Shifting Truth

Part 4

The day was going as normal for Conan, or as normal as his new life had become. His tail laid straight-out over the sofa he sat on while trying to read his book. He really was trying, but his better hearing was making it slightly difficult to concentrate. Agasa's ear plugs were there to help with just that, but he wanted to get himself used to it all properly without them. He couldn't depend on the plugs all the time, and normal cats could get around just fine without getting bothered, so he should as well. That's what he theorized, at least.

He looked up from his book to glance at the other two. Kogorou sat behind his desk, looking through some papers by himself, and Ran was in the small kitchen, cleaning around the place.

Conan's attention then went to the door as the sound of footsteps closed in alongside the scent of someone unfamiliar to him. "Oji-san, someone's coming," informed Conan, turning to the man.

"Huh?" said Kogorou, glancing up at him, but nodded and turned to the door after registering what the boy just said. He laid down his papers, and just as he got up to go to the door, knocking came from the other side.

Conan placed down his book as Kogorou greeted the stranger, and the boy turned around on the sofa to look. A man stepped into the office as Kogorou accepted whatever request he had. When he came in, he caught sight of Conan and blinked before giving him a gentle smile.

"Please sit down," said Kogorou, but walked past him to take the sofa Conan was on, not trusting strangers to sit next to the boy. "So you say you received a threat letter threatening to take your wife's life if you don't sell your company?" asked Kogorou as the man sat down.

"That's right," answered the man with a nod. "My company isn't big, so I don't have the money to hire bodyguards for any of us. The company is struggling now as well, so I don't have much free time to work on other things."

"Why would they want your company if your struggling?" asked Conan, tilting his head.

Kogorou threw him an annoyed glare, but turned back to the man to see him shaking his head. "I don't know... I don't get that myself."

"Heh~?" said Conan, staring at the man, but yelped when Kogorou flicked at his head. He rubbed the spot hit and gave the man an annoyed glance.

But the boy turned back to the man and wrinkled his nose slightly. The moment the man had walked past him to sit down, he had caught the faint smell of gunpowder. And if it was faint for him with his increased smell, he highly doubted a normal human would notice it.

*************

After getting all the necessary information from the man, he had left them to think.

"So what are you going to do, Otou-san?" asked Ran from where she stood next to the sofa.

"I'll have to look into these people he mentioned," huffed Kogorou, looking over the list he had written with the names related to the situation.

"Oji-san, I don't trust him," said Conan, and immediately earned their attention. "He had the smell of gunpowder on him."

"But I didn't smell anything," muttered Ran in thought.

"I see. Thank you for the information, Conan," said Kogorou with a nod as he walked over to his desk. "A cat's nose is far sharper than a human's after all."

"Then I'll come with you to meet the suspects!" beamed Conan, but earned stern looks from the other two in less than a second. "You said so yourself, Oji-san! I got better smell, along with hearing! And they'd let their guards down with me!"

A frustrated sigh left Kogorou, but he knew the boy was right. And he knew him enough as well to know he would follow either way. But Ran shook her head as she leaned over the boy. "It's too dangerous, Conan-kun!"