Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

In the early morning of the next day, just after daybreak, an elderly police officer from the Yamagata Prefecture police arrived with a team, and forensic personnel quickly collected evidence at the scene.

"That is to say, Shibasaki Asuka entered the open-air bath at around 10pm, and Anzai Ema walked into the ancestral hall in the yard at around 10:pm..."

59-year-old Inspector Shinsen compared the hotel map and concluded: "They both died from the same magic sword, and later the murder sword was found in the open-air bath, right?"

"Also," Maori added, "Only Miss Ema's shoe prints were left outside the ancestral hall. To get to the open-air bath on the other side, you have to pass through the leisure hall, but there were always people in the leisure hall at that time..."

"This is terrible," Inspector Shinken said with a headache, "Are both cases closed-room murders?"

"Officer Zhenxian!" A policeman suddenly ran over from the ancestral hall outside, came up to Zhenxian and whispered for a while, then handed several ID bags to Zhenxian.

Maori took a closer look and saw what seemed to be a note and an earring pendant.

Without waiting for Mao Li to wonder for too long, Shin first showed the earring pendant to everyone: "This is an earring found on Anzai Ema's body, but the other one was not at the scene..."

"Ah," Editor Yasuda said in surprise, "These are brand-name earrings! One pair costs at least 20 yen. Come to think of it, Harumi seems to have a necklace pendant of this type..."

Fukatsu Harumi hurriedly explained: "That's right, but because Ema gets unhappy every time she sees it, I put it away..."

"Is that right?"

Officer Zhenxian did not continue to ask questions, but discussed the situation at the scene with his men.

"The long-sleeved kimonos and obi belts were originally stored in the hotel's storage room, but that storage room is usually not locked..."

"Everyone," after talking for a few words, Shinichi calmed down and turned to everyone and said, "Now we need to confirm everyone's whereabouts last night. First, Miss Akechi Eri, let's start with you. It seems that you entered the bathhouse around 9:10 and left around o'clock. Shibasaki Asuka entered the bathhouse after you..."

"Yes," Eri Akechi nodded slightly while sitting on the sofa. "Then I returned to my room and ran into Mr. Mori and the others on the way..."

"That's right," Mao Li nodded, "We met at around 10 o'clock, and we were just about to take a bath..."

"Well, next is Ms. Yasuda Raiko." Officer Shinsen turned to Editor Yasuda who was standing next to Akechi Eri. "You stayed here until 9: to organize the interview, right?"

"Yes, I saw Eri at that time, and then about five minutes later, Ema went to the back door alone."

"That was around 10:... Did you see anyone else go out the back door?"

"No, just Ema."

Mao Li looked at Editor Yasuda and the others quietly.

The sign for the private hall was from 10 to 11 o'clock, and the door was locked from the inside. So Xiaolan and Harumi Fukatsu went to the leisure hall to play table tennis. It was also at that time that Xiaoai heard a snapping sound coming from this side while taking a bath in the next room. It was around 10:50.

"Have Miss Xiaolan and Miss Harumi been staying in the leisure center all this time?" Officer Shinken continued to ask.

"No," Fukatsu Harumi shook her head, "I forgot to take out my contact lenses, so I went back to the room once and stayed there for about 10 minutes..."

"Then Mr. Maori left the bathroom at 11 o'clock," Officer Shinsen stroked his chin in thought, "At this time, Ms. Raiko and Ms. Eri are having a meeting here. Where is Mr. Bando?"

Han Dongyi explained: "I came here to discuss things around 11:15, and then Mr. Maori came here and said that Asuka was killed in the bathhouse..."

"So the time is connected," Shinxian nodded slightly, "Ms. Xiaolan, you didn't see the kimono-sleeve Hannya doll when you first went there, but you found it the second time you went to the bathhouse?"

"Yes!" Xiaolan confirmed, "The kimono sleeve Hannya doll was still cold at that time, as if it had just been taken out of the snow!"

"But speaking of which," Mori asked, "Why would Miss Ema go to a place like the ancestral hall alone?"

Shin smiled and took out the document bag: "This is what we found in Miss Ema's pocket. 'Miss Ema, I have a little secret to tell you. I will wait for you at the ancestral hall in the yard at 10: tonight. Bando comes up'..."

"Nonsense!" Han Dongying's face changed drastically, "How could I write such a letter?!"

"But the reality is, you don't seem to have an alibi before 11:15..."

"This... I have no motive to kill Asuka and Ms. Emma!"

"It's like this," Shinichi nodded and turned to Fukatsu Harumi, "If we consider the motive, the only one who has a motive to kill is Miss Harumi, because you have always hated them and thought they killed your senior, and you didn't have an alibi for the 10 minutes you were in the room..."

"How, how could it be?" Fukatsu Harumi reacted fiercely, "I'm not the murderer! I didn't kill them both!"

After the interrogation, Editor Yasuda and others returned to their rooms one after another, and Maori also planned to investigate the scene again.

"Ms. Harumi," Maori looked at Fukatsu Harumi who looked worried and absent-minded, "You seem to be very concerned about that Suzuka-senpai."

"Well," Fukatsu Harumi came back to her senses, "My parents died when I was young, and I was raised by my uncle and aunt. Sakurako's parents also died in an accident when she was young, so they have always taken special care of me..."

"So that's it."

Mao Li and Fukatsu Harumi separated and went to the ancestral hall to investigate again.

To be honest, he didn't like women with personality like Harumi Fukatsu. She looked weak and hoped for help from others, which was just another form of self-centeredness.

but……

He already had some guesses about this case, including who killed Asuka and Ema.

Using the unique hotel environment, two seemingly perfect locked-room murders were designed, which in turn revealed a lot of information.

Taking advantage of the legend of the Kimono Sode God, taking advantage of the hotel environment...all of these fully illustrate one point: if the person had not stayed in the hotel for a long time, if he had not known the place well enough, he would not have been able to design such a sophisticated crime.

Although the storage room where the long-sleeved kimonos are kept is not locked, not everyone knows what is inside.

There is also a seemingly unsolvable killing sequence.

Due to environmental reasons, it is impossible to determine the order of death of Asuka and Ema. All clues indicate that Ema was killed first...

Sherlock Holmes once said that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how incredible it is, must be the truth. But what if this incredible truth that remains is also one of the impossibilities that have been eliminated?

He started from the purpose of the criminal's methods and thought in reverse. He had solved many cases in the past using this investigative method.

Return to the starting point.

There are two problems now. The first is the footprints in the courtyard. The second is that no one has been to the women's hot spring pool in the open-air bathhouse after 10:, which is the presumed time of the crime. Under normal circumstances, the murderer could not have appeared at the crime scene.

In addition, the key to the problem is the order in which Asuka and Ema were killed. Logically speaking, Asuka in the bathhouse should have been killed before 10:, that is, before Anzai Ema, but the murder weapon that killed Anzai Ema and Anzai Ema's headscarf appeared in the bathhouse.

Let’s solve the footprint problem first.

Maori followed Anzai Ema's footprints in the yard back to the back door of the hall and turned his eyes to both sides.

……

At noon, when Maori, Xiaolan and Xiaoai were still watching TV and eating lunch in the lounge, a police car from the Yamagata Prefectural Police Department drove into the Snow Village and finally stopped in front of the Kotoya Ryokan.

"Officer," Officer Zhenxian's men hurried into the lounge with a report, "the stuff has been delivered!"

"Is the autopsy report out?"

"Yes, the murder weapon used to kill the two victims was indeed that magic sword!"

Officer Shinsen's subordinates reported: "The blood stains on the headscarf also proved to be left by Anzai Ema himself. In addition, no suspicious fingerprints or other clues related to the murderer were found at the crime scene, the origami dolls at the Kimono Sodejin Shrine, and the note received by Anzai Ema..."

Maori looked at the worried Officer Shinsen in the hall, then put his hands on his chest and went to the open-air bath.

He has almost finished investigating the case, and the mysteries of the murders of Ema Anzai and Asuka Shibasaki have gradually become clear, but the identity of the suspect is still a little unclear.

All the clues he had pointed to the romance novelist Akechi Eri. Whether it was her familiarity with the Kotoya Ryokan or the Kimono Sode God, Akechi Eri, who had been writing here for a long time, met all the requirements, including the time of the crime and her alibi.

At least considering the success rate of Akechi Eri's crimes, many things can be closed...

"What's going on?" Xiao Ai walked to the leisure hall and looked at Mao Li who was standing by the escalator and looking down the cliff. "Have you found the criminal?"

"Almost done, only the last piece of the puzzle is left..." Maori's eyes swept across the open-air hot spring below and both sides of the cliff slope.

Because of the obstruction of view, I couldn't see the pool, I could only see the entrance to the bathhouse at the end of the escalator.

Although logically Asuka was killed after Ema Anzai, the murder weapon, the stun gun and Ema Anzai's headscarf were indeed found in the bathhouse.

Anzai Ema was killed after 10:10, but after :, no one passed through the only entrance to the bathhouse, which is the leisure hall...

Maori looked at the hotel house on the other side of the lounge. There were also guest rooms and corridors on the edge of the cliff. From the lounge, he could just barely see the windows and balcony facing the cliff.

Since the people can't go down, only the items are left. If we send the murder weapon and the headscarf to the bathhouse pool below, the whole case will be explained.

……

In the open-air hot spring pool for women, Officer Zhenxian led everyone to the side with a puzzled look.

"Mr. Maori, why did you suddenly call everyone here?"

"Because the mystery of the two murders has been solved."

"?!"

Mao Li put down his phone and walked towards the crowd, his eyes scanning Editor Yasuda and his group one by one.

"First, let's talk about the secret room in the Kimono Sode Shrine where Miss Anzai Ema died. Only the prints of Miss Ema's boots were left in the snow... Actually, you have already discovered that Miss Ema's footprints are a bit strange. They must have been pressed by something..."

"Mr. Maori, you don't mean to say that someone followed those footprints to the ancestral hall, do you?"

"Of course not. In that case, the normal traces can only be maintained if the foot shapes are exactly the same. However, we can change the method. What if the murderer used a large piece of wood?"

"If the murderer used two wooden boards and moved them alternately over the footprints left by Miss Emma, ​​the footprints could be kept as intact as possible. The price would be that the entire snowfield would sink and the footprints would become lighter. Although it snowed several times yesterday, a careful investigation would still reveal traces of footprints..."

"But," Hantoki Tokyo demanded, "how did the murderer get to the back door? Ema was the only one who went there yesterday."

"There's no need to go through the hall. You can just take a detour using the same method," Maori continued. "According to my investigation, the footprints on the snow to the left of the back door are shallower than those on the right because they were also pressed by wooden boards last night. Only in this way can we avoid being discovered and leaving footprints..."

"The murderer..."

"Yes, the murderer came out directly from the guest room and walked along the eaves using wooden boards to the back door. This way, the traces would not be too obvious. Even if someone walked there, it would be difficult to imagine the murderer's method."

Maori's eyes fell on Akechi Eri who was in the middle of the crowd.

"Teacher Huili, the traces of snow have extended all the way to the front of your room!"

"Ms. Hui, Hui Li?" Everyone's eyes widened.

"Yesterday, after leaving the open-air bath, Ms. Eri returned to her room and used the method I told her to go to the ancestral hall and kill Ms. Ema, who she had invited over under the name of Bando..."

"That does make sense," Eri Akechi said calmly, "but what about Asuka? How do you explain her death? I haven't been to the bathhouse since I returned to my room..."

"Yeah, no one goes there after 10:!"

"There's no need to go to the bathhouse, because Shibasaki Asuka had already been killed. The murderer just used some method to send the murder weapon to the bathhouse after killing Anzai Ema..."

"What about the origami doll? The kimono-sode Hannya doll appeared in front of the bathhouse after 10:. Was it also sent there by the murderer?"

"The paper doll was there from the beginning. To be more precise, it was hung on the ceiling at the entrance of the bathhouse. A small piece of dry ice was enough to do it. The evidence is that the paper doll was still cold when it was discovered. As for the method of delivering the murder weapon..."

Maori raised his head and looked over the cliff.

“Just show it and you’ll know.”

Chapter 176: Missing Huizi

The open-air bath is surrounded by changing rooms and wooden walls, with snow slopes on top. In the middle, there is a snow trail connecting the hotel rooms and the women's bath. For people who are familiar with skiing, it is easy to slide down from it without even having to control the direction.

But if you are not particularly familiar with this place, it is difficult to notice such a special place. The entire criminal plan definitely cannot be planned in a day or two, and it must have been tested and rehearsed in advance.

"I know!" On the balcony above the cliff, Officer Ogura of the Xuecun Police Station prepared two wooden boards, on which he fixed props of simulated murder weapons, electric batons, and Anzai Ema's headscarf with snow.

After receiving Maori's instructions, Officer Ogura immediately pushed down the wooden boards, allowing the two boards to slide along the snow path across the roof of the bathhouse and finally fall into the women's bath.

As the snow melted, several props remained at the bottom of the pool like weapons, while the towel floated to the surface along with the wooden board.

"This is the method that Eri-sensei used yesterday. It should have been around 10:50, when I heard the crackling sound in the women's hot spring," Maori explained. "It's just that the wooden board was replaced with a kimono belt that was frozen into this shape, so the long-sleeved kimono and other belts were left at the scene as a cover..."

"This analysis does make sense," Akechi Eri's face changed, but she quickly calmed down and said, "But why do you think it was me? Where's the evidence? Is it just because the snow in front of my room was pressed down?"

"The earring pendant on one of Miss Ema's ears disappeared from the scene," Maori said to himself, "When I asked you to wait in the Japanese-style living room, you suggested going to the social hall. I guess it was because you had to take off your shoes in the Japanese-style living room, and your soles were still bleeding from the stab wound... That's right, when you killed Anzai Ema, you accidentally stepped on her fallen earring..."

Akechi Eri's eyes suddenly narrowed.

She never thought that someone could see clearly the plan she had spent so much time planning. These were just small details, but they revealed the truth of the whole incident, like a sword hanging over her head.

"You, do you have any evidence that I was stabbed by the earring?" Eri Akechi's voice trembled.

"I didn't look for evidence. This is the job of the police," Mao Li walked out of the bathhouse with his hands in his hands. Finally, he looked at Akechi Eri and said, "Just now, Tokyo has found out that the Suzuka Sakurako who committed suicide five years ago was originally named Akira Sakurako. She had an older sister before she was adopted by the Suzuka family. Your last name is Akira, not Akechi. Is this your motive for murder, right?"

……

Beihu Town.

Mao Li followed the client this time, Mr. Naoki, into a two-story building with a garden. The garden was filled with potted plant racks and there was a garage next to it.

By the way, the client, Mr. Naoki, opened a bakery not far from the Mori Detective Agency. His croissants are a specialty in the surrounding neighborhood and are very famous.

"Such a beautiful house only costs 40 million?" Mao Li asked in surprise.