Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"We had agreed to have lunch together in the hotel cafeteria at around 1:4, but she was the only one who didn't show up, so we went to look for her..."

Ma Hua, the girl with brown hair, explained, "We went to her room and knocked on the door but there was no response, so we asked the hotel staff to help open the door, but she wasn't inside. Then we split up and searched the hotel for a while, but when we found nothing, we split into two groups with the kids and went outside the hotel to search..."

"With these kids?"

"Well, we were at our wits' end when we met the guardians of these children. They told us to look ahead, so they came here to look. Then when the snow started to subside, we found Sakuko in the pond..."

"Haha," Yamamura So said with a smile, "The guardian of the children you are talking about is actually Detective Mori, the famous detective Mori Kogoro in Tokyo."

"Famous detective?!"

The ugly face of Banqiao Yiba suddenly narrowed his eyes and stared at Mao Li: "It's really you... You look so different from the one on TV..."

"Being on TV is always different from usual."

Maori smiled faintly.

"I'm sorry about what happened to your classmate Sakuko. I will find out the truth as soon as possible."

"Do you have any clues, Detective Maori?" Yamamura Cao said excitedly, "This cursed case depends on you!"

"Hello..."

Mao Li's eyebrows twitched: "Who is the police?"

"This kind of case is simply not something the police can solve," Shancuncao said solemnly with a hint of fear, "The body was still wearing ski boots, there were skis floating in the pond, and there was a bridge that you had to cross to get to the pond under the cliff...

"The bridge was blocked until our police came over, wasn't it?"

Shancuncao looked nervously at the pond as if there was some ghost haunting him.

"The most incredible thing is this pond! It's strange, isn't it? There's so much snow around, why hasn't this pond frozen yet? There must be some monster living in the pond that sucked Miss Sakuko into the pond!"

"Please," said the university student Motoyama speechlessly, "It's because of the hot spring. The water in this pond comes from the hot spring. Although the temperature is not high, it is not cold enough to freeze."

"Yes, it is clearly written in the tourist brochure here."

"Are you really the local policeman?"

"Uh……"

"Besides," Shoe-horn-faced Banqiao looked up at the cliff and sighed, "I think Shuozi must have accidentally fallen down while skiing and drowned in the pond..."

"Ms. Sakuko, was she really skiing at the time?" Maori interrupted Banqiao and checked the body. "She was not wearing a hat or ski goggles..."

"Ah? Maybe it was blown away by the wind when it fell?"

"What about the gloves? It's impossible that even the gloves can be blown away so easily."

Maori glanced at the three college students.

"The reason why these are not there is actually very easy to explain. Miss Sakuko didn't plan to go out skiing at all. If we go to her room and look for them, we should be able to find the headgear, hat and ski goggles...if they haven't been thrown away during this period of time."

Yamamura So's eyes lit up, and while he hastily arranged for police officers to investigate, he asked the three people, "So, can you tell me where you were from the time you separated from Miss Sako until the time you found her body?"

"I'll stay in my room."

"Me too……"

Benshan and Mahua responded one after another, and Banqiao said at the end: "I am making a snowman behind the hotel, and I will go back when it snows heavily..."

"Make a snowman?"

"Yes, it's right on the cliff. It's the test product for our graduation project..."

"That means there is no alibi."

Shancun Cao nodded and took notes carefully.

"By the way, Ms. Sakuko rented a snowboard, did you guys do the same?"

"right……"

“I rented skis,” Motoyama said, “but I didn’t ski.”

"He was taking care of me," Ma Hua explained, "I couldn't ski because of my leg injury last year..."

"But even if you can't ski, you can still push someone down," Yamamura So stared at Mahua and said, "You three can secretly call Miss Sakuko here and push her down from above, right, Detective Maori?"

"impossible."

Maori observed the cliff and the pond and said, "The cliff is at least 5 meters away from the pond. If you push down from it, you will only fall on the snow. It looks like you can only rush down at high speed on a ski board..."

"I know!" Shancun said excitedly, "Except for Miss Mahua, the other two can ski, so we can carry the petite Miss Sakuko down and then throw her into the pond..."

Shoehorn-faced Banqiao said helplessly: "This is unlikely, right? Even if you can slide down smoothly, it is impossible to climb up easily in such a heavy snowstorm... If you don't believe me, you can check the skis and ski boots we put in the hotel locker. If they have been used, they must be wet, right?"

"Locker? Is that what you three share?"

"Any questions?"

"Then you guys can take out Miss Sako's skis and ski boots anytime..."

"Hey, hey, what do you want to say?" Several people were dissatisfied under the questioning of Shancun, "We can't kill Shuozi!"

……

Although the blizzard had stopped, the cold wind still blew from time to time by the pond, trying to get into my collar.

Mao Li tightened his collar, looked back at Yamamura Cao who was talking to several college students, and his eyes fell on the pond again.

The victim's body has been taken away by the police for forensic autopsy. Under such circumstances, it is impossible to determine a more specific time of death, so the work is mainly focused on the cause of death.

Even if someone drowned, it doesn't necessarily happen in this pond, and then the question is whether there are any medicines.

There are two possibilities in the current situation. One is that Satoko rushed down with her skis, and the other is that she was pulled down by someone.

Judging from the clothes of the body, he must have been suddenly called out of the room by someone, so he was only wearing a ski suit. The skis and ski boots placed in the shared locker might have been taken out by the criminal.

Taking all factors into consideration, Sako may have lost consciousness or died before falling into the pond.

The key is to wait for the autopsy report. If the truth can be found, the only option left is to throw Sako from the cliff into the pond...

Above the cliff, Maori and his group from the mountain village crossed the bridge and returned to the edge of the cliff where the incident occurred.

A section of the fence that was originally used for safety protection was missing, and a "Danger" sign was erected in the middle.

"This is probably where she fell..."

Shancuncao looked cautiously at the pond below.

"Really? The railing is broken, is this the only sign you put up?"

"It broke last week, and they said they were going to fix it this weekend..."

"Hmm, it looks like there's no trace of skis."

"With such heavy snow, if there were any, they would have disappeared, right?"

"That's true," Yamamura So nodded solemnly with his hands behind his back, then looked at Maori inquiringly, "What should we do next, Detective Maori?"

Maori's face was full of black lines. He glanced inadvertently at the Shoe-Horn Face who had been standing nearby. Seeing that the Shoe-Horn Face dodged his sight, he led everyone to the snowman next to the hotel.

"Mr. Banqiao, have you been making snowmen here? Have you heard any noises?"

"Well, I was here until 1 o'clock because we had an appointment for lunch at 1 o'clock... But I was so focused on this work, and the snow was blowing hard and the wind was very loud, so I didn't hear anything..."

"is it?"

Mao Li put his hands in his hands and stopped asking questions. He turned to Shancun and said, "Secure the scene first. Everyone go to the lobby and wait for the autopsy results."

"Huh? It wasn't an accident after all?" Shancun said excitedly.

"..."

"Well," Shoehorn Face asked, "Can I stay here? I don't have enough time, so I want to finish this work quickly..."

Shancuncao approached the snowman curiously and asked, "What is this?"

"It's the Snowman..."

"It's just a semi-finished product. Let's wait for Banqiao to design a draft, and then we can discuss it."

"Come to think of it," Maori interrupted, "it seems that there is no change since we first saw it..."

"Uh," Shoehorn said awkwardly, "I haven't thought about it yet. Maybe I'm too anxious."

"Oh, then let's go back to the lobby and rest. Maybe inspiration will come later."

"what?"

Back in the hotel lobby, everyone had different expressions. Ayumi and the others gathered together and kept discussing who the murderer was. Conan, on the other hand, was leaning against the side, frowning and thinking, glancing at Maori from the corner of his eyes from time to time.

Mao Li stayed for a while and then left the lobby, asking the police to search the room of Shoehorn-faced Banqiao, especially to check the drain.

Because the murderer may have drowned Miss Sakuko in the room first, and then moved the body to the pond. In this case, the hot spring water used should also be from the pond.

The composition of hot spring water is much easier to check than that of regular water, and it can be done on site...

"Detective Maori already knows who the murderer is?" Yamamura was surprised and happy.

"I didn't say that, it's just that at the moment the most likely possibility is Banqiao," Maori rolled his eyes.

"why?"

"Let's not consider the method and evidence for now. Miss Sakuko was wearing a ski suit, which means she was called outside at the beginning. So Banqiao, who stayed outside the whole time, is the most suspicious. Then there is the snowman. He was studying his work in such a heavy snowstorm, and he happened to be on this side of the cliff. If the murderer was someone else, would he choose to do it here?"

Maori looked at the dumbfounded Shancun and shook his head.

“And Banqiao, who has been here all along, definitely hasn’t done nothing.”

"Eh?" Shancun was a little dazed. "Isn't this a research work?"

"It's just a cover."

Maori walked up to the half-finished snowman.

"The reason why we didn't move the lower half of the snowman's body is not because we have no inspiration, but because we can't move it. Banqiao needs the big snowball below to stuff Miss Sakuko into it and then push it off the cliff. After the snowball rolls to the pond, the water in the pond comes from the hot spring and will melt quickly. Miss Sakuko's body will naturally float on the water like when it was found..."

"Even if you are a famous detective, you can't talk nonsense!"

A few college students suddenly came over, and the student named Benshan said angrily: "Shuozi is small, but it is absolutely impossible for her to roll down the cliff in a snowball like this. If the snowball is not strong enough, it will break in the middle of the journey. How did she fall into the pond?"

"Yes, if it doesn't fall apart, it needs to be at least 2 meters in diameter. One person can't push it at all..."

Maori looked back and saw a few people frowning.

He didn't want to start reasoning before finding absolute evidence, because there is always a chance of something happening, and he might make a mistake. If he is not careful, he might become the second Tokatsu Junya.

And given his current fame, the consequences of getting the case wrong would be much more serious.

"What if the snowballs hardened?" Maori pondered. "I checked here when the police came. There was a salty smell on the snow. It should be the residual salt."

"Salt."

"Generally speaking, salt can be used to melt snow, because adding salt to snow will lower the freezing point and cause the snow to melt. However, before melting, it will absorb the surrounding heat, causing other snow around it to freeze and harden. Ski resort tracks and snow house reinforcements usually use this principle..."

Mao Li paused as he looked at the confused crowd.

"Anyway, all you need to know is that salt can be used to harden snowballs..."

"But," Benshan came back to his senses, "Isn't the snowman still here?"

"This was made in a hurry. Of course, only the body part was needed, which is why only the head was carved beforehand."

Maori reached out and lifted up the snowman's head, revealing the big snowball underneath.

"Now only the head is reinforced, the rest can be redone at any time..."

"Are you kidding me?"

"It would take time and energy to make a snowball this big again, right? Banqiao, who was eating with us, didn't look like he had just finished working..."

Benshan defended his classmate, "And it doesn't necessarily have to be Banqiao."

"Only he could have done it, because even if we just need to make a new big snowball to serve as the body, not everyone can do it, because only Mr. Itabashi, who made the snowman, can do the detailed modification of the connection between the head and the body... It's almost exactly the same as what we saw before."

Maori chuckled and looked at the shoe-horn face whose expression changed drastically.

"And Mr. Itabashi is the only one who could easily ask Miss Sakuko to put on her ski clothes and come outside. Unfortunately, she forgot to bring her ski goggles, gloves and hat... Or is Mr. Itabashi trying to change his story and say that he was not there at all, and someone else framed him?"

"Banqiao?"

Benshan and Mahua both refused to believe it and looked at his shrewd face.

"Could it be..."