When he learned that Tokube Rokuro was going to visit the grave, Karasawa, who felt that it was related to the subsequent case, had no reason to refuse.
After he agreed, he asked Nanatsuki Koshizui to contact Mouri Kogoro to explain the situation. The two cars, led by Tokubi Rokuro, stopped on the road.
Following Tobori Rokuro all the way to Morin Suzu, everyone also learned from his mouth the person he was about to worship.
"Are you saying that there was a child near here who was washed away by the water and drowned?" After hearing this, Kogoro Mori couldn't help but asked: "Can you tell me more about the situation?"
"Hey..." Tokube Rokuro sighed and said, "The boy who drowned that year was a boy named Numayama Tatsuhiko. I heard that he seemed to have been washed into the reservoir downstream."
"Then, isn't this the murder that that person mentioned 11 years ago!?" Xiaolan said with a horrified look on her face.
"But that time was not a homicide, but an accident."
Tokube Rokuro sighed: "That child was still playing in the river on the day of heavy rain, and unfortunately he was washed away by the water.
But that was more than ten years ago..."
As Tokubi Rokuro was talking, his eyes suddenly lit up. When he saw someone by the stream, he couldn't help but be stunned.
"Ah! Tokube-sensei!"
Before Tokube Rokuro could react, the young man who was worshiping the simple grave on the river bank screamed in surprise.
"Ah? Isn't this Aragawa Ichiwa-kun?"
Tokube Rokuro saw the man in front of him who was wearing a yellow coat, with a round chubby face and a big nose, and he immediately recognized him.
He quickly approached the other person and asked, "Are you here to sweep the grave too?"
"Well, that's right." Huangyan waved his hands, clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and worshiped in front of the tomb, "After all, today is Tatsuhiko's death anniversary."
"But isn't this tomb a little too simple?" Mouri Kogoro couldn't help but asked in surprise as he looked at the tombstone that Araiwa waved to worship.
No wonder Mouri Kogoro was surprised, after all, the tomb was made entirely of four stacked stones.
The lowest stone is the largest, and the upper stones are smaller in size, thus forming a simple tombstone.
"No, actually Tatsuhiko's real tomb is somewhere else." Tokube Rokuro waved his hand after hearing this.
"This tomb was made for Tatsuhiko by his classmates when he passed away."
Huangyan looked at the tombstone and said, "Although there are no remains inside, there are commemorative items that Tatsuhiko used during his lifetime.
Of course, I have also been to his real tomb to pay homage."
"But why do we need to build a tombstone here?" Koshimizu Nanatsuki heard this and looked at the river next to him: "Could it be that..."
"That's right, he was washed away by the river behind me and drowned later." Huangyan waved his hand and looked at the gentle stream behind him with some sadness: "And that was exactly eleven years ago today.
.”
"Eleven years ago!?"
When everyone heard each other's words, their expressions became serious and they all subconsciously thought of the content in the letter.
"So, the murder case mentioned in the letter sent to Dad and Tangze Criminal..." Xiaolan hesitated to speak.
"Believe?" Tokube Rokuro looked surprised: "What is that?"
"The reason why we came here is that someone sent us a letter." Karasawa simply replied.
"Brother, how do you know that Tatsuhiko was washed away by this river?" Conan asked curiously: "When the child was found, wasn't he in the reservoir downstream?"
"Because we found his shoes here."
Huangyan waved his hand and replied: "Tatsuhiko's shoes were caught in the crevices of the rocks at the bottom of the river. It was probably that Tatsuhiko's feet were accidentally caught while he was playing in the river.
Then when the body couldn't move, the rain became heavier and heavier, and finally he was washed away by the rapids.
This is what Gunma Prefecture’s criminal investigation team came to after conducting an on-site investigation.
in conclusion."
"Yeah... but you're still playing in the river in November?" Mouri Kogoro said, rubbing his chin, "Isn't it a little too strange to do such a thing at this time of year?"
"It's indeed a bit strange." Tokubei Rokuro put his left hand on his waist and looked at Araiwa and asked: "By the way, where were Tatsuhiko's shoes found?"
"I remember it seemed to be right where the rock juts out on the opposite side."
Huang Yan took two steps and found a stone path that was higher than his sleep: "I remember it should be in this area."
"Excuse me, where are Tatsuhiko's shoes now?" Conan shouted and asked.
"We buried him in that grave." Huang Yan replied with a wave of his hand.
"If you dig deeper, you should be able to find it." Tokube Rokuro just said something in agreement, when his right foot seemed to have lost control and suddenly slipped and fell into the water.
The next moment his body began to lose balance.
When a person is shaking, he will subconsciously want to grab something around him, but there is only a wave of barren rocks around him.
Although Huangyan Yishui grew very strong, it was at a disadvantage on the small foothold on the rocks next to the creek.
The next moment, they both screamed and fell straight into the water.
"Hello!"
"Are you okay?"
Seeing the two people falling into the water, everyone on the shore was shocked and immediately ran to the river bank.
"Do not worry about it."
Seeing everyone hurrying over, Huang Yan waved his hand in the water and stopped everyone from approaching.
"The water around here is very shallow, it's okay." Tokubirokuro explained shortly after.
Everyone couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief when they saw the two people falling into the river, and they could even see the clear bottom of the river.
The two of them climbed up from the stream, then began to collect the things they had dropped together and bowed.
"It looks like the paint is fine."
Tokube Rokuro looked at the notebook in his hand and said distressedly: "But there is no way to use this sketchbook."
He put down the sketchbook in his hand and took out a handful of incense: "This incense specially used for worship is also all wet."
"Because my shoulder bag is made of plastic, everything inside is basically intact and has not gotten wet."
Huang Yan waved and smiled and said: "The lids of the drink bottles are also tightly closed, and the changes of clothes and pillows are nothing."
"Hey!! What the hell are you doing!!"
At this moment, a middle-aged fat man with Mediterranean hair rushed over angrily and looked at the two people who had fallen into the water: "Why do I think I have seen you somewhere!?"
"Mr. Banzo, I am Tatsuhiko's friend. I came here specifically to visit the grave today." Looking at the aggressive middle-aged man, Aragawa quickly explained with a wave of his hand.
"Hmm? You just said you were sweeping graves?"
Hearing this, Numayama Hanzo angrily kicked down the simple tombstone on the fourth floor: "What kind of tomb sweeping is this!!"
He angrily shouted at everyone: "Listen to me, my son passed away eleven years ago! Please forget it!"
After yelling, Numayama Banzo left without caring about everyone's reactions.
"Son?" Xiaolan looked at the man's leaving figure with a look of surprise on her face, as if she didn't know why the other man had such an attitude.
On the side, Karasawa was lost in memories as he looked at the tombstone that had been kicked down. He even looked at Numayama Hanzo with a little pity in his eyes.
In fact, after he heard about the accident that happened eleven years ago from Tokubirokuro, he had already roughly locked in his mind which case he was going to experience during this trip to Gunma County.
After Numayama Banzo kicked down the tombstone, he had already recalled everything about this case.
And precisely because of this, he felt so sorry for Numayama Hanzo, a middle-aged man who looked like a villain when he appeared on the scene.
Because this case is a complete tragedy, completely
Manslaughter.
But it is precisely because of this that it is even more necessary to stop it.
Tang Ze likes cases like this the most, because he doesn't have to worry about how to prevent the murder from happening and how to make the bad guys accept punishment at the same time.
Without this, he wouldn't have to stop the murder when it was happening.
We only need to find a way to resolve the misunderstanding and explain everything completely, so that what should have been a tragic situation can be led to a happy ending for everyone.
Not only that, after this kind of case is stopped, it is also the most likely to receive high rewards.
Although the tragedy of eleven years ago cannot be undone, the upcoming case can indeed have a "Happy End" ending.
"Is that gentleman actually Mr. Tatsuhiko's father?" Nanatsuki's face was full of surprise in the car.
That was not because of the other party's identity, but because of his attitude towards his son.
His violent attitude and rough treatment of the tombstone made it difficult for people to believe that it was his son who died.
"That's right, he is also the owner of the Kwangra Inn we are about to go to." Tokube Rokuro said.
"Eh!?"
Now Koshimizu Nanatsuki was really shocked: "But why would the owner of the hotel appear in a place like that?"
"I wonder if I've been monitoring that side." Huang Yan said with a wave of his hand.
"Surveillance?" Koshimizu Nanatsuki asked in surprise: "What do you mean?"
"There is a high platform on top of Guangluo Hotel."
Huangyan waved his hand and looked at the building not far away from the car window and said: "If we look through the small window of the attic and observe with a telescope, we seem to be able to clearly observe the place where we were before."
"So that's it." Koshimizu Nanatsuki nodded clearly, but then he asked doubtfully: "But why did he do this?"
"We don't know about this." Tobori Rokuro shook his head.
Hearing this, Koshikoshi Nanatsuki could only suppress this doubt in his heart for the time being, planning to find a way to find out more after entering the hotel later.
The place where Tatsuhiko Numayama was worshiped was not far from the hotel, and not long after driving, everyone arrived at the Guangluo Hotel mentioned in the letter.
After arriving here, the first thing Mouri Kogoro did was to ask if there was any news about the sender, but he found nothing.
"Are you sure there is no one named Li Lisanke living here?"
Hearing what the front desk clerk said, Mouri Kogoro was surprised and said, "But he clearly made an appointment with us to meet here tomorrow morning."
"Well, it seems to me that there is no guest with this name in the register." The middle-aged man wearing glasses at the front desk apologized.
"Then I wonder if you know what murders happened in this area in the past eleven years?" Nanatsuki Koshimizu asked closely.
"We don't have this..." the front desk clerk thought for a while and said unsure.
"Yes, I have!"
At this moment, a man with an afro with a mustache suddenly walked out, his expression pretending to be terrifying: "Not only that, it is said that the murderer that time was a kappa."
"He, Kappa!?" Upon hearing the man's words, Xiaolan, who was most afraid of ghosts, immediately took a step back in fright.
"This unknown gentleman, can you tell me in detail?" Tangze looked at the other person and asked.
"My name is Nohira Shosuke, you can just call me Nohira."
After Nohira introduced himself, he coughed a few times and continued: "As for the detailed situation, everyone around here actually knows it. After all, the legend of kappa has been circulating around here for a long time.
12 or 13 years ago, some people even claimed to have witnessed Kappa with their own eyes.
It even alerted the TV station and sent people here specifically to conduct interviews.
At that time, the child suddenly drowned, so some people said that it was the murder of a kappa.
That is to say, since the death of that child, no one has said that they have seen a kappa.
.
And this place has become deserted again."
"Interesting, is it a kappa who invited us?"
Karasawa took out the letter and smiled and said: "The so-called name "Lili Sanke", if you combine "Sanke" left and right, it becomes the word "river".
When the word "Lili" is combined up and down, it becomes the character "Tong"."
"Kappa!?"
Hearing Tang Ze's words, Xiaolan panicked and said: "Yes, it must be like this!"
It was the Kappa who invited the detective’s father and Karasawa Criminal to come here in order to clear up his smeared charges!”
"You people are really annoying that you believe in such boring superstitions."
At this moment, Numayama Hanzo, who had had a close relationship before, walked over and shouted with an unkind expression: "If you dare to bring up these boring and baseless topics about monsters again, I will kick you out of this hotel."
!」
After saying this, Numayama Banzo ignored everyone's reactions and turned around with a cold face and left.
"Sorry, I'm really sorry."
The middle-aged man at the front desk waited until the boss left and quickly explained: "Our boss doesn't believe this the most and hates it when others mention it. After all, there are rumors that Master Tatsuhiko was killed by a kappa..."
"We all understand, no need to explain."
Huang Yan waved his hand and said, "Uncle, we all understand his reaction. Anyway, let's help us move in first.
I accidentally fell into the river before, and now I'm still wet. I want to take a shower and change into clean clothes quickly, otherwise I'll be in trouble if I catch a cold."
"Ah, I will arrange rooms for all the guests right now." Hearing this, the middle-aged man spoke quickly and arranged check-in procedures for several people.