- For the similarly-named evidence in Turnabout Samurai, see Steak Plate.
A plate of steak was evidence in the trial of Ryunosuke Naruhodo for the murder of John Wilson. Two such plates were served at the time of the crime: one to the table seating Wilson, and another to the table seating Iyesa Nosa and Kyurio Korekuta.
Two plates, two crimes[]
- Main article: The Adventure of the Great Departure
Wilson arranged a lunch meeting with one of his students, Jezaille Brett, at the restaurant La Carneval on November 19 at 2 in the afternoon. Head waiter Satoru Hosonaga served two tables with one steak plate each. One was served to Brett, while the other was served to Iyesa Nosa, who was discussing a rare koban coin possessed by Kyurio Korekuta. Nosa was a regular and would bite into his steak, while Brett used knife and fork to cut her meal. Both of them had come to commit a crime: Brett poisoned her table's bottle of carbonated water with curare, while Nosa snatched away the koban coin, the latest of a string of thefts being investigated undercover by Hosonoga, who was a chief inspector of Japan's Imperial Police Bureau. Korekuta eventually discovered that the coin was missing, and crawled around on the floor searching for it, seemingly not suspecting Nosa at all.
Brett originally intended to see Wilson take a sip, and then leave immediately. However, their table was visited by Ryunosuke Naruhodo. Wilson later took a sip and succumbed to the poison, his hand coming to rest on the still-scalding steak plate. His wrist came in contact with a bull-shaped emblem on the plate, leaving a burn, but because he was already paralyzed, he was unable to do anything to draw anyone's attention. Knowing that she could no longer slip away without leaving a witness to the murder, Brett planted Wilson's pistol on the floor nearby. As Naruhodo was leaving, he noticed the pistol and went to pick it up, at which point Brett drew a pistol hidden under her skirt and shot the already deceased Wilson. Some of the blood from the gunshot ended up on Brett's steak plate.
Upon hearing the gunshot, Nosa panicked and hid the koban coin under his steak. Hosonaga then rushed to the dining area to find Naruhodo holding a gun. He announced that he was an undercover detective, apprehended Naruhodo, and locked him in a small pantry near the kitchen. While everyone else was distracted, Nosa hid the koban coin under his plate and switched it with Brett's in case the police tried to search him. During the ensuing police investigation, three photographic prints were taken, including a photo of the crime scene that included Nosa's steak plate and a bottle of carbonated water. Afterward, Hosonaga took it upon himself to retrieve both steak plates and the water bottle to preserve them as evidence. A postmortem examination of Wilson's body concluded that he had been killed by a gunshot to the chest.
The trial[]
During Naruhodo's trial, Nosa and Korekuta were called as witnesses. To Naruhodo's surprise, they testified that Wilson had been dining by himself at the time of the crime, even though, at the time, Nosa had been preoccupied with his steak and Korekuta had been looking for his coin. Prosecutor Taketsuchi Auchi corroborated their testimony with the crime scene photograph. Naruhodo cursed the fact that there had been so few witnesses. This prompted Judge Seishiro Jigoku to ask why Wilson had visited the restaurant at 2 p.m., to which Auchi submitted a medical report found in Wilson's pocket, describing an appointment that had taken place at 1 in the afternoon. Looking more closely, however, it was revealed that the appointment had been for a tooth extraction, and Wilson had been forbidden from food and drink other than water for three hours afterward. This completely changed the meaning of the crime scene photograph, as it now proved that the steak plate was for someone else.
Brett's identity as the third party was eventually exposed, and she was summoned to the court. Accusing Naruhodo of murdering Wilson, she made two claims: that the crime scene photograph showed the scene exactly as it had been at the time of the murder, and that she and Wilson had at one point said "cheers" over a glass of carbonated water. This led to asking why there was only one glass in the photograph, to which it was revealed that she had concealed it in her handbag. Naruhodo's hopes that this handbag could have concealed a weapon were immediately dashed, as Hosonaga produced a photographic print of the handbag; it was a meshwork handbag with no gun visible inside. Nonetheless, Naruhodo noticed on this new print the burn on Wilson's wrist, and was able to draw the conclusion that he had already died by the time the burn had been inflicted, and before he was shot.
Naruhodo recalled seeing a bloodstain on the plate served to Brett, which would prove that Wilson had been facing Brett when being shot. Hosonaga revealed that he had preserved both steak plates, and presented what he believed was Brett's plate. Naruhodo was dismayed to find no blood on the plate, until he lifted the steak to find the koban coin underneath. Caught, Nosa confessed to his crime, after which Brett made a passing remark about Nosa chomping into his steak. Unfortunately for her, this seemingly innocent comment led to the revelation that the plate presented to the court actually belonged to Nosa. Hosonaga subsequently brought out the correct plate, revealing the bloodstain for all to see and demonstrating Brett's guilt once and for all.