Chapter 9 Section 9

It's a little cold. Goosebumps all over the carrot. Outside the window, the sky is gloomy.It may be that the meeting time is a bit long, and the blood circulation is slowed down because of sitting still?Thinking of this, Carrot wrapped the black police overcoat around his body, still feeling like being soaked in ice water from the neck down, frightened by the cold. so, what happened? He thought, maybe he was frightened by Li Kuohai's words, or in other words, Li Kuohai's words actually pierced the window paper. If you want to say that the woman in white is the murderer, Luo Luo himself feels the same way. He believes that everyone in the room—including the seemingly reserved Chief Chu—feels the same, but Li Kuohai dares to speak out because others think it is too absurd.Moreover, Carrot felt that only the bloody woman in white could commit such a bloody, weird, unimaginable, and horrific massacre!

He even sketched a scene in front of his eyes: in the private room with the locked door, six corpses were spread out in disorder on the floor, an ashtray stained with brains slipped slowly, slowly, from a bony hand It shattered on the floor with a bang!A face with no expression and no blood color floated to the door, and the hem of the dragging white pajamas was covered with sticky blood... When she came to the door, she did not stop floating in the pool of blood, continue, continue ... "According to what you said, this case is a murder case in a secret room?" Chu Tianying's words interrupted Luo Luo's thoughts, "The murderer wanted to kill people in a room with locked doors and windows, and then managed to escape. It was only by chance that he was caught." Zhang Dashan bumped into it—but the problem is: we are handling cases, not making detective films or writing novels—in reality, how many murders in locked rooms have you seen?”

Li Kuohai suddenly became dumb. Here, I want to talk about a topic that all criminal investigators can't get around: In real life, has there ever been a real secret room murder?the answer is-- Yes, but it is far less mysterious than what Dixon Carr, a famous American writer of mystery novels, "The King of Secret Room Reasoning", represents as described in his novels. The earliest recorded murder in a secret room happened in England in 1733. On a cold winter day, two old ladies, Lydia Dunnetbe and Betty, and their newly hired young maid, Ann Price, were found tragically dead in their residence: two old people Strangled to death on the bed, the maid lay dead in a pool of blood with her throat slit.The room was on the fourth floor, and the doors and windows were locked from inside.

In the end, the court hastily convicted a girl named Sarah Malcolm without knowing how the crime was done.However, until the last moment of being sent to the gallows, Sarah still insisted that he was innocent.Later, researchers of impossible crimes conducted many studies on this case and expressed their views, but no matter who is right or wrong, this secret room case has become an eternal mystery. Since then, there have been some secret room murders in the world's criminal history, but they were all quickly detected, and the criminal methods in similar cases were quite naive: for example, it was thought that the locked room had only one key and it was placed inside, but it was finally found that the murderer actually had a key. Copied one; or a husband and wife died in a closed room, and finally there is evidence that the husband killed his wife first, and then committed suicide...

After all, no matter which murderer, the fundamental purpose of setting up the secret room is not to "show off skills", nor is it to attract attention, but to create an alibi for himself.In contrast, there are many ways to create an alibi, none of which is more troublesome than setting up a secret room.What's more, there is an iron law in criminal investigation - the amount of criminals' activities at the scene is directly proportional to the amount of evidence left behind. more.With the development of modern science and technology, the means of extracting trace evidence have been continuously enhanced. Only the most stupid criminals will take the risk of leaving fingerprints, tools, hairs, typical criminal methods, etc., to set up an extremely complicated, meeting A secret room that has attracted the attention of countless criminal investigation experts.

According to records, there are even fewer secret room crime records in China. There are only a few cases that occurred around 1990, and most of them occurred in some second-tier cities. Very popular domestic horror film - "Black Mansion Lonely Soul". "The Lonely Soul in the Black Building" is about ten years of turmoil. An old man entrusted his daughter Xiaoju and a deposit to a friend on his deathbed, and asked the friend to raise Xiaoju. Died in the basement of a dark building, and then took the deposit all by himself.More than ten years later, when the black building was about to be demolished, Xiaoju's innocent soul asked the murderer for his life... At the beginning of the movie, after the murderer hanged Xiaoju, he wiped off the fingerprints in the room, cleaned up the lost hair, and then A small knot was made with a string, and it was put on one end of the bolt. Then, the murderer himself retreated outside, closed the door, pulled the string lightly, inserted the bolt of the door lock, and then let go of the rope so that the The sleeve gradually loosened and slipped from the latch, and the murderer pulled out the string through the crack of the door, successfully creating the illusion that Xiaoju hanged herself in the secret room...

After the movie was released, some criminals may think that "this trick is very easy to use", so they imitate the plot in the movie and forge a secret room after killing people.At the beginning, the police really failed to find out, so they closed the case as a suicide case.Later, when an old policeman from the Jiangxi Provincial Public Security Department was investigating a case, he accidentally discovered that the stool used by the deceased to hang himself was relatively short. With the height of the deceased, even standing on tiptoes on the stool, it was impossible to stick his neck into it. The old policeman couldn't help suspecting that this was a murder case.However, after all, the door of the room was locked with a latch, and how the murderer left could not be explained.He thought about it for a few days, and his head became dizzy, so he went to take a nap at his cousin's house, and when he woke up from the nap, he found that his cousin's family was watching a video - "The Lonely Soul in the Black Building"... It is conceivable that he who discovered the secret of the secret room How excited!

Afterwards, not only was the case successfully solved, but the Ministry of Public Security also issued a special order requiring public security systems across the country to investigate closed suicide cases that occurred within a year (mystery novels had not yet become popular in China at that time, and there was no such thing as a "secret room"). All were re-examined, and the old policeman was awarded first-class merit for this reason. Since then, although the incidence of criminal cases across the country has fluctuated year by year, murders in secret rooms have been quite rare. Within the public security system, the word "secret room" is almost a joke.

Basically, most of the closed room murders in reality are like this.Therefore, Chu Tianying's question "In reality, how many murders in secret rooms have you seen?" made Li Kuohai speechless. Yes, in reality, there is no secret room murder case!Carrot shook his head violently, like shaking a rattle drum, to dispel any thoughts he shouldn't have. "Your opinion is that the direction of handling this case should be positioned as fratricide caused by internal strife?" Deputy Director Wang asked Chu Tianying, staring at him. In the conference room, everyone's eyes were on Chu Tianying.As the reporter of the initial investigation report, the ultimate goal of his work is to "tree the target" - to determine the direction of the investigation of the entire case.And Deputy Director Wang's question is to urge him to make this "determination" responsibly.

Of course, everyone knows that, according to the refutation of Li Kuohai just now, it is almost certain that Chu Tianying is targeting the cannibalism caused by the internal strife - both the victim and the murderer are dead - so, the important The most important thing is to confirm which dead are the victims, which dead are the murderers, what is the motive of the crime, how the crime is done, etc., but in the end there is no need to "solve" it, only to "understand" the family members of the victims... Of course, this is not the case. It is an easy task, and it also requires forensic evidence, scene reconstruction and autopsy, but it is much easier than trying to find the No. 7 murderer X.

So, all the policemen just waited for Chu Tianying to nod, and then went to work. However, Chu Tianying shook her head—— "Ah?" Li Kuohai couldn't help but exclaimed in surprise. "I think the direction of investigation is still homicide - the criminals are at large." Chu Tianying said every word very clearly. The conference room suddenly became a stabbed hornet's nest, and there was a lot of unscrupulous discussions. Many people secretly glanced at Deputy Director Wang, thinking that he might be furious?What a big case is happening in front of us, and how serious it is to determine the direction of the investigation. How could he, Chu Tianying, be so reneging on what he said and talking nonsense? ! Deputy Director Wang just looked at Chu Tianying solemnly. "Didn't you just say that 'all crimes are done and received between six people in this room'? Now why is there another criminal on the run?" Li Kuohai panted heavily, "Chu Chu, let's People from the local area are no more slow-witted than those from the provincial capital. You should explain clearly, what's going on?" "If there is no number 7 you mentioned - the woman in white, I can basically confirm that the case is a cannibalism between six people in the private room. However, with this number 7, the whole case is completely different " Chu Tianying said slowly, "That's right, I just made several guesses about what happened in the case, but I couldn't figure it out, what happened to the woman in white clothes, other guesses are logical, but, Only this woman in white, her appearance, her presence, is a very illogical thing..." In the meeting room, everyone stared intently at his handsome face, especially the tall, white bridge of the nose. "Although I haven't personally interrogated the woman in white, we can speculate that there is no blood in the entire lakeside building except for the private room, and according to the forensic examination results, the woman in white has no wound on her body—that is, The blood on her clothes must have come from the private room. In the private room, two people had wounds on their bodies, one was No. 1 and the other was No. 6. Although the back of the head of No. 6 was smashed, there was not much blood flowing out, but it was the old man No. 1. , the abdominal aorta ruptured, bleeding profusely. Therefore, the woman in white should have blood on her clothes when she personally helped the old man." The policemen nodded frequently. "When did the woman in white leave the private room? On-site inspections showed that there was only No. 6's bloody fingerprint on the handle inside the private room door, and the door was pushed from the outside to the inside. People in the private room had to pull it if they wanted to get out." That handle doesn't work. So, the only explanation is that after No. 1 was killed, No. 6 opened the door and let the woman in white escape from the private room." Chu Tianying's pupils shone faintly, "Then why didn't the others escape in the same way? Could it be that they Are they really dead? If they are all dead, who will kill No. 6 in the end?" At this time, someone suggested: "May I make such a hypothesis: when No. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the private room realized that they were poisoned, three of them were killed immediately, and the remaining two were alive. Among them, No. 1 wanted to She ran away, failed to escape, and was killed by No. 6. The woman in white begged No. 6 to let her go, and No. 6 moved her heart for a while and let her go. At this time, although the last remaining person also He was poisoned, but he insisted on smashing No. 6 to death with an ashtray, and he fell to his death..." "Your analysis has a few illogical points: First, if according to what you said, the woman in white begged No. 6 to let her go after No. 1 was killed, then why did No. 6 give all the people in the private room When she was poisoned, she was the only one who was not poisoned? Could it be that the woman in white was No. 6's accomplice? Since she was an accomplice, why did No. 6 let her go? Let her run wildly on the icy grassland? Although a person was poisoned, he still tried his best to smash No. 6 to death with an ashtray, so he died, then, have you noticed the most incredible thing in the preliminary investigation report I made just now—" "What's the matter?" The policeman opened his mouth wide. "On the ashtray that was used as the murder weapon - no one's fingerprints were found." Chu Tianying said. "Ah!" People let out a sigh of sudden realization and bewilderment. "A person who has been poisoned and is about to die, why does he find something to wrap around his hands, and then he picks up the ashtray and smashes it at No. 6 to avoid leaving fingerprints?" Chu Tianying shook his head, "I'm afraid It's so counterintuitive!" "So?" A question came from Deputy Director Wang's mouth. Chu Tianying turned to him, met his sharp gaze, and said calmly: "So I think that the one who smashed to death No. 6 was not any one of the six dead in the private room, there must be someone else!" "Then how did this murderer escape from the room with the doors and windows locked?" Li Kuohai narrowed one eye, and now he asked the question that Chu Tianying used to ask him to bewitch. Chu Tianying stood there.Everyone looked at him, waiting for him to give a perfect answer to this most difficult question. Silence, for a long time. His gaze was like a candle that was about to go out, and it gradually became weaker... Finally, Chu Tianying raised his head and uttered four clear words—— "I have no idea." "Hiss—" Li Kuohai tilted his head back and let out a long, disdainful breath.In the conference room, some policemen couldn't help showing mocking expressions on their faces. "I really don't know." Chu Tianying said calmly, "This time, it's really a murder case in a secret room." "If you want me to say, it was the woman in white who killed the person. She saw No. 6 killed No. 1, so she went to save No. 1 and got blood all over her body. When No. 6 was not paying attention, she put on gloves and smashed him to death with an ashtray. Then I don’t know how to escape from the private room with the locked door.” Li Kuohai said impatiently, “As for the bloody fingerprint on the doorknob, it may not be left by No. 6 when she let her go, maybe it was After killing someone, I accidentally wiped it..." "No!" Chu Tianying shook her head, "That woman in white doesn't look like a murderer." "Not like?" Li Kuohai snorted and laughed, "Is there any murderer who looks like a murderer? Could it be that there is a piece of paper on the forehead that says 'I killed someone'?" "You didn't understand what I meant." Chu Tianying said, "When the murderer smashed No. 6 to death with an ashtray, he deliberately avoided leaving fingerprints. This is a very calm behavior. Such a murderer, for everything - murder No matter whether you run away or run away, you will plan in detail and think carefully, so that you don’t stand on the national highway in the middle of the night wearing bloody pajamas. In this way, if you don’t get hit by a car, you will freeze to death. The woman in white just heard Hu The director said she was a somewhat crazy woman. It is difficult to equate such a woman with the murderer of this case in terms of personality profile." Li Kuohai still wanted to argue with him, but Deputy Director Wang interrupted them with a wave of his hand: "Now, the comrades in charge of the initial interrogation of the three witnesses, let's talk about the situation." The criminal police in charge of the first trial opened the notebook and talked about the witnessing of the case reported by Chen Shaoling and Zhang Dashan, which was basically consistent with what Luo Luo said, "The girl named Chen Shaoling was very unstable. After she was brought to the police station, she couldn't tell at first A complete sentence, just trembling and crying, seems to be terrified. As for Zhang Dashan, his expression is dull, not very cooperative, and he has a certain resistance to our questions. We checked later and found that he was released after serving his sentence. personnel." "Oh?" Deputy Director Wang was taken aback. Carrot quickly told the history of Zhang Dashan's original crime: "The case back then was too severe. Wasn't it just smashing a car window? He was imprisoned for three years, so he was somewhat resistant to us police officers. , is also understandable. But I can pat my chest to assure that the child's essence is not bad." The criminal policeman in charge of the first trial added: "Later we talked about the policy to him, and he still asked and answered every sentence. It seems that everything that should be said has been cleaned up." Deputy Director Wang nodded, "The key is the confession of the woman in white. Did you find out anything?" An extremely strange look suddenly appeared on the policeman's face. "What's the matter?" Chu Tianying was also a little puzzled, "You said it." The criminal police managed to restore the distorted facial features to their original state, "The woman in white is so stupid, we asked her something, but she didn't answer, she kept chanting a word repeatedly, we listened hard to hear clearly .I don’t understand what it means even if I hear it clearly..." "What word?" Chu Tianying was a little nervous, as if all the bones in her body had been lifted suddenly. "Lake water." In an instant, the meeting room fell into silence again... It's like in a cemetery, a tall blue stone tablet stands abruptly... The stone tablet stands on the flat ground without any words engraved on it. No one knows which grave it is for, and can only feel the impact it brings. It is an indescribably great fear... Everyone is repeating and chewing this word in their hearts—— lake water. Chu Tianying was no exception.He couldn't figure it out, like falling into a fog. "Could it be... she was talking about the Lake of Tears?" Carrot tried his best not to make his voice tremble, "It's the small lake behind the lakeside building." "Perhaps she wanted to tell us that the most important evidence of this case, or the most critical clue to solve the case, is hidden in the Lake of Tears," Chu Tianying said. Outside the window, there was a gust of wind, and it was almost noon, but the temperature and atmosphere in the room were still as cold as an ice cellar. Deputy Director Wang spoke—— "Let me make a few requests." He said in a thick, unquestionable tone like a hydraulic machine, "First, police officers at all levels and types of police must cooperate closely; second, the current direction of investigation is still Murder case, the murderer is at large; third, the core of all cases is people, where did Li Dazui, the owner of Hupan Building, and his family go? Why did the dead in the private room gather all the way to this remote place? Facts; fourth, this case is a huge criminal case, and the news media will definitely swarm into it, and they will be stricter at that time; fifth, I will not give you a deadline to solve the case, but you must know it yourself-I will immediately When we return to the provincial capital, there will be a province-wide public security work conference to be held in the afternoon, and the affairs here will be entrusted to Comrade Chu Tianying. He will be the commander of this case, that is, the first person in charge." The policemen present were all convinced. What is leadership?A leader is the kind of person who can make a final decision at the most critical moment without going out of tune.Deputy Director Wang's words seem simple, but in fact every sentence is pressed to the point: everyone is required to work together, affirming Chu Tianying's criminal investigation thinking, and reminding that the focus of the next step is to find out the relationship between the suspect and the person involved, emphasizing that Awareness of secrecy, obviously decompressing and secretly increasing pressure... Finally, Chu Tianying's leading position in the handling of the case was established. It seems that Chu Tianying is Deputy Director Wang's favorite general, and it's really not a random cover. There is also the phrase "the core of all cases is people", which is especially intriguing when everyone is distracted by weird secret rooms, bloody scenes, and inexplicable "lake water". Deputy Director Wang stood up, the secretary handed over his coat, and all the police officers stood up and saluted.Deputy Director Wang waved his hands as he walked out, "Comrades, continue to study the case." Chu Tianying quickly said, "Let's take a rest first", then followed Deputy Director Wang and sent him downstairs. Downstairs, Deputy Director Wang looked up at the still gloomy sky.The secretary opened the back door of the car, and just as he was about to go in, he turned his head and found that Chu Tianying's eyes were shining with a light that was about to say something.So he couldn't help asking: "What else?" "There is something I want to ask you for instructions." Chu Tianying obviously hesitated, "This case is very big and very strange. You also said just now that the news media will definitely catch up with the news. If the case cannot be solved for a long time, we will Passive. However, after I first inspected the crime scene, I felt that there must be a very complicated inside story in this case..." "Don't play tricks!" Deputy Director Wang frowned. "Yes!" Chu Tianying's chest puffed up, "If there is really an escaped suspect, then this case is a very rare secret room murder case in reality! Needless to say, the murderer's IQ is high, and solving the case The key is to conduct repeated, meticulous, highest-level investigations of the crime scene - I worry that our ministry is not strong enough." Deputy Director Wang was quite surprised.He knows that Chu Tianying is a person who never admits defeat. He takes the first place in the criminal investigation ability assessment every year, and even won the provincial championship in the Sanda competition before he is reconciled. "What do you mean by that?" "As you said just now, the core of all cases is people - the same is true for solving cases. The most difficult cases must be investigated by the best police." Chu Tianying said, "Of course, the investigation of a crime scene requires diligence. Solid, meticulous, excellent business and other qualities, but in addition to these, one more thing is needed, that is talent. Just like a three-dimensional painting, some people can only see it after looking at it for a long time, and some people can't see it at all. The highest level of criminal forensics experts can not only see it at a glance, but also reproduce every stroke of the painter." "What exactly are you trying to say?" Deputy Director Wang became more and more confused the more he listened. "I..." Chu Tianying stammered, the blood vessels in his neck twitched as if he had been squeezed, and he raised his head, "I want to second someone to help me solve the case, but I need the provincial department to send a letter to the Beijing authorities." Letter of secondment." Deputy Director Wang looked him up and down carefully, "Who is seconded?" "Liu Simiao!" "No!" Deputy Director Wang flatly rejected his proposal. Chu Tianying was taken aback, her face flushed instantly, "Director, don't get me wrong! I really think she needs to be involved in this case. She taught me lessons and took me through the grid at the crime scene. I I have read every book of hers, and her criminal forensic skills are unrivaled in China. Do you know how many major cases she has solved: Beijing-Shanghai Railway Series Masked Robbery Case, Qingliangshan Primary School Gas Case, Zou Rulong Series Rape Murder case, Jia Kui's unsolved murder of his wife..." "No!" Deputy Director Wang roared angrily, like a fitter, he cut off Chu Tianying's last words. Looking at the scene in front of them, both the driver and the secretary were trembling in their calves, and they dared not say a word. But Chu Tianying looked directly at Deputy Director Wang, his eyes were full of sadness as if they were blowing in the wind. "Tianying." After Deputy Director Wang sighed, he changed his tone - deep and serious, as if he was disciplining his nephew, "I know what you think. Indeed, you are considering solving this case before requesting secondment." Liu Simiao. But you can't deny that another purpose of yours is to help her get out of the predicament. However, she is currently in the suspension review stage...you can't get yourself into trouble, understand?" After finishing speaking, he quickly turned around and got into the car, and the secretary closed the car door for him with a "bang". The car drove away. From the rearview mirror, one could see Chu Tianying standing there blankly, motionless, like a tree that had been forgotten on the grassland.