Chapter 11: Alex in the Locked Room

Note: Spoilers for Detective Conan ep 521-523 (vol 62-63, file 646-654).


Inspector Tazuka hadn't put him in handcuffs yet. Alex could tell the man really wanted to, but Saguru had come pelting back to the house with the other detectives and persuaded the Inspector to let them take a look at the new crime scene first. As Saguru pointed out, they were on a small island and the only boats were securely locked—there wasn't exactly anywhere Alex could escape to anyways.

The worst of it was that Alex couldn't even blame the Inspector. Things did look really bad for him. His gaze went once again to the stone cold body of Edmund Kett, lying spread-eagled in the middle of the library floor with a knife through his heart. There was blood on Alex's hands and clothes, and he had no idea how it had gotten there.

"Tell me what you remember. Every detail matters," Saguru said tersely. Conan and Heiji and Masumi were beside him, listening with the air of greyhounds on the prowl. The Inspector had gone downstairs to begin interrogating everyone else, and they were alone in the library.

"I was trying to tell everyone on this floor what happened and get them to gather on the first floor when Kett appeared in the doorway to this room and gestured me over." Alex repeated the conversation he and Kett had had as exactly as he could remember. "He said he found something and refused to go down without showing me what it was, and I thought it would be faster to just go along with him. We both came in here, and he locked and bolted the door and window. And then…" He shook his head. "Everything went black. The next thing I knew, I was waking up beside his dead body and people were screaming."

The detectives exchanged glances. "Do you know how this was discovered?" Saguru asked. Alex shook his head.

"Inspector Tazuka wanted to talk to Edmund Kett and was told that he was in the library with you," Masumi said. "He came here, and grew concerned when he found the door couldn't be opened and there was no response to his calls. He sent Marie Semple around the hallway to see if she could see anything from the hallway windows outside Ms. Suarez's rooms. According to Semple, the library windows looking out onto the tsuboniwa were latched closed, but their curtains weren't drawn, and she could see you lying on the floor next to Kett's body. She ran back and told the Inspector, and the Inspector broke down the door."

Saguru left the library, walked over to the hallway windows opposite the stairs where Marie said she'd looked from, and checked the line of sight. It was indeed possible to see both the library door and the middle part of the floor where Kett's body was found through the two sets of windows. He went downstairs, and brought up Marie Semple. "Are you absolutely certain about what you saw through the hallway window?" he asked her.

The girl bristled. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Both the door and the window here were barred?"

"Look, if you don't believe me, I took pictures," Marie said with a glare. She took out her phone and showed it to them. Displayed on the screen was a photo of the library taken from the hallway window. Kett's corpse and Alex's unconscious body on the floor could both be seen.

"May I?" Marie handed her phone over to Saguru, and everyone else looked over his shoulder as he zoomed in.

Both the bolt on the locked door and the iron bar across the window were clearly visible in the picture.


"Well?" Alex asked Saguru after they sent Marie Semple back down, not sure what he wanted. Or rather, he knew what he wanted—for Saguru to believe that he didn't do it—but the detective trusted in logic and evidence, both of which were completely against Alex.

"Well what?" The other teen returned, his expression revealing nothing.

"Do you think I killed Kett?"

Saguru raised an eyebrow. "Did you?"

"No!"

Saguru nodded. "Okay."

"Seriously? You believe me just like that?"

"Not quite 'just like that'. There are several things here that don't make sense. You don't have any motive I can think of for killing Kett, for one," Saguru said slowly. He hesitated, before adding: "And, well…quite honestly, if you really had killed him, I would have expected you to do it in a smarter way."

"Thanks. I think," Alex said. He looked over to a pensive Hattori. "And you think the same?"

"What? No." Heiji looked him up and down. "I should think that you did it. Almost everything points to you killing Kett, but…you see, I've been in a case like this before."

He glanced at Conan, who gave a brief nod back, and continued: "My…client was also accused of stabbing someone. He and the victim went together into a house, and footprints showed that no one else could have entered during that time, and in truth no one else did. He was found besides the victim's body, covered in blood and his fingerprints on the knife. And yet my client was innocent."

Alex wasn't the only one listening in fascination. "So what really happened?"

"There was someone with a deep vendetta against my client. He got plastic surgery so that the two of them looked identical, faked amnesia, and set up the stabbing so that he could frame my client for the crime."

Alex flinched. He couldn't help it—the image of Julius Grief rose in his mind, taunting him.

But Grief was dead. He remembered it, as clearly as if it had happened yesterday. A dark night in Cairo, raising the gun to the clone's head and pulling the trigger.

Of course, the others caught his reaction. "Does that remind you of something?" Saguru asked, voice soft but intent.

Grief had even been participating in a plan to frame Alex for an assassination. Not, of course, that he could say any of that. Saguru knew about his past, but the others probably didn't, and even Saguru didn't know that he had once killed someone in cold blood. And right now really didn't seem like a good time to bring it up.

"I don't think my evil clone popped up here and killed Kett to frame me, if that's what you're talking about," he said, forcing his tone into light wryness. Saguru's mouth thinned to a line at the evasion, but he didn't press for more.

Conan froze, his eyes suddenly very dark and very wide. "Let me see Marie's pictures again, Hakuba-niichan!" Once he had the phone, he pulled up a photo and zoomed in, panning from side to side. Then he started pacing around the library, clearly deep in thought.

"In any case, we need to investigate Spider's murder as well," Masumi said. "At the very least, we need to interrogate the others and search this place; maybe something will turn up which clear Alex as well."

"So you don't think I did it either?" Alex asked Masumi. "Even though you know nothing about me?"

The girl hesitated. "No, I don't think you did it," she admitted, her green eyes troubled. "It has nothing to do with what I know or don't know about you. There's something at this crime scene which is almost impossible to explain if you really had killed him."

"Wait, there is? What is it?" Alex was pretty sure this was the textbook definition of 'guilty beyond all doubt'.

Masumi glanced at Conan and Heiji. "I don't think Inspector Tazuka has picked up on it yet, but the others have."

"Well, go tell the Inspector then."

"No, don't," Conan interrupted. He had stopped walking around and was now standing in front of the library window, staring out of them.

"Why not?"

Conan didn't say anything; only turned and gave a grim look to Hattori. The Osakan's eyes went to the window, then to Kett's body on the floor, and then widened. "Oh. Oh, crap," Heiji said.

"Precisely," Conan agreed. "This needs to be handled very, very carefully. Without proof…"

Masumi looked between the boys. "I think I know why we need to keep this quiet from the Inspector until later. But I can't help feeling that there's something you guys know and I don't. That goes for you two as well," she said, turning to Alex and Saguru.

Alex gave a weak smile. "Clear my name, and I'll try to answer your questions."


"So you're still unsatisfied with Kett's murder?" Inspector Tazuka raised his thick brows. They were downstairs on the first floor, conferring by the stairs while the other guests waited nervously for their turn to be questioned. Even Alex was there, supposedly so they could keep an eye on him. "I know he's a friend of yours, Hakuba-san, but it's pretty open-and-shut. Look at the facts: Kapoor-san and Suarez-san saw him entering the library with the victim, he himself admitted that Kett locked and bolted the door and window behind them, and then he was found beside the body. We have his fingerprints on the murder weapon, and photos showing that the bolts were undisturbed. What more do you want?"

"I dunno much 'bout Alex Rider, but something's just not right with that setup in the library, Inspector," Heiji said. Masumi nodded as well. "An' I've seen too many supposedly 'airtight' cases to ignore that feelin'—at least let us keep investigatin'."

The Inspector sighed. "I just don't know why you guys are wasting time on this when there's another murder that's unsolved. This Geskel—who you say is actually an assassin called Spider, you say? — could have been killed by any of several people in this house."

"But not Alex," Saguru reminded the man. Ironically, Alex had an alibi that even the Inspector had to admit was iron clad for that particular murder—he was with at least one other person the entire night Spider was killed.

Inspector Tazuka nodded reluctantly. His brows rose again when Conan pelted down the stairs and almost ran into him. "Tazuka-keibu! Forensics and the other officers are arriving soon, right?"

"They're on their way," the Inspector confirmed, then crouched down and put firm hands on the boy's shoulders, looking concerned. "Are you sure you want to stay here, kid? Why don't you go play ball or something?"

"I've already seen both bodies, Tazuka-keibu! I find this much more interesting!" Conan chirped. The Inspector stared at the teenagers and child surrounding him, and muttered something which sounded suspiciously like 'kids these days' under his breath.


The interrogations started off slowly. Ling Gengxin stuck to his statement that he had slept like a stone through the entire night, which Yukiho and Masako Hirokawa also claimed. From there, the Inspector moved on to the two who had clearly not stayed in their beds.

"Ask her to state her movements during the night," the Inspector said, indicating Ines Suarez. Alex thought that he would probably have been much more reluctant to let the teen detectives participate in the murder investigations if he wasn't forced to rely on them to translate.

"I was sleeping at first, but the storm was too loud," Ms. Suarez answered. "It made me feel all goose-bumpy and frenetic, for some reason, and I couldn't fall asleep again. So I thought, why not continue the search for that will? I grabbed my flashlight, headed up to Mr. Delacey's old room, and poked around—unsuccessfully, I have to say. Then she—" indicating Raina— "found me and kicked me out, so I moved downstairs but then you guys found me too. And then I went back to my room."

"What time did you leave your room?"

"Around eleven, I think?"

Right around the time they were fighting Spider in the library, if she was telling the truth. That could explain how they didn't see her leave during their watch. "You didn't see anyone else during the night?" She shook her head.

Then Masumi remembered something. "Ms. Suarez, you said you saw Marie outside this morning?"

She hesitated. "I thought I did? I could have been wrong."

"When was it?"

"Right around dawn. I was watching the sunrise through my window, and I thought I saw someone near the pagoda on the other side of the island. It was far away, but whoever it was had bright blonde hair, you see." Ines gestured, her meaning clear; there was only one person among them with hair that colour.

"You were mistaken," Marie said coolly. "I was asleep until breakfast time."

"She was!" Raina piped up. "I was sharing a room with her, remember?"

"But you left to check on the commotion we made, didn't you?" Heiji reminded her. "You weren't in your room the entire night, so you couldn't be sure she was, either."

The blonde girl snorted in disbelief. "So you think I killed that man you found on the other side of the island? How did I get in and out of the house then?"

"Someone could have climbed in and out over the roof."

"Marie couldn't have done that," Raina said quickly, but her friend spoke over her:

"Thank you, Raina, but I think I'll have to show this. I don't think they'll just take my word for it." She shrugged off her jacket and rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse. The scars were there as well, running in irregular patches from neck to shoulder to down past her elbow.

"My arm's damaged. You can call the doctor who treated this if you don't believe me. He'll tell you that I can't lift anything heavier than a housecat with this hand." Her hazel eye was cold. "Satisfied?"

Now that Masumi thought about it, Marie had only used her right arm to carry the heavy breakfast tray that morning, and Raina had brought up her luggage when she arrived. Scrambling down the tower window and over a rain-slick roof would be nearly impossible with only one fully functional arm. Still, looking between the two girls, she wasn't sure if they could trust Raina's testimony when it came to Marie.

Was Ines Suarez telling the truth about what she saw that morning? And if she was, what was Marie Semple doing on the other side of the island at that time? Sunrise was at around 5:30am this morning, well after the estimated time of death for Spider. It didn't make sense.

Saguru changed the topic: "Your uncle Edmund Kett was your guardian after your parents died. Why did you run away?"

A splotch of colour rose to Marie's unscarred cheek. "He was not a very pleasant guardian. Why," she enquired. "Am I also being fitted for the role of that murderer now?"


As Inspector Tazuka finished up the questioning Heiji waved Yukiho Hirokawa over to the weapons case. "Hirokawa-san, I think something's missing from here. Can you take a look?"

She walked over, and as she studied the case Heiji studied her in turn. Demure and unobtrusive in a pale blue yukata, she was the type who competently completed all that was asked of her, then faded into the background. The perfect Japanese housewife, only her husband was no longer around.

"Yes, I believe you are correct, Hattori-san," she said in a soft voice. "There used to be a miniature speargun which is no longer here." She paled slightly. "Was that…?"

"Yes, I think that was what was used to kill Mr. Geskel." He tapped the glass. "Can you tell me more about it?"

"Masako-okāsan bought this collection a year or two after she first opened this hotel, and it's been sitting there ever since. I haven't taken a very close look at it, I'm afraid—it's always been just part of the furniture for me."

"There's nothing else missing from here?" She shook her head, and Heiji allowed her to leave.

Spider had been killed with a bolt from the speargun, while Kett had been stabbed with a knife taken from the kitchen. Had they been killed by the same person?


While the Inspector went off to look at Spider's body, the detectives began searching the house, starting with Kett's room first. Saguru made sure Alex came along with them; he had a retort ready in case any of the others complained, but no one did.

There was nothing much of note in the man's luggage—mainly clothes, but going through the wastepaper basket, Saguru found the torn remains of a sheet of paper.

"Hey, look at this." He smoothed out the scraps and tried to piece them together.

The fruit of his efforts was an incomplete message, like someone had hastily written down the first thing he had thought of, and then changed his mind.

"If you want your secret to stay safe, then give me my proper share," Heiji read from above his shoulder, and whistled. "Looks like Mr. Kett may have been tryin' ta put the squeeze on someone."

"One of his former foster siblings, or one of the Hirokawas?" A thought struck Saguru. "He wouldn't have been stupid enough to try and blackmail Spider, right?"

"No, that doesn't fit," Masumi said.

"The timing's all wrong," Alex agreed. "We've already found Spider's body by the time Kett was killed." Briefly, he wondered if this was what Kett had wanted to talk to him about, but it didn't feel right: blackmailers generally didn't try to share their information.

For what felt like the hundredth time, he tried to make sense of what had happened in the library. Someone must have knocked him out, and Kett was the only other person in the room with him, but from his observations at dinnertime their first night the man wasn't a trained fighter. Not to mention, Kett was the one who ended up dead. Even if Kett had been the one who struck him, someone else must have entered the library afterwards, killed Kett, and set the scene up to look like Alex had done it. But who? And how could they have vanished from a locked room, leaving the bolts on both the door and window in place?


Nothing else suspicious turned up in any of the guest rooms on the second floor. Frustrated, Conan and the others turned their attentions to the first floor next. Heiji and Masumi circled the area around the weapons case and kitchen, Hakuba and Alex searched through the tsuboniwa garden, and Conan padded around the rest of the floor, looking for anything that was out of place.

He almost missed it—a spot of reddish brown on the dark wood of the engawa, halfway between the genkan entrance and the stairs.

Conan stared at the smudge, and suddenly several floating pieces in his head fell into place. Oh. So that's what must have happened. But why

"We've found something!" Hakuba called out. They all rushed over, to where Alex was holding out something small and round he picked up from one of the flower pots. It took Conan a moment to recognize what he was looking at, and another to realize what it meant.

"This must have been what Kett was talking about in his blackmail letter," Alex said grimly.

"And ultimately, what he was killed for," Saguru added. "This does clear up who was responsible for Edmund Kett's death, and why Spider was here, but it still doesn't explain how Spider was murdered."

"I think I've found something that can illuminate that," Conan said, and led them to the stain he found on the engawa.

Heiji and the others leaned down, squinting—it really was difficult to see, if you didn't know it was already there. "That's dried blood, what's it doing…ohh."

He watched comprehension spread across Heiji, Masumi and Saguru's faces, as they followed the same chain of logic he did.

"Well, this explains a lot," Masumi said, slowly blinking.. "That bucket, for one."

"I think we have almost everything now," Heiji said, eyes glinting. "We'll need to search this floor and the attic and the roof again. The last pieces of proof should be there."

Alex looked between their faces. "Why is it that you detectives all love to make cryptic remarks instead of just explaining what you guys found?"

Conan grinned. "And take all the fun out of it?"

"We haven't figured out everything, just the general shape of it all," Saguru said, frowning. "Though now that the cell service is back, there is something we can confirm right now."


Saguru dialed Mrs. Scialdone. After explaining the general situation and reassuring her that both the inheritance and murder cases were nearly solved, he put her on speaker and asked: "There are just a few things I would like to know from you. First of all, how much are you paying per person for us to stay here at Kashikijima?"

Mrs. Scialdone quoted a sum equal to about the expected price of a local five star hotel, sounding puzzled. "Are you thinking of extending your stay?"

"Not exactly. Secondly and more relevant to your interests, have you been managing this fund for Mr. Delacey for a long time?"

"I took over the account around fifteen years ago."

Saguru did the math. "So that would have been a few years after Mr. Ling and Ms. Suarez left the household. Do you know if Mr. Delacey made any changes to his instructions for the trust then or afterwards?"

She was silent for a moment. "Yes, he did. He updated the instructions for the trust after Mr. Ling and Ms. Suarez left, and again about six years ago."

After Elena Semple's death. Saguru closed his eyes.

"Do you know what the previous versions were?" A short silence. "Mrs. Scialdone, I know this is highly irregular, but this information can help us catch a murderer."

"…I only know that in the first version, the fund was to be split equally between the four adoptees. After that he started sealing his instructions."

"Thank you, that's very helpful." He hung up after making polite farewells. "I think that pretty much settles it."

"Yes," Conan said slowly, choosing his words carefully. "But we'll have another problem soon. Tazuka-keibu should be back from his inspection of Spider's body any time now. He'll probably want to move Alex to the police station on the mainland, which would be…counterproductive."

"Things would be resolved a lot faster if Alex stayed on the island with us tonight," Heiji agreed. "He's a good fighter, which we might need."

Saguru frowned. "So you want to persuade the Inspector to let him stay? That's going to be difficult."

Conan's voice was all innocence. "He can't disagree if Alex is no longer in his custody."

"We can't make Alex a fugitive from justice!" Saguru exclaimed. "If we just explained to the police—"

Heiji snorted. "He's about to be arrested for murder. Tazuka won't let him stay on the island to help us tonight, and you know it." Masumi nodded in agreement.

Conan gave a contemplative look at Alex. "Alex, how do you feel about going on the lam for a while?"

"I'm still not exactly sure why you guys can't just tell the police that I didn't kill Kett," Alex grumbled. "But yeah, I'm up for it."

Saguru groaned. He didn't expect Conan of all people to be such a bad influence…

"All in good time, Alex-kun!" The boy's eyes gleamed bright. "So, this is what we're going to do…"


A/N: Thanks for reading and for all the comments and reviews! The detectives are definitely keeping things close to the chest, but a big part of what's going on will be explained in the next chapter.