The Case of the Twin Prison Locked Room Murder Pt. 6

**The Case of the Twin Prison Locked Room Murder Pt. 6** is the 56th chapter of the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga.

## Summary

Totomaru thanks Amamiya, Fin, Shachi, Kiyotaka, Youko, and Sakanoue for gathering in front of the Moon Prison and tells them that he will now explain the mystery of the Moon Prison. This surprises Amamiya who then asks Fin why she is not doing this. Fin replies that she only supported his investigation and wants to know how he will solve the case. Ron stands silently next to Toto while he recites his deduction.

Toto says that Fin did not find anything in the prison because the culprit knew about her Phoenix touch ability and found a way to destroy a clue's material properties; this revelation shocks Amamiya, Shachi, and the Mihane household. The clue was a powerful neodymium magnet. The murderer inserted it into the brass bar and concealed it with a brass cover which they polished to get rid of any evidence that the bar had been tampererd with. They attached the magnet to the door, a bit above the bar bracket, and then left the room. Afterward, they used a blowtorch to heat the door and the bar until the bar was heated to 330 degrees—neodymium's Curie temperature, the point that has to be reached for the material to lose its magnetism. The bar then dropped into the brackets and locked the door.

Because the culprit used a blowtorch they were not familiar with, they hurt their left hand—and Sakanoue has been suspiciously covering her left hand. Until yesterday, when she clutched her hands, her right hand had been on top, not it was her left one. Sakanoue claims that she burned her hand when a pot boiled over, but Youko points out she said she never made a cooking mistake in thirty years. Sakanoue then replies that she was only careless and that she does not even have a motive to kill Juntaro and Kaji.

Amamiya says she cannot see a motive; after all, Sakanoue, as the household's servant, would not even be able to lay any claim to the Mihane fortune. Ron can think of a motive though: Sakanoue was trying to protect Youko. She cooks meals with many vegetables and hides her treats because she worries about her mistress' fragile health. Youko defends Sakanoue, saying that she would never consider that, and adds that she cannot employ a murderer; thus, Sakanoue should not get wrapped up in this. Hearing her words, Sakanoue confesses. Totomaru points out that she only looked out for Youko though, not Kiyotaka because she does not care about what he eats, and asks why.

Sakanoue tells everyone that she promised Youko's mother to protect her daughter. Youko's mother did not like Juntaro as she realized he would only bring trouble, and because Sakanoue felt indebted to her mistress as she saved her life when she was young, she agreed to take care of Youko. Juntaro had been squandering the Mihane fortune for his religious group, and Kaji had tried to pin his brother's murder on Youko and Kiyotaka to get his hands on the fortune. Sakanoue had to kill them. Kiyotaka and Youko are shocked to hear that, and he tells Sakanoue that she did not have to go that far to protect him and his mother, but Sakanoue retorts that she never cared about him—she only wanted to protect Youko as she had promised, not Kiyotaka.

Fin then asks Sakanoue why she imitated the Sun Prison Murder Case. Sakanoue answers that she hoped if she copied an unsolved murder, her murder would never be solved too. She also learned about Curie temperature on television and created the bar in case she ever needed it.

And although she was caught, Sakanoue is happy because she could fulfill her promise to protect Youko. She will die soon anyway; with her promise fulfilled, she can face her first mistress in heaven. Youko remarks that Sakanoue must have really gone senile but Kiyotaka replies this is not just senility.

Later, Fin tells Totomaru that he solved the case well. He thanks her and adds that he has no evidence to prove there was a magnet in the bar though. Fin replies that he does not have to worry about this: She and Shachi took an x-ray of the bar and confirmed the magnet's presence inside it because Fin had actually solved the case before Ron did. Then, Shachi and Fin set out to leave. Ron wants to talk to them but because of his medication to counteract Kill on Sight, he faints before he can though. Toto rushes to his aid, and Shachi and Fin are baffled by the scene.

A few days later, Shachi and Fin are waiting for their flight home at the airport when they are appoached by Ron and Toto. Ron tells Fin that he wants to continue their conversation. Fin initially does not want to talk to him, but when he says he solved the Sun Prison Murder Case, she is all ears.

The culprit is the wife's lover. Shachi and Totomaru point out that, while the lover's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, nobody could have left and entered the locked Sun Prison, and only the husband had been discovered inside. Ron replies that this is true—but after the lover killed the husband, he never left the prison: After the lover committed the murder, he set himself on fire in the fireplace. Nobody found him because he had been reduced to ashes by the time the police and the wife arrived, having burned for days. The lover did that to free the wife from her eccentric husband; the husband's insurance money would provide for the wife.

When the wife saw the large pile of ashes in the fireplace, she realized what had happened. And when the officer went to get backup, she carried away her lover's bones. Like Sakanoue, the lover had thrown away everything for someone precious.

Fin remarks that because Ron has no physical evidence, it cannot be accepted as an official solution. However, it is a convincing solution; if they were at BLUE, she would give him 90% for it. This upsets Shachi, and Toto congratulates Ron.

Fin then recites one of her father's sayings: "There's no sin in a heart that seeks the truth." Because he risked his life to get involved in a case in front of a BLUE instructor and even followed her to the airport, Fin knows that Ron did not solely do all that just to solve the case. He wants something else, and she is willing to hear him out.

## Characters in Order of Appearance

* Totomaru Isshiki
* Ron Kamonohashi
* Shachi
* Fin Fennec
* Amamiya
* Kiyotaka Mihane
* Youko Mihane
* Kaki Sakanoue