episode 3 — an idol's locked room murder case
Suzume sighed, lying on her back on the couch at the Mouri Detective Agency with a towel over her face. Ran walked over with a frown. Ever since they came home from Tropical Land three days ago, Suzume has been more on edge than usual. Ran couldn't put her finger on it, but it couldn't be anything good if Suzume wasn't feeling well because of it.
A buzz from Suzume's phone caught Ran's attention and she went to check. She saw that it was a call from some unknown number and debated on whether to let it go to voicemail or to answer it. On one hand, it could just be some kind of prank call. On the other hand, it could be someone who needs Suzume's help with a case.
With that thought, Ran answered the call. "Hello? Kudo Suzume's phone."
"Is she okay?" a distinct male voice asked almost immediately after recognizing that it was not Suzume who answered. "Where is she?"
Ran startled at the sudden questions, almost dropping the phone. "She's got a headache right now," she told him. "Who is this? I can pass along a message to her when she's feeling better."
The man was silent for a moment, clearly thinking over his options like Ran had before answering the call. "...I'll call back later."
He hung up the call and left Ran to stare at the phone in confusion. She looked over at Suzume, who had pulled a corner of the towel up to watch her. She dropped it when she saw Ran looking at her.
Ran frowned. What was that about...?
"Who was it?" Suzume asked, her voice hoarse. Another sign that she wasn't feeling all too well.
"I don't know," Ran replied, walking back over and setting the phone back where it was previously on the table. "Sounded like he knew you though. Said he'd call back later, so hopefully you're feeling better by then. It sounded urgent."
Suzume frowned. Urgent enough to wait for me to feel better? And it was an unknown caller? She sighed. "More and more questions stacking on top of each other," she murmured.
Ran stared at her friend in concern, wondering what it was that she was so worried about. The doorbell for the detective agency rang, making Suzume sit up with the towel falling onto her lap. She glanced at Ran.
"You weren't expecting anyone, were you?" she asked, on edge.
Ran shook her head as Kogoro went to answer the door. "No. Why?"
Suzume stayed silent when Kogoro suddenly shouted, making her jump in fright. She turned in her seat to see...
"Okino Yoko!" Kogoro practically shrieked at the sight of his favorite actress standing outside the door to his agency.
"That's right," she said softly.
Ran walked around the couch. "No way! What would a celebrity be doing here?"
"Actually, I want to hire you and Kudo-san," Yoko admitted, which had Kogoro dash to his room to freshen his appearance.
Suzume glanced at them as she got up from the couch with an awkward smile. "Give him a minute," she requested quietly.
A minute later, as Suzume said, Kogoro opened the door with a freshly shaven face, a tidy suit, and a red rose in hand, trying to appear charming to the actress. "You appear to be troubled, my dear," he said, making Suzume exchange an exasperated look with Ran.
"Yes." Yoko blinked.
"Why are you like this?" Suzume sighed, hands stuffed into her pockets.
"I'll make drinks," Ran said, walking into the kitchen. Suzume went to open her mouth when Ran interrupted her. "No coffee for you, Suzume!"
The Kudo shut her mouth with an audible click, looking put off.
~ — — — ~
"What?!" Kogoro shrieked, slamming his fists onto the table. Ran and Suzume stood off to the side, trying to appear like they weren't listening to the conversation taking place. "Somebody's spying on you?!"
"The furniture's been moved whenever I come home, somebody's been sending me candid photos they took of me, and I've been getting anonymous phone calls every day!" Yoko told him.
Kogoro was enraged. "How dare they!"
"If at all possible, we'd like you to look into it quietly," Yamagishi Eiichi, Yoko's manager, requested, interrupting Kogoro's would-be tirade.
"Who are you?" Kogoro asked blankly, and Suzume slapped a hand onto her forehead.
Yamagishi handed over a card. "I'm Yamagishi, her manager."
Kogoro looked the card over with a raised eyebrow. "Her manager?" He cleared his throat. "Very well. I will investigate as discreetly as possible." He held out some papers and a pen. "I'll need your address and phone number here." She went to fill them out when Kogoro continued. "And if you could autograph this too... Don't forget to write "To Kogoro"..."
Suzume wanted to slam her head into the wall. In fact, she turned to do just that when Ran grabbed her shoulders and spun her back around, holding her in place. Ran knew her a little too well if she could predict what she was going to do with a single action.
"Don't make your headache worse," Ran scolded quietly.
Suzume rolled her eyes. "Your dad's doing that already, thanks."
Kogoro laughed as he escorted Yoko and her manager to the door. "Now that the great detective Mouri Kogoro is on the case, you have nothing to fear!"
"Can we come too?" Ran interrupted, gesturing between her and Suzume, who already had a backpack on her shoulder. "I've always wanted to see a celebrity's home, and Suzume here can be a big help in figuring out who your stalker is."
Kogoro looked like he was going to say no, but Yoko spoke before him. "I did come for both you and Kudo-san's help..."
His attitude made a full 180. "Of course they can come!" He gave them a look. "Just don't get in the way! Got it?!"
Suzume sighed before nodding. Yeah, we'll see how that goes...
Ran gave her a look out of the corner of her eye. Don't make things more difficult for you, Suzume. You know Dad already doesn't like you taking his cases from him.
Suzume rolled her eyes. That is not my fault and you know it. I can't help who comes to me for help.
Ran gave her a hard look that cowed Suzume immediately. Ran grinned and clapped her hands at her win.
Yoko looked at Kogoro. "Does that happen often?"
"Yep." Even Kogoro looked tired after watching the exchange. "Don't try figuring out what they were talking about. No one but them understands that...whatever that is."
~ — — — ~
"So, this is it?!" Kogoro cheered as they stood outside Yoko's apartment building. "This is exactly the kind of place I thought Okino Yo—"
The rest of his words were muffled by Suzume's hand. "Don't get too far ahead of yourself, Kogoro-san," she advised, narrowing her eyes at him. "Do you really think that information should be public knowledge?"
Yamagishi sighed in relief. "Thank you, Kudo-san," he said.
Kogoro laughed nervously under his daughter's glare as they were led into the building. "The 25th floor, was it?"
~ — — — ~
"It's so pretty!" Ran said in awe as they looked out the window outside of Yoko's apartment.
"Come on inside," Yoko said as she unlocked and opened her front door. She let out a scream when she looked inside.
Suzume stifled a gasp when she saw Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko looking inside the apartment as well. "What are you three doing here?!"
Kogoro rushed over to look inside and his eyes widened with horror at the dead body on the floor of Yoko's apartment, the knife still embedded in the victim's back.
The police were immediately called and Suzume immediately told the three kids to remain outside the apartment with Ran. "I will be taking no complaints because you guys should be asleep in your homes," she said in response to their whining.
"I see," Megure hummed, arms crossed as he looked at the body. "So, he had already been murdered by the time you got back?"
"Yes," Yoko responded.
"And the person with you at the time was..."
"...was I, Mouri Kogoro, Inspector Megure!" Kogoro gave him a salute and grin.
Megure looked like he was questioning all of his life decisions. Why him, of all people?
"It's just like old times!" Kogoro said cheerfully. "Remember all those cases we worked on together?!"
"Yes. And thanks to you, most of them went unsolved!" Megure snapped, making Suzume wince from where she was crouched next to the body.
Geez, I know you aren't that fond of him, but that was a bit of a gut punch, she thought.
Kogoro took no offense, however, as he just laughed loudly.
Megure looked at Yoko. "It certainly is hot in here. Do you always have the heater on this high?"
"No," Yoko said. "And I'm sure I turned it off before I left."
"That's odd," Megure said.
"That's not the only thing that's odd, Inspector," Suzume spoke up, looking at some markings on the floor. "They're pretty faint, but there are damp spots all around the body. And that chair over there is the only thing still standing." She pointed over at it. "Everything else has been thrown around. And the heat...was it done to disguise the time of death?"
Megure hummed as he took in what she said, looking over at the officers next to the body. "Have you determined the cause of death?"
"It would seem this knife was the cause," one of them answered.
Megure looked at Yoko. "Does that knife belong to you?"
"Y-Yes," she said.
"You can't honestly suspect Yoko?" her manager asked.
"Have you seen the victim before?" Megure asked.
"Um, I'd have to take a closer look..." They both walked over and Yamagishi's slipper slid on the blood, causing him to fall onto the body before pushing himself off.
Suzume raised an eyebrow.
"So, have you seen him before?"
Yamagishi got to his feet. "I'm sorry, I guess we haven't. Right, Yoko?"
"Yes..."
Suzume wasn't too sure, but there was something in Yoko's voice that made her suspect otherwise. I'm sure I saw him... What was that? What did he pick up? She watched him put his hand into his pocket while something thin fell to the floor. She glanced around, saw that everyone was focused on something else, and picked it up, quickly and quietly stuffing it into a plastic bag. A hair? Why would the manager try to hide that?
After the body was removed from the room, tape was put down to mark where it had been and there was a large blood stain on the floor.
"The murder took place while the door was locked," Megure said, sitting in a chair. "Which means the murderer was the apartment's resident."
"No! I could never kill anyone!" Yoko protested.
"She's telling the truth, Inspector!" Kogoro argued as well. "Just because she has a key doesn't mean—"
"Yoko, have you given a spare key to anyone?" Suzume interrupted.
"Um, Yamagishi-san has my spare key," Yoko told her.
"That's it! Yamagishi! You're the murderer!" Kogoro jumped to conclusions again...
Suzume wanted to sigh. This is the reason why people come to me...
Kogoro grabbed the manager by the collar of his coat. "Yamagishi! Yoko gave you the cold shoulder so you took it out on him, didn't you?!"
"Hey, now," Megure said, sweatdropping. "Where's the proof that she didn't do it?"
"Such a beautiful woman would never do anything like that!" This was Kogoro's reasoning.
"I see..." Megure deadpanned, Suzume mirroring the action.
Yamagishi interrupted. "Yes, I did have her spare key, but I lost it two or three days ago," he admitted.
"Stop lying!" Kogoro demanded.
"I'm not! I was in the dressing room at the TV station."
"I can vouch for him," Yoko agreed. "He told me about it!"
"Well, if that's what Yoko-san says, then..."
Suzume walked around the apartment, trying to figure out the nagging feeling in her gut. I have a feeling that we're still lacking some pretty important information that would explain everything... The officers paid her no mind as they were used to it at this point. She took a look under the couch and narrowed her eyes at what was under it. An earring?
She picked it up with her gloved hand and stood up straight. "Inspector," she called, getting his attention. "I found this under the sofa."
"An earring," Megure murmured in surprise.
"That's Yuko-san's," Yoko said as she recognized the accessory.
"Yuko-san?"
"Ikezawa Yuko-san. She debuted the same time I did," Yoko informed them.
"I heard that she was upset that Yoko got her role in a drama series," Yamagishi added.
"Now I've got it!" Kogoro said. "The murderer was Ikezawa Yuko! Arrest her!" He turned and smiled at Megure. "Isn't that right, Inspector?"
"We'll have to go to the station— No, let's have her come here for questioning!" Megure ordered, looking a little flustered.
"You heard the inspector! Hurry!" Kogoro said.
The officers glanced over at Suzume, who nodded in agreement with Kogoro's order. Ran sweatdropped as she watched this happen. Looks like they have more trust in Suzume than Dad... She sighed. Understandable...
All of the pieces are coming into place, Suzume thought. How to put them together, though...
~ — — — ~
"You've got to be kidding me!" Ikezawa Yuko scoffed with a smirk. "The murder took place in Yoko's place. She's the one you should suspect."
"Yuko-san..."
"I've never been here before now," Yuko continued. "I'm innocent."
Kogoro took the bag that held the earring from Suzume and held it out. "Then what is this doing here?!"
Yuko turned and smiled when she saw it. "I thought I lost that somewhere! I'm glad you found it!"
Suzume frowned. How did it get into this apartment if you've never been here before?
"It doesn't stop with the earring," Kogoro said. "The superintendent also said that he's seen someone who looks like you!"
"Someone who looks like me? This is ridiculous," Yuko said unbothered. "I'm borrowing your bathroom."
"Hold it! I'm not done yet!"
Yuko turned and glared at him from the hallway. "You never give up, do you?!" she snapped. "You think I'm the murderer just because of an earring?! I'm really busy, you know!" She walked over and got into Yoko's face. "Not nearly as busy as little Miss Popular Celebrity, though..." She smirked. "But if the media gets wind of this, your image'll take a nosedive! Maybe you'll lose as much work as I have!" She laughed at that.
"Ikezawa-san," Suzume interrupted with a serious tone that shivers down the spines of everyone who knew her, and Yuko's laughter stopped abruptly. "If you're going to the bathroom, then go." She gave her a hard look. "Don't waste any more of our time with your taunts."
Yuko gulped before walking down the hallway towards the bathroom. Suzume smirked in her mind. Little Miss Liar... She raised an eyebrow as she looked between Yoko and Yuko, who both had their backs to her. They look exactly the same from behind.
After Yuko was done in the bathroom, she pulled a cigarette from her box. "What do I have to say for you to understand?! I already told you I've never been here before!" She grabbed a Statue of Liberty figure and used it to light her cigarette.
"Quite the odd lighter there," Suzume said. She walked over and picked it up, looking it over. "How did you know it was a lighter if you've never been here before?"
The cigarette nearly fell from Yuko's lips as Megure and Kogoro both gave the actress hard stares.
"Yes," Megure agreed with Suzume. "Care to explain how you knew?"
"I know someone who has one just like it," Yuko explained weakly.
"And where does this someone live?"
"Well, um..."
"Where's the bathroom?" Suzume interrupted, asking Yoko. "I've never been here before, so I'm not quite sure."
"Oh, it's in the hallway..."
Kogoro had a lightbulb moment. "Come to think of it, you knew where the bathroom was, too! Which is because you, Ikezawa Yuko, are the murderer!"
...okay, maybe not...
"You killed that man in this apartment to create a big scandal around Yoko-san!"
"I didn't. I didn't! I didn't kill him!" Yuko shouted, panicked. "All I did was defend myself when he suddenly attacked me!" She frowned. "I'll admit it, I did sneak in here several times using the spare key I stole from the dressing room. I wanted to find something, anything that could cause a scandal! But when I came in this afternoon, that man suddenly showed up! I defended myself with all of my strength, and then escaped as quickly as I could!"
Well, that would explain the earring under the couch...
Kogoro scoffed. "Are you sure you didn't really kill him in the heat of the moment?!"
"I said I didn't kill him!" Yuko retorted.
"Inspector!" an officer said, coming over. "We've learned the identity of the victim. Fujie Akiyoshi, 22 years old. Upon graduating from Konan High School, he began working for Kakubeni Corporation."
"Konan High School," Kogoro murmured. "Isn't that your old high school, Yoko-san?"
"It's just a coincidence!" Yamagishi insisted. "Isn't that right, Yoko?"
"How about some truth here?" Suzume said, giving Yoko a soft smile.
Yoko nodded. "I know him," she admitted. "No, I didn't just know him, he was my high school boyfriend!"
"What?!" Several people in the room chorused together.
"Yoko!" Yamagishi chided.
She gave him a bow. "I'm sorry, Yamagishi-san. I can't hide it."
"Don't tell me you did this to break up with your old flame!" Megure accused.
"No, I didn't! After all, he was the one who dumped me," Yoko admitted.
Suzume looked down at the area the body was and found a small dent in the floor. Her brows furrowed before looking at the chair, which had been the only thing left standing in the room. The temperature in the room was high when we walked in, and there were splotches of water around the body. She tilted her head. The hair in his hand was most likely Ikezawa-san's. She grinned to herself when everything clicked into place in her mind. So that's what did it!
Kogoro was making another accusation... "The murderer is you, Yamagishi!" Said man gasped. "You saw him as an obstacle because he was capable of starting a scandal around Yoko-san! Then you ran into him while he was hiding in here and proceeded to kill him!" Kogoro got into the manager's face. "You're the only one left who could be the murderer!"
"I'll stop you there, Kogoro-san," Suzume said, gaining everyone's attention. "Let's start with this. Yamagishi-san, if you really asked us to help you so we could discover the body, you would also have prepared something to prove your innocence. Yoko-san, the same goes for you, especially since the tenant of the apartment would be the first suspect."
"So, then the murderer is Ikezawa Yuko!" Megure said.
"Now wait just a minute!" she started.
Suzume shook her head. "She didn't do it either," she said. "Even if she did commit the murder in the heat of the moment, she wouldn't have told us she ran into him."
"But what you're saying is..."
"Only educated guesses," she finished, shrugging her shoulders. "They don't hold up as proof that the three of them are innocent. But I do have evidence that supports it. Yamagishi-san, you pretended to slip and then removed strands of hair from the body."
"I knew it! I knew you were the killer!" Megure shouted, grabbing the collar of Yamagishi's coat.
Suzume sighed. "I'm not done. The man was stabbed in the back, but he was holding the stabber's hair in his hands." She tilted her head. "Isn't that a bit odd?"
"Now that you mention it..."
"The person responsible set it all up to look like it was murder," Suzume continued. "As if he was killed by Yoko-san herself."
"Like it was murder?" Megure repeated her words. "You don't mean..."
"That's right. Our victim murdered himself," Suzume said.
"A suicide?! How could he stab himself in the back with a knife?!" Megure demanded.
"A simple trick with some ice," Suzume told him. "He set the heater on high, took hairs from Yoko-san's hairbrush, then stood up on a chair and fell back onto the knife that was held in place by a block of ice. You'll find the indentation made by the handle of the knife near where the body was."
Megure looked at the mark.
"The ice shattered and later melted because of the high heat. However, Fujie-san tried too hard to frame her."
"The hair?"
"Got it in one," Suzume said with a smile. "When Yamagishi-san saw it, he tried to hide it because he thought Yoko-san did kill him."
Yoko glanced at her manager before looking back at Suzume. "But why would Fujie-kun do something like this?"
"I like to think that it was because he still loved you," Suzume admitted quietly. "Didn't you realize that you and Yuko-san look exactly the same from behind?" The two actresses exchanged a look. "So, he mistook Yuko-san for Yoko-san and attacked—no, he tried to talk to her. He didn't realize he was talking to Yuko-san, not Yoko-san, so he was completely shocked when she resisted him and the feelings of his love being driven to the wall turned into despair and hatred."
"But he dumped me! Why would he do that?" Yoko asked.
Suzume looked over at Yamagishi, who looked guilty. "No, that's not the truth," he said. "Yoko...the truth is, I asked him to break up with you."
She stared at him in shock and heartbreak. "How could you?"
An officer came running over. "Inspector!"
"What is it?"
"We've found a diary in the late Fujie-san's house."
"What?!"
The diary was filled with his pain. How even after they broke up, he was unable to forget about her, so he went to see her. He hoped she would end her career as a celebrity and come back to him. All he wanted to do was clear up the misunderstandings. The last thing he wrote was that he couldn't live like this any longer.
Megure shut the diary. "It would appear this was a tragic story that consisted of lies, misunderstandings, and coincidence." He looked over at Suzume, giving her a nod. "Thank you for helping us clear this case, Suzume."
She gave a sad smile. "Just wish it wasn't so tragic."
~ — — — ~
"Suzume-nee, your phone's ringing!"
"Coming!" Suzume walked into the kitchen at her house and picked her phone up. Seeing that the caller wasn't listed in her contacts, she sighed and answered it. "Hello?"
"Are you feeling better?" the caller asked, and she smiled, leaning against the counter. "Your friend answered last time and I got worried."
"I'm fine. I was just making myself sick with worry and stress," she told him. "Nothing to worry about, though. I'm much better now."
He hummed, a little unconvinced. "If you say so," he said. "Get into any trouble recently?"
She paused hesitantly before sighing. "Actually, there's something you should probably know..."
~ — — — ~
His smile thinned and became more strained the more he listened to her story. "Don't worry too much about it, okay?" he asked her. "Just focus on the cases that go your way."
She sighed. "Alright." She paused. "Can I save this number to my phone, or no?"
He chuckled, leaning back in his seat. "Sorry, no."
"Damn it," she grumbled. "It's a bit of a hassle knowing whether it's you calling or not since it's a different number every time."
"That's not entirely my fault," he argued lightly, amused. Approaching footsteps made his smile drop. "I've got to go. Stay safe."
He hung up as a woman said, "Oh, talking to your dear angel?"
He frowned, looking at her. "Angel?" he repeated. "I don't get where you're going with that."
She smiled, thinking back to a year ago. "Oh, nothing." She waved a hand nonchalantly. "Just musing to myself."
He narrowed his eyes at her but said nothing. Just stay safe, Suzume...
Fun Facts —
— Want to guess who the caller was? I'll give a hint: it's a certain triple face agent...hehe
— As you can see, this chapter shows one of the major changes of Suzume not being shrunk: she's solving the cases. Sleeping Kogoro will not exist in this, however the cases will still be attached to his detective agency's name because Suzume wants a little more anonymity after her first encounter with the Black Organization.