Chapter 20-25
There were 2 murders and an attempted murder within hours on a cruise ship, done by the same murderer, plus the complications were between the Hatamoto family itself. Well, at least the motives weren't for inheretance, which was quite a huge issue. Oh well, this is a very complicated and long case. Hopefully you'll be able to understand my 'explanation'. :)
Detective(s) involved: Edogawa Conan, Mouri Kogoro
People Involved:
Hatamoto Gouzou (head of family)
Hatamoto Takeshi (newly-wed husband of Natsue/Hatamoto employee),
Hatamoto Natsue (daughter of Gouzou's oldest son),
Hatamoto Kitarou (husband of Hatamoto Mariko/company VP),
Hatamoto Mariko (elder daughter of family),
Hatamoto Jouji (youngest son of Gouzou/chef),
Hatamoto Akie (Natsue's elder sister),
Hatamoto Tatsuo (Akie's husband),
Hatamoto Ichirou (son of Mariko),
Suzuki (family butler)
1st murder(Gouzou's death):
Victim: Hatamoto Gouzou (Badly wounded. Died of excessive blood loss)
Suspects: prime--Hatamoto Takeshi (exposed to be son of Zaiki Isao, rival of Hatamoto family); rest of Hatamoto family except Natsue (with Ran & others)
Possible murder weapon: knife
Murder scene: Gouzou's room
Clues: Takeshi's flower found at the door
Closed room murder
Body found 40-50 min after death
Only Gouzou and Suzuki have the keys to the room
Missing murder weapon
Some blood landed on door frame (door was open during murder)
Bread crumbs found in blood puddle, charcoal found on crumbs (bread made by Jouji, further clues in part 3)
Jouji always carries his kitchen knife with him
Conclusion (partial): Gouzou himself locked the door after being stabbed, but died of excessive blood loss. Culprit could be any of the suspects except Suzuki and Takeshi, who was preparing the meal at time of death. Also, some blood ought to have dripped outside the room, but it was wiped away. If it was Takeshi, he would have picked up the flower when cleaning the blood. It shows that the murderer was framing Takeshi (by dropping his flower at the door).
Result: Takeshi was locked in a storage room (can only be unlocked from the outside).
Intepreted 'motive': Take revenge against Gouzou for taking father's company (father suicided)
Intepreted 'evidence': Takeshi's flower found at the door (murder weapon not found)
2nd murder(Tatsuo's death):
Victim: Hatamoto Tatsuo (Died of brain damage caused by a blow on the head)
Suspects: Takeshi (prime suspect),
all except Natsue (with Ran & others)
Possible murder weapon: steel pipe
Murder scene: lower ship deck; Ran, Conan & Natsue on upper ship deck
Clues: Conan heard a sound like sth hitting the water, then a thudding sound
Takeshi escaped from the locked room (someone opened the door from the outside)
Result: Well, no conclusion. There weren't enough evidence to tell who was the culprit, and almost all of them seem to have a motive in killing Gouzou. There could be an indirect motive to kill Tatsuo, maybe because he saw the murder weapon or sth along the line. The thudding sound could be the culprit getting rid of previous murder weapon.
Attempted murder:
Victim: Ichirou (stabbed in the leg, shallow wound)
Suspects: missing Takeshi (poor guy... he's actually a good guy...>.<)
all others (time-switch made it possible)
Murder Weapon: Jouji's kitchen knife
Murder scene: Washroom
Clues: deliberate blackout (use of trap-springer: affix a weight to the breaker, make a fulcrum using a string tied around sth else, tie lighted candle in middle, when fire reached rope, rope is burnt and broken; the weight automatically pulls the breaker switch)
murder weapon was left at the scene (Jouji's kitchen knife)
Ichirou's testimonial-- someone coming out of a stall, then blackout (he said he couldn't see anything), then was stabbed
Clues from search in rooms (looking for Takeshi):
Gouzou strongly opposed Mariko & Kitarou's marriage (they were cousins)
Jouji's knife case had 2 missing knives instead of one
In Ichirou's room, his art set contained charcoal and bread (for drawing and erasing)
Deduction: Ichirou was the culprit for all the incidents.
In the 1st murder, the conclusion showed that Takeshi is ruled out from being the culprit, since it was obvious the flower was to frame him.
The 2nd murder did not seem like a plan murder. If the culprit for all 3 murders were the same, then it was obvious that the 2nd murder was not planned beforehand.
The 2 missing knives from Jouji's knife case shows that there is still one missing weapon. Thus it can be concluded that at the 2nd murder, the thud was Tatsuo being hit, the water 'splash' sound was probably the culprit getting rid of the murder weapon. Tatsuo probably saw the culprit holding the weapon, thus the culprit's motive to kill was to silence Tatsuo.
As for Takeshi's missing in action, the murderer probably opened the door after the 2nd murder, so that he could once again frame Takeshi as the murderer (since he 'escaped').
When Conan (using Kogoro's voice) made the deduction to this point, he called Takeshi out from his hiding place in that very room. He said he escaped when he heard Natsue's scream, but when he saw the others blaming Tatsuo's death on him, he ran away to hide, and coincidentally hid in the room where Conan made his deductions.
As for the last 'attempted murder', people were wondering who opened the door for Takeshi, thus Ichirou was also a suspect for being the 'accomplice' who opened the door. He frantically thought of injuring himself to shift the blame away from him. However, his 'testmonial' when being stabbed was contradictory. If it was pitch-black, how could the 'stabber' stab him rather accurately? Also, unlike the 1st two murders, the murder weapon wasn't taken away, but was found beside Ichirou. Since he couldn't walk (stabbed), of course he couldn't get rid of the weapon.
Prove: The bread crumbs found in the 1st murder was from Ichirou. He used it to erase his drawings. Since traces of charcoal were found on them, it further proves that they belonged to Ichirou. They probably fell inside Ichirou's sleeve when he was drawing.
Motive: Ichirou loved Natsue. He went to Gouzou for approval to marry Natsue, but Gouzou said 'you think I'll let you take my precious Natsue?!'. Gouzou later approved Natsue & Takeshi's marriage just to spite Ichirou. Ichirou was angry and couldn't forgive the spiteful Gouzou and Takeshi who 'stoled' Natsue from him.
My thoughts: I think it is a really sad motive... Gouzou sure was spiteful and mean, but no one have the right to shorten other's life. It's rather sad for Ichirou too... He couldn't get the person he loved and lost everything too... :'( But I'm glad Gouzou wasn't killed for inheritance... It's an even more saddening reason to kill... X(
Comment from a friend: I really do think that Conan has been in the same grade for way too long (18 years if want to be exact), so personally, I really do think that Aoyama should end this series soon. Yes, we will be sad to see this cute "boy" gone, but we will be really glad or even elated if we will be able to know if he managed to turn back into the teenager, permanently. I am just a bit sick and tired of this endless line of murder, solving murder, getting lead on black organisation, losing lead on black organisation, and back to murder, and solving murder, etc. Come on, as a reader and a fan girl, I deserve to know if ran gets together with Shinichi. So please, I beg you Aoyama sama, just grant us a good and satisfactory ending already.
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