That was a great episode. It’s another arc split in three parts. The first episode served to introduce the problem, the second to solve the problem and the third to explain the problem. Sakon has solved the problem, all that’s left now is to explain it. A quick rundown:
– Someone used red paint to paint all sorts of scribbles on the walls of the study-room.
– Nobody walked up to the scene of the crime at the night of the murder, except for Sakon and the others and a certain policeman.
– Someone killed Akazuki, then brought him to the scene where he was found.
– Something which can influence pH was or is buried under the hydrangea, growing behind the Byakko Shrine.
– A statue was stolen, about as large as a child, but very heavy. It was returned to the police station, all muddy, though.
– Sakon reckons that the murderer used this in order to test out how the body would fall.
I loved the different characters in this arc. Especially the way that each of them has a unique role to play, and that some of them even assisted Sakon in his research. It’s great when you have more minds, seriously thinking on one case. One person may see something the other didn’t, and opposite. The sister’s worries about their father also worked out in a great way. They all react differently, but it all comes down to the fact that they’re sad that their father’s gone.
I have to admit. When the episode ended, I still had no idea what went on. I was still struggling between the police officer and Oki. During the previous episode, both he and the officer were acting suspicious. The fact that a certain police officer drove up to the road also confused me a bit. It could be any of these two, but I wasn’t really sure how the body ended up where it ended up in the first place.
But then, as I was typing this, it suddenly hit me, and I suddenly understood how the culprit did it. After looking at Yoshida’s bike, I suddenly realized that it would never be able to carry a body such as Akazuki’s. Oki is the murderer after all. He killed Akazuki, and stuffed him inside his van. He parked the two cars tightly next to each other, in order to make sure that nobody would be able to look at the back of the car, where the body was hidden. He then rushed inside the house, and played his little act, directing the people to the way he wanted to. Somehow, he set it up that the phone went off. He probably grabbed a second telephone in the house and called while everyone was looking the other way. He then rushed in, and pretended he had a conversation with Kyouichi and hang up. Although he was told that Akazuki was in his study room, he as so focused at the plan he made, that he forgot about it, and that´s where he made the mistake. Anyway, the three sisters went in their car and headed off, while Oki, Sakon an Fujita left afterwards. Oki made sure that both of them didn´t get a chance to look at the back of the car. He then kept a reasonable distance from the sister’s car, and then he crashed, right above the scene of the crime. The back of the car wasn’t entirely shut, so it flipped open and dropped the body at its designated place while Oki blamed the fact that he didn’t know the road too well. A couple of days before, he also experimented a bit with dropping the statue, in order to know the right angle at which he should crash his car in order to make the body drop at the right place. I think he chose that location in order to try and fool everyone. I think he wanted to have a crime scene in which he wouldn’t be thought as suspect. He worked very fastly, and he actually rushed to come to Akazuki’s house as fast as possible, so that his alibi would get as little doubts as possible.
Nice one. Very nice one. Now the question remains, am I right? But more importantly, why did he do it? What’s Yoshida’s role in this? Why were the previous murders nessecary? And what happened to Kyouichi?
