Chapter 512 The second death photo (two in one)

Chapter 512 The second death photo (two in one)

Lin Xinyi and Belmod started wrestling.

Hattori Heiji and Toyama Kazuha began to practice boxing.

The festival was carried out lively in this peaceful atmosphere.

Everyone seems to have forgotten the panic that Kadowaki Saori's death brought to this small island.

In other words, the mysterious death of this young girl has in turn added a touch of mystery to the legend of the mermaid, making believers more devout in their belief in the mermaid.

And Shimabukuro Kimie, who played the longevity mother-in-law on stage, was not affected at all by the murder of her best friend, and still completed her performance very well.

Thanks to her efforts, the festival finally came to a successful conclusion.

But this festival actually has a second half, and now it’s just the end of the “longevity mother-in-law” scene.

The main role of the "Longevity Granny" is to dance to pray to the mermaid, and personally select three lucky numbers from the audience, giving them the precious qualification to exchange for the limited edition peripheral "Mermaid Arrow".

After doing these "longevity mother-in-law" will leave.

The festival held at the shrine also came to an end.

The stage for the second half of the festival was at a place called Mermaid Falls in the mountains and forests outside the village.

According to the organizer’s external publicity process:

Next, the longevity mother-in-law will first take the shrine maiden, Miss Shimabukuro Kimie, to pray to the mermaid in the shrine and bestow strange power on the three mermaid arrows.

This process will last for 1 hour and is not open to outsiders.

Outsiders are not allowed to enter or exit the shrine during this hour, and only shrine priests can enter and exit freely.

Outsiders can only wait for the miko lady to finish preparing inside, then walk out of the shrine with three "lit" mermaid arrows, and lead everyone to the mermaid waterfall to hold the second half of the ceremony.

This is the official caliber.

But Lin Xinyi can roughly guess that this hour may be the time Shimabukuro Kime prepared for herself to remove makeup and rest.

Because she couldn't let outsiders discover the secret that the longevity mother-in-law and the miko lady were actually the same person, she arranged such a time that no outsiders were allowed to disturb.

And those fishermen who temporarily serve as shrine worshippers are also the older elders on the island.

They all probably knew the secret of the longevity mother-in-law, so they tacitly helped Shimabukuro Kime implement this rule, and they implemented it extremely strictly.

So gradually everyone recognized this rule:

The longevity mother-in-law needs to spend 1 hour to "consecrate" the arrow of the human fish. During this time, outsiders must not enter the shrine to disturb it.

Since we can’t enter the shrine to worship the gods, it’s still early for the second half of the festival.

This 1 hour naturally becomes the free time for tourists.

And it happened to be meal time, and many people hadn't had dinner yet in order to attend the festival.

So when the first half of the festival ended, the tourists immediately dispersed like students when they heard the bell.

There are many tourists on site.

This dispersed countless surging crowds of people.

In the long crowd, it is difficult to guarantee that you can focus on such a target.

"Hisumi Ebihara is missing!"

Lin Xinyi and others were just stunned for a moment when they discovered that there was one person missing from their attention list.

Hisumi Ebihara had disappeared into the crowd.

The back of Kuroe Naoko can still be seen, but she seems to be leaving.

"Mr. Lin." Hattori Heiji asked with some concern: "Do you want to dedicate manpower to find someone?"

"This" Lin Xinyi frowned and thought carefully: "Forget it, let's stay near the shrine and keep an eye on Shimabukuro Kimie."

There are so many tourists on the island, it’s really hard to follow them if they disperse.

Although Ebihara Hisumi and Kuroe Naoko are also suspected by them, they are related to the fire three years ago and to the current murder of Kadowaki Saori.

But look at their current frightened and weak mental state:

No matter what role they played in the fire case three years ago:

In the case of Kadowaki Saori's murder that needs to be dealt with at the moment as a priority, these two superstitious believers who were frightened by Kadowaki Saori's death are unlikely to be the murderers.

But it was Shimabukuro Kime, she was more like the murderer.

Instead of dividing your efforts to focus on others, it is better to focus on the number one suspect.

Anyway, as long as the "murderer" is secretly controlled, nothing bad will happen again on the island.

With this idea in mind, Lin Xinyi and others all stayed near the shrine.

The shrine priests do not allow outsiders to enter or exit.

They had no choice but to spread out and surround and monitor the shrine from all angles, always paying attention to the movements of the miko lady.

And Shimabukuro Kimie seems to have been resting inside.

Lin Xinyi and others waited around the shrine for a full hour, but did not see the miko lady coming out.

The only people who occasionally come in and out of the shrine are the shrine priests.

I stopped a few people to ask, but they all said that Shimabukuro Kimie and Grandma Changshou were still busy consecrating arrows at the shrine.

Although they did not see the miko lady directly, there were priests standing guard at the entrance and exit of the shrine. If Shimabukuro Kimie came out, they would definitely know about it.

Just like that, an hour passed peacefully.

Shimabukuro Kimie finally walked out of the shrine wearing her plain white and elegant miko costume, holding the legendary three mermaid arrows, and returned to everyone's sight.

She looked as usual and greeted the tourists with a gentle and elegant smile.

Then, surrounded by a group of shrine priests, he led a group of tourists attending the festival and rushed to the Mermaid Falls outside the village to prepare for the second half of the festival.

The whole process is normal.

There's nothing fishy about it.

"But, Mr. Lin." Hattori Heiji seemed to suddenly think of something.

He suddenly approached Lin Xinyi with an ugly expression and asked, "Is this all too normal?"

"Huh?" Lin Xinyi was a little confused: "Is there anything wrong with normal?"

"The work of hosting the festival is not over yet. Even if the miko lady is really the murderer we are looking for, she won't do anything strange at this time, right?"

"This may be my occupational disease as a detective."

Hattori Heiji couldn't help but frowned:

"I always feel that the timing of this festival is a bit weird."

"Especially during the one-hour break just now."

"During that entire hour, no one really saw Ms. Shimabukuro, but a group of shrine priests could prove that she did not come out from the inner room of the shrine."

"If, I mean if."

Thinking of the countless cases I have experienced before, the murderers used different methods to escape guilt but the principles were the same.

The great detective couldn't help but feel a little nervous:

"If Ms. Shimabukuro used some trick to escape from the shrine quietly within an hour and did something outside."

"Those priests who were arranged by her to stand guard there in advance, and even the tourists like us who have been waiting outside the shrine."

"Wouldn't it prove that she has always stayed in the shrine?"

"Give her a perfect alibi?"

Hearing this, Lin Xinyi couldn't help but change his expression:

"You mean, the special timing of this festival."

"Maybe it was a trick that Shimabukuro Kimie set up in advance for him to commit another crime?"

"No Heiji, do you have any evidence to prove it?"

"Of course not." Hattori Heiji shook his head: "This is just my hunch as a detective."

"A premonition without reason or basis."

"I hope." He sighed with a deep look: "I hope this premonition will not become reality."

A moment later, Mermaid Falls.

Mermaid Waterfall is said to be in the mountains outside the village, but in fact the distance from the shrine is not too far.

After all, the island is only that big in total, and no matter how deep the mountain is, it can't go very deep.

Moreover, those tourists came to worship Buddha and seek immortality, but they were not really willing to make efforts to seek immortality. How could the local residents arrange for them to climb mountains to exercise.

Under the leadership of Shimabukuro Kimie and the shrine priests, everyone walked out of the village for about ten minutes and arrived at the mermaid waterfall.

The sacrificial workers held high torches to illuminate the waterfall.

As a burst of lively folk music played, the second half of the American Village Fishermen's Cultural Performance Party officially began.

The tourists who had dispersed before now gathered here.

Naoko Kuroe is also there.

But there was one person missing in the "audience seat".

"Where's Miss Ebihara?"

Lin Shinichi and others noticed that Hisumi Ebihara, who prayed devoutly throughout the first half of the festival, was absent from the second half of the event.

This is a very unusual sight.

She was so in awe of the mermaid before, and she showed so much importance to this festival.

Why did he suddenly and quietly leave the show midway?

"Is it difficult?"

Hattori Heiji's dark face got a little darker.

The bad premonition he had inexplicably before came to mind again.

This bad premonition not only infected him, but also Lin Xinyi.

The two of them looked at each other and immediately pushed through the crowd and came to Kuroe Naoko:

"Miss Heijiang."

"Do you know where Miss Ebihara is now?"

"Huh?" Kuroe Naoko looked at the two strange-looking men in front of her with some confusion: "Why are you looking for her?"

"I don't know where Sumi has gone either."

"Why, didn't she come to Mermaid Falls?"

Kuroe Naoko looked around for a while, and sure enough she didn't see her friend who was suffering from the same illness among the crowd.

She didn't react at first.

I don't think there's anything strange about this.

But look again at Master Lin Xinyi’s serious and deep expression.

Kuroe Naoko suddenly realized something.

Her cheeks paled several shades in an instant, and her pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints in fear.

Unprecedented panic occupied her brain, causing her voice to tremble, and she couldn't help but increase the volume:

"Master Lin"

"Did something happen to Shou Mei too?"

"Is that so? Master, you have 'predicted' your death again, is that so?"

"You..." Master Lin's face suddenly darkened: "Why are you shouting so loudly?"

"I didn't predict it, so don't talk nonsense."

Such explanations are useless and too late.

The surrounding superstitious tourists had already heard Kuroe Naoko’s call and turned their heads.

Because the story of Kadowaki Saori being punished and retaliated by the mermaid-sama spread like wildfire on the island, so the tourists who came to pay homage to the mermaid also remembered the name of Master Tokyo Tobayashi while listening to the story.

At this moment, they all widened their eyes curiously:

"What? Master Lin predicted something again!"

Because a festival is being held here.

The scene this time was far bigger than the one caused by the few fans of Master Lin who were watching the excitement in front of Kadowaki Saori's house.

Suddenly, even Shimabukuro Kimie, the shrine maiden, was robbed of her limelight.

Everyone looked at Master Lin with burning eyes and started discussing:

"Who is Master Lin?"

"Master Lin, you don't even know?"

"not sure."

"It's the famous magician of death!"

"I heard that he predicted from the air that the mermaid would punish the island residents, so he rushed over from Tokyo to investigate."

"Didn't you hear what happened on the island today, Miss Kadowaki Saori?"

Some tourists who didn't know Lin Xinyi yet were quickly introduced to some strange knowledge.

These guys who originally liked listening to fantasy stories suddenly became nervous:

"What, he is so powerful?!"

"Then what did the master just foresee? Is there another human life on the island?!"

The situation is getting more and more out of control.

After all, he is also a scientist with "pronounced works", but now he is completely praised as a magician by these melon-eating tourists.

Lin Xin was so worried that he wanted to send a lawyer's letter to these guys who ruined his reputation.

In desperation, he could only argue loudly at the top of his voice:

"Everyone, calm down!"

"I am Officer Lin from the Metropolitan Police Department, not Master Lin, let alone the Magician of Death."

"I didn't predict anything at all."

The words are not finished yet.

Amid the roaring sound of the waterfall, there was suddenly a trace of undetectable noise.

The sound was not obvious, but under the illumination of the clusters of torches, the picture was extremely conspicuous.

Along with the trickling water of the Mermaid Falls, pieces of paper-like things were quietly dripping down from the top of the waterfall.

These pieces of "paper" floated on the water, and soon traveled down the river to the tourists holding the festival.

A tourist curiously fished out a piece of so-called "paper" from the water.

Take a closer look:

It turns out that these "papers" are all photos.

The kind of photo taken with an "Instant" camera.

This photo fell from the sky in the darkness above the waterfall, adding a sense of eeriness and horror to the night.

Let’s look at what’s on that photo:

"Ahhhh——"

Screams came and went.

The photos everyone sees are basically the same, as if they were taken continuously in the same scene and from the same angle.

The above only reveals one thing to the world:

"Dead, dead!"

Another death occurred on the island.

The person who died this time was Ebihara Hisumi who quietly disappeared from everyone's sight more than an hour ago.

Just like what happened to Kadowaki Saori before, the murderer hid Ebihara Hisumi's body, leaving Lin Shinichi, the coroner, without a corpse to examine, and his skills were completely useless.

But at the same time, the murderer sent this provocative photo of his death.

The content on the death photo is similar to that of Kadowaki Saori.

Hisumi Ebihara is just like her good friend.

Sit on a chair in a mermaid-like manner, with your head lowered, eyes open, and mouth closed.

Both legs were sawed off, leaving nothing below the knees.

The wounds were covered by broken trousers, and blood stained everything red.

The pool of unsolidified blood on the ground also secretly told everyone that this was taken shortly after the death of Hisumi Ebihara.

"Ahhhhh!!!"

Kuroe Naoko was so frightened that she lost her mind.

She grabbed her head as if she was hurting herself, fell to her knees on the ground, and screamed crazily.

This possessed scene made the already terrifying atmosphere even more eerie.

The tourists all looked nervous and pale.

The festival scene was completely chaotic.

Terror began to envelope the night, and everyone nervously looked up at the darkness above the waterfall.

It seems that there is some terrible demon hidden in this dark mountain.

The performance of the miko lady can no longer go on.

Everyone chose to turn their attention to Master Lin.

This extraordinary man who foresaw death in advance:

"I actually predicted my death in advance."

"Is this the legendary magician of death?"

Superstition, accompanied by fear and shock, swept through everything.

But Lin Xinyi no longer cared about refuting the rumors.

Not only did he not bother to refute the rumors, he even performed a "manifestation in front of people" on the spot:

As soon as Lin Xin put down the photo of death he fished out of the water, he turned his head and looked up seriously at the place above the waterfall where the photos flowed down.

Then he looked at the topography of the waterfall rock wall.

This waterfall is not too high, and although the rocks are slippery, there are places for people like him to climb.

So, in the shocking eyes of a crowd of melon-eating tourists,

Master Lin flashed his figure, jumped up, jumped over the pool in two or two steps, and turned over to cling to the slippery rocks beside the waterfall.

He tapped his toes, jumped up and down, and used his strength to lift. He actually "flyed" up the waterfall and jumped onto the cliff with such a free and easy posture.

The painting style suddenly became "Hidden Dragon and Crouching Tiger".

"Hiss" the superstitious tourists almost knelt down on the spot.

The miko lady also opened her mouth in surprise.

Only Hattori Heiji and others did not pay attention to Lin Xinyi's skills, but focused on a more important issue:

"Mr. Lin."

It didn't take long for Lin Xinyi to climb back to the bottom of the waterfall.

Hattori Heiji immediately went up to him and asked:

"Is there anyone at the waterfall?"

"Did you see who dropped the photo upstream?"

"No." Lin Xinyi shook his head solemnly: "When I went up, I didn't see anyone up there."

"But there's a long stretch of stream upstream of the falls."

"I couldn't be sure for a moment that the other party was moving too fast and ran away quickly after throwing away the photo;"

"The point of the parabola is further upstream, so it can't be traced."

“These issues cannot be known until detailed on-site investigation is completed.”

"but."

Lin Xinyi paused for a moment and said in a strange tone:

"If these death photos were really just thrown into the water by someone from upstream."

"Then" he couldn't help but look at Shimabukuro Kime secretly:

This miko lady had just been under the waterfall, presiding over the ceremony in front of everyone's eyes.

There was no way she had time to go up the falls and drop off the photos.

Could it be that the murderer is someone else?

The deaths of Kadowaki Saori and now Hisumi Ebihara actually had nothing to do with Shimabukuro Kimie?

"No." Hattori Heiji shook his head with an ugly expression. "Mr. Lin, you also discovered it yourself"

"That's another 'perfect alibi', isn't it?"

"I really don't have evidence now, but the detective's experience tells me."

"The more perfect a person's alibi is, the more suspicious it is."

This theory is nonsense in reality.

But in this scientific world, criminals all have vivid minds and extraordinary imaginations.

They never disdain simple killing techniques, and are more willing to use various complicated cover-ups to create alibi for themselves.

So gradually a strange phenomenon appeared:

Those who have no alibi, and even Megure Police Department and Mouri Kogoro can immediately identify suspicious suspects, are often not the real murderers.

On the contrary, those whose alibi are perfect and who appear to be completely innocent are the ones who will kneel down and cry bitterly during the famous detective's execution song.

"Just like Miss Shimabukuro Kime."

"First, there's an hour of 'rest' at the shrine."

"And there's this photo of the waterfall flowing in front of her in full view of everyone."

Looking at the gentle and harmless miko, Hattori Heiji's eyes were very complicated:

"Her alibi is so perfect."