The day of destiny arrived like the main character of a shounen manga but I was prepared.
I got up early, prepared myself and assumed my position in front of her house like I did yesterday.
After what I learned yesterday, there was no way I was just going to walk away from this. I'll face her head on and challenge this problem with gusto.
I stood at my hiding spot waiting for her to come out—2 hours, 3 then 4 and still no sign of her. Was she planning on shutting herself in all day? No, I know better than anyone that she wouldn't do that. Especially after that happened.
All of a sudden, someone grabbed me from behind.
"One stalker successfully captured, fufu"
This sensation on my back and the fact that I didn't notice her.... It's definitely—
"Sara?"
"I had a feeling you'll still be here"
"What's that supposed to mean.... Before that, why aren't you at school?!"
"What are you, my dad? A fellow truant has no right to complain. You should be thanking me for skipping school just for you"
"And why will I do that?"
"I brought information I thought you might want to hear.... A little birdie told me Lizbeth didn't come home last night"
What? Was she—
"And before you ask me if she was kidnapped, that isn't the case. She slept at an Internet cafe downtown"
I was naive to believe she won't go to such lengths just to shake my off her trail. That place is crawling with dangerous people and she has no means of defending hersel—
Wait.
"How do I know your information is true?"
I wouldn't put it past Sara to lie straight to my face.
"I guess you'll just have to trust me"
"I don't trust you nearly as far as I can throw you which isn't that far by the way considering your goods..."
She pouted a little but I ignored and continued.
".... Can you share your source?"
"Fufu, no can do. A maiden has a secrets"
"You, a maiden? That's rich"
"Listen, the more time you spend waiting the less time you'll have to catch up to her"
"Huh? You know where she is?"
She flashed her mischievous grin
"Fufufu, I shouldn't be telling you this but I spoke with her this morning out of 'concern' and I managed to find out where she was headed"
"And? Where is it?"
"Since I'm feeling generous this morning I'll tell you free of charge.... She was heading to the amusement park over at Still peaks "
That's the place I visited with Sara on our 'date'.... Since it's crowded and has several security camera blindspots, it's the perfect place for shady deal. I can see the culprit selecting that place.
That said, I shouldn't underestimate the girl in front of me, is that information really true? Or could she be collaborating with Liz so she can get out of the house. If I leave here to chase after Sara's 'lead' while Liz is actually still in the house then that'll give her the opportunity to escape. It's entirely possible she's playing a game of attrition with me by making me wait this long.... What should I do?
"Tell me one thing Sara. Did you really mean what you said on Monday? About me keeping her safe?"
"If I didn't, I wouldn't be here right now"
I saw sincerity in her eyes although, this could just be an act as well, I can't be sure. I guess my extreme wariness lies in the fact that she completely fooled me last time and I didn't realize it until it was too late....
I really don't have time for this! Alright, time for a gamble. I walked up to the Andrews house and rang the doorbell. Shortly after, a beautiful woman who looked just like Liz but with a greater variety of expressions opened the door.
I kept myself from blurting out the word 'MILF' like I did in the grand casino.
"Good morning, sorry to disturb you. I'm here for Peter"
"Who?"
"Peter"
"I'm sorry, there's no one going by that name at this residence"
"Huh? Are you sure? I'm sure this is the address he gave me.... Gosh, what a pain!"
"Do you happen to know his last name?"
"Yeah.... It's Anderson"
The woman chuckled a little.
"This is the Andrews residence. The Andersons are three houses down"
"Ohhh.... I guess that was my mistake. Well, this is a little embarrassing. Thanks for your time ma'am"
She bade me farewell before closing the door.... I guess Liz really wasn't inside.
"Making small talk in front of her house so you can search for her by scanning the thoughts of everyone in the building... Do you really distrust me that much?"
"Look at it this way, I trusted you enough to make that gamble. After all, if she really was at home, I would've been busted. She could call the cops on me or think of another way out"
I retorted, shrugging my shoulders
"Hmph"
"Besides, if I didn't trust you, I'll be considering the possibility you're hiding her. Just because she isn't home doesn't mean she's at the amusement park"
"You're wayy too skeptical Adam. That's why you don't have a girlfriend, fufu"
If Sara was hiding her then the difficulty of my mission will go up by several points. That said, there's still a possibility that she's telling the truth. I have to at least check out her lead to eliminate that possibility.
"Well, I'm going to train station, wish me luck"
"Safe journey traveller, may the force be with you"
She said with her 'Yoda' imitation on point. I parted ways with Sara and made it on time to catch the 10:30 train.
I got to the amusement park at 10:47 and began my search for Lizbeth Andrews. The place wasn't as crowded as the last time I was here but the 'noise' was still significant— Sara wasn't with me this time so I guess that's to be expected.
Still though, I can't afford to give up. Compared to what Liz has gone through, this is nothing. I ran around the park trying to get a lock on Liz's thoughts and trace her location. It took about eleven minutes but I finally found her, I guess Sara wasn't lying after all.
I closed in on Liz's location right next to the ferris wheel. My initial plan was to tail her for bit first however as I arrived at her location I noticed something falling from the sky. Even worse, at that trajectory, it was going to hit Liz.
"Liz, look out!"
I locked in like an Isekai protagonist and pushed her out of the way. Ofcourse, I didn't let myself get hit either— I'm not that selfless
"A-Adam? How did you find me?"
"Your Watson is reporting for duty! Seriously, what kind of irresponsible jerk will drop someth—"
I turned to look at that 'something' and realized I had made a grave error. It wasn't something, but someone.... There was a dead body in front of us— a woman, probably late twenties.
The others in the crowd suddenly went into a frenzy. Liz moved to secure the crime scene and I assisted. In a few minutes, we were joined by Sean and two officers of the Still peaks police force who were part of the joint team assigned for the deal between Suspect D and the culprit.
"Secure the area! And hold everyone riding the ferris wheel for questioning!"
One of the two unfamiliar officers roared with a commanding presence. He had silver hair tied back and sharp ruby eyes with an athlete's build that outlined his muscles and six pack even through his white shirt and suit pants.
He also seemed to be of a higher rank than Sean or the other guy as they scrambled to follow his orders while also calling in backup.
"You do that. Although, the culprit's probably long gone by now"
Liz stated calmly while looking at something behind me. I turned round to see a tarp of a similar color to the ferris wheel's gondola—So that's what happened.
The man was a little puzzled by this statement though.
"Explain"
"You're a capable detective, get with the program already"
"What?!"
The man was more annoyed by Liz's rude comment than anything else. I stepped in to defuse the situation— Seriously though, how have they tolerated her for this long?
"What she meant to say was the culprit probably set it up in advance— Judging by the rigor mortis on the body, the victim died at least 9-10 hours ago. Since you were checking the security cameras for suspicious individuals in your search for the culprit of William Munroe's murder, you would've noticed someone doing something as suspicious as carrying a dead body around..."
"....And who the hell are you?! Civilians aren't allowed on crime scenes"
That's rude— cutting me off in the middle of my deduction. I pointed to Liz
"I'm her assistant"
"He's not"
"Hey! Don't be like that Liz"
"You're not supposed to be here! How'd you even find me anyway?"
"That's not really important right now, is it?"
"It is when you refuse to take a hint, you stalker!"
I was completely absorbed in my quarrel with Liz that I forgot about the policeman in front of me. This ticked him off even more.
"I don't mean to interrupt your lover's spat but...."
"IS THAT WHAT THIS LOOKS LIKE TO YOU?!"
We retorted in perfect harmony. The guy was about to bust a blood vessel
"If what she said is true, I'm going to have to put you under arrest for harassment, young man!"
"I apologize, he really is my assistant. His name is perv"
"That's right, I'm perv, nice to mee— Hey!"
She let out a sarcastic chuckle. The man was somehow satisfied with her statement and gave me permission to remain on site. I guess despite appearances, he respects Liz a great deal as well.
"As I was saying, the culprit probably killed the victim late last night, strapped it underneath one of the gondolas and used the tarp to hide the body creating a false bottom. He probably set up a mechanism to allow the victim fall after a period of time had passed. You should find evidence of that after inspecting the gondolas"
"Interesting... I'll still question those people just to be safe."
Liz was right about him being capable—If anything, he sure is thorough. I moved towards Liz who was back to inspecting the body.
"This is a murder though, right?"
"Yes. The victim's neck was broken from the fall but you can still faintly make out the wound that did her in. A single stab wound to the neck— the knife was turned counterclockwise after it was thrust into the victim's neck"
The capable cop overheard our conversation and his expression turned cold.
"C-Counterclockwise? That can't be a coincidence"
"I was thinking the same thing... Although it could be a copycat murder. Anyone who's read the paper lately would've known about his escape"
"That's true. However, he dropped the body to cause enough damage to hide that wound indicating turning it counterclockwise was probably just a reflex. If a copycat was trying to pin the crime on him, they would've imitated his entire M.O"
"You're right about that.... However, there are still too many unknowns. It's best not to draw conclusions just yet"
Someone who couldn't read minds would've had trouble following the conversation between Liz and Mr Competent. The 'culprit' in question was the serial killer who escaped a little while back— I read about him in a newspaper during my date with Rachel.
It didn't go into details about his modus operandi, although it mentioned the counterclockwise stab wound— I guess that's why Liz doesn't want to draw conclusions just yet.
"Seems like you recognize the victim, Liz"
I said, butting into their conversation
"About that, I'm 85% sure that's the third member of our last victim's con artist group"
Well I'll be.... Mr Competent was far more shocked by this turn of events than I was. He proceeded to share his concern.
"This further confirms my suspicions.... he's most likely behind this"
"Explain"
"Well.... I assumed Alan filled you in"
"About what?"
"Well actually, the man you refer to as William Munroe and his cohorts helped us catch that man"
"In exchange for freedom?"
"Yeah.... We didn't have any evidence to convict that killer at the time so we made use of their skills in deception to get him to slip up— we had them get close to him and become his friends all while feeding us information. He probably did this for revenge."
Liz pondered for a few seconds before replying.
"In any case, he'll probably be after our culprit as well. I'm done with the body so I'm heading back to Alan and the others, I'll leave the rest to you"
We parted ways with Mr Competent and started making our way to the park's control room where the old man and the other leading officers in the operation were located.
"So the old guy's name is Alan? Haha, what a weird name!"
"That's rich coming from you. Your names sound exactly the same"
"So you actually do know my name!"
"E-Everyone keeps at least one piece of useless information in their heads"
She said, turning her head away to hide her slight embarrassment—best not to tease any further. We stopped by a drinks stand and I got her a bottle of chocolate milk drink.
"Still though, catching a serial killer..... This is starting to feel like a real crime story!"
"We still can't conclude it wasn't a cop—"
"—Oh Please, you concluded it wasn't a copycat murder from the start"
"I keep forgetting about your annoying curse. Do you enjoy invading a delicate maiden's private areas, you perv?"
"Geez kid, phrasing!"
Still though, that conclusion was one that could've only been reached by Lizbeth Andrews and her exceptionally keen attention to detail— she's read the case files on several criminals including that serial killer and is familiar with his modus operandi.
One thing in particular that was common to all his victims was the location of the stab wound on the neck— They were always at the exact same spot and never off by even a millimeter. Even if a copycat had that information, it's impossible to replicate that level of precision without any mistakes.
"That killer is notorious for being a master of disguise hence his name 'The Chameleon'... So I'm counting on you to fish out any moles with that curse of yours, perv"
She said before opening the door to the control room where the old man was.
"Ohhh you're back! And you brought your assistant with you..."
"What's the situation?"
"Still no sign of our guy and it's already two hours past the meeting time!"
"We no longer have the luxury of time. I'll be returning to Stone Valley to convince my father to put our full might into finding this guy"
"Huh? Did something happen"
Liz glanced at me, her thoughts pushing me to explain the situation. Still as lazy as ever, I see.
I filled them in on everything—the chameleon, the murder and the possibility William Munroe's brother was next. The old man caught on quickly, probably because he was involved in catching the chameleon several years ago—Five years to be exact.
"I understand.... Good luck little lady!"
We returned to Stone Valley on train prepared to tame the dragon— for some reason, the relationship between Liz and her dad was.....complicated.
After getting off the train, Liz didn't head directly for the station. Instead, we were making a pit-stop somewhere I had mixed feelings about.
"Is there a reason why we have to stop by your house?"
"My dad's at the station so you can relax, this isn't a 'meeting the parents scenario' from an otome game.... Not like my dad'll care if I brought a guy home anyway"
"Was there always some kinda distance between you and your dad.... I know he respects you as a detective but from what I gather, it's not the same as a person"
"Quit invading my mind, perv!"
"You're an only child though, right? I thought dad's dote on their little girls"
While staking out her place, her dad was the only one to leave the house and her mum was the only one home when I rang the bell.
"I had a little brother but he died three years ago. I think it was around that time the rift between me and my dad grew. It was around that time i also became a detective, he was against it though"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know"
We walked for a few minutes in awkward silence before I tried breaking the ice.
"Hey Liz"
"Hmm?"
"Otaku pop quiz. What's the best thing about a teenage waifu?"
"Hmmm..... I don't know, her thighs?"
"Close but no cigar.... The answer is..."
I had her attention
"...Her Mom!"
She gave me a swift kick in the knee
"Ow!"
"Why didn't you dodge?"
"Where you expecting me to dodge?!"
I caught a quick smile on her face
"Listen.... I don't need you to make me feel better just because you know about my curse. I don't need your pity, It's..... unsettling"
"Only if you promise not to do anything reckless"
"Hmmm.... I promise"
Hearing her say it out was a small weight of my shoulders. I wanted her to rely on me a little more especially when it came to her curse.
"Still though... Thanks for inviting me to your home"
"Don't get the wrong idea, we're going up against a serial killer. I can't have you dying on me"
And yet another expression reveals itself. The cold hearted chibi detective was dere right now!
Lizbeth Andrews interests didn't just stop at solving cases. She also dabbled in homemade gadgets and equipment used by detectives—bulletproof vests, tiny GPS trackers, transmitters and more— that's right, she wasn't just satisfied with being Conan, she became Agasa as well! Her stats are way too broken!.
We arrived at her house to pick up these gadgets as they'll probably be useful against The Chameleon. She rang the doorbell and shortly after her Mum opened the door.
"Sweetie, I was worried when you didn't come home last night! Are you alright? you're not hurt are you?"
"I'm fine Mum, I just came to pick up a few things"
She let us in after noticing her daughter's slight displeasure. We made our way up the stairs to Liz's room.
"By the way, were you able to find your friend?"
She asked me before I could escape and Liz heard her too.
"Y-Yeah, I'm sorry for disturbing you earlier"
"Fufu, it was no problem.... Well, you kids have fun. Don't do anything I wouldn't do"
She chuckled as her image was soon out of sight. Contrary to Lizbeth Andrews, her Mum was far more vibrant and full of expression... Although, she was quite calculating herself. She definitely asked that question on purpose within earshot of her daughter—
Her daughter who was looking at me with contempt right now.
"You were stalking my home as well? Tch, perv"
Yep, saw that one coming.