Chapter 21 Chapter Twenty

"The detective brings everyone together and says: 'So...'" A male friend S.Y who is writing detective novels like me recently wrote this sentence to me.What he wrote was absolutely right.Every time I read British and American detective novels, the last detective will always gather relevant people together and say to them: "So, everyone..." Compared with these masterpieces, I think my work is not inferior. Now that I have written all of this novel, I must also let Master Yuri gather the characters in a room here, and decipher the case according to the Various clues deduce who the prisoner is.But in fact, Master Yuri did do something similar.

It happened around eleven o'clock that night.All the members of the opera troupe gathered in the manager's office, which had become the headquarters of the investigation.The heavy atmosphere made everyone aware that the murder case was finally coming to an end.Everyone peeped at each other's faces and let out a series of dry coughing sounds.Their faces, pale with nervousness, looked like poor schoolchildren about to undergo psychological tests. A group of people formed a semicircle and sat on chairs.Master Yuri, Asahara Police Department and I moved a table and placed it in the center of the circle, and then the three of us also surrounded the table and waited.There is a phone on the table. Master Yuri has been paying attention to the phone since he entered the room. I know he is waiting for the notification.Before Master Yuri called the group in here, he didn't know what to ask Shimadzu in the hall.I don't know exactly what Master Yuri asked him to do, but judging from Shimadzu's surprised and excited look at the time, it must be a very important matter.

"Oh shit!" At that time, Shimadzu cursed, then seemed to realize that he had slipped his words, looked around in a panic, and continued. "I, I, I know. I'll call you right away with the result." Shimadzu rushed out of the hotel like a gust of wind.Now the master is probably waiting for his return. But what exactly did the master find in the room on the fifth floor?There were five or six large suitcases stacked in that room.In addition, there are boxes for small props and belongings, and the ropes that were originally used to seal the boxes are scattered all over the place.The master didn't seem to be interested in these things. He opened the window as soon as he entered the room, and surveyed the upper wing and the narrow path below.A thick iron rod lay across the front of the wing, and the master smiled knowingly when he saw the iron rod.Then, he closed the window immediately, and walked out of the room without looking back.

What does that iron rod signify?Where did Shimadzu go to investigate?I was thinking about these things in my mind, and I didn't notice that Mr. Makino hadn't arrived yet.Therefore, I was really surprised when Makino-san walked in angrily, one step behind us. "Mr. Police Department." Mr. Makino's face was originally serious, but now his face was tense, and his expression became more serious.His eyes were wide open, staring straight into the police department's face. "How many times do you have to check my luggage before you're satisfied?" "How many times...? Your luggage...?"

"That's right. Last night, after the Amamiya murder, you checked my luggage, right? I was standing by too, so that's fine. But you privately did it again.... I know very well that you suspect I, but casually rummaging through other people's luggage over and over again, you are too..." "Wait, wait a minute. Did you misunderstand something? After that, I didn't touch your stuff..." "Stop pretending! It doesn't matter how many times you have to investigate, but at least before that, you must ask for my consent! I'm very neurotic, so I hate people messing with my things!"

"Mr. Makino." Master Yuri said calmly from the side. "So someone moved your luggage?" "Yes. My suitcase has been rummaged through. He's done it so well that he wouldn't have noticed it at first glance. But I've always kept my luggage in order, and if it's been tampered with, I'll know it right away." Master Yuli stretched out his hand and called the criminal police over. "Could you go to Mr. Makino's room and bring his suitcase over. Mr. Makino, can you? You have to investigate this kind of thing thoroughly..." Makino's eyes widened in surprise, but he didn't object.The detective walked out of the room immediately, and came in with Mr. Makino's suitcase shortly after.

"Mr. Makino, may I check your suitcase?" Mr. Makino raised his eyebrows and took out the key without saying a word.Master Yuri opened the suitcase, and the inside was really neatly organized as Mr. Makino said.The suitcase is full of underwear, socks, simple makeup tools, etc., which are the items that men usually need when they travel.Master Yuri took them out one by one and put them on the table. Every time he took out one, Mr. Makino would twitch his eyebrows in displeasure.Finally, there was nothing left in the suitcase. "Is there something wrong?" Mr. Makino sneered disdainfully.

"Nothing, except the baton." Master Yuri picked up the baton from the suitcase, smiled confidently, and then turned to look at Mr. Makino. "Mr. Makino, is your baton hollow?" "Well, yes. Ordinary batons are made like this. But this is just a special order for me, and it is slightly longer than normal." "Oh, that's it. Then wave this baton, please." Mr. Makino tensed his nervous face again, and without saying a word, he snatched the baton from Master Yuri.The moment he picked up the baton, a look of surprise flashed across Mr. Makino's face.He widened his eyes, tilted his neck, waved the baton by his ears, suddenly looked at Master Yuri suspiciously, and then twisted the end of the baton in a panic.The baton appears to be hollow, with plugs plugged at both ends.After removing the plug, Mr. Makino tilted his baton, and a string of pearl necklaces slipped into his trembling hands.

At that moment, there was a gust of wind blowing through the room like a reed-like noise.The police department kicked off the chair and stood up, grabbing Mr. Makino's left hand.Mr. Makino let out a scream. "Oh, wait! Asahara, wait." Master Yuli picked up the necklace in Makino's hand. "Asahara, Mr. Makino, please return to your seats. Mr. Hara, this is Mrs. Madam's necklace, right?" Mr. Hara Satoshiro took the necklace in his hand and looked at it. "I think it should be. However, women understand this kind of thing better. Ms. Sagara, what do you think?"

"Hmm... Indeed..., there is nothing wrong with the teacher's necklace." Sagara's shoulders trembled, and his voice continued intermittently. Mr. Makino yelled vaguely. "It's not me, it's not me! I don't know anything. Someone must have tried to blame me for doing this." "Well, maybe you're right. But no matter who did it, the necklace wasn't originally hidden here, at least not before yesterday evening." "Before yesterday evening?" asked the police in disbelief. "Well, yes. Because before yesterday evening, this necklace was hidden in the snorkel of Hasumi's trombone."

Doubtful cries sounded from the crowd again, and the noise that sounded like wind blowing through reeds was much louder than before. "If you put it this way, you should know why Amemiya was killed, right? When the prisoner took out the necklace from the trombone yesterday evening, it happened to be caught by Amemiya. Afterwards, the prisoner hid it in Mr. Makino's baton. " "Yuri, who is the prisoner? Judging from your tone, you seem to already know who the prisoner is." Mr. Satoshiro's tone of voice immediately returned to life.He glanced over the faces of the people present one by one. "Is it Shiga you suspect? Tsuchiya? Or Ono? Makino? No, no, you don't suspect me..." Every time Soichiro-san pronounced a person's name, I would look at that person's face.However, even though the culprit was hiding among these people, from the expressions on their faces, I couldn't tell who the culprit was right away.Maybe Ono, who is extremely fearful, is innocent, and Mr. Shiga, who is being dealt with by others, may be a treacherous and cunning person.The color of the earthen roof did not change, and Mr. Makino kept biting his nails.And Mr. Satoshiro, who said that the master suspects him as a prisoner, is not suspicious? Master Yuri did not answer his question right away.The master's habits are still the same as before, and he has been smoking a pipe since just now.Now the master made another strange movement. He took the pipe from his mouth, took out a black rope from his vest pocket, folded it in half and put it on the pouch at the front of the pipe, and then kept turning it with the fingers of his left hand. pipe.With each turn of the pipe, the rope that hangs from the pouch gets a little tighter, tighter, tighter, tighter.Did the master do this on purpose, or did he just play around with it?From the master's face, I couldn't tell what his intentions were.The master's right hand pinches one end of the rope, and the left hand fingers keep turning the pipe.Everyone stared at the movements of the master's hands and fingers with uneasy eyes. At this moment, the phone on the table rang loudly. The master put the pipe and the rope on the table, and hastily picked up the microphone. "Master? Master Yuri? I'm Shimadzu, and I'm in Akebono's apartment now." I was taken aback.But what frightened me was not because I heard that Shimadzu's destination was Akekeno's apartment, but because Shimadzu's sharp voice was released from the loudspeaker, resounding clearly throughout the room. "Grandmaster!" I reminded him from the side, but the master signaled me not to speak. "Oh, so what I asked you to do...?" "I found it. Sure enough, just as the master said, the sandbags shared by the residents of Shu Apartment are piled up in the stairwell or in the corner of the corridor, and each group shares 30. At about ten o'clock in the morning on the 20th, the group leaders I checked the number of sandbags just now, and it is said that the number counted by each group was thirty, no more and no less. However, after my investigation just now..." "After your investigation just now..." "Each group has added five or six sandbags! Moreover, all of them are sandbags that the residents of Akebono Apartment have never seen..." "So, have you weighed those sandbags?" "Scale. The ones found so far have exceeded 60 kilograms, and there may be some sandbags that have not been found." "Thank you. Please ask the administrator to take good care of those sandbags. I will ask Asahara to rush over from here immediately..." After the master hung up the phone, he looked at everyone sharply and smiled triumphantly.Then, without saying a word, he continued to play with the pipe and the string with his fingers. Everyone was as silent as a pile of stones, and no one spoke at all.Undoubtedly, everyone heard the conversation just now, spying on each other with panicked eyes. Sandbag, sandbag, sandbag?The sandbags that the residents in the apartment have never seen, the sandbags that were not in the apartment before 10 am on the 20th, all the sandbags that weigh more than 60 kilograms? Master Yuri kept turning his pipe.The rope held by the right hand was constantly tightened, creating countless cross knots. The rope was already twisted tightly, and the pipe could no longer be turned.Just at this time…… The master clasped the end of the rope tightly with his right index finger and thumb, and let go of his left hand that was originally holding the pipe.As soon as the master let go of his hand, the pipe was like a spinning top, spinning continuously at the front end of the rope.Turn the pipe, turn it, turn it.With the continuous rotation of the pipe, the rope that had been twisted so tightly gradually returned to its original shape.After a while, the rope was almost fully restored.At that moment, the pipe that was originally hanging on the rope loop at the end of the pipe slipped from the rope loop and fell to the ground with a bang. "Wa hahaha!" Master Yuri suddenly let out a laugh that could shake the room. "All in all, the prisoner had plenty of time to escape before the churned rope returned to its original shape. Wahahaha!" when!Someone threw something at the electric light on the ceiling. The light went out immediately, and glass shards fell like hailstones.I couldn't see my fingers in the darkness, and there were bursts of screams.Screaming people trip over chairs and run around. Instinctively, I immediately rushed to the window.Just as I was walking to the window, someone bumped my body back. "who is it!" I put my hands on each other's shoulders.At that moment, a powerful fist hit my jaw.If I was hit head-on, I'm afraid I'd be unconscious.I was furious, and at the same time I intuitively thought that this guy might be the prisoner.I jumped at the other party suddenly, rolled into a ball on the floor.At first I suffered a lot. His fists kept hitting me, and he even bit me with his teeth.But in the end, this guy was no match for me after all. "Mitsuki, are you alright?" "It's okay, I've got him on the ground now, please give me the light." In the darkness, I just heard a burst of chaotic footsteps rushing into the room, and in the next second, there were already criminal police standing around me.They held flashlights, and several rays of light shone on the face of the man who was pressed on the ground by me; on the face of Mephisto Tsuchiya Kyouzo, who was caught with his arms closed and eyes closed...