Disappearing letters murder case (781-???)

[Tsukiko 73]

I think the secretary is the culprit in poisoning and she was that woman sitting in the bathroom, but the one who stabbed the first victim(I don't remember their names...) was that guy who died because of that piece of cake. :?

[Balthazar Manfredie 225]

im suspecting the secretary to, but ill wait the next chapter to see for more info

[Chekhov MacGuffin 1089]

The letter is likely not from Kouhei's murderer. I am guessing it is from someone who would want to drag the murderer out. "Distorted existence thoughtlessly conjured up by humans such as yourself. To see me directly is a dream that cannot be realized." put through my melodramatic metaphoric prose to plain English translator comes out as "The police detectives' original explanation is wrong. I want it fixed."

This person may have been the one to poison Ikurou in revenge or was Ikurou himself who discovered the trick and was killed by Kouhei's murderer. Ikurou is such an ass though I doubt he would want anyone to discover the truth of the father’s murder, especially because it gives him the chance to become company president. Well maybe it would mean another competitor gets blamed, giving him greater chances to become pres?

The post mark on the letter was from 10 days after the incident, so whoever sent it to Heiji figured out the crime quickly.

The letter sender was most likely the one to appear in front of Kazuha in the bathroom judging by the similar melodramatic writing style. They used a wig to cover up their face and triggered the black out, perhaps by remote. They then used the same disappearing writing on the tile trick as the original murderer used. The long haired person then escaped. Unfortunately it isn’t clear how they left, either by walking past Kazuha and friends who had moved away from the bathroom entrance or by using a secret exit.

Regarding the tile trick a few things can be deduced:

• “Eerie rustling sounds” will be made in the course of the trick

• The tile had to be replaced, switched or moved somehow because no luminol reaction was found and luminol reactions can’t be easily erased without leaving traces that something was used to erase it (bleach for instance).

• When the tile is replaced/moved/switched in the dark, somehow it is possible to align them all properly so the colors are in proper position. There must be an easy way to remove and set the tiles in the right configuration or the tiles change color somehow to match (if they did change color someone would have mentioned that I think.).

• The trick takes about 5 minutes, that’s how long the light was out for Kazuha.

• The trick only replaced specific tiles rather than all of them. – Only the letters for “eye” disappeared and not the other scratched tiles.

• The trick may involve replacing tiles as the adhesive had not dried. There should have also have been spare tiles convenient around because the guy was in the middle of retiling the bathroom. Kazuha’s long haired person had plenty of time to prepare ahead of time.

Why did the culprit have to replace the tiles instead of just erasing the dying message by rubbing it off? Perhaps the dying message wasn’t something that wiping off could erase, like scratches along with blood writing. Or maybe the original culprit tiled over the dying message which was on the bare floor? Maybe Kazuha’s person put tiles on top of tiles which is sort of similar to the original trick and she didn’t notice because of having only a short time to look at it? Another possibility was the presence of a luminol reaction would be enough to make the dying message clear. In that case it would be less likely to be writing and more likely to be a shape or something not easily altered.

It’s suspicious that the Karuizawa house was scheduled to be rebuilt right after someone died in the family. The only people with enough power in the house to do so would be the wife and son, with the wife taking precedence. The victim was a do-it-yourself person so he would be less likely to call in other people to do work for him. Perhaps this was arranged after the husband’s death by someone who needed to cover something up.

The Karuizawa house was neatly maintained and the electricity was working as well, but it has only been a month since the original guy was murdered, so I doubt it would deteriorate. It may imply someone was in there taking care of it though.

I wonder if Sera will follow Heiji and Conan. The place they are visiting is in Tokyo after all. Maybe we will get Sato on the case this time. Megure and Takagi are practically assured arrivals. Shiratori woulnd't be bad either. I wonder if Kansuke was on the case in Karuizawa because that's in Nagano (although really close to Gunma).

What’s up with Conan’s unsure reaction to Heiji’s excluding of Sera “That's more convenient for our purposes.” Does Conan want Sera to be around so he could keep an eye on her? Did Okiya finally tell him to keep and eye on his sister?

[justwantanaccount 125]

The letter is likely not from Kouhei's murderer. I am guessing it is from someone who would want to drag the murderer out. "Distorted existence thoughtlessly conjured up by humans such as yourself. To see me directly is a dream that cannot be realized." put through my melodramatic metaphoric prose to plain English translator comes out as "The police detectives' original explanation is wrong. I want it fixed."

This person may have been the one to poison Ikurou in revenge or was Ikurou himself who discovered the trick and was killed by Kouhei's murderer. Ikurou is such an ass though I doubt he would want anyone to discover the truth of the father’s murder, especially because it gives him the chance to become company president. Well maybe it would mean another competitor gets blamed, giving him greater chances to become pres?

The post mark on the letter was from 10 days after the incident, so whoever sent it to Heiji figured out the crime quickly.

Aaaah, that makes way more sense.

Unfortunately it isn’t clear how they left, either by walking past Kazuha and friends who had moved away from the bathroom entrance or by using a secret exit.

*Gasp* MAYBE THE WALL ROTATES AND THAT'S WHY THERE WERE SCRATCHES ON THE WALL! Though that doesn't explain the floor, hmm.

What’s up with Conan’s unsure reaction to Heiji’s excluding of Sera “That's more convenient for our purposes.” Does Conan want Sera to be around so he could keep an eye on her? Did Okiya finally tell him to keep and eye on his sister?

I personally took it as "Ah, Conan doesn't want people figuring out that he's Shinichi yet" - Conan tries to hide that even from Okiya, so that's what I figured. Though I'm wrong more often than not, ha ha.

[hopes 237]

I just read the chapter in English.

As soon as I saw the son, I thought to myself, 'He's going to be murdered.' Aha! I was right.

But the question is, who?

Personally, I think that the son might've killed the guy, or possible the maid. Then, the person killed the son in revenge.

But that's just a thought.

[LuckyGuess 0]

Hey everyone, this is how the tile trick works:

All the tiles are actually the same, it's a known optical illusion. type "diamond illusion" in google images and you'll see it.

- included by Chek

Now here's a method to always know who the culprit is (ok, maybe not always ), read at your own risk it's a "cheating" way of solving the cases:

the author almost never makes anything happen randomly, it's always connected to the case. An example in a previous case is where one suspect had a different umbrella than the others. At that moment the murder hadn't yet been committed but I knew that he was the murderer and that the umbrella would be a key element and sure enough, it was. I say it's a cheating method because the characters in the manga can't use it, only the readers.

And now using that method to solve the murder:

-First we can eliminate the house keeper as a suspect for the first crime because the author needs a witness of the dying message in order for the diamond illusion trick to work.

-The only "random" thing the wife does is ask for black tea. And the reason for that is probably so that the author wanted us to know that the president likes "prince of wales" tea, which will somehow be connected to solving the case.

-just like the wife, the secretary doesn't do anything "random" other than the tea thing.

-The senior managing director does absolutely nothing random so he is innocent 100% for sure.

-The house keeper "randomly" insists on cutting the cake, but that's not too random so its unlikely that she killed the son.

-All the "random" actions taken by the son seem to be linked to his own murder, so he's not his father's killer.

-Only the Designer remains: and he "randomly" taste-tested some cake so he's definitely the son's murderer.

now for the first crime:

The fact that he's the head designer and that the president says he designed the tiles himself could be just a coincidence but it's the only thing I found that's kinda "random" so the head designer is also the president's murderer.

So there, those are my deductions... I'm guessing this case is gonna be at least 3 chapters because there really wasn't many clues to work with here. In any case I hope i'm right in my deductions but i'm just doing guesswork really so no guarantees... Can't wait for the next chapter

[Chekhov MacGuffin 1089]

Hey everyone, this is how the tile trick works:

All the tiles are actually the same, it's a known optical illusion. type "diamond illusion" in google images and you'll see it.

That makes sense, and I noticed the gradation in the closeup when Kazuha looks at them. There is still the unresolved issue of how the long-haired-person managed to put the tiles in right side up in the dark, which I alluded to in my previous post.

Unless of course, took them off and the tiles were double layered!

[CrazyFanOfDC 0]

nice illusion~!!!

[User 4869 100]

I love that kind of cheat.

[justwantanaccount 125]

Hey everyone, this is how the tile trick works:

All the tiles are actually the same, it's a known optical illusion. type "diamond illusion" in google images and you'll see it.

That. Makes. SO MUCH SENSE. Apparently one of the people who discovered this illusion was a Japanese professor back in 1995, so it also makes sense that Japanese people might know this illusion more than others! Very cool!

[Rum 6]

Hey everyone, this is how the tile trick works:

All the tiles are actually the same, it's a known optical illusion. type "diamond illusion" in google images and you'll see it.

haha.. I also thought of that... what a coincidence when I was in school we discussed about this diamond illusion and after school I read DC.. and thought is it related to our lessons... hahaha

In diamond illusion, in every row you can see that it has different shades but actually it has the same shades of color. The key is that the diamonds are shaded so they are slightly lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. The illusion is the upper color at the top of the wall or floor. This creates the change of shades... (that's what our professor taught)

[phantomlady1101 59]

Voted!!!

[Stopwatch 36]

Spoilers in Japanese copied from DCTP (Conan#1/Conan 48:69)

コナン「バームクーヘン」

Title: Baumkuchen

青酸系の毒で死んだ→目暮、高木が来る→バームクーヘンに毒→カプセルに入れてた？紅茶の底にカプセル→死体の側を離れとけと言ったら皆紅茶の置かれたテーブルの側に集まった。

切ったのは米原だが、8等分に切れと言ったのは佐竹等、皆への目暮の質問→毛利は藤波を怪しむ→育朗が空腹だったのを知ってたのは母親、家政婦、秘書。

会社のメンバーで会話→コナンが家政婦に社長のダイイングメッセージについて聞く→「「S」だったわよ、その続きは手に隠れて見えなかった」→死んだ育朗以外は全員イニシャルに「S」がつく。

家政婦「死体を見つけ、奥様を呼び、指示通りに家電で電話した」→平次がタイルについて聞く→芹香「特注のタイルを目にする事はもうないかも」→家政婦（え？……）

毛利がアリバイを他の３人に聞くと、4人で居間にいた（家政婦以外）→目暮「他のバームクーヘンからは毒が出なかった」→平次「あん時トレイに２つ残った内の１つを食べた」

高木「ピッタリ８等分の大きさ」→毛利「犯人は取った後に毒をかけたのに全員それに気付かなかった！？」→高木「透明人間じゃあるまいし…」→コナン、平次「あの手紙を思い出すな」

Heiji mentioned Night of Full Moon in File 781, now Takagi mentioned Invisible Man in File 782, why there is a phrase related to Ep 345 in each chapter.

Google translate doesn't work that well on this so it'd be better to wait for a more accurate translation...

[Akazora 292]

Just read next chapter.

I, personally, am not much of a speculator, and since almost everyone seems equally suspicious, I'm not confident enough to say who I think the muderer(s) is(are).

The case appears as if it will be wrapped up in chapter 783.

We'll just have to wait and see.

[Chekhov MacGuffin 1089]

This theory is subject to change, as it is preliminary and may be incorrect.

This is case uses illusions as its gimmick.

Murder of Wakamatsu Ikurou

None of the other Baumkuchen pieces were poisoned, so the culprit must have found a way to either ensure Ikurou would take a certain cake piece, or else Ikurou’s hand, likely his thumb because of his licking habit, was poisoned ahead of time by the culprit who knew his habit of eating cake with his hands. It’s also possible this was a random murder, whoever took that piece would die, but there doesn’t seem to be any evidence for a random murder.

About poisoning Ikurou’s thumb, he didn’t say what he would be doing while waiting for the food to be prepared which is presumably when the poison would get on him. He also didn’t seem to be touching anything while waiting for the cake to be served. There could be more info in the next file, but right now the lack of clues suggests Gosho is not going this route.

Unless two Baumkuchens were bought and one hidden secretly, the Baumkuchen was indeed cut into 8 equally sized pieces as the police proved. Regarding ensuring Ikurou took a specific cake slice, none of the other pieces had any sign of poison which implies the culprit knew which piece Ikurou would take out of the two closest to him on the plate. The piece Ikurou took looked like the others based on the cut edges of the remaining slices. Unless one piece of the Baumkuchen was bigger or looked bigger than the others, it could not be predicted which of the two pieces closest to Wakamatsu Ikurou would be taken.

There is a way to make piece look bigger than the other: Jastrow Objects. Basically, if you take two equal sized shapes approximating an eighth of an annulus and place them side by side, one looks bigger than the other.

The upper one is actually the same size as the lower although the upper looks bigger

Notice the configuration of the two cake slices on the plate Ikurou took cake from resembles how you would place the objects to achieve the illusion. Using this illusion, you can get Ikurou to take a specific cake slice without having to poison his hand somewhere else in advance because he will think one slice is bigger than the others. You dump the poison capsule on the “inner cake”, and later hide the capsule in the tea like Heiji said.

Now in terms of culprits for this murder. Secretary Satake would be the primary suspect because she instructed the maid to cut the Baumkuchen into 8 equal pieces, and Satake helped arrange the cake on the plates according to housekeeper Yonehara. Shiina Masashige and Fujinami Sumio couldn’t have done it because the cake was uncut when they delivered it and had no way of controlling how or where it was cut and who would be served what pieces. Wakamatsu Serika was nowhere near the cake so she is out. Yonehara Sakurako is difficult to rule out because she was in a position to poison the specific slice of cake as well, however considering Secretary Satake was the one to make the orders about how to cut the cake and Yonehara Sakurako was upset at the death, I think she is less likely than the secretary.

The mystery person at the Karuizawa house and their note

I am still not sure who this person is. I suspect it might be Secretary Satake because she would have to know about illusions for the trick, but it could also be the housekeeper Yonehara Sakurako who was upset and startled that the house was being demolished which means her trick may never get revealed. Either works, depending on if Secretary Satake doesn’t care about being caught which murdering someone in front of detectives may indicate, or Housekeeper Yonehara wants the culprit to be caught and if she kept the Osaka house tidy as Kazuha had noted.

EYE is probably a reference to look for optical illusions. It’s probably the same with “However, there is some doubt that you will be able to properly see me when we do meet. My distorted existence is something thoughtlessly conjured up by humans such as yourself. To see me directly is a fantasy that cannot be realized.”

The trick for the disappearing letters is based on LuckyGuess’ shaded diamond illusion. The tiles are all the same although they appear to go from darker to lighter. You can experiment with the illusion here. Basically the person in the dark swapped the scratched tiles that say EYE and replaced them with plain tiles from below. The word EYE is broken up and hidden among the scratched up tiles. This takes time, 5 minutes maybe to replace each one at a time to ensure it was properly oriented in the dark, and makes eerie rustling sounds as Kazuha heard. Another, faster easier strategy would be to layer the EYE tiles on top of plain tiles, simply pull them off, rub down the area, and leave with the EYE tiles. This trick however, doesn’t explain why there are scratched tiles below the word for eye.

Honestly, this whole mysterious person tile thing seems contrived because this person would have probably failed if the girls came barging over to where this person was (which Heiji would have done), or had a flashlight, or blocked the door so the person couldn’t escape.

Murder of Wakamatsu Kouhei

Here is a preliminary guess at what happened with the murder of Wakamatsu Kouhei. Kouhei was stabbed to death by Satake Yoshimi. We don’t have enough info about the circumstances and alibis so it is hard to tell who could have done what. Maybe next file there will be more info?

I am guessing Kouhei tried to write “secretary”, but only managed as far as “Se”. Wakamatsu Serika saw the letters, thought the husband was implicating her and so panicked. She told the maid to go out and to not tell the others in order to give her time to do something about the message. Ikurou came in saw the letters and also thought Wakamatsu Serika did it. He either helped her replace the tiles or caught her replacing them. Later, Ikurou blackmailed her (she is not his biological mom) saying he would reveal the secret of Serika’s murder if he wasn’t made company president which is why Serika was so acquiescent around him when he began to throw his weight around at the party. It also explains why Serika ordered the demolition of the Karuizawa house where the murder was in order to cover up any evidence and why she is not distraught at the son’s death.

I am guessing Satake Yoshimi’s motive probably relates to the first wife of Wakamatsu Kouhei. Also, I wonder if she is planning a second crime targeting Serika and her finger licking habit and the computer?

[Kyuu Nye 425]

Well.... Chek and I are on the same page with this one. I didn't even read through it all, but it is strikingly similar to what I wrote in the DCTP spoiler box last week and followed up on after I read this latest file.

[Chekhov MacGuffin 1089]

Well.... Chek and I are on the same page with this one. I didn't even read through it all, but it is strikingly similar to what I wrote in the DCTP spoiler box last week and followed up on after I read this latest file.

I must have missed it. I would have like to have seen it, if you have a copy somewhere.

[Kyuu Nye 425]

I must have missed it. I would have like to have seen it, if you have a copy somewhere.

I unfortunately don't keep transcripts of the CBox activity. Funnily enough I thought the trick was based upon an optical illusion before I knew about that particular one, since it is the only thing that makes sense. If the tiles are specially made and there was no luminol reaction, that must mean that the tiles were most likely switched. Which is made easier by the fact that they were recently laid.

My explanations were bare bones though, and not as detailed. We touched upon the same points though.

[Wakarimashita 137]

File 783 chinese : The File!

[Chekhov MacGuffin 1089]

Ten bets Serika gets the axe in the next file. A bunch of people touched stuff or gave stuff to her. It's a setup! My guess is this is going to be a five or six part case.

I wonder what Serika's maiden name is?

[Akazora 292]

783 out in English subs, and the diamond illusion everyone was talking about was correct.

As of right now, there aren't any big surprises.

The case will probably be resolved in the next chapter, or the one after that.

[justwantanaccount 125]

The maid looked at Conan weird . . . is this significant or am I reading too much into it? Hmm.

EDIT: NVM! Sakurako was probably thinking about how the house has the same tiles as where the murder took place, duh!

[hopes 237]

The maid is... Strange.

[Balthazar Manfredie 225]

i did not thought the wife was the killer, but never expected for her to be killed

[justwantanaccount 125]

Sakurako is the CEO's daughter, isn't she? (My inner plot-obsessed self wishes that she was Sera, but that's unlikely, considering how much she knows about the company employees and the CEO's family...)

I don't know, the wife's ~evil laugh~ from the last chapter gave me the impression that she was happy that she's next in line for the CEO and that she got away with the murder, rather than that she wanted to avenge her husband's murder. :\ I thought that she helped the son kill the father, then killed the son herself or something, and was laughing in that everything-went-according-to-my-evil-plans way - I dunno. *shrug*

I was surprised that the son didn't pick the cake based on an optical illusion. I thought for sure that an optical illusion was used, like Chekhov mentioned in her theory, but you never know, I guess.

*Looks back at File 783* Oh man, the maid, the two company employees, and the secretary all gave something to the wife - a cup of tea from the maid, a pen from the manager, a newly-bought eye-drop from the designer, and paperwork from the secretary. I guess we can't figure out who killed the wife until we get more clues in the next chapter.