In this case, the boy noticed two suspicious points.

First of all, it was the cemetery where the first crime scene was found, which was also the first place where he noticed the abnormality, but the sudden appearance of Kokarasuma at that time made him break his mind, and he never thought about it since.

The second is the deceased's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Muraki, and the boy always thinks that Mr. Muraki's unusually nervous reaction after seeing him for the second time is very wrong, and the unknown pungent smell on his body also makes the boy very concerned.

At that time, when they went to visit Muraki's house, what was this Mr. Muraki doing in the upstairs room?

Although he wanted to investigate, it was getting late, so the boy decided to take a look at the cemetery first, and as for the Muraki family, they would wait until tomorrow morning......

The cemetery at night did tend to give people the feeling of a gloomy wind, but the boy did not feel any fear in his heart.

After all, although he is not a real policeman, he has been doing police work, and he has captured countless vicious criminals in his hands.

No matter what kind of legend it is, a person like him who is "full of righteousness" is the existence that those ghosts are most reluctant to approach.

So, even if there are so-called ghosts here, it should be that they are afraid of him, not that he is afraid of them.

With a flashlight, the boy walked to the cemetery where Kyoko-san, who was tied up in the morning.

After being identified by the Muraki couple, Kyoko's body was temporarily taken back to the morgue of the Metropolitan Police Department by the police, and the dark red blood stains on the ground around it were also cleaned up.

The boy stood in the position where Kyoko's body was tied up and kneeling, and used a flashlight to illuminate the tombstone in front of him.

【Mayuko Hanada】

That's right, the owner of this tombstone is Mr. Hanada's classmate who finally chose to commit suicide by jumping off the building because he couldn't bear to be bullied by Kyoko-san a few months ago.

When Kyoko-san's body was found by the grave keeper this morning, she was bound and kneeling in front of this tombstone.

Indeed, on the face of it, the case is simple.

Hanada-san finally chose to commit suicide by jumping off the building because he was bullied by Kyoko-sang, and Mr. Hanada, after unsuccessful attempts to ask for an explanation and the perfunctory actions of the police, finally happened to find Kyoko-san who happened to be out one night a few months later, stimulated by alcohol, and after killing him, he tied his body to his daughter's tombstone to comfort Hanada's spirit in heaven......

But the boy didn't think that this was the truth, and it was only when he saw the tombstone again that he finally remembered the anomaly he had noticed in the morning.

The corpse was in the wrong position.

Kyoko-san's body was technically tied with multiple strings to resemble a "Virgin Prayer" pose.

Kneel with your legs together and fold your hands in front of your chest...... Looks religious.

However, according to what the boy had learned from Mr. Hanada's neighbors, Mr. Hanada himself did not have any beliefs and was an atheist.

And in Hanada's house, the boy did not find anything related to religious beliefs before.

If the reason why Kyoko-san's body was tied here was really Mr. Hanada's attempt to comfort his tragic death of his daughter, according to Japanese custom, he should have tied the body in a "kneeling and kowtowing" posture instead of "praying to the Virgin".

Even if Mr. Hanada had been under the influence of alcohol and had suddenly thought of the posture of "Prayer of the Virgin".

Because of the corpse of Kyoko-san, there is another strange place.

Recalling the scene from the morning, the boy half-crouched in front of the tombstone, then slowly raised his head.

His gaze also looked at the dark back mountain behind this cemetery.

That's right, the boy had already noticed at the beginning that the head of Kyoko-san's corpse was held high.

And this was obviously not an accident, as the corpse had a black string pulled backwards around its neck, and it was this rope that forced the corpse's head upwards.

Obviously, this is what the murderer deliberately did.

The boy did not know much about the rules of these religions, but according to his superficial knowledge in this regard, believers generally had to bow their heads and not look directly at the gods when performing these prayer postures.

But the murderer did the opposite, and the head of Kyoko-san's corpse was deliberately raised, which was neither a standard prayer nor an apology...... It's weird.

This was the strangeness that the boy noticed this morning, and it was one of the major suspicions that made him suspect that the murderer might not be Mr. Hanada.

[It's just that what is the reason for putting the corpse in a prayer posture and deliberately raising the corpse's head?] 】

Thinking about this, the boy's gaze fell on the dark back hill behind the cemetery at this time.

[Will it have anything to do with this mountain?] 】

"Who's there?!"

At this moment, a loud shout suddenly sounded behind the boy, and then the light of a flashlight shone through.

The boy withdrew his gaze and got up to look back.

"Huh? Oh! It's Officer Whiteriver?! ”

The person who came in front of him was the grave keeper who had met the boy this morning, and he was also the first person to find the body of Kyoko-san's body and report it to the police.

After seeing the boy's face clearly, the grave keeper immediately put down the flashlight and hurriedly ran over.

"It's so late, is Officer Shirakawa here to investigate the scene?"

"Hmm." The boy nodded slightly, and at the same time, his eyes subconsciously swept over the middle-aged man in front of him.

It was an unremarkable-looking man, dressed the same as he had seen in the morning.

It's just that it may be because of the status of the police and the common people between the two, so the grave keeper seems to be a little restrained and does not get too close to the boy.

"I'm sorry, Officer Shirakawa, after the police took the body away, I found someone to clean up all the blood stains here, so ......"

"It doesn't matter." Walking with him towards the outside of the cemetery, the boy casually asked, "Were you on patrol just now?" ”

"Ah, yes, when this inspection is over, two more inspections tonight, and that's almost it......" the grave keeper replied with a smile.

"What's on the hill behind here?" The boy asked again.

"This ...... I don't know, although my job is to patrol the cemetery around here, but I've never been up to the back mountain, and it seems that no one lives on the mountain, so it's probably a mountain of light, and there's nothing......"

"Yes." The boy nodded slightly, but said no further.

"Officer Whiteriver, could it be...... Is it that the police have already found the murderer? ”

At this time, the grave keeper asked curiously.

In the darkness, the boy glanced at him.

"Not yet, just found some clues......"

Retracting his gaze, the boy frowned slightly, he thought carefully, as if he suddenly thought of something, and his eyebrows suddenly loosened, but the tone of his mouth did not change at all.

"As for who the murderer is, it needs to be investigated......"

At this point, the boy's hand suddenly let go, and the flashlight in his hand fell to the ground.

With a "click", the cylindrical flashlight rolled forward along the steps, and the light column of the flashlight also swept through the night sky, illuminating the tombstones around the two of them for a moment.

"Ahh Officer White River! Your flashlight! ”

Beside him, before the boy could speak, the grave keeper hurriedly stepped forward and tried to help the boy pick up the flashlight rolling on the ground.

Seeing this, the boy did not hesitate, and he stepped forward with the same swiftness, barely making a sound, and reached out to grab the flashlight on the ground as the grave keeper grabbed it.

Because of this same action, the distance that the two had deliberately kept before was quickly pulled in, and it could even be said that they were shoulder-to-shoulder.

It was also at this distance that the boy smelled the same unknown pungent smell on the grave keeper's body as on Mr. Muraki before.

[Sure enough......]

(˙ー˙)

(End of chapter)