then, I got a massive headache, so I couldn't turn on my computer and read your story. But now, I finally have and I will read your next updates as soon as possible, no matter what.

~~~~~~~~

Some little mistakes I noticed (or believe to have noticed ):

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"There's a bus we can catch it ten minutes' time at the corner."

I think you've just got a typo here, it should be

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...catch in ten...

, right?

~~~~

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Haibara had dressed so quickly she word pink shorts that didn't match her green tee.

Another typo here, I'd say:

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...so quickly she wore pink shorts...

~~~~

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"Muniko-san wants to see us," he announced. "He's very angry. He said we haven't kept our word. We were supposed to tell him everything we'd discovered."

Since I think you wanted to express the possibility of Conan & Co finding out something (would discover), it should be that way:

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   "Muniko-san wants to see us," he announced. "He's very angry. He said we haven't kept our word. We were supposed to tell him everything we'd discover."

Otherwise, if you really meant to write had discovered, then it's right. But with the next chapter, it clearly seems that way that you wanted to express the possibility. See here:

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"Maybe he thinks we have something," Conan replied softly so the driver couldn't hear him.

~~~~

That's it for "mistakes" (just mostly typos).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For your story:


Man, I really think that your great writing skills are even more improving. These latest new installments of your story, they're just totally freakin' AWESOME!!!

There were many great funny parts and also awesome action sequences, I can't tell it all.
Your work here, it is just... MORE THAN AWESOME!
And that's no joke or just a 'nice-meant' thing, I do really mean that.

I can't believe that's not the work of an excellent author, are you?


Just one little thing: You used the phrase 'Great thinking' a little bit too often. But everything else was great!


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I really really really can't wait for your next chapters, your story is so thrilling.
You're an awesome writer.

See you soon~ 

[akai-kun]

Hello there~

So, was the last chapter really the end of the story, I mean, I could understand it by rereading it, now, it would be a cool ending, open, but great.
But: did you really plan this to be the end of the story? If not, I'm hoping for more updates soon, but what is your stake here, let me please know, thx.