Recap / The Kindaichi Case Files Reika Hayami Kidnapping Murder Case

"Reika Hayami Kidnapping Murder Case" is the nineteenth, and the final, case arc in the File Series of The Kindaichi Case Files.

While shooting for a movie, Reika gets Kindaichi hired as a part-timer, and Miyuki gets hired as a replacement supporting actress when the current one has taken ill and left the job post open. Before the film production can finish, however, Reika witnesses her manager being abducted before becoming kidnapped herself as well.

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Tropes include:

• The Bad Guy Wins: This case ends in this way.
  • The whole kidnapping case turns out to be a staged event to get Reika to call off the adoption process with her production agency president, which is what Reika's manager, who plans to take over the production agency, had in mind. That being said, he doesn't get to live to witness it himself, because...
  • His wife, who found out about the trick he pulled that got her raped while she was an Idol Singer, is the main culprit in this case, who uses this staged kidnapping incident to kill him.
  • In addition, the death of Reika's manager also serve as the culprit's payback against the studio president for having blacklisted her after she was raped, as she is left without any heir after the demise of her nephew, who is her only relative, and it turns out she has a malignant tumor in her body and will die in months.
  • Finally, the Man Behind the Man providing the culprit with help for the murder manages to evade notice from everyone for killing said culprit with poisoned coffee.
• Bait-and-Switch Gunshot: After killing Reika's manager, the culprit turns her gun at Reika, and the shot fires... only for Reika to be found alive and without any gunshot wound soon thereafter. It turns out that the culprit missed the shot — on purpose, as Kindaichi reveals late in the case.
• Batman Gambit: The whole kidnapping incident actually turns out to be staged, with Reika's manager, who intends to use this incident to get Reika to call off the adoption process with her studio president, being in cahoots with the culprit. It actually works as planned, as the studio president presenting a Briefcase Full of Money whose contents turn out to be mostly fake. However, he hadn't counted on someone else (Keiko Kitamura in this case) to actually agree to the ransom payment with all real money, so he ends up having to come up with another plan that would prevent the ransom money transaction from succeeding at all.
• Briefcase Full of Money: Played with. After Reika's kidnapping reaches Kindaichi, the kidnapper requests 100 million yen^note  (roughly 1 million dollars) as condition for her safe release. Reika's production agency president gives one briefcase filled with money for Kindaichi, only for him to upend it and reveal that the money is only on the top layer while everything underneath is cut-up old newspaper. Keiko Kitamura, having received the kidnapping news at roughly that very moment, on the other hand, agrees to pay the ransom and gives Kindaichi a briefcase with all real money inside.
• Broken Pedestal: Early in the case arc, Reika is quite happy with the prospect of her production agency president talking of adopting her. After Reika is kidnapped, however, her production agency president shows her love of money by calling the police and refusing to pay the ransom money, which devastates Reika so much that she calls off the adoption once she finds out.
• Casanova Wannabe: A dark example. As the culprit reveals in her confession late in the case arc, the man who would become Reika's manager in the present time used to pester and stalk her back when she was an Idol Singer, but she paid him no mind. He eventually resorted to paying some guys to knock her unconscious before he raped her personally, which got her blacklisted, before pretending to console her and proposing to her, which she agreed to in her moment of desperate distress, thereby trapping her in an Awful Wedded Life. That's without mentioning him being unfaithful to her after she became married to him, with Keiko Kitamura having to answer to him due to him blackmailing her with his knowledge about Kitamura's hidden past. It's not too surprising, therefore, that his wife would use the kidnapping incident as her cover to kill him after she found out the truth.
• Contractual Purity: A dark, In-Universe example. The culprit's stint as an Idol Singer was cut short after being raped and subsequently blacklisted, which left her with few options before her Casanova Wannabe of a stalker proposed to her.
• Cutaway Gag: Kenmochi comments to Kindaichi about the state of his appearance at one point late in the case arc, only for Kindaichi to retort about Kenmochi's Perma-Stubble in return. Kenmochi justifies himself by saying that he can keep his Perma-Stubble since he's not some Neat Freak, only for the next panel to show Akechi with a "Neat Freak" note on him.^note  In-Universe, Kindaichi finds it Actually Pretty Funny, before it turns into a "Eureka!" Moment.
• Damsel in Distress: Reika gets kidnapped early in the case arc. She gets released about halfway through it, though.
• Death by Woman Scorned: Reika's manager is killed by his wife, whom he manipulated into becoming his wife in the first place by paying three men to ambush her and knock her unconscious before personally raping her, which made her lose her job as an idol, before "consoling" her.^note  The facts that he's been unfaithful to his wife while having her stuck in an Awful Wedded Life and that he also made Keiko Kitamura cater to him via Blackmail due to knowing her hidden relationship with Reika only makes him even more of an Asshole Victim than he already is. That being said, the trope is played with in that he's not murdered for cheating on his wife, even though she's already well aware of his infidelity.
• Disguised in Drag: This case arc begins with Reika running away from her fans after a concert performance before turning around and showing that it's actually Kindaichi disguising as Reika due to his part-time job at the time being to act as Reika's decoy by luring many a Loony Fan away from her via said disguise. Reika's fans aren't happy when they realized they were tricked into chasing a decoy.
• Gambit Roulette: The intended goal behind many tricky extra paths the kidnapper makes Kindaichi take to carry the ransom money that ultimately end with failed transaction due to Kindaichi falling off a suspension bridge that breaks while he tries to cross it turn out to be to prevent him from succeeding in delivering the ransom money in the first place, after the initial plan of getting her studio production president to either refuse to pay up the ransom money or to present mostly fake bills fails due to Keiko Kitamura agreeing to pay the ransom money with all real money, all so that Reika would call off the adoption process with said studio production president, as Kindaichi discovers after the kidnapping incident itself ends.
• Get Out!:
  • After the ransom money delivery falls through, the culprit orders Reika to leave before knocking her unconscious via Pistol-Whipping, though not before shooting her manager dead at close range.
  • Reika yells for her production agency president to leave soon after the latter visits her while she's hospitalized. Not surprising, given the unpleasant shock Reika has just received about the one she admired and who was going to adopt her.
• Hijacked by Ganon: The Man Behind the Man who guided "Clown Doll" throughout the murder turns out to be the Puppeteer from Hell himself, Yoichi Takato, marking his return from the Magical Express murders as well as marking the first of many cases after that bear his fingerprints.
• Hypocritical Humor: A dialogue between Kenmochi and Kindaichi about personal appearance takes place this way late in the case arc.
  Kenmochi: You didn't go home yesterday, right? Go home and wash your face first. You'll be able to think more clearly after you're refreshed.
  Kindaichi: You're one to talk, Uncle. You look like some hardened criminal with that stubble!
• It's All My Fault: Kindaichi blames himself for the failed ransom money transaction when they're led to believe both the kidnapped hostages are dead, and it takes Miyuki's words to jolt him out of his depressive mood.
• Laughing Mad: The culprit breaks down in laughter when Kindaichi shatters the culprit's alibi with the combination of physical evidence (left behind by the murder victim, no less, the irony of which Kindaichi himself notices and mentions) and logic.
  This is unbelievable, aha ha ha ha! That man dragged me down till the very end!
• Missing Mom: Reika's mother is heavily implied to be Keiko Kitamura, a veteran dramatic actress who is willing to pay the ransom when Reika is kidnapped.
• Monster Clown: The culprit in this murder case goes by the moniker "Clown Doll", dresses like a clown, speaks through a sound-altering device, and kills a man via shooting him five times at close range.
• Moving the Goalposts: As Kindaichi realizes after the ransom money transaction fails and later narrates during The Summation, the kidnapping incident itself, which turns out to be staged, is to get Reika to willfully call off the adoption process with the production agency president, and Reika's manager initially plans to present evidence of said production agency president's money-loving tendency after the latter either refuses to pay the ransom outright or to present a briefcase containing mostly fake cash, only for Keiko Kitamura to step up to pay the full ransom money instead. The extra instructions that Kindaichi is forced to follow to deliver the ransom are the Gambit Roulette on Reika's manager's part, with the intention being to make the ransom money delivery fail, which happens exactly All According to Plan.
• Multiple Gunshot Death: Reika's manager is shot dead at close range five times. It's easy to see why once the culprit's identity and backstory are fully revealed.
• Nepotism: Reika's manager turns out to be the nephew of her production agency president. As Itsuki confides with Kindaichi after digging into information about everyone who's involved in the case at Kindaichi's request, the two of them had an argument before making a compromise by her getting him a job in her studio after she found out that her nephew bought some shares in her production agency with the intention of taking over.
• No Honor Among Thieves: A two-fold example.
  • First of all, Reika's manager is actually in cahoots with the culprit. He pretends to be kidnapped, before the kidnapper turns to abduct Reika as well, in anticipation of his aunt either refusing to pay the ransom money or to present fake money, so that Reika would call off the adoption process. Unfortunately for him, the culprit plans to use this fake kidnapping case to kill him right from the start.
  • The culprit herself falls prey to the Man Behind the Man when the latter mixes the coffee she plans to drink with poison without anyone noticing as the case arc is near conclusion because the culprit has failed to live up to his expectations of perfection.
• Pistol-Whipping: The culprit knocks Reika unconscious with the pistol at hand after expending the bullets.
• Pyrrhic Victory: The culprit manages to get revenge on those who wronged her, but the feeling of triumph doesn't last long due to having unknowingly taken poisoned coffee that the Man Behind the Man set up right as the murder case is ending.
• Rape as Backstory: This is actually the backstory for the wife of Reika's manager. It turns out that her husband paid three guys to ambush her and knock her unconscious before he personally raped her so he could have his way with her when she lost her job as an idol and was about to kill herself. She didn't take it well when she discovered it.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: After kidnapping Reika, Kindaichi is contacted and told to pay the ransom money, but the transaction attempt ends in failure when a bridge Kindaichi tries to cross gives way. It ends up All According to Plan, however, as Kindaichi discovers evidence later on that the culprit intends to make the ransom money transaction fail in the first place anyway.
• Slipping a Mickey: Kindaichi states during The Summation that the culprit slipped some sleeping pill into Reika while she was unconscious with the intention of altering the latter's sense of time in order to give herself an alibi.
• Spanner in the Works: The whole kidnapping incident turns out to be staged by both Reika's manager and the culprit, with the intention being to get Reika to voluntarily call off the adoption process after her studio production president's money-loving true color is exposed. Initially it's supposed to end with said production president either refusing to pay the ransom money outright or to hand over a briefcase mostly containing fake money that would be shown to Reika, but it gets derailed when Keiko Kitamura offers to pay the full ransom for Reika's safe return, so Reika's manager and the culprit come up with the many extra instructions leading to long-winding paths that Kindaichi is forced to take, all with the intention of making him fail at the transaction in the first place, which Kindaichi himself realizes after the fact.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: The Man Behind the Man provides the lethal example by slipping poison into the coffee the culprit intends to drink late in the case as retribution for the culprit's failure to live up to his expectations of perfection as a criminal.
• Troubled Production: In-Universe. The movie production taking place in this case arc is postponed when Reika is kidnapped, and it's only after the case ends that the film-shooting is finally completed without a hitch.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Once Kindaichi reveals to Reika's fans that the "Reika" they were chasing turns out to be a decoy who's Disguised in Drag, they react by beating Kindaichi up for the trick, as the scene after Kindaichi's reveal shows him with a few bruises while Miyuki applies rubbing alcohol on his bruised spots.
• Your Days Are Numbered: Reika's production agency president turns out to have only months left to live due to a malignant tumor, which the culprit, who got the information alongside her husband from the agency president's personal doctor, reveals near the case's end.