DISCLAIMER: I do not own Detective Conan or any of its characters and concepts! They all belong to Gosho Aoyama.

What makes life worth living

Chapter one
Day 1
o-oOo-o

Asai Kazuma sighed heavily as he pushed his chair back from his desk and looked at the time. The little clock in the right corner of his computer showed him that he had been here way longer than he had intended.

'9:21 pm. If I hurry now, I can still catch the next train home.'

He shut down the pc and packed up his things. The air conditioning was humming softly, and he made a face, knowing that the air outside would be hot and humid in the middle of august. Summer in Tokyo sure was hot. The days in the city felt like walking through a steaming laundry room and the nights weren't much better.

After making sure that he had everything, and that the lights were all turned off, he stepped out of the office he shared with two other people and left the door open, so that the cleaning crew knew that they could begin their work in this room. They would start vacuum cleaning and dusting on this floor soon and there was no way that he could concentrate with all the noise they made. They would use their keys to close the doors after they were done, though they had to be careful because their keys only locked and didn't unlock.

He walked down the corridor, passing the many other open doors on his way to the elevator that would bring him from the fifty-first floor down to ground level. The pharmacy company he was working for sure had grown over the last years. Not least thanks to the downfall of a certain competitor that had opened the way to new markets they had monopolized before.

Asai remembered well how they suddenly had been flooded with orders, and he had made sure to be a major player during the build up of their new structures, and to be a representative for some of the most important new customers.

And in a few years, all his hard work would pay off, when the current boss, Sawada Hisao, would finally retire.

God – no one liked the old geezer, and the whole office would throw a party the day the revolving door at the entrance would close behind him for good.

He was a tyrant and a slave driver, who didn't give a damn if he worked his employees into the ground. As long as it produced a profit – anything goes.

Too bad Asai wasn't the only promising upstart or the office at the end of this corridor with its large windows and the fantastic view would be his without a doubt. Not a small feat at forty-three, but as things stood now, he couldn't afford to slack off – hence the late working hours.

With a wistful sigh, he turned to give the office of his dreams a last look, noticing that the door was still closed. Some muffled arguing could be heard, but he couldn't distinguish who was there with Sawada.

'Oh – seems like Sawada-san hasn't left his territory for today. Poor soul that has to deal with him this late.'

He wasn't sure if Sawada was actually being productive when he worked overtime or if he just avoided going home to his nagging wife. Surely a reason why he had stayed the head of the company much longer than he had strictly needed to.

Asai shrugged and turned back to press the call button for the elevator, when he heard a shout and a loud cracking noise, resounding in his ears like thunder.

He whirled around. 'What was that? It almost sounded like – a gunshot!?'

Maybe he was a coward, but he couldn't do anything against the sudden shaking of his hands and his legs felt like jelly.

Fight or flight reaction set in and flight clearly won. He wanted to get away. Now!

'I have to hide! Where?...'

He frantically looked around, searching for a place that seemed safe enough to give him shelter from the shooter. The hallway was mostly bare aside from some potted plants that wouldn't do much for covering him.

Finally, his body obeyed his panic and he ran into the next open office, crawling under the desk in the utmost last corner, shaking like a leaf when he heard that Sawada's door was opened.

He put his hands over his mouth to smother any noises his accelerated breath could make and prayed that he wouldn't be discovered.

Soft footsteps, muted by the carpet, hastily came down the corridor. When they passed the office he was hiding in, he pressed his eyes shut as if that would let him go unnoticed if the shooter decided to take a closer look.

When nothing happened, and the footsteps went further into the direction of the elevator, Asai let out a shuddering breath. Now that he thought that the immediate danger was over, curiosity set in.

'Who is that? Did he really shoot Sawada just now?'

Then the thought struck him that he would have to report what had happened to the police and that he had no clue what to tell them. For a potential next boss, it was shameful to admit that all he had done was hiding and shaking. He wouldn't be able to endure the humiliation when his colleagues - his future subordinates - would look down on him.

He gathered all his willpower and courage and crept back to the open door to carefully peek around the door jamb.

A figure was standing before the elevator that just had announced its arrival with a soft 'ping'. The doors parted, and the person made the first step to enter. Asai quickly drew back before he would be seen, and the elevator was on its way down.

The moment had been short. Too short to actually be able to see the features hidden beneath a cap that had been drawn deep into the face. All he could say, was that the person was slender and wearing a janitor suit.

When he was sure that the shooter was gone, Asai made a dash to Sawada's office. The door was closed again, and he fumbled with his master key, he owned as proxy of the company.

Maybe it wasn't too late, and he could help. He imagined how he would save Sawada's life and would be nominated by Sawada himself as his successor.

That little fantasy however was very short-lived when he entered the room and saw his boss sitting in his chair, with his head leaning over the backrest and his mouth wide open. Sawada's face was frozen in an unbelieving expression and Asai didn't need to take another step to be sure that he was dead.

The bleeding hole in the middle of his forehead was proof enough.

o-oOo-o

A person was sitting at his desk in his apartment, rubbing at his shower-damp hair with a towel. The phone had just rung, and the caller said to get to the company immediately. The police were asking questions. The boss was dead. Murdered. Asai had seen it. They hung up.

The person tensed. They had discovered the body so fast! There has been a witness and to make it even worse, it had been him.

'How much did he really see? Am I busted?'

Slowly, the person came to a conclusion and opened the top drawer of the desk, taking something out.

o-oOo-o

The flashes of the camera reflected in the large windows and lightened up the office for a few seconds. It let the already pale face of the victim seem even more ghostly when Shinichi leaned in to get a better look at the wound.

"Sawada Hisao, leader of the pharmaceutical company 'Ginko Laboratories', seventy-four years old," Takagi read from his ever-present note-book. "He was found earlier tonight by one of his employees, Asai Kazuma, who was an ear-witness to the gunshot and got a glimpse of the culprit. The time was around 9:30 pm and Asai-san was about to go home when he heard the shot. He took cover in one of the empty offices and saw how the culprit left before he ran over to Sawada."

Shinichi listened to Takagi's explanation while sniffing a bit near the victim's crumpled lapels.

'What is this smell? A cologne? No – it's a more female fragrance, so a parfum? And someone had a really harsh grip on his blazer… Hmm…'

Not finding anything other out of the ordinary on the victim, he turned around to face the Police Detective. "So, we got a description of the culprit?"

Takagi shook his head. "No, sadly not. Asai-san could only state that the culprit was slender in built and that he was wearing a janitor suit and a cap. One like the cleaning crew that is working here is using. Not really form-fitting, so he wasn't sure if it was a man or a woman."

'Would have been too easy.' Shinichi thought, sighing. They wouldn't have needed to call him if they already knew who the culprit was after all.

"And what about the cleaning crew? Did they notice anything?"

Takagi flipped back a few pages until he found the notes in question. "No, they still had been on the floor below - just heard the noise of the shot but didn't know what to make of it. But one of the spare suits is missing. We think it is safe to assume that the culprit stole it."

"Who are the suspects so far?"

Another flip of some pages.

"We have three prime suspects and Megure-keibu is currently speaking with them in the next room."

He reached Shinichi his note-book, so that he could read the information about the three people himself. Shinichi memorized everything and handed the book back to him.

"Thanks a lot, Takagi-keiji," he said with a smile.

Working alongside his usual acquaintances from division one was always the easiest for him. They had listened to him even as he had been Conan, and they trusted his judgement – different from some other teams that weren't too thrilled to have a consulting detective snooping around at their crime scene.

Shinichi had long since learned not to give a damn about them.

He got called for help, he solved the case, he got paid. That was his job now after all, and he wouldn't slack off just to give some 'hotshot' the opportunity to mark his territory.

Mostly, they came around when they realized that he wasn't there to make the police look incompetent but to catch a culprit – a murderer. Aside from one or two exceptions, the Detectives and Inspectors were professionals in the end and knew what had priority.

He still felt grateful that those of division one who knew about his time as grade-schooler had accepted him back without much fuss. Sure – he had to endure the one or other jab or joke but he could easily let it slide for fooling them for so long.

Now, he went to accompany Megure for the interrogations, leaving Takagi to oversee the work of the forensics.

He knocked on the door to make his presence known and entered after Megure answered with a short "Come in."

"Ah, Kudou-kun," the Inspector greeted him with a smile, waving him to his side.

"Hello, Inspector," Shinichi said and gave the others in the room a nod as greeting. Looking around, he noticed that one person he had expected to see was not in the room.

"Where is Satou-keiji?"

It was still 'Satou' and not 'Takagi Miwako', despite them being married for some years now. Working on the same team and sharing the same name was bound to lead to confusion, so they had decided to keep their last names.

Everyone in the division knew that once Megure would announce his resignation or got promoted, Satou would take his place as she was more leader material than Takagi, if the announcement of kids didn't come first. The betting pool was growing every month or so Shinichi had heard.

"She is down at the entrance to look for other possible suspects with the security team. She should be back soon. She-"

"The pretty little thing from earlier?" an arrogant looking man in his mid-thirties, who was wearing sport clothes and had clearly put on a bit too much cologne interrupted irritated. He could be glad that Takagi wasn't around. The usually shy detective was really protective about his wife and didn't take good to insults at her.

"Hey - I really don't get why you are treating me as a suspect, but I already got questioned by her, so can I leave already? Just go and bother Asai or Nakazawa. I have work to do! Do you have any idea what Sawada's death means for us?"

"Matsuoka-san. We are very aware of that and that's exactly why you are here." Megure shot him a stern gaze that shut him up for now, though Shinichi wasn't sure for how long that would last.

Matsuoka Ryuu seemed to be a ruthless guy, who didn't have any qualms using the situation for his advantage.

Next to him, his co-worker, Nakazawa Kaori was desperately trying to hold back some tears.

Matsuoka saw it and let out a cynical laugh.

"Ha! You're actually bawling? And here I thought you were just fucking him for your career. Say - did you kill him out of passion?"

"Matsuoka-san!" Megure called him to order again.

Shinichi observed the other two. Nakazawa was sending a hateful look at Matsuoka while Asai was watching her with a sad and longing expression. When she noticed his eyes on her, she turned away with a haughty huff.

Wow - here seemed to be quite the tension at work.

Matsuoka, who obviously was driven, Nakazawa, who seemingly had an affair with the victim and Asai, who had a thing for Nakazawa, who in turn didn't even look at him, instead slept with the boss.

Money, passion, envy - all of them very strong motives that had been the cause for many murders before.

The door opened, and Satou entered the room. While exchanging a quick wave with Shinichi, she gave Megure her report.

"I've talked with the security and a member of the cleaning crew called in ill while I was there. The man was quite surprised to hear that he had been in the building tonight. We checked, and the card was scanned at nine-twelve, way after the rest of the cleaning crew came in. Also, it was scanned out right after the gunshot."

That answered the question of how the culprit had been able to access and leave the building. Someone had known the company good enough to get the suit out of the storage without problems and was informed about ill members of the cleaning crew. Everything pointed to an employee of the company and not someone from outside.

"Didn't the guard at the entrance see him come and leave?" Megure asked her.

"No, the cleaning crew uses a backdoor as entrance because the management didn't want them to come through the front door. Something about image or such nonsense. Most of the people are gone anyway when they begin their work, so I don't really see the point, but apparently Sawada liked to show off his superiority."

"Right," Megure sweatdropped. Sawada really seemed to have been a rather unpleasant fellow. He opened the door and turned to the suspects.

"I want to talk with each of you individually. Asai-san and Matsuoka-san, could you please wait outside? Just don't leave the floor."

Matsuoka looked like he wanted to oppose, but then thought better of it and strode out of the room with his hands in his pockets.

Asai followed him wordlessly.

Megure turned his attention to Nakazawa and decided to come straight to the point. Alone the prospect of questioning Matsuoka later was tiring, and he'd had a long day already. Couldn't criminals at least be considerate enough to do their deeds at regular working hours?

With an internal sigh, he thought about Midori's excellent katsudon, he had to abandon when he had been called in for the investigation. His wife had not been pleased, but she was married long enough with a police officer to know that if he had the choice, he would always put her first. If he wasn't back too late, she would even reheat the dish for him. Something worth getting over with this quickly.

"Nakazawa-san, how long have you been working here already?" he started the interrogation.

"I've been employed here for eight years now and I've been a proxy for one year."

She was a fragile-looking woman in her late thirties. Ordinary, plain and meek were words that came to mind while looking at her modest grey business costume and her timid posture. If she would even be able to lead people was questionable, but somehow, she had made it this far anyway. Maybe…

"Nakazawa-san, is what Matsuoka-san said correct? Did you have an affair with Sawada-san?"

She wrung her hands and looked to the ground, biting her lips, rendering the quiet 'Yes.' almost redundant.

"How long had that been going on?"

Nakazawa still avoided any eye-contact and looked quite miserable. "For… for almost two years now."

Shinichi took an unobtrusive step closer to her and inhaled deeply through his nose. There was the strong smell of jasmine and a hint of musk, just enough to take off the edge of the sweetness, making it a very pleasant scent.

He recognized the parfum instantly.

"You've been with Sawada-san tonight as well, right?"

She stared at him, shocked. "I… no, well – yes, but I swear, I didn't kill him!" she stuttered out. "I would never harm Sawada-sam-, err -san."

Shinichi raised an eyebrow at her slipup. She had been about to say 'sama' instead of 'san'. Not that unusual a calling for a superior, but not if the other one held such a high position as Nakazawa herself.

Most likely it stemmed from their sexual involvement with each other and if what Shinichi and Megure as well suspected was true, then Sawada had been more than dominant in their relationship.

What if hadn't been completely mutual?

If Sawada had promoted her just if she was willing to sleep with him, that could have let to growing aggression on Nakazawa's part. Maybe even enough to put an end to it. Permanently.

Nakazawa seemed to sense their thoughts and desperately began to defend herself. "No, please – don't get the wrong impression. He truly loved me! He said that he could see my potential and that he would help me to live up to it." Tears swam in her eyes again. "My family would have been so proud." The end of her sentence drowned in a sobbing hiccup.

Satou took pity on her and gestured at Megure to pause the questioning. He nodded in agreement and Satou led the crying Nakazawa out of the room. Maybe some womanly empathy would bring them more answers.

Megure took a deep breath. Dealing with so tender women wasn't exactly his forte. Next, he wanted to speak with Asai. He was a witness, but also a suspect as he had been alone on the floor with Sawada when he called for the police. Even though unlikely, it was possible that he just came up with the story about a third person and used the janitor suit and ID-card as a ruse. It certainly didn't hurt to be thorough.

"Kudou-kun, could you go get Asai-san? And maybe you can take care of questioning Matsuoka-san?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure, Inspector."

Shinichi went to the door and looked down the corridor in his search for Asai and found the man in an argument with Matsuoka. An officer stood a bit away, keeping an eye on them.

"Why would you be the next leader, Matsuoka?" Asai spat out. "No one in the company can stand you, no one will vouch for you. You're just an asshole."

Matsuoka's hands clenched into fists and his frame trembled from suppressed fury. Shinichi had half the mind to step in to prevent a fight between the two men, but Matsuoka just let out a tsking sound and made a step away from Asai.

"You know what, Asai? You're not even worth beating up. And by the way," he said, taking a small spray can out of the pocket of his training jacket. "You really should do something about your sweating – you stink." With that, he pointed the can at him and sprayed him all over with it, then quickly turned around and strode away with brisk steps. Only now he became aware of Shinichi's presence and frowned.

"Was there something you wanted?" he asked, completely ignoring Asai's coughing that sounded from behind them as he tried to fan away the cloud of deodorant surrounding him. "I want to get home now if you don't mind. Have to get a good night's sleep before tomorrow all hell breaks loose when our clients hear about Sawada's death."

A bit baffled by so much insolence and callousness, Shinichi was lost for words for a moment. This man really didn't give a damn about the people around him. His eyes narrowed. He himself for sure wouldn't be intimidated that easily.

"Just a few basic questions about your alibi. Asai-san, can you please go to Megure-keibu? He has some questions for you as well."

Asai nodded and went back into the office where Megure was waiting.

Matsuoka sighed, longsuffering. "Didn't I give all that to your pretty female colleague already? Meh… fine – I left work early today, around six pm. Then I was at the gym next door to work out as I always do on Tuesdays. You can ask the staff there about it. I showered and went home and then I got called back here."

"Anyone at your home who can testify that you've been there tonight?"

"No, detective," he grinned smugly. "The girls don't tend to stick around for breakfast if you know what I mean."

Oh, Shinichi understood only too well. Everything in Matsuoka's posture said, 'I'm a playboy, I'm daring, I'm god's gift to women – recognize me!'

He had to suppress an eye-rolling. How annoying.

"Right. I will confirm your alibi with the staff from the gym. When did you leave there?"

Matsuoka made a dismissive sound. "Not sure – around ten? Hadn't been aware I had to know the exact minute at that time. Just ask them when I checked out, that should be enough for you."

"That's quite a long time for a workout," Shinichi said, noting everything down.

Suddenly, a hand grabbed at his blazer and pulled him forward. Matsuoka's breath hissed against Shinichi's face. "Are you saying I'm a suspect? I told you that I was at the gym!"

Unfazed, Shinichi stared right back at him. "You did, and I will check that, but assaulting an investigator won't help you any. I would advise that you let go now," he stated calmly, knowing that the officer behind him was already coming over.

With an angry huff, Matsuoka opened his fists and stepped back.

Shinichi straightened his blazer, frowning at the crinkles Matsuoka's hands had left on his lapels. 'Just like on Sawada's.'

Sadly, not enough to arrest the man. "You can go home for now, Matsuoka-san. Just make sure we can reach you anytime and stay in the city."

o-oOo-o

When Shinichi came home this night, almost all lights in the house were already turned off. Ran always just left on a small lamp in the entry when she went to bed before he came back, what happened every so often when he had a tough case or she had early shifts.

Shinichi turned the key, slipped out of his shoes and padded into the kitchen on socked feet. He was more than lucky to have a wife who, despite working fulltime herself, still somehow managed to cook a meal for dinner or at least thought about bringing home some takeout.

Today was no exception and he found a bowl of nikujaga in the fridge that he popped into the microwave to reheat it.

While he ate, he flipped through his notes from the case. Too bad that Ran was asleep already. He liked to toss ideas back and forth with her because she always brought some fresh notions into the mix. Well, maybe tomorrow night, because he wouldn't see her in the morning either as she would get up very early and always made sure not to wake him. How she did that was beyond him because he never managed to pull that off when he was the one leaving first.

He put his empty plate into the dish-washer, went upstairs to the bathroom and got ready for bed. With utmost care, he opened the door to their bedroom, making no noise at all.

Ran had left the window open to get at least a bit of circulation into the room that had heated up during the day. The silvery light of the moon crept through a slit between the curtains and was just bright enough that he could see her sleeping features. She didn't even budge an inch when he closed the door and lay down on the mattress. Must have been one hell of a day for her too. Normally, she woke at least for a brief kiss before drifting back to sleep, assured that he was home and next to her.

He brushed her forehead with his lips in a feather-light kiss and got comfortable to get some much-needed rest as well.

A/N: Welcome to a new story!

This is a story after the defeat of the Black Organization, so Shinichi is back for good and working as an independent private investigator.

Updates should be once a week and I really hope you enjoy this fanfiction. If you do - please concider leaving me a review. It helps to get through sleepless nights full of writing ;-)