Conan was already regretting taking a page out of Hattori's book and going about his little investigation in such a straightforward manner. It looked like the mystery that was Danny Fenton was going to be involved in his bigger mission after all. His words echoed in his head over and over and over: "Who are you working for?"

That had...several troubling implications. He had assumed Gin had come to Amity Park to hide behind the whole "ghost attack" business, but maybe there was more. With the exception of Vermouth and Gin, all of the previous Organization members had been arrested and detained, but that was based off of the records Conan had obtained before the takedown. It was not outside the realm of possibility for there to be unlisted members. Unlikely, but certainly worth looking into.

Conan's blood ran cold. If that was the case, then perhaps Gin came less for a low profile and more to rebuild a new branch of the Organization in America. He refused to let them rise back up, even if it killed him.

On his way out of Danny's room, he turned his phone over in his hand, lost in thought. A thousand theories, none of which had a happy ending, flooded his mind. If Conan had learned anything in the past eight years, it was that one could never be too careful, even if it turned out to be a false lead.

Pulling his hood up as he stepped outside into the cold winter breeze, he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Jodie's number.

A click. "Seems awfully quick for you to hear anything."

"Could you come meet me at my apartment? It's less about that and more about something else," Conan replied, keeping a vigilant eye around him as he walked.

She seemed to pick up on the urgency in his tone. "All right, be there in a few. Should I bring anything with me?"

"Member records if you can. Thanks, Jodie-san."

Well, if you think there's a problem, there usually is. On my way."

Twenty minutes later, Conan arrived to find Jodie waiting at the front door, a manila envelope tucked under her arm. He silently let her in and parked himself in the reclining chair opposite the couch Jodie had chosen to sit on.

"I think you will be interested to know that a student at Casper High asked me who I was working for when I, uh...well, I might have provoked him a little," Conan looked up and lightly scratched his cheek before clearing his throat. "Either way, he tried to deny it, and I think there's a possible connection to why Gin came here in the first place. Can I see the records please?"

With an 'mm-hm,' Jodie opened the envelope and placed the stack of papers on the coffee table between them.

Conan scanned them, but no sign of any members still on the run other than Vermouth and Gin. His brow creased with worry as he looked back up at Jodie. "Is there any chance that there were Organization members not in this list? Maybe someone only Ano Kata knew about?"

Jodie's frown deepened. "Are you saying that you think Gin is trying to rebuild here?"

"It's a possibility we shouldn't ignore," Conan said as he leaned forward and rested his chin on the back of his interlocked hands. "It might be a red herring, based on such little evidence, but the Organization's reach went so far only four years ago; why take chances? Even if this turns out to be a dead end regarding Gin, it still makes me wonder if something else is going on here, ghost hoax aside. Fourteen is too young to be asking 'who are you working for' when you feel crowded."

"I agree," Jodie started, "but only because this may involve a new branch of the Organization." She slammed her fist on the table. "We did not work tirelessly for years and years just for them to keep to the shadows and start again. I will talk to Black-san and see if we can't increase surveillance without letting on that we know Gin is here. You keep investigating, and do not let go of that lead on that classmate of yours, but I know you, so don't go overboard, all right?"

Conan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm perfectly aware that my primary objective is finding and detaining Gin himself. I have no intention of losing sight of that. All I'm saying is that extreme caution let us break up the Organization in the first place. Extreme caution has kept me alive for eight years. It's just that I'm not reckless enough to follow through with everything on my own anymore."

Jodie took the member list and carefully put it back into the envelope. "Okay, fair enough. I'll take this info back to the FBI and let you know. See you later, Kudo-san. Let me know if anything else comes up."

Conan nodded and watched her let herself out. He glanced at his unfinished homework with disdain, opting instead to pick up his copy of The Sign of Four and leaf through the worn pages, his mind far away from Sherlock Holmes for once. What to do, what to do?

He had not signed up to have both Gin and the safety of a fourteen-year-old child on his plate at the same time. He had to keep a low profile, but if there really was a budding branch of the Black Organization, he could hardly sit by and watch this poor kid get hunted for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Well, Conan wasn't a detective for nothing. He obviously needed to find out more on this Fenton kid before making another move. He might...he might have been a tad hasty in seeing what was up. Maybe a little. He just hoped he hadn't put Fenton in danger by confronting him so soon.

What he needed to do was try to get close, gain his trust. Which was, unfortunately, much harder now than it would have been earlier that day. Well, whatever. Conan didn't make a habit of letting anything stop him in an investigation. Especially not if Fenton's safety was on the line.

Resolving to try to be a little less imposing from then on, Conan strode over to the room he'd chosen for his home office and unlocked the door, seating himself at the large desktop computer in the corner of the room as he opened the police database (an endlessly useful perk to being an honorary FBI member). He punched in the keywords DANIEL FENTON.

His records didn't indicate anything out of the ordinary. He'd never been convicted of anything, not that Conan would expect that. His family members had a connection maybe?

Many, many speeding tickets and a reckless driving charge for Jack Fenton, but that was the extent of it. So there was no visible connection to the Organization or whatever else was going on. His initial theory about witnessing something was probably at least halfway close to the truth. He could work with that. He'd worked with worse leads before.

Conan just knew that he had to stop whatever the hell was going down in Amity Park and he needed to do it before it blew up. He grabbed his discarded jacket and keys off the couch before heading out the door to do a quick scout for Organization activity. Just in case. Old paranoia was coming back in droves, and Conan couldn't—wouldn't—rest until he made sure. He'd survived through so much, and he wasn't about to let anyone take anything away from him now.