001 | Accidental Video

[whatsbackup]

[ The why and the how, Ronan would focus on later. He was breathing, his clothes at seven bullet holes clean through them with dried blood clinging to the edges, but he didn't and he was in a cave.

So, the initial examination had given him some pretty startling information: someone had retrieved his body from the morgue, found a way to what? Resurrect him? Then they'd shoved him in a coffin with a cell phone and how-to manual, and stored his new bed in a cave somewhere.

He fiddled with the settings on the phone per the instructions, and accidentally turned on the video transmission as he continued to think out loud. His attention to detail was usually more thorough, but give a guy a break. He was dead the last time he checked. ]

...didn't even have the decency to give a man a change of clothes.

[ He shook his head and looked around for something in the pod he'd just vacated for a moment before reaching in and pulling out a weathered fedora and placing it on his head. ]

At least they remembered th- [ His eyes dart toward the communicator he'd set down, noticing the blinking. ] What do you know? I did get it working.

[ He runs a hand over his face before he picks up the device, giving a slight, if-lopsided, smile. ]

I can only assume there's others out there, right? Why give a man a cell phone if there's nobody to receive it? [ He rubbed at his eyes with a free hand, then begins patting first the clear side of his chest, then the side with the bullet holes before reaching into a pocket with a hole in it and retrieving a box of ruined cigarettes. ] Really? Come on. [ He shakes his head and looks back to the feed. ]

My name's Ronan O'Connor. I'm a detective with the Salem Police Department...in...Salem, Massachusetts. Tell me that rings a bell with somebody.

[ And, more directly, as though something suddenly occurs to him. ]

Can any of you even see me?

Comments

video

[eastdetective]

The last case? [Conan tilts his head in thought.]

Ah, that would have been the locked room murder at the tennis court. Uncle is a detective, and I sometimes help him with cases.

video

[whatsbackup]

Your uncle lets you help him with murder cases? [Or at all? What kind of precincts do they have in Japan anyway?] Alright, let's hear it, then.

whoops, had to go rewatch the episode to get things straight

[eastdetective]

Mmm! He says I'm a lucky charm for solving them. And I'm good at observing things.

[The boy frowns in thought for a moment as he tries to think of the best way to explain without implicating himself as being the one who solved the case. ]

We were staying at a house near a tennis court because the woman who owned it had accidentally given me a concussion. I was sent to rest in a room to recover. When I woke up, I found the body in the room. He had been struck on the head by a vase. But it was an impossible crime, because the windows and doors were all locked and the body was blocking the only door.

♥

[whatsbackup]

So, let me get this straight. You woke up in a locked room with a corpse, right? That makes you the prime suspect, doesn't it?

[eastdetective]

You mean besides having no motive?

I'm seven. And three feet tall. I would be really worried if anyone thought I was a possible suspect.

[whatsbackup]

You hit somebody in the head in the right place and it doesn't take much force to make sure they never get back up.

You take 'em by surprise, when they're crouched down or whatever, and size doesn't matter, kid. I've seen weirder.

[Not that he's trying to call you a murderer.]

And self-defense is a motive, you know.

[eastdetective]

And deductions still follow evidence. [Conan knew dozens of different ways to compensate for differences in height and weight, but all of them left evidence behind. And in this case, the evidence was that a six-foot-tall man weighting over 200 pounds had been moved several feet across the ground after his death. Even with the dry ice trick that would have been impossible for a child's strength.]

[whatsbackup]

Sure they do, kid, but I don't have any in front of me. [He chuckles.] Lighten up, will ya? You don't have anything to prove.

[eastdetective]

[Conan had often been accused of not having a sense of humor. At times like this, he really proved them right. ]

Han't anyone told you not to speculate without evidence?

[whatsbackup]

Sure, and if I was on the clock, I'd be a good little detective, but I'm not.

[eastdetective]

Being a detective isn't something you can just turn off.

[whatsbackup]

Kid, I've had a really long night, and it just keeps getting longer. I don't need your sass right now.