Midsummer Beach Hut Drowning Case

The **Midsummer Beach Hut Drowning Case** is a murder case that happened at Natsukaze Beach.

It is the eleventh main case in the *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* series.

## Overview

To relax, Ron, Toto, and Mofu head to Natsukaze Beach. There, Mofu goes swimming while Ron and Totomaru speak to two surfers; they overheard them having an argument with the owner of Summer House, a beach hut, and Ron wanted to know what it was about. The surfers tell them that their friend Taku Manba went to talk to the beach hut owner around 10 p.m. last night and never returned.

Shortly afterward, Mofu discovers Manba's corpse between some rocks. Ron takes a look at the body and declares that Manba has been murdered because he is wearing a dry suit although he is a surfer, not a diver or boater. The suit is also too big on him, indicating that it is not his; Manba's friends confirm this. The friends also state that they saw Manba's surfboard between the others lined up by their inn. The order of the surfboards this morning differed from how they left them yesterday though.

Mofu conducts the autopsy: The cause of death was drowning, and she estimates he died between 2 and 3 a.m. There are no visible externals wounds, though his hands are purplish red. Because Manba had been drinking with his friends before his disappearance and death, he smells of alcohol.

## History

Toto notices a moving truck in front of Ron's apartment building. He then finds out that Mofu is moving into the building.

They meet up with Ron, and Ron and Mofu tell Toto that she discovered and developed a medication to counteract Ron's compulsion to pressure culprits. However, because it requires that he takes various medicines as a dangerous combination, Mofu is opposed to it. Ron still insisted on taking it though, and Mofu eventually allowed him to take the medicine when she is there to watch him. Mofu and Ron also clarify to Toto that Mofu moved into the Maison du Kamonohashi upon Ron's suggestion after she was kicked out of her condo because of a clumsy mishap. Shikada then calls to remind Mofu of a scheduled surgery, and she leaves.

Because Ron is still agitated about the M. Family and their last case, Totomaru suggests to go to the beach to relax. "Eating brown sugar ice in the ocean" is also on Ron's bucket list. While they are heading out, they find Mofu in the corridor; her surgery was cancelled and she is free now. Ron invites her to join them, and the three of them go to Natsukaze Beach.

There, they are happy to see that the beach is not as crowded as expected. They head to Summer House to get shaved ice, but the beach hut owner says they already sold out since it is their most popular item. Toto is confused because there is hardly anyone on the beach, and Ron is so disappointed he faints.

Because Ron has become too disheartened to swim, Mofu goes into the ocean on her own while Totomaru stays with Ron. Ron and Toto then overhear the beach hut owner arguing with two surfers. He even threatens to call the police if they interfere with his business. After he left, Ron drags Toto to the surfers to find out what the argument was about, saying Toto is a police officer and he will help out if they have trouble.

The young men explain their problem: They had been in the area since yesterday to go surfing, but their friend got a stomachache after eating something from the beach hut, and he got into a fight with the beach hut owner. Last night, the friend left to settle things with the owner, but he never came back. The surfers also could not reach him, and the friend has not gone back home. Toto recommends to contact the local police. Then, they see Mofu waving to them in the distance: Her foot got stuck in some rocks and she could not get it out, but more importantly, she found a corpse. The surfers quickly identify the man as their missing friend, Taku Manba. Toto guesses that the surfer maybe went in the water last night and accidentally drowned, but Ron says it was not an accident: He was murdered.

The local police arrives, and Toto tells a policeman what happened, and Mofu informs him about the results of her autopsy. The police officer notes that the beach hut owner will be questioned, but, given the absence of external wounds and what the surfer was wearing, he is ready to conclude that the man tried to go surfing while drunk and drowned. Ron says he is wrong. His clothes clearly indicate that it was not an accident but a homicide.

The policeman asks who Ron is, and Ron gasps as he has been investigating unconsciously. Mofu covers for him, saying he is her assistant, that he loves mysteries so much that he wanted to try doing some detective work, and will have him stop. The policeman laughs uneasily, saying Ron was quite convincing and he was hanging on his every word. Ron, Mofu, and Toto leave afterward, and Mofu tells Totomaru that she knows about him and Ron. She promises that she will never tell anyone about it and adds that she thinks what they are doing is wonderful; they have her support.

The three move on to question the beach hut owner. Toto tells him that they learned that the victim left to speak with the owner around 10 p.m., and, thus, wants to know what the owner was doing yesterday.

The owners says that he finished cleaning up the shop and headed home. Then, he was up all night drinking with friends from back home which means he has eight witnesses to back his story. He adds that he saw a drunk guy in a floral T-shirt heading toward the ocean around high tide. The beach hut owner then leaves, and Ron tells Mofu and Totomaru that the owner does not know the victim's time of death, so he must be psychic to assert a alibi in the first place.

Afterward, Ron goes inside the shop to buy some food and overhears an employee asking the owner what he should do about the expired eggs. The owner tells him that he should use them anyway as nobody cares.

Mofu, Ron, and Totomaru sit on beach chairs and eat while they discuss the case. Toto says that the victim could have passed out in front of the beach hut owner and the owner then left him within reach of the waves to ensure that he would drown when the tide came in. Ron had considered the same, but the inside of the victim's mouth was clean. They will need to examine the victim closely in a forensics lab, but if the victim drowned in the shallows, there should have been large deposits of sand in his mouth. Toto concedes, but how then did the victim drown in such a far-off place? Toto guesses the victim's hands probably turned purplish red from the cold of the deeper water. Mofu says it is possible that the body temperature dropped rapidly, but it looked more like chilblains.

Then, Toto complains about the food, saying it is burnt. Mofu gets angry because of that, saying that the owner is too cruel before she goes to get the food replaced. But on her way to the beach hut, she falls into the sand. She notes that it is oddly salty, and Ron tastes the sand to confirm her words. He then solves the case.

Ron and Toto gather Mofu, the police, the owner, and the surfers in front of Summer House. Toto informs them that the case was a homicide, not an accident, and the killer is among them. When the police inquire into the alibi, Toto says there is a time-delay method the killer could have used to indirectly kill the victim out in the ocean and then reveals the beach hut owner as the murderer.

Toto says there is something unusual about the shop: The shop sold out of shaved ice although there were not many people at the beach. This means he was using the ice for a different purpose. The ice was used to make a raft of death. When the owner saw Manba passed out drunk, he had the idea of floating him out on an ice raft. The owner put the dry suit on Manba so that the body would not immediately show any signs of chilblains or marks from the ropes tying the victim to the raft. Eventually, the ice melted and Manba fell into the ocean. When he woke up, Manba clung onto the remaining chunk of ice until it all melted; this is how he got the chilblains on his hands.

The owner objects, saying the ice used for shaved ice is too small to build a raft. Totomaru replies that, if you use salt, it can be used to combine the blocks together into a large panel. When you put salt on ice, the surface melts and becomes dense salt water. Due to the freezing-point depression, the temperature drops below 0°C (32°F). If you then apply pressure to multiple blocks of ice, the sides will freeze together. It is easier to do with the smooth surfaces of professional grade ice. If they inspect the sand in front of the shop, where the beach hut owner made the raft, they would find an unusually high concentration of salt.

The owner keeps deflecting, saying the salt flowed out while he was making food. Toto retorts by asking if he minds that they check the delivery slip for the ice and the sales receipts for shaved ice because he is sure there will be a discrepancy.

The owner adds that he did not even know where Manba was staying. Toto replies that, if he did not know, then how were they able to find his fingerprints on the surfboards lined up outside the victim's inn? In order to make it look like the victim died from surfing, the beach hut owner went to the inn to look for the surfboard. But because he could not tell which one was Manba's, he ended up leaving without taking it. He forgot to wipe his fingerprints beforehand. The beach shop also has three complaints of food poisoning. Because of that, Manba got a stomachache after eating food from there. To make sure that he could not call the health bureau, the owner killed him.

The owner finally concedes and says he does not mind confessing to the murder, but only if they lighten his sentence. Mofu then slaps him for making light of someone else's life. Because Ron took his medicine fifteen minutes earlier, Kill on Sight is not triggered by the beach hut owner's confession, much to Totomaru's and Mofu's delight.

Toto congratulates Ron. Ron replies that they solved the case without incident and that they did great too, calling Toto and Mofu Max and Molly. This surprises Mofu and Toto, and Ron promptly faints afterward.

The next day, Toto visits Ron at his apartment. Ron has just woken up, and Totomaru tells him that Ron had nightmares for a full day and kept talking about Max and Molly. Ron says they were kids who lived nearby when he was growing up. He had a dream of a birthday party he attended with them and adds that he feels like there was someone else too, but he cannot remember. Toto tells him that Mofu said she thinks that losing consciousness and experiencing past memories are part of the medicine's side effects too.

Ron is sad because he lost a full day; he needs a better medication, but he cannot find one without learning more about his ability from the M. Family. He feels like he is right back where he started and thinks that he is the worst detective, but Toto encourages Ron that he is making progress. Together, they will move forward. Toto also got permission from Mofu that Ron can take the medicine even when she is not there. His words lift Ron's spirits and says that they will, of course, continue to solve mysteries; it is his duty after all.

## References

1. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 28, pages 8-10
2. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, page 3
3. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 28, pages 13-18
4. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, pages 3-5
5. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, pages 2-3
6. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 28, pages 2-18
7. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 29, pages 2-18
8. ↑ *Ron Kamonohashi: Deranged Detective* manga; Chapter 30, pages 2-19