A Magician's Twin Sister (Magic Kaito/Detective Conan Fanfic)

The Iceman Case - Part 5

Inside the house of Tsunira Rei was cold. Not so cold that it made them shiver, but the type of cold that didn't set well within an atmosphere. The chills the four of them had gained when they found the gate chains in the snow and the padlock that had been thrown into the forest, hadn't left them. They had remained as deep and as cold as the snow outside.

The house itself was large, the ceilings of the doorway reached far above their heads. In respect of the late owner, the four of them took their snow boots off and left them by the door.

Walking further into the large mountain house, they noticed the two different doorways, leading to different areas of the house. The left, leading to the dining room and the right, leading to the large kitchen. Straight ahead from the front door, a set of double doors were situated beside the wide staircase leading to the upper floors.

Not knowing where to start first, they split up to individually search the rooms that they could see. When they decided that plan, Kaito already made his decision to search upstairs. Shinichi had claimed the dining room as his inspection area whilst Heiji made his way towards the large kitchen. Kazumi, being the last to decide and free to choose where she wanted to investigate, decided to go towards the set of double doors facing the front door.

Just as Kazumi was about to open the double doors, her brother's voice boomed from the top of the staircase. "Guys!" He called to his fellow investigators, causing Shinichi and Heiji to step out into the main corridor from their allocated search areas. Both of them had made a move to follow the magician, thinking that he had found something. Kaito just held his hands out and stopped them from moving any closer, "I was just gonna say take some pictures of things that could help us later, saving us from coming back up here."

Heiji nodded, holding up a gloved thumb to Kaito. "Good idea, Kuroba."

Before anyone else could say anymore, Kaito had already disappeared back upstairs.

This caused Shinichi to sigh, turning himself away from the staircase to go back into the dining room. Heiji watched him go before going back into the kitchen.

Kazumi examined both of them, a little stunned to say at most, due to her not expecting them to act that way. Was this the way they always solved cases together, silently passing words to each other without actually saying anything? It wasn't just the way that they were when they were at the scene of the crime because they were conversing before, quite clearly. And Tsunira's house wasn't the scene of the crime.

Well, whatever it was, Kazumi would figure it out later on.

Turning back to the double doors, Kazumi placed a hand on the right door handle, its cold brass noticeable through her gloves. With minimal force, she turned the handle and pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

Due to the leather sofas and the other pieces of comforting furniture, Kazumi guessed that this was the living room. On the right side of the wall, stood a tall red brick fireplace, a shelf slightly above it. Walking closer into the room, she could see that there were burnt bits of wood, most probably logs that Tsunira had cut up himself, going by the axe that she could see prompt up against the side of the fireplace.

When she was close enough, Kazumi bent over slightly at the hip to get a better view of the framed photos atop of a dark mahogany cabinet. The one in the centre was a picture of three men. They all seemed to be friends, if their three way hug and bright wide smiles were anything to go by. The man on the left, Kazumi recognised, was Ginosato. He looked younger by at least ten years, so Kazumi also presumed that this picture was taken before Ginosato had his accident.

Her indigo eyes slowly scanned the image and came across the two other men which she hadn't seen before. The man in the middle had an arm over both Ginosato's shoulders and the other man's. The man in the middle had dark, wavy hair and a handsome face. His features struck out more than Ginosato's violet eyes and straight hair, which looked a lot different from now and the way he gelled it back so it was out of his face. He obviously had left it to flow freely back then.