Chapter 973

The stab wound in the victim's abdomen was already a serious injury, and he would lose his ability to act immediately. That was probably when he left the dying message, but the murderer noticed it and added a fatal stab.

It is very likely that the murderer left in a hurry after killing the person, fearing being discovered by tourists, and took away the notebook that seemed to have the dying message left on it. But after finding no problems, he threw it on the side of the road.

The forest at night was exceptionally cold. Sonoko tightened her clothes and leaned closer to Akaso Kaze.

"Akaso-san, give me a hint???" Sonoko looked at Akaso Kaze with pleading little eyes.

Akaso Kaze smiled and said, "The key should be the tree Mr. HOTUMI found, the tree where the red handkerchief was first tied."

"The first tree? Mr. HOTUMI said it was at this filming location," Sonoko was stunned, "but it might not be here. This is the place used to tie the red handkerchief in the TV series."

"In other words, someone had already done this before the TV series started filming."

Akaso Kaze reminded her.

"The red handkerchief might be a certain mark left by the murderer. Because of the popularity of the TV series, there are more and more tourists in this mountain area, which prompted the murderer to come back to look for the original mark."

"But now there are red handkerchiefs everywhere, he couldn't find it himself, so he could only entrust HOTUMI. After HOTUMI found it, he arranged to meet the other party at the place of the final scene of the TV series, but was killed because of some things."

Sonoko's eyes lit up, and she nodded repeatedly, saying:

"HOTUMI very likely discovered some secret at the marked place, and threatened the other party when they met alone, which is why the scene was in such a hurried state."

Akaso Kaze glanced at Sonoko and asked again: "When you met HOTUMI, which direction was he coming from?"

"That way," Sonoko pointed behind, "it should be that way, no doubt. Could that tree be there?"

"If the creative idea came from the tree where the red handkerchief was first tied, the staff shouldn't have taken down the red handkerchief on the tree without authorization. Since the TV series didn't film that tree, it must have tied the red handkerchief on another tree at a considerable distance, because it would be very strange if there were red handkerchiefs tied on two trees in the lens during the filming of the TV series."

Akaso Kaze said while walking: "So as long as you go to a farther place to look, you should be able to find that tree. Perhaps HOTUMI also found the location this way. Following the direction HOTUMI came back from, you should be able to find it immediately."

"If I'm not mistaken, the murderer still doesn't know the location!"

"Still doesn't know?" Sonoko said excitedly, "?? But, if the murderer is that fan, isn't he just trying to get Mr. HOTUMI to find the location?"

"Perhaps he felt that he could find it even without HOTUMI, so he committed the murder directly. Or maybe HOTUMI discovered the secret and threatened him with reporting it to the police, so he had to take action immediately."

It's not easy to find a specific tree with a red handkerchief tied to it in a forest with lush branches and leaves at night. Perhaps it was also for concealment that the murderer used a red handkerchief as a mark in the beginning.

However, with the prediction spell, many things have become much easier.

Akaso Kaze and Sonoko walked for about 10 minutes with flashlights and found the target.

An old tree with a red handkerchief fluttering in the wind on its branches.

Sonoko, who had sharp eyes, discovered it immediately, and also found that the soil under the tree was quite soft and had traces of excavation.

"Sure enough, Mr. HOTUMI had dug here before meeting the criminal."

Watching Akaso Kaze use his feet to scrape the fluffy fallen leaves and mud aside, revealing a skull with black eye sockets under the flashlight beam.

Sonoko's face changed completely, and the gloomy forest added a bit of horror.

Sonoko shrank into Akaso Kaze's arms and said tremblingly: "Did someone die here?"

Akaso Kaze wasn't surprised at all, but suddenly his ears moved, and he heard some subtle movements from the forest.

He smiled and looked in a certain direction, saying: "This should be the reason why Mr. HOTUMI was silenced, right, Mr. Watanuki?" ===== CHAPTER 975 =====