Just Another Lead... Right?

The Search

Kaito didn't have to wait long for the day to meet Chris to search for the belongings.

"Welcome, Kuroba-kun," Chris greeted cheerfully, "Would you like something to drink?"

"No thank you, Chris-san," Kaito said, going through host and guest formalities before digging into the root problem, "I rather find Oyaji's surprise for me as soon as possible."

"Is it anticipation?" Chris mused, unbothered by the rush as she led Kaito into her house, "After our last conversation, I took the time to look through Kaa-san's belongings more throughly and to be honest, I haven't found anything they might belong to any magician let alone Toichi-san. But maybe your magician's discerning eye could find what I couldn't."

Eventually, they reached the living room where fair few boxes had been stacked around between a small table and sofas surrounding them.

Gesturing to the boxes, she said, "These were all that Kaa-san willed me, while I checked through them as I brought them here for the look through."

"Where were they from?" Kaito asked, scanning at the less than dozen boxes that gave him the impression of minimalism from Sharon if this was all the belongings she had. Then again, it was willed to a daughter she didn't like. For all he knew, some might be willed to charity for altruism or somebody else in Sharon's circle.

Unfortunately he knew that was impossible because in the interest of Sharon's belongings, he had checked who else she could have willed anything to but it had been stated clearly that Chris was the only and sole benefactor.

The more logical explanation for the surprisingly lack of belongings in Kaito's opinion was that most ended up just being money. Which actually makes more sense.

"It was in the attic, but I brought them down here just to check," Chris explained.

"Why not just leave them at the attic and let me check there? The boxes look heavy to carry from up there," Kaito pointed out, as the boxes had been full to the brim with stuff and did not seem lightweight whatsoever.

Chris smiled as she answered, "Don't worry, it's no problem. There were just things in the attic belonging to me that I didn't want anyone to see. It was easier to separate out and Kaa-san and my belongings, just so you can look what you really need to find and saving ourselves both the time and privacy with you not looking through anything of mine."

Kaito nodded, his thief instincts screaming to immediately look at the attic but suppressing them because he was a gentleman thief and would have no reason to look at other's belongings illegally unless he really need to.

However, his mind still couldn't help but wonder around the attic, not only because of thief instincts but gut feelings that have yet to fail him, feeling like Chris might be hiding something and it might be useful to him.

He would like to follow gut feelings, to be through but he also had to be careful, by not straying from the main objective this time around.

He had to look into Sharon Vineyard's possessions and if he found anything incriminating, uninvolved Chris Vineyard who, as far as he knew, was an ordinary civilian in this. He would never forgive himself if he put anyone innocent in danger.

Eventually, Kaito nodded at Chris' statement and immediately got into checking out the boxes, starting from the nearest one under Chris' watchful gaze. The first box closest to him was opened up with books full to the brim. Being through, he took out each books and scanned the titles as well as the blurbs, even flipping through the pages for what would catch his interest.

'A wide interest in different types of stories, of varying genres including non-fiction and fiction,' Kaito mused, as he was now flipping through a classic mystery before engaging with a guide on disguises. He had stopped at a particularly worn out journal and flipped towards the bookmarked page, which seemed the stopping point of written pages with half the book still in a blank state. Reading the latest entry, he understood that it was a journal about Sharon Vineyard's teachings with his Father. He started flipping through it more, intent to learn something... anything about their dynamic that would make him understand-