Chapter 10: The trouble with the rented car

v.v *sigh* this chapter took me even longer, but (!) I'm satisfied with it ^^ I really tried my best this time to improve my writing style. While talking bout this… special thanks to LEP-Surface Division. He's an awesome author *_* and also he's really nice :3 So thanks to you, you're quite my idol in writing ;)

Btw please everyone kill me with reviews :D I need to know if you like how I changed my style

And now enjoy this chapter ^^

[Kogoro]

The old tantei got up. His head felt like it had been smashed against a wall and it took him some minutes to keep balance before he could waver over to the bathroom.

He dressed up as usual. He was already used to this feeling cause he felt it nearly every morning he got up. "Hangover" was how Ran called it "because you're a drunkard."

Kogoro sighed and entered the kitchen to make himself a hot cup of coffee.

"Maybe I'm really drinking a bit too much… but I wasn't always drinking" he scratched his head and tried to remember a time without alcohol in his life; then he suddenly smirked.

"I always had something in my life that made me feel this way at mornings, at the moment it's the alcohol, earlier it was her…" he mumbled and took a sip from his coffee.

10 minutes later he left the house and took a cap. He had promised Ran that he would get up early today to rent a car for some days.

"You can't always take a cap when we visit Mrs Shouta" she kept telling him "it just looks weird and also we could use it to have vacation. We weren't away for ages."

That was what she said… Kogoro couldn't forget about it. He knew his daughter wasn't satisfied with their life. Often he couldn't afford her having nice holidays, but she never complained about it and what he really honored her was that she stood by his side, she never even threatened him with phrases like "I could move to mum's if I want" or stuff like that.

The fact that she wanted to have a change of scene right now was that she thought he and Conan could use one.

He sighed again and leaned back in the cap. The only thing Ran was talking about lately was the boy and his behavior and Kogoro saw it too; he really recognized Conan changing, but what should he do about it? He chose to be the stiff guardian for the boy and had no wish to change that.

So he decided it would be the best to listen to Ran's wish, rent the car and after he would have closed this case he would take Ran and Conan on vacation somewhere sunny and nice.

[Conan]

Conan opened his eyes, blinking a few times to get his eyes used to daylight again. He yawned and turned around in his bed. He didn't see any sense in getting up by now, he always woke up much too early because of him snoring. He slid his hands down and pulled his blanket over his head just to escape the sunlight for some more minutes.

His mind wasn't fully awake, but he knew something was wrong with this situation. He felt a little torn; on the one hand he really wanted to go back to sleep, but on the other hand he knew this brain of a detective wouldn't stop bothering him till he'd find out what was wrong.

After some moments of pondering what to do he gave up and pulled away the blanket again. Bright sunlight dazzled him so he had to cover his eyes and finally he understood.

He slowly blinked against the brightness which forced its way through the window.

"I've never awoke when the sun already aroused. Usually it's all dark when a loud snore of Kogoro wakes me up."

Carefully shutting out the daylight with his hands, he glared over to Kogoro's bed. It was empty.

The boy made his way over to the bathroom and dressed up. When he entered the office some minutes later Ran's smiling face welcomed him.

"Ohayo!" she chirped happily and wavered over to the kitchen "breakfast will be ready in some minutes."

"Ok…" Conan replied slowly "ne Ran-neechan, where did Kogoro go?"

The girl plugged her head out of the kitchen and beamed "he went to rent a car. I thought it'd be a good idea… you know so we could have some holidays as soon as this Shouta case is closed, what do you think? It must have been ages since we had some nice trip to somewhere else?"

Conan just nodded, he wasn't even sure if he had understood what Ran said about holidays, but she seemed satisfied and kept smiling during breakfast. No, Conan didn't care about her plans for hiatus; there was something that caught his attention. Something that brought an idea to his mind and this idea made him smile for his own reasons.

[Ai]

"Shinichi, did you listen to me?" the shorted haired could nearly see his mind suddenly returning to reality, so his answer was no surprise to her.

"Uh, n… no, not really" he laughed but dropped it right away when he saw the look in the eyes of Ai "g… gomen."

She sighed. He had been like this through the whole day; so far away…

"You see…" he started to explain and let his eyes wander away again; they seemed to glare at something in front of them; something Ai wasn't able to see, yet.

"… I still have something to do, something important. I'll call you as soon as it's done". He smiled while he said it and he kept smiling while letting go of her hand and running away, but still Ai could sense an undertone of seriousness.

"Funny how he said 'as it's done' … makes him kinda sound… criminal" she smiled over her own absurdity and slowly she raised her hand up to her face; the hand he kept holding for the last minutes. "and still…" she thought glaring at the point of the crowd of people where she guessed Conan to be "he somehow reminds me of someone I knew once. Even though I don't know of who exactly."

With a disturbing feeling and her hand pressed against her chest she made her way home to hakase, alone as usual.

[Kogoro]

"Tousan!" Ran's voice forced Kogoro's eyes away from the TV and his beloved Yoko. He sighed and looked up to his daughter who was standing in front of him, having her arms akimbo.

"Didn't you want to have another look around in the Shouta mansion?" he dropped his head.

He knew she was right, he'd promised Mrs Shouta that he wouldn't give up till he found out what was wrong with her husband.

"But I went through this mansion for 3 times now." He mumbled without raising his head from the desk, but still he could hear how Ran left the office in a disappointed way. "And there is just NO hint that would proof that Mr Shouta is nuts" he mumbled a bit louder, so his daughter could hear him.

"Or not" a childish voice added familiarly casual and made Kogoro glare through his crossed arms.

He saw Conan sitting on the sofa, still reading a book called "Cars – Yesterday till tomorrow". The boy didn't seem to have recognized he really said something, since he was still looking all lost in his book.

Kogoro pushed thoughts like "since when is the boy interested in books about cars when there are still tons of crime-stories unread" away and finally raised his head to give Conan a sarcastic answer. "Oh, seems like our Mini-Holmes want to share his unlimited knowledge with us. Sure, please go on."

Conan blinked in surprise and for a moment Kogoro wasn't sure if the boy really knew he had said something and felt even a bit guilty for giving him such a rubdown when he put on his familiarly dismissive look, which seemed to be so atypical for a child, and replied "I just wanted to point out that you can't be sure if Mr Shouta is, as you call it, nuts or if he really gets stalked."

Kogoro snuffled deprecatingly and straightened in his chair to bring himself in an upper position so he could talk down to the boy, well knowing how he hated it, and put on a wisely-tone.

"Not every case contains a crime, madness as a solution may isn't satisfying, but sometimes it's the truth." The old tantei smirked to himself, how could Conan disprove such an untainted logic?

"I just mean that…"

"Except of this" Kogoro interrupted the boy "Mrs Shouta knows her husband better than all of us do and even she is convinced from his madness."

Kogoro leaned back in the chair, waiting for Conan conceding that he is wrong when suddenly the boy curled his lips and leaden back on his part. "Well, that is indeed very interesting."

The old tantei jumped up from his seat and bended forward as much as his desk allowed him to, ready to give the boy the tirade of abuse of his life. He couldn't understand how a 7-year old boy who should be just cute and good could behave that arrogant when Conan just started to explain what he was talking about.

"You see, a young woman married to a rich old man who would come into all his prosperity in case he dies… or gets certifiably insane." Conan interjected his explanation and looked up to Kogoro like he wanted to say "come on ojisan, it's not that difficult."

Kogoro was up to give the boy another sharp answer, but two things stopped him. First, Conan was right. In case of Mr Shouta's death a young widow like Mrs Shouta would be their first suspect; and second and that was the far more disturbing point. Even though Conan spoke all calm to Kogoro his whole behavior seemed so… fretful. His eyes were avoiding Kogoro's look most of the time, he was shifting around on his seat and nervously rubbing his arm, that all seemed to completely different from when the boy usually talked about a case. There was no trace of the usual self assurance and Kogoro blamed himself for that, had he really awed the boy?

"uh…uhm" he started, feeling all clueless how he should deal with this situation "but I still can't find anything in this mansion… I"

"Then just shadow Mr Shouta for a while, maybe it helps if you follow him in order to find hints against the fact that he's going crazy." Conan replied, cutting the old tantei off. He put away his glasses and rubbed his eyes which seemed to be worryingly glassy.

"Daijoobu?" Kogoro asked haltingly… well at least he wanted to ask it, but Conan had made his way over to the door and left the office before Kogoro could bring himself to care about the boy.

So after some moments in which Kogoro felt unable to move, he slowly got himself up. Actually he just walked to move at all, so he walked over to the table where Conan had sat. Ran had decorated it with an advent wreath and some plastic stars, but the book Conan had left back was what caught Kogoro's attention. He picked it up and let his eyes wandered over the page the boy had read last and what he saw made him feel even guiltier and embarrassed he rubbed his hand over the back of his head. Conan had read a chapter about the car-class Kogoro had rented for the next two weeks.

"Is that his way to… care about me?" Kogoro wondered and twisted his mouth.

"Ne, Ran-chan" he shouted over to the kitchen "I'm away. I just got an idea how to get this Shouta-case solved; don't wait with dinner for me." With these words he grabbed his jacket and left the office waving good-bye to Ran who plugged her head out of the kitchen. A sudden feeling of fierce-motivation had crept over Kogoro, he really felt like solving this case now and making up for his behavior from back then.

This motivation quickened his pace out of the house, so he even ignored the vague feeling of ominous glares from upstairs. This motivation also last when he started his car and drove it out on the street and it boomed when he passed 5 green traffic lights. It didn't vanish till he reached the sharp turn halfway to the Shouta mansion and pressed his foot enthusiastic onto the brake pedal… and then again and again. But when he tried to brake for the fourth time without any effect his motivation had finally left him and so did his car with the street below; it just left it and decided to rush into the guide rail in front.