Richard lifts Rieka out of the tub and lays her out on the floor, shocking Nonee. He says they won't know for sure until the autopsy, but it is obvious that her head was held under like Steve and Rachel's were. He sees that she is soaked with water from head to toe and decides that she must have struggled alot, and sees that she has rope burns on her ankles and wrists and had tape on her mouth. Richard proclaims that she hasn't been dead long, and Conan asks the men who had used the bathroom earlier if they had seen anything suspicious. They say they took turns while the others waited outside, then went off to make coffee. Quentin points out that Donald broke off from their group for a little bit while they were making coffee, but Richard decides that she had to have died around 5 or 6 am, back when they all were in the family room together. He remembers that Dirk and Quentin were on their own at this time, and Quentin says that Dirk had to have done it, since he knows he didn't. Dirk then points out that he saw Quentin leave his room during the night, and Quentin says that he merely went to use the bathroom upstairs and wash his face. Richard says that they are both the prime suspects until he says otherwise and wants them to go over the last three hours carefully. Conan inspects the body and agrees with the 5-6 am time of death and figures that it was likely one of the two men. He doesn't understand why she got so wet even with struggling and why there are tape marks on her legs when she was already tied up.
Richard doesn't understand how they could have missed Rieka earlier when they searched the house, and it is suggested that she was kept outside, but Richard says the killer would have kept her somewhere close, like in the trunk of one of the cars. Conan decides that it's logical that this is a random killer since Rachel was attacked, but why did the killer keep her captive, then drown her in the bathroom when he could have done it easier in the fountain outside. Conan idly turns on the water at the bathtub and Richard draws him back, keeping him from being soaked as the shower comes on. Conan wonders at the shower being on, then realizes that somone has used it to make a trick of time. He finally sees the common thread in the three attacks and knows who the killer is and how to prove it. The group starts to leave the bathroom, but Conan quickly stuns Richard and uses his bowtie to tell them to stay. He then tells them he knows who the killer is, and if they will please take off their jackets and throw them down, he will tell them. Quentin is the first to agree, saying that if it will help nab the killer he will do it. The others quickly follow and Conan looks at their sleeves and thinks to himself that he was right.
He then tells them that Donald had had a busy night. When Steve, Donald, and Dirk were together looking for Reika in the woods last night, they split up to cover more ground. Donald then rejoined Steve and said there was something suspicious by the fountain, where he then drowned him. Donald counters, asking why he would have attacked Rachel and how he could have caused the power failure when he was with the others at the time. Conan explains that Donald set all the remotes to turn on the air conditioners all at once, causing the breakers to trip. He also had turned the microwave on in the kitchen to help insure the breakers would trip. Conan says that accounts for the dinging sound he heard earlier, as well as the warmness afterwards. He then says Donald smashed the window in the dark to make them think the killer had escaped so they would search outside. He then attacked the drugged Rachel. Donald protests that they all picked cups randomly earlier, so how could he have targeted Rachel. Conan then says that Donald hadn't cared who was drugged, he just wanted someone too drowsy to fight off an attacker. Hibler says that he wouldn't just randomly try to kill someone, and Conan agrees, saying that Donald hadn't tried to kill Rachel, he just wanted a witness to establish his drowning method of holding people's heads underwater so they would assume the same thing happened to Reika. Reika, however, wasn't held underwater like the others. He raises the questions of why she was so wet, why she was held for 7 hours before she was killed, and why there are tape and rope marks on her legs. Conan then announces that the answer lies above: the shower. Most people use the faucet to fill a tub, but the shower was on when conan turned on the water. Donald must have taped Reika to the inside of the tub, then dropped the shower head attachment down next to her, letting the tub slowly and silently fill up from the submerged shower head. He had adjusted the flow careflly so that Reika wouldn't die until 5 or 6 am. While the others were gettng coffee a bit ago, Donald snuck back to the bathroom, took off the tape and positioned her face first in the filled tub.
Conan explains that with the the kiling of Steve, the drugging, fake drowingin attack, power failure, and the risk of someone finding Reika taped inside the tub, Donald had a very busy night. He had shorted the lights near the bathroom during the party to make it harder to find Rieka, and Donald had made sure he was the one to check the tub earlier so no one would find Rieka. Donald says that Conan says that it's all possible, but it is only a theory without any proof. Conan says he already has proof since he asked them to remove their jackets. Donald says that Conan won't find anything in his jacket, and Conan responds that he isn't interested in the jackets, just in the shirts below. Quentin's shirt has water stains on the collar where he washed his face and the others have stains on their cuffs from washing their hands, but Donald has water stains on his shirt all up his sleeves. Conan explains that when Donald took Reika out of the tub, he took his jacket off and rolled his sleeves up to keep them from getting wet, but they still got water stains on them. Quentin then questions why Donald did such a horrible thing, and Conan says it had something to do with the accident two years ago. Donald finally confesses and says that Sonya, the only woman who cared for him, had been murdered by Steve and Reika. During the storm Sonya had left the cruiser wearing a lifejacket and carrying only one extra jacket because she didn't know Steve was on the island as well. Reika lied when the two were found by the others, saying Sonya had never reached them. Donald knew they were lying because the two didn't have lifejackets when they were on the island, but they were both found wearing lifejackets, while Sonya was found without one. Donald admitted that he had gotten each to confess to the crime before killing them, but Nonee says that even though Sonya was her grandaughter,no one deserves to die. She says that Reika must have carried a horrible burden over the last two years, and that someone will always mourn when someone is killed.
The next day Rachel is telling Serena how she doesn't remember much from when she was attacked, but she does remember Jimmy appearing and saving her. Everyone told her she was just hallucinating from the drugs, but she knows it really happened. Rachel finally says it was too romantic for it to have been Jimmy, and Serena says he's too lame for that, leaving the following Conan wondering how they would talk about someone they didn't like.
Rachel, Richard, Conan, and Serena have all come to see the local highschool baseball team, the Unicorns, playing against the Shoreview Bears team at their prep school. Conan is immediately bored since baseball doesn't have all the action of soccer, but Rachel and Serena are only interested in the ace Bears pitcher Kenyan. Serena has a major crush on the guy and talks about how he is very smart and is the reason the team won the district championship last season. She explains that since Shoreview is a prep school they usually don't do well in sports, but Kenyan changed that when he joined the team and now they are number 1 this season as well. Bored, Conan notices a suited man and a woman on the sidelines looking nervous. A ball lands near the man and he throws it back to the coach. Conan hears the coach refer to the man as the principal, and turns his attention back to the game. When he glances back, he notices that both have disappeared. A few minutes later Kenyan is about to pitch another strike when he suddenly looks up at the school and has a suprised expression, then starts sweating. The umpire calls it a balk, and after that Kenyan seems very stressed and is unable to strike out any more batters. After several runs are made, Kenyan leaves the game looking sick and goes to the clinic in the school. A tall student without a uniform begs the coach to let him pitch, but the coach refuses and the student stalks off angrily. Serena explains that the tall boy, Billy Jones, used to pitch for the team until Kenyan started, then he grew rebellious and was recently expelled from school. Meanwhile, inside the school, Kenyan gets up from a cot in the clinic and wanders upstairs. The game soon ends just as an assistant runs up to the principal and explains that the championship flag the team won last season has been cut to shreds. Everyone rushes up to the school chairman's room and sees that the flag has indeed been shredded.
After seeing the torn flag, Serena gets booted out and tells Rachel and Conan that the principal wasn't sure if it was one of their students or not, but he is still withdrawing the team from the tournament. The principal doesn't want to call the cops to investigate for fear of the bad publicity for the school. The girls decide this is a perfect case for the half drunk Richard and go about the task of waking him up and getting him to take the case. Richard goes up to the chairman's room and the principal accepts his help. Conan notices that the window next to the flag faces the baseball diamond, and that another nearby window has been broken. Richard soon spots the broken window and sees a long ladder outside. He figures this must be how the vandal go in and asks where the ladder is usually kept. The coach explains that it is usually kept in a locked storage room, but the key had been missing all morning. They go down to where the keys are kept and find that the chairman's room key is also missing, leading Conan to think that someone stole both keys, used the unlocked door to vandalise the flag, then set up the ladder and broken window to throw them off his trail. Back in the chairman's office Conan points out that if the vandal had walked through the glass, peices of it would be over near the flag as well, meaning the vandal had to have come through the door. The principal seems, to Conan's suprise, to be dissappointed by their discovery. Richard then says that the shredding had to have happened during the game, and someone says that they saw Billy going into the school earlier. Billy tells them that he didn't do it and Kenyan was visiting the clinic in the school during the game as well.
Kenyan abruptly announces that he shredded the flag because he couldn't take all the pressure to win. Conan is suspicious of his story because Kenyan was doing fine until he saw something, and he could have just acted sick to get off the field instead of pitching badly. He also notices that Kenyan won't look the woman from earlier, his mother, in the eyes. His mother then confesses that it was really her, but Kenyan produces a box cutter that still has golden threads from the flag on it. The principal decides they will probably suspend Kenyan, but since the chairman is out sick, they will wait on him to make a decision. After everyone goes out, Serena tells Conan that she doesn't think Kenyan did it, and Conan agrees. They sneak back into the school together and Conan looks carefully at the torn flag. He figures out who must have done it, but can't think of a motive until Serena mentions that some people in the school administration wanted the team to drop out of the tournament so the school would be more focused on academics. They talk to the coach and he confirms that the chairman was going to make the team drop out that afternoon except he got sick. Understanding everything, Conan goes to get Richard and lures him up to the chairman's room and knocks him out in a chair. Conan then uses the intercom and his bowtie to ask everyone back up to the office. He then hides behind Richard and adresses them all, saying that neither Kenyan nor his mother was the culprit. He asks Rachel to go to the flag and pretend she is slashing it. She finds it uncomfortable unless she uses her left hand, proving that whoever did it was left handed. Kenyan and his mother were both right handed, ruling them out. Conan then explains that Billy is left handed and had the perfect motive, but he didn't do it either. As proof he points out that the slash marks would have begun much higher if the 6'4" Bily had done it, so it had to be someone as short as Kenyan's mother, but left handed. He then asks Kenyan's mother to explain what happened earlier, and she explains that she went up to the office to see the chairman during the game when the flag was still ok, but upon finding the door open and the chairman out, she left. She explains that she wanted to get Kenyan off of the baseball team so that he would focus on becoming a doctor. Conan then theorizes that as soon as she left, someone hiding in the office slashed the flag and dropped the box cutter as he fled. Kenyan saw his mother in the window during the game, causing him to balk and begin playing badly from worry. He then went upstairs to the chairman's office and found the box cutter and the shredded flag, and assumed his mother did it. He then picked up the cutter himself and confessed earlier to protect her.
Conan then accusses the short and left handed Principal Evans of cutting the flag. Conan explains that the Principal only showed up at the game to establish that he was not in the school at the time, then snuck off. He then snuck into the office and unlocked the door, but Kenyan's mother scared him into hiding until she left. He then slashed the flag and set up the broken window and ladder, but didn't relock the door since the mother had already seen that it was unlocked. Evans says that this is preposterous and Richard has no evidence, but Conan points out that Evans must still have the office key in his pocket, since it hadn't been returned yet. The coach then rushes in and tells them that the chairman has just died in the hospital. The principal then confesses, saying that the chairman was planning to take the team out of the tournament that day but got sick. Evans apologizes, saying he didn't want the bad publicity on the school for ending their athletic dreams, so he did this to take them out of the tournament without bad press. The chairman hated sports and was only interested in academics, but Evans couldn't bear letting the school's reputation suffer from it. Conan later reflects that the Southveiw Bears went on to win their second district championship and a new flag, the principal resigned, and Kenyan's mother became the new team mom.
Jimmy, Rachel, and Conan are walking around downtown looking at all the Christmas decorations. Serena asks Rachel where Jimmy is this time of year, and Rachel says he calls once in awhile, but that's about it. Serena calls him lame, but Rachel says that even with all his faults he's still a pretty good guy. Serena then tells Rachel that she likes a guy who doesn't even know she exists, the lead singer of the pop rock band LEX, a rocker named Justin Moon. She says the band is having a party at a karaoke bar next week and says that due to her father's connections, the three of them have been invited to come hang out with the band. The day arrives and the girls are both mesmerized by the handsome blonde singer. They meet Justin, the lead singer, Amber Lane, the guitarist and backup vocalist, Sledge, the drummer, and Mazy, their beautiful manager. Justin quickly proves himself to be a rude drunk as he nastily complains about Sledge's lazy drumming and Amber's terrible singing. Justin even insults the owner of the club, a friend of the band named Georgie. Georgie delivers pizza, club sandwhiches, and rice balls to the group. Conan is shocked at the mean spirited man and thinks that someone should teach him a lesson. When Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer song begins playing in the bar, Justin tells Mazy that he requested it for her since both she and Rudolph have funny noses. Georgie then angrily leaves the room, saying that Justin will get his someday. Mazy sings while Conan goes up to Justin to see what his problem is. To his suprise, Justin is fighting back tears. As Mazy finishes, Justin asks Amber to sing the next song and explains that this is their farewell tour because he is going solo. He says he is sick of the others and wants to move up to the next level. A rock song then comes on and Justin staggers to his feet to sing. Mazy tells him they don't have time for another song because of an appointment at the television studio, but he throws off his jacket and sings a song of his called Bloody Venus.
After he finishes the girls are amazed by his talent. He asks Sledge to toss him one of the riceballs, and begins chowing down on it. They ask him what his next group will be called, but he tells them it's top secret, then topples over as if he is choking. Conan checks Justin's pulse as Amber looks tearfully away and sees that it is too late for an ambulance, Justin is already dead. Inspector Meguire soon arrives and his officers find cyanide on the microphone and on Justin's hands. Since Amber was singing right before Justin, Meguire figures that she is the most likely suspect. She protests, saying that she loved Justin, but he had told her he was in love with a girl who was working out some stuff, but he hoped to be with her again. Meguire figures that Amber killed him in revenge, but Conan realizes that Amber only sang before him because Justin had asked her to. He talks to Georgie for a few minutes and learns that Justin always threw his jacket off before singing Bloody Venus. He then learns that the police have found cyanide on Justin's left shirt elbow and clothes, but nowhere on his jacket. He then figures that the killer had to be one of the three with LEX jackets. Conan gets an idea and asks Amber if Justin has always been mean to Mazy, and Amber says that even though Mazy is beautiful and a great manager, Justin has always been hard towards her. An officer then enters carrying some pictures and sheet music found in Justin's locker, and one picture of Justin in a band catches Conan's eye, since the band isn't LEX. Conan talks to Georgie again and learns that Georgie was the drummer for the band in the picture, and Mazy was the guitarist. Conan doesn't recognize her in the picture at first because she has had a nose job since then, and she looks much plainer in the picture. Conan notices that something is written on the back and finally figures out who the poisener is, saying that a horrible tragedy has taken place.
That night Meguire receives a call telling him to gather everyone at the karaoke bar because the killer has been figured out. On the way Meguire tells Rachel that a private detective called him, someone even better than Richard, Jimmy Kudo. When they arrive at the bar they find a camera set up and and Jimmy's voice is coming into the room through the intercom system over the sound of Rudolph. Rachel asks him why he doesn't show up in person and why is he playing this song , but he says he will explain that later and the song is what made someone mad enough to kill Justin. Conan, hiding on the roof, then explains that Justin had ordered the song to be played for Mazy Bishop. They ask her if that's true, and she replies that she wasn't even in the room at the time of his song. The music then switches to Bloody Venus and Conan asks her to sing it exactly like Justin does, including throwing her jacket off as she begins. She gives a good performance, then Conan asks her to eat a rice ball just as Justin did earlier, but she says she will pass to be on the safe side. Conan then asks Meguire to check her discarded jacket, and she says any poison on it would have come off Justin, and Conan reveals they aren't looking for poison in the jacket. They find Justin's lighter in the pocket and Conan explains that she had switched jackets with him after putting poison in the left elbow of her jacket. Justin took the jacket off during the song, then touched his left elbow with his right hand, getting the poison where it would kill him when he ate. Meguire asks what her motive was, and Conan directs them to the old band picture and explains that Mazy is the much plainer looking girl in the picture. She finally confesses, by explaining that she was in love with Justin and had gotten the nose job so she could compete with the fans Justin would have. Justin, however, had been disappointed by this and lost respect for her, explaining why he had her singing the Rudolph song. She felt degraded and dejected by Justin, so she decided to kill him. Conan then explains that she was wrong, Justin still loved her, and points out that Justin had written a new love ballad with lyrics about her on the back of the picture, and Georgie and Amber agree. Mazy breaks down crying, asking what she has done.
On the roof Conan stares out at the night, thinking all of this could have been avoided if they had expressed their true feelings to one another. Later that night he and Dr. Agasa stand at his house, seeing Rachel standing outside i in the snow at Jimmy's gate. Dr. Agasa says that since Jimmy used his name to solve the case, she thought he was coming home and had been waiting for him for three hours. Conan makes up his mind on what to do. The upstairs lights suddenly come on at his house, and Rachel calls out, asking if he is there. She comes in and the lights go out, leaving her in darkness. She calls for Jimmy to come out, and Conan takes her hand and says with his bowtie that he is right there, why does she seem so suprised. He says he wouldn't miss being with her on Christmas day and asks if she really missed him that much since she is crying. Conan then says that it was really good to see her and he wishes he could see her goofy face, but his time is up and he needs to get back to his important case. The lights soon come back on and Rachel finds a gift waiting for her. The card says "To the most amazing girl in world, Merry Christmas, Love Jimmy." He wishes that he could have held her, but he got her smiling, and thats Christmas to him.
Richard, Conan, and Rachel are all sitting around their house when Rachel asks Conan if he is lonely without his parents, and Conan tells her not really. Richard says that Conan will have to return to them sooner or later and Conan reflects that they keep coming back to that on slow days. Rachel tells Conan that they have a big suprise for him, which soon arrives at their door. A large woman calling herself Fanny Edogawa and saying that she is Conan's mother and has come to finally pick him up. She tells Conan that he has gotten so big she hardly recognizes him, and he tells her that he doesn't know her and to get away. She explains to the Moores that she gained alot of weight since she saw Conan last and they accept this excuse. Conan finally decides to play along with this woman because he fears that she is from the organization that poisoned her and will hurt the Moores if he doesn't come with her. She thanks Richard and asks if she can pay him back in any way, and he responds with a cash or check. As they watch Conan and the lady leave, Rachel realizes that this hurts alot more than she thought it would. The two get in the lady's car and take off. Conan soon asks her who she is and informs her that she isn't his mother. She replies that his mother is Vivian Kudo, who at the age of 19 was considered one of the best actresses and won many awards. She then met a young novelist named Booker Kudo, retired, and eventually went abroad, leaving one son, Jimmy Kudo. She knows that he is Jimmy and he figures that she has to be sent from the organization. After he tries to escape, she pulls out a gun, but he knocks the gun aside and stomps her gas pedal, causing her to wreck. He then takes off through traffic, soon losing her. He hids in some back alleyways and tries to think about what to do next. He figures they must have discovered that he was still alive because he had made the mistake of publicly using his real name when he solved the recent karaoke bar case. He knows it will put the Moores in danger if he returns to them, but he can't stay out in the cold snow forever. He keeps walking since he can't think any further in the cold. Meanwhile the woman talks on her phone and says that Jimmy got away because she was careless, but it was definately him regressed to the body of a child. She agrees that she has to find him before he gets to the cops.
Conan finally decides to hide out at Dr. Agasa's house. He makes it to the corner and hides in wait for the doctor to come back home, but just as he sights the old man coming down the street, Conan is grabbed from behind by the lady and a rag is pressed over his face, knocking him out. Conan soon wakes up with his arms tied and a headache. From the taste in his mouth and his head, he figures that he was chloroformed. He looks around and sees that he is on the second floor of a building, so he can't kick out the window and escape while tied up. Looking around the room all he sees to hide in is an old fridge, however. He hears talking and goes over to a small hole in the door to the room he is locked in. He sees a creepy man with a mask and top hat on talking with the lady. He wants to kill Jimmy now, but she tells him that she has orders to bring him back so they can study the effects of the poison on him. They come over to check on him, so Conan acts as if he is still passed out. He hears the man say that this is little Jimmy, the highchool detective. He says that this kid showed up the same day Jimmy was poisoned and Moore had solved every case he had since then. The woman says this is virtually a fountain of youth and they want to verify the effects of the poison on Jimmy. The man reveals that he has some of the poison capsules with him, so they will force someone to take one and see for themselves. He suggests they use it on the man they are supposed to kill tomorrow after a deal with him, and then they can kill both anyways. The lady protests that the organization wants Jimmy back, but the man pulls a gun and tells her it's his way or die. He says the meeting will be for one oclock tomorrow, so they should get some rest until then. Conan notices that the man even goes to sleep with his mask on.
Knowing that he needs to get free of the ropes, Conan finds a wine bottle in the fridge, rolls it in a rug, and quietly breaks it. He then uses a shard to cut his ropes, then looks for a way to escape. He is too high up to jump without breaking a leg, and the only place to hide is in the fridge. He then notices wine dripping through a crack in the floor and gets an idea. Later the two check on Conan, only to find him missing. The man looks out and sees no footprints in the snow beneath the window and says that the boy didn't really escape. He then looks in the fridge expectantly, but there is no one inside. The woman tells him that even he is wrong sometimes, and they leave to look for Conan. Conan comes out from a secret storage compartment under the floor and begins searching for the pills so that Dr. Agasa can study them and create an antidote. He is unable to find them anywhere, but does find a newspaper with alot of little holes cut in it. Conan figures that they used letters from the paper to make a note for the man they are meeting the next day, and figures out which letters are missing. He easily unscrambles the letters into BAKER and figures that the meeting must be at the Baker Hotel. He doesn't see any numbers cut out to show the room number, so he checks a calender and sees that the whole page for august is missing. He does see a small cut mark on the September page and figures out that the cut number in August was 30.
The next day he arrives at the hotel to thwart the two, but he finds that there are only 19 floors and the room digits are all three digit numbers, so nothing matches 30. He thinks that it may be a claims ticket number, but finds that only up through #27 has been taken that day. He hears someone mention their parking space number and sure enough is able to find space 30, which has a family's minivan in it. The family soon leaves and Conan figures that he must be mistaken when a huge man shows up and looks at the space for a moment. The man soon walks on and Conan sees a tiny 1 next to the space number on the ground, and figures the meeting must be in room 301. Conan sneaks up to the third floor after the large man, and from hiding around the corner sees the masked man welcoming the large man into the room. Conan then sees the lady coming down the hall and knows he is going to be discovered. Luckily a woman is leaving the room next to Conan and he sneaks in, scaring the young boy inside. Conan explains to the boy that he is a space detective and convinces the boy by using his voice changing bowtie. Conan uses the phone to order room service and asks for some gum from the boy. A bellhop soon arrives at 301 with a service cart, suprising the three inside. The masked man decides to keep the cart kicks the bellhop out. As the masked man shuts the door, he notices gum stuck to the inside of the lock and removes it before latching the door securely. He then says that before they eat he should introduce their other guest. The Lady looks under the cart, but no one is under there. The masked man says the cart was just a decoy, Conan is in the closet. He opens it up and finds Conan and orders him out. The man then explains that while they were talking to the bellhop, Conan snuck in, placed the gum so that the door wouldn't lock, then hid in the closet. Conan attempts to stun the man, but his watch won't fire and the man explains that he modified when Conan was passed out so that it wouldn't work. The man pulls out a gun and tells Conan that he has underestimated his opponent and fires at Conan.
Conan opens his eyes after the impact and is suprised to see a rubber dart stuck to his forehead. The three adults start laughing at the dumbfounded Conan and the masked man takes off his mask and reveals himself as none other than Booker Kudo. Conan looks at the woman and says that can't be his mom, then is suprised when she tears off her mask and removes the stuffing from her dress. Conan looks over at the large man suspicously, and it is Dr. Agasa in a mechanical suit, as he suspected. Booker explains that they hadn't heard from Jimmy in so long that they called Dr. Agasa and learned everything from him. They were just there to test his detective skills and show him how he could be discovered by the real organization. Booker then chides him for not realizing that he was dressed as Knight Baron, a character in his second novel. His parents then ask Conan to come live abroad with them so that he can live in safety. Agasa agrees with them and Booker says he can have friends in the goverment look for the organization in the meantime so Conan can give up the dangerous detective work. Conan angrily says no, he doesn't need any help and will solve this case by himself. He says he can't leave for a reason, but won't tell them why. Booker understands why Conan doesn't want to leave and they drop off Conan at the Moores house. They say Conan insisted on staying with them while they went abroad again. His mother gives Richard a check for Conan's expenses, which makes Richard very happy when he sees it's for ten thousand dollars. Along with Rachel, Richard happily welcomes Conan back. Conan's mother whispers to Rachel that she thinks Conan has a crush on her. Conan says loudly of course not, but he thinks to himself well maybe. His parents are soon getting on a plane and Booker suggests going to Hawaii and letting his deadlines slip for a bit. Suddenly a commotion arises and several of Booker's editors rush in needing him to get on his deadlines. They explain that their son called them with Booker's flight number, and he realizes that his son has gotten them back after all.
Richar, along with Rachel and Conan, are driving on a remote mountain road on the way to meet with a client. Rachel asks why Richard took a job so far out, and he replies to keep her smart mouth educated. They soon come upon a middle aged man looking under the hood of his car on the side of the road. They stop and ask if he needs help, and he replies that he thinks his alternator is broken and asks if they could give him a ride to his villa. Richard at first is hesitant, but greets the man warmly when a reward is promised. The man gives Richard his business card, and Richard is amazed to find the man is Oscar Hotta, president of Otta Industries. They soon arrive at Oscar's large mansion and are greeted by the manager of the estate, Barnaby. He thanks Richard for bringing Oscar and tells Oscar that Kevin and the others are inside and have been worried sick about him. Oscar replies that they are just worried about his will and then asks if the three will join him for his birthday party that evening. Richard is at first reluctant to come in, but Oscar reminds him that his checkbook is inside. They are soon seated with several other people at a large table and Richard is salvating over the wine and food before him. They are introduced to Oscar's 3 children, Kevin Hotta, a sharp faced man with glasses, Ryan Hotta, a normal looking young man, and Karen Hotta, a plain young woman. They break out some very expensive wine and Kevin proposes a toast to Oscar's 58th birthday, but Ryan makes a remark that it would be better if Kevin tasted it first. The two trade insults about their performance at Hotta Industries and the fact that Ryan is a gambler until Oscar grows furious and upsets the table, spilling all the food and wine on it. Just then a beautiful young woman, Famke Hotta, Oscar's other daughter, comes in and remarks that his temper hasn't improved. Oscar grows even more angry at the sight of her and says that she is dead to him and he told her five years ago never to come back. She replies that she had recieved a invitation from him, which he denies.
After the dinner is broken up, Barnaby delivers a wooden box to Oscar's room and Oscar retires there for the night. Richard, Rachel, and Conan then enjoy some food served by Barnaby privately in the kitchen. They ask why Oscar doesn't want Famke there and Barnaby replies that he has only worked there for two years, so he doesn't know and Oscar doesn't talk about it. Meanwhile, back in his room, Oscar begins opening the wooden box, revealing a wine bottle inside and says that at least one thing hasn't betrayed him. There is an explosion and everyone rushes to his room to find Oscar laying dead with his room in shambles. Richard orders someone to call the cops and tells everyone to stay out of the crime scene. When Kevin protests, Richard introduces himself as the famous detective Richard Moore and repeats that someone needs to go call the police. Barnaby and Rachel leave the room to do so. Richard then theorizes that dynamite was used to kill Oscar, but Conan points out that they should be smelling gunpowder in that case. Richard tries to whack Conan for interfering again, but Conan skips out of the way and finds a peice of broken wood, traces of dirt, and glass shards around the body. Conan remarks that the wood looks like part of a box used for holding glass. Rachel then returns and says that Barnaby is missing and the phones are dead. Kevin accusses Famke of killing Oscar, but she says that while she is grateful that he is dead, she didn't do it. Barnaby soon returns and says that the lines have been cut with a knife. He identifies the peice of wood as part of a box that was holding a bottle of wine that was given to Oscar as a present by Ryan. They then notice that Ryan is not with them and rush to his room to find his bag is packed inside. Richard dumps it out and a battered knife is found. They rush out to Ryan's car and find it still there, prompting Richard to believe Ryan fled on foot. Conan notices that Ryan's tire have all been slashed, and quickly finds that all of the cars have had their tires slashed. Barnaby points out that there is rubber still on the knife, convincing the others that Ryan is responsible. Richard asks Barnaby where his car is, and he replies that it is out back, but it is broken down and won't run.
Conan isn't sure that Ryan is the killer, since he should have fled in his car if he wanted to escape and wouldn't have dissappeared if he didn't want to be suspected. He figures that whoever has trapped them there isn't done killing. Richard tells everyone to stick together and go back inside together for safety, but Famke says that she is going to her room. Conan notices that as she leaves she drops and pendant and goes to her room to return it to her. At first she harshly snatches it away from him, but then she warmly thanks him after seeing that the picture of a young man is still safe inside. He asks who it is and she first says it it was her soulmate who killed himself, but then says that her rich father murdered him. She explains that is the reason that she left five years ago, to get away from him. Conan leaves thinking that while she had the motive to kill Oscar, she didn't have much of an opportunity. He then goes on searching the house and finds a bag of fertilizer and some chemicals in one of the rooms and realizes that they are the ingrediants for a fertilizer based bomb. He then notices a picture and realizes with shock who the killer is.
Conan then goes out back and finds Barnaby working on his old car so someone can get the police. Barnaby reveals that he used to design cars, and this is the first one he designed. Conan comments on how it is unusual that a safety feature like an airbag was incorperated in such an old vehicle. Barnaby soon gets the car working and reveals that he is having Famke drive to the police since he is the manager and needs to stay there. Conan then goes back to the dining room and stuns Richard and arranges him in a chair. Conan then gathers everyone with his bowtie voice changer and hides under the table as he explains who the killer is. Conan reveals that he found the fertilizer and chemicals in Barnaby's room, along with a picture that matches the one in Famke's pendant. He explains that the young man was Jason Barnaby II, Barnaby's son. Barnaby had planted the explosives in the bottle when he delivered the present to Oscar's room. Conan explains that Barnaby could have killed Oscar more easily, but he wanted to set things up for his second crime. Outside Famke passes the window in Barnaby's car, and Barnaby reveals that it's too late to stop him. He reveals that if the brakes are held more than three seconds on the car, the airbag will inflate, causing Famke to lose control on the mountain roads. Barnaby tells them that Jason had been in love with Famke, but Oscar had always hated him and wouldn't give him permission to marry her. Jason was a wonderful pianist and had a successful career building, but the last time he asked Oscar had crushed his hand with his foot, ruining his ability to play and destroying his hopes of being with Famke. Jason had then ran his car off the mountain roads to kill himself. He explains that he was out of town when he heard, and he had changed his name and hidden his past, biding his time until he could take a job for Oscar and find his opportunity.
Conan tells Barnaby that he is a fool because Famke was the one thing that made Jason happy. He says that is why Famke is still single and carries his picture in her pendant. She had never cared about success, just being with him, and now he has tried to kill the one person who brought his son joy. Famke suddenly comes through the door and explains that Richard had left a note in the car warning her about the airbags trap. She says she never met Barnaby when she was dating his son, and that he should be apologizing to Jason. She said what both of them always wanted and couldn't have was parents who were there for them. Barnaby breaks down in tears and The police eventually come and take him away. They find Ryan tied up in a closet and Richard eventually wakes up alone in the dining room. Being hungry, he immediately starts calling out loudly for Barnaby to make him something, not knowing that Barnaby is being put into a police cruiser outside.
A car rushes up to a house and two men emerge and run to the door. They say they are from Baka Security and ask Mrs. Karmichael to come to the door. After a couple of minutes a woman comes to the door wearing a robe , a towel around her hair, and a facial mask. They explain that they came out because her alarm went off, but she says that everything is fine and they chalk it up to a false alarm and leave. Meanwhile, across town, Richard, Conan, and Rachel are just emerging from a restaurant. Richard tells them that they don't have to pay a king's ransom to eat like a king, and Conan reflects that that is true if your guests eat like paupers and silently thanks Richard for the salad. Richard remembers that a Yoko Okino movie is coming on in 20 minutes and rushes off across the street towards home, nearly getting hit by a car in the process. The man in the car gets out to see if Richard is ok, and after he introduces himself as Oswald Burny, Richard threatens to sue him for reckless driving. Just then Oswald recieves a call on his cell phone from Inspector Meguire, and Richard grabs the phone away from him. Richard wonders aloud if Oswald is a suspect and says that he will bring the man in, prompting Oswald to try and escape. Richard grabs him and says that only the guilty run, and Oswald protests that their has been a mistake. Conan wonders why Meguire would call up the man on his cell phone if he was really a suspect. With Oswald, they go to the house where Meguire and his men are. They find a woman with a facial mask and robe laying in the floor of her house, dead. Richard tells Meguire that he has brought the suspect, but Meguire laughs and says why would he phone a suspect.
Meguire explains that Oswald is the sales officer of Baka Securities, and he had visited the woman earlier from 8:00 to 8:40. They are certain of the times because the woman's security camera was time coded and caught everyone who came in or out. Meguire explains that Oswald is unlikely to be a suspect because the security gaurds had came out to her house at 8:50 and she was still alive at that time. He explains that the woman was Charlize Karmichael, the owner of an electronic superstore and a local philanthropist. She had been widowed for ten years, and was found strangled to death that evening. He then says that after Oswald left at 8:40, Charlize's daughter Marion Karmichael arrived at 8:50 and stayied until 9:10. She claimed that her mother was still alive when she arrived, which was backed up by the gaurds. The last visitor to arrive was Cramdon Yodlemier, an employee of Charlize, who arrived at 9:20 and left at 9:31 to report that she was dead. Oswald is removed from the suspects because he was downtown at 9:40, meaning he wasn't close enough to come back and kill her between Marion and Cramdon's visits. Marion puts forth the theory that Oswald did it because he lost her mother 3 billion dollars in bad investments and was worried that he would be indicted, but since he was no where near at the time she died, Meguire doesn't look into it too closely. Cramden suggests that Marion had a mother daughter spat since she was always begging her mother for money and this time had killed her, and Marion counters by saying Cramden had been heard threatening her mother before. Conan sees that all three have a motive to kill, but only one truth prevails, one of them has to be the murderer.
They watch the security video and it confirms the times that they three entered and left, as well as the security gaurds' appearance. Conan watches when Cramdon visits and sees that he looks shocked when he opens the door. He asks if something scared him inside since Cramden made the call to the police from the phone in his car, and Cramden says the body shocked him. Conan then asks why he stayed for ten minutes inside the house if the body was scaring him so much. Conan notices that Cramden was carrying a large envelope when he emerged and it turns out that Cramden had retrieved documents from the house that proved he was embezzling from her company. He claims he merely came to talk to her and found her dead, then took the opportunity to get the evidence from her house, but no one believes him and Meguire is ready to take him down to the station. Conan, meanwhile, is certain something is wrong. He takes a look at the body and wonders why she was wearing a robe and a facial mask when she knew company was coming. Rachel then points out that even though her mouth is wide open, her facial mask has no cracks in it. Conan realizes what is going on and says that's not a facial mask, it's a deathmask.
Conan tells the police not to move the body and tells Richard and Meguire to look at the body. He asks why is a CEO looking like she is ready for bed when she expecting company. Conan also asks why there are no marks on her facial mask even though she was violently strangled. Rachel backs him up, telling them that facial masks are very brittle once they dry. Conan cracks the mask off, revealing a pain stricken face underneath. Meguire asks Marion if she was dressed like that when she arrived, and Marion says yes. The gaurds are still certain they talked to Charlize earlier, but one of them notes that she was oddly wearing purple lipstick. Seeing that Marion is still wearing purple lipstick, they realize she put a facial and robe on herself and answered the door pretending to be her mother, relying on her genetic similarities to fool them. She finally confesses to pretending to be her mother, but says she didn't kill her mother. She tells them that she arrived and found her mother dead, then pretended to be her so she wouldn't be suspected of killing her. Conan thinks about it and figures that she made the lipstick error out of haste, and all her trick really did was push off the time of death. He then realizes who the real killer is.
Oswald asks Meguire if he can leave, since he isn't a suspect, but Conan has an idea and trips Oswald. Conan notices something shiny in Oswald's trouser cuff and figures out how he can prove that Oswald was the killer. Conan then stuns Richard with his watch and hides behind the chair Richard is in so he can use his voice changing bowtie to solve the crime. Conan tells them that Oswald is the killer. Meguire reminds him that Oswald was downtown when she died, but Conan explains that he was only clear if Charlize had really answered the door to the gaurds. With that proven false, he had ample time to kill her earlier when he visited. Oswald says that it is all circumstantial, but Conan points out that one of Charlize's contact lenses is not on her eye. He says that it is in Oswald's trouser cuff, where Meguire quickly locates it. Conan explains that Oswald would have had to be close enough to her to strangle her for a lens to fall into his cuff. Oswald finally confesses and tells them that she was threatening to take his parent's land in retribution for losing so much money in investments, even though he just invested as she wished. He says that he wanted her to learn what it was like to pay a price she couldn't afford. After Richard finally comes around, Meguire congratulates Richard and says they lost their brightest star the day Richard left the force. Richard is happy and says he will take Conan and Rachel out for Peanut and cheese sandwhiches, leaving Conan to wonder what they would have gotten if they had failed.
Richard, Rachel, and Conan are out on the slopes for a fun day of skiing. Richard is just watching them until Rachel gives him a shove, sending him on a screaming ride down the slope into a tree. Later on they arrive at their lodge, but Richard has lost the keys somewhere on the slopes. They need to find the caretaker for a spare key, but the bus has already left and there are no payphones nearby. While they are stannding around a middle aged man comes by in a car and recognizes the famous detective Richard Moore. He asks them back to his lodge when they explain their predictment, and when they arrive they all admire his fancy decor. Richard compliements the two lions on his doors, prompting the man to confusingly tell them that he needs a horse, but he can't have everything. They go inside and the man, Professor Shane O'Conner, introduces the three to several of his med students who have come on vacation with him. There is a young woman named Kerri Nicholson, an older man named Gary Paramount, a young man named Tommy Masters, and a young woman named Crystal Leighman staying with him. They gush about how great the professor is, explaining that he recently came out with some new alternative treatments for colon cancer. After dinner Kerri decides to drive to the store for snacks and everyone creates a list of stuff for her to buy. The professor takes off to watch a soap opera in his room while Tommy drives off for some night skiing. Gary goes off to take a bath, Richard passes out in the floor, and Crystal, Conan, and Rachel go about cleaning up the mess. Crystal invites them to stay the night since it is already late, and they accept. While they are cleaning, Crystal takes the trash out and at about the same time someone creeps through the window behind O'Conner with a large knife.
The weather gets worse as a snowstorm picks up, and Tommy and Kerri make it back from their seperate destinations just about the time Gary returns from his bath. Kerri explains that the store was out of caesar salad and icecream, but she got everything else on the list. Conan points out that the professor should be done with his show by now, but they figure he is just rewatching taped bits of it. Meanwhile the professor, covered in slashes and blood and tied and gagged, is furiously struggling around trying to figure out some way to leave clues for the great Richard Moore to solve. After another hour passes Conan becomes very concerned about the missing professor and Kerri goes to check on him. She screams and they all rush in to find him sitting upright in the floor, but very much dead. Richard storms in and tells them not to touch the body and tells Rachel to call the police, but they are unable to come out due to the weather. Richard then takes the challenge of figuring out who killed the professor and why. He asks if anything is valuable in the room, and they show him a safe built into the tv, which they find scratches all over. Richard becomes certain that a theif came through the broken window behind them and killed the professor. Conan, however, is not convinced and is troubled by the fact that the professor was found sitting upright and there are odd blood stains on the nearby table. He sees that the tablecloth was originally on the table and sees that the blood stains splattered on it before it was knocked to the floor. He sees bloody rope marks all over the table and cloth and figures that the professor had to have been trying to leave them a message.
Conan checks out the footprints in the snow outside and sees that they go straight up to the professor's window, then straight away from it again. The med students check out the professor's body and say that he is covered in lacerations and both of his lungs were precisely punctured, leaving him to suffer excrutiating pain for 10-15 minutes before he died. Richard figures that he was tortured to get the combination to the safe, but Conan points out that the professor is still wearing a very expensive watch. He says that a theif would have to be very stupid to leave such a nice watch behind, and Richard agrees that it was a stupid theif. Conan then asks why the theif would have came straight in instead of trying to break in while they were all gone, and Richard finally realizes that the theif clues were all just a ruse to cover the fact that someone came just to kill O'Conner. Richard asks what each was doing at the time the professor was killed. Tommy explains he went skiing and is able to show them the dated reciept from the ski lift, excluding him from the suspect list. Crystal was only away from Rachel and Conan for about three minutes, so she is excluded as well. Gary's bath excuse is pretty weak, since he can't prove it, and Kerri has no real alibi except for the fact that she brought back all the food on the list. While Richard questions the two, Conan notices a blood covered lighter laying on the couch, but sees that it must have dried before laying there since there are no stains on the couch itself. He matches it up to the stains on the tablecloth and table and tries to figure out what it means. Finally he remembers the professor talking about a horse and realizes that the professor has left them a clue to the killer's name, and one truth will prevail.
Conan gets Richard to come over to the sofa, then stuns him with his watch. Conan then hides behind Richard's chair and uses his bowtie to explain his solution to this crime. He explains that only Gary and Kerri had the opportunity to kill O'Conner. He says that Kerri has no reciept, so she could have had the snacks already in her car, then drove out of sight, came back, killed the professor, then drove back up and brought the stashed snacks inside. She tells him that he has no proof, so he tells them to look at the tablecloth and the bloodstains on it. He shows them that the tablecloth is set up like a shogi board, and the lighter was originally in the corner of the board where the Knight, also called a horse, piece usually sits. He then explains that Kerri's maiden name was Marefield, so the professor had set the table up to show that she was guilty. She asks why he knows the lighter is supposed to represent the Knight, and Conan asks why, if it didn't, did she move it aside before the rest made it to the room. He explains how it was already dried when it hit the couch, else their would be blood stains on the couch. He says that she came in, screamed, then noticed the setup on the table and hurridly shoved it off before the rest arrived. Conan tells her that what made him suspicous is when she claimed the store was out of ice cream during a snowstorm.
Kerri admits to killing him, saying the professor had stolen her thesis on alternate colon cancer treatments and published it as his own work. He had told her that she was a nobody and it wouldn't be recognized unless it had his name on it, and she wouldn't graduate if she fought him on it. She says that her father died of colon cancer and she had hammered out her theories for him, so after the professor stole her work, she knew he had to die slowly and painfully. She says that only fate gave her away, because she did buy the ice cream, but she accidently left the heater running in her car, ruining it. The next day, Richard and Conan are playing Shogi, and Richard is hating the game. He soon loses and realizes that the peices on the board spell out FOOL. The episode ends with Richard chasing Conan across the room.
Conan is using his bowtie for one of his periodic Jimmy calls to Rachel when suddenly he sneezes loudly into the phone, angering Rachel. He tells her that he is working hard on a case for a client and still can't come home, and Rachel tells him not to call if all he is going to do is sneeze in her ear. She hangs up and Conan reflects that women are one mystery he'll never be able to solve. He goes home and Rachel sees that his nose is running and he keeps sneezing. He is shocked when a young man shows up at the Moore's looking for Jimmy Kudo. Rachel tells Conan to go lay down and explains that Jimmy isn't there, but he just called and sounded sick. The young man says that the rumors are true and that Rachel is Kudo's girl, as he heard from Serena. The man says he thinks Rachel is hiding Jimmy somewhere and asks what they talked about. She says they talked about just the usual stuff, including a book on red herrings, and the man points out that Jimmy didn't ask anything about her. The man looks out the window and says that Jimmy must be hiding somewhere close and spying on her, or else he would ask about what she was up to more when he called. Conan is shocked at the perceptiveness of the young man, but Richard finally notices him and asks grumpily who the young man is. He introduces himself as Harley Hartwell, an ace detective who is still in highschool. Richard says he thinks he has heard of him, and Harley tells them that he is known as the Great Western Detective, or the Kudo of the West, depending on who is asked. Rachel asks Harley what his business with Jimmy is, and he replies that he wants to meet Jimmy to confirm what he has heard. Harley says that if Jimmy is in his league, than he will be the first. He then gives the sick Conan a drink from his bag, causing Conan's face to turn red him to say, "Hey there, beautiful," to Rachel. Harley then tells them that he will be a guest of theirs until Jimmy decides to show up.
A woman knocks angrily on the door as she lets herself into the office and tells them that her name is Camiel Tarrington and she needs Richard's help to investigate her son's girlfriend. She says that the girl,Jasmine Kassleshultz, graduated at the top of her class from Taht's Medical University, and Harley points out that the girl is too perfect, which is scaring Mrs. Tarrington. Mrs. Tarrington asks who Harley is, and Richard says that he is just a vagrant, to pay him no mind. She then asks Richard to come home with her and she will give them the details, and Harley asks why her husband didn't come down with her. She tells him that her husband is a respected diplomat and couldn't be seen here. Harley says that Richard would look less conspicous if he came along as Richard's son and asks Rachel and Conan to come along as well, in case Jimmy should show up. Rachel asks Conan if he feels up to it and he says he feels great, even though his throat is burning from Harley's alcohol. Conan decides he needs to keep an eye on Harley in case he knows more than he is letting on. They soon arrive at the house and are greeted by the butler, Franklin Keene. Mrs. Tarrington is displeased when her son Thomas and Jasmine emerge from another room and he explains that he was giving her a tour of the house. She calls Mrs. Tarrington mother, but the woman becomes hateful and says don't address her like that. She then leads Richard and party upstairs to see her husband in his private study. On the way up they run into her elderly father, Theodore Tarrington, who tells them about a fish he just caught until she tells him to go wait for her downstairs. They continue on and she knocks on his locked study door, but gets no reply. She unlocks the door and goes inside to find her husband sitting at his desk with his head propped on his hand, apparantly asleep even though loud opera music is blaring from the radio. She goes over to wake him up and he falls limp to the floor. As Mrs. Tarrington sobs, Richard tells Rachel to go call the police while he investigates. Conan and Harley both look at the body and notice that the corpse is still warm, but his lips are purple and he has a tiny red dot below his ear. They both have the same thought and look around, bumping their heads under a desk when they both see a pin laying on the floor.
Meguire soon arrives and tells them that the dead man is Rudy Tarrington, a 54 year old diplomat. He is suprised that Richard is on the scene of yet another murder, but quickly says that he is confident that Richard can solve it. Richard at first says that there is no evidence of foul play, but Conan and Harley both rush to point out the tiny wound that indicates that Rudy was poisoned by the nearby needle. Harley explains that since Rudy was found propped up like he was sleeping, the scene was obviously staged by the culprit. Richard is still unprepared to rule out an easy suicide, but Harley points out the purple lips and fingers and bloodshot eyes that indicate suffocation. Since there is no trauma to the body, he had to be suffocated by poisoning. Harley says that Rudy must have been given a lethal dose that killed him instantly. Since the body is still fresh, he couldn't have been killed more than 30 minutes before, so it had to have been someone nearby who had access to his study.
Meguire asks who this boy is, and he introduces himself as Harley Hartwell. Meguire recognizes the name and explains that he is the son of Martin Hartwell, the cheif of police of the largest city on the west coast. While they talk Rachel remembers that Conan is sick and asks him how he is holding up. His head is now hurting and he has a runny nose, but he is still furiously trying to figure out the case. Going back to the case at hand, Meguire points out that all of the windows are locked from the inside, so whoever killed Rudy must have come in through the door. He asks Mrs. Tarrington how many keys there are for that door, and she says only two, the one she carries and Rudy's key, which he always kept in his trousers pocket. They look in Rudy's pocket and are suprised to find the other key on a peculiar keychain inside. Harley wonders how the door was locked without the key since the room was built for security and the only way in was through the door. He tells them they are faced with an impossible crime and as he watches Richard vainly struggle to figure it out, he realizes that the great Richard Moore is a fake and Jimmy must be secretely solving all of his cases for him. Harley then resolves that he will solve this one first.
Conan desperatly needs to go to bed, but he can't leave Richard on this case with no clue what he's doing. Harley tells Meguire that they need to see what everyone was doing from 3:30 to 4:00 and get some alibis for the time of death. Meguire whispers to Richard that he'd like to take the teen down a notch or two and that he has full confidence that Richard will solve this one. They question the butler, Franklin, first and learn that he was outside conversing with a neighbor at the time. Thomas and Jasmine explain that they had arrived just before Mrs. Tarrington and the rest came home, and that they had just been touring the house. Thomas tells them that he knocked on the door to the study to say hello to his father, but they recieved no response and the door was locked, so they went on. The grandfather, Theodore, explains that he had spent his time fishing until 2 pm, and Mrs. Tarrington had left to go to Richard's office at 1:30. Only three people seem to have had the opportunity to kill Rudy. Looking around the room, Meguire points out a large library of music and Mrs. Tarrington explains that he loved classical music. Conan remembers that opera music was playing when they had first arrived, however. They are looking at a photo on a shelf of the couple twenty years ago when Conan's eyes begin failing him. They then notice several books piled on the desk where Rudy had been sitting and Conan notes that they are all unrelated titles, as if they had just been randomly pulled from the shelves. Harley then studies Rudy's keyring and sees that it splits open and has a clear peice of tape with a crease down the middle inside.
Conan looks at the clues as his chest begins hurting and he feels like he is falling apart and knows that he needs to solve the case soon, before he falls apart. While Meguire tries to figure out why Richard hasn't solved the case yet, Harley looks at the space underneath the door and both he and Conan come to the same conclusion at the same time: this is the sealed room trick. Conan then passes out and Meguire tells one of his officers to go call a doctor. Harley, meanwhile, has dissappeared. Conan is half concious still and thinks that all they need is proof, it has to be there still. Harley meanwhile is in another room down the hall in the Japanese Wing of the house, hunting through a trash can. He soon finds what he is looking for and says that Kudo is only second best. Conan is very sick and weak now and Rachel asks if he can lay down somewhere. Thomas tells her to use his bed and she is on her way when Harley returns to the study. He explains that it was the sealed room trick and says he knows who and how it all happened. As he is carried off Conan looks back and sees fishing line sticking out of Harley's pocket but he is taken away before he can watch any more.
Harley asks Meguire to pretend to be the corpse, then threads a needle on the fishing line and sticks it through Meguire's pant pocket. What the killer had done was tape one end of the line to the keyring and taken both ends out into the hallway and under the door. He then shut and locked the door with the key, then pulled the other end of the line so that the keyring and key were pulled under the door and up into Rudy's pocket. A sharp tug was all that was needed to free the line from the tape on the key ring, leaving a perfectly sealed room and the only key in Rudy's pocket. As he explains his theory, Conan is in bad shape in the other room. He can't breath and his heart is pounding. He thinks that he isn't sick, he is actually dying. In the other room Harley is preparing to tell everyone who he thinks did it...