Chapter 79 Section 1

"The time of death was twelve noon, where were you at that time?" Ahu asked Hong Bentao. "I discussed things with Lao Hua at the shop at Xinzhuang Station," Hong Bentao added, "business matters." "Apart from Zoe, was there anyone else in the family?" Hong Bentao almost didn't think about it, and replied affirmatively: "At this time, she should be working in the clinic. I don't know why she has to go home. I don't even know if there are any outsiders in the family." "So, besides the two of you, is there a third person who has the keys to your house?"

Ah Hu took his time and pushed forward layer by layer. "Yes... yes." Hong Bentao nodded. "Who?" "Aunt Song, she is a part-time worker in our family. She works six days a week and rests on Sunday. She works from one o'clock in the afternoon to six o'clock in the afternoon. She has to clean the room, buy vegetables, cook, and do laundry. There is no one at home, and the clinic closes at seven o'clock, so the time I go home is not certain, sometimes it is seven or eight o'clock in the evening, sometimes later, depending on the business of the store."

Domestic servants, this is the official term for nannies, servants, part-time workers, etc. Luwan City Garden, Luban Apartment, and Zijing Xinyuan jointly own a neighborhood committee, which is located in Zijing Xinyuan closest to the Huangpu River. It has a service project , to introduce housekeeping staff to the residents of the community. Among them, Aunt Song is the most popular one. She is from Hunan and cooks good dishes, especially the dish of spicy chicken is better than the restaurant. Therefore, she serves The clients are located in three communities, and they usually do this one in the morning and another in the afternoon, and occasionally use the gap at noon to build another one. The salary is six yuan per hour and one thousand five to six hundred per month. The income is lower than that of laid-off workers. Much taller.

Through the neighborhood committee, Ahu and Nuonuo met this Aunt Song. She was in her forties and was quite strong. Her hands were bulging with veins. At first glance, they were the hands of working people. She was exposed to too much detergent, and her men also Working in Shanghai, the couple have a son who is studying at university in Nanjing, and a daughter who is studying at middle school in Shanghai. The three of them were sitting in the garden of Bauhinia Xinyuan. There is a branch of Sinan Road Kindergarten in the community. The teacher is leading the children to play games in the garden, and the voices of children are noisy.

Auntie Song said that she went to work at Zoe's house at one o'clock in the afternoon. She cleaned the room first, vacuumed the floor, plastered the furniture, wiped the bathtub and the toilet, and took out the washed clothes left in the washing machine one by one and hung them on the balcony. At home, mop the balcony again. These chores take at least an hour and a half, and then go to the Nongshang Supermarket to buy vegetables, come back to wash, cook, and cook. Put the cooked vegetables and soup on the table, and the rice in the rice cooker Only then will she leave, and this is all her work.

That day, she came to work on time and opened the door with the key. There was no one at home and it was very quiet. As usual, she started doing housework. About half an hour later, the doorbell rang. She opened the door and saw two policemen. One of them she knew was Xiao Zhang, a policeman from the Wuliqiao Police Station. The aunt was stunned for a moment, and the vacuum cleaner in her hand fell to the ground. "Aunt Song, please recall carefully, when you came to work, was there anything unusual at home, for example, the house was very messy, something was knocked over, there was blood on the floor, and the drawers were turned over in a mess." Ah Hu asked her.

Aunt Song shook her head and said: "The police also asked this question, and they asked more detailed questions than you. They stayed in the room for a long time, looking around, and I didn't feel like doing housework anymore, so I followed the police Going around, I thought to myself, no matter what, the host hasn’t come home yet, I have to take good care of this house, don’t lose any property, now I have to guard against everyone, the police are no exception.” "Did you notice a suicide note, or a letter, on the table?" "No. The hostess is a doctor and loves to be clean. She never puts letters on the table, and occasionally leaves a note to remind me, for example, asking me to buy a sea bass, make fried pork chops, or cook porridge instead of cooking rice. Throw it away, but it must not have been there that day, and even the police couldn't find it."

I have asked all the questions that should be asked, and Ah Hu can't think of anything else to ask. The time of Zoe's death is twelve o'clock in the noon. Aunt Song comes to work at one o'clock in the afternoon. The murderer can clean up the scene calmly at an interval of one hour. leave. "Aunt Song." Nuonuo started to ask. "Recall, is there anything unusual on the balcony? She jumped out of the balcony." Aunt Song shook her head almost without thinking. It seemed that the police had asked the same question. "There is nothing wrong with it. The floor tiles on the balcony are dark brown. The windows are closed, because there is a cement bulk terminal of the Tunnel Engineering Company by the Huangpu River. The cement used in the nearby construction sites comes from here. Big trucks came to load, and the dust flew up and covered the sky, and even the upper floors on the 31st floor could still sweep out a thin layer of cement dust, so many people in the community installed frameless windows on their balconies to block the dust."

"Where's the balcony door?" "You mean the sliding door leading to the balcony from the living room?" "Yes, is that door closed or open?" "Let me think about it..." Aunt Song blinked her eyes and thought for a long time, then said with certainty, "It's closed, but the latch is not closed tightly, and it will open when you pull it." "Aunt Song, please tell me the process of going to the balcony, and don't miss every movement." Nuonuo was very serious. "I opened the sliding door and went to the balcony. First, I opened the window to freshen the air in the living room. I took a mop to mop the floor, and then dried the clothes. It's that simple, it's gone."

Aunt Song gestured with her hands and finished speaking in a few words. "Are you sure the windows are closed?" Ahu asked, his tone a little urgent. Aunt Song felt strange, what happened to these two young people?She asked more carefully than the police. Fortunately, she hadn't reached the age of forgetfulness, otherwise she really didn't know what to do with them. "It's closed." Aunt Song said with certainty. Ahu and Nuonuo exchanged glances, a glint of excitement flashed in their eyes, as if they were walking in the dark, and saw a glimmer of light. They thought it was another firefly, but unexpectedly, the light became bigger and brighter. , Only then did they realize that it was the hole they were looking for.

When Zoe jumped out of the balcony, the frameless window had to be open. Could she, like a butterfly, "fly" back after "flying" out, close the frameless window, and then fall at the speed of free fall, Smashing through the fiberglass dovecote in the yard on the ground floor? After the murderer pushed Zoe off the balcony (or threw it down), he looked down and watched Zoe fall on the ground floor. Fearing that there might be witnesses looking upstairs, he hurriedly retracted, closed the window, and left the scene in a hurry.After that, Aunt Song came to work and cleaned the balcony. When the police inspected the scene and saw the window was open, they took it for granted that the deceased had opened it to jump out, but never thought that Aunt Song opened it later to ventilate the living room. The police were careless. Perhaps in their eyes, this was just an ordinary suicide by falling from a building. In a super metropolis with a population of 17 million, similar tragedies would happen almost every now and then, so they ignored this detail. Who will be the murderer? Hong Bentao said that he was discussing things with Old Smokey at the milk tea shop at Xinzhuang Station at noon, as long as he checked with Old Smokey, he would immediately know whether he was lying or not.But no matter from which point of view, Hong Bentao will not be the murderer. Zoe's death does not benefit him at all. Hong Bentao loves Zoe. The eyes shifted to the inside of the clinic, and Xiao Yu helped them read the attendance records. On the day Zoe died, Dr. Zhou had a rest; Evening shift, you can come to work two hours later the next day, that is, eleven o'clock in the morning, but she didn't come. At twelve thirty at noon, she called Zhang Tiejing at the front desk, saying that she had something to do at home and she would be late. As a result, she came to work at two o'clock in the afternoon, and she made up for it three hours later. "Do you still remember the first time we went to 'Tesco' to find An Ruohong? In McDonald's, she said this to us—— "'... I found that Zoe's expression was a little bit wrong. I must have something on my mind. I was a little worried, so I asked her. She said that it was because of the hot weather. She had been sitting in an air-conditioned environment and felt uncomfortable. That morning, she She left work early and handed over the patients who made an appointment in the afternoon to Dr. Teng, which was unprecedented for her. She didn't come to work in the afternoon, and the news came the next day that she committed suicide by falling from a building...' "An Ruohong came to the clinic at two o'clock in the afternoon, how could she know Zoe's whereabouts?" Ah Hu asked Nuonuo like this, but in fact he already had the answer. An Ruohong must have inquired about Zoe's whereabouts from others later on. Maybe Xiaohui told her, maybe Mao Lifang told her. They were in grief at the time, so they told her casually. An Ruohong concealed that she was not in the clinic, and lied to Ahu and Nuonuo. It seems that she really has a ghost in her heart.