Detective Conan - Chapter 722-724

Chapter 722: Steam Murder

Chapter 723: The Sealed Room Above the Lake

Chapter 724: An Eye for Eye

School's starting tomorrow and I am not yet done catching up with Detective Conan. WAAAH.

Chapter 722 highlights:

• Detective Boys are going to the Onsen since Professor Agasa needs to do some repairs.
• The owner is a fan of his inventions and bought a large quantity. The inventions are really popular with the guests but recently, it seems to keep breaking down. 
• Upon arriving at the onsen, Agasa starts to inspect his inventions as they met different people: Natori Mishio, an actress and her manager, Tanzawa Junsaku
• The two are there for a filming of the movie of the famous Blood Spray Hitman Series, Scarlet Gensen.
• They also met the script writer, Tetsuyama Ganji.
• Blood Spray Hitman is a story about a professional killer. For some reason, he was hired to do a job in the onsen part of the town, and since the steam was saturated with blood, he got that name. 
• The series was a debut work of Tetsuyama. It is separated into the Youth Part when the hit man was young and the Old Part, frrom when he had gotton on in years. 
• Scarlet Gensen is the Middle Aged part where the main character quit being a hitman due to certain circumstances. For the sake of the onsen ryokan hostess, he decided to start killing for free, and set up a perfect sealed room murder.
• The Middle Aged version was originally filmed in black and white a long time ago, but they haven't been able to remake it since they couldn't find a suitable actor. 
• However, the Youth and Old Pats have been remade using various actors and directors.
• On the juncture, another actor appeared, Teradou Unpei came and he perfectly fits the image of the middle aged hit man. 
• It was also revealed that Tanzawa was the one who played the main character's role in the Youth Part adaptation. 
• He took a break from acting due to certain reasons. 
• Tetsuyama limps as he walks. According to a TV Documentary, he injured his muscle a number of years ago and he has been walking like that ever since. 
• Well, anyway, since Agasa and everybody else came all the way, they decided to try the onsen ryokan's specialty: an open-air bath atopt the lake. 
• As its name implies, it's an open air bath with a great view, made on top of a lake. 
• Since it is crowded, they decided to just try it tomorrow morning so that they can also watch the sun rise. 
• At the lobby, Tetsuyama is talking to someone saying things like "At the open air bath atop the lake, with the morning light shining" and the lead man's role being switched. This was heared by Teradou.
• On Natori's room, a glass shattering caught the attention of Tanzawa. He knocked and asked what happened by Natori just said to leave her alone.
• Very early in the morning, Conan went to the vendo machine and he ran into Tanzawa at the vendo machine too. Conan went out, after losing in a rock-paper-scissors game to buy drinks for everyone. 
• Ayumi saw on the window Tetsuyama going to the bath so early in the morning, even though it is only 4:43AM, and that bath doesn't open until 5:00AM.
• The kids also want to go and so they asked permission. It seems that Tetsuyama is a VIP and so he is an exception to the 5:00AM opening time. But since it is already 4:50, they were allowed to go since its only 10 minutes before opening. 
• As they go to their own rooms to change, Conan notices that the old man's clothes were not there...and Haibara and Ayane saw something.
• Conan rushed to hear their scream and he saw the body of Tetsuyama, dead on the women's bath. 
• Conan says that it is not an accident, it's a sealed room murder case. 

Chapter 723 highlights:

• People starting to gather at the scene of the crime and Mitsuhiko and Genta are there to guard the entrance. 
• Then Tanzawa and Natori came and is surprised to see the dead script writer. 
• Police came and the cause of death was due to acute blood loss from a hematoma below the dura mater from a blunt trauma to the back of the head, as well as cerebral contusion. 
• The estimated time of death is 5:00AM.
• There are also traces of lather on the bottom of the victim's foot as well as the tiles beneath his feet.
• Police thinks that while getting out of the bath, the victim inadvertently stepped on the soap, slipped and fell. Thus, hitting his head on the rocks around the bath. 
• Conan says it's strange since it is the woman's bath. But it is also possible that she mistook the woman's bath since he head out a bit past 4:30AM so it is still dark outside.
• Conan points that there is water collected at his colar bone and his belly button. If he fell hard enough to die from hitting his head, then the water on his body should've been knocked off. 
• This leads to Conan saying that someone poured water on him after he fell in order to wash off the blood. 
• Conan said that when he found the corpse, no blood was found and also, no loude noises that indicate someone jumped into the lake.
• Genta and Mitsuhiko also told Conan that the veranda is connected to a pathway outside so they also the dead body of Tetsuyama. 
• Haibara thinks that someone hid last night before the open air baths on the lake closed and after the kill, the culprit could easily go through the pathway and mix in with the guest who were clamoring outside. 
• Investigation starts by picking out guests who came to the open air bath without telling anyone.
• The three possible suspects are: Tanzawa, Natori and Teradou.
• The police interviewed them and also asked to hand over anything that they have right now. 
• Natori has her make up pouch and her towel. The key to her room is at the front desk since you should turn it in to the front desk when coming to the baths. She just woke up at about 5:00AM and came at the scene at about 5:30. 
• It is also revealed that Tetsuyama wooed Natori. Rumors say that she got the role by being Tetsuyama's lover. 
• But Teradou also sucked up to Tetsuyama to get the lead role.
• Speaking of Teradou, at around 5:00AM, he is still sleeping at his room. He came to the bath at around 6:00AM. The only things that he have right now are his towel, his cigaretters and the room key since he finds it a hassel to surrender it to the front desk.
• Tanzawa also has his key since he only came to look for Natori. He also have his wallter and cellphone. At about 5:00AM, he is watching TV on his room. 
• At around 4:30AM, she went to the front desk to ask for a change so that he can buy at the vendo machine. 
• Teradou says that Natori is the culprit since he heard the phone conversation of Tetsuyama last night. Surely, he thinks that Natori could have lured Tersuyama and then killed him. 
• Natori admits being the one on the phone with Tetsuyama that night. She said that she just wants to teach him a lesson since she is sick for his sexual harassment. 
• Tanzawa also had a motive to kill Tetsuyama. Tetsuyama took his lead role in the movie away from him. But Tanzawa defends that he didn't have enough hate to kill him.
• Another evidence was discovered behind the basket in the dressing room: a plastic green bottle with water inside. 
• Also, some match cinders were floating on the surface of the lake near the scene of the crime. 
• Asking the employees who were at the entrance building also didn't see any of the three suspects pass through the entrance. 
• They also testify that Tetsuyama was wearing his towel and scarf and they couldn't see his face, but he seemed to be frowning like usual.
• It also appeared that the victim's rings has gone missing. There was an empty case left in his room. The ring has a pea sized jewel and it is the victim's protective charm.
• Weird things were also found at each of the suspects things: At Teradou's room, there are a large number of match cinders but he says that he used them to light his cigarettes. 
• In Tanzawa's room, there was glove with no partner. But he defenses that it is used for his golf playing.
• In Natori's room, there was a broken wine glass and on top of the desk was a script with one page crumpled. But Natori said that she is just practicing for the role. When reading the script last night, she got engaged in her character too much. 
• From this, Conan already figured everything out...

Chapter 724 highlights:

• Professor Agasa just woke up and came to the crime of the scene and Conan is again ready to reveal to everyone the mystery. 
• Although there are traces remaining of someone having hidden at the open air baths on the lake overnight, the police overlooked them. 
• The season is winter and its TOO cold to wait outside. To stay warm, the he went to the onsen. It's likely that after finishing the green tea, the person refilled it with water from the sink in the changing room and drank that oo. He must have done that several times during the night, since you get thirsty just being in the bath.
• That person also smoked in order to stay awake. And in order to not make the bathhouse smell like smoke, he smoked on the veranda. 
• And not, it's Teradou since the cigarettes were not used. No cigarrete buts were found floating on the lake. That person is smoking something like a pipe.
• The one hiding at the open air baths on the lake all night was the vitim murder himself, Tetsuyama!
• The Tetsuyama walking at the entrance area at around 4:30AM was the culprit, impersonating him.
• In order words, the culprit took advantage of the common sense thinking that there'd be no reason for a murder victim to purposely hide for a long period of time at the very place they would be murdered, thinking heartbreaking thoughts while waiting for the murdered to come and kill him. It's a mind trick! 
• Natori being on the phone with Tetsuyama was also a lie. She is just protecting someone. 
• And the culprit? It's the manager, Tanzawa! 
• Tanzawa was probably the man Tetsuyama was talking to the phone. He informed Tetsuyama that Natori will go the open air bath in the morning and if he wishes to see her naked, hide there and wait overnight.
• Tanzawa also said that if Natori knew that Tetsuyama had gone to the open air bath before her, she'd be on guard. That's how Tanzawa managed to convince Tetsuyama to wait at the veranda. 
• Then he lured him further out and bludgeoned him to death. After stripping the body, he placed it so the head was on the rocks near the bath. He then splashed hot water to make it look like taking a bath and accidentally slipped that caused his death.
• After leaving the veranda, he hid in the shadows of the outdoor ventilation machinery and planned to take advantage of the commotion outside. 
• But Genta and Mitsuhiko came and guarded the doors. But before the other guests arrive, the two kids took the pathway to peep at the situation from outside and missed seeing you because the area was still dark. This gave him the opportunity to blend in with the crowd. \
• But as Conan was explaning behind Agasa's back, Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko saw him!! But good thing, he was saved by Haibara saying that he is just whispering to the professor.
• Going back to the case, Tanzawa entering first the bath house was a proof! If the children blocked the entrance, normal instincts would tell you that you need to call for a woman to check what is inside. 
• But since Tanzawa knew that inside the bath house was only a dead person, he came inside. 
• Tanzawa also has the ring of Tetsuyama. It's a silver ring and he is inside his pocket. After forgetting that it is still inside his pocket, he puts it on his middle finger and in order to prevent it from being discovered by the police, he turned it so that ring was hidden in his palm.
• The ring changed color because of silver's reaction to sulfur. Since the spring is a sulfur spring, the reaction would cause the ring to blacken. After seeing Tetsuyama wearing the blackened ring, Tanzawa removed it and forgot to throw it away.
• But he can't help it since he is completely immersed with his role playing. 
• Tanzawa admitted his crime and his motive is because of the leading role of the movie. 
• He was dropped from the role of the Middle Aged Hitman for his latest film since he is too young to play it. 
• That's why he dropped and became a manager. So when a remake is green lit, he asked for the role and a drunk Tetsuyama answered him that he can't play the role. 
• That's why he planned on killing him so that he can finally play the role of the hitman.