Episode 1107: I Was Set Up
Scenario: One of Kogoro's clients, Hiroaki Sanada, requested Kogoro to cease the detective service he entrusted the minute they first met as the pre-agreed schuedle. This exceptional behaviour striked Kogoro odd, and asked him the reason behind it deeply. After countless urgings, Sanada explained the logic: three mornings ago, an extotionist Jiro Inumaru kept blackmailing Sanada to expose some not-so-pleasant matters he had done working as a real estate agency manager to his company. But afterwards, Sanada's friend, Daigo Kawakatsu dropped in and manefisted his anger; as a result, he told Sanada to inform him in advance the next time the extortionist Inumaru bothers him. And yesterday morning... Inumaru came to Sanada's house and was about to grab him by the neck, but Sanada pushed him back with appreciable strength, which, unfortunately, led to a tragedy of murdering Inumaru as his head hit the corner of a table; Kawakatsu then arrived there after being informed by Sanada and saw teh scenario, he examined the corpse and confirmed Sanada to be dead.
To help Sanada, Kawakatsu thought up an idea of burying the corpse of Inumaru in a deserted location that would not be easily approached. They went into the woods and dug a hole, ready to place the copse inside, but then Kawakatsu told Sanada to go home and he would take care of the rest, and the reasoning was to help him fabricate an alibi. After all the touch-ups were made, seemingly perfect, and the two of them were resting in Sanada's house, obviously with a tinge of worridness and sorrowness, but at the same time, smirking with triumph in the bottom of their hearts. In that instant, a woman rang the electric bell of the house; and she claimed to be swindled by Inumaru as well, and would want to have her lost money back. If they do not come to an agreement, she will call the police otherwise. Kawakatsu suggested Sanada just silence the woman by giving her an equal amount of money to terminate this dispute, or else things would become bothersome and complicated. And after that, he did so obediently, and the value he gave away was 30 million yen.
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| Sanada and Kawakatsu burying the corpse. |
After hearing the story, Kogoro perceived something fishy there: only Sanada's friend Kawakatsu knew that he had 30 million yean in cash stored in his safe at home; it was Kawakatsu who claimed Inumaru's death, and Sanada did not interfere with it. Therefore, Kogoro and Conan thought that this was probably a trap set up by the three people (Inumaru, Kawakatsu, and that random woman), to swindle Sanada 30 million yen. On their way to that place where yesterday morning Sanada and Kwakatsu buried the "corpse" of Inumaru, Kogoro told him his asuumption, but Sanada did not believe it, he was convinced that he was the sole murderer in this incident and was about to turn himself in. Kogoro began digging the hole, trying to prove to Sanada that Inumaru might have faked his death, which was glossed over by Kawakatsu. Supposedly, Inumaru's body should not be found if his deduction was correct, but the reality was naughty enough to tease everyone: Inumaru's corpse was found! In the exact same place as Sanada buried it yesterday morning.
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| The three people guffawing after they swindled Sanada. |
Inspector Megure and Detective Takagi arrived there as quick as ever, they found a button that belonged to Kawakatsu along with the corpse of Inumaru. They concluded the case with "Sanada killing Inumaru accidentally and Kawakatsu conspirated him of concealing the body" and took them to the station. Kogoro attempted to justify the deeper connotation behind the case, but Megure neglected it and thought the case must be simple and Kogoro ought not to overthink it.
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| Sanada and his wife. |
Conan assuredly knew that the case was not this simple, he began investigating the case in a deeper fashion. He visited Sanada's residence and inquired of Sanada's housekeeper, Sueko Fueki. She was not helping out in Sanada's house yesterday because she went to stay overnight at her son's house. When Conan was mandering around Sanada's house, he found a receipt from a department store, and saw a photo of Sanada and his wife. He began to ask the housekeeper, Fueki, about the woman within that photo. And he got the answer that Sanada's wife passed away ten years ago, in an unmitigated accident - back then, a thief broke into the house and was seen by Sanada's wife, the culprit pushed her and fled, resulting in the injury of her leg. This was evidently the kicker of her falling down the stairs half a month later...
Before leaving the police station, the housekeeper felt regretful and disclosed that she should not have left the house. After listening to Sanada, who gave her a present offered by a friend of his from Hokkaido, and asked her to stay a night at her son's home by taking the present along. She could not anticipate the chaos that had been constructed over merely a single night. Despite that, Conan still parted ways with the housekeeper and decided when to reunite with Kogoro.
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| Sanada gives the present of confection from Hokkaido to Fueki. |
On Kogoro's end, he had caught the woman who took part to swindling Sanada; and she admitted the sin effortlessly. But she claimed that she knew nothing about the follow-ups, and she stated that the only time the three of them stayed together was on Wednesday night, at a certain izakaya. This final sentence had cleared all the perplexity within Conan's mind. His glasses shone, reflecting the intense sunlight illuminating upon it - he found the truth.
