Chapter 12 Section five

Yamagishi turned his head slowly to confirm everyone's reaction, covered his mouth with his right hand and coughed lightly, and put his hands behind his back again. "So……" He started, "Before getting into the topic, let me sort out the situation so far. This will make it easier for you to understand." After speaking, he walked towards the stairs leading to the ground and pointed down. "In the case of the murder of Zong Yan, the owner of this mansion, and his secretary, we basically started the investigation on the premise that an external intruder committed the crime. These two points outside the mansion. However, after our comprehensive investigation in many ways, we could not find the slightest trace of external intrusion. The prisoner who threw away his gloves rashly did not leave any other traces—this is really incomprehensible.”

"Perhaps the murderer thought that a glove would not pose much threat to him? In fact, the glove is not very useful in tracking the murderer, is it?" Katsuyuki's tone was provocative, but Yamagishi didn't change his face. "But the psychology of being a murderer is a bit puzzling. Since you want to throw it away, wouldn't it be safer to throw it farther away?" "..." Katsuyuki was speechless, and Yamagishi nodded in satisfaction. "Afterwards, we did not arbitrarily determine that the murderer came from inside the mansion. We just confirmed everyone's actions to a certain extent."

Are you sure - that's pretty civilized.Shui Sui sneered inwardly. "And it was just a coincidence that we caught the breakthrough of the search." Yamagishi puffed up his chest and took out a ballpoint pen from his coat pocket. "I forgot this ballpoint pen at the scene of the crime yesterday, so I visited the house this morning to get it back. At that time, everyone was in the middle of the funeral, and only Ms. Suzueda stayed in the mansion. At this time, we found traces that someone had invaded the scene. .” The faces of the people present were stiff, and Yamagishi then explained to them that the lid of the "Portrait of Napoleon" box was broken and there was an extra puzzle piece in the box.

Then, Yamagishi gave the two young policemen beside him a wink.Two young policemen leave the room and move back to a large jigsaw puzzle.Napoleon on horseback appears vividly on the painting.Some people present let out exclamations. "It's really an exquisite puzzle. Two thousand pieces of puzzles are really not a small project. We have mobilized several young people, and it took much longer than expected." Yamagishi gave another wink like two policemen.The two moved the puzzle to the corner of the room. "Everyone knows the result, right? After the puzzle is completed, there is one more piece. It is this piece."

Yamagishi took out the plastic bag from earlier, "Please take a look." He handed the plastic bag to Suzuki next to him, and then passed it among the people in turn.A blue puzzle piece is contained in a plastic bag. "This fragment is stained with Zong Yan's blood, and at the same time, it is also stained with Mr. Yongdao's fingerprints. Through the above points, we can analyze that Mr. Yongdao has sneaked into the basement and secretly put this fragment into the box." On this point, we have also received confirmation from him.” Everyone's eyes focused on Yong Dao, who hung his head and remained motionless.

"The point is..." The policeman raised his voice, "What is the purpose of Mr. Yongdao's actions? Leaving aside this point, why does Mr. Yongdao hold this fragment? Regarding this issue, Mr. Yongdao was vague for a time, not I would like to give a clear answer, but under the persistent persuasion of our police, he finally cooperated and confessed. Mr. Yongdao, he-" At this point, the policeman deliberately opened his mouth wide to stop the narration, and continued after observing everyone's reaction. "He confessed that he picked up this piece of debris in the mansion not long after he found Zong Yan's body. Do you understand? It is in the mansion. And, it is near this staircase."

Yamagishi stood in front of the stairs leading underground. "Our question is, why did the fragments stained with Zongyan's blood fall into the mansion? If the prisoner invaded from the outside and only relied on the back door to enter and exit, this kind of thing would be impossible. Through multiple arguments, it is concluded that There is only one conclusion. Mr. Yongdao also reached the same conclusion as us at that time, so he took the risk and put the fragments back into the box at the scene. This conclusion is that the murderer lived in this mansion on the night of the crime. People—one of you."

Yamagishi's volume was raised another level, echoing throughout the living room.At this moment, Mizuho had the urge to observe everyone's expressions, and she knew that some of them would be shocked by Yamagishi's remarks. "It's useless to struggle now. How? Could you please come forward and confess?" The policeman still kept his hands behind his back and looked away from the suspects.Seeing his attitude, Mizuho is convinced that the police already have a good idea of ​​the identity of the real murderer. "No one seems to want to admit it, so let's move on. The next question is the puzzle piece."

Yamagishi held up the plastic bag containing the fragments to his eyes, "As I said earlier, this fragment is not part of the 'Portrait of Napoleon' scattered at the scene. So, which piece of the puzzle does this fragment belong to? This question first Don't worry, let's first discuss why there is blood on this puzzle piece." The policeman's words made Mizuho hold his breath.If this piece does not belong to the jigsaw puzzle at the scene, why is Zong Yan's blood stained on it?This is indeed something to be concerned about. "On this issue, we focused our search on the place where Mr. Yongdao picked up the fragment. That is, whether there are other objects with Zong Yan's blood near the stairs. The results of the blood molecule test ..."

He picked up the trash can at his feet and pointed into it, "We detected a blood reaction in this trash can." All eyes focused on the rattan trash can, but no one spoke.The failure to understand the meaning of the blood test in the trash can is also one of the reasons for everyone's silence. Yamagishi continued to argue. "This trash can was once stained with blood, which means that someone has thrown blood-stained items in it, right? And what could this blood-stained item be? Moreover, there are traces of blood being wiped on the trash can, Who wiped off the blood?"

"Is there even a need to ask!?" Katsuyuki opened his mouth, looked at everyone and continued. "Of course the murderer wiped it off, didn't he?" "No, this was not done by the murderer. If he knew that he was going to wipe the blood, he couldn't have thrown the debris in the trash can in the first place, right? The person who will wipe the blood is someone who intends to hide the possibility of internal crime. This person As soon as you see a bloody item, dispose of it immediately. Of course, before that, this character has discovered the tragedy in the basement." Speaking of this, Yamagishi was pacing in front of everyone, and suddenly stopped in front of someone, bent down and stared at the person's face. "Miss Suzue." Yamagishi's voice softened slightly, Suzue leaned over and lowered his head. "Is it you who wiped the blood from the trash can? No one else can do this except you who woke up first." Suzue didn't answer, and kept her head down, rubbing the apron on her knees. "Is it true what the policeman said? Suzue, answer honestly." Shizuka said behind Suzue.Suzue still hung her head, turned her head to look at Shizuka, closed her eyes slowly, then turned her head and faced Shan'an directly. "As you said." Her voice was so heavy that everyone couldn't help but hold their breath. "Well, what are the items in the trash can?" "It's a pair of gloves." There was an exclamation from the scene, that pair of gloves had actually been dropped in the mansion. "Then please tell the truth. What happened after you got up on the day of the crime." After speaking, Yamagishi took a chair from the dining room and sat down heavily. Suzue was a little hesitant at first, but after a while, she rubbed her apron and began to speak intermittently in a low voice—— On the day of the incident, Ling Zhi got up early in the morning and was just about to clean up. The blood-stained gloves in the trash can by the stairs made her terrified.With an ominous premonition, she came to the basement floor in fear, opened the door of the basement, and saw a more terrifying scene in front of her eyes, the corpses of Zong Yan and Rieko.She almost couldn't help screaming, but her natural calm reminded her of the pair of gloves in the trash can.If the back door is also locked, the answer is obvious, the murderer of the two is the man in the mansion. So she cleaned out the trash can, threw the gloves out the back door, and unlocked the back door.The purpose of her move was, of course, to cover up the murderer. "It may be a bit too much to say that. I have always hated the master and the secretary in my heart. For me, compared with the two dead people, you are more precious than those two dead people." Suzue's confession ends here. After hearing her confession, Yamagishi pondered for a moment, pressed his temple with his right hand, and began to question her. "How did you clean up the blood in the trash can." "It was wiped with paper towels. The paper towels were all flushed down the toilet." "Is there anything else in the trash can?" "I didn't notice anything else." "You said, you opened the lock of the back door?" Suzue nodded. "Then you also got rid of the fingerprints on the back door?" She nods again.Yamagishi looked down at Suzue's expression and fell into deep thought.It seems to want to make sure that she is not lying. "Cleaning the litter box, throwing gloves, opening the back door—did you do anything else to disguise yourself?" "Uh huh, and, the hair..." "hair?" "yes……" Suzue rubbed her hands together, and slowly began to tell, "There is a piece of hair between the master's fingers, and I flushed that hair and tissue into the toilet together." "Look at what you're doing..." Yamagishi sighed deeply and shook his head helplessly, "If you hadn't lost this hair, you could have solved the case in the blink of an eye, so why bother." "That's what I said, but..." Suzue paused and continued. "I did it because I didn't want you to solve the case." "I can only admit that I'm unlucky—and then, you haven't done anything else, have you?" "Other than that? There shouldn't be any..." Speaking of this, Ling Zhi suddenly realized, "Ah, yes, there is still that button." She added. "Button? Oh, is that the button?" "Yes, uh, the button fell by the master's side. In order to disguise it as being dropped by the murderer, I wiped the fingerprints on it with a cloth and threw it outside the back door." —Fall beside my uncle! ? Mizuho was surprised.On the night of the incident, she saw the button in the corridor on the second floor, and it was impossible for her to appear next to Zong Yan's body. ——Aunt Suzueda is lying. Mizuho felt sweat gradually seep from his palms. "So that's the case. I understand, and everything makes sense in this way." Yamagishi stood up aggressively from his chair and hovered in front of the crowd again.After going around in a circle, pick up the trash can just now. "We can learn from Miss Suzuki's confession just now that a pair of blood-stained gloves were thrown away in this trash can. And the person who threw the gloves here must be the murderer. According to our reasoning, the murderer also threw away the gloves at that time." An item. This item is the puzzle piece picked up by Mr. Yongdao." He held up the fragment again in front of the crowd. "The murderer after killing someone, when he threw the glove here, he noticed that he still had a jigsaw piece on his body. Maybe it fell on his clothes when he committed the crime. The murderer mistakenly thought it was a jigsaw puzzle at the scene," Napoleon's I threw it into the trash can together with the glove. The blood on the jigsaw puzzle was probably stained at that time. However, I don’t know if the murderer didn’t throw it correctly, or Ms. Suzueda took the glove When it fell out, the jigsaw puzzle fell next to the trash can. Then, after everyone found the body, it was picked up by Mr. Yongdao." After explaining his reasoning in one breath, Yamagishi turned his head to observe everyone's reaction. Katsuyuki spoke at this time. "But that puzzle piece isn't part of Napoleon's story, is it?" Yamagishi seemed to be waiting for this question, and he nodded emphatically. "That's right. That is, the murderer accidentally brought a piece of another puzzle with him from somewhere, and mistook it for a piece of Napoleon." "The other jigsaw puzzle you mentioned is only the collection in the uncle's room and the 'Mother Goose' in the reception room." Qing Jiang said immediately. "Exactly. But after our investigation, none of the above puzzles has a broken part." "What's going on?" Shizuka asked. "It's as simple as that," replied the policeman. "The murderer has already dealt with the incomplete piece of the puzzle and replaced it with a complete one. And who is capable of carrying out this kind of action? As long as this problem is solved, the identity of the murderer will be self-evident." Yamagishi made loud footsteps, walked up to a certain person, and raised his thick finger to point at this person. "The murderer is you! Mr. Matsuzaki." Matsuzaki hung his head, without any reaction, as if he hadn't noticed that he had been pointed out. After a while, he slowly raised his head, "Why me?" He muttered in a low voice. "You ask me why?" Yamagishi rolled his eyes as if he heard an unexpected line. "You can figure it out with a little brainstorming. First of all, there are only three unfinished puzzles in this mansion. One is 'Portrait of Napoleon', and then there are 'Mother Goose' and 'Gleaners of Rice'. We already know This piece does not belong to the 'Statue of Napoleon', so it must belong to which one of the remaining two puzzles. 'Gleaners of Rice' has been kept in Zongyan's room, and no one should have access to it before the incident .” "In other words, the only option left is 'Mother Goose'..." Katsuyuki said with a heavy tone. "Exactly. To prevent mistakes, we compared it with the original painting. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this puzzle piece being part of 'Mother Goose'. To be more specific, it is part of the clothes of the grandma riding the goose. Then, the remaining The next question is, who has moved the jigsaw puzzle. The answer is obvious. On the eve of the incident, Zong Yan played 'Mother Goose' in the reception room, and at that time, there was..." "Me and Mr. Matsuzaki?" Katsuyuki looked at Matsuzaki with a bitter expression. "It seems to be true," said the policeman. "The two of you stayed with Zong Yan until very late. Maybe that's when the pieces of the puzzle fell into the folds of your trousers." "It's just nonsense!" Matsuzaki Qing shouted, "With this reason, do you think I'm the murderer!?" "Of course, the reason is not limited to this." Perhaps to make Matsuzaki mess up, Yamagishi's tone was unhurried, "Then, let's use our brains together. As I said just now, the current 'Mother Goose' puzzle is complete, and there should be a piece missing. Why is this? In fact, the murderer also noticed that he had made a major mistake. He mistook it as part of the "Portrait of Napoleon" and discarded it, but it turned out to belong to "Mother Goose". If the police find out that this Depending on which puzzle piece the piece belongs to, the range of suspects will be greatly narrowed. Therefore, the murderer secretly obtained a pair of the same 'Mother Goose' puzzle piece and replaced it with the incomplete one. The question is, when did the murderer, Noticed that the pieces you discarded belonged to 'Mother Goose'?" "That's when!" Qing Jiang said loudly. "Didn't everyone wait for the police in the reception room on the day of the incident? At that time, Mr. Matsuzaki touched 'Mother Goose'." Mizuho also remembered the scene at that time.When everyone in Shengzhi was discussing the aftermath plan together, Matsuzaki was playing with the jigsaw puzzle in the room. "At that time, Mr. Matsuzaki noticed that the jigsaw puzzle was missing a piece, and then realized that it was a piece that he lost after the murder. You started to think about it. Anyway, no one else knew that the jigsaw puzzle was missing a piece. So You just deliberately pretended to be careless and dropped the puzzle on the ground." "Ah, that's when..." Kazuko couldn't help but let out a sound, as if remembering that Matsuzaki broke "Mother Goose" on the day of the incident. "No! It was just by chance..." "Do you want to say that I broke the painting by accident?" Yamagishi took Matsuzaki's line. "That's right..." Matsuzaki whispered.Yamagishi widened his eyes, then stretched out his thick fingers, pointing at Matsuzaki's chest. "So, can you answer me a question? You should still remember that time? I was there at that time, so I remember it clearly. At that time, when you bent down to pick up the pieces, didn't you say so?" It was a waste of time to finish it.' There should be a piece of the puzzle missing by then, why are you still able to complete it?" Matsuzaki gritted his teeth, a stream of sweat flowed from his bluish-white temples, and his fists clenched on his knees trembled slightly. "The puzzle is naturally impossible to complete, there should be a piece left. But, you said it was completed, why?" "..." "Reverse your thinking, only you who can embed the last piece will notice that there is one piece missing. — Am I right?" "..." "General. You have no escape." Yamagishi's voice filled the room.After a suffocating silence, Matsuzaki put his head in his hands and whispered like a groan. "I was... self-defense."