Maori Kogoro began to understand everything

"We all loved watching movies, so we joined the film club when we were in college. We even made a movie about a bhikkhuni, which won first place in a competition."

"I can't believe that several people stayed on this island after graduating from college."

“Because everyone likes it here.”

"Really?" Maori stared at the direction where Fukuyama Rokuro left. "But it's really strange. Miss Saori is missing, but no one is worried about her safety."

"This is because Saori used to quarrel with her father and run away from home," Shimashiro Kimie said with a wry smile, "so everyone is used to it. How about this, after the festival is over, I will take you to ask his father."

"Thank you so much for troubling you." Hattori said a little listlessly.

"However, although it's a festival, it's actually just a lottery," Shimashiro Kimie said with a sweet smile, "If the number plate purchased by the guests in advance matches the number announced by Grandma at the festival, they can get the Dugong Arrow... By the way, do you want to try your luck too?"

Shimashiro Kimie took out two wooden signs with numbers written on them and asked Xiaolan and Sonoko, "An elderly couple just returned their number plates this morning, so I still have two."

……

At night, accompanied by the sound of solemn drums, villagers and tourists on the island gathered at the shrine.

Although the weather was not very good, the lively festival was not affected. People excitedly gathered around the venue, looking forward to the shrine hall with a row of sacred flames at the bottom of the steps to the exciting drumbeats, as if they were witnessing some kind of sacred ceremony.

Maori had no interest in this kind of festival. After giving instructions to Hattori and Conan, he took Ai, who also had no interest, to find people to ask about what happened three years ago.

It is said that three years ago, a fire broke out in the shrine's warehouse, and afterwards a skeleton that was suspected to be a mermaid was found...

The disappeared client Kadowaki Saori, the "mermaid" in the fire three years ago... Something must have happened on this island.

Maori and Xiao Ai squeezed to the front of the crowd and looked straight towards the main hall of the shrine.

As the wooden door opened, an old witch with long white hair sat with her back to the hall. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the old witch picked up a long fire stick and walked out of the hall. She had heavy makeup on her face and was only slightly taller than Conan, looking very small.

"It's fate!"

"The fate is revealed!"

The atmosphere at the scene became even more heated. Everyone watched as the old witch lit fire on the paper door, and three Chinese characters were burned out one after another - three, one hundred and seven, and eighteen.

"Everyone!"

After the old witch left, the shrine staff began to put out the fire. Soon, Shimadai Kimie appeared in front of everyone and said, "Everyone, please listen carefully. We will officially award the Dugong Arrow in an hour. Please gather at the Mermaid Falls!"

"Why not just post it here?" Mao Li asked in surprise.

"I heard there's still activity at the waterfall," Hattori and his men came over, "How's it going? Uncle, didn't you go and question someone earlier? Did you get any results?"

Maori shook his head. "I was just asking about the fire three years ago, but most people were reluctant to talk about it. Even those who were willing to talk about it were talking about mermaids or something like that."

"Three years ago,"

Conan recalled, "It seems that there was a report on TV that a charred body that looked like a mermaid was found in a warehouse that caught fire. It seems that the longevity lady became famous from that time..."

Xiaolan and Heye were slightly shocked when they heard this: "You... you think there is something else behind the charred corpse from three years ago?"

“It’s just a feeling.”

Maori said so.

An hour later, in the dark forest on the island, there was also a fire under the roaring waterfall. Witch Island Dai Junhui was standing in the middle of the bonfire, surrounded by ropes, and there were still a large number of people waiting outside to watch the fun.

If there weren't so many people, this place would be really creepy.

Mao Li and his group rushed to the scene - and Kazuha's number plate also won.

"Hehe," He Ye held the number plate preciously, "I can also get eternal youth and beauty..."

"Forget it," Hattori said coldly, "He Ye, longevity may not necessarily be a good thing..."

"Don't worry, Heiji," Kazuha joked, "I'll pick up your bones for you..."

The corner of Heiji's mouth twitched: "Huh...really?"

"Everyone," Shimashiro Kimie called out, "Now please ask the three lucky guests who were drawn to come to the front!"

"it is good!"

Kazuha and the short-haired woman named Naoko from the gift shop responded and walked out of the crowd.

"There is one more person...the last one is not here?" Shimashiro Kimie continued to shout.

"It's me."

A middle-aged man with unshaven beard burped and walked past Mao Li drunkenly: "Get out of the way."

Mao Li smelled the strong smell of alcohol and frowned: "Who is this guy?"

The young man named Rokuro was right next to them, and he was equally unimpressed with everyone: "He's Saori's drunkard dad, haven't you gone to look for him yet?"

"That's him?"

"Strange..." Hattori said in surprise, "I thought the remaining one was the sister named Sumi. I saw her happily saying 'I won' before..."

"You saw it too?" Conan looked around, a trace of cold sweat on his face, "And I didn't see her figure either..."

After distributing the dugong arrows, Shimashiro Kimie nodded to the villagers who were helping and said, "Now please accept the light of happiness!"

Bright fireworks rose into the sky and exploded in mid-air one after another, illuminating the Mermaid Falls again and again.

Just as everyone was marveling at the fireworks, a dark figure suddenly came into view from the waterfall. Her long black hair was soaked by the water, and her slender body, clinging to a long plush skirt, was suspended in the middle of the waterfall, swaying gently with the rapidly falling water, like a ghost flying from the mountains.

"What is that..." There were trembling cries from the crowd, and panic spread instantly.

Just like the name of this waterfall, the figure of the woman illuminated by the fireworks looks like a mermaid swimming upstream in the waterfall, but her pale and scary face and her terrifying eyes make people feel creepy.

Mao Li squinted his eyes and looked at the waterfall for a while, then turned to the young man Lu Lang and said in a deep voice: "Let's go to the top of the waterfall first."

Something has happened after all. So, Kadowaki Saori, who has been missing for three days, may have...

……

Above the waterfall is a dark forest, and the turbulent river falls straight down the cliff.

Maori stood silently on the river bank with his watch flashlight, watching Hattori and his men pull the hanging female corpse up from the waterfall.

The deceased, Sumi Ebihara, 27 years old, was the daughter of a village fisherman and the fiancée of Rokuro Fukuyama. The preliminary cause of death was determined to be a rope tied to a wooden stake that entangled her neck...

Maori glanced across the waterfall scene.

There were many wooden stakes nailed along the river bank, and a warning sign with "Danger" written on it. The rope around the neck of the deceased Sumi was tied to the wooden stake to prevent danger...

Why did Sumi Ebihara come to such a place? And something happened...

"Could it be an accident?"

Kazuha guessed, "Ms. Shoumei might have fallen into the river in the dark. Although she held onto the rope, the water flow was too fast and the wooden stake was pulled up. When she struggled, the rope got entangled around her neck, and she ended up hanging herself and falling into the waterfall..."

Fukuyama Rokuro nodded gently and said, "That's very possible. It has been raining here for the past week, the water level of the river has risen, and the ground is muddy everywhere, so the wooden stakes are more likely to loosen..."

Hattori shook his head helplessly, looked at Kazuha and said, "Kazuha, don't you find it strange? The festival is obviously held by the pool under the waterfall, why is she running here at this time?"

"Uh, this..."

Only then did He Ye realize that he had taken things for granted.

"Could she be looking for the mermaid's cemetery?" Naoko, a clerk in the gift shop, replied, "The mermaid's cemetery is in this forest..."

"What?" Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"On the day of the festival three years ago, the mermaid bones found in the shrine warehouse during the fire were buried in the prince's tomb," Naoko recounted, "Isn't that right, Kimie?"

"Oh, yes," Shimashiro Kimie came back to her senses, "Now that you mentioned that, it occurred to me that Sumi seemed to have always cared about that cemetery..."

Mao Li looked at Fukuyama Rokuro and asked, "Were the bones from three years ago really mermaid bones?"

"I'm not sure either," Shimashiro Kimie said uncertainly, "Although everyone on the island said so, the police officer from the main island said it was the charred body of a middle-aged woman..."

"That's nonsense!" Naoko reacted strongly, "That's only possible if the skeleton's bones below the waist are all there, right?"

Everyone was stunned: "What's wrong below the waist?"

Fukuyama Rokuro stood up and explained, "There were two or three large pillars in the warehouse that were burned and crushed the bones below the waist of the charred corpse. After the pillars were removed, it was discovered that the charred corpse had no legs. That's why the TV reported that a mermaid's body was found here... Changshou Po became a celebrity overnight."

Chapter 98 The murderer is a mermaid!

"What about the police?" Mao Li continued to ask, "Didn't the police say it was a middle-aged woman's body? Didn't they find out who it was later?"

Shimashiro Kimie lowered her head. "The police said that it might be a tourist who didn't draw the dugong arrow during the festival. He thought there were spare arrows in the warehouse, so he lit a candle and sneaked in to look for them, which caused the fire... After a year, we still couldn't find the identity of the deceased, so we buried the skeleton..."

"Later, because tourists kept coming to rob the mermaid's tomb after hearing about it, my great-grandmother hired someone to secretly move the tomb to this forest last year."

Maori swept his eyes over everyone present, taking in the expressions on the faces of several people, including Shimashiro Kimie.

Both Rokuro, the fiancé of the deceased Susumi Ebihara, and Naoko, her childhood friend, looked quite calm.

Fukuyama Rokuro was indifferent and not at all sad about his fiancée's death. Naoko was more concerned about the mermaid. Shimashiro Kimie didn't look too good, but it was hard to say that she was not suspicious either...

It was such a coincidence that the missing Kadowaki Saori, the murdered Ebihara Sumi, and these few people were all childhood friends.

There was also the unidentified middle-aged female corpse that was mistaken for a mermaid three years ago. The police spent a year trying to find her identity. It was really suspicious.

Unless you have no family or come here without telling your family, it is impossible not to find any clues...

This case is really full of doubts. Ordinary detectives can only watch helplessly.

But...

Thinking of Hattori and Conan who had already disappeared from the scene and probably investigated a lot of situations, Maori couldn't help but raise the corner of his mouth.

And just when Maori was thinking this——

"father!"

Xiaolan and Heye rushed back to the scene. "The police on the main island said that the sea is too rough and the ship can't sail, so they can't come here for the time being..."

"Isn't this great?"

Hattori also appeared soon after, and walked with Conan, "Because the murderer can't escape from this island..."

As Hattori said this, he handed a swimming ring to Maori: "Uncle, look at this, this life buoy belongs to Kudo and I... oh, I found it by accident, it's hanging on the river leading to the sea from the waterfall pool..."

Conan glared at Hattori with a sour face and echoed: "Brother Heiji also asked the people on the island, and they all said that they didn't see this thing during the day."

"That is to say," Maori stroked his chin and said, "If we let Miss Sumi die on the waterfall, put a rope around her neck, and let her drift on a lifebuoy, anyone can create the illusion of hanging...

"Moreover, a lot of time had passed between the time we saw Miss Sumi at the shrine and the time we found her body. Anyone could have committed the crime, regardless of gender... The murderer must still be on the island!"

After making this inference, Maori narrowed his eyes slightly and silently turned to the other side to see a bald, bearded uncle who was crying while holding the body of Sumi Ebihara.

I'm afraid the murders are not over yet. The motive is either for the fire three years ago or for the dugong arrow...

Considering people's enthusiasm for the Arrow of the Dugong and the Mermaid's Tomb, the latter is not impossible. After all, Saori Kadowaki and Sumi Ebihara both got the Arrow of the Dugong.

"Don't worry, Xiaolan," Heye whispered to Xiaolan, "The murderer will be caught soon! Because I saw Heiji put his hat back on! Every time he does this, it means he has turned on the switch and the engine is running at full speed!"

Kazuha's statement of "engine running at full speed" made Mori, as an unhealthy adult, think of something wrong, but soon he coughed loudly and turned to the drunkard who was still drinking, that is, Kadowaki Saori's father.

"Hey! Mr. Kadowaki, can I ask you something?"

"Ok?"

The drunkard put down the bottle, looked at Mao Li with a drunken sidelong glance, and asked in a dissatisfied tone, "What?"

Maori looked him straight in the eye and said, "It seems that Miss Sumi was hit by a dugong arrow at the shrine before, but now she has not only been killed, but even her number plate has disappeared..."

"What does it have to do with me?" the drunkard snorted. "The number plate is mine! I don't know what happened to that woman!"

“Hey,” Naoko watched the drunkard stagger away, approached Mori, and whispered, “If Sumi was really killed by someone, you’d better keep an eye on this old drunkard. I thought he was the one who stole Saori’s dugong arrow…”

"Really?" Maori looked at the drunkard and shook his head secretly, "Ms. Naoko, you should be careful next time. If possible, please act with us."

"Don't worry, I'll be careful," Naoko said with a smile, "and I have the Dugong Arrow to protect me."

Conan put his hands in his trouser pockets and stood quietly by the side. When Naoko walked away, he said to Maori: "Uncle, what should we do now? Do you still want to ask about Miss Saori?"

"Looking at her father's condition, I'm afraid we won't be able to get anything out of him." Mao Li said helplessly.

"Then let's go see the Longevity Lady," Conan suggested, "I have a lot of questions to ask that old lady..."

"Well, let's go, I thought so too."

……

In the Shimashiro family's old mansion, Maori and his group were sitting in the guest room, and it was gradually raining heavily outside.