Toshiko Bessho (Case Closed)

Toshiko Bessho (Megumi Urawa) is the villainess of "A Small Client", the 2-part Season 13 premiere of Case Closed (airdates March 8 and 15, 2004, manga volume 39: Files 9-11). She was a hostess at an Atami inn, from where famous child actor Kazuki Kinukawa was receiving letters from his biological mother who gave him up as an infant.
After enlisting the help of detective Kogoro Mouri, Kazuki went with Kogoro to the inn along with his daughter Ran and Conan Edogawa. Shortly after arriving at the inn, freelance journalist Yasuhiro Kamoshita was found strangled to death in his room, with the culprit initially being believed to be Kazuki's mother. Yasuhiro had managed to take a photo with his phone of his killer, which appeared to show the woman had a mole on her chest; identical to the one Kazuki remembered his mother having.
Toshiko was initially ruled out as a suspect due to her not having a mole on her chest, but the investigation ultimately led Conan to realize the truth: Toshiko had in fact killed Yasuhiro, and the "mole" on her chest was actually a spot of his blood. Toshiko's backstory revealed that she had been behind the blackmail of Kazuki's production company, having threatened to claim Kazuki's father was a murderer if she wasn't paid 20 million yen. Toshiko's blackmail was initially a prank to stop them from passing on to him letters from his mother (who was revealed to be fellow inn hostess Tomoka Saegusa, who confided in Toshiko about giving up her child), as Toshiko was jealous of Tomoka giving up her child while Toshiko was unable to have children. But in response to Toshiko's "threat", Kazuki's production company paid the money to Toshiko, sparking Yasuhiro to investigate and uncover that the blackmail threat came from the Atami inn.
After realizing that Toshiko was the "blackmailer", Yasuhiro threatened to expose Toshiko's secret if she didn't pay him off. Wanting to keep her actions hidden, Toshiko plotted to kill Yasuhiro while she was meeting him in his room at the inn. During the meeting, Toshiko asked to use Yasuhiro's shower before luring him into the bathroom, claiming the shower wasn't working. When Yasuhiro came into the bathroom, the evil Toshiko, completely nude, struck Yasuhiro with the shower head, knocking him out before strangling him to death with videotape film; having gotten her makeshift weapon from a tape of a movie of Kazuki's. After the murder, Toshiko placed the film back inside the videotape and placed Yasuhiro's body inside the bathtub to cover her tracks.
Conan was ultimately able to deduce Toshiko as Yasuhiro's killer and what she had used as a weapon, making the reveal after knocking out Kogoro with his stungun watch. While Toshiko initially attempted to deny everything, the spot of Yasuhiro's blood that got on her chest served as the damning piece of evidence, as it resulted in a blood stain getting on the inside of her kimono. After Inspector Sango Yokomizo saw the stain in Toshiko's kimono, Toshiko confessed to blackmailing Kazuki's production company and killing Yasuhiro to protect her secret. In addition to revealing how her actions were really just a prank, Toshiko revealed that she was not really Kazuki's mother and had lied about his father being a murderer, while also professing her jealousy of Kazuki's true mother. Toshiko was subsequently taken into custody, after professing that she had no regrets over her actions and made Tomoka understand how she felt about not being able to have children.
Category:2000s
Category:Anime Villainess
Category:Brunette
Category:Deceiver
Category:Hero's Friend
Category:Incapacitator
Category:Kimono
Category:Makeshift Weapon
Category:Manga Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Strangulation
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Fate: Arrested
Category:Nude