Episode 759: The Love Novel With Unexpected Results (Part 1)
Scenario: Conan, Sonoko and Ran visit Masumi's place, which is a room in a hotel. They meet a romance novelist who is planning on finishing the writing of one of his serials of which a group of editors are eagerly awaiting. He challenges the editors to eat a bunch of food prepared for them with whoever eats the most getting the author's attention to finishing their manuscript. However, later on the author's assistant is found dead in her room one floor below.
Conan, Ran, Sonoko and Masumi walk down the street while talking about the red woman case. They ask her about her self defense techniques, to which she says that her brother used to send her tapes which she watched many times. She tells them that her mother still lives in the United States, which is a reason why she's now staying in a hotel, since her brother didn't want them to live together. Sonoko makes a remark about the cost of living in a hotel, but Masumi tells her that a friend of her father is taking care of it. The groups makes the decision to visit the hotel she is staying at, after which she cancels plans which she had to meet up with her brother.
They ride the elevator up to the 30th floor, where she is staying, and as they leave the elevator Sera mentions that she plans to move out of the hotel soon. In the floor's lobby they see three men apparently waiting. Sera explains to Suzuki that they are waiting for a manuscript of a famous author who also lives in the hotel. Keigo Hiura, a romance author, introduces himself to the group as they pass by his room. After a short exchange with Ran, he invites the waiting men into his suite to eat. Shortly after they gaze upon the food, further room service arrives bearing a wine bottle. Keigo then explains that the person who eats the most will receive the manuscript, which will be tested by weighing on a scale. More food is set to arrive; Beika sushi, pizza, Chinese food and donuts. While they are eating, he will take a bath, so they should be cautious that he doesn't leave and do something. The girls are hanging out on the balcony and Conan is curiously looking around the suite. He spots a room which he wants to enter but Masumi interrupts him, saying that the room is in a mess and that he wouldn't want to trip over her panties. While the author's guests are leaving, so that he can finish writing the manuscript, they discuss his success and what an important role in it his assistant, Chiaki Minazuki, plays, who rents a room below his. Some magazines are suspecting the two of being a couple, two of the men state that their publishing houses have even received threats to keep that "man eating beast" away from him. The girls have ordered room service, pastry, sweets and tea to keep them cheerful while they discuss boys and love, with Conan, who joined them, questioning whether he should really be part of it. They then ask him whether he likes someone. Masumi, being very specific, asks if he likes a girl which he met a long time ago and can't forget. Sonoko believes he likes Ayumi, but Ran thinks it's Ai who has caught his eye. At 6 PM, as they are getting ready to leave, they hear the bellboy scream. Conan drops his backpack and the group runs towards the source of the scream. Suddenly a hand opens the door to Masumi's suite.
When they arrive at the lower story, they see a confused bellboy and the victim, Chiaki, lying on the floor with strangle marks around her neck with Yoshikawa lines.
Sera concludes that she has been dead for approximately two to three hours. Keigo arrives at the door with a Nichiuri publisher following him shortly after, who says that the author just wanted to buy cigarettes. After seeing her dead, the man assumes that it has to have something to do with the threats which they received. Hiura yells at him, asking why he hasn't told him anything, that he had the whole day to do it and that during that time he was just peacefully writing his novel. Conan and Masumi seem to believe that e is the culprit.
The bellboy tells the police that he has spotted her when he was bringing champagne which was ordered to be brought exactly at 6 PM. The key card to the room was on the floor and the door was slightly open. Keigo, who ordered the champagne had trouble with the last page of his novel, so thirty minutes before the whole happening he wanted to go for a smoke and stride through the floors, when he arrived at the scene he was just returning from buying a pack from the vending machine and was climbing the stairs which helps him come up with new ideas. Conan makes a remark that during that time the author wasn't doing anything in particular, finding it strange that he knew that she was murdered while he was writing his book, since it could have also happened afterwards. The author explains himself by saying that she didn't arrive at his room three hours earlier to give him some documents, and when he saw her corpse he assumed her death to be the cause why she didn't come. The publisher then explains, together with Hiura, that they were invited to his room and ate there with more takeout food arriving during the time the murder apparently happened and that there was no possibility for the author to just slip through the door and commit the crime, since the guests were the ones who paid for the food. At 4 PM the guests left and waited outside of the suite which they watched over during the whole time. Keigo came out only once to give a finished piece of work. The three manuscripts are almost finished, but he is stuck on the last page of the third one. At 5:30 PM he printed out everything, gave it them and went to buy cigarettes. The publisher was reading the manuscript when he heard the shout, Hiura then called him with the assumption that something had happened. Megure questions the men if they know anyone who holds a grudge towards Chiaki, to which the publisher mentions the threats. Keigo says that there was suspicion of them being a couple since they were photographed together, which is also why his wife divorced him. He claims to have relied on her help a lot, saying that she was partially responsible for the book being finished, and that they even had plans to make her an author next year.
When leaving the scene, they see that a lot of people have gathered on the floor. Conan spots someone in the crowd who looks like Sera but appears to be a middle schooler. He tries to find her, but is interrupted by Ran. He immediately connects her with the girl from the mobile phone. Sera tells the group that the author is the murderer, saying that the door couldn't have been used and that even though one would have to be very brave, the balcony is the only other way. She asks Conan whether he thinks the same to which he agrees.
