Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Mathematical Problems

October 21st... After a lot of tossing last night, I fell asleep halfway through the notes.It's no wonder that I was so frightened first, and then I had to deal with the swarms of police officers and reporters one by one. I was really fed up. Probably because I was too excited yesterday. This morning I re-read the notes I wrote yesterday, and the words seemed a little incoherent, and my personal feelings were fully revealed, and it could even be said that I was a little out of control.But it doesn't matter, anyway, this note is not written for people to read, but just to record things casually, so as not to forget, there is no need to pretend to be false.So I have to calm down and write well today.

Looking back now, I regret how I behaved at the time.Why couldn't you be calmer then?Why can't you calm down and observe the expressions of everyone?If I had been able to observe the incident calmly and carefully from the beginning, I would have found some clues.Maybe I'll be able to tell the difference between a fake fright and a real fright.But looking back now, that was impossible.Because at that time, I never even dreamed that this murder case was so complicated. In short, when I recovered from the shock and turned my eyes from the double bass box to the people surrounding the box, everyone had already put on an impeccable posture.That gesture might be called "surprised."All of them acted appropriately and full of acting skills according to the roles they played, and it was almost impossible to distinguish the true and false feelings from them.

Mezzo-soprano Chieko Sagara held the corner of her mouth with her right hand, leaned her upper body slightly back, and stared at the dead body of Sakura Nakahara in the double bass case without blinking her wide eyes.That's exactly what Juliet does when she looks at Romeo's dead body. The tenor Tatsuhiko Ono, who played Pinkerton, performed the action when Pinkerton found Madame Butterfly who had committed suicide.That was taught by Hara Sakura himself, but he didn't expect Hara Sakura to use this method to improve the performance. The movements of the baritone Shiga Pito come from, and he was the perfect choice to play the jester Rigo Reto in his heyday.And his current actions fully present the third act of Rigoletto, when Rigoleto found the body of his daughter Gilda in a sack on the banks of the Mincio River, the kind of shock and grief Actions.

As for the conductor Makino Kenzo, what is it?He rushed from the band area, his hands outstretched, and stood there blankly... Ah, yes, I thought, that movement should be from the movie "The Old Mill".Hey, you fellow who imitates Stokowski's affectation in small places! After all, these people's acting skills are not average, and everyone seems to be holding a "surprised" contest. I think even if there are Sherlock Holmes-like figures among us, it is difficult to immediately spot suspicious characters. In other words, this "Surprise Contest" and "100 Scared Expression Show" lasted for nearly five minutes.It wasn't until the new character, Hara Sakura's husband Hara Satoshiro, appeared that the stalemate was finally broken.

When he was about to walk from the backstage to the stage, I realized that the person who entered was Satoshi Hara.But I pretended not to know, I wanted to see the expression on his face when he saw his wife's body. Mr. Hara Satoshiro came from the backstage with a suspicious look on his face.No wonder, because the scene felt like a group of people rehearsing the first act of "Madame Butterfly"-Pinkerton's Nagasaki apartment.But in the middle of the play, a group of people nonsensically staged a surprise contest and a hundred kinds of scared expression shows. No wonder he felt incredible.

He walked to my side and said, "Tsuchiya, what's the matter? Are you not rehearsing? Why do these people have such expressions? Hara Sakura hasn't come yet?" At this time, Sagara suddenly took out a handkerchief and pressed the corners of his eyes, sobbing excitedly.Her movements broke the pantomime magic imposed on everyone, and the surroundings suddenly moved, and everyone whispered to themselves, but the protagonist didn't notice that something was wrong. "I said Tsuchiya, what is going on here? Why is Ms. Sagara crying? Why are everyone staring at my face, it's very unpleasant. Hara Sakura..."

In the middle of talking, Mr. Soichiro glanced into the double bass case at his feet. At that time, I was deliberately watching his every move intently and attentively, but after all, I still couldn't see why.Is the fright shown by Mr. Satoshiro the truth, or is it a fake...?It seems that I am not suitable to play Sherlock Holmes. Satoshiro stared at the piano case without moving, and held my hand very tightly.In hindsight, I had bruises on both arms. "Tsuchiya, Tsuchiya." Mr. Soichiro's fast and deep voice sounded like the tone of bad news. "Hara Sakura... Hara Sakura... is she dead?"

Even after hearing him ask, I still can't be sure if Hara Sakura is really dead.But no matter how much this woman, Yuan Ying, loves to act, it is logically impossible to hide in this piano box and pretend to be dead.From common sense, she should be dead.So I nodded without saying a word. Mr. Satoshiro pushed me away, knelt down next to the double bass, and suddenly picked up Hara Sakura's body.The withered rose petals that originally covered Hara Sakura's body spilled out of the box one by one and fell.The girls in the chorus who were still watching from a distance just now and peeking at us in fear saw this scene, and immediately screamed in unison and took a step back.

Hara Sakura is forty-seven years old this year.Generally speaking, women will start to put on weight when they reach this age, and the situation of vocalists who love food is even more serious in this regard.Most vocalists give the impression that their voices are pleasing to the ear, but their posture is unflattering.However, the figure that Hara Sakura is proud of is always inconceivably slim and fit, with a graceful figure.Her hands and feet are as slender as a boy's. When she played the role in Last Year, she was affirmed by everyone. It is appropriate to praise her for playing this role.Even though opera is a surreal art, the sight of a fat La Traviata is quite a turnoff.

Oops, gossip less. Hara Sakura, who has become a corpse, is dressed in casual travel clothes, wrapped in a black fur coat.This coat should have been ordered by her and Sagara this spring.Sagara, who was standing next to Hara Sakura's corpse with a look of fear on his face, was also wearing the same fur coat.Hara Sakura was holding a bag in her hand, and she was also wearing shoes on her feet. In other words, she should have been stuffed directly into the piano box on the way to Osaka by train. However, Mr. Satoshiro is really not an idler.When the initial shock subsided, he carefully observed the dead body of his wife in his hands without any fear, and said in a low voice:

"She was strangled to death..." He quietly put his wife's body back into the piano case, then patted the dust on his knees, and turned around as soon as he stood up. "Tsuchiya, have you called the police? If not, call the police immediately! And you..." Mr. Soichiro glanced coldly at the musicians in the band performance area and the chorus members standing on the stage. "You have all seen it. As a last resort, I think this performance has to be cancelled. Before the police arrive here, it is best not to change the scene without authorization." I'm the kind of person who rarely admires people, but seeing Mr. Satoshiro's clean and neat way of handling things at that time, I still couldn't help but want to bow to him.In comparison, I simply can't match it.It seems that the two of us have different natural aptitudes. Although we are very reluctant to admit this, there is no way, it is the truth. The arrival of Mr. Satoshiro immediately changed the original stalemate.To use an analogy, it was as if the heart that had been paralyzed before suddenly started to move again under the injection of Mr. Hara Soichiro's cardiotonic injection. I was in a daze while commanding my assistant Amamiya who was still full of mistakes, while contacting the police.This shows the great responsibility of the broker.With the show starting in just a few hours, an immediate cancellation notice would have to be issued, but what kind of words should be used?I'm still not sure if I should tell the truth about the reason for the cancellation of the show. When it comes to me, a small manager who has to explain everywhere, is it a hard word?After all, what I have to face is either a newspaper office or a radio station. These people cannot be dismissed easily with a set of rhetoric.Thinking of this, I couldn't help but squeeze a cold sweat for myself. Until the police arrived, I kept calling around like this, so I had no idea what kind of posture this group of people had put on during this time. As soon as I walked out of the telephone room, I saw Sagara sitting on a chair, pressing the corners of his eyes with a handkerchief.Ono stood behind her, staring at the ground in despair.Commander Makino Kenzo sat a little far away from the two of them, biting his fingernails constantly.This action is quite a gentleman.As for the baritone Shiga flute man, he put his hands behind his back, bent his five-foot-eight-inch body forward, and walked around the double bass.This guy is still playing Rigo Leto! At this time, Mr. Yuan Satoshiro led a group of police officers and walked in mightily. What happened next is difficult to describe in chronological order.If I were a fan of detective novels, I would have already understood why the police officer appeared on this occasion.Sad!I couldn't even tell the difference between the police department and the criminal police, and I thought they were low-level guys. Unexpectedly, some of these guys I looked down upon were prosecutors. It's really embarrassing.These people seemed a little over-excited—after all, the state of the victim was so weird that the police who regarded murder as a routine became excited.They kept coming in and out like a marquee, and it made me dizzy watching them. Therefore, I decided not to follow the sequence of events, but to record the facts that came to my ears bit by bit according to the results of the investigation by the police officers at that time. The first is the forensic doctor. Anyway, I can still see his identity.After all, he took out the medical bag and took out the stethoscope from the medical bag. Anyone could tell at a glance that he was a forensic doctor.From the results of the forensic examination, two things can be known: 1. Cause of death: strangled—or strangled. 2. Analysis of postmortem time: 16 to 18 hours. The time for the forensic autopsy was around 3:00 pm on the 20th.If we work backwards from this time, it can be roughly estimated that Hara Sakura was killed between 9pm and 12pm on the 19th.Hara Sakura left the hotel in Building D at around 8:30 p.m. on the 19th, and her whereabouts have been unknown since then.This fits perfectly with the time of the crime. At that time, I still admired forensic doctors, but I didn't expect their forensic ability to be so accurate.But after a while, I immediately jumped up from the chair in fright.Now is not the time to admire, because among the relevant people of Hara Sakura Opera Troupe, Chieko Sagara and I were the only ones who were in Osaka at that time.In this way, only the two of us are suspected of committing the crime.And Sagara is a woman, even if she wanted to kill someone, she probably wouldn't use that kind of brutal method.In other words, I am the only one who will be suspected...As soon as I thought about it, I realized that my armpits were dripping with cold sweat.Then I suddenly noticed something else. Wait, were Sagara and I the only ones in Osaka at the time?No, that's not the case.Besides us, there should be another person, that is the baritone Shiga flute.He took the same train as me to go west, and because he had something to do in Kobe, he went directly to Sannomiya.Kobe and Osaka are close at hand, so Shiga who went to Kobe is as suspicious as I who stayed in Osaka.Yes, he too is a dubious figure. After discovering this, I finally calmed down a little.Anyway, there is one more unlucky ghost, which makes me more courageous. That’s right, when the prosecutor asked me about my whereabouts on the night of the 19th, I was still dazed and panicked at what to do.I am a coward, and the idea that "the police are scary" was deeply rooted in my childhood, so when I was interrogated by the police, I couldn't keep calm.Afterwards, when I thought about whether I was talking nonsense at that time, cold sweat kept coming out of my armpits like running water, and my body was shaking all the time.It sounds useless, but I'm just that useless.The prosecutor seemed to really have the same idea as me. After asking my statement, he seemed to ask Sagara and Shiga a lot of questions.I have no way of knowing the content of their answers, but when the two of them finished their questioning and walked to the crowd, I saw that their faces were also livid, their foreheads were covered with beads of sweat, and they must have eaten a lot suffering. After the questioning of the three of us was over, it was finally our turn to the next question - double bass.The first person to be grilled on this part was double bass player Kawada.Since the questioning process was carried out in front of everyone, I was able to hear it very clearly.Kawata seemed to sort out the main points in his mind first, and answered concisely. "In this performance in Osaka, the accompaniment is in charge of the Osaka Symphony Orchestra. However, because the conductor is Makino-sensei, I, as a student, and the trombonist Hasumi also came from Tokyo to participate. Last night, that is, ten On the evening of the 9th, I took the 10:15 train from Tokyo with other people. Everyone knows that the double bass body is larger than the train regulations and cannot be brought into the passenger compartment, so I put it on the train before getting on the train. I handed it over to the consignors at Tokyo Station. If you have any doubts, you can ask them. The double bass is large, but it is not heavy, and it can be carried in the case. I think you just need to ask. The consignor at Tokyo Station should be able to know the weight of the piano case I checked in at that time. After that, I handed the luggage ticket to Amamiya, who is the assistant of Tsuchiya's manager. The manager has already gone to Osaka first, so Tokyo He is responsible for all the aftermath of the piano case. From the time I handed over the piano case to the consignor at Tokyo Station until I just opened the piano case, let alone touched it, I have never even looked at the piano case. I could swear to God, when I handed it over to the consignor at Tokyo Station, it was a double bass in the case." Then came Yugong, he was already extremely nervous, and he was even more at a loss than me. "Kawada did give me the baggage check. I clamped it with other luggage checks, wrapped it in a sheath, and put it in the pocket of my jacket. As soon as I arrived at Osaka Station this morning, I told Tsuchiya The agent went to pick up the luggage immediately, but the luggage hadn’t arrived yet, so we turned back to the hotel first, and then I went to pick up the luggage by myself after lunch. There were several other pieces of checked luggage besides the double bass. After comparing them one by one, The number of luggage was the same as the number of luggage tickets in my hand. I thought that those should be all the luggage, so I returned here with confidence. However, I missed Kawada’s double bass at that time. Looking back now, when I went back for the second time Kawata’s baggage check had already disappeared when the baggage was collected at Osaka Station.” "So, between the time you took the luggage check from Kawada yesterday and you went to Osaka Station to pick up your luggage this afternoon, someone took that luggage check, right?" "I, I, that's all I can think of. Well, yes, that must be it." "Do you have any impression where it was taken away?" "Well... this... I have no impression at all." "When did you receive the luggage ticket from Kawada?" "Yesterday, on the train..., I think it was when we departed from Shinagawa." "You said you clipped it with other luggage tickets, wrapped it in a sheath, and put it in your jacket pocket, right? Is it possible that it was taken away on the train?" "Well, I think the prisoner has a lot of opportunities to take it away. Because the train was very hot, I took off my coat and hung it on the iron hook under the net rack. And after the train passed Yokohama, I fell asleep. I only woke up when I arrived in Kyoto this morning, and I slept soundly during this period, and I had no idea what was going on around me." "I see. But do you think it's possible that they were taken away in the hotel after arriving in Osaka...?" "Hmm. I think the criminals have a lot of opportunities to attack in the hotel. I don't know if the police know it, but we have rented a part of the lobby of N Hotel as an office. I kept leaving the shirt I took off there, and walked in and out of the lobby. .Because there is no phone in that office, and I was busy with calls from various parties this morning, so..." "I see. That means anyone can approach that office, right?" "Yes, yes. But it's not so easy to let unrelated people approach, because people from the opera troupe often come in and out there." "Of course, the same goes for Tsuchiya, Shiga, and Sagara?" "Well, because Mr. Tsuchiya is a manager, he was there before he went to the newspaper office. As for Mr. Shiga and Ms. Sagara, I didn't see them enter the restaurant at all this morning." I don't even notice the significance of this question and answer.When I heard Amamiya's last sentence, I realized that the police department was looking at me strangely, which made me feel uneasy for no reason.why?Why did the police department look at me like that?why why why?Just as I was muttering to myself, my heart twitched suddenly, and I couldn't help but staggered back two or three steps. God!This is how the same thing!It's almost like a basic math problem. 1. Prisoner X must be a person who stayed in Osaka between 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on the 19th.People who meet this requirement include Shiga Diren, Sagara Chieko, and Tsuchiya Kyozo. 2. Prisoner X must be the one who has the opportunity to take the luggage ticket from the pocket of Assistant Amamiya.Eligible people include everyone who hitchhiked from Tokyo with Amemiya, as well as Kyouzo Tsuchiya. 3. Kyosan Tsuchiya is the only person who meets the above two conditions. 4. Therefore, prisoner X is Tsuchiya Kyouzo.

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