"I don't care how famous you are back home, Mr. Mouri. This is a matter for the English police, so kindly stay out of our way!"

"Eh..." Mouri spluttered, backing away with a grimace.

"Mou, Tou-san," Ran huffed in Japanese, "We went on vacation to get away from things like this, remember? Don't start looking into a case on your own!"

Mouri mumbled under his breath and patted his daughter's hand. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Okay, okay, I go! Che."

The other officer, who'd been gamely ignoring the entire argument, turned his full attention to the woman in a light green suit. He tapped his notepad with his pen. "Ms. Kincaid, can you think of any other reason why the murder would specifically target the statue?"

"N-no, but... Well, um, Mr. Amano's dragon was one of three figurines in the Pendragon series. I think-"

"Three?" a childish voiced piped.

Amano's secretary blinked down at the boy who barely reached her hip in height. His large, inquisitive eyes were framed by even larger lenses, but the glass did nothing to distort the sharpness of his gaze.

"Hey, lady, where are the other two? Are they hiding?" the kid wheedled. Unlike the self-proclaimed Detective Mouri, the kid's English was clear, if a bit simple.

"I believe one is owned by Sir Adam Sinclair in Scotland and the other by an Artemis Fowl in Ireland. Both Sir Adam and Mr. Fowl are quite renowned, though neither are personally acquainted with Mr. Amano." She looked up at the officer. "Several years ago, Mr. Amano attempted to buy the other two figurines in order to complete the set, but neither of the gentlemen were willing to sell. I remember because I made the first calls."

The kid cocked his head to the side. "But lady, Mr. Amano already had a dragon. Why did he want three? That's greedy!"

The officer frowned. "Hey, little boy-"

"Oh, Conan-kun! Not you too! Please don't disturb the investigators." Ran called, sounding slightly exasperated.

Conan glanced furtively back, then up to the police. After a hasty moment of deliberation, the boy performed a sharp about-face and started marching back to his current caretakers.

"Hai~!" he sang back.

* * *

Dammit, this isn't going to work! Conan thought in frustration as his was pulled onto Ran's lap. He crossed his arms, tucking his hands close to his body. He was just itching to conduct his own investigation into the case, but the English police were unlikely to tolerate his interference. Conan grumbled unintelligibly under his breath.

Back in Japan, he'd garnered a reputation for being particularly observant, picking up on clues adults often missed because he was supposedly "closer to the ground". The Japanese police, Inspector Sato and Officer Takagi in particular, tended to value on his input. Otherwise, if "Conan" couldn't say anything, "Sleeping Detective Kogoro" could always put on a show. Just a well-aimed tranquilizer dart and a handy little voice-changer...

...But here, even if I put Uncle to sleep and use the voice changer, I can't do anything without arousing suspicion. Uncle's English is barely adequate. If I start picking apart the details of a case, in fluent English, Ran'll know something's up. If I try to imitate Uncle's language deficiency, the Police here won't understand a thing!

Conan sighed heavily, his brow creasing into a frown. ...Looks like Mouri Kogoro really won't be making an English debut. So? Then what?

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