Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 108 Chasing Death

"Boom!"

A flash of lightning illuminated the courtyard.

Shimabukuro family.

Because the hotel was full and had nowhere to go, Hattori and Kazuha also stayed here, just in the room next to Gao Mo - on the left and right sides.

Hattori seemed very curious about what he would look like without the fox mask, but in the end he was unable to do so.

Gao Mo entered the room and never came out again.

"What's going on with Mr. Maru?" Hattori Heiji, who was inexplicably a little competitive, propped up his chin, watched for a long time, and couldn't help but ask Shimabukuro Kimie a question.

"Maybe it's because of Saori's death," Shimabukuro Kimie explained helpfully, "Mr. Maru is Saori's friend on the main island."

"Friends? Why don't friends live at Miss Saori's house?"

"Saori had a fight with her father, so she asked Mr. Maru to stay here."

"Is that so?"

Hattori Heiji muttered to himself.

Could it be another detective found by Saori Kadowaki?

"call!"

In the guest room, Gao Mo sat up suddenly and turned to look at the paper door illuminated by lightning.

Hattori's long shadow was cast on the paper door.

In a trance, he seemed to see the body of Hattori Heiji falling from the cliff...

Death rules!

If it falls, could it be the mermaid's tomb set up by Shimabukuro Kimie?
Originally, it was a trap that Shimabukuro Kimie used to lure Kadowaki Saori and disguise it as an accidental fall off a cliff, but now it seems to have become a tool of the god of death.

Gao Mo subconsciously got up, but quickly stopped.

The rules of death cannot be broken.

Since we have predicted it, we have ways to deal with it. What is scary is the unknown.

Hattori Heiji's situation is similar to that of the mustache.

What he needs to do is to minimize intervention as much as possible to avoid complicating the situation and moving further into the unknown.

"Crash!"

The sound of turning pages of notes drowned out the conversation outside.

Following the blurry image of the corpse, new footage has emerged.

Waha and Hattori were hanging on a branch that protruded from the cliff.

What followed was the body of a short-haired woman who fell off a cliff.

……

After a midnight shower.

The Mermaid Island seemed to be in deep sleep, with only occasional flashes of lightning in the darkness.

Below the waterfall where the ritual had just been held, the brazier had been extinguished by the rain.

The pool goes down to where the river flows into the sea.

A torn fishing net was hanging at the corner. Something seemed to be entangled inside it. It kept floating up and down on the gravel shallows, and a pale spot was revealed under the fishing net.

"Whoosh!"

The sound of water echoed.

Saori's father, who was drunk in the izakaya, staggered out, squinted his eyes and ran stealthily to the river bank, holding a dugong arrow stolen from a tourist in his hand. Seeing that there was no one around, he made a phone call.

"Yes, I'm a staff member at the festival, and I have a spare dugong arrow... Hey, how could I possibly lie? Come to that mermaid waterfall we saw earlier. One million, no less...

"That old couple came to me yesterday to buy it. You're not the only one who wants it. There's only one left, and if you miss this opportunity, you'll never find it again..."

"Ok?"

After hanging up the phone, Saori's father looked towards the river bank in front of him in a daze.

Picking up a branch and pushing aside the weed-like fishing net, a cold and bloodless woman's arm was completely exposed in the night. The river water washed away her long black hair. The slightly swollen woman's face turned around, her eyes wide open.

"Mom!"

Saori's father fell to the ground in fright and sobered up instantly.

"Dead, dead person?!"

……

"The deceased is the daughter of the Ebihara family, a web weaver on the island. Ebihara Sumi, 27 years old."

The next day, the Mermaid Waterfall was crowded with people early in the morning.

The police, who were already preparing to leave by boat, quickly cordoned off the scene.

"Looks like he accidentally got entangled in a fishing net and drowned? Was it an accident?"

"There shouldn't have been any fishing nets here during yesterday's festival, right?"

The middle-aged policeman was worried and held his head in his hands. When he turned around, he suddenly found that the detective from last night had approached the corpse without permission.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

"There are no signs of fighting with anyone."

Hattori Heiji took a quick look at the body and frowned deeply. It was hard to tell whether it was suicide or homicide.

But first it was Saori Kadowaki, and then it was Saori’s childhood friend... Could it really be an accident?

"Officer, can you tell me if there are any witnesses? And this fishing net..."

"We would have done it without you telling us," the middle-aged policeman said angrily. "This is the job of the Fukui Prefecture Police. No matter if you're a detective or something, you're not allowed to interfere..."

"Officer?" a police officer said, leaning closer. "I know who he is. I saw him before when I was studying in Osaka. He seems to be the son of the Osaka Prefectural Police Chief, high school detective Hattori Heiji."

"Osaka Prefectural Police?"

The middle-aged policeman almost bit his tongue. When he looked at Hattori Heiji again, his senses suddenly changed drastically.

"Are you the son of Superintendent Hattori?"

"Better start investigating quickly, officer."

Hattori Heiji felt depressed.

Although I don't really want to take advantage of my father, this title is very useful. The police no matter where they are will give my father face.

"It rained last night, and there was a footprint next to the body. Someone must have been here beforehand."

"Are there footprints?" The middle-aged man turned to the police officer in charge of examining the body.

"Yes, there were some messy footprints, and a wine bottle was found nearby..."

After a while, the police found Saori's father, Benzo Kadowaki, a drunk fisherman in his fifties, who was still sleeping in the izakaya.

"A body? I don't know. I was drinking here yesterday... I went out for a walk, so I don't remember if I saw anything."

No matter how the police questioned him, the drunkard always denied that he had been to the riverbank scene.

Moreover, even though he was supposed to hold a funeral for his daughter Saori, this guy didn't take it seriously at all and left it all to the town hall and other islanders.

"Is this guy really Saori's father?" Hattori Heiji recalled the quarrel between father and daughter.

No wonder they quarreled with a father like that.

Looking at the fisherman who remained stubborn, Hattori Heiji always felt that this guy was hiding something.

But to say that this guy is the murderer... doesn't seem like it.

Judging from the traces at the scene, Benzo Kadowaki must have broken in later.

Maybe there is something else that the police cannot know, so they conceal it.

"Heiji." Kazuha, still hugging her arms, said, "You still have that arrow with you, right? Don't lose it!"

"I bring..."

Hattori Heiji casually took out the dugong arrow from his arms, and suddenly a light flashed in his mind.

The incident started because Kadowaki Saori lost the dugong arrow.

It's just throwing an arrow, why are you so scared?
He even went so far as to use his connections to find a detective... There seems to be some hidden story here.

The elderly people on the island he met basically didn't care much about the mermaids' immortality, and just enjoyed it as an ordinary celebration. On the contrary, these local young people cared too much about the mermaid legend.

……

The Ebihara family's home is right on the coast, and the backyard beach is full of fishing nets.

The web weaver burst into tears upon learning of his daughter's death and was only stopped from running to the scene by the police.

But in the end, I didn't get any useful clues.

All I know is that last night, after the festival ended, Sumi Ebihara returned home and her mood seemed to have become particularly bad.

"It's true that a fishing net is missing, but why do we need to bring the fishing net from here?"

"If it was the murderer, there would be no need to run so far and risk being discovered to bring the fishing net to the waterfall."

"Is it really suicide?"

"Maybe it was just an accident. It rained last night..."

"Officer!" A police officer arrived with two tourists. "They said they contacted Benzo Kadowaki yesterday to buy dugong arrows. They had agreed to meet at the waterfall after the rain, but it suddenly fell through."

"It is said that someone spent 100 million to buy an arrow the day before yesterday."

"And we've already confirmed with the shrine, and they don't have any extra dugong arrows. It seems that guy stole the arrows from tourists and sold them for money!"

"One million?!" the middle-aged police officer said sharply, "Catch that guy quickly! This might be a murder case!"

wrong……

Hattori Heiji followed the police thoughtfully.

It might be true that Benzo Kadowaki stole arrows and sold them for money, or it might even be that this guy stole his daughter's arrows.

But to say he is the murderer... doesn't make sense.

Judging from the condition of the body on the riverbank, Sumi Ebihara should have been killed before the rain last night.

Benzo Kadowaki went to the scene after the rain.

The biggest problem now is the fishing nets, and why Sumi Ebihara went to Mermaid Falls after the festival...

and many more!

Hattori Heiji suddenly stopped and remembered the short-haired girl he met when investigating Saori Kadowaki.

These young people on the island are all good friends with each other.

When we talked yesterday, the short-haired woman, like Sumi Ebihara, also believed deeply in the mermaid legend.

(End of this chapter)