One afternoon Rachel gets dressed up and sneaks out while Richard is taking a nap on the sofa. Conan asks her where she is going, and Rachel replies that she is going on a date with Jimmy Kudo, but not to tell Richard because he doesn't like Jimmy. A moment after Rachel leaves it occurs to Conan that he is Jimmy, so who is Rachel really going to meet? Conan then wonders why he should care who she is dating, but he immediately takes off after her. When they arrive at a diner Rachel tries to get rid of Conan, but he says he wants to ask Jimmy some questions. Rachel admits that she is not really meeting Jimmy, but someone very important to her. She begs him to go home, and finally decides to bribe him and runs off to buy a cake for Conan to take home and eat. Conan takes a seat in the diner while Rachel is gone and decides to put his detective skills at work finding out who Rachel is going to meet with. He thinks that it will be easy to figure out who it is with his skills.
The first person to walk in is a grumpy woman named Ivonna Marks. She angrily asks for coffee and checks her watch as if she was waiting or pressed for time. The next person is a thin unshaven man named Keith Davidovich who is carrying a stack of books. He asks to be seated somewhere quiet so that he can work on his term paper. Conan rules both of them out since neither one seems a likely candidate. Next a professional looking woman, Eva Kaden, comes in carrying legal documents and tells the waitress she is waiting on someone who hasn't arrived yet. Conan is studying her when she notices and gives him an oddly familiar look. James Tongan, a large man with a bandaged finger, comes in next and starts talking with the owner. He explains how he injured his finger in a rugby match and now he can't wear his wedding ring until it heals. The first woman Ivonna, interrupts their conversation to ask rudely where the bathroom is. She leaves just before the last person comes into the diner. This person, a sleazy long haired guy named Steve Wilson, announces that he is supposed to meet a girl that he met at the television studio the other day. He then jokes with a friend on his cell phone as he puts his greasy hair up into a ponytail about how naive young girls are the best. Conan immediately decides this guy must be the one that Rachel is meeting and ponders kicking the sleazebag across the room.
In the meantime Conan continues to watch the other diners. First James goes to the restroom and returns, then Eva. Conan's observations are suddenly interrupted when the waitress announces that their is a call for a Mr. Edogawa. Conan answers and finds that Rachel will be late getting back from the bakery because a new employee messed up the register. She asks him if anyone is there waiting for her, and Conan says he thinks so. Rachel replies they usually have their hair in a ponytail, and Conan replies that the person just put it up into one. Rachel says that she will be back soon and Conan gets ready to take care of the sleazy guy, but Steve leaves to go to the restroom. As soon as he gets inside they all hear a scream from Steve. Conan and the other diners rush inside and they see blood running under the door of one of the stalls. Conan tries to open the door, and although it is not locked, it will not open. He uses his sneakers to jump up to the top of the door and peer over. Inside a dead Ivonna is slumped against the door with a knife and the strewn contents of her purse laying next to her. Inspector Meguire and the police quickly arrive and cordon off the diner, blocking Rachel outside. She is stuck outside hoping that the person she came to meet wasn't involved.
Meguire explains that it appears that Ivonna was first strangled until unconcious, then stabbed in the heart. He initially thinks that someone snuck through the window, attacked Ivonna when she entered the stall, stabbed her and fled back through the window and down an alley. Conan points out that the window is too clean, but Meguire doesn't understand until Eva explains that if the murderer had used the window it should have blood on it after such a bloody murder. Conan quietly asks Meguire why Eva looks so familiar, and Meguire explains that she is a big attorney who is often in the paper. Meguire tries to counter that the killer might have cleaned himself off, but Eva says someone in such a hurry as to leave the weapon wouldn't have taken the time. She theorizes that someone came over the top of the stalls and killed Ivonna, then washed himself off with the bathroom sink, meaning that the killer was someone in the diner. Meguire is skeptical until she has one of his officers scale the stalls and show that it could be done. He prepares to question the diners about who has been in and out of the restroom during the time of the murder, but Conan explains that he has been watching everything. He tells Meguire that first James, then Keith, Eva, and lastly Steve had went in and discovered the body.
Each of the diners explains to Meguire why they were there, and Meguire decides to see who of them could fit over the stall. Only Eva and Keith turn out to be skinny enough to fit over the wall. When a rope that was used to tie Keith's books together is found at his table, Meguire becomes convinced that Keith used it to strangle Ivonna, but Conan doesn't think that Keith did it because Ivonna came in after Keith did. The only one who came in after Ivonna and could have done it was Eva herself. While Conan muses, an officer prepares to take the bloody knife in a bag back to the lab as evidence. Conan grabs the bag and notices that while there is blood on the blade and the handle, there is no blood under the finger gaurd at all. He then notices that he has some blood on his hand, even though the bag doesn't have any on it. Knowing that the only place he could have touched blood was on the stall, Conan looks and finds blood on top of the stall door. He stops Meguire from taking Keith away and shows him the blood on the door. Meguire figures the fleeing killer left it there, but Conan asked why they would have struggled over the body to get over the door when they could have used the toliet bowl to climb over the stall wall. Eva understands Conan's argument and explains that someone must have strangled Ivonna outside the stall, shoved her over the door, then tied a rope around the knife hilt and stabbed her inside the stall. Pulling the rope over the door is what caused the bloody spot on the top of the door. The only one who could have shoved her body over the door would have been James, but they have no evidence against him.
As Eva is talking, Conan notices that she is wearing a wedding ring and remembers what James said to the owner earlier. James claims that he only was there to talk to the owner, and Conan agrees, saying James was talking to the owner about the bandage on his finger causing him not to be able to wear his wedding ring, and James agrees. Conan then points out that the bandage is not on his ring finger like it was earlier. Eva points out that James must have strangled Ivonna with the bandage and used it to stab her with the knife, then wound it accidently around the wrong finger. James tries to rush Eva, but she puts him down with a Judo throw. James finally admits that he was having an affair with Ivonna, but she was pressuring him to marry her. Since he didn't want his wife to find out about Ivonna, he decided to kill her at the diner. Everyone is finally let out of the diner and Rachel is reunited with Conan. Conan quickly points out that Steve was talking about how naive and young girls were easy, but Rachel blankly tells him that she doesn't know the guy. Serena, who was standing nearby, however, was actually the girl Steve was waiting on and upon hearing Conan's warning she slaps Steve and tells him to buzz off.
The person that Rachel was actually coming to meet turns out to be Eva, her mother. Conan thinks about how it has been ten years since he last saw her, explaining why he didn't recognize her. He remembers being scared of her since he recieved a harsh scolding from her when he was little. Eva greets Rachel and praises Conan, saying that he had practically solved the murder case. Eva then promises to take Rachel shopping for some new clothes, and as they walk Rachel asks Eva why she won't come back to Richard, pointing out that Eva is still wearing her ring. Eva says that her finger has grown too big to take off the ring, but she will never go back to that drunken man. Rachel claims he has changed, but they soon pass a television airing Richard goofing off on his recent television appearance. Eva warns Rachel to never marry a childhood boyfriend detective like she does, prompting Conan to think that if he ever turns into Richard, he will turn himself in.
One rainy night Dr. Agasa looks diligently through his bookcase for something. He finally finds what he is looking for, an old map, rolled up in a book. The next day Dr. Agasa fires up his VW Beetle and takes Conan, Mitch, George, and Amy on a trip out to the country. They excitedly study the treasure map that he has given them and wonder what wonderful riches await them. Conan tries to find out where the map came from and why Dr. Agasa wants them to follow it, but to no avail. When they arrive Dr. Agasa tells them that he is going to fish so they should start on their hunt for the treasure. Conan tells the other children not to get their hopes up, but the three are certain that the map and treasure are real. They set off towards their first objective, an old wooden bridge. After they carefully cross the wildly swaying bridge, they are shocked as the aging ropes give way and the bridge collapses behind them, leaving them stranded. George comments that Conan needs to lose some weight, perhaps not realizing who the fat one is.
Meanwhile a couple of men are discussing a map that looks remarkably similiar to Conan's map. They are discussing how their stash was hidden somewhere a long time ago, but they are having trouble finding it. The compass is no help because it is just aimlessly spinning around. The stockier of the men is very confused because the map shows five trees where they are at, but he only sees four. Conan and the others soon arrive and Conan wonders why two men in suits are out hiking in the woods. He catches a look at their map and is suprised to see that it is the same as his own. After seeing Conan is interested in their map, the two hastily leave the children alone at the trees. At first the children are confused by the missing tree, but Conan points out that they are standing on the stump of the fifth tree. He looks at the number of rings on the stump and determines which way is north. As the kids continue on their journey, the two men hide nearby and discuss the fact that they have the same map. The skinnier man, the leader of the two, says that they should just follow the kids and let them do all the work of figuring out the map.
The next obstacle the kids face is climbing a chain up a steep cliff. They are near the top when George discovers a snake waiting for them on the end of the chain. He falls back, taking the rest with him in a tumble into the creek below. Mitch flails about thinking that he is drowning, but soon discovers that the water was only knee deep. They are all soaked to the skin, but their matches are too soaked to start a fire for them to dry off. Conan, however, takes the reflector cup off of their flashlight and by placing a match in the center dries out the match with focused sunlight. The match lights and they are able to build a fire, bringing Conan much adoration from Amy. They soon dry off and continue their journey, only to find a cliff blocking their path. The first three swing across on a vine hanging from a tree with no problems, but when overweight George swings, the branch holding him breaks and he lands on the three. The next obstacle is a fork in their path. The signpost is laying broken on the ground, and upon studying it, Conan sees that it has been broken recently with a blunt object. Remembering that one of the two men had been carrying a shovel, Conan figures that they broke the sign, but cannot figure out why. They try to read the sign and see which way to go, but they cannot read the faded letters. Amy suggests using a pencil and paper to make a rubbing of the letters, but since they don't have those, conan pours water and soil on the letters to make them stand out. The letters tell them to go east, so Conan uses the position of the sun and his watch to figure out which direction east is. Amy then proclaims that she has never met anyone who is as smart as Conan is, and looking at George Conan can believe it.
They arrive in a field of long grass and Conan studies the last clue on the map. It says that the rocks of the land will lead you to the water of the sky, then to take five steps. There are five stone pillars standing in the field, which account for the rocks of the land, but Conan cannot figure out what the water of the sky is. He climbs on George's shoulders and notices that the pillars are in the shape of a 'W', so he assumes they should walk five steps from the pillar, to no avail. While they hunt around Mitch falls in the tall grass and hits his head on a rock. Conan looks at the rock and discovers that it is part of a pattern of rocks and logs. Climbing into a nearby tree he sees that the pattern is like that of the Big Dipper, the water from the sky. Realizing that the pillars actually form the constellation Cassiopeia. Tracing the handle of the Dipper and the center of the Cassiopeia to where they intersect, they find a stone with P on it, which stands for Polaris, the North Star. Walking five steps from it they come upon a piece of ground which slowly caves in to reveal a hidden staircase and chamber below. They go inside and to Conan's suprise there are two duffel bags full of gems inside. Mitch and George are elated, but the thinner man suddenly shows up with a gun. He explains that this is their stash and if the kids are good they might live. Conan figures that the gems are stolen and the men are theives who hid it there, so things don't look good for the four. He cuts off his flashlight, then uses his sneaker to kick one of the bags of gems into the face of the crook, knocking him out. Conan then carries the other bag up the stairs to where the other crook is waiting with the shovel. Conan says that the other man asked him to give him this, then kicks the bag into that crook, knocking him out as well.
Looking back into the chamber, they find an old chest sitting in the back. Inside there is only a old peice of paper. It says that the treasure that they have sought are the memories of figuring out the map and of their adventures that day. Their treasure is what they have done that day and the people that they did it with. Although they may not understand now, the people beside them and the stories they now have are the things to be remembered. What suprises Conan the most what is written at the bottom, Booker K. 1978 10 10, which is his father. Conan leaves his own name, Jimmy K. 1996 10 10, below it, and they return to Dr. Agasa to alert him of the criminals. The police are called and the crooks taken away, but Conan is stumped as to why they had the same map as his father left. The four eat, sleep, and relax after their long day. Later Conan learns that the draft of his father's novel was stolen years ago, shortly after Conan was born, but no one knew who did it. The draft is recovered from the crook's place, explaining where the map came from. The crooks had apparantly used the map in the book to hide their stolen gems years ago, but forgot how to find it over the years. Conan reflects as he looks at the book dedicated to him that this is more valuable than any treasure. He is grateful to Dr. Agasa and his father to be reminded that he is never too old for an adventure.
Conan and Rachel are walking in the woods looking for Serena's mountain villa. Rachel gets them a bit lost, but suddenly they come upon a swinging bridge that spans a deep gorge in front of the house. To their suprise, a man wearing a black overcoat and bandages on his face is standing on the bridge, but flees when they approach. The two just figure that he must be a groundskeeper and continue on to the villa. Once they arrive, Serena chews them out for being late when she has stocked her parent's villa with eligible bachelors. She also complains about Conan, asking why Rachel brought a little guppy along when she has stocked big fish. Serena explains that her sister arranged a reunion with her old team at film school, and everyone is already up in their rooms. Serena then tells them that their room is upstairs down the hall, but when they get there they find row of doors and no clue as to which is theirs. Rachel opens three doors and finds a half dressed guy behind each before she finds her own room. Conan wryly suggests that she try knocking next time.
Everyone soon meets up downstairs and Rachel is introduced to everyone there. Serena first introduces the three guys. The first is Mitchel, a good looking guy who used to be their leading actor, next is their cameraman Randall, a muscular guy who always is taping something, and finally she introduces Felix, an overweight set designer. The only two women, besides Serena and Rachel, are Angie, Serena's sister and the old makeup artist, and Jessica, a successul writer-director who had won an award for her movie Blue Kingdom. Randall comments that none of them have really changed except for Felix, who has gained about fifty pounds. As they continue to reminisce, Angie looks sad and comments that she wished that Emily could have been there. Jessie becomes agitated and says she came to unwind, not to talk about someone who has been dead for two years. Angie then decides to go start dinner while Felix works on patching the leaky roof since it is supposed to rain that night. Randall suggests that the rest of them play cards, but Jessie says that she is going for a walk outside, leaving him to chase after her. It starts storming hard almost as soon as they leave the house, but Jessie keeps going with Randall behind. Meanwhile, in the house, Michel starts hitting on Rachel. Since Serena has the hots for the handsome actor, both her and Conan are completely infuriated by this move. Michel quickly convinces Rachel to go for a walk in the rain with him, and Serena and Conan sneak along behind them. In the woods Rachel explains to Michel that she has a boyfriend, but Michel says that Jimmy doesn't act like a real boyfriend and tries to kiss her. Before he can, lighting strikes nearby, giving the flustered Rachel an excuse to scream and run away deeper into the woods. Conan and Serena chase after her, but she disappears in the storm.
Rachel soon stops running and finds herself lost in the woods. She doesn't know that the bandaged man is watching her from the shadows until he suddenly springs forth with an axe. Rachel manages to dodge his blow and screams, quickly bringing Conan and Serena to her. Seeing that help has arrived, the bandaged man runs off in the direction of the villa, and the three make their way back as well. When they return, they find that no one else saw the man come by, though a couple remember seeing him hanging near the bridge earlier when they first arrived. Angie decides to call the police, but there is no dial tone, due to either the storm or to the line being cut. Felix freaks out, certain they will all be murdered, and runs from the villa. They chase after him, only to discover the way out is gone. The bridge over the deep gorge is hanging down from the other side, leaving them stranded. Michel suggests the bridge was just old, but Conan points out the chop marks on the posts, showing that the ropes were cut by someone. Jessie becomes angry when Felix continues to freak out, saying the man probably just wants them to squirm. She returns to the house with Angie and says that she may have been harsh, but they needed to grow backbones. As she is going into her room she picks up a note shoved under the door and looks shocked, but then she tells Angie that she is just exhausted and that she will pass on dinner and go to bed.
After everyone returns to the house, Conan asks Angie about Emily. She explains that Emily was part of their team back in film school. She always seemed happy, but two years ago they found that she had hanged herself in her room. She then asks Conan not to talk about it anymore. While she goes to get dinner ready, Felix goes up to finish fixing the roof. When dinner is ready he has just returned through the upstairs window when he sees something outside. Felix yells that the man is down by the window, and for him to get away from there. The rest suddenly see the bandaged man, carrying Jessie, go running by the front window. The guys, including Conan, quickly give chase, and soon they find a severed leg, followed by a severed arm. Randall frantically runs on and trips over the badly mutilated body of Jessie. As he picks her up, her head falls off, confirming that she is dead. They guys then return and confirm that Jessie has been killed. While Randall thinks the man is a maniac who will kill anyone who is in his way, Mitchel says he is just a coward who won't bother them now that they know his game. He suggests they just lock up and go to bed for the night. Serena, Conan, and Rachel take care of locking all the downstairs doors and windows. They are scared, but Conan points out that Jessie was killed with her shoes on, so she went outside by herself, so the bandaged man was probably never in the house. While they are locking the front door, Conan notices that Jessie's slippers are missing from the cabinet. They check the back door and find her slippers sitting there, and that mud has been tracked in. Conan asks if anyone would have used this door, and Serena replies that her sister would have used it much earlier to turn the propane tank out back on. Conan wonders why Jessie would have went out the back door since she was a guest and concludes that she obviously didn't want to be seen leaving.
Conan and Rachel go up to their room and Rachel carefully locks their window while Conan puzzles over Jessie's behavior. He wonders why the bandaged man carried her by the front window if he grabbed her beind the house, unless he wanted everyone to see him. As he ponders in bed, Rachel gets up from her bed and joins him, saying that this way she won't worry about him. With the sleeping Rachel's lips just inches from him, Conan finds himself unable to focus on about the killer's behavior and just lies there. Suddenly the window opens and he realizes that the bandaged man is in the room. Conan kicks Rachel out of the way as the man's axe swings down where she was sleeping. Rachel falls to the floor still asleep, and the man disregards Conan as he prepares to strike at her again. Conan leaps on the man to stop him, but the man throws Conan against the wall, badly hurting his ankle. Conan screams at Rachel, but she remains asleep. Seeing his bowtie next to him, Conan turns it's volume up all the way and screams, "Rachel wake up! Rachel this isn�t a dream, its him hes in our room!" She finally wakes up and upon seeing the man, starts screaming. Serena rushes to the door and beats on it, scaring the bandaged man into running away out the open window. Conan attempts to follow, but he is unable to rise due to his injured ankle. He wonders why the man wants to kill Rachel and what the connection is between her attacks and Jessie's death.
After Rachel opens the door, everyone rushes in to see what's wrong. Rachel explains that they were attacked and they see that Conan is hurt. Felix asks if Conan's ankle is broken, but after inspecting him they determine it is only sprained. Wondering how the bandaged man got in with the window locked, they find that he used a glass cutter to open the lock on the window. Outside is a long balcony with a large tree next to it, which they figured he climbed to reach the balcony. Conan wonders how the killer came inside and left without leaving a trace of leaves, mud, or water in the room, since it is still storming outside. After this latest attack, they all decide to stay together down in the dining room until morning. Rachel picks up the injured Conan and carries him piggyback, to his embarrasment. As they go downstairs, Conan notices something sticking out of Angie's pocket and realizes it is Jessie's choker. She explains that she found it laying next to the front door while the guys were out chasing after the bandaged man and Jessie. Conan knows something is wrong with this scenario, since he is sure that Jessie was still wearing her choker when she was carried by the window earlier. The choker should have been found outside, not inside at the front door.
After everyone gathers in the dining room, Serena asks Rachel why she didn't just kick the bandaged man. Rachel replies that she just froze up because she was so creeped out by the guy. Michel tells her that it's six to one, so she will be safe, prompting Conan to kick him in the shin for leaving him out. Michel says that Conan is too young to be any help, but Rachel reminds him that Conan saved her life all by himself already. Neither Rachel or Conan could see the man's face for all the bandages, but Conan remembers that the man's body wasn't skinny, but it wasn't fat either. He then thinks to check Randall's video camera to see if he had filmed Jessie and the man running by outside. He watches the video and confirms that Jessie still had her choker around her neck at the time. He concludes that the only way the choker could have ended up at the front door is if someone inside the house murdered Jessie and carried her out that way. He asks Angie, as the last person to see Jessie alive, if she had noticed anything strange. Angie recalls how Jessie recieved a note that seemed to upset her before she went to her room. Conan figures that whatever was in the note made Jessie take pains to go outside unnoticed, even though there was an attacker on the loose. He thinks that the only way she would do that is if the note was from someone she knew and trusted. Conan still can't figure out what all this has to do with Rachel, however, since she just met them all when she arrived.
Conan then remembers how Rachel accidently opened the door on all the guys when they were changing earlier. He asks her if she saw anything strange, but she says no, she closed the doors as fast as she could. She does remember something didn't seem quite right, but she cannot remember what it was. Just then the lights go off, and they are not sure if the killer did it or if it was just the storm. Rachel, Angie, and Conan decide to make a trip to the kitchen to fetch some candles while the rest wait together in the dining room. As they are returning, they hear a noise from the dining room. Rachel senses something behind her and kicks out, knocking Conan from his perch on her back. They see the head of the axe laying embedded in the floor, broken from it's handle by Rachel's kick. As Conan wonders why this guy keeps coming after Rachel, they hear a noise in the dining room and Serena scream. They rush in and find that the upstairs window has been smashed in. Conan inspects the window and finds one side was unlocked, which is odd since if the killer had came through the window by smashing it, the window would still be securely locked. He decides the killer came from inside, shut the window, then smashed it and came back inside, a decidedly bold move. As he is looking at the window, Conan then notices two deep grooves in the wooden balcony railing outside, but is unable to figure out what they are from. He racks his brain trying to figure out what Rachel might have seen to cause the killer to fixate on her, then finally figures out the one person who made all the puzzles make sense.
Conan attempts to put Rachel out with his stun watch, but accidently hits Serena instead. Using what he has, Conan sets his bowtie to her voice and explains that he just figured out who the killer is. Michel says they know who it is, the bandage man who is running around out there, and Conan asks if they are sure the man doesn't just want them to think he is outside when he is really in with them. He asks how the killer would have came in from the storm and not left even a trace of dirt on the light carpet in Rachel's room. Conan theorizes that the killer went through Jessie's vacant room out to the balcony, then came in through Rachel's window. When he fled he merely ran back through her room, changed, then rushed in with the rest. Michel asks if it was one of them, how did he carry Jessie's body out to the woods when everyone was inside the house at the time. Conan explains that the killer was not really outside when he appeared carrying Jessie by the window. Jessie had already been killed before they saw her charried off, and the killer merely stood on the balcony and guided a wooden dummy of the bandaged man carrying Jessie past using guide wires made of piano wire. After the dummy passed by the window, the killer cut the guide wire and pulled her body and the dummy back up to the balcony. The wires were what caused the deep grooves on the balcony. Conan then announces that the only one who could have done it was Felix, since he was familiar with stage props and he was the only one on the second floor at the time. Michel protests that if Felix had done it, then how did the body end up in the woods when they ran out. Felix was running right behind them and he certainly was not carrying a body with him.
Conan then points out that the choker was found inside by the front door, meaning Felix had carried Jessie downstairs and out the front door. The way he managed to do it was that he hacked Jessie's head off before time, then had the dummy carrying just the head. The dummy's cloak appeared to hide the rest of her body, so all they saw was her head and they assumed the rest was still attached. Felix then carried the head out with him and replaced it at the body when they were in the woods. Felix says it couldn't have been him, but doesn't explain why. Conan explains that perhaps he doesn't want to say that he is too fat to have been the midsized bandaged man. He was scared that they might wonder if he was really overweight. Conan says that Felix hid the head under his clothes after killing Jessie, then came inside and staged the dummy sighting with the head. He then stuck the head back under his shirt, dropping the choker out as he ran out the front door. He then pretended to drop behind in the woods so that he could replace the head with the body without them noticing. The reason that Felix was after Rachel was that Rachel had seen him for an instant without his fake fat stomach when he was changing earlier. By the time she met him downstairs, she didn't realize that he had doubled in stature, but Felix couldn't take the chance that she would remember. The reason that Felix cut the phone lines and the bridge was to make sure Rachel didn't get away after Jessie's murder and remember what she had seen. The only mystery that is left is what the note that lured Jessie out said.
Felix finally admits that he did it. He explains that Jessie was the cause of Emily's suicide two years before. Emily had once shown him a manuscript for a novel she had written, which was really good. When Jessie's movie Blue Kingdom came out, he was shocked to see that it was the same almost word for word as Emily's manuscript. The day after Jessie won a screenwriter's award for the movie, Emily had called him crying and saying that she could never trust anyone again. They later found her dead of suicide, and Felix was sure it was because of Jessie stealing her work. Felix then pulls a knife and holds it to his neck, saying that he will now follow Emily. Conan tells him to quit being so valiant, he did more than just avenge Emily, he also tried to kill the innocent Rachel. Jessie may have been a cold hearted theif, but he is an axe murderer, something much worse. Felix drops the knife at the accusation, and the first rays of the sun pour through the windows, ending their long fearful night. Conan reflects to himself that the real killer, revenge, is still out their poisening men's hearts to seek darkness. A week later Rachel, Serena, and a healed Conan are taking a walk back in the city. Rachel asks Serena how she figured out the murder, and Serena quickly recovers and says that she is a genius and a real detective, and Jimmy had gotten his one truth line from her. Conan silently thinks that Serena still hadn't learned to never take credit for someone else's work.
After school Mitch and George are excitedly talking about the big battle between Greenman and the Battler on that night's episode of Masked Yaiba. Conan notices that Amy is unusually quiet and asks her what's wrong. Amy responds that she has a baby tooth that won't fall out, so she is going to the dentist that afternoon to have it pulled by Dr. Keeler. She explains that her appointment is for 6:30 and Dr. Keeler is seeing her after hours because she is worried about Amy's tooth. Conan decides to walk Amy to the dentist because she is nervous and needs company. When they arrive Amy goes around to the back entrance next to Dr. Keeler's car since the clinic is closed. When Dr. Keeler answers the door, she is suprised to see Conan there. Amy explains that he is Conan and he came to keep her company and walk her home afterwards. Dr. Keeler replies that she has heard much of Conan and his famous detective friend Richard from Amy. She then tells Conan that he can go on home because she is going to drive Amy home after the procedure herself. Amy is sad as Conan leaves because she is nervous and scared, but she is cheered up by the sight of a deck of Masked Yaiba playing cards in the waiting room. While Dr. Keeler prepares the room, Amy slips the Ace of Hearts in her pocket for good luck, thinking it will watch over here like the Masked Yaiba watches over the innocent.
The scene cuts to a man talking over the phone about selling a condo no matter what problems it has. He then hears the doorbell ringing and hangs up to go answer it. When he opens the door, someone stabs what looks like an awl into his chest, killing him. The next day in class, the kids discuss the man who was murdered in his apartment. Conan recalls seeing the murder of a real estate agency president in the paper that morning, and Amy reveals that the manager of the victim's condo and his neighbor Dr. Keeler were the ones who found the body. The police inspector asked her some questions since they estimated that the death occurred around 7:30 that evening and Keeler had said she was with Amy at the clinic at that time. Amy tells them that her tooth was pulled by 7:00, but she stayed and watched the Masked Yaiba on the TV at the clinic. When George brings up the big fight near the end, Amy becomes upset and explains that she missed that part because she fell asleep halfway through. They think that is strange and Conan asks her to remember what happened. She thinks back and says that the tooth pulling didn't hurt much, but she was sleepy afterwards, which Dr. Keeler said was normal. Dr. Keeler suggested that she take a nap in the waiting room while Dr. Keeler got ready to leave. When Amy explains that she wanted to watch the Masked Yaiba that evening at 7:30, Dr. Keeler assured her that she would wake Amy up when it started and she could watch it on the big TV there. Dr. Keeler woke her up as the show was coming on and gave her some pills to keep her mouth from being sore after the medication wore off. Dr. Keeler then left the room again and Amy thanked the card for bringing her luck and returned it to the deck. She then fell asleep again and was awoken by Dr. Keeler as the show was going off. Amy was upset at having fallen asleep again, but Dr. Keeler explains she tried to wake Amy up during the show, but couldn't. She then took Amy home and they got there about 8:05. George tells Amy that they will find someone who recorded the show for her, which sets Conan thinking.
When Conan returns home he finds Inspector Meguire there talking with Richard. Meguire explains that Dr. Keeler arrived home at 8:30 and was bothered by the TV blaring from her neighbor Burt Barnes' apartment. She got the condo manager, and when he opened the door they found Barnes dead. He then explains that twenty six years ago Barnes was accused of kidnapping and murdering a nine year old paper boy, but he was freed because of insufficient evidence. He says that Dr. Karen Keeler was the seven year old sister of the boy, but she claimed not to have known who Barnes was when she moved into the condos. Meguire says that it takes at least fifteen minutes to go from the condos to the clinic, so with Amy's assertion that Dr. Keeler was at the clinic with her at 7:30, Dr. Keeler has an airtight alibi. Conan asks if the time of death could be wrong, but Meguire explains that the person Barnes was on the phone with heard the killer ringing the doorbell over the phone at that time.
Richard decides that he has figured out Keeler's plan, and they head down to the clinic. He then accuses Keeler of putting Amy to sleep while she left and killed Barnes, recording the show while she was gone, then showing Amy the recorded show around 8:00 In order to get Amy home on time, Keeler must have put her to sleep again, fast forwarded the show to the end, then woke her up. His idea is ruined when they find that Dr. Keeler doesn't have a VCR, and furthermore she got Amy home at 8:05, so there wasn't time to show her even the fast forwarded tape. Dr. Keeler tells Richard that she is a well respected professional, so he needs to check his facts before damaging her reputation. An embarrassed Meguire and Richard leave the clinic, but Conan leaves them and sets off on his own to the scene of the crime. As he walks he thinks of the three tricks to fabricating an alibi. The first one, getting someone to lie, is out because the witness is Amy. The second one, faking the time, is also out because of the phone call. The third one is to fake the place of the crime, which is the only avenue Conan has left to explore.
He arrives at the condos and finds that one area is under construction, but appears to have been abandoned halfway finished. He notes that someone could have easily entered the complex without being seen by parking in this area. He then sees a window with the same curtains as the clinic and decides that has to be Keeler's apartment. He finally figures out how Dr. Keeler did it, and figures that there must still be some evidence in the apartment. That evening he stops by to talk with Dr. Keeler. He says that he was just passing by and wants to talk with her. She invites him up and Conan notices that there is a deck of Masked Yaiba cards on her coffee table. He then comments that she got rid of the fridge, calender, and the clock, but she hadn't moved the TV yet since it was so large and expensive. He then says that she was right not to move the table and sofa yet to avoid suspicioun, but she should have at least changed the curtains. He tells her that he has figured out that she tricked Amy into thinking that she was watching the show at the clinic when she was really at the apartment. She transported Amy from the clinic by knocking her out with anesthesia once the tooth was pulled. She then killed Barnes and turned his TV up so that someone would soon find him and the police would be able to get a good estimate of his time of death. She then went back to her apartment, woke up Amy as the show started, then put her out again with the pills. Keeler then took Amy back to the clinic, where Amy woke up at the end of the show, none the wiser, and was taken home. Dr. Keeler challenges Conan's theory, saying that he has no proof.
Conan tells her that she doesn't know that Amy pocketed a Masked Yaiba card for luck during the tooth pulling. Amy then returned the card when the show was starting. He says that if Dr. Keeler is innocent, there should be only one Ace of Hearts in her deck. He then looks through and finds both Ace of Hearts and says that Amy's fingerprints are undoubtably on one of them. She asks who he has told about this, and he tells her that the only people who know are in the room. She shakes in rage, then goes to the window and explains that she witnessed Barnes force her older brother into a car and drive off all those years ago, but the prosecuters wouldn't move ahead with only her testimony as evidence. They dropped the case because she was only seven. She tells him that Barnes got away with it completely, but if Conan had been there maybe he could have gotten him. Conan realizes that she lost her peace twenty six years ago, and it had taken her all this time to reclaim it. The next day Conan is at home with Richard and Rachel when Richard tells them that even though she had a perfect alibi and would have gotten away with it, Dr. Keeler had confessed that morning. Conan suggests she didn't want to get away with it since she had picked Amy for the plan, knowing that Amy was friends with the famous detective Richard. He then reflects that she didn't want to get away with it, just to be set free.
One afternoon a young woman arrives at Richard's office and tells him that she is trying to find someone. Her name is Nora Odell, and she is looking for a man named Trent Cook, whom she met him on a trip to the mountains. She says they only met for a weekend, but they became very close. Richard figures that she must be in love with the man, but she becomes very red at this, and Conan notices that her hands are shaken. He wonders why Nora seems so nervous. Nora then shows Richard a sketch of Trent and his red sports car, as well as the license number of the car. Conan sneaks a look at the drawing and is suprised that the man in the sketch looks so mean. After Richard agrees to help, she thanks him and leaves. Richard plans to go to the DMV and look up the plate numbers and leaves as well. Conan then comments to Rachel that the sketch of the man is very unflattering, so he doesn't think Nora likes the man at all. Rachel suggests that he stay out of her father's business. Conan happens to catch sight of Nora's address, 398 Summerset, in Richard's papers, then notices that she left her hankerchief there. Determined to learn more about her, Conan takes off by himself to return it to her.
When he arrives and presents her with her hankercheif, she thanks him and leaves him in the living room while she makes him a cup of cocoa in the kitchen. He tells her that she has a very nice apartment, then says she must have a good job to afford it. She tells him that she worked at an investment firm, but she got sick and is now taking a little break. Conan takes a look around the room while she is gone and notices a container of kerosene and a can of mace sitting around. He then sees a picture of a young man surrounded by potted cactuses that is dated May 19th, and is looking at him when Nora returns. She calls him Mr. Nosey and tells him that the picture is of an old boyfriend who she had a happy relationship with until he suddenly left one day. Conan replies that he looks like a nice guy, unlike the man in her sketch, but she quickly shifts topics onto how cute Conan is. Between all the cheek squeezing and being called cute, Conan is unable to learn anything more and soon leaves to go home.
The next day Conan, Mitch, Amy, and George are going to the aquarium on a train. Conan thinks about how Richard tried to find Trent Cook with the DMV, but the guy had already moved. He then Conan notices Nora walking past at the station wearing a black dress and carrying flowers as if she is going to a funeral. He hops off and follows her to a cemetary, where she prays and places the flowers at a grave. Conan watches from behind a nearby tombstone and sees that the grave is new, so whoever she is mourning died recently. A man approaces Nora and asks her how she is feeling. She says great thanks to his therapy, then declines his offer to drive her home, saying she has stuff to do. After she leaves, Conan approaches the man, who introduces himself as James, Nora's doctor. Conan asks who the grave is for, and James explained that it was a man named Terry, his best friend and Nora's fiancee, who had died that June. Conan figures that Terry has to have been the man in Nora's picture and asks why he died so young. James explains that Terry died after his car flipped over on a trip to the mountains with Nora. Conan tells James that he is investigating with Richard something involving Nora, and James admits that a couple driving a red sports car driving recklessly caused the accident that killed Terry. He then tells Conan that when Nora was still in the hospital recovering from the accident, an investigator explained to her that even if they found the couple, since the car didn't actually hit them there was little they could do. When Nora heard that, she suddenly couldn't remember the plate number or make of the car, even though she had known them earlier.
Conan reflects that Nora had remembered everything perfectly when she gave it to Richard. He figures that she didn't want the police involved after learning they couldn't do anything, so she must be planning to get revenge herself. James tells him that she had went through her physical rehabiltation much faster than usual, and Conan thinks that her anger must have spurred her on. Conan explains this to James and tells him they need to get to her apartment at once. They hop in James's car and race off while Conan hopes that Richard hasn't called her with the man's address yet. As they are driving, Conan feels a sharp prick, and finds a cactus needle in his seat. James explains that Terry used to collect Schlumbergera cactuses, and he had brought them over to his house to care for them after Terry's death. Conan gets an idea after remembering that Schlumbergera were also known as Christmas Cactuses and asks James to go by his own apartment first. When they arrive Conan tries to call Nora's apartment, but there is no answer, even though she should be waiting to hear from Richard. He then calls Richard and learns that he had already given the address to Nora. After demanding the address and explaiining Nora is seeking revenge, Conan and James gather some of Terry's cacti and rush off toward Trent Cook's house.
As Nora drives to the address Richard gave her, she remembers meeting Terry when she started working with him, their late night work sessions, and when he proposed to her one night at dinner. She then remembers the mocking couple in the red car as they ran off the road and flipped over. Some people dragged her out of the car, but where unable to get him out before the car burst into flames. As Jame's car heads towards the same destination, Conan tries to figure out how she plans to kill the couple. He asks James if Terry died instantly, and James tells him that Terry was still alive after the crash, then burned to death inside. Conan realizes that it was gasoline, not kerosine in the container at her apartment, and that she plans to light the two on fire.
Nora soon arrives and finds the couple on the roof of their apartment. She cuts off their stereo and they turn and recognize her. They protest that the wreck wasn't their fault, but she says that they killed Terry, and now it's their turn. She sprays the man's eyes with her mace and says she will burn them alive. The woman then rushes Nora with the chisel just as James's and Richard's car arrives. They hear a scream from the rooftop and rush up to find the couple blinded by the mace and covered in gasoline. Nora attempts to light the gas even though Richard yells that she will be burned up as well. She responds that her life ended the day Terry died anyways. Conan then rushes up balancing several potted cactuses and catches her attention. He explains that they are called Christmas cactuses becaus they bloom beautifully only in the winter, and are thus often given as gifts. Nora remembers that the cactuses were Terry's babies and James reveals that the rest are at his apartment. He tells her that he was angered by Terry's death as well, but the beautiful blossoms took his anger away. She finally comes over, crying, and hugs one of the cactuses. The next day the other children tell Conan that he missed a great time at the aquarium because George had fallen in the dolphins tank, and Conan calls him a living legend, while remembering that Jimmy Kudo used to be called that.
Conan is hanging out at Dr. Agasa's lab complaining about how he is no closer to finding out who the two men in black who drugged him were. Dr. Agasa tells Conan to be patient, since if the men find out he is still alive they may try to kill either him or Rachel and Richard. The chemical that Dr. Agasa is working with then explodes, prompting Conan to take off and try to shake the depression he is feeling. As he is walking along he notices Richard trying to hide while he watches a man wearing a coat in a shop. Conan walks over to him and asks him what he's doing and Richard shushes him, explaining that he has been hired to follow the coated man for three days. Richard then tells Conan to go on home and tell Rachel that he won't be home for dinner. That night Conan and Rachel are watching a nearby village fire festival on the tv. At the festival, a huge bonfire is burning a tower of sticks. As the spectators gasp in horror, the flaming remains of a corpse suddenly emerges from the bottom of the woodpile. The next day Richard is gloating over the fact that he recieved five thousand for watching the man for three days. Rachel says that Richard is finally being recognized for his skills, and that things have been going better since Conan arrived, so he must be good luck. Richard then asks how long Conan is staying there since he was just supposed to be there while his parents were in the hospital. Rachel replies that Dr. Agasa recently told her that they were out of the hospital, but they had to rush overseas on important business to pay off their medical bills. Richard hopes they will return soon or at least pay him for Conan's expenses.
The news suddenly announces that the body of a man named Abraham Yancy was found the night before at the fire festival, suprising Richard since the man was the one Richard had been tailing. The three then go down to the station so Richard can give a statement to Inspector Meguire. Conan and Rachel sit outside while Richard learns about the case from Meguire. He learns that Yancy's friend, a man named Mark Newman, is the one who hired him to follow Yancy. He also learns that Newman had a five million dollar life insurance policy on Yancy and is the sole beneficiary. Newman explains that the two had policy's on one another as a kind of game, so that at least one of them would be a millionare before they died. They had been friends since college and had set up the policies as a sudden death sweepstakes, but neither had planned on the other dying until they were old. He then explains that he had Richard following Yancy because Yancy had revealed that he thought someone was out to get him because of his business dealings. Richard doesn't believe Newman, but without any evidence they have to let him go.
Outside, Richard explains to Rachel and Conan the details of the case and that he is certain that Mark Newman is the killer, but Newman has an airtight alibi. Richard had been following Yancy until Saturday night, and his body was found on Sunday night, so he had to have been killed either late saturday night or sometime early on sunday. Newman was on a business trip out of town saturday and sunday, which he has witnesses and pictures to prove, so he couldn't have done it. Richard remains certain that Newman did it, while Conan wonders how Newman got around this alibi. The next day Richard arrives home grumpy because Newman had recieved his money and he had a load of pictures showing that he was on his business trip all weekend. Conan takes a look and points out that there are two faces in every single picture, one Newman's and the other the faces of clocks. Richard agrees, seeing that the pictures were staged to give a perfect alibi, then realizes that everytime he is stuck on a case, Conan points something out that helps. He forgets his line of thought when Conan accidently pours the photos from Richard's tailing job into the pile of Newman's trip pictures and pounds Conan on the head. Rachel then asks how they know it was really Yancy that was burned, and Richard explains they found his drivers license laying nearby and the dental records were then matched up. Conan reflects that most murderers would try to hide their crimes,but this one was done so that the body would be found and identified easily, and the only person who could have benefited from that would be Newman.
Conan decides that he must be missing something that disproves Newman's alibi. He takes another look through the pictures and notices that in some Yancy is left handed, and in some he is right handed. He arranges them and sees that the Yancy was left handed Thursday and Friday, but became right handed on Saturday. Richard then noogies Conan for messing with the pics and laments that Newman just paid off a 3 million dollar business debt with the money, and was going abroad with the other 2 million. Conan decides he needs to get Newman to confess and rushes off. He phones the house with his voice disguised as Meguire's and tells Richard to go to the airport to stop Newman from leaving. Conan then calls Meguire with Richard's voice and says that he has figured out how Newman did it and to meet up at the airport. Conan rides along with Richard and Rachel to the airport, but they find it very busy and Meguire still hasn't show up. Conan knows that Newman will escape soon, so he needs to put some heat on the man. Conan sneaks off and has Newman paged by Abraham Yancy to the main parking lot. Newman hears the page and nervously goes out to the lot while a befuddeled Meguire meets up with Richard inside. When Newman arrives outside, Conan's voice tells him that he killed and stashed Yancy Friday night, before he left on his trip. He then hired a look alike for Richard to trail on saturday, but didn't know the look alike was right handed, unlike Yancy. Newman searches the lot and finds Conan sitting on a nearby car. Conan says that he heard about the case and had made the deductions on his own, then asks Newman to turn himself in.
Newman says that Conan is quite the little detective and that he admits to killing Yancy, but he won't turn himself in when he is ready to go live abroad with 2 million and the police won't be able to prove anything. Conan then reveals that he was taping Newman's confession and Newman springs on him and begins choking him, saying that he has already killed once for this money, another death will mean nothing to him. Conan manages to bite Newman's hand, prompting the angry man to throw him against a nearby truck hard enough that a tire rolls out of the bed. Conan then turns on his sneaker and kicks the tire into Newman's face, knocking him out. Conan then says that he got what he deserved, and that one was for Yancy. The police soon find Newman laying out in the parking lot with a tire mark on his face and the tape recorder sitting on his chest, but Conan has already disappeared. Later Richard is suspicios since he heard Newman mutter that little brat did this to me, but Rachel says that Conan is not a brat, but he is no detective either.
Rachel, Richard, and Conan have been invited to the birthday party of Reika Gilmore, the daughter of the billionare CEO of Gilmore Enterprises because Richard had recently solved a case for Reika. After they sing and clap for Reika, her father thanks everyone for coming and recognizes their celebrity guest Richard, who solved a complicated case. Richard, meanwhile, is gorging on the free food and wine and embarrassing Rachel and Conan. Conan is at first suprised that Richard solved a case on his own until he learns that it was just finding Reika's lost dog. A young man wearing glasses soon comes up and introduces himself as Donald Hibler, a huge fan of Richard's. He is quickly joined by a blonde man named Steve Sloan, who says Richard is the greatest. A dark haired man with a pony tail named Quentin Mifune then comes up and says that they are all just kissing up and there is nothing special about Richard. Another young man, Michael admits that he had wanted to meet Richard, but now is dissapointed by him. A older man named Dirk Copeland then claims that Richard just acts dimwitted to put others at ease and gather information. The conversation then turns to Reika, and Quentin explains that whoever wins her hand will also be the next president of Gilmore Enterprises. Conan then leaves to go to the bathroom, but is suprised when the light doesn't come on. The elderly owner of the house, Nonee, finds him and directs him to a bathroom with a working light.
As the party winds up, the valet comes in and announces that Reika, Donald, Steve, Michael, Quentin, and Dirk's tires have all been slashed, but none of the other cars, including Richard's rental car, have been touched. Reika announces that she is not going to ride with strangers on her birthday, so she will just stay with Nonee for the night. The men whose tires were slashed decide to stay with her to make sure she is safe, and Dirk, a trusted friend of Mr. Gilmore, stays to make sure she is safe from them. As they are going back inside, Conan happens to hear Steve mutter that Reika's future husband was decided on two years ago. Richard, meanwhile, is too drunk to drive home, so they get him some coffee. Reika then wants to play cards, but Quentin decides that he will give Richard, Rachel, and Conan a ride home. He tells her that he was just there to put in an appearance with her father and get some business for his company. Reika then slaps Richard's keys out of his hand and tells Quentin not to be suprised if her father never did business with him again. She then leaves to change and tells them that they are like hungry little birds, but she will feed them all. After she leaves, they talk about how they all used to happily belong to a yacht club and they would take Reika's cruiser to a private island up until an accident two years ago, at which point they resolve not to bring it up anymore. Dirk then notices that Reika has been gone for a long time and asks Nonee to go check on her. Nonee soon returns and says she cannot find Reika. They all split up and search the house, but are unable to find her, prompting them to look outside. They then take off into the woods in several groups to look for her. Richard, Rachel, and Conan end up near the house, where they see Steve slumped over the edge of the fountain. Richard pulls at him, and they are horrified to see that he has been drowned in the fountain. Rachel screams, drawing the other groups to the fountain.
Richard tells them that Steve's head was held under water by someone until he died. He figures that it had to have been one of the guests who did it, since it was done in just the last few minutes. Quentin mentions that the only one not there was Reika, and she has a glacier for a heart. Nonee protests that while Rieka is a brat, she is not a killer. They then try to call the cops only to find that the lines have been cut and their cell phones don't have a signal at the remote house. Richard decides to drive his car to the police station, but they find that someone has now slashed all four of his tires, stranding them all at the house. Conan observes that most killers would try to make them flee, but this one wants them to stay, suggesting that he will kill again. They go inside and Nonee and Rachel go to the kitchen to make coffee for everyone. Nonee cannot find the sugar in the cabinets, so while they are looking for it someone drops something in one of the coffee cups. They soon return to the family room where everyone has gathered and Conan asks what exactly happened two years ago, since Steve had mentioned Reika's husband being determined then. They explain that while they were anchored to the small island one day, a huge storm suddenly arose. Everyone swam to the crusier except for Reika and Steve, who refused to leave. One of their group then went after them in a life raft since the island was flooding, but after the storm only Reika and Steve survived because they were wearing life jackets. The body of the girl was found drowned three days later. The girl, Sonya, turned out to be Nonee's grandaughter
Richard suggests they search the house for Reika again before they get too cozy, but they need to stay in groups. Rachel, however, has become very drowsy, so Nonee volunteers to stay with her in the family room and watch over her while she sleeps. The rest search all over the house, and Richard even sarcastically looks in one of the microwaves in the kitchen. After they have searched the entire first floor, the power suddenly goes off and Conan hears a bell, then the sounds of breaking glass. Everyone rushes down to the breakers in the basement, and after the lights are restored they find a window has been broken out and figure the killer must have escaped their search by killing the power and going out the window. They run out the window after the killer, but are unable to find anyone. Nonee comes out and asks if they have found him yet, and Conan realizes that Rachel is now alone inside the house.
Rachel half wakes when she is carried from the family room into the kitchen, but is unable to resist. The person then holds her head underwater in the sink, then releases her, letting her fall to the floor as he flees. Conan rushes in and sees Rachel laying motionless next to the overflowing sink and shakes her, saying he never should have left her alone. In her dazed state, Rachel mistakes Conan for Jimmy and tells him that he never should have left, that she missed him so much and she loves him. She then passes out again. Everyone else comes in and Conan wonders how she can be asleep after such an ordeal. He figures that her coffee had to have been drugged for her to be so sleepy. Conan then notices that the microwave door is closed, though Richard had left it open earlier. He then finds that it is still warm as if someone had just used it. Richard suspects Nonee for a moment, since she helped make the coffee, but it is pointed out that Nonee was out in the woods when Rachel was attacked. Since Rachel has no ties with the rest, Richard determines that the are dealing with a physo with no apparant motives, so his attacks are random. Nonee reveals that she felt a warm breeze just before the power went out, and Conan finds that all of the air conditioning remote controls have been set to 12:30, the time of the power outage. They all decide to stay in the family room together for safety until morning, but Dirk and Quentin insist on sleeping in seperate rooms in case one of the group is the killer. That night Dirk hears something in the hallway, and sees Quintin going down the hall, but doesn't leave his room. In the morning they take turns going to the bathroom and watch tv, which predicts that more storms are on their way to the area. Some of the guys then go make coffee together, and after they return, Donald slaps Richard and Conan on their backs, making them spill hot coffee on their shirts. They two rush to the bathroom to get it off, but they find Reika dead with her face in the bathtub.