Chapter 14 second quarter

In the afternoon of the next day, Mizuho went outdoors for a long time to soak up the fresh air.She hasn't been out since the funeral.Now that the events were sort of over, she finally had some freedom.The police didn't seem to be following them. Matsuzaki's story was published in yesterday's evening paper.The content of the newspaper, based on a summary of Aoe's words yesterday, focused on the statement that "the prisoner denies that he killed Rieko Mita." Mizuho imagined what people would think after reading the news.It is not uncommon for prisoners to admit to one charge and deny the other.People usually see this behavior as the death throes of the prisoner.

But in Mizuho's heart, there are still many unanswered questions.Who left the strange message on Matsuzaki's bed?If Matsuzaki really didn't kill Rieko, who was the murderer?Is this the murderer who called Rieko?If this is the murderer, why is Rieko willing to make this trip in the middle of the night? Mizuho's doubts were far more than that.Suzue's testimony about the button also made her very interested, "The button fell by the master's side."——? ——Why did Aunt Suzueda have to lie in that situation? The more I think about it, the more I feel a headache.

Mizuho shook his head lightly, he came out for a walk to change his mood, so let's forget about the incident for now. The cool air made her skin extremely comfortable. Puddles of water all over the asphalt road.It was still snowing heavily yesterday, but today it is back to mild winter.The snow that remained on the roadside was polluted with mud. The ramp gradually extended downwards, and mansions surrounded by walls were distributed on both sides of this sparsely populated road.There was snowmelt running in the gutter between the road and the fence. Downhill for about ten minutes, a railway track crosses, turn left here to reach the nearby Station Street, but Sui Sui did not turn, but went straight across the railway track, continued to go downhill, at the first branch road Turn right at the exit and come to a white building.This is an art museum sponsored by Kotaro Takemiya.

Since today is not a weekend, there are not many tourists who come to visit.There were two minivans and a pickup truck parked in the parking lot, which looked nothing like the customers' cars. There is a billboard next to the entrance, which says "Exhibition of Modern Glass Crafts".Mizuho bought an admission ticket from the bored conductor and entered the hall. The hall seemed quiet and deserted, but there were still a few guests.There were no cars parked in the parking lot, so it could be seen that these guests were all from the local area. When she heard about glass crafts, what Mizuho expected in her mind was exquisite decorations made of thin glass or ultra-thin glass, but she was somewhat disappointed by the real thing.What is exhibited in the museum is only compositions composed of abstractly arranged glass blocks of simple shapes such as triangles or squares.Even Mizuho, ​​who is interested in works of art, unknowingly started to look at the flowers.

"Do you like glasswork?" There was a voice coming from somewhere, Mizuho didn't realize for a moment that it was asking herself, she didn't raise her head until she felt someone approaching. "oops." "What a coincidence." Standing in front of her is the puppeteer Wu Jing.He was still the same, wearing a black suit and a white bow tie instead of a tie. "Sorry, I didn't notice you were around." "No, no, it's my fault for not saying hello to you first. I'm putting on too much air." "Nothing. You asked me just now if I like glasswork?"

"Yes, do you like it?" "No, I'm not here because I like this." Mizuho looked away from the puppeteer and looked at the glass blocks on the display stand. "Whether it's glass crafts or Japanese paintings... as long as it can change my mood, it doesn't matter what the object is." "I see. It seems that the situation you are in is very melancholy. I read the newspaper last night." Having said that, he lowered his voice, "The incident seems to be getting more and more suspenseful. The prisoner denies that he killed the young woman?"

"Well, almost..." Mizuho remembered that the man in front of her once asked a question that concerned her a lot.She remembered that the question was indeed, besides Zong Yan, was there anyone else in the house who was close to Rieko Mita.Why did Wu Jing ask such a question? "Don't just stand there, let's rest there for a while. I also want to ask you something." "To me?—I see. This way, please." The puppeteer looked around and reached out to signal the lounge next to the exhibition hall. There were six round tables in the lounge, but there was no one there.Under Wu Jing's recommendation, Mizuho sat at the second table by the window.He said that this seat has the best view, and if there are people smoking around, the smoke will not drift here.To be so familiar with it, it seems that he is a frequent visitor to this art museum.What a strange man, Mizuho sighed inwardly.

After entering the table, Mizuho went straight to the table and immediately questioned Wu Jing's problems that day. "At that time you made it clear that you didn't mean anything in particular by asking. Is that really the case?" Wu Jing put her hands on the table, leaned back against the chair, and focused her eyes on Shui Sui, as if observing her inner thoughts. "Why are you still asking this question?" "Because," Mizuho stared at his fingertips, "I am very concerned about this." "How to say?" "I have thought a lot about this incident from my personal perspective. I began to suspect that it was not my uncle who called Miss Mita out. But the person who can call her out in the middle of the night must be a very close person. Right? Thinking of this, I have to pay attention to your question that day. Why did you ask who else was close to Ms. Mita besides uncle—"

"I see." The puppeteer straightened his back, put his elbows on the table, and folded his hands, "The reason why I ask that kind of question is very simple. At the beginning, I thought about it like this, when Zongyan was killed, would Miss Mita Already at the scene? After considering it with common sense, I made a judgment, if she was at the scene at that time, she would definitely run away screaming?" "It can also be known from the results of the autopsy that there seems to be a time gap between the deaths of the two." Wu Jing nodded in agreement. "In this case, the situation has changed. The murderer did not deal with Zongyan's body, but lurked in the room waiting for Miss Mita's arrival—"

"exactly." "But as a murderer, he shouldn't just wait leisurely at this time. Because, the corpse can be seen directly from the entrance of the room. If Ms. Mita saw the corpse as soon as she entered the room, I'm afraid she would immediately let out a scream. " "You mean to say that the murderer temporarily moved the body elsewhere?" "It shouldn't be possible. Did the jigsaw puzzles that fell off the shelf be scattered on the corpse? If the corpse had been moved, there would be no jigsaw pieces left on the body." "Well... that's right."

"That is to say, the murderer must kill Ms. Mita before she discovers the body and causes a commotion. How to do this?" Mizuho raised his right hand and stroked his hair, tilting his head slightly.This is her habit when thinking about problems. "Kill Miss Mita before she enters the room?" "Correct!" Wu Jing smiled, "I suspect that Miss Mita was killed before entering the music room. In other words, the murderer was lurking in the corridor leading to the music room from the back door, waiting for her arrival." "It was also moving in the corridor?" "That's right. Kill her with a knife while she was negligent." "Then move the body into the music room..." "I'm afraid that's the case..." What a bold reasoning. In other words, Shui Sui remembered that when he led Wu Jing to the basement that day, he frequently observed the situation in the corridor.It seems that this man already had this idea at that time. "At this point in the analysis, the portrait of the prisoner is self-explanatory. In other words, the murderer is a person whom Mita-san met with in the middle of the night and would not be on guard. This must be someone very close, right?" "Is it possible that the murderer is hiding somewhere in the corridor, and suddenly attacked when Miss Santian passed by?" Mizuho tried to make a counterargument.That day, the corridor had both doors and shelves, so it was not impossible to hide. But Wujing shook his head and said slowly. "In this case, the killer usually attacks from behind, right? But Ms. Mita was stabbed from the front." "Oh, that's true..." Mizuho shook his head lightly, expressing his inner admiration. "That's why you asked that kind of question. You are really not simple." "It's just pure reasoning." Wu Jing shrugged, it seemed that he didn't think it was such a big deal. "Besides, my reasoning may not be correct. I also fell into the misunderstanding that the murderer of the two people is the same person at the beginning. Maybe the truth is pure and unexpected, but Miss Mita couldn't bear the stimulation of Zongyan's death and committed suicide? " "I don't think there is such a possibility..." Mizuho ambiguously said at the end of the sentence, "Have you encountered such precedents many times?" she asked. "How is it possible," Wu Jing said with a smile, his white teeth gleaming, "I'm not a detective. It's just that in the process of tracking down that puppet, I often encounter some strange cases. That puppet really has Unbelievable power. Speaking of which, judging by the current situation, I'm afraid you can't give up that doll to me, right?" "Who knows..." Mizuho stroked his hair, tilted his head and fell into thinking.As long as the truth about Rieko Mita's death is not revealed, it cannot be called a resolution of the incident. "It might be rude to say that..." The puppeteer said in a cautious tone. "If the murderer who killed Ms. Mita is someone else, it is very likely that the murderer is also an insider of the mansion?" "...I don't know very well either. All I can do now is pray that this is not the case." Mizuho bit his lip in pain. "Of course, I also hope that's not the case. The job of pretending to be an external criminal was really done by the maid, right? I only met her once when I visited the house before, but her seriousness impressed me. Make a deep impression." "Aunt Suzueda is a very serious person, and she has been very loyal to this family from the beginning." "It can be seen. If it weren't for this, it would be impossible to calmly face up to the murder in front of us and carry out a disguised job to remove the suspicion from the family." Then, Wu Jing added that Suzue didn't carelessly disguised as a robber to invade.If it is like pretending that something has been stolen, it must be hidden.In order to establish evidence of internal crimes, the police will definitely do their best to search for this thing first.If the police used the crowd tactics, it would be no problem to find something. "It's meaningless to say these things now." Wu Jing seemed a little sorry for his meaningless explanation, and frowned. Listening to his words, Mizuho began to think about the button again.Why did Aunt Suzueda lie? "What's wrong with you?" Seeing her pensive face, Wu Jing asked aloud. Mizuho wants to talk to this puppeteer.Wujing should look at this issue from a different perspective.Moreover, her intuition told herself - this puppeteer can be trusted. "Hey, I have something very important that I haven't told the police, can I discuss it with you first?" Facing Mizuho's sincere eyes, Wu Jing showed surprise. "Happy to oblige, if I can. Please speak." "Before you say it, can you make an agreement with me? You must never tell others what I said. I confessed to you because I trust you." "On this point, you can rest assured. I always go on a lonely journey alone. Even if I want to talk, I can't find a partner. The most I can do is talk to the puppet." After speaking, he spread out his right palm and moved his fingers flexibly.It seems to be doing the action of manipulating a puppet. Mizuho's expression softened slightly, and then slowly began to talk about the button of Zong Yan's pajamas.The puppeteer looked into her eyes and listened intently as she spoke. "—that's what it is." Mizuho tried her best to make her description concise and easy to understand, but she was not confident that she could convey it to the other party perfectly.After confiding, she felt that a stone had landed in her heart, and she was somewhat relieved. After Wu Jing finished listening, he silently folded his arms and looked at the ceiling.After a while, he straightened up, "It's really intriguing." "Let me sort out what you said. On the night of the crime, you saw the button on the shelf in the corridor on the second floor. The lady maid confessed that the button fell beside the body, and she picked it up and threw it by the back door outside." "That's it." "The buttons you saw in the corridor on the second floor are from Zong Yan's pajamas, right?" "Yes, I don't think there's anything wrong with that." "Hmm." Wu Jing tapped his brow lightly with his index finger. "It's really intriguing. If you saw the same button that the maid picked up next to the corpse, how would you explain it to make sense? Did someone move the button? Or did the maid pick it up next to the corpse? Miss Maid is lying?" "I know that Auntie Suzue lied." "Let's revisit one side in order." Wu Jing pressed his finger between his eyebrows and said. "First of all, why did the buttons on Zong Yan's pajamas appear on the shelf in the corridor?" "I think Matsuzaki-san dropped it there. When he was wrestling with his uncle, the button was ripped off from his uncle's pajamas and fell into Matsuzaki's clothes. On the way back to the room, Matsuzaki-san accidentally found the button again. It fell on the shelf." "How tall is the shelf you're talking about?" "It should be this high." Mizuho stretched out her palm ten centimeters lower than the table.After Wu Jing confirmed the location, he nodded. "What is the shelf made of? Wooden?" "It's made of wood." Why ask this kind of question?Mizuho was puzzled. "Is there anything on the shelf? Cloth or something?" The decoration of "The Boy and the Horse" came to Mizuho's mind. "There is a doll on it, but there is cloth under the doll's feet." "Is there nothing laid where the buttons are?" "Yes." Wujing's index finger moved away from between his brows, and he cast a serious look at Shuisuke. "According to the height of the shelf, I think the possibility of things falling on it is not high. Assuming Matsuzaki really let the buttons fall on the shelf, the shelf is wooden and not covered with cloth, it should make a sound, right? If Matsuzaki had noticed the button, he wouldn't have ignored it, right?" "When you say that, it really is..." "Ms. Matsuzaki probably dropped the button elsewhere. For example, on the carpet. Someone picked it up and put it on the shelf." "That makes sense. If that's the case, the person who picked up the button should have seen through Auntie Suzue's lie, but why didn't he point it out?" "Leave that aside, let's continue to discuss the whereabouts of the button. The button was later found outside the back door. How do you think the button got to that place?" "Didn't I tell you... Auntie Suzue left it there, didn't she?" "That's the problem." Wu Jing lowered his head, squinting at Shui Sui. "After she saw the buttons on the shelf on the second floor, why did she immediately assume that they were from Zong Yan's clothes? What would happen if it were you? As long as you see the buttons, can you tell whose clothes it is from?" Mizuho shook his head. "Even if it's on your own clothes, you won't be able to recognize it so easily." "That's right. That's what makes me intrigued. If the button fell next to the corpse, it's not surprising that it came from the corpse. However, the place where the button fell is completely far away from the scene of the crime. Why would she put What about the button and the corpse?" Mizuho couldn't help pressing her temple with her right hand, and she felt a slight headache. "I'll go and ask Auntie Suzue how about it later?" Mizuho asked, this is the fastest way to solve this question. "Let me say something unpleasant, I don't think she can tell the truth. She chooses to lie because she can't tell the truth." "Indeed..." "Is Ms. Matsuzaki the murderer who killed Ms. Mita? Or is there another murderer? Or is she committing suicide? We are still unable to draw conclusions. However, if there are other murderers, this button will become a very important An important key, because the murderer has not noticed that you already know about the button. In the future, the murderer will definitely hide the lock that this key can open." Shui Sui felt uneasy, such an important key was only in her hands. "Can I come and talk to you again?" "Available at any time. I basically spend my time in this seat at this time of day every day." Sure enough, he came to visit this art gallery every day. The two stood up and walked towards the exit according to the prescribed route.When walking out of the art gallery, the strong sunlight made Mizuho frown. "I don't doubt what you guys mean, but it's better for you to be careful about your words and deeds. If anything happens, no matter how insignificant, please contact me in time. I hope I'm superstitious, my intuition tells me Myself, this incident is much more complicated than we imagined." "I will do my best." Mizuho stretched out her right hand, the puppeteer didn't understand what she meant for a moment, but after realizing it, she held her outstretched hand. "Come on." Afterwards, Mizuho and Wujing parted ways in front of the museum.