Episode 801: Tottori Sand Dunes Mystery Tour (Kurayoshi Part)
Scenario: During a visit to the Tottori Sand Dunes, Kogoro, Conan and Ran come across a case. Shuko, wife of the Kumado family's eldest son, was attacked and tied up during a home invasion robbery, and the family's heirloom incense burner was stolen. A pedant found at the crime scene casts suspicion on the family's former housekeeper Naomi Senda, but Kogoro and his family saw her at the sand museum at the time of the crime. Later, head of the household Isao Kumado receives an e-mail on his phone demanding 10 million yen in exchange for the incense burner. Kogoro suspects the crime was committed by a family member who was trying to frame Naomi, so he investigates the Kumado family's alibis.
Kogoro takes Ran and Conan to Tottori prefecture to come up with a story for the first Super Mystery Award. He brings them to Tottori Sand Dunes, ties up Conan, and throws him down, because he wants to write a story of how a kid who is tied up and abandoned at the sand dunes escapes from danger; in other words, he is using Conan to find inspiration. However, since this place has numerous tourists, someone is definitely bound to save any kid in that situation. As a result, he gives up on that story and that award, and they go sightseeing instead.
The first place they visit is the sand museum. There, they see a woman with purple hair and purple lipstick ranting at an employee, as if she wanted to pick a fight with someone. After she storms out of the museum, they head in to enjoy the sand sculptures. They planned to eat some crabs at the Kanikkokan, but the kids occupied all the tables, so they went to Kurayoshi and toured around for the rest of the day.
Around late afternoon, they were walking when suddenly they see a police car drive by and stop in front of a house. The detectives in the police car are Ryo Okamoto and Katsuhiko Yamane, a person Kogoro worked with once on a robbery investigation back when he was a Tokyo Metropolitan Police detective. When Kogoro asks the police what is going on, they tell everyone someone reported a robbery. Detective Okamoto rings the doorbell of that house, but no one answers, so everyone sneaks into the house to investigate. Suddenly, they hear a baby crying, and when the police enter a room, they see a baby crying next to a woman with her hands and feet tied up in ropes! Conan notices a few shattered pieces of pottery on the floor of the room.
The woman, Shuko Kumado, was the one who reported the robbery to the police. She tells everyone she was knocked out, so she does not know what the robber looked like. Shuko turns her head and notices the incense burner, the priceless symbol of the family head, is missing. Conan looks underneath a couch and finds a pendant with a camel on it, which, according to her, was not there when she cleaned the house this morning.
After a while, the rest of the Kumado family members arrive home, and the head, Iwao Kumado, scolds Shuko for not being able to properly watch the house on her own, even when the door is locked. The woman explains to everyone that after she put the baby, Kazuma Kumado, to bed, at around 1 PM someone from nowhere used a china vase to hit her head and knock her unconscious. That person then stole the incense burner and tied her hands and feet up. When she came to her senses, the baby was crying right beside her, and at around 4 she took her cell phone out of her back pocket to call the police. Neither the front door nor the back door was forced open, meaning the culprit must be someone who has keys to the house.
Shuko tells everyone the pendant that Conan found below the couch belonged to Naomi Senda, a former housekeeper of the Kumado family. Yesterday, she came to this house from Tokyo asking for money, but Iwao rejected her request, since she ran off with their money when she quit. To Kogoro, Ran, and Conan's surprise, she was the woman who ranted at an employee during their tour in the sand museum earlier today. Naomi was at the museum at around 1:05, so there was no way for her to commit the robbery. As for the pendant, she claims to have dropped it when she visited the house yesterday and declares Shuko is lying about pendant not being there this morning.
The doorbell rings, and Soichi answers the phone and learns a delivery arrived. He says on the phone that he will pick it up, but Shuko immediately offers to take it and heads to the front door. It turns out the package is for Soichi. Naomi tells everyone she has been set up and declares she will make the family pay for this; as she leaves the house, Shuko mutters loudly that Naomi intends to kill her.
Soon after, the head of the family receives a phone call and a text message from "the Masked Leek", which is the thief. The message says the family must pay 100 million yen if they want the incense burner back, even though in reality it is worth 100 thousand. At this point, Kogoro suspects one of the family members is the robber, since only they know the burner's true value and significance to the family, so he asks every family member what they were doing at 1 PM.
The next day, Kogoro, Ran, and Conan head out to confirm the everyone's alibis. Yesterday, the family head went to Daigakuin Temple at around noon and chatted with other people for around half an hour. At 1:30, he visited the Akagawara Building 15 to provide advice on its merchandise. Makie Kumado was at Tottori Hanakairo Flower Park from 11 AM to 3 PM. Junji Kumado stayed at Kaike Hot Springs the night before yesterday, and after he checked out, he went to Yonago Tourism Center at around 3. There were no witnesses for any of them at 1, so they still had chances to steal the incense burner. Afterwards, they went to Jinjo no Yakata to confirm Soichi's alibi, and a man named Tanaka tells them he stopped by at 1 yesterday. However, when a woman reminds him they ate noodles together at 1, he had no choice but to tell them this morning Soichi asked him to create a fake alibi.
At sunset, the three of them return back to the Kumado's house. There, Shuko watches on TV news that Yasunobu Kotani, a doctor who died in South Africa in the beginning of the month, returns to Japan. He and she were high school classmates. Suddenly, the family head receives a phone call from Naomi, who tells Shuko she will get her revenge for framing her for the robbery. After that short call, Kogoro offers to be Shuko's bodyguard, but Shuko tells him there is no need since Naomi is probably just harassing her. Conan thinks Naomi is related to the robbery, as her alibi seems to be deliberately made.
The next morning, Shuko tells everyone that when she woke up, the incense burner was in front of the entryway. Somehow, the family got it back without having to pay the 100 million.
