Chapter 17 Chapter Seventeen

Ke Baisha said to the police officer: "Go in and tell Officer Mi, I can't wait any longer, I have my own things to do." The policeman just smiled at her. "I'm serious." Bai Sha said angrily, "They've been groping around inside. I've been waiting for 2 hours. Police officer Mi knows where I live. If he wants to find me, please invite him to my office or my house." gone." "It's inconvenient." "It's convenient for me." "It's not convenient for the police." "You go and tell Officer Mi to me."

"Officer Mi is busy. It's best not to disturb him with trivial matters." "How can this be considered trivial! It makes no sense. I don't care, I'm leaving." "The superior ordered me to watch you here." "I found a corpse for Shanlou, so why must I stay here?" "Go and ask your Shanlou yourself." "Didn't they let Mrs. Gu go?" "Mrs. Gu is mentally unsound. She is here to complete the identification procedures." "What are they keeping me for?" "How would I know?" "They didn't find out how people died?"

"I don't even know." "You seem to only know how to eat and don't know anything." "That's unlikely." "What do you know?" The officer grinned at her. "I was ordered to keep you here, and I will keep you here. Mrs. Ke, I don't know anything at present except this." Betha was too angry to speak. Suddenly, the door opens.Officer Mi Shanlou walked in.He gestured to the officer, bared his teeth and looked at Betha. "Hi! Great beauty." "Big beauty!" Bai Sha grumbled resentfully. "What's the matter, Betha? What's the matter?"

"Happy! If you think—oh, never! Never!" Shanlou sat down by himself.He said, "How do you know she's dead?" Baisha took a deep breath. "I touched her flesh. It was cold. I smelled corpses. She didn't move when I touched her. I called her and she didn't answer. She didn't move. I know she has been lying there in this position for 3 years. God. And then all of a sudden it dawned on me—just like you smart cops, all of a sudden. I said to myself, 'My God, she's dead. She's dead!'" "Two hands, Betha. But that's not the point of my question. I'm asking you, how did you know she was dead until you went into the garage?"

"I have no idea." "Then why did you go into the garage?" "I don't want people I'm following to suddenly disappear." "Who is willing?" "That's why I'm here anyway. I want to see how she suddenly disappeared." "Well, that's what happened. You lost her on Wednesday at noon. So, on Friday night, you come back here again, see if you can run into her, and continue your tracking work. Kind of like a western movie, you put When the gun was drawn and the trigger was pulled, all time suddenly stopped." "No, that's not the case."

"So, what's it like?" "I'm just studying the terrain around here." "It will take a stronger argument, Betha." "What do you want? I lost her here, and I have my right to come back and find her." "How did you know you lost her in this garage?" "She turned around and came in, and I couldn't see her after that." "Then why didn't you come in and take a look when you were following her that day?" "Because, I think she turned the street before—to the right." "So what?" "I rushed to the front and turned right. Seeing that she didn't turn right, I stepped back and turned left again."

"Wait a minute, you said you didn't turn right when you saw her?" "yes." "how do you know?" "Because when my car turned right, I saw that there was no car ahead. I thought she had no time to turn right and then turned again." "So you immediately backed up and turned left again?" "yes." "But the street on the left is also empty, no cars, is it?" "yes." "Since she turned to the right in terms of time, it was too late to turn again, so she turned to the left. It was too late to turn again, right?"

"So, I'm coming back here." Shanlou smiled approvingly. "Baisha, that's great, next time you want to laugh at us stupid policemen, how long it takes to figure out a problem, you might as well think about it, such a simple chicken and rabbit problem, a smart private detective like you, It also took a full 3 days to get some clues. Alright! Why don’t you look at other places and only look at this garage?” "I came back here and carefully studied the way she might disappear. Find out what happened that day. I found that the left and right turns of the street in front of me are connected by more than two blocks of land, within a long distance , can’t turn left and right. So I knew that she didn’t go straight after turning off the avenue, and she didn’t turn left or right at the first side street. She must have hidden before reaching the first side street.”

"That day, didn't you notice that the side street in front of you was connected by two squares?" "To be honest, I don't." Bai Sha said self-consciously embarrassed: "At first I thought it was just an ordinary stalking job. It was a job that no one cared about except the person who paid me to stalk. When husband and wife If the relationship between the two develops to the point where one party wants to hire a private detective, sooner or later they will pay their respects. As for whether the wife goes out to have a tryst with Zhang San, Li Si, or Qian Wu and Zhao Liu, there is not much difference."

"It's quite philosophical." Shanlou said, "I'm sorry that I don't have time to discuss marriage philosophy with you right now. Baisha, why do you think this follow-up job is an ordinary follow-up job?" "Because I guess it's just a regular job." "Why didn't you notice the street with two squares ahead?" "At that point I was mad at myself. I hated myself, and I hated that woman. She didn't drive fast, she didn't suspect that someone was following or was following, and she obeyed the traffic rules, making it easy for me to follow. Honestly, my brain I don't know where to fly. Although I was following, in fact, I was daydreaming. I was just following her mechanically. Suddenly, she did that trick, so I was angry. I didn't think of her at the time Will turn into a garage."

"Remembered later?" "I just remembered later." Bai Sha said. "Wednesday, did you turn back here afterward to look at the garage here?" "No. I looked all the way down the driveway. I thought maybe she parked the car in someone's driveway and went into the house." "Since I thought of turning into the driveway, why didn't I think of turning into the garage?" "I can't say it, I just didn't think of it at the time." "Another idea that must have taken three days to come up with?" "You must say so. It's not wrong." "Just to give you a taste." Shanlou said. "Not good." "I want to ask you something. There is a note on the floor of the car, do you know?" Baisha hesitated. "Have you seen it?" "See you." "Touched?" "yes." "Have you read the content?" "Yes—just a quick look. Like everybody does." "Everyone knows it?" Shanlou asked repeatedly. "What's wrong? You think I see a woman dead, and don't look around, and don't ask or hear anything." "You know the importance of keeping the scene. You know I like to watch murder scenes and people fumble around." "I always have to know if she is dead before I know this is a murder scene." "Well, let me see, you lost her on Wednesday, didn't you?" "Wednesday noon." "Well, you found her near dusk on Friday. She was curled up in the car, and like you said, she already stinks of corpses. You touched her skin, and it was cold. You called her, and she didn't answer. But you didn't know She died, and she had to pick up that piece of paper and read it before she knew it was a murder scene." "I." "Say it!" "How do I know what it says? You have to read it to find out. Maybe it's very important. It's her last words." "A recipe for bringing the dead back to life?" "Don't come here, is sarcasm useful?" "What I want to tell you is that there are several very clear fingerprints on the paper;" Police Officer Mi said worriedly; "We thought we had important clues now. But, as I know now, it might be your fingerprints. " "I'm sorry," Baisha said. "me too." "Did she die from carbon monoxide poisoning?" "It seems so." "What do you think is going on?" "A very wonderful trap," Mi Shanlou said: "Someone wrote a secret letter to this woman. She believed it and was hypnotized. You know, the family property is in her name, and she may not want to take it out. She sees It can be concluded that her husband is only using her to maintain property, and the relationship is long gone. She may be looking for an opportunity to settle it once. The more evidence she has, the more she will not give out a dime. Relationship. If she can remarry herself, she will find another long-term meal ticket. If she can’t remarry, she may not be able to eat it all with the money she has earned to travel around the world—there are still many men around her, but it’s all for money. " "What are you doing?" Baisha asked, "Touching my mood?" "I urge you to think about it." "What are you thinking?" "Think in her shoes—her shoes are her mother's shoes." "Her mother is also involved in this matter?" "Records show that she had a long-distance conversation with her mother in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. At 6:30, her mother sent her a telegram saying she was going south and asked her to pick up the car." "What did you say on the phone?" "I asked Mrs. Gu, and she kept pushing, but she finally figured it out. Mabel told her mother on the phone that she had received an anonymous letter, saying that the maid and husband at home had been ambiguous. Mrs. Gu told her to give up. This is a good time to leave her husband. Mei Baoshang hesitated to leave like this. I am sorry for her husband. She told Mrs. Gu on the phone that the current property under her name cannot actually be regarded as Hers belongs to her husband. Apart from her husband, the property division procedures are still required. Mrs. Gu is very angry about this matter. She lectured Mabel on the phone for a long time, and then decided to take the train down and help her solve it face to face .She was determined to break up the family." "Telegraph, did Mabel see it?" "Yes. Jialu was there when the telegram came. From the records of the telegraph office, we know that the telegram arrived in this city and was sent by telephone from the telegraph office. Mrs. Bei once asked to read the words of the telegram again, so as not to miss the train schedule, The date. It was Mrs. Bei who told Jialu, and both of them decided to pick up their mother. Bei Fude didn’t know about the family crisis. His wife asked him to fill up the car and check the tires and oil tomorrow that night. , Said to use the car at 11 o'clock." "Wait a minute," Bai Sha said, "She didn't leave home until 11:22 on Tuesday morning. What time should the train arrive?" "According to the schedule, I should arrive at a quarter past 11:00, but it was delayed." "Why do Mrs. Bei and Jialu live under the same roof, but don't pick up the train together?" "Jialu has her own business to do in the city. Maybo, sleep late in the morning. Jialu said she would meet her at the station after shopping. I think Mrs. Bei used to call to ask if the train was on time. Now The problem is that the train was predicted to arrive on time, but it was later known that it would arrive at a quarter past 12:12. If Mrs. Bei left the house late at 11:22, of course she knew the news that the train was predicted to arrive at a quarter past twelve. There wasn't much time to do anything else besides that. In fact, the train didn't come in until one o'clock late." "Jia Lu left the house at 9 o'clock. She did some errands in the city and arrived at the station a little earlier, around 11 o'clock. Then she knew that the train would arrive at a quarter past twelve. She called her sister and told her that the train would be late. No one answered the phone. She called twice more. Now look at it. It is 11 o'clock. According to logic, Mrs. Bei should be sitting on the side, waiting for the anonymous letter to call. You know it yourself. I was still in the house at the time—but Jialu called, but she didn’t answer—is it possible?” "My God!" cried Betha, "there's only one reason." "Yes, let's see if we think the same?" "At that time, she was murdering Sally." Shanlou nodded. "That's right," he said. "Jia Lu thought she must have left home to go to the station before she announced the delay of the train at the train station. Since Jia Lu was already at the station, there was no time to go to the city again. So she just waited at the train station for her sister to come to the station. The train didn't actually come in until one o'clock. Maybo never came, and she didn't try to contact Jialu at all. Now, you put these things together and tell me what you think." "No idea, the only thought is that the murder happened at 11 o'clock in that house." "It looks like this to me," Shanlou said, "Mrs. Bei must have called and knew that the train didn't arrive until a quarter past twelve. She must have been anxious to answer the 11 o'clock call from the anonymous letter writer, but she didn't arrive at 11 o'clock. Answer the phone. Jia Lu wanted to contact her by phone. The anonymous letter writer also wanted to contact her. But he did not get in touch until 11:15." "Why did you walk at a quarter past 11?" "I don't think it will be earlier than 11:15. In fact, it may be 11:21. After answering the phone, within 5 seconds Mrs. Bei left the house, got into the car and started on the road. So I said that the anonymous letter used the phone to talk to Mrs. Bei In terms of contact, it will be between 11:15 and 11:21." Bai Sha said curiously: "You didn't give her too much flexible time—from killing people to answering the phone." Shanlou said: "Killing people doesn't have to start at 11 o'clock. She may be busy with the aftermath." "But her husband came home at eleven o'clock," Betha pointed out. "He didn't enter the house. Baisha, according to what you said, her husband was just honking the car horn outside the door." "That's right. You think she killed Sally now—not Northford?" "It seems so." "You used to think it must have been done by a man." "True. But I've changed my mind. I now think Mrs. North must have hated Sally. She's so busy with the business that at eleven o'clock she doesn't have time to answer the phone - nearly saving herself." She killed Sally, and in the end she couldn't escape the trap set for her by others, and was murdered by others." "Who killed her?" Baisha asked. Shanlou lit a match, and lit the cigar she forgot to smoke while busy talking with Baisha.Then he simply answered Bai Sha's question. "Tuesday morning, between 11:00 and 11:21, the phone rang. Someone instructed Mrs. North, get into her own car, drive onto the boulevard, and at that intersection how to run a red light and ditch the tail if any, and suddenly in Hackington turns, enters the garage immediately, closes the garage door, stays on, waits to be contacted. What a coup for carbon monoxide poisoning. To make the plan flawless, our protagonist goes out of his way to tape up every gap in the garage." Ke Baisha stared out her eyes and asked, "Really?" "Totally true." Betha whistled. "From a technical point of view," Su Shanlou said, "it is really difficult for us to prove that this was a deliberate murder. The woman caused the death accidentally by herself, and—" "Wait a minute," Baisha interjected, "There's one thing you overlooked. After she answered the phone, she went to get her portable typewriter and typed out the instructions, so as not to forget the details." Officer Mi's smile is that of an expert taking care of a layman. "Don't be stupid," he said. "She couldn't have listened to the phone and went to get her typewriter. First, she was anxious to hear what was told to her. She was nervous. She had taken these instructions by heart. Erase I can't drop it. Besides, if she wants to write it down, she should use the pencil and note paper next to the phone. She writes it in her own handwriting, and it will be written in a hurry. There is no such thing as a typewriter. Only the childish thing that the murderer wants us to believe. Hey Only laymen will be fooled." "You mean the note was typed by the murderer and intentionally placed there after her death?" "It must be so." "What effect?" "You still don't understand? You just want us stupid policemen to believe that the dead person died because of his own carelessness when he found the body." "It seems that this is also the real situation of this incident. Isn't it?" Baisha asked. "There's nothing wrong with that," Shanlou said; "there's not a single drop of fuel left in the tank. The ignition key is in the starter position. The battery is dead. She must have been poisoned shortly after entering the garage, but the car still started. Until the last drop was burned. We knew there was at least 16 liters of petrol in the tank because Mr Bei had put it in that morning." "Then the murderer must have gone into the garage after the death and left the note in the car." "That's right. That's why I was so happy to see two full fingerprints on the note. That's why I was so mad at you to find out you were messing around in there." Bai Sha said, "I'm sorry." "You deserve it. You have been in this business for a long time, and you should also know that you are not allowed to touch plants and trees at the scene of a murder. You can't blame you for your fingerprints on the door handle. If you don't open the door, you don't know she is inside, but when you drive door, once you see the body, you should back out." Shanlou's tone became patient and preaching.He is tired.Already lacking in energy, she also showed her disappointment with Baisha. Kebaisha said it again. "I am sorry." "understood." "It's a little too much." "Too much." "According to what you said." Bai Sha said suddenly: "The murderer planned to murder this lady by accident?" "yes." "Then, besides going to the garage to put down the note, the murderer still needs to check to see if the plan has succeeded?" "That's right." "Then why didn't the murderer tear off the tape covering the gap and leave a clue?" "I've thought about this too," Shanlou said. "It bothers me a lot. But if you assume you're the murderer, you'll understand why." "What's the meaning?" "His purpose has been achieved. The woman has been removed. He sneaked into the garage, probably in the middle of the night. His main purpose was to drop the note so that people would think he died by accident. He had the guts to go in and put the note. , but he didn’t spend any more time in it. He was afraid that people would find him in there. If someone saw him sneaking in there, if someone called and the patrol car came to find someone coming out of the garage in the middle of the night—that’s still Doesn't mean he shot her, or killed her with force. That's first-degree murder, and he knew it. So, he didn't dare to stay and take the tape off. He probably thought the police wouldn't pay attention to such small things. Even if they were noticed , much better than being caught on the spot. Much safer." "You mean if we can't catch him on the spot, we can't convict him?" "How to determine the law?" Shanlou said: "Unless we have enough witnesses and physical evidence to prove that this is a deliberate and malicious killing that has been carefully thought out for a long time, we will never convict him and even visit him. Even if you ask him, there is nothing you can do. You know, he did not murder this woman. When the woman died, he may have been several miles away from the scene. This guy has a brain, and he must understand the law. Controlled, just thinking about one thing, ignoring the details that I usually don't pay attention to. That's why I died by accident. We need to find evidence to convince the jury that this is murder, or the high court should do it The decision to murder may be difficult." Shanlou looked at Baisha worriedly. Baisha asked; "Have you already had one or two pieces of evidence that can point to who this murderer is?" "Yes. Bei Fude, Mr. Bei." Police officer Mi said slowly: "The murderer is a smart man who invented a new method of killing. He is a genius murderer. Bei Fude himself ruined his career. He is sitting in the office He has nothing to do, but he can design slowly and carefully. He used his flexible business mind to create such a clever plan. He can eliminate his wife, and he is not punished by the law. He writes an anonymous letter to his wife, denouncing himself All sorts of extra-marital affairs, otherwise no one else would know. He pays a private eye to follow his wife. So he can be sure that his wife drove into the garage. Don't you understand, Betha? If you weren't following her , we may not know the full story. With your tracking, we can figure out the time. When the woman is waiting to die in the garage, Bei Fude is enjoying his face massage and manicure at the barber shop. Isn't the scene beautiful ?” "In the barbershop?" Baisha asked without reason. "In the barber's, we've checked that out. In the barber's, he's smart enough to leave his coat and walk out. So the barber won't forget about it, and the time. Baby, you too Don't pretend you don't know anything. The barber also remembers that you asked about the coat." Baisha couldn't say a word. "There was another woman who also went to the barber shop 20 minutes after you went to the barber shop. She said that Mr. Bei forgot that coat in the shop and asked her to get it back for him." Various expressions appeared on Baisha's face. "It looks like you were surprised, right?" Shanlou said, "It shouldn't be. By this time, you should know that he has a female accomplice." "How did you see it?" "It's not important to have someone who can type expertly on his wife's typewriter. What's important is to have a woman's voice call her and lure her into the garage. Baisha, this is all His weakness in the case. He must have a female accomplice. If I can find this woman—don't worry, I will find her and make her talk—then I may be able to convict Northford. The case is not The difficulty is that no one is the murderer. The difficulty is whether I can find enough evidence to prove that it was a deliberate murder and send the murderer to the gas chamber of the Holy See Prison." Bai Sha reluctantly said, "I see." "Tell you, Baisha." Shanlou said: "If you hide any evidence and don't tell me, if you continue to reveal things in the case, if you stop me from handling the case, I will show you right away. You can't eat it." Don't say I didn't tell you. You can go now."