.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters that you recognize from the original series. I'm just taking them out to play.

Shot Through the Heart

Well this stinks. Ran perched her elbow on the window as her dad turned down yet another side street in the warehouse district. She'd been getting ready to go over to Sonoko's house when Kogoro had hollered for her and Conan to come downstairs. He'd had a call from a client and needed to leave immediately to meet with them.

"I didn't know your dad had a client," Conan mumbled bitterly.

The corner of her mouth tilted up and Ran hid it by looking out the window. Conan had gotten so used to Kogoro letting him in on the details of his cases that the kid was always put off when her dad didn't include him.

"If it makes you feel better, he didn't tell me either," she replied.

Conan huffed and Ran rolled her eyes. Sometimes he was so much like Shinichi it was like the teen detective had never left. Except he did, her heart reminded her. He left without saying goodbye and he can't even tell you when he'll be back.

"Don't you think this is a little odd?" Conan's question broke through her reverie and Ran jumped a little.

"Wha—What?" she asked.

"Why would a client ask Uncle Kogoro to meet him all the way out here? And why so late at night?"

His face was masked in the darkness, but she could tell Conan was in one of his serious moods as he gestured to the alleyway Kogoro had parked in. To their left was one of the squat, brick warehouses typical to the area, while the building on their right was tall enough to block the view of the moon. Ran shrugged as her father dialed a number on his cell phone.

"Maybe they just don't want to be seen with him," she suggested.

"Yeah…" Conan drew the word out and turned to look back out the window.

"Hey," Ran bumped shoulders with Conan, waiting until he glanced back at her to say brightly, "Why are you worrying about this anyway? Shouldn't you be happy we—"

"Would you two shut up!" Kogoro bellowed at them. Ran and Conan both ducked their heads beneath his angry stare. "I am trying to make a phone ca—Oh, hello Mr. Satō! No, your instructions were just as easy to follow as you promised. I'm here now…"

As Kogoro's focus shifted onto the phone conversation and he turned back around to face the front of the car, Ran shook her head. No one made her dad angrier than Conan Edogawa. At least, not since Shinichi had left. Now he had known how to make Kogoro hotter than a volcano. A sigh escaped her and she stared out the window again. Where are you, Shinichi?

"Hey, where are you going Uncle?" Conan asked.

"The client wants to meet at the top of this building," Kogoro grumbled. "But I want you two to stay here."

"Aw, but—"

Ran turned in time to catch Conan's collar as he tried to open his own door. "Now, Conan," she scolded, "a rooftop isn't a place for little kids."

"But..."

"No buts, kid," Kogoro said. "Ran's right, it's no place for you. And I'm going to be too busy to watch you. What if you fell off or something? Your parents would stop sending us money."

"Dad," Ran admonished, but he was already gone. She watched him climb up the rickety fire escape on the side of the warehouse until the night claimed him. She released Conan's collar and patted his shoulder. "He didn't mean that, Conan. He's just preoccupied."

Conan nodded in a way that told Ran her father wasn't the only one who was preoccupied. When her Dad had opened the car door, the overhead lights came on and Conan was wearing the same look Shinichi always had when he suspected something wasn't right. A shiver ran down her spine—the last time she'd seen that look on Shinichi's face, he'd ran off into the night and hadn't been seen since.

"Conan?"

"What kind of name is Mr. Satō?" Conan asked.

"Lots of people have the surname, Satō. It's one of the most common names in the phone book."

Conan nodded and clambered into the front seat before she could stop him. "Exactly," he said, rifling around through the junk in the center console. "And isn't it odd that Mr. Satō would give Uncle such detailed instructions to this alleyway, but he made him call back just to be told to go up to the roof?"

"Well I… I guess I really didn't think about it," Ran admitted. Why did he have Dad call again? She wondered.

"Aha," Conan emerged from the darkness with Kogoro's phone and punched the redial before Ran could stop him.

In the silence of the night all Ran could hear was her and Conan's breathing and the three chimes on the other end of the line followed by an automated message, "I'm sorry the call cannot be completed as dialed…"

Conan snapped the phone shut and Ran stared at it. "But they just called," she said.

He nodded, his face grim. "It was a burn phone."

Ran swallowed the lump that formed in her throat, though she wasn't quite certain what had distressed her. As she met Conan's eyes she expected to see that set expression that reminded her so much of Shinichi. Like he'd put together all the clues. But what she saw instead was a scared child, and that alone made her feel like the world was crumbling beneath her.

"Conan?" her voice shook as she spoke. "What does it mean?"

His look shifted almost immediately. Instead of being a scared child, his demeanor became that of a sheltering adult. Ran felt like crying, but she held back as Conan squared his shoulders and reached for the door handle.

"It means," he said firmly, "that Uncle needs my help."

Conan's feet hit the pavement before Ran had her own door open. She raced after him, the sound of their shoes slapping the ground echoing in the alleyway. Conan made it to the fire escape first, and Ran mounted the rickety ladder to the first level only after he'd made it up to the platform. He didn't bother to wait for her, climbing the steps to the roof without a backwards glance and disappearing from her view. Only the clanging of the metal could be heard, and Ran hauled herself up onto the platform. She took the steps two at a time and was panting hard by the time she made it to the warehouse roof.

Conan was nowhere to be seen, but Ran slowed as she saw her father silhouetted against the night sky. He was near the front of the roof and she relaxed as the bright end of his cigarette came into view. It danced up and down as though he was chewing on the butt, impatient with the waiting he was doing.

Only the lighted end of his cigarette moved further down his body, until it was a bright red dot on the breast of his suit. Ran's brain wrestled with what she was seeing. As the dot stilled one word came to mind. Sniper!

"Uncle Kogoro, watch out!" Conan yelled.

Ran froze in place as Conan erupted from wherever he'd been hiding. Kogoro turned and Conan hit him as a shot rang out.

"No!" The scream tore itself from her throat and Ran raced across the rooftop, headless of her own safety as Conan and her father crumpled onto the rooftop. When she reached them, she pulled them apart and the only thing her brain could register was the blood soaking into their clothes and coating her hands.

"No…"

First and foremost I would like to thank Cyres for participating in The Room's September Reading Rodeo Event. This story is one of their first place prize and is well deserved, if exceptionally late on my part. Sorry.

Secondly I would like to thank all of you for taking time out of your day to read this story. It really means the world to me. I started watching the dubbed version of Case Closed just so I could write this fic, but a few weeks later I'm now hooked on the show. Who knows, I may even write another fic or two if the fancy strikes (the ideas certainly have), but for now I hope my foray into this fandom was enjoyable for readers.

God bless,

Ckorkows