Volume 31

Kikuyo Kasama
	29 years old; Muneyuki's assistant;

Muneyuki Mino
	62 years old; Potter;

	Volume 31
	Information
Release date:	March 17, 2001
Chapters:
ISBN:	ISBN 4-09-126161-2
Publisher:	Shogakukan
English release date:	September 15, 2009
English ISBN:	ISBN 1-4215-2199-7
English Publisher:	Viz Media
	Featured Detective & Keyhole
; Toyama no Kin-san	; Ginshiro Toyama
	Aoyama's death & Conan side images

Chronology
‹ Volume 30	List of Chapters • List of Cases	Volume 32 ›

Volume 31 was released on March 17, 2001 in Japan.

Cast

Characters

Gadgets

Voice-Changing Bowtie

Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Pottery Class Case

Anime Episode 228-229: The Murderous Pottery Class

File 307 - The Hidden Word

The police are about to arrest Kikuyo, as they’ve found out she had bought a very expensive flat recently and may have killed her fiancé and future husband Motoo to get the latter’s life insurance premium. Before finding Motoo’s corpse with the others, she had previousky hidden it in the closet and pretended to go and fetch the first-aid kit to make people believe she couldn’t kill and hide Motoo in less than a minute. Mino confirms he saw Kikuyo trying to strangle Motoo, even though she claims it was a joke. Conan tranquilises Sonoko and discloses the truth : the only person who could have murdered Motoo was the one who last saw him and told Kikuyo to go and wait for him in the workshop, as it seems Motoo was pulling up his sleeves and preparing to go and help for ceramics as he was murdered.

Show spoilers »

The culprit is therefore Muneyuki Mino. His alibi with the piece of apron cloth, allegedly being Motoo’s, and not being visible when he, Ran and Kikuyo went into the room is unvalid as it is a very cunning trick : he had cut a piece of apron and taped it inside the closet, on the right door, and then carefully closed the door back. Therefore, when someone whould open the door and close it back, the piece of cloth would come out from under the door. Mino broke a loud ceramic on purpose to attract the others’ attention and have them witness that the apron cloth was absent. Then he deliberately cut his finger to send Kikuyo to the closet and have her unknowingly do his trick, in order to have her accused when everyone would notice the cloth afterwards when finding Motoo’s corpse, to have them believe she was the killer. As Kikuyo was in a hurry to treat Mino’s injury, she cant’ be the killer as she didn’t notice it neither do it.

As for the body falling trick, Mino had tied it to a kind of string ; he then put the body in a diagonal forward-heading position, and hid it behind the aprons of the closet ; he then ran the « string » behind the horizontal crossbar for hangers, along the partition, up to the left door, into which crack he wedged the string, doing a knot at its end, and then closing both doors. Then, if someone opens the right door only, as Kikuyo did, nothing happens, and the body is hidden anyway, but if both or only the left door is opened, the string is released, and the body falls from the closet on the floor. The « string » used is actually Motoo’s tie, wrapped around his neck like a rope, and whose lower part was wedged in the door, the knot being the tie’s pin, explaining why the pin was much lower on the tie than it should be, and why the body pressure and the wedging had created a big gap between the pin and its frame. And not to see the tie poking out of the closet, you just needed to fold it back inside the crack a little.

When he opened the closet, Mino actually just cracked open both doors, first to have Motto’s body fall on the floor without suspicion (his tie would just be thought to be the weapon of the crime or his own tie, not anyhting else), then to avoid opening wide the right door, which would have revealed the cloth trick. When Motto’s body fell, Mino immediately rushed on his left side, which is just in front of the right door, to pretend helping him but actually used his body as a screen to prevent anyone from seeing him opening wide the right door, and retrieving the piece of cloth with the tape. Mino probably hid it into the bathroom afterwards while the police was investigating the corpse. Conan saw him taking scissors in the storeroom, probably to cut the cloth into pieces and then flush it into the toilet.

As Mino says this is not evidence, given anyone just could have done exactly the same thing, and since he often uses tape or aprons as a laborer, Sonoko says there is a piece of evidence only a ceramicist could have left, on Motoo’s tie : nail traces with clay on it, along with Mino’s DNA probably. As a ceramicist, he can’t fully remove clay from under his nails, and when he pulled the tie out to wedge it in the door’s crack, he left those traces. He didn’t use gloves as it would have been difficult to pull out the tie, and even with his bare hands he needed to be very careful not to leave the slightest fingerprint on the pin, completely forgetting the clay under his nails. Mino could have used a string or a rope instead of a tie, besides.

Though, the ceramicist wanted neither one nor the other : the tie was a love-labored Christmas present from his daughter to Motoo, and there’s no way using gloves that are normally used for « dirty » items. Moreover, the tie is a perfect rememberance of what Motoo has done to his daughter. Mino pretended this was a present from Kikuyo to Motoo by leaving a card inside. Mino wanted to have her accused of the murder as he also holds her responsible for her daughter’s death. Mino’s daughter had actually committed suicide by throwing herself under the wheels of a truck two years ago. Mino thought this was an accident at first, but had doubts then when finding out his daughter had discarded the present box with the tie still inside in her bedroom’s bin, implying she had killed herself due to her complicated love affairs with Motoo. Mino thought Motto should have the tie all the same and rushed to the airport, as Motoo was about to leave due to a job transfer, and once there he saw him in high spirits, enjoying a close and happy relationship with Kikuyo, not mourning at all, which means Mino’s daughter had found out she was being cheated on by her fiancé. Mino knew this was a present for Motoo as he had been shopping with his daughter who confessed to him that she wanted to offer her fiancé a tie whose beige color would bring out the clay – and so her ceramicist dad.

Makoto believed Sonoko’s cup was a flower pot, while Ran actually didn’t send hers to Shinichi, as she thought it spoiled. Conan finds the cup is being used by Ran instead as a pen box where « Eggheaded but boneheaded after all » is written on it, but « I’m waiting for you <3 » is written under it, reminding Conan of his promise to come back after Ran waits for him (Vol. 26), which makes him feel over the moon.

People

Motoo Mino
	Victim (strangled) 31 years old Office worker Married into Muneyuki's family

Ms.Mino
	Deceased (Traffic Accident) Mineyuki's daughter Former wife of Motoo

Fake Kogoro Mouri Case

Anime Episode 243-244: Kogoro Mouri's Imposter

File 308 - An Impostor Appears

An imposter impersonates Kogoro Mouri at a hotel where he is invited to investigate a case where a man is said to have committed suicide 4-5 years ago. Kogoro decides to play along and not reveal his identity. Later that night, the impostor is found hanged in his room.

File 309 - Truth of the Impostor

Conan reveals that it is a murder and that it relates to the incident 5 years ago.

File 310 - The Time of Lies

Look at the Spoiler, who is the culprit?

Show spoilers »

People

Yoshiro Onda
	58 years old Owner of Aoiya

Tatsuo Mori
	Victim (hanged) Kogoro Mouri's imposter

Masao Jinbo
	40 years old Aoiya staff

Eiji Urakawa
	37 years old Aoiya staff

Netted Man Murder Case

Anime Episode 246-247: The Mystery in the Net

File 311 - Warm Ocean

Professor Agasa takes the Detective Boys and Conan to the beach during school break while Ran and Sonoko also happen to be on the same beach. At night, all of them eat dinner in a hotel together with the lifeguards they met that morning. The man the lifeguards are supposed to meet doesn't show up so they try calling him but the only sound that can be heard is the sound of the waves. The three lifeguards decide to look for the man at the beach and find him on the shore dead, covered in scratches and wrapped in a fisherman's net.