Kamon Hatsune's Testimony
This was the crucial moment of the case, and Mouri Kogoro had been about to hang up — until he saw that the call was from Natsuyu, who was at the hospital keeping watch over Kamon Hatsune. Could it be that Miss Kamon had regained consciousness? He answered at once.
And sure enough, Natsuyu's first words confirmed his hunch.
"Great news — Miss Kamon is awake!"
The moment Kogoro's voice fell, every eye in the room snapped to him.
Banba Raita's face lit up with astonished relief, but before he could rush over and demand the details, Kogoro's expression abruptly shifted, his brow knitting into a faint frown.
The strange look Kogoro fixed on him stopped Banba dead in his tracks, and a bad feeling began to churn in his chest.
Kogoro gestured to Inspector Megure, then moved away from the group — quite clearly, he didn't want too many people overhearing the conversation to come.
Conan watched the whole maneuver with burning curiosity, itching to sidle close enough to catch what Natsuyu-neechan was about to tell the old man.
Unfortunately, nearly everyone present was already tracking Kogoro's every move; following him now would draw far too much attention.
Under all those watching eyes, Kogoro retreated to a corner and did something on his communicator. He wasn't even that far away, and yet somehow not a single word of his reached the rest of the room.
Conan had to admit — he still had his doubts about the device's security, but its privacy mode was undeniably handy.
There stood Kogoro, angled away from the group, nodding along at intervals, his expression focused as he murmured his agreement to whatever came through the line.
Then, after a while, Kogoro suddenly turned his head, and his gaze locked onto Banba Raita. A flicker of uncertainty crossed his face — his eyes were full of disbelief, as though he had just heard something that upended everything he'd expected.
Banba flinched under that sudden stare, looking back at the detective utterly at a loss.
But gradually, the tight knot in Kogoro's brow began to loosen. He thought for a moment, his features relaxing little by little, as if some decision had finally taken shape.
And then he ended the call.
"Mouri, what is it? Is Hatsune all right?" Banba demanded, unable to hold back a second longer.
Conan noted that Kogoro's expression was faintly grave, but not anxious, not grief-stricken — which meant Miss Kamon's condition at the hospital must be good.
And sure enough, Kogoro's next words bore him out.
"Miss Kamon is fine — she woke up just now. Natsuyu called to tell me that Miss Kamon has admitted she tried to kill herself tonight. Banba never laid a hand on her."
"But..." Inspector Megure sounded unconvinced. He suspected that Kamon Hatsune's old feelings for Banba Raita might have moved her to give false testimony — after all, Banba's DNA had genuinely been found under her fingernails.
The others, too, turned to the Mouri detective with doubt written on their faces.
Before the inspector could voice his suspicions, Kogoro cut him off. "I have proof."
He then looked to Takagi Wataru, the more obliging of the two officers beside Megure, and motioned for him to remove Banba's shoes for inspection.
Once they'd finished checking, Kogoro spoke. "The stain on the bottom of Banba Raita's shoe is cake that Miss Kamon accidentally stepped in on her way out of the restaurant. That proves he never left the restaurant at all. If he'd walked to the crime scene in the rain, that cream would have been almost entirely scraped off by the time he got there."
"Of course!" Takagi's face lit up with understanding.
"That still doesn't exactly prove he's innocent, though. What if he planted it on purpose — a manufactured alibi?" Matsuda Jinpei raised his objection.
"Fair point. But the cake was dropped by *this* detective here, purely by accident," Kogoro said, glancing toward Amuro Toru. "Banba had no way of knowing in advance, so he couldn't have prepared for it. And he's said nothing to anyone until this very moment. The odds he staged a trap that elaborate are slim indeed."
Conan lowered his head, thinking hard. It was true — just as the old man said, the odds of Banba killing Miss Kamon were fairly low. But that didn't prove he wasn't the culprit.
The real question was *why* Miss Kamon had tried to kill herself. Without that answer, Banba couldn't be fully cleared.
And Kogoro-ojisan's whole demeanor right now was nothing like his usual self. Had Natsuyu-neechan told him something just now?
Damn it — what clue had she dug up this time, before he could find it himself?
"Besides, Banba Raita had no motive to kill at all. As for the reason..." Kogoro continued his explanation — and then, right in the middle of it, broke into a shameless grin, threw an arm around Inspector Megure's shoulders, and half-dragged the squirming inspector off to a corner, muttering something too low for anyone else to catch.
What the group then witnessed was Inspector Megure passing through almost the exact same sequence of expressions that the Mouri detective had worn moments before.