We quickly followed the path up above the waterfall. I spotted a rope tied around the neck and was pulling it to lift the body when Heiji and Kogoro joined in and helped. Just as we had almost lifted the body, Kimie, the shrine maiden, and her friends Rokuro and Naoko, who had been below, ca up with flashlights.
"What on earth..."
When we finished lifting the body, Rokuro, Kimie's friend and a fisherman, carried the body carefully down to the ground. The body was of a woman nad 'Michimi', who had been happy about winning at the shrine.
"Oh no... Michimi..."
"Michimi..."
They were all friends, so their faces were shocked.
"Could it be suicide? Or did soone..."
Kimie looked at the body, wondering why this had happened. Rokuro, who had helped move the body, expressed his opinion.
"We can't conclude anything yet."
Rokuro pointed to the rope tied around the neck.
"Look, the rope around Michimi's neck has stakes attached. This is a rope that was installed around the valley for safety."
As Rokuro said, the rope had several stakes attached. After confirming that, Kogoro said.
"That's true. Then Michimi might have stumbled into the valley in the dark and gotten caught on the rope, but the stakes ca loose, and as she struggled, the rope got wrapped around her neck, and she fell into the waterfall, causing strangulation."
"Yes, it's been raining for the past week, so the water level is high, and the ground is soft, so the stakes would have co out easily."
But Heiji had a question.
"Isn't it strange? The festival was happening below the waterfall. There's no reason to co into this dark forest, is there?"
At that, Naoko, the souvenir shop clerk, said to us.
"She must have been looking for the rmaid's grave."
"Huh? The rmaid's grave?"
"There's a rmaid's grave sowhere in this forest. The grave where the rmaid's bones from the burned-down warehouse three years ago on the night of the festival are buried. Right, Kimie?"
Finally, it ca out. Conan's sowhat clichéd trope: 'Soone died several years ago, leading to the full story of the current case.'
"Ah, yes. Michimi always talked about that grave."
Kimie agreed. Then Heiji asked, incredulously.
"All this talk about rmaids... Was what was found back then really rmaid bones?"
"Well, the islanders say so, but the police from the mainland said it was the body of a middle-aged woman..."
Naoko refuted, as if unable to believe it.
"A middle-aged woman? That's ridiculous! The bones below the waist were missing!"
"B-Below the waist?"
When Kogoro was curious about that, Rokuro explained.
"Several pillars from the warehouse fell around the waist of the body, crushing the bones to powder."
"Then that's not strange at all?"
"The problem ca after clearing the pillars. When we stepped into the completely burned-down warehouse, we couldn't believe our eyes. Where the legs should have been, there were no bones."
"No bones..."
"Thanks to that, the TV made a big fuss about a rmaid's body being found. That's when Manshin-sama beca a star too."
Then Heiji asked Kimie.
"Didn't the police say it was the body of a middle-aged woman?"
"Uh, yeah. They said the fire was probably caused by a tourist who didn't get a dugong arrow, snuck into the warehouse thinking there might be spare arrows, and lit a candle. In the end, even after a year, the identity wasn't revealed, so we buried the bones. Then problems arose."
"Problems?"
Rokuro answered instead.
"Grave robbing. Tourists started showing up to dig up the grave and steal the bones."
Naoko also added.
"rmaid bones, along with the flesh, have been known as an immortality dicine since the Edo period."
Then Kimie continued to tell us.
"To prevent the grave from being damaged, my great-grandmother had people secretly move the grave to this forest last year."
"Who was that?"
"Well, she just said it was soone trustworthy..."
"Then only Manshin-sama and that person know the location."
"Yes..."
Just then, I, who had been listening quietly, spoke.
"This has a high probability of being a murder."
Everyone looked at .
"Son-in-law, what's the reason?"
Kogoro asked .
"Michimi-san was very happy about winning the dugong arrow. You and Heiji saw that too."
"That's right, she was."
"But going to receive the dugong arrow should have been her priority. There would have been no reason to co up here."
"That's true. Co to think of it, it's strange. The winning numbers were three, but three people besides Michimi received dugong arrows."
Kogoro finally began to notice sothing strange.
"In my opinion, I think soone lured Michimi-san here with bait more important than the dugong arrow and killed her."
Then Heiji added his opinion.
"If that's true, the bait would be the rmaid's grave."
"Right."
Then Kogoro, as if realizing sothing, clapped his hands and said.
"Then that ans among the people who received dugong arrows, either the culprit is among them or soone knows sothing!"
"That's highly likely."
"Hmm... The people who received dugong arrows are Kazuha, Naoko here, and that drunk middle-aged man. But Kazuha has been with us the whole ti, so she's out. Naoko-san, do you have an alibi?"
Then Rokuro spoke instead.
"I vouch for Naoko. She ca with from the shrine to here."
"Then the only one left is that middle-aged man."
Then Naoko inford us who he was.
"He's Saori's father."
"What? Saori is the one who requested our help... and he's Saori's father. Well, this is... Let's go down first. That man, Saori's father, isn't here, and we can't leave the body here."
We carried the body down below the waterfall. Then a middle-aged man who recognized the body ran over, hugged it, and wept.
"Michimi!! Michimi~!!"
Then Kogoro asked Naoko.
"Who is he?"
"He's Michimi's father, Ebihara-san."
"I see... Hoo... We need to contact the police first."
Kogoro called Ran and asked her to contact the police. Then he and Heiji began looking around for any other clues. I stayed with Haibara.
"Jin, you can tell who the culprit is. Can't you just find the person with vengeful spirits or sothing?"
Haibara shook my hand as she spoke.
"I found them. But Onmyō arts can't be used as evidence. You know that too, since it's not scientific evidence."
"That's true."
"And anyway, I just handled the body. Are you okay holding my hand like that?"
"Wh-What!? Ugh..."
At my words, Haibara quickly began shaking her hand.
"Don't you have a wet wipe?"
"No. Go wash in the stream over there for a bit."
"Say that kind of thing sooner..."
Haibara grumbled and went to the stream. I followed her, because this stream had a waterfall and was a bit deep.
We roughly washed our hands and returned to where the people were. It was quite noisy there.
"Are you the culprit!?"
"I told you I'm not! I went to the river because I had to pee, and I just picked up a lottery ticket there!"
Kogoro was interrogating Benzo, Saori's father.
"Then why did you exchange that lottery ticket you picked up for a dugong arrow without telling the shrine maiden?"
"Well... I wanted the dugong arrow too, so I just..."
Just then, Ran and Kazuha returned.
"Dad!"
"Ah, Ran. Did you contact the police on the mainland?"
"Well... they said the waves are too high, so until they can launch a boat, they can't co for a while!"
"What?"
Then Heiji, who was behind, holding a tube I hadn't seen before, said with a bright face.
"Well, that's good. Whether Benzo-san is the culprit or soone else, they can't escape from this island."
"You look very happy."
"Well, it's getting more and more interesting. This tube we found downstream, I an. When we asked the villagers, they said sothing like this wasn't there yesterday."
"Then, using the tube..."
"Yes, that's right. If you knock Michimi-san unconscious upstream, put a rope around her neck, and float her down on a tube, anyone could easily hang her. Besides, we saw Michimi-san at the shrine only two hours before the body was revealed in the fireworks. Round trip to the top of the waterfall takes less than an hour."
"That ans anyone could have committed this cri..."
"Right."
Then Benzo said to Kogoro.
"I'm going to rest now."
"You're still a strong suspect, so don't do anything stupid and stay quietly at ho!"
"Good grief, I told you I'm not!"
Since there was no solid evidence, Kogoro had no grounds to detain him and had to let him go.
We carefully secured the tube for now, then moved Michimi's body to the village with her father, wrapped it well in cloth, and temporarily stored it in a large freezer for storing fish.
After that, I called our group aside for a mont.
"I know who the culprit is."
"What? Really?"
Everyone was naturally surprised by my words.
"Yes, I couldn't tell from a distance, but up close, I could see clearly. The culprit is Kimie, the shrine maiden."
At that, everyone was surprised again.
"What? Is that true?"
"There were three spirits clinging above Kimie's head. One of them was Michimi. The other two were people I hadn't seen before. One was a middle-aged woman, and the other looked to be around Michimi's age."
Heiji asked , unable to believe it.
"That can't be... Then Kimie-nii-san has killed three people?"
"No. Michimi and the other young spirit are definitely vengeful spirits, but the middle-aged woman seed to be protecting Kimie sohow. So probably, she has killed two people."
Ran and Kazuha, who had been listening, couldn't believe it.
"This is insane... That kind, pretty Kimie-nii-san is the culprit..."
But Kogoro trusted my words.
"My son-in-law must be right. He's never been wrong so far... But the reason you didn't tell everyone earlier is because there's no evidence again, right?"
"Yes, that's right. As I said last ti, Onmyō arts can't be used as evidence."
Then Heiji said admiringly.
"Wow~ Onmyō arts are amazing. To know the culprit right away... Maybe I should give up being a detective and learn Onmyō arts?"
"Onmyō arts aren't omnipotent. Like the detective said, even if you know the culprit, you don't have evidence. Again, Onmyō arts can't be used as evidence."
"I suppose so. Evidence collection is the detective's job."
"Yeah."
Kogoro said thoughtfully.
"Hmm... Then the other vengeful spirit besides Michimi is highly likely to be Saori, the client who hasn't appeared yet."
I was surprised at Kogoro. His deductive skills had indeed improved.
"That's probably right. But I don't understand why Kimie-nii-san would commit such murders. Is there so circumstance we don't know about?"
As Heiji worried about that, Kogoro said.
"We'll find out as we investigate. For now, we should go to Saori's house."
"But Benzo-san is probably passed out drunk by now. Besides, we just suspected him of being the culprit..."
"Good grief... Then, I think we should go to the shrine. If you want to catch a tiger, you have to go into its den."
Heiji agreed.
"That's a good idea."
But Ran and Kazuha refused to go.
"Honestly, I don't think I could hide my feelings if I saw Kimie-nii-san."
" neither."
"We'll just stay on the yacht. We'd only get in the way of the investigation."
Then Kogoro and Heiji said okay. If the girls couldn't hide their emotions, Kimie might notice sothing.
"What about you, Jin?"
Heiji asked as well.
"I'll go back to the yacht too. I need to turn on the power on the yacht so everyone can wash up and rest."
"Okay. Then just the detective and I will go."
"Yeah."
With that decided, Heiji and Kogoro headed to the shrine. The rest of us returned to the yacht and washed up first. Since I had also handled the body, I used [Matter Manipulation] to turn the clothes I was wearing into water, threw them into the sea, and changed into new clothes. Then we all gathered again in the saloon.
"Jin, take a look at this."
Kazuha showed the dugong arrow she had received from Kimie.
"Does this arrow really have so special effect?"
I examined the arrow carefully with [Clairvoyance] and [Appraisal] abilities. But it was just an arrow that looked the part; it had no effect at all.
"Hmm... It's just an arrow with no effect at all."
"Really? Phew... That's a relief. Then why did Kimie-nii-san do such a thing?"
"That's probably because of a grudge. Even to , she didn't look like soone who would kill people lightly."
Then Ran said with sad eyes.
"What kind of grudge could make that kind, pretty nii-san..."
"In my opinion, I think sothing happened on the day of the fire three years ago. The detective and Heiji went, so they'll probably find out sothing."
We waited on the yacht, watching TV, for Kogoro and Heiji to return. Haibara, tired, went to her room first and fell asleep.
After so ti, Kogoro and Heiji returned. Their expressions showed they hadn't gotten much.
"Did you find out anything?"
Ran asked Kogoro, and Kogoro answered.
"Not much. It seems Manshin-sama just picks the winning numbers for the dugong arrows arbitrarily. That's all we heard."
"I see."
Then Heiji, who had gone with him, scratched his head and said.
"Ah~ It was so frustrating... Knowing that Kimie-nii-san is the culprit, even though I wanted to ask her various things, I couldn't. In a situation with no evidence, who knows what she might do if she noticed we knew."
"Heiji is right. She might run away, hide sothing else, or even choose an extre option."
As we were thinking about it, I said.
"Let's stop for today. It's too late to find any other testimonies or evidence."
"I suppose. Hoo... I need to wash up."
Kogoro and Heiji went to their rooms, washed up, and fell asleep. The girls and I also did so tidying up, then went to our rooms and slept.
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