Chapter 18 Section 6

According to the usual practice, all relevant personnel gathered at the scene of the case, and as a detective, I was responsible for solving the mystery for everyone—it was such a practice.I grew to like the character I played like in a detective story, and it seemed to be a bit addictive. "Everyone." I looked around, feeling a sense of pleasure overflowing my whole body.I think Poirot (Poirot, the famous detective written by the British female detective novelist Agatha Christie.) probably also felt this way when solving puzzles. There were three disciples present, the editor Udogawa, Xiaolu who had recovered a little bit, the mayor who accompanied her, and the police headed by the Okawara police department.

I slowly took a deep breath and said: "The most difficult thing to understand in this incident is how the murderer escaped. The Daheyuan Police Department seems to insist that the murderer jumped into the woods from the outer corridor and escaped. All I can say is, This idea is unrealistic." The police department pouted unhappily and turned his head to the side. "Then, did the murderer escape through the corridor? If so, Mr. Aono or I should be able to see it. However, here, there is one point we must consider." At this time, I paused for the sake of performance.When I found that I had attracted the attention of the entire audience, I continued, "What we have to consider is that there is absolutely no reason to conclude that this incident was done alone. It is entirely possible that two people did it together. The killer escaped with the help of an accomplice."

"Please wait a moment." As expected, Ao Ye took a step forward and said, "According to what you mean, I let the murderer go?" The slender Ao Ye's voice was also very thin.But his voice betrayed his will, it sounded like a moan. "I'm just saying there's no reason not to consider that possibility." "Don't be joking. Then how do you say I let the murderer go? Do you mean that I saw the murderer in the corridor but didn't say anything?" Aono shouted hysterically, "Please think about it carefully and say let me go You are the one who goes to the right and you go to the left. If you had given instructions to the contrary, you would have been the one who discovered the murderer. Could the murderer's plan be so incomplete?"

"Where is it?" I shook my head and said, "How could the murderer's plan be imprecise. After careful consideration, it can even be called seamless. Of course, the murderer did not escape from the corridor." "Hey, wait a minute." Daheyuan Police Department interjected, "I didn't jump down from the corridor, nor did I escape from the corridor. Where did it come from? Is there any place to escape?" "Police Department, this is the answer to the incident. The murderer did not escape at all." "what--" The scene was full of surprises and sighs.

"What?" asked the Police Department. "Before that, we will conduct an experiment as usual. Police department, are you ready?" "Well, here it is." The police department gave the subordinate a wink, and the subordinate walked up to me with a crossbow and arrows.I took them over. "This is the crossbow and arrows used by the murderer. Now, let me shoot." I said and put the arrow on the bow. "Hey, that's very dangerous." The police department said with a look of fear. "Please step back slightly." I retreated to the glass door, faced the crowd, and drew my bow.

"Wow—" The crowd dispersed on both sides. I aimed at the Lautrec hanging on the wall (Lautrec (1864-1901), French aristocrat, post-impressionist painter, pioneer of modern poster design and stone painting art, known as "the soul of Montmartre" .) At the bottom of the portrait, put an arrow.A wave of heavy impact pierced through the arms and wrists, followed by a thud. The arrow hit the center of Lautriec's portrait.This is my first time archery, please forgive me. I approached the arrow stuck in the portrait, and found that the experimental results were exactly what I thought.

"As I expected." "What?" Daheyuan Police Department asked, "What did you expect?" I looked around. "I shot the arrow in front of the glass door just now. According to the original idea, the murderer shot from outside the glass door. Since Mr. Huotian is still some distance away from the wall, we have reason to conclude that the distance I shot the arrow just now, and The shooting distance of the murderer is almost the same." Several people are nodding. "Now, please look at this arrow." I pointed to the arrow stuck in the portrait, "To be precise, what you see is the tail of the arrow. The fork here is designed for bowing. Draw the bow and shoot the arrow At the time, the fork of the arrow tail was parallel to the ground. However, as you can see now, it is vertical. Why is this? Because the arrow will rotate in the air. The arrow feathers will have a certain angle, the purpose is to improve the hit Whether it is an arrow or a bullet, rotating in the air can improve the hit rate, which is well known. But here, I need to show you a picture that will make everyone uncomfortable." I glanced at Ogawara Police Department, asked: "Did you get that photo for me?"

"Here." The police department said and handed me a photo, which was taken with a snapshot camera. After confirming the content on the photo, I picked it up and showed it to everyone. "Everyone please see—" Everyone's heads turned to the photo. The photo shows an arrow stuck in the forehead of Shunsuke Hada.The fork of the nock is very clear. "This fork is horizontal." A detective gave the answer I expected. "Exactly." I nodded to the detective who gave the correct answer, "From the front, the arrow tail of the arrow pierced on Mr. Huotian's forehead is horizontal. This is very strange. Just like what we just said According to the results of the experiment, if the murderer really shot the arrow from outside the glass door, the fork of the arrow's tail should be vertical."

"Do you mean that Shunsuke Hida is talking on the phone with his face sideways?" Ogawara Police Department's words almost made me faint. "No, it's not." I pointed at the front end of the crossbow and approached the police department. "Because the firing distance is the shortest, the arrow has no time to rotate. This is the most reasonable inference." "The closest distance?" "According to my speculation, the launch distance should be close to zero. To be honest, when I first saw the corpse, I had this doubt. It is definitely not easy to succeed in shooting a dynamic person. Moreover, there is only one chance to use a bow and arrow as a murder weapon. .Once you miss, it’s hard to come back.”

"But..." the mayor spoke from the side, "If the distance is so close, doesn't it mean that the murderer is already in the house? In this way, won't it be more difficult to escape?" "So, Mayor, didn't I just say that? The murderer didn't escape at all, at least not immediately after Mr. Huotian was killed." Of course, the mayor still didn't understand and tilted his head.Everyone else seemed confused too.It is also one of the pleasures of detectives to whet everyone's appetite at this time. "The murderer was with us at the time. I didn't realize it at the time. I was so stupid."

"Where is he?" Daheyuan Police Department asked. I looked around at everyone present and said, "In the pile of books." "what?" "It's in the pile of books." I said, pointing to the pile of books that looked like a hill. "The murderer is hiding under it. And, until I walked up the corridor, he hid there holding his breath." "It's so boring." The person who spoke was Baishi with a monk's head, "Calling himself a detective, but there is nothing special about it. You really dare to say it without any convincing reasoning. According to what you said, isn't the teacher just watching you?" Did you watch the murderer come to you with a crossbow? Moreover, during the few seconds when you heard the teacher’s voice and ran in hastily, the murderer not only managed to hide in the pile of books, but also threw the crossbow into the outer corridor , Is this possible? I would like to ask the police department for their opinion.” Shiraishi turned to the Ogawara Police Department, and he emphasized his tone. The police department was a little timid, and said: "He is right, the world is one king." "Although the crossbow is in front of you, Mr. Huotian can neither shout nor escape, because he is tied up. Not only his hands and feet are tied, but his mouth is also gagged." "What nonsense! How could there be such time! Before the teacher was killed, didn't he talk to you all the time?" Baishi said angrily. I didn't answer Shiraishi's question immediately, but returned the crossbow and photo to the criminal policeman in a leisurely manner, and smiled at him.To Shiraishi, this smile should be terrifying. "That's the crux of the matter," I said, "and here lies the problem. The necessary condition for solving this kind of problem is to have bold doubts, no matter how obvious things are. Because, the more natural things are, the more likely they are the product of illusion .” "Do you have any illusions?" asked the mayor. "Yes, there is." I said, taking a step or two towards Baishi.He stared at me intently.I met his provocative gaze and said, "The Hida Shunsuke who met and talked with me, we cannot guarantee that it is the real Hida Shunsuke." For a moment, the audience was silent.Maybe someone needs time to understand the meaning of this sentence, maybe someone understands what I mean, but is too surprised to speak. "What..." The Ogawara police department spoke first, "It's not the real Shunsuke Hida, who is that?" "Shunsuke Hida in disguise talked to Akagi and Aono, and there is only one person left." "Are you talking about me? It's really unreasonable." Baishi shrugged and spread his hands. "Your body shape is similar to that of Hida Shunsuke. If you wear a wig, beard, and a pair of colored glasses, it is easy to pretend to be Hida Shunsuke. Moreover, I have never met Mr. Hida, not even a photo. , How easy it is to deceive me. What's more, after being killed, Huo Tian's face was covered with blood, and it was difficult for me to notice whether he was the same person as the one I talked to before. The reason why the murderer chose the forehead may be for this purpose .” "Wait, but... wasn't he talking on the phone with Mr. Huo Tian at that time?" "That's right. But, how do we know whether that call is from Shiraishi? That's just what Aono said." "It's Shiraishi calling, that's absolutely right!" Qingye argued again with a loud voice. "The call wasn't from Shiraishi, so who could it be?" the mayor asked. "There is only one person, him." I pointed to Akagi and said, "Is there a phone in the library? Isn't the police department still answering Mrs. Huotian's call there? You are using that phone. Just dial the number, no You need to talk, it’s easy to keep Xiaolu from finding out.” "Ah, come to think of it." Xiaolu said, "Mr. Akagi went inside when sorting out the books. Soon, I heard the noise upstairs." "No, I...I..." Akagi shook his head, the flesh on his cheeks shaking, "I didn't call." "Wait...wait...wait a minute." Daheyuan Police Department took a step forward, stretched out his hands to stop everyone from speaking, "what's going on? Why can't I understand? Tianxia Yijun, please go from beginning to end Make it clear." "Okay. Please listen to my reasoning carefully, the three of you." After I finished speaking to the three disciples, I looked at everyone and took a deep breath.At this time, I saw the mayor take out a cigarette. "This incident is a murder plan jointly designed by the three of them. There is only one purpose - to make the alibi of the three of them valid." "Nonsense!" Bai Shi pouted. I ignored him and continued: "In order to achieve our goal, Xiaolu and I who came to visit Mr. Shunsuke Hida were used. We only decided to come this morning, so it is impossible to make a hasty plan in such a short period of time. The plan must have been concocted a long time ago. As for who formulated the draft, it is still unclear." Akagi lowered his head.Probably the fat youth's idea. "The first thing they did was tie up Mr. Hida. As I said, they bound his hands and feet, gagged his mouth with a towel, and took him to the workshop. Shiraishi, on the other hand, began to disguise himself, wearing a Wigs and mustaches prepared long ago, wearing the same overalls as Hida-san, and preparing crossbows, just waiting for the alibi for them. We arrived as scheduled. Perhaps, they took us for fools. When Aono saw me, he asked, "Is this the only one who came with you?" There was a deep meaning to it. After listening to my next explanation, everyone will understand. If three people come, their plan will be very difficult. implement." At this time, I secretly observed the reactions of the three disciples.Qingye's face was livid, Akagi's face was flushed, Shiraishi's face was pale, and he turned his face away. "When we entered, Shiraishi disguised as Hida was scolding Akagi. There is a purpose here: after the incident, let the police focus on Akagi. For them, only one person is suspected, so there is no need to worry about being accused See through the truth. In addition, after the incident, Aono provided some clues, listing Akagi as a suspect, which also has a purpose: to make people misunderstand that the relationship between them is not good, so as to stay away from the suspicion of accomplices. Then, Shiraishi, disguised as Mr. Hida, ordered Akagi to go to the library to sort out the books, and let Xiaolu go with him, which is actually part of the plan. There are two purposes here: one is to make Xiaolu a witness for Akagi's alibi; the other is to find the body When there are two outsiders, it will be more troublesome." "why?" "I'll explain it to you later. That's it, after the stage and characters are set up, it's time to do the murder. Of course, that phone call was the trigger." I pointed to Chimu and said, "Chimu called from the library to the workshop. The phone. It was Aono's job to answer the phone when it rang. After that, he pretended to be calling from Shiraishi, and then returned. Shiraishi, disguised as Mr. Hida, walked into the workshop and carried out the murder plan." My index finger came from Akagi turned to Qingye and then to Shiraishi, "He pointed the crossbow at the forehead of Mr. Huotian who couldn't move, and easily killed him. Next, he threw the crossbow on the outer corridor to untie Mr. Huotian. And took out the towel that was stuck in his mouth, got the physical evidence, and hid it in the pile of books. Of course, while doing this, he was still acting alone, making the illusion that Hida was talking to Shiraishi. His last A line that comes out when the pile of books collapses - 'Whoa, what are you trying to do'." "Nonsense..." Bai Shi whispered.But obviously, he who was so calm also started to panic. "After hearing the voice, Qingye and I came to this room. At that time, I didn't realize that the dead person and the person who spoke to me were not the same person. This was a fatal mistake I made. Therefore, I came to the outer corridor and ran for more than half of the time. Circle, did a lot of useless work." "You mean that Shiraishi escaped during this time?" After listening to the police department's question, I nodded. "He crossed the room and fled into the corridor. On coming out of the pile, he quietly took some books from the shelf and piled them in his hiding place, so that no one would notice that the pile was getting smaller." At that time, I felt that there were fewer books on the bookshelf than before, which was not an illusion. "After Shiraishi returned to the inner corridor, he should have returned to his room. He needed to change his clothes, remove his makeup, and deal with the physical evidence that Mr. Hida was bound. Of course, Akagi who ran out of the library should have seen his actions, but he insisted Said he didn't see anything. He blocked the door of the library to prevent Xiaolu from coming out. On the other hand, Bai Shi, who had removed his makeup, escaped from the sight of Xiaolu and me, and escaped from the side exit of the gate. Before breakfast, they should The key has been assigned." "You mean, not long after we got here, Shiraishi just needs to appear flustered, right?" I agree with the words of the Okawara Police Department. "That's what happened. But Shiraishi made a mistake: he used soap when he removed his makeup and washed his face. At that time, he smelled of soap, and it didn't look like he was looking for information according to Mr. Huotian's orders. I thought I saw It is very likely that Mr. Hida who arrived was Shiraishi pretending to be at that time." The police department gave a low hum and looked at the three disciples. "Do you three have anything to say? The reasoning of the king of the world is reasonable." Aono and Akagi lowered their heads, but Shiraishi snorted and said, "If you can take it seriously just because the reasoning is reasonable, I can also make up some reasonable stories for you." "You just want me to show evidence," I said. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean." I let out a breath and said to the police department: "In the corner of his room, there are three towels hanging to dry. Please identify those three towels." "towel?" "Yes. Two of them were supposed to be used to bind Mr. Hida's hands and feet, and the other was used to gag. There must have been Mr. Hida's blood on the towel. The filaments that were taken off at the same time must be the fibers of the towel. After identification, the answer will come out immediately.” "So that's how it is." The Daheyuan Police Department immediately ordered his subordinates to appraise the towel. Shiraishi seemed to finally give up resistance, biting his lip and staring at me. Akagi knelt down on the ground with a bang. "Let me just say, you can't use a detective as an alibi witness." That means he has confessed to the crime.Ao Ye next to him also drooped his shoulders, dejected. "The teacher's family has gone on a trip. Except for now, we have no chance to start. The editor will come to pick up the manuscript in a few days. Anyway, now is the best time, and if you miss it, there will be no more... This matter It was decided by the three of us together, so why are you still complaining about it?" Only Baishi still stood up straight with his chest out.However, there was already a trace of frustration evident in his expression. "What is the motive?" The police department turned to them and asked, "You are his disciples, you should respect him. Why do you want to kill him?" The three looked at each other, and Baishi replied as a representative: "In order to protect the new world." "what?" "It can also be called a new novel. The protagonist of the story is the mystery itself, and the characters on the stage are just the factors that make up the mystery; by organizing and solving the mystery, interspersed with the wonderful performance of the characters, it is this kind of novel that moves and romances the readers." This is their definition of a mystery novel, I think. "The three of us have wanted to read such a novel since we were young, but it doesn't exist in this world. Although there are also novels that focus on murders and find the real murderer, the setting of the story is too realistic and boring. Killed They are either company employees who know about social problems and certain secrets, or female white-collar workers who are involved in extramarital affairs. The background is always social problems of one kind or another. In fact, social problems are what the writer wants to reflect, and the murders are just accompaniment. Village. We didn't want to read such novels, but only those that deal with the mystery itself. So, the three of us thought of the same thing. Yes, that is, we can write it ourselves. Soon, we were in college We met each other. When we knew that there are people in this world who have the same thoughts as us, we were very moved, and vowed to complete the creation of this kind of novel no matter what method we use. However, we who do not have any writing background, no matter how we appeal, we cannot No one paid any attention to him. So we decided to join Mr. Huotian, a socialist writer, to look for opportunities. We chose Mr. Huotian simply because he was more popular, and there was no other reason. To be honest, we neither admired him nor Respect him." "What does Mr. Huo Tian think about you?" the mayor asked. "He probably didn't think about anything. For him, adopting a few disciples is just a fashion. He never cared about whether we can become writers." "So you killed him?" Daheyuan Police Department asked. Bai Shi smiled lightly and said, "No, if it's just that, we won't kill him. Didn't I say that we killed him to protect Xin Xin?" He turned his head and looked at me, solemnly Shi said: "Three days ago, we saw the work that the teacher was creating. At that time, we thought, we must kill him as soon as possible. The title of that novel is 'The Murder at the Inclined Noodle House'." "Wow, it's our manuscript!" Udogawa, who had been silent until now, suddenly yelled, "Where is that manuscript! Give it to me, give it back!" "Thank you for being so enthusiastic, but..." Baishi said, "I burned it." "Ah?!" Udogawa suddenly collapsed on the ground. "Why do you do that?" I asked. "That novel..." Shiraishi swallowed, ""The Murder at the Inclined Pavilion" is exactly the novel we want to write. A closed space, characters everywhere, impossible crimes, a genius detective who challenges this mystery—— It has all the ingredients for the kind of novel we aspire to." "Isn't that all right?" "It's embarrassing for us. I told you, too, that I don't think the teacher himself wrote that work. Perhaps he plagiarized a writer somewhere who had the same idea as us. But, anyway Said, if we ignore it, the novel will be published as the work of the teacher. We must stop this. Otherwise, the precursor of the form of novel we dream of and regard as ideal will be Shunsuke Hida. We must find a way to avoid this This kind of thing happens. If not, this kind of brand-new novel form that has finally appeared will become a subsidiary. The pioneer of this kind of novel should be a writer who is suitable for it.” Shiraishi's voice gradually became higher and full of enthusiasm.Everyone was moved by his speech. "Is it just for this reason to kill people..." the police department groaned. "It's an important thing for us. We're protecting what we have to protect." Shiraishi didn't hesitate at all. Akagi and Aono just stood there motionless, listening to their companions speak.They didn't intervene, probably because they had already discussed this matter. "That's all I have to say. I don't know about the two of them, but I don't regret it at all." Akagi and Qingye raised their heads when they heard the words, and said in unison: "So are we." "We have no regrets." Someone let out a long sigh, it was the Ogawara Police Department.He clenched his fist and tapped the back of his head two or three times, then gave his subordinates a wink.The criminal police stepped forward, ready to take the three people away. "Ah, that's right." Shiraishi stopped, looked back at me, and said, "When I was disguised as Mr. Hida, you asked me about my thoughts on novels centered on solving puzzles, and you said, there is no such thing. It's strange that genre fiction exists. Why do you say that?" "Why? This..." I scratched my scalp, trying to organize my thoughts, but found that I didn't think of an answer, so I could only say, "There is no reason. I just think that kind of novel is fine." At this time, he smiled slightly and said, "It can be said that you are also a person who lives in the same world as us." Just when I was thinking about how to answer, they were taken away by the criminal police.