That Case with the Clocks (files 762-76X)

[sstimson]

I have a crazy idea about the murder weapon. It is so crazy, I am not going to spoiler it.

I think the Minutes Hand of the Big outside clock is the weapon. Conan found blood on it, and he said it was not planted. There was another case where a trap killed a person. The major problem I have with this idea is how to reset the hand so the clock works. It might have been reset while the police were looking at the victim. Also a Kid kind of trick might have happened. If The minute hand was the weapon then the person setting up the trap does not need to worry about a blood splatter, making the umbrella another red herring.

[Dus]

May be crazy but it may also be true. I'm not entirely sure what it is Conan notices about the hand - could be some sort of smudge or something or could be that the hand is missing (do we get a closer look at the clock some time after the murder?). It would also tie in with the suspected motive.  How exactly it could be executed I do not know.

[sstimson]

Since I had always been a counter to Chek. I will be again.

Problems with Chek's Theory

Spoiler:

The murder had to happen with in say five seconds of 6. If a string was cut to remove the weapon, the murderer would have maybe two to three seconds to attach the weapon to the string. Yes this is fiction, but I do not think Gosho would do that. It just can not be done that fast.

The theory of some thing dropping has this problem. If it was a single hook maybe, but this was a double hook. In order for something to fall out, it would need to be pushed out. Again timing of the murder does not allow this. And it there was something that automatic did it, there is a very good chance that that might prevent the clock from working right. This murder went off like a fine tuned watch. Nothing was left to chance.

Also note in the pitch blackness, anything glowing should be seen, but nothing was mentioned.

Would the murder take the chance of being searched and still have the weapon on them? Or have the room searched to find the weapon or cover? This murder and the way it happened suggest otherwise.

This murder needed to happen it such a way to be automatic. The murderer needed time to, as I see it happening, reset the minute hand of the big clock outside. Note that Conan made the 'this is how it was done' when he looked at the Big clock. He also noticed blood on its face. How it that blood get there? It should have been the murder weapon. That is the only way I can see blood got there.

Also look at it this way. Except for when the lights were out, everyone knew about where everyone else was. There was no time to escape or hide a weapon, or clean one.

So as I see it, something like this need to happen. The minute hand was attached to a bungle cord and a weight. No sure how, but a few seconds to 6 the minute hand shot down and killed the victim. The weight flew off, and likely landed in the well, but no splash. The minute hand returned to where to could be reattached to the clock.

But there are question for this theory as well. How could the clock work without the minute hand? When and who could have reattached the minute hand?

I sure something will be found in the well. But why did no one say anything about a splash? The only person who could have done this kind of trick would be the clock maker who would know the clock inside and out. A repairer maybe, but the maker would know things the repairer would not.

The room where the victim was killed is below the clock, so this theory is possible, but there is also a question about being inside a room with a roof, so how would the minute hand get through.

I believe the author is still trying to fool his readers. That is one reason why when all say it happened this way, I look for a different way for it to happen.

As for the missing blood, how about this? The clock hand enters the body, but does not exit through it. That means there is only one hole for the blood to exit through so anything under the body would have no blood.

[S.G.T.]

Spoiler: Chekhov, for the people who are not stalking her out ;)

The mysterious bit is why Karube pressed for an investigation when he bothered to set up the trick in the first place. He did say that he wasn't keen that the ghost of his childhood friend could be made out to be the culprit. If he cared enough to murder someone, then perhaps he cares enough not to sully the name of his dead friend?

At the same time karube pressed for the investigation it was still raining and since he was not in posession of his umbrella anymore or his umbrella was full of blood he would have been suspicious going out either without umbrella or with an bloody umbrella. So he had to wait till rain stopped. Thats what i thought.

[Dus]

It's weird that Karube was asked for his umbrella, since Kogoro saw it and they even examined the old man's cane. If he didn't have to get rid of it, why isn't it shown? and it does look like someone has used an umbrella to shield themselves from bloodshed, even if no-one mentions it.

If the murder weapon was automated, why mark the necklace? And there definitely wasn't enough time to make the murder weapon vanish like that. Maybe enough time to open the windows, but that's about it. But why wait three years to execute the murder plan if it doesn't in some way depend on the rain?

[Akonyl]

he waited three years because the brother died due to Leap Year magic, so he had to wait until the next Leap Year to kill the lady with the same Leap Year magic.

clearly.

[Dus]

And he clearly sent those letters because he wouldn't know whether or not it was a leap year until the first of March.

clearly

[Akonyl]

It's all about the mindgames

clearly.

[Dashin]

I agree with a lot of the stuff said. I can't recall something like a red herring ever happening in Conan. When something is shown, it will be part of the case without fail.

Here we have this facts shown throughout the files:

- In the first file we see three of the suspects arrive. The architect is carrying a foldable umbrella of what might be red color. He folds it after going in and he keeps it. Notice the umbrella has a blunt extreme in page 6 of part 1. The sister is carrying a white regular umbrella. She's just not carrying it anymore after they get into the house. We can assume she folded it and gave it to the butler. The old man, on the other hand, is wearing a raincoat. He's still wearing it when the rest of the characters see him praying at the well.

- Regarding the clock, the hours hand has a weird point. I think Akonyl's assumptions that something might have been hanged there and it just slipped when the hand was pointing downwards sound possible, but there're two objections. First, we see the face of the clock when the guests start coming on page 11 of part 1, and there's nothing visible hanging there. Second, almost anything would fall before the hand reached 6. This method would be fairly unprecise.

- Other detail we might want to consider is the fact that when the characters go up to the clock tower, the last one to peek from the small window is the architect alone. When he does so, the hours hand is just below him and the minutes hand is right above. We can see this on page 11. After looking out he closes the window himself, but Conan was right beside him the whole time.

- Conan sees something fluorescent flying around after the lady screams. It's probably something that was also touched by the one that placed the liquid on the woman's necklace.

- Regarding the umbrella, I agree that it was most likely used for cover from the blood spatter, particularly given the weird shape of the void. At first I thought the killer might have just been the architect using the pipe to stab the victim while standing behind her, and that's why only his hands have blood on them. He could have just licked the blood from the pipe and there wouldn't have been any luminol rection, since saliva breaks blood cells up. Anyway, this is probably not possible, since the whole pipe would have been stained and it would have been hard to wipe clean.

[Abs.]

Guys guys

The file says she was stabbed in the chest at one instance and in the heart in another. Also, you can't see the flourescent paint on the necklace from the back. Please stop saying she was stabbed in the back.

[Akonyl]

if you're referring to Dashin's post, he didn't say that she was stabbed in the back at all. He said that he stabbed her while standing behind her and that's why there's only blood on his hands, meaning (if I'm reading the post correctly) that he's saying the culprit stood behind her, reached around and stabbed her in the chest. If he'd stood behind her and stabbed her in the back, he would have gotten blood all over himself.

[Dus]

One possible solution: Karube did want to kill her, using his pipe (it is weird that he never smokes it) and using his umbrella to shield himself, then getting rid of it somehow. Since it needs to rain for this plan to work, he was also the one who had been sending the letters. But he wasn't the murderer, Furugaki Rinsaku did it, because he is basically the only one who would have the necessary knowledge to conceive a contraption that kills the victim when the clock strikes 6.
Since Karube did not get to kill her, he pressed for the interrogation, because after all, his pipe didn't have any blood on it and he already got rid of the umbrella.

We may never have had such a case in DC before, but I thin the evidence points towards that - you wouldn't need the necklace to glow in the dark if the victim was killed by an automatic contraption and there are two many things that would otherwise be red herrings.

Right, that would be a problem. She was standing with her back to the window, right?

[Abs.]

@Ako Yeah Dashin's post made me recall the other ones where people were sayin' she got stabbed in the back

But yeah he already discounted that theory however I'd add that it wouldn't explain the blood pattern on the floor

[4869]

I think that the murderer is Furugaku Rinsaku.

He clearly has a motive, he seems to be very loyal to the dead clock technician who died because of the victim's obsession to control the time.
It's also clear that he could have a very good excuse even if he gets suspected and he even says it at the beginning of file 762 : " I only came to check on the condition of that great clock... Your birthday just happened to coincide. That's all."

As Dus said he's the only one with the knowledge to set up such a contraption and no-one would suspect anything since he's there to check up on the clock.

His legs seem to be pretty weak and he has trouble walking (hence the cane) but when he's outside in the rain praying there isn't a cane anywhere near him... Wouldn't it be very painful to walk without it and stand for the whole prayer and then walk again to the house...?

Also as Abs noted the hour hand of the clock looks very suspicious... almost like a pincer and I believe it was used in the contraption.

Many people suspect Kuroba because of his umbrella but couldn't the raincoat also be used to shield from the blood ?
You see if he held the raincoat in his left hand since we can assume that he's right-handed (note him holding the cane in his right hand all the time) and the murder weapon in his right then we could explain him getting blood only on his right shoulder.

He probably put the weapon into the raincoat and the automatic contraption took rid of it in the well...?

We can partly prove this if we use the statement from Kuroba that he heard sound of textile rubbing !? Maybe it was the sound of the raincoat being swooshed into the well by the contraption rubbing against the handrail of the balcony ? That would explain the blood there.

The theory has it's shaky parts but he was suspicious to me from the very beginning so I sought for ways to prove that it was him.