Episode 1090: The Culprit Who Disappeared Into the Sleeping Town
Scenario: After the dawn had faded and the jet-black had taken over the sky, Kogoro, Ran, and Conan were walking down a deserted street, grumbling that they had just completed a request concerning a lost cat. All of a sudden, they heard a high-pitched whistle out of nowhere, resonating around the entire street in Haido City. When they got there to examine the circumstances, they saw a security guard lying on the pavement, struggling with weak vitality but still alive. Apparently, he fell off the big staircase that was above him. The security guard uttered "white clothes" repeatedly using his last breath, while using his finger to point at the pavement, which led towards the major avenue. Conan noticed that there were bloody footprints throughout the pavement that the security guard pointed at.
At the same time, Conan also heard a woman sobbing, which seemed to come from the top of the staircase. The police then arrived and found out that there was another person murdered on top of the staircase. The woman who was sobbing next to the corpse was the victim's wife, Keiko Yuki.
Hideto Yuki was the president of an IT company, and his IT company building was situated right behind the crime scene. Therefore, Sato deduced that Hideto was most likely killed when he was exiting his IT company building, as there was a platform in front of the building, followed by a huge staircase that led to the place where the IT company security guard Goro Nezu was murdered. Conan then scrutinised the crime scene meticulously and discovered that the blood stains ended abruptly and must have been splattered onto the culprit as well. Thus he turned his sight towards the victim's wife, Keiko, who had precisely a lot of blood stains on her clothes due to her first contact with the corpse and was wearing white clothes, just as the security guard Goro said before his death. The police discovered a stun gun, always carried by Hideto for self-defence, ditched among the blood stains, and judging by its voltage, it must have been used on the culprit once. After checking the situation at the top, everyone began to investigate the dead Goro at the bottom of the staircase. It happened to be the same knife that took away their lives, and when they looked closely, there were numerous cut wounds on Goro's chest, and that might be the result of his battle with the culprit. With regards to the bloody footprints, they extended towards the avenue. Sato once again deduced that the culprit might have escaped in that direction, switched their shoes, or fled in a vehicle.
The suspects were Keiko Yuki, Hideto's wife, and Kaoru Ichinose, Hideto's secretary. These two were around when the two murder cases got implemented. Keiko explained that she was talking to his husband in a third-floor meeting room, and she stayed behind, always at the back of the building. After hearing the alarm whistle, she went to the window to check it out. This made her see the corpse lying below the building and the security guard running and chasing the culprit. Then she heard a fatal scream from the security guard, Goro, who fell in the middle of the staircase. After giving out this information, she resumed sobbing. However, Conan realised that she wore a wedding ring, but the victim did not. So he deduced that they might be at odds and on the verge of divorcing. This offered her a plausible motive for the killings. Soon Kogoro excluded the possibility of Keiko committing the crime, as if the culprit was really Keiko, Goro must have pointed at the top of the stairs but instead towards the avenue direction. And Keiko was wearing heels anyway, which did not match the two footprints at the crime scene. Yet the suspicion fell on the victim's secretary, Kaoru Ichinose. Conan determined that Kaoru was smoking across the building by smelling his clothes, which were exactly where the security guard pointed. He also confessed, and explained that he was smoking on the opposite pavement, and the crime scene was entirely blocked by other buildings in that position. Although Kaoru was wearing a pink vest, the vest was reversible, and on the reverse side of the vest, the colour was white, which matched Goro's testimony. Nevertheless, the police did not find any blood stains on it, but coffee stains. Now here comes the hard mystery: the police did not find anything off upon them, which proved their innocence. Then who else would the culprit be?
Conan did not understand why could not the culprit attack Hideto when he was alone, but instead, in front of the security guard. After some time, Sato found out that four years ago, Yuki's company was suspected of illegal activities, and the woman, named Sachi Shirai, who supposedly had the full responsibility killed herself by jumping off the IT company building. And the one giving the testimony which Sachi jumped off the building was he security guard, Goro.
After Goro gave his testimony, he immediately paid off all the debts he had accumulated. Hence, Kogoro deduced that he was bribed to give false testimony. Conan looked around the internet and found a life-time photo of Sachi Shirai, which, from the reflection of the wine glass, showed Kaoru. Kaoru had connections with Sachi, even though the incident happened before his arrival at this IT company. He admitted being Sachi's boy friend and revealed that he entered the company just to discover the truth of that incident. He also uncovered that the reason he was smoking across the building was actually to meet his president. As his president felt a sort of remorse and wanted to turn himself in regarding the incident happened four years ago. Today he also had confessed with his wife Keiko about his repent too. Since the president had never shown up, he decided to inspect what was going on nearby. He then noticed the bloody footprints caused by the culprit and followed him up the stairs. And found his president, Hideto, dead and the security guard performing chest compressions for the president. Anyhow, Goro mistook him for the culprit, who intended to retire back to the crime scene. And wanted to catch him and hand him to the police. That was also what Keiko saw in the IT company building. The only thing he could do was reverse the vest and pretend that he had just passed by. Then, is Kaoru lying? If yes, what trick did he use?
