Magic File 2: Shinichi Kudo, The Case of the Mysterious Wall and the Black Lab

Story
Fourteen-year-old Shinichi Kudo practices soccer in Beika Park, being admired by several children who compare him to Hideo Akagi. A man, Koichi Akimoto, interrupts to ask if Shinichi had seen Koichi in the park at 10:00 AM the previous Thursday. Shinichi did not, but he loiters in the park to watch as the man tries to find other witnesses. Koichi is shocked that Shinichi did wait and asks why; Shinichi answers that he is a detective, and notes that two other men in the park are actually two undercover cops watching Koichi. From that display of skill, Koichi asks Shinichi to help clear him of the charge of murdering his grandmother. Shinichi realizes that Koichi is trying to establish witnesses for his alibi, which was that he was drunk and sleeping on a secluded patch of grass in the park, having cancelled a trip to visit his grandmother. With some prodding of his memory, Koichi recalls that when he was in the park before he heard a bark and saw a woman walking by on the other side of a short retaining wall with something black, which he believes was a black dog. Shinichi concludes that if a woman walked a dog that day, she will likely be in the park at the same time on other days. He promises to meet Koichi at Beika Park the next morning to investigate, even though that means skipping class to do so.

Walking to school the next day, Shinichi discusses the case with Ran. Ran mentions she knows a woman who walks her dog every day in the park, but Shinichi is disappointed to learn that her walking route is not visible from where Koichi had been. Ran suggests that Koichi might be clairvoyant to have seen them anyway, but Shinichi strongly protests that such abilities don't exist, otherwise there would be no need for detectives or police to solve mysteries. Ran insists that there are some mysteries that no one can solve, even though Shinichi says he can, and they stop talking to each other without resolving the argument. Later that morning, Shinichi finds the woman and dog that Ran mentioned. However, to Shinichi's disappointment, the woman is positive she did not walk past Koichi's position while he was there. Shinichi heads straight home, pondering what Koichi saw and how to confirm the alibi.

Resolution
Hide= |-|Show= Shinichi returns to the park the next morning and meets Genta, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko on a routine walk with their preschool teachers and classmates. The teacher did not see Koichi, but the three kids say that they did see him while chasing a butterfly. Koichi is delighted, but the police refuse to accept witness testimony solely from a trio of three-year-olds. Back at home once again, Shinichi ponders over the mystery of the dog; Yusaku Kudo offers to help but Shinichi insists on solving the case by himself. Yusaku offers Shinichi's violin to him to "help him think", but Shinichi returns it to its case because he says Sherlock Holmes only used his violin to pass the time, not to contemplate cases. As Shinichi does, he realizes that the top half of the case looks very similar to the general outline of a dog—certainly an easy mistake for a hungover, sleepy businessman.

The next day, Shinichi once more meets Koichi and the other two policemen at the park. Shinichi asks Koichi and the taller policeman to lie down on the grass and close their eyes. When he tells them to open their eyes, both men think they see a dog on the other side of the short wall; instead of a dog, however, it turns out to be a woman carrying a guitar case. Shinichi explains that because Koichi heard a dog bark elsewhere, he mistook the case for a dog. Soko Kabe, the woman with the guitar case, tells the two policemen that she did walk through the park and saw Koichi on that Thursday at 10:00 AM. Koichi is delighted that his name is cleared. Not long after, the policemen receives news about the true killer and they rush off. Koichi gratefully tells Shinichi that Shinichi will become a great detective. This leads into a case 3 years later involving Soko Kabe and Reiko Akiba.

Trivia

 * The coffee shop Peach Sunday from The Coffee Shop Truck's Wild Entrance Case is reappeared.