The Vanished-5

Our intrepid investigators- a reminder, they don't understand Japanese, though chubby Guy apparently does- visit the home of an evaporated. "Tim" is the eldest son. Really? A Japanese couple, this is. "Upstairs, lying in her bed, the grandmother clears her throat." Did she? Lay eyes on her? The family mutt? The point is?

They "used to live among the cherry blossoms in Saitama", the eldest "the son of tanners" . Tanners, traditional outcasts, did not live near the best blossom viewing spots.