Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"I was in the kitchen, but I just couldn't sleep so I went to check..."

"You're lying, you're lying. I saw with my own eyes the old woman sharpening the knife with a scary look on her face..." Mitsuhiko didn't dare to confront the old woman face to face and hid behind Maori in fear.

"That big sister might be..."

"That's impossible, Mitsuhiko," Maori shook his head and looked at the young lady's body. "Judging from the wound, the murderer attacked from behind. Unless Miss Akane was squatting in the rain at the time, the murderer should be taller than Miss Akane... and the old woman's clothes and shoes were not wet..."

After a pause, Maori turned to the elegant man who came back after washing his hands.

As the first person to discover the crime, the elegant man was the most likely suspect. Everyone found him outside the entrance because of his shouting, which gave them a minute or two, but no knife or other weapon was found in his hand. It had been raining when the crime happened, but there were no footprints around, which means that he could not have taken the weapon away.

The elegant man was a little nervous when Mao Li looked at him: "What, what happened?"

"Nothing," Mao Li shook his head and asked, "Mr. Lai Ren, why are you here?"

"Ah, this," the charming man explained, "I just happened to be going to the bathroom on the first floor, so I got there earlier than everyone else..."

About 50 minutes later, several police cars drove through the heavy rain and stopped in front of Tanaka's house. Policemen wearing raincoats hurried into the house. As expected, the leader of the team was Shancuncao again.

"Oh, Mr. Maori, we meet again so soon," Yamamura said in a hoarse voice, "Why didn't you tell me before you came to Gunma Prefecture?"

"Let's get on with the case quickly, Officer Yamamura." Mao Li's forehead twitched secretly.

The last thing I wanted to do when I arrived in Gunma Prefecture was to deal with this guy.

"Yeah, that's right," Shancun Cao took out the police notebook in a serious manner, "Well, now can you please tell me the details?"

Maori had no plans to intervene for the time being. The suspicion in his heart was just a suspicion after all. The police needed to investigate thoroughly and find the murder weapon first.

He had just been to the bathroom and looked around briefly, but didn't find anything suspicious, so he couldn't be sure that the handsome man had hidden the murder weapon.

Recalling the situation at the time of the crime, Maori walked to the side and sorted it out bit by bit.

There were only three kinds of footprints outside the house at that time, the victim, Ms. Akane, the elegant man, and Conan, and there were only footprints leaving the entrance. In addition, considering the time, the elegant man had no chance to go back to the house to hide the murder weapon...

"That is to say," Shancuncao concluded after collecting the confessions, "around 4 o'clock this morning, we suddenly heard a woman screaming outside. When we ran over, we saw that the woman's neck had been cut open by a sharp weapon and she was lying in the rain..."

"The victim's name is Akane Ohba, 25 years old, the daughter of the president of a financial company... The first person to discover her was this Mr. Andarai..."

Shancun Cao tapped on his notebook with a pen and asked the elegant man, "Did you see any suspicious people when you rushed over?"

The elegant man said: "No, it was still dark at that time..."

"By the way, are you all from this family? What is your relationship with the victim..."

"No, no, Miss Qian is our client. We drove to the mountains to take a forest bath, but we got lost and came here to stay..."

"Customer?" Shancun Cao raised his eyebrows in confusion.

"Yes," the long-haired man Xiang Yuanfuga said, "We are just male waiters that Xiao Qian is familiar with..."

"Oh, the waiter..."

Shancuncao continued to record in his notebook, then turned to Maori who was with a group of children. He paused and looked directly at the old woman.

"Then the old woman is Yamada who called the police..."

"It's Tanaka," the old man hummed, "My name is Tanaka Iwae!"

"Oh, yes, yes," Shancun laughed without feeling embarrassed at all, "I have memorized the information of the person who called the police... So, Ms. Tanaka, are you the only one living here?"

"It used to be a big family with more than a dozen people, but since my grandson left 10 years ago, I am the only one left."

"That's it..."

Shancun was about to leave after recording the information, which left Yuantai and the others speechless.

"Is this guy reliable?"

"Yeah, they haven't asked us yet."

Chapter 1840 Relatives

"Well," Shancun said with a slight sweat, "it should be the same as before, and he happened to be involved in this case? Let me think about it, maybe he got lost and needed help for a night or something?"

"We had a flat tire on the way to camp," Ayumi said, "so we asked the old lady to let us stay with her for one night."

"But I have to be earlier than those people..."

"So that's it," Yamamura said with a sharp grin at Maori, "There's nothing strange about seeing Detective Maori. People in our office say that Detective Maori is possessed by some dirty thing... No, Detective Maori should be the messenger of hell who specializes in dealing with dirty things..."

Maori looked at Shancun who was talking more and more outrageous with a frown on his face. The real son of the god of death, Conan, was right here, but he pointed the finger at himself. It was too much!

"Officer Yamamura, have you found any clues?" Maori asked.

"Our people are still searching outside," Shancun coughed lightly, "According to what you said, it was raining heavily at the time of the crime, so footprints could have been left behind. However, we have searched around the house and near the entrance, and it seems that there are no other footprints, and we can't find the murder weapon either..."

Yamamura looked at Maori for approval and said, "In my opinion, the criminal and the murder weapon should still be in this house, right, Detective Maori?"

"Wait, wait a minute," the long-haired man said in surprise, "Detective Maori... Could it be the famous detective Maori Kogoro?"

"That's right!" Shancun said proudly, "Although Detective Maori always encounters cases, he can solve every case quickly, and the criminal will never escape..."

"Hey, hey," the long-haired man said stiffly in the face of Shancun's scrutiny, "Are you doubting us?"

"It seems that this is the current situation..."

"Officer Shancun!" A police officer in a raincoat rushed back, "There's a car with a flat tire in the woods across the street, and everything on the roof has fallen out..."

"It's our car." Maori asked for a raincoat, hurriedly put on his shoes, and followed the police officer to the woods.

The tarpaulin originally tied to the roof of the car had a hole in it, and a tent and tools wrapped inside fell out. The police officer was checking a saw and a machete, and collected them as evidence.

Maori first checked the loose rope, then looked at a hammer on the ground.

The rope should not have loosened naturally. When he took the quilt, he checked carefully and found that it was indeed tied tightly. A heavy rain would not have the power to do that.

But because he was planning to cook curry, he put several kitchen knives together in his luggage bag, leaving only large objects such as saws and machetes, which did not match the wound on the victim's neck at all.

"Detective Maori," the police officer inquired, "are these yours?"

"Well, let's check inside again to see if there is a possible murder weapon hidden."

Maori had no intention of stopping the police investigation, even though finding the murder weapon would cause a lot of trouble.

To be honest, as an advisor to the Metropolitan Police Department, he could be exempted from the search. But they were not the murderers anyway, so it was fine to search them. He should use this privilege as little as possible.

And if the murder weapon is really found, it will be troublesome but it will also make it easier to solve the case.

"Whoosh!"

The heavy rain was still falling, and except for the footprints, many traces were washed away, such as the bloodstains, which caused some trouble for the police.

After several policemen searched the camping luggage without any results, they took the saw and machete to do a luminol reaction test for bloodstains. Maori's attention was focused on the hammer that seemed to have nothing to do with the case.

This is a new hammer I bought for setting up the tent, but now there is a not-so-conspicuous scratch on it.

I just can't see how it has anything to do with the case...

In the living room of the house, there were not only tools used by the Maori camping, but the police also asked everyone to take out all the knife-related items, including the kitchen knives, shovels, sickles, axes and scissors that the Tanaka family already had.

As for the elegant men, they brought nothing with them, and nothing was found after a body search.

"Well," Shancun watched his men conduct blood tests, and he groaned as he sniffed at the old woman, "Is this really all?"

"There is also my grandson's toolbox in the warehouse, but it may have rusted..."

"But I heard there's also a sharp kitchen knife with a red handle, right?"

"The child was just confused and saw it wrongly," the old woman denied, with her hands behind her back. "I don't know what red-handled kitchen knife is. The child was probably thinking about the mountain goblin or something, so he got scared and saw it wrongly."

"Really?" Shancun looked at Mao Li uncertainly, and smiled reluctantly, "I think we should investigate this family thoroughly. Please wait here for a moment..."

"Let's go to the warehouse first... Where is the warehouse?"

"Over there in the kitchen."

Conan got rid of Ayumi and the others and followed several detectives to the warehouse. Maori looked at the active Conan, but did not follow. Instead, he silently looked at the elegant man Andaraito who lowered his head and wondered what he was thinking, and the long-haired man Kahara Fumaga.

Miss Qian's body has been taken away by the police. The neck wound will probably be further examined to at least determine what kind of murder weapon was used, but there will be no results in a short time.

Mao Li thought about the situation at the time of the incident again.

Since there are no other footprints, the only person who could have committed the crime is Andala, and the most suspicious part is the shoes.

In a hurry, Conan rushed out in his sneakers, but at that time, Andalai's shoes were still on. Although they were high-top shoes, he even tied the shoelaces meticulously. When he returned to the house, he took some time to untie the shoelaces and take off his shoes.

But then the question arises again. Judging from the shoes, the Andalas did not have time to go back to the house to hide the murder weapon...

Mao Li closed his eyes slightly, and the situation at the time of the crime flashed through his mind quickly.

If the murder weapon could be hidden on the body, the Andalas might use the excuse of washing hands to dispose of the murder weapon...

"Uncle Maori," Mitsuhiko kept his distance from the old woman in fear, "I really saw it with my own eyes. There really was a sharp kitchen knife with a red handle..."

"The police have already gone to look for him."

"But is that Yamamura police officer really reliable?"

"A-choo!" There were several cabinets and many boxes in the Tanaka family's warehouse. The high places were covered with dust. Shancun couldn't help but sneeze as soon as he entered the warehouse.

"Let's find the toolbox of the old woman's grandson first." Shancun gave the order confidently.

"Yes."

Conan walked behind the detective and stopped when passing a cabinet. He found that there were many wooden boxes tied with ropes on the top of the cabinet. One of the boxes looked much cleaner.

"Uncle Yamamura," Conan said, "There seems to be very little dust on that box. Could it be that it was just taken down?"

"Here," Shancun looked around at the wooden box and smiled, "You don't think there's a murder weapon hidden in it, do you? I don't think so. No criminal would put a murder weapon in such a conspicuous paulownia box, and tie it up with ropes..."

"But it's strange."

"Officer Yamamura," Mao Li walked into the warehouse, "Let's open it and take a look. I believe Mitsuhiko is not lying. The story about the kitchen knife with a red handle should be true."

Shancun was stunned and said, "So the old woman killed someone?"

"Having a knife doesn't necessarily mean you'll kill someone."

Mao Li watched as the detective took down the Paulownia box, opened it, and took out a pointed kitchen knife with a red handle wrapped in newspaper.

"It's true!" The criminal police handed the kitchen knife to Shancun in surprise.

"It looks very similar to the kitchen knife my mother-in-law uses," Shancun held the kitchen knife up to the light for inspection. "The blade doesn't have any chips at all. It looks like it's been well maintained and even has a layer of oil on the surface... But why did the old woman hide this kitchen knife? She was sharpening the knife in the kitchen before 4 o'clock. It's really suspicious!"

Maori's eyes fell on the name engraved on the back of the knife.

"Shota"...

This knife should be the kitchen knife of the old lady’s grandson Xiangtai.

"Anyway," Shancun said with a headache, "I'd better test the luminol reaction first..."

……

"What? No Lumilo reaction at all?"

In the living room of the Tanaka family's home, Yamamura was completely in distress, and his face turned blue again.

"Everyone, none of the knives showed any traces of blood. Also, when everyone rushed to Ms. Akane Oba, who was screaming because her carotid artery was cut, no one had left the house... So there is only one possibility. Could the culprit really be the mountain goblin?!"

"Mr. Officer, please, how could there be a mountain goblin?" Xiangyuan Fuga said helplessly, "But this way, at least it means we are innocent, right?"

"Well, we still need your confessions as a reference for future investigations," Shancun Cao said angrily, "so I'd like to trouble you to come to the police station another day..."

"I don't think there's a need to do it until another day." Maori stood by the fish tank with his hands folded.

"The criminal and the murder weapon are still here..."

"Ah?" Yamamura Cao asked in confusion, "Detective Maori, we have investigated carefully and found nothing..."

"Of course we can't find it, because the murder weapon that killed Miss Qian was not a knife in the first place. It was just a sharp weapon that could be used as a knife..." Mao Li came back to his senses and faced everyone.

"And it has been right under our noses..."

"Mr. Laito."

Maori's eyes fell on Anda Laito who was swallowing his saliva. A lot of sweat had appeared on the delicate gentleman's face and his pupils were dilated.

"Where is the murder weapon, Mr. Raito?"