0 Detective Conan Episode 687: The Unsolvable Ice Trap

Episode 687: The Unsolvable Ice Trap

Scenario: Professor Agasa take the Detective Boys to visit an ice village. The mayor and his secretary boast about cancelling the winter festival to build a resort to bring in more income. The group stays overnight in the ice hotel. The next morning, the mayor staying in another part of the ice hotel is found strangulated in his bed. Professor Agasa reveals the culprit to be the ice sculptor using an ice melting trick to murder the mayor without leaving any evidence behind. The sculptor explains that he overheard the mayor and his secretary talk about murdering the previous mayor who suspected their embezzling the city's finances.

At the Ice Festival in Yamakawa Village, Conan, Haibara, Professor Agasa, and the Detective Boys are having a great time together. While in the festival, they meet the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ice Festival named Mika Itakura. Her father, the former village head, was Agasa's old friend but unfortunately, he died in a car accident last year. While the detective boys and the others are walking together, they meet the ice engraver named Tetsuya Shiota who made an awesome ice sculptures. The Detective Boys are really impressed at him when he built an ice sculpture of a bear while using a chain saw. The people in the village also made an awesome work of the ice festival. Until sudden, the village head named Tarou Yamaguchi and the secretary named Kazuyuki Ogi appear and they both say that they are going to remove the ice sculptures so the hotels are going to be built soon. Yamaguchi has already signed the contract which make Mika and Shiota disappointed. Suddenly, the main gate collapses which makes Yamaguchi decide to cancel the festival but Mika and Shiota along with the other villagers insist on rebuilding it.

Later at night, Shiota and Mika are taking the group to the Ice Hotel so they could sleep. In order to liven the festival up, Shiota suggested the idea of building the Ice Hotel. The village does have financial difficulties. Therefore, the chief is trying to attract people to Resort Toto. However, the village still can't attract much attention. The ice hotel they made then caught the eye of the chief. He negotiated and it shows an interest beyond. The ice hotel is made for the festival, but it’s been reversed now, so they’re forced to close it down. When they arrive, they see the beautiful view of the ice hotel. While walking around it, they witness Ogi being kicked out by Yamaguchi while he’s telling his secretary that he’s useless. He then throws the papers at him and closes the door. Ogi picks up the papers and flees after insulting the village head and noticing the others looking at him.

Inside the ice cabin, the Detective Boys are enjoying lying down on the fluffy beds. Mika wishes them good night and closes the door. At 4:06 AM, Mitsuhiko comes out of the restroom and sees something that scares him. He goes back into the ice cabin trembling about what he saw.

The next morning, when Ogi come inside Yamaguchi's ice house, he screams and Yamaguchi is found dead with strangle marks on his throat. Conan tells Haibara to call the police immediately.

Ogi finds the corpse in a sleeping bag with strangle marks on his throat. The police arrive at the Ice Hotel and investigate the crime scene. The police inspector from Niigata Prefecture, Akira Haraguchi, confirms that the cause of death was the suffocation by the compression of the airway. The estimated time of death is around 2 AM. Since the strangulation is not at the back of the neck, the culprit imposed a fine string-like weapon on the top of the sleeping bag which was burned around the neck.

Afterwards, Inspector Haraguchi is questioning Mika. She was at the festival repairing the main gate with Shiota, who left the workplace at 12 and 4 AM, each for 10 minutes. Conan mentions that it seems like the entrance to the Yamaguchi’s ice house needs a key and wonders how the culprit would even get in. Haraguchi suggests that there can be many key duplicates, but Mika confirms that Ogi is the only one with duplicates. He then nervously claims that he is responsible for waking Yamaguchi up in the morning. Ogi actually doesn't have an alibi, as he was working alone on some documents at his office during the time of the crime.

While Conan walks alone at the side of the big ice house, he notices a small hole. He looks through it and sees two crime scene investigators working around the bed. The Detective Boys run to Conan but Ayumi accidentally slips. The reason why the ice floor is slippery is because ice melts when pressure is applied. While Conan is explaining that fact, an idea occurs to him. Mitsuhiko comes and adds that he saw the chief's ghost last night, which makes Conan finally figures out who the culprit is after hearing Mitsuhiko’s strange testimony.