Chapter 2 John Doyle's Real Identity

            Later that night, Haibara was trembling with fear. How could I not notice it earlier? She chided herself. Moreover, I encouraged Yoshida-san to go after him! As swift as a feather, she tiptoed to the telephone and phoned Mouri Detective Agency. “Mouri Detective Agency––“ a tired voice began. “I need to talk to Edogawa-kun right now!” Haibara snapped the recipient awake. “J-Just a moment,” the voice replied with a shock. Soon after a younger voice spoke, “Hello, Edogawa-kun speaking.” The other end ended the call with a click. Conan knew the signal means an urgent one, and he woke me up.  “Ran-neechan, sorry this is urgent. John-kun and I are going to Hakase’s place for a while. It seems Haibara wants to talk about something urgent,” Conan informed Ran. “Okay, but don’t go for too long,” Ran reminded him. “Hai~!” We both answered in a childish manner, and then we left the agency.

            As soon as we reached Hakase’s place, Haibara immediately squeezed Conan’s hand, looking at me with fear and Conan’s expression immediately changed from innocent to hatred. “Spill everything you know about the Organisation!” he hissed. I raised my arms in surrender, “Alright, alright! But can we go in first? It’s not a safe place to talk about this outside, right?” So, Conan, Haibara, Hakase and I entered Hakase’s residence, and we all took a seat on the comfortable couch.

            “My name is Jonathan Smith. I am a minor detective who had infiltrated the Organisation in America,” I began. “I worked as a waiter for the Boss with the codename Manhattan. One day, I overheard that they have forced the great detective Kudo Shinichi to consume APTX 4869. This suddenly hit me a realization of their intention with the drug. Anger took hold of me and I attempted to report to the police of the Boss’s phone number. However, I was caught red-handed by one of the other members there. It was a good timing that I already had booked my flight, and all I needed was just a stroke of luck, and Lady Luck was in my favour. I came here without anyone of them noticing.”

“I went to check on you, making sure that you were not dead. I realised that I was too late as no one answered the doorbell when I rang it. It was late at night, and I rented a hotel nearby your mansion. During the stay, I did a research about your whereabouts, but nothing came up. One of the old news caught my eye, stating that they found a lost boy in big jacket in Tropical Land. Then, I went to Tropical Land the next day, hoping to perform some detective work in finding traces of you. While searching for traces, I noticed suspicious activity behind a tree –– an illegal transaction. I noticed a figure creeping up behind me from the corner of my eye, and I fought back, but I was knocked out cold by a transquilizer. ‘I’ve found another rat came sneaking on us,’ I heard one female voice says. ‘We should be more aware. First, it’s Kudo Shinichi, now this blonde-haired boy.’ ‘You forgot, Vermouth, we have APTX 4869 with us at all times for emergency,’ said the male voice. The two voices then left me alone. I remembered, ‘APTX 4869. Kudo Shinichi.’ I realised that I’ve fallen into the same trap as you. As to conclude, Shinichi-kun, sorry that I didn’t get the Boss’s phone number in American branch as I was caught red-handed before I got hold of it,” I finished.

            There was a moment of silence before Agasa spoke up, “So John-kun, or do you prefer Jonathan-kun, do you need me invent gadgets for you like Shinichi-kun?” “Good question. I would prefer to decide during emergency,” I trailed off. “No! You have to decide now!” Shinichi chided me. “Alright, alright, I guess a stun-gun wristwatch is enough, thank you, just in case you need more,” I sighed and glared at Shinichi. Oi oi, I don’t use it without thinking, he glared back. Agasa rose from his couch, “Alright, I suggest we call it a night now. I’m sure you don’t want Ran-kun to be waiting too long for both of you.” We bid goodbye to Agasa and hurried back to the Agency before Ran gets annoyed. “Tadaima!” Conan chirped innocently. “Shhh! Don’t wake Dad up, or you knew what would happen,” Ran put a finger on her lips, signaling us to be silent. “Gomenesai, Ran-neechan,” I apologized. Ran smiled, “You boys must have had a tiring night just now. Go rest now and we’ll talk more about it tomorrow morning.” “Hai~!” Conan and I both agreed. As we were back in the room, I silently chuckled, “Primary school huh? It will just be a piece of cake.” “Or a piece of headache,” he grumbled. I fell asleep as soon as my head touches the pillow.

            The next morning, Conan, Haibara and I were walking to school together. “Why would I need any gadgets anyway? All I need to do is to stay in your range of sight, right?” I mumbled. As expected from a great detective for having sharp ears, he glared at me, “You can’t just hope that the coast is always clear in my range of sight, you know,” he replied. “Oh, of course. I forget that meitantei is a death magnet,” I chuckled. “Ohayo, John-kun, Conan-kun and Ai-chan!” Piped Ayumi. “Ohayo, Ayumi-chan,” I yawned. “What’s wrong, John-kun? Didn’t you get enough sleep last night?” Ayumi looked at me with concern. Since when did Ayumi become so concerned about me? I thought. “I guess I am still having jet lag. I’ll be fine after today,” I smiled at her. I heard Conan cleared his throat and he glanced at the two other boys ­­–– they were glaring daggers at me. I sweat dropped. Kids as young as them already start showing jealousy. “I-I think I’ll meet you in class, Ayumi-chan. See you later!” I sped off as those two boys chased after me leaving Haibara and Conan chuckling behind.

            As we arrived at the class, Mitsuhiko, Genta and I were panting heavily. My body has weakened so much after shrinking! I thought in horror. Then one by one students from our class arrived. Conan and Haibara were the last to enter the class. The class soon started as Miss Kobayashi entered the class. “Good morning class, today, we’re going to learn about multiplication with 2 digits by 1 digit,” she announced. While Ms. Kobayashi was teaching, I took my chance to take a nap, attempting to replace the sleep lost due to the sudden midnight meeting. “Doyle-kun! Come up to the front and do this question!” a loud voice rang, waking me from sleep. “Hai, sensei!” I replied sleepily, while rubbing my sleepy eyes and dragged my feet to the front of the classroom. 25 x 4 was written on the board. I pretended to not know how to calculate by staring at the question for a few seconds and imagined Ms. Kobayashi smirking. Then I just simply write a 100 on the board. I noticed her shocked face, rushed back to the board and wrote out the calculation. “Gomenesai, sensei, I forgot to write down the steps,” I apologized, then returning to my seat. Every student was staring at me with amazement, except for Haibara and Conan, of course.

            The bell rang, signaling the end of school. “Had a nice nap?” smirked Haibara. “Yeah, until Kobayashi-sensei woke me up,” I groaned. “I was so tired because of that midnight ––” I paused just to notice Ayumi catching up behind us. “Midnight ­­–– what, John-kun?” asked Ayumi. “Midnight movie,” I altered my answer. Conan and Haibara both breathed a sigh of relief. “John-kun, you were so amazing just now! You answered it immediately without doing any calculations!” exclaimed Ayumi. “Oh, it was nothing, Ayumi-chan,” I rubbed the back of my head. “Ah, Ayumi-chan, you can accompany John-kun to his house if you want. Haibara and I want to talk about something. See you tomorrow,” suggested Conan. “O-Oh alright. Can I join you both as well?” asked Ayumi. “Sorry, Ayumi-chan, this is something private,” apologized Conan. “Alright, Conan-kun. See you tomorrow,” Ayumi sadly replied.

            A moment of silence was between Ayumi and I until she broke it. “So, um, John-kun? I-I don’t know how to start,” she began, fidgeting her fingers. “I ––” she continued, but was interrupted by a loud scream. We ran to the source of scream and found a lady in mid-twenties. Her face was pale, and she was staring at a hanging body of a man at the doorstep. “If Conan-kun is not here, then I guess I have to do it,” I muttered. “Call the ambulance!” I ordered. Ayumi quickly punched the keys and called the ambulance. While I was investigating, I thought I heard Ayumi muttering, sounds like she was communicating with someone. I ignored the muttering and went back to investigation. The front of the shirt was wet. “Found anything?” A familiar voice spoke up behind me. I turned and found Conan walking up to me. “Seems like someone attempted to cover the victim’s ingestion of cyanide,” I replied. “It’s true. The piece of cake on the table seems larger than the rest,” noted Conan. The police siren came minutes later, and Inspector Meguire came to investigate the crime scene as well. “Oh, Conan-kun!” a deep voice greeted, ironically having a relative high pitch. “Takagi-keiji!” Conan greeted back. “Who is the boy investigating with you?” asked Takagi. “He is one of my classmates,” replied Conan. “The victim is Hayato Hirotaka, wife of Aimi Hiroko, age 25, cause of death: ingestion of cyanide. Time of death is around 8am,” a voice reported.

            “Aimi-san, you were the first to find the corpse, correct?” asked Meguire. “Yes,” replied Aimi.

“Did you notice any strange behaviour before he died?”

“No. I went out this morning at 7am to buy some groceries and I found him hanging by the doorstep when I came back at 8am,” replied Aimi. “Arigatou, Aimi-san,” said Meguire. He then called out to Takagi, “Takagi, have you found out the list of recent contacts from the victim?” “Yes! Daigo Hideji, Asuka Hirotomo and Fumiaki Hiromasa. They all were contacted around the same time at 7:30am,” Takagi called back. Soon, the three suspects were called to investigation. Asuka Hirotomo was the first to arrive at the scene and she rushed to the victim but only blocked by Inspector Meguire. “Hayato-san!” cried Asuka. She was still in her office clothes. Fumiaki Hiromasa and Daigo Hideji arrived at the scene next. Fumiaki wore a light make-up with pink fingernail polish that went along with matching pink outfits. Daigo wore tight white shirt with long dark brown pants. They both glanced at the victim and looked away. “You killed Hayato-san, didn’t you, Daigo-san? Aimi­-chan used to be your girlfriend, but she suddenly liked Hayato-san out of the blue and made you jealous,” Fumiaki spat at Daigo. “Same goes to you, Fumiaki-san! You liked Hayato-san but Aimi-chan took him away from you!” Daigo spat back. The two had such intense argument that Inspector Meguire had to separate them.

            “All of you state your activities and alibis,” Inspector Meguire commanded. “I was jogging in the morning from 7am to 8am,” Asuka began. “Hayato-san phoned me at around 7:30am to invite me for lunch with his two other friends at 12pm. Then I went home, get changed and got ready for work. I was working just now until you called me. You can check with my manager for my alibi.” “I was cooking breakfast at 7am and Hayato-san phoned me at 7:30am for the lunch invitation. Then I went out to buy more make-up accessories alone,” Fumiaki flipped her hair. “I was in gym from 7am and Hayato-san phoned me at 7:30am for the lunch invitation as well. He said he would be bringing a lady as well, so I took this chance to look masculine,” Daigo made a masculine gesture. “I worked out alone and you called me as soon as I came out of the shower,” he finished. “Only Asuka-san has an alibi,” I whispered to Conan. “Yeah,” he agreed.

            “Fumiaki is the only one who did not change her clothes,” I noted. “Why would she suddenly think of buying more make-up accessories early in the morning?” Conan continued. “Unless –– she has another motivation for going out,” I finished. “Come. I know which car she drove just now. May be we could find some clues there,” suggested Conan. We went to her pinked-coated car and peeked inside. Conan entered her car and rummaged through her drawer. As I have thought, thought Conan. There was a small bottle, which contain white powder. “Cyanide. But how did she enter the house?” I whispered. “That’s the question,” commented Conan. We went back to the crime scene and attempt to form the event of murder using evidences in the rooms.

            “Takagi-keiji, I think I know who the murder is,” Conan called out. “Really, Conan-kun?!” Takagi rushed towards us. “Can you please gather everyone together? Thank you,” said Conan. While Takagi was gathering everyone, Conan and I quickly rehearsed the events of the murder. “First, the culprit visited the victim days ago for a drink,” Conan began. “Then, victim was drunk and lend the culprit the key,” I continued.

“The culprit took this opportunity to duplicate the key.”

“Next, the culprit added a bit of cyanide onto the cake in the fridge the night before murder, knowing that the victim eats cake every morning at 7am.”

“Finally, when the victim took the fridge out and ate it as a snack.”

“The culprit went back at 7:30, knowing that the victim had already eaten the cake.”

“And used a rope to hang the victim at the doorstep, causing an illusion of a suicide.” Conan concluded.

“The murder is you, Fumiaki-san!” We pointed at Fumiaki. “Very well narrated for you boys. But where’s the evidence?” She chuckled. “In the drawer of your car, we found a bottle of cyanide,” I smirked. “You attempted to throw us off that you poisoned him, while you both were eating the cake together in the morning, when Aimi-san was on work,” stated Conan. Fumiaki was horrified, and she gave a hysterical laughter. “Yes. I killed him. I was sick of that man! He stayed alone in the house and Aimi-chan went to work! He is not qualified to be a man! Aimi-chan is almost like my little sister; I cared so much for her,” confessed Fumiaki.

            Police brought Fumiaki to the police station. “I’m surprised to find you there, John-kun,” smirked Conan. Great! We have two death magnets here, Haibara silently groaned. I turned to Ayumi, “Oh yeah, what were you trying to say previously?” Ayumi gave me a peck on the cheek and blushed three shades of red. “Congratulations, Yoshida-san,” Haibara smiled as Ayumi blushed more. “I have to go home now, Ayumi-chan! See you tomorrow,” I said. “Wait! I don’t know where your house is, John-kun,” said Ayumi. “I’m living with Conan-kun, bye,” I waved and raced Conan back home, however Conan was not heading towards Mouri Detective Agency, but rather to Agasa’s residence. “Where are we going?” I asked. “Hakase said he’s inventing a gadget for you, remember?” Conan reminded me. “Do I even need it?” I groaned. “Always get prepared,” he advised. “Hakase!” He called out. “Oh, Shinichi-kun, John-kun, come in! I have finished inventing your stun-gun wristwatch,” Agasa called back. I examined the stun-gun wristwatch carefully in my hands. “Remember, you only have one shot, and since you did not want too many gadgets, I inserted all essential gadgets into the watch,” his voice broke my thought. “And I have made another piece of Detective Boys batch for you as well.” I was lost for words, “Arigatou gozaimas, Hakase.” I immediately wore it and pinned the Detective Boys batch onto my shirt.

            At the end of a long day, Conan and I finally headed back to Mouri Detective Agency. “Tadaima!” Conan called out. “Welcome back, Conan-kun, John-kun! Oh, I see that you have gotten new accessories, John-kun!” smiled Ran. “Yeah, Agasa made it for me as well,” I rubbed the back of my head. Conan and I refreshed ourselves and we settled down to do homework. I stared down at my homework assignment. Too easy, I thought. Conan and I finished our homework in a flash, and Conan went back to reading his mystery novels, while I peered on Ran’s homework. Just the type of challenge I need, I smiled to myself. Ran looked up from her homework. “This is my homework from school. It’s too hard for you, John-kun,” smiled Ran. “Can I try?” I asked in a sweet voice. Ran could resist such sweet voice, “Sure. Go ahead.” Show that sinx = 3 cosx for 0º ≤ x ≤ 360º. “Tan x is equal to 3. So x is equal to arc tan 3,” I silently muttered. Then I punched the keys into the calculator. “71.6º and 251.6º.” “Sugoi, John-kun!” exclaimed Ran. Conan cleared his throat and I immediately brushed it off, “I learned it in school today!” She frowned, “Teachers are teaching high school mathematics to elementary students.” “Oyasuminasai, Ran-neechan,” I yawned. “Oyasuminasai, John-kun,” she smiled.