In the luxurious hotel room, which should have provided a comfortable environment, there was now a chilling atmosphere.
It's not surprising, considering that the occupant of this room, Suguru Itakura, was lying on the floor at this moment. His hands were covering his chest with a painful expression on his face and saliva dribbling from the corner of his mouth, turning him into a cold corpse.
"The time of death is over a day ago." Kogoro Mouri sighed after examining the body, "There's no hope of revival."
"Ran-san, could you please call the police?" Senichi turned his head after instructing Ran. He then pulled out white gloves from his pocket and said, "From now on, I'll temporarily take over here."
"I understand." Ran had experienced many ups and downs. Although seeing a dead body made her uncomfortable, she quickly followed Senichi's instructions and took out her phone to call the police from outside the door.
Meanwhile, Conan looked at the now-cold body of Suguru Itakura and had an expression full of reluctance.
He finally obtained a lead, but when he found the person, it was already a corpse. The feeling of falling short after making an effort wasn't pleasant.
What worried him even more was the possibility that the person might have been silenced by a member of the Black Organization. If that were the case, he might end up empty-handed.
Senichi patted Conan's shoulder seeing his worried expression, then gestured with his eyes to look at the open handbag on the ground.
"What's that?!"
Conan's pupils contracted dramatically when the magnetic disk with the word "Diary" came into view. He immediately wanted to reach out and take it, but the next moment, Senichi put his hand on Conan's shoulder.
With Senichi blocking him, Conan quickly calmed down and realized that it wasn't the time to grab the disk. He restrained himself.
At the same time, Conan was grateful that he had called Detective Senichi over. Otherwise, getting hold of the magnetic disk would have been a troublesome task.
"How could this happen!"
Johei Naito, who had been frightened and was sitting on the floor next to the body, regained his senses. He looked at Suguru Itakura in disbelief and said, "He was perfectly fine, how did he suddenly die?"
"It's probably due to a heart attack..." Kogoro Mouri looked at the scattered medications near the computer and said, "Perhaps Mr. Itakura's heart attack was sudden. He wanted to take medication realizing the danger, but it was too late and he passed away directly.
However, Mr. Itakura has been dead for over a day. In theory, hotel staff should have cleaned the room and discovered the body by now..."
"Ah, regarding that, it's probably because Mr. Itakura disliked others and had specific preferences for his work environment..." Johei Naito explained after hearing Kogoro Mouri's words.
"Yes, there was a time when someone moved a book on his desk by just about 10 centimeters, and he got extremely angry." Katsumichi Sugai agreed, "Sensitive people can be a bit neurotic..."
"After all, he only changed the sheets on his own bed once every six months." Ryusuke Soma added, "So I think he explicitly instructed hotel staff to not enter his room..."
"Hmm... is that so?" Kogoro Mouri looked down at the body and said, "It seems that the possibility of suicide is more likely..."
"Don't rush to conclusions."
Senichi checked the body while saying, "If it is as Detective Mouri said and the cause of death was a heart attack then there are some unusual aspects on the body."
"Huh?" Kogoro Mouri was puzzled and immediately looked at the body, asking, "Where?"
"The back of the hands." Senichi lifted Suguru Itakura's hands, which were placed on his chest, "When we came in, the deceased was lying on the table with his hands covering his chest.
If Mr. Itakura really died of a heart attack at the table, his hands should have been trapped between his chest and the table edge.
In such a case, there should be marks on the back of the hands due to compression against the table edge, but..."
"Mr. Itakura's hands show no signs of compression against the table edge!"
Kogoro Mouri saw the clean backs of the hands and immediately became serious. "Could it be that Mr. Itakura died somewhere else...
But that's strange. Considering the stiffness of the body, Mr. Itakura did indeed die in the position he's in now. If he didn't lie on the table with his hands trapped between his chest and the table edge, his hands would naturally hang down.
And look at his feet. If he wasn't sitting on a chair, they wouldn't be bent like this.
But if someone tied Mr. Itakura to the table..."
Kogoro Mouri paused as he looked down at the body, "If he was tied up... then..."
"That's right..." Senichi nodded, "It's likely a murder case."
Saying this, Senichi reached into the deceased's backpack and took out a magnetic disk labeled "Diary" and another blank one, handing them to Conan. "Conan-kun, could you please insert this disk into the computer and check if there's any useful information inside."
"Hey hey... Detective Senichi, don't entrust such an important task to a kid like him," Kogoro Mouri grumbled.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine." Senichi smiled and said, "Conan is quite proficient in using computers."
Without waiting for any objections, Senichi quickly continued, "By the way, Detective Mouri, could you do me a favor? I want to check if there are any traces of being tied up on the body."
Senichi's words shifted Kogoro Mouri's attention and made him unconsciously forget his previous thoughts. He started assisting Senichi in removing the clothes from the body.
There were no clear rope marks on the body, but slight bruises caused by external pressure could be seen from the shoulders to the top of the knees.
"It seems the culprit is quite clever and know how to use a blanket to conceal and then wrapping Mr. Itakura's body. Afterwards, they just needed to insert a pillow between his chest and thighs to fix his posture."
Senichi stood up and said, "Detective Mouri, please check if there are any binding traces on the legs of the table and chairs. I'll go look elsewhere."
"No problem, leave it to me." Kogoro Mouri nodded and began to carefully inspect the legs of the furniture around.
After characterizing the case as a murder through a series of deductions and reasoning, Senichi walked towards the area where chessboards were placed.
Here, there was decisive evidence.
The previous actions were just to make everything seem logical.
"Senichi-kun, although it's torn off, there are still traces of tape on the legs of the table..." Kogoro Mouri's voice came from behind, "It does seem to be a murder case, but the identity of the culprit..."
"I already know the true identity of the culprit," Senichi said with a smile, "and the evidence is conclusive."
"What!!?"