Episode 727: The Treasure Chest Filled With Fruits (Part 1)
Scenario: A murdered man found dead in the chest of fruits.
One night at Mouri Detective Agency, while Kogoro is reading about horse racing on a newspaper, Ran, Sonoko, and Conan are watching "Which Sweets Show", a television program where two chefs compete to see who makes better sweets. Today, the defending champion, Shuuhei Kurimura, wins again, making him the winner for six weeks in a row. Thanks to Sonoko's father's connections, Ran, Sonoko, and Conan can watch the preview from the show's gallery next week. Sonoko, who needs to invite five people, baits Kogoro, who she needs to escort them, to come as well, by stating Yoko Okino will be one of the judges for next week's program. She is stuck on the last person to invite, and Ran's mother, Eri, cannot come because she has work.
The next day after school, Ran, Sonoko, and Conan ask Masumi if she wants to come to watch the program. In reality, Conan wants to invite her because he has something to ask her. As they talk about the TV show on their way home, Conan tells the girls he thinks Shuuhei is suspicious, since the champion always brought ingredients that suited the fruits chosen for the show. However, Ran and Sonoko tell him there is no way that pâtissier can cheat since the chest is always locked up before the show starts. Only the expert who packs the fruits in knows what is inside, so the TV staff has no chance to peek into it.
On the night before the show, Shoutoku Takeki arrives at Terafumi Kasuga's house. Terafumi tells Shoutoku the he already filled the chest up with the fruits that are to be used tomorrow. Shoutoku inspects the lock on the chest, is convinced it is secure, and made sure no one saw Terafumi fill the chest. At Nichiuri TV studio, the chest has arrived, so Toshihide Taruoka tells Wataru Furuya to lock that chest up and send it back to Shoutoku.
The day of the "Which Sweets Show" has arrived. Ran, Sonoko, Conan, Kogoro, and Masumi are already seated when suddenly Wataru Furuya asks Kogoro to go to the backstage. The recording of the TV show begins, and it turns out Yoko Okino and Kogoro Mouri, who is replacing Shoutoku Takeki because he is missing, are going to be the judges for this week's program. The contestants this week are Shuuhei Kurimara and Kurea Enokido. After Toshihide opens the lock of the chest of the key, the MC, Osamu Kenzaki, opens it to reveal the fruits. Ran tells Masumi, who thinks the lock can be forced open by anyone, that the lock has an electronic chip embedded, so a buzzer will ring if the wrong key is put in. Also, the lock is custom-made and the key to the lock is difficult to duplicate. Conan is about to quietly ask Masumi a question when suddenly the audience begins freaking out. The two of them are interrupted and they turn their heads toward the chest, only to see Shoutoku Takeki lying inside a pile of apples!
Conan and Masumi rush down from their seats to inspect the body. Shoutoku is already dead for more than half a day. After the audience is escorted to a separate room, the police come to investigate. Detective Takagi asks Producer Taruoka about chest-locking process, which was devised by Shoutoku Takeki himself. First, Terafumi Kasuga secretly fills the chest with fruits and locks it up. After that, the chest is sent to Nichiuri TV, where the producer asks his AD, Wataru Furuya, to put another lock on the chest before delivering it back to Terafumi. The food coordinator unlocks his own lock and then sends the chest back to the TV station. At the beginning of the show, the MC receives the key, which is stored in a safe at Touto Bank before the show, from the producer, and the fruits inside the chest is revealed to the contestants and the audience. As the police investigate, Terafumi arrives as well. The food coordinator is at Nichiuri TV because Shoutoku called him here, stating he will catch and expose the culprit who secretly reveals the contents of the fruit chest during the show. Shoutoku is probably doing this because the defending champion of the show won for six weeks in a row.
Suddenly, Detective Chiba tells everyone that Shoutoku Takeki mixed in with the extras of yesterday night's historical play and snuck into the TV station. Blending in was easy, since he always wore a kimono and the extras did too. Apparently he asked the play's director, an acquaintance of his, to lower his enemies' guard. This means he hid in the room where the chest was stored but got ambushed by the culprit.
