Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

Chapter 174: Is the murderer a ghost?

Because they were all taking a walk, Akechi Eri and Mori and their group came together at the foot of the hill.

"In fact, the Kimono Sleeve God has another name," Akechi Eri explained as she looked at the Kimono Sleeve God enshrined on the roadside, "It's the Kimono Sleeve Prajna."

"Kimono-sode Prajna?"

"Yes, it's a legend handed down from ancient times. It is said that there was a diligent and kind girl named Xiaohua in this village. One day, she saved a wounded warrior on the road. In order to repay her, the warrior gave her many beautiful long-sleeved kimonos and belts. Later, the two daughters of the village chief deliberately framed Xiaohua out of jealousy, and Xiaohua was arrested by the government..."

"On the night when Xiaohua was executed, the two sisters spread out the long-sleeved kimonos and obi they had obtained, but the lights suddenly went out when they were excited. The village chief heard their screams and rushed over. The younger sister had already died on the spread-out long-sleeved kimono, and the older sister had also drowned in the pond in the garden, with many obi wrapped around her body..."

With her hands in her coat pockets, Eri Akechi turned to look ahead at a shrine halfway up a mountain.

"The villagers knew that Xiaohua died with regret, so they built a shrine for her and regarded her as the village's guardian deity. That's why everyone is worshipping Washisode-jin now. Over there is the shrine called Washisode-jin Taisha..."

"Hmm?" Maori narrowed his eyes and looked towards the shrine.

"It's right here," Fukatsu Harumi walked to a big tree in front of the shrine, "This tree is the Kimono Sodezakura. It's 500 years old. Every spring, the branches are full of flowers, just like a pair of beautiful kimono sleeves."

Xiaolan and Xiaoai looked at the bare branches, at least at this moment they couldn't appreciate the beauty of them.

"By the way, Ms. Harumi, is the university senior you mentioned from this village?"

"I haven't heard Senior Sister mention this, but she does live here..." Fukatsu Harumi looked at the tree nostalgically, "If Senior Sister were still alive, she would probably come and visit, right?"

……

Before dinner, Qinwu Hotel became more lively. Many tourists gathered in the leisure hall, playing table tennis or playing video games.

Maori and the others also changed into yukatas and walked into the leisure hall holding bath towels. Across the leisure hall was the cliff valley. The hotel had a winding staircase leading to the open-air hot spring below. The steam-filled scene made it look like a fairyland on earth.

It turns out that taking a hot spring bath in winter is more atmospheric, especially in such a deep mountain snow forest. The only pity is that there is no mixed bathing.

"I'm so impatient," Maori had already collapsed in the bathtub, "It's more comfortable than the hot springs I've been to before, and it seems that all my fatigue has been relieved a lot."

As the sun sets, the silver mountains are covered with a layer of dusk color, and the beautiful scenery is in full view. The relaxation effect is much better than that of ordinary hot springs. Maori almost wants to soak in this way for a whole day.

However, soaking in hot springs for too long is bad for your health...

……

After soaking in the hot spring, it snowed heavily in the snow village at night, and Mao Li and his party were invited by producer Bando to have dinner together.

Maori didn't drink today and was eating comfortably nearby. Editor Yasuda and Eri Akechi came over to watch after chatting about the new play.

"Detective Mori," Anzai Ema tentatively asked Akechi Eri to arrange more scenes for her, and smiled at Mori and said, "I heard that you are familiar with Ms. Niina, the author of the Samonji Detective series of the Daigakukan, right?"

"That's right," Maori stopped unexpectedly, "What's wrong..."

"really?"

Anzai Ema immediately put on a cute look and said, "The new Samonji series of TV dramas will start filming soon. I heard that there will be new characters appearing this time. Can Detective Mori recommend me?"

“This is what I recommend but it doesn’t work.”

"Don't say that. Besides being familiar with Miss Xinming, you are also a great detective after all. The director will definitely take your opinion into consideration..."

"Let's talk about it then."

Maori looked at Anzai Ema who was pouting in dissatisfaction - he would have nothing better to do than to recommend an actor to the Samonji crew, let alone a corporate daughter who was neither a professional actor nor had a good personality.

Akechi Eri looked at Mori's rejection of Anzai Ema, smiled softly, and said to Mori: "To be honest, Detective Mori is very suitable to be the prototype of the male protagonist of my story this time, even though it is just a female drama."

"Forget about that," Mao Li said naturally, changing the subject, "But why are you here to discuss the new play?"

"Because Mr. Huili has been creating in this village all year round," the female editor Baotian responded, "We heard that the hot springs here are pretty good, so we all came here."

Akechi Eri smiled faintly and said, "By the way, are you guys going to take a bath later?"

"I've been there during the day..."

"The night is different from the day, and it's a bit cold, so it will be more pleasant to sleep after taking a hot bath."

"Really? Actually, I'm very sleepy now..."

Maori looked at the snowy night outside and had no intention of going to the open-air hot spring again. He had soaked in it a little too much before. If he hadn't had to eat, he would have gone to sleep now. But Xiao Ai could follow him later...

"I want to go to bed early." Xiao Ai suddenly raised her eyelids and interrupted Maori's thoughts.

"That's fine. We still have a few days left anyway."

After dinner, Maori yawned and left with Ai and Ran.

"Please, please wait a moment, Detective Mori!" Harumi Fukatsu suddenly hurried over and called out to Mori hesitantly.

"Ms. Harumi?" Maori asked in confusion, "What's the matter?"

"Actually," Fukatsu Harumi looked back at the party room and bit her lower lip and said, "I have something to ask of you..."

"what?"

……

Guest living room.

"Five years ago," Fukatsu Harumi said softly, grasping the corner of her clothes, "when I was a junior, a senior was accused of selling illegal drugs in school, and drugs were found in the locker room. In order to clear herself, she jumped from the school building and died just like that..."

"Hmm?" Maori opened his mouth.

He really wanted to ask why she jumped off the building to clarify, but seeing how sad Fukatsu Harumi looked, he didn't ask.

"The senior you're talking about, isn't that the one I mentioned before in Kimono Sode Sakura?"

"Yes," Fukatsu Harumi nodded gently, "Her name is Suzuka Sakurako, she is a kind-hearted senior who loves cherry blossoms... I know her too well. A senior with a weak personality would never sell drugs in school!"

Fukatsu Harumi looked at Maori earnestly and said, "Detective Maori, I'm begging you, please reinvestigate this matter..."

"I want to help, but," Mao Li said, "it was five years ago. Even if I want to investigate now..."

"In fact, everyone understood that the senior was framed," Fukatsu Harumi explained, "but the fathers of those two people... were powerful figures in the local area, so no one in the school dared to come forward to testify against them..."

"they?"

"They are Asuka Shibasaki and Ema Anzai."

Harumi Fukatsu looked outside with some uneasiness.

"Asuka is the daughter of Councillor Shibasaki, and Anzai Ema is the daughter of the president of Anzai Global, a large construction company. When they were in school, the two of them were always dissatisfied because the senior was more popular, and they often clashed because of the senior's sense of justice... Please, Detective Mori, I can only ask you!"

Maori looked at Harumi Fukatsu who was pleading nervously and sighed in his heart.

This really respects him...

"Okay, I'll do my best to investigate."

……

At around 10pm, Fukatsu Harumi followed Maori and the others to the open-air hot spring.

In the hotel corridor, Mao Li and his group who were preparing to take a bath happened to meet Akechi Eri who was coming out of the leisure hall, also holding a bath towel.

"Mr. Mori," Akechi Eri called out, "Are you guys coming to take a bath as well?"

"Have you taken a bath, Mr. Huili?"

"Well, I suddenly feel a little cold..."

"Da da."

As the sound of their voices and footsteps faded away, Akechi Eri turned her gaze toward the ancestral hall in the middle of the snowy courtyard, narrowed her eyes slightly, and continued to carry the bath towel back to her room.

Meeting the famous detective was an accident, but the plan could no longer be stopped...

……

It was already past half past 11, and hurried footsteps could be heard in the corridor, as well as the shouting of Maori and others.

"Asuka was killed?!" Editor Yasuda and a few others were still discussing something in the social hall, staring blankly at Mori running towards the ancestral hall in the middle of the courtyard. It seemed that things were going to be much more complicated.

"Anxi also..."

Over there, Mori had already found Anzai Ema's body, lying on a long-sleeved kimono.

What's strange is that there were only footprints on the snow in the courtyard leading from the hall to the ancestral hall. Except for the footprints that Maori deliberately avoided, the ones in the middle should have been left by Anzai Ema.

The old policeman from the police station quickly arrived at the hotel. Because it started snowing again, Maori had to ask the proprietress to bring some towels to protect the footprints at the scene.

"Excuse me for disturbing you all," the old policeman saluted, "It is my honor to meet the famous detective Mr. Mao Li here. I am a police officer from the village police station. My name is Ogura. Thank you for your guidance!"

Mao Li asked calmly, "Have you notified the county police?"

"I've already contacted them, but they said the snow outside is too deep and they might not be able to come until daybreak..."

"It's dawn now. There's really nothing we can do. Let's all go to the Japanese-style living room and wait," Mao Li said solemnly to everyone, "I have some questions for you later."

The snow started falling heavily again.

As far as it stands, those shoe prints were indeed left by Ema Anzai herself. There was no murder weapon at the scene, nor any trace of the murderer. It was just a secret room enclosed by snow.

Maori looked around and made a simple mental picture of the hotel structure.

Just now, in a low discussion among a few editors of Yasuda, they mentioned that Anzai Ema walked through the social hall to the ancestral hall at around 10:, and no one else passed through the hall after that until they found her.

The murder was committed around 10:11 to 10:11, and judging by the condition of the body, it should have been between : and : to be exact.

In the open-air hot spring, Maori walked down the valley from the leisure hall. The door of the women's bathing area had been removed and placed on the side. There was a sign hanging on it that read "Specialized from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.", and underneath was a kimono-clad Hannya paper doll wearing a ghost mask.

Asuka Shibasaki's body was still floating on the steaming water, wrapped in a bunch of gaudy long-sleeved kimonos.

The deaths of these two people are very similar to the local legend of the Kimono Sleeve God, or the murderer also intended to use the legend. A Kimono Sleeve Hannya paper man was placed on Anzai Ema's body.

motivation……

Maori looked at the long sleeves of the kimono spread out in the bathtub like a scroll, and suddenly remembered the college senior Suzuka Sakurako mentioned by Fukatsu Harumi. If the Suzuka Sakurako who committed suicide was the Kimono sleeve god Kohana, then Shibasaki and Anzai were the two legendary daughters of the village chief.

"Ok?"

Mao Li squatted by the pool and found something seemed to have fallen at the bottom of the pool. He quickly took off his clothes and went into the water to check. Although the corpse entangled in the long sleeves of the kimono in the water was a little creepy, he was more or less immune to it, unless the corpse could suddenly open its eyes or speak...

There were two items in total, a knife used as a murder weapon and a stun gun.

Judging from the wounds on the bodies, Anxi and Shibasaki should have been killed by this murderous knife...

"So the murder weapon is here!"

Xiaolan, who followed over, looked very scared. "So, Miss Asuka was killed after Miss Anzai, that is, after 10:. But I have been playing table tennis in the leisure hall since then, and no one has passed through there... Is there really a ghost?!"

"What the hell is this? It must be a deliberate design."

Maori grabbed a blood-stained printed headscarf that fluttered at the edge of his long-sleeved kimono.

It's the one that Anzai Ema always wears around her head...

Maori frowned.

From the current situation, it seems that the murderer first killed Anzai Ema in the ancestral hall, then killed Shibasaki Asuka here, and then threw the murder weapon into the pond.

The key point is that whether you enter or leave the open-air hot spring, you must pass through the open-air bath, but as Xiaolan said, Xiaolan, who was playing table tennis, did not see anyone passing by.

Moreover, there were also suspicious points in the snow in the courtyard. After 10:, only Anxi broke through the hall to the ancestral hall, and only Anxi's footprints were left on the snow.

All clues point to only one possibility...

Is the murderer an invisible ghost?

Maori looked again at the kimono sleeves at the entrance of the bathhouse and the sign for the private bathhouse hanging on the door.

……

In the hotel's social hall, Baotian and his group did not go to the Japanese-style living room to wait, but continued to sit on the sofa in the hall in silence.

Mao Li looked a little tired when he came over. He looked at Xiao Ai who had just returned from the ancestral hall and said, "I've checked. There are no suspicious traces on the cliff. If someone bypassed the leisure hall to go to the open-air hot spring, it should be obvious...

"Also, the lady boss just confirmed that the murder knife found in the bathhouse was the sacred knife originally enshrined in the shrine... plus the bloody headscarf of Miss Emma in the pool, if it was used to wrap the murder knife, the order of the murders should be Miss Emma first and then Miss Asuka."

"But how did the murderer do it?" Fukatsu Harumi clenched her fingers tightly, "Maybe it was the curse of the Kimono Sleeve God. Only the Kimono Sleeve God can do such a thing..."

"Well," Xiaolan hesitated, "During the day, we did see two new dolls dedicated to the Kimono Sode God in the shrine's shrine in the village..."

Chapter 175

Maori glanced at Xiaolan.

He has also seen the shrine's shrine, and it is said that if one wears a long-sleeved kimono to worship in the middle of the night, the kimono-sleeved god will help to avenge the vengeance that he cannot avenge himself.

It turned out to be a trick. The murderer went to so much trouble just to make people think of the curse of the Kimono Sode God, right?