Meitantei
Chapter 6: Investigating
At 7:15am the next day, Shinichi sat by his computer with an array of diagrams, arrows, and sketches littering the desktop before him. He'd had little sleep the night before, but his mind was alert and humming with the workings of the case. The only problem was that the place he wanted to go didn't allow visitors until after 9:00am.
Yesterday evening Shinichi had organized the information he had obtained and had already gone over it multiple times. He'd even dedicated quite a bit of his evening to revisiting the taped conversation he'd had the day before with Kuroba-kun in meticulous detail to see if there was a code or hint that Kid had thrown in. Sadly, there were no coded messages that he could discern, but thankfully he had multiple leads as to where to start looking when he headed to the bird sanctuary today.
With any luck, he would obtain a copy of the video of the crime from Satou-keiji before he left his house to begin doing legwork for the case.
The information Shinichi had acquired from Kisaki-san, Kuroba-kun, and from his contacts at police headquarters laid out the information as thus:
Victim: Motoyama Kenji – 58 years of age. Owner of a bird sanctuary and bird facility known for breeding and selling birds. Died due to a "prank gone wrong." Idly Shinichi wondered who had written that down for cause of death.
Current suspect: Kuroba Kaito – 19 years of age. Known for pulling pranks and tricks. Arrested for malicious intent when a "prank" resulted in Motoyama-san's death and due to being found with a stolen jewel in his possession. Kuroba-kun said that there was no prank.
Suspicious person one: Motoyama Reiko – 23 years of age. Niece of Motoyama-san; inheritor of the Motoyama Bird Sanctuary. Present at the bird sanctuary at the time of her uncle's death as well as during the only time Kuroba-kun handled the jewel. Has an alibi during the incident.
Suspicious person two: Nakahara Tsutomo – 30 years of age. Amateur ornithologist and falconer employed by Motoyama-san. He was present at the time of Motoyama-san's death. His video recording is what resulted in proof of his location during the time of his employer's death. He was also present at the only time Kuroba-kun handled the jewel.
Suspicious person three: Akutagawa Kyoko – 21 years of age. Housemaid to Motoyama-san. She was present at the time when Kuroba-kun handled the jewel and was the last person to have seen Kuroba-kun before the murder. Also has an alibi during the incident.
Suspicious person four: Ueda Yoshio – 42 years of age. Butler and responsible for cleaning the jewel the morning of Kuroba-kun's arrival. Also present during the time that Kuroba-kun handled the jewel and likewise supposedly has an alibi during the time of the incident.
With the possible suspects in line, Shinichi did a little research about the facility. Since there were no gaming birds or falcons present, the place was more like a glorified bird shop than a real bird sanctuary as most of the people who went there did so to purchase the birds rather than to watch the birds.
There were several pictures online of the inside, and he made notes of the entrances and different areas.
As he was making notes on the scene, he received an e-mail notifying him that he'd received the video he'd requested from police headquarters from Satou-keiji along with a message saying he was invited out to a hastily arranged karaoke party with them at 9:00pm. With his oh-so-lovely singing voice, most people avoided inviting him to karaoke outings, but Satou-keiji tended to invite him nonetheless. Usually they gave him a little more warning, but it had said it was hastily arranged. For a moment, Shinichi re-read the e-mail. While on first glance, it was not unusual for Satou-keiji to invite him to police gatherings, the fact that she would do so in the same message as her response to his request for information was telling. Apparently she had really wanted to make sure he read it by including it with case details.
The other telling thing was that it was before 8:00am in the morning, the karaoke outing wasn't until 9:00pm, but Satou-keiji was referring to it as "hastily" arranged.
His detective instincts were telling him something was off, but he decided he would dwell on it later as his mind was currently focused on the case at hand.
Usually he read the newspaper or watched multiple news broadcasts in the evening and/or morning. Due to this case, he hadn't disentangled himself from it long enough to indulge some of his usual habits. If he had, he'd understand the intent behind Satou-keiji's invite.
Disregarding the invite for the moment, he focused his attention on the video. Shinichi clicked the video attachment, ready for new clues.
The video started with Motoyama-san asking for clarification that it was recording. Nakahara-san was more than happy to say that it was. The two men were standing in front of a door which Motoyama-san opened. Chirping birds made their presence known as soon as the door swung open. The two walked into what was clearly an antechamber meant to prevent birds from flying into the rest of the house. Shinichi could see the bird sanctuary through the caged area around the antechamber – almost like a scene from nature transported inside a large enclosure, trees and flowers painted along the walls with wide skylights to let in natural lighting.
However, the room – or rather, the caged area that connected the house to the bird sanctuary – was about three meters deep with a bright yellow painted caging. The door leading from the landing was also made of the same caging. Through the small holes, Shinichi could see the birds as they flew around freely amongst the area kept for them. There were two entrances to the bird sanctuary. According to the website, the one closest to the side room where all the caged birds were kept was only for invited guests as it led into Motoyama-san's house. At the time of the suspected murder, the main entrance had been locked. The room where Kuroba-kun had been in during the time of Motoyama-san's death was close to this door on the upper landing, meaning that if they had come in from this entrance, the heavy shut of the door should have alerted Kuroba-kun to their arrival.
The room in question wasn't caught on the recording, but Kuroba-kun had told him that off to the left side of the landing the room housed the birds that were being moved and/or ready for people to buy. Kuroba-kun had been in there the entire time but hadn't realized that anything was going wrong outside let alone that there were others nearby. Even on the recording, the bang of the door opening and closing was extremely loud. How could Kuroba-kun have not heard it?
Motoyama-san cocked his head to the left looking toward the door before gesturing Nakahara-san to move on down the steps on his own.
"Nakahara-san, why don't you go down first? I just wanted to check something I thought I heard in the cages room. Start recording the area from the steps down."
If Motoyama-san had actually gone into the cages room, he would have run into Kuroba-kun. This directly countered Kuroba-kun's statement.
Nakahara-san walked down the steps and began taking recordings of the area as requested. From what Shinichi could tell Motoyama-san had closed the cage door but not locked it. Clearly he was not concerned with leaving the door unattended as he was just going into a room close by. Even so, Shinichi would make sure to get a closer look at the entire area once he visited the location.
There was some sort of incoherent exclamation on the video before Motoyama-san could clearly be heard yelling, "Whatever prank you're pulling, this isn't funny. Take whatever you want!" Nakahara-san hadn't immediately turned around and recorded Motoyama-san. However, Nakahara-san's voice was clearly heard yelling Motoyama-san's name in concern.
The video camera whipped around, and the next thing Shinichi saw was Motoyama-san backing up toward the caged door. The dark lighting from the room, poor video quality, and the bright, natural lighting beaming down on top of Nakahara-san made it nearly impossible to see if anyone else was in the caged area, let alone to make out who the person was. The only person Shinichi could see through the yellow bars was Motoyama-san.
As Motoyama-san hadn't latched the door properly, it swung open as he backed up into it. He looked over his shoulder in utter terror as he stumbled backward. With his unexpected momentum, he didn't seem to be able to stop himself as he stumbled, hit the railing, and tumbled backward, falling to the ground below. His body was not immediately visible as there were shrubbery and trees blocking the view. The thud from the body, however, must have upset the birds in the area as a smattering of different birds squawked and hollered as they flew off and away.
"Motoyama-san!" Nakahara-san cried as he dropped the camera. As it hit the floor the video feed cut.
Shinichi frowned. It was unfortunate that the video was cut there, but it was pretty obvious that Nakahara-san had been using a flip camera phone to do the recording which must have shut upon hitting the ground.
From the reports, it appeared that Nakahara-san had checked Motoyama-san immediately afterward. He landed on concrete and did not survive the fall.
Nakahara-san had called the police right after checking for Motoyama-san's vitals. He waited in the bird sanctuary area for the police to arrive. When Nakahara-san went up the steps, the only person nearby was Kuroba Kaito who was in the room adjacent to the yellow caged area. According to Kuroba-kun, he was completely oblivious to what was going on. Kuroba-kun said the only suspicious noise he'd heard were a number of the birds chirping loudly all of a sudden. However, since there were so many birds, he hadn't checked to see what was going on as he had been in the middle of tending to an injured bird.
Only a few minutes later, the police came in. When Nakahara-san said that Motoyama-san had said, "Take whatever you want," the police checked Kuroba-kun and the bag he had. In Kuroba-kun's bag was Motoyama-san's family jewel. Kuroba-kun insisted again that he was in the cages room the entire time and did not hear anything. He also insisted that he hadn't pushed Motoyama-san nor had he frightened him. But as Nakahara-san had clearly not pushed or frightened Motoyama-san, and since Kuroba-kun was the only one in the area, it seemed that Kuroba-kun had to be the culprit, especially since he had the jewel.
Shinichi read through the reports detailing that everyone had an alibi for the time of Motoyama-san's death except for Kuroba-kun, which would usually mean the only person to not have an alibi was the culprit responsible for causing Motoyama-san to fall to his death. Not to mention that the person responsible for cleaning the jewel had done so just that morning, literally less than a half hour before Motoyama-san's death, leaving a very limited timeframe for when the jewel could have been stolen. Again, the only person with no alibi for the entire time was Kuroba-kun whose fingerprints happened to be on the jewel. However, as his bag had been in the cages room inside of the room where Kaito had been tending the injured bird, it left a very small opportunity for someone else to have put the jewel in his bag since Kaito had never heard anyone come into the room.
It was a frustrating puzzle. There were things that seemed to have openings, but Shinichi needed to find the right pieces to put together.
Shinichi was fairly certain he understood the trick for getting Kuroba Kaito's fingerprints on the jewel and then to put the jewel in his bag, but there was no way to prove the trick or to link it to any single person…yet.
After looking at the video, Shinichi made a few notes and decided it was finally time to head out to the Motoyama bird sanctuary where the incident took place.
The Motoyama Bird Sanctuary was more like an old mansion than what Shinichi would think of as a "bird sanctuary." For a moment, Shinichi wondered if he should pretend to be interested in merely visiting the bird sanctum, or if he should openly announce his intentions to look into the case. However, the decision was made for him when the housekeeper recognized him as the famous Meitantei Kudou Shinichi. Upon arriving, after he explained his purpose, he was welcomed into the estate portion of the property by the housekeeper and asked to wait in the foyer for Motoyama Reiko.
Motoyama Reiko was the niece of the deceased and the person who had inherited the bird sanctuary. The door to the estate portion of the property and the door to the main entrance of the sanctuary were next to each other. The housekeeper was likely responsible for answering both doors. While she was away fetching the current owner, Shinichi used the time to study the foyer that he had been led to.
The doors outside were separated by about a meter of wall space, but inside, there was a door that led between the two areas. Shinichi wondered if it would take him immediately into the sanctuary, or if there was another foyer area on the other side.
Mounted near the entrances were what appeared to be regular bird houses, but were more likely stealthily hidden security cameras. He'd noticed these as he walked by. As the police report had stated there had been no one who had entered from the outside, Shinichi deduced that there had to be some sort of surveillance on the outside of the house. Since the cameras caught the only entrances to the house, it was likely that this was an inside crime. On the inside of the house, he saw no cameras. It meant that the police had already viewed the footage to see if someone from the outside had been in or near the area at the time of the murder.
But something nagged at Shinichi. Motoyama-san had seemed shocked, like he didn't expect the person to be in the bird area. He wouldn't have greeted someone who he knew in such a strange manner. You wouldn't say, "Take whatever you want!" to someone you knew. You would talk with them first, try and figure out what was wrong before jumping to that conclusion. If the person had been wearing a mask, however, then it could startle Motoyama-san, resulting in that type of reaction. Yet the police had not found a mask in Kaito's possession.
Shinichi scratched his chin thoughtfully.
"I'm honored to meet such a great detective!" a tall woman with short, auburn-dyed haired called out to him, walking toward him at an extremely brisk pace. The much shorter housekeeper all but jogged to keep up. Out of breath, she ran ahead of her employer, trying to keep up with traditional duties and formalities.
"Kudou-sama, this is Motoyama Reiko-dono," the housekeeper introduced, rather unnecessarily.
"I'm guessing you're not here to visit the birds," Motoyama-dono deduced.
"If you're free, I would like to ask you a few questions about the night your uncle died, Motoyama-dono."
"Please, call me Reiko-san, Kudou-kun," she smiled at him warmly.
"Reiko-san, then."
"I'm so excited to hear that you're here to investigate my uncle's death," Reiko-san simpered at him. "I'm a big fan of all your work. I must say, though, now that I see you in person, I can't help but think you look a lot like Kaito-kun. Are you related?"
"No. But even if we were, I would still be investigating the truth of what happened. That is to say, I will not completely wipe anyone from my suspects list until I have all the facts. That means that I will be investigating from scratch, and, as I mentioned, I would like to ask you a few questions."
"You mean you suspect me? Hmm, I suppose I should thank you." This surprised Shinichi. Most people became extremely indignant when they were suspects. "I did not kill my uncle, and I am sure that with your deductions you will see that. I do, however, want to make sure that the person responsible is behind bars. I really don't want to believe it was Kaito-kun, but quite frankly, I don't want it to be anyone else in the household either. I hope you find that the whole thing was just an accident. However, if you are investigating from scratch, and with your reputation, then I will be more than happy to help with anything I can. Why don't we go somewhere where we can talk more comfortably?" She turned her attentions briefly to the woman standing behind her. "Kyoko-chan? Please bring us some tea in the dining room."
Reiko-san gave him a rather flirtatious smile as she took him on a brief tour of the Motoyama estate – which she had moved into after her uncle passed away. She definitely didn't seem to be at all upset that he suspected her. She had even said that she was a fan of his work. It either meant that she was the murderer and completely confident that she wouldn't be found out, or she was sincerely a fan and expected him to solve the mystery as he had done countless of times before.
As they walked through the lavishly decorated home, Reiko-san gave small tidbits of family history. While they passed by photos, Shinichi took note that most of the pictures were of Reiko-san's uncle. In each one, he wore the same blazer. Shinichi asked about it, and Reiko-san happily explained that her uncle had received it from Wetlands International for his help in preventing construction in a wetland area up in Hokkaido with the Wild Bird Society of Japan. His efforts to preserve the birds' natural habitat had earned him the jacket. She continued to talk as they entered the dining room, chatting about how much her uncle had loved to travel, explaining how he had a home in Hokkaido as well. Her talk turned briefly to her uncle's love of skiing, before turning back to explaining what had happened the day her uncle died. Shinichi noted that, despite his age, he was still quite athletic. By this time, she had led him into an ostentatiously designed dining room.
Shinichi eyed the décor warily. The seats were designed like birds. The arms of the wooden chairs were intricately crafted to look like wings of birds in various positions of flight. The base of the table was also wooden, but two thick pieces of glass covered the top. Birdseed, or what at least looked like bird seed, sat sandwiched between the two layers of glass. With the birdlike chairs and the birdseed like table, Shinichi felt like he was a bird sitting at a bird feeder.
"For the most part, we were all located in this room during the time of my uncle's death. You said that you would be investigating this as a murder. Does that mean you don't believe it was an accident?" Reiko-san asked.
"From the information I have acquired so far, it does not seem that way."
"But then doesn't that mean it has to be Kaito-kun?" Reiko-san looked rather crestfallen at this train of thought. It was the first time she hadn't been smiling since Shinichi had met the woman. "He was the only one in the room near where my uncle died. I'm not sure if you've seen the video, but he doesn't appear to have been pushed, but someone was definitely threatening him. The forensics team found no slippery substances on the top of the step or on my uncle's shoes, so he was definitely backing away and slipped due to fear." At these points, Shinichi took out his notebook and wrote them all down. "It seems to me that he slipped and fell because he got scared. Not to mention Kaito-kun was found with our family jewel in his things in that room. How else would he have gotten it?"
"There are some rather suspicious points mixed in amongst all the details. At cursory glance, it does appear that it has to be Kuroba-kun." Of course, he couldn't explain all of his suspicions, not yet. The case seemed like it should have been obvious: Kuroba Kaito had to be the culprit. Yet if they knew that Kuroba Kaito and Kaitou Kid were one in the same, they would know that he wouldn't have planned anything this sloppy. "The biggest suspicion hinting that Kuroba-kun is not the culprit is in fact that Kuroba-kun's prints are ON the jewel. If the jewel was indeed cleaned that day, and he really did intend to steal it, as no other fingerprints were found on the door to where the jewel was kept, and no evidence shows a forced break-in, this means his entry would have to have been done expertly. It seems unlikely that he would have broken in using gloves yet not have had gloves while handling the gem, nor would he have allowed the police to search his things on the off chance he had handled the jewel without gloves."
"You think someone planted the jewel amongst his things?"
"Exactly. At first glance, it seems like your uncle's fall was an accident. You said yourself that he fell because he was scared. However, if that was the case, why did Kuroba-kun have the jewel with his prints? If he were intending to steal something, after your uncle's fall, he would have tried to hide the jewel and wiped his prints. When I spoke with Kuroba-kun, he said that the only time he touched the jewel was a few weeks before your uncle's death. If that was the case, it meant that someone had to have premeditated that they would plant the jewel."
"Interesting. The other day I spoke with another detective, Hakuba Saguru. He believed that my uncle's death was an accident, and that the theft was likely from someone else. In fact, he was supposed to come by yesterday, but he never showed."
Shinichi raised his eyebrow at this information. Apparently Hakuba-san had come to the same conclusion that Shinichi had. Idly he wondered if Hakuba-san had merely been taunting Kuroba-kun when he had told Kid that the theft charge would stick since he would find something to prove that Kuroba-kun to be Kaitou Kid.
"It's unlike Hakuba-kun not to show up when he says he will. Perhaps you misheard the day he intended to arrive. Maybe he meant today," Shinichi offered, though felt a bit of unease even as he said it. It had to have been Reiko-san's mistake. Hakuba-san was anal retentive when it came to being on time.
"Perhaps. Still, you're both saying that Kaito-kun's innocent, so perhaps it's true."
"What Kuroba-kun says makes more sense. Nonetheless, I will be investigating from all angles."
"Assuming Kaito-kun is telling the truth."
"Yes, assuming he is telling the truth. Which, from your expression, you truly hope he is since you don't want him to be your uncle's killer, even if you don't want it to be someone else. Please tell me in detail what you remember about the evening your uncle showed Kuroba-kun the jewel."
"Hmm, it was nearly two months ago now, though probably only about a week or two before my uncle died. I can't believe how long it's been already since his death." She paused for a moment of reflection before continuing. "Kaito-kun is one of the magicians who my uncle supplies doves and several other birds to. Kaito-kun's father used to also get his doves from my uncle. The day Kaito-kun first looked at the jewel he had come over with the intention of purchasing two birds since two of his doves had died, and he was looking for replacements. My uncle used to be an entertainer in a circus, and so he always loved it when magicians came to visit and used to ask them to perform tricks for him. Quite frankly, my uncle has always liked to try and outwit the magicians when he can. If I'm not mistaken, my uncle met Kaito-kun's father at a venue where they were both performing, and he even helped perform in a few shows with Kaito-kun's father. Ah, sorry. I didn't mean to get side tracked."
"No, no. Any detail can be relevant," Shinichi said, noting down that Motoyama-san himself liked to try and outwit magicians.
"Ah, yes. Anyway, Kaito-kun had come over in the evening to look at the birds, but hadn't actually purchased any. My uncle had asked him to stay, and Kaito-kun ended up performing a mini magic show outside. It was beautiful – the moon shining brilliantly, a lovely fire going, and laughs all around because of the magic tricks Kaito-kun was performing. It was such a wonderful night! Everyone seemed to be having such a good time."
Shinichi watched as she paused, her content smile of nostalgia remembering a pleasant evening ruined, her features contorting to ones of distress as the reality of never having one like it again. Such emotionally raw feelings were telling.
"I forget how we got on the topic, but I think Kyoko-chan may have made some sort of reference to Kaitou Kid and magicians. They began saying that if Kaito-kun wanted to be such an amazing magician, he needed a jewel in order to rival Kaitou Kid." Shinichi smiled inwardly at the irony. "My uncle told Nakahara-san to bring out our family heirloom, the jewel that was found among Kaito-kun's things. I don't remember what all was said, but Kaito-kun said something along the lines of, 'This gem definitely does look worth stealing,' and a bunch of other things, but I thought he was just joking."
"It didn't strike you as odd for your uncle to bring out a jewel and look at it at random?" Shinichi asked.
"Oh my, no! He showed it to many people. There were lots of people who he would love to show the jewel to over and over again. Even if they had seen it once, my uncle would show it to them multiple times. Kyoko-chan, Nakahara-san, Ueda-san, and myself were all quite exasperated with my uncle's obsession with showing it off."
"Did Kuroba-kun seem interested in the jewel after that? Did he mention it again?"
"No. Actually, in fact, after he held it up to the moonlight, he merely smiled kind of sadly and gave it back."
"That struck you as odd, his smile?"
"Yes. He looked like he was disappointed when he held it up to the moon, as though he wanted something to happen. I thought that perhaps he had tried to perform a magic trick that didn't turn out right, but maybe it was because he wanted it."
Shinichi filed the information away. He'd seen Kaitou Kid hold up gems to the moon multiple times, but he'd never seen his face when he'd done it. Shinichi had assumed that Kid was just checking the jewel over. Just the other day Shinichi himself had held one of Kid's targeted gems up to the moonlight. Thinking back on it, the assistant's face seemed rather apprehensive then disappointed when he'd done so. Was Kid looking for a jewel that reacted to moonlight? If that was the case, then if the jewel hadn't reacted, it would mean that Kid wouldn't be interested in it. Of course, it wasn't as though Shinichi could say, "Kuroba-kun didn't steal the jewel because he already knew it wasn't the gem he really wanted to steal."
One thing was for sure, Shinichi was definitely interested in questioning Kuroba-kun again along those same lines.
Continued in Chapter 7: Hits and Misses…
I know some people go by the rule that the moon has to be full to check the jewel, but I've checked – thanks to those who responded to my inquries – and it's not mentioned specifically in the mangathat it has to be a full moon when Kaito is checking the jewel. However, I have seen places on Wikipedia and even on gogoanime that say that Kaitou Kid checks the gems against a full moon. This information is contradictory to what actually happens in the manga since the moon is not always full. The reference to it having to be a full moon seems to come from Suzuki Jirokichi's observation during one heist where he notes that Kaitou Kid usually flies off toward a full moon – for effect. While initially I mistook this as being the only time Kid could check the jewel, please note, it never states it implicitly in the Magic Kaito or Detective Conan manga, though it is expressed (apparently inaccurately) on various websites. Since one of the two most recent Kaitou Kid episodes has Kid checking the jewel against a non-full moon and the most recent Detective Conan manga has Kid checking the jewel up against a crescent moon, I'm going with it just has to be moonlight.
The fact that it has to be moonlight and not sunlight is very intriguing. Hoping to bring in the difference between light refraction from the moon versus the sun's rays later on in this story.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ~ Jelp