Chapter 13 Section 1

Kaga and Oda arrived at the dance troupe at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the police officers from Shakujii had already started their on-site inspections, and several investigators from the investigation headquarters of the Oda case had already arrived at the scene. Deputy police officer Kobayashi of Shakamii leaned against the wall of the corridor and watched the appraisal work in progress. Kaga walked over and asked, "Where's Yagyu?" "Sent to the hospital, it should be safe." "No one else has had it?" "No, it seems that the poison was poured into Liu Sheng's own water bottle."

"What kind of poison is it?" "I don't know yet." Kobayashi was obviously a little unhappy, and it was no wonder that the previous case had not seen any progress at all, and a new case had occurred within their jurisdiction. Kaga looked into the training room, and the dancers were all idle, but it was not easy to continue practicing at this time. Some of them were doing flexibility exercises on the ground, and some were holding the bars to move their bodies lightly. Others squatted face down and did not move. Asaoka Mio was standing in front of the mirror in a daze, Kaga had been staring at her, she turned her head as if she had noticed something.He nodded slightly, wanting to signal to her that there is no need to worry about saying anything, but he wondered if she would notice this subtle movement.

"What's in the Yagyu jug?" Kaga asked Kobayashi. "Today is coffee." As Kobayashi said, he ordered a young criminal policeman beside him to pass over the water bottle. "Today? What do you mean?" Ota interrupted from the side. "Yagyu seems to always bring bentos from home to eat, and the contents of the kettle will always change as the food changes. Today he brought sandwiches, so it goes with coffee." "You mean if it's a Sun Flag meal, it should be served with Japanese tea?" Ota said. "That's exactly what it means, but they probably haven't even heard of the Sun Flag meal."

Kobayashi said with a wry smile. The young detective brought the water bottle, and Kobayashi handed it to Ota.There was a large plastic bag on the outside, and although the fingerprint collection was over, the two of them still put on gloves. "It smells like coffee." Ota opened the lid and brought his nose closer to smell it. It was a pressure-resistant stainless steel kettle. "It smells good, right? It doesn't look like it's been mixed with poison." "But it's really an addition." "Yes, do you want to drink and see?" "Forget it, no need."

Ota handed the kettle to Kaga, and Kaga found that the inside of the lid was wet. "Did he drink from the lid instead of the cup?" Kaga said. "It seems to be." Ota nodded. "When did he drink it?" "During the lunch break, it was around 2 o'clock. There were a few witnesses, so the investigation of the situation at that time was very clear. Yagyu was preparing to eat in the lounge, and drank some coffee before. Not quite right, after two or three sips, I said it tasted a bit strange. Then I was a little puzzled and was about to eat the sandwich, and suddenly my expression became painful. I fell to the ground as if my stomach and head were hurting. After a while, my face turned pale and dripped In a cold sweat. Everyone present exclaimed, and people from the office rushed to contact the hospital and the police station. Generally, the doctor should be contacted first, and the police are only necessary after the doctor's diagnosis. However, such cases happened one after another. After that, everyone started coping like that.”

No matter what time it is, there will be times when I get used to it, Ota has a very awkward feeling. The doctor immediately diagnosed symptoms of poisoning, made him spit out what he drank, and asked him to sniff the ammonia to stimulate his nerves.Just after he adjusted his disordered breathing a little, the police car arrived. "Is the only thing Liu Sheng drinks is coffee?" After closing the lid of the kettle, Kaga asked. "Yeah, the sandwich hasn't been touched." "Where is the kettle?" "In the dressing room, Yagyu's own closet, but the closet is not locked."

"It's dangerous." "Because he trusts his partners." As he said that, Xiao Lin immediately corrected, "No, it should be said that he once trusted." This correction hinted at possible changes in the Gaoliu Dance Troupe in the future. Ota went to the locker room to check the scene, and Kaga walked into the practice room. The air inside, which has always been full of enthusiasm and sweat, also felt a little chilly today.The dancers all wear tops. After seeing Kaga coming in, no one reacted, maybe just like what Ota said, this has become one of their habits.Only Wei Xu welcomed him with dark eyes.

He walked up to her and couldn't help coughing, and said in a low voice: "Are you surprised?" Originally, I wanted to say "I really bothered you yesterday", but I found it a bit inappropriate. Wei Xu didn't nod, but drooped her thick eyelashes, her eye sockets were red, but her cheeks and neck were pale and bloodless. "Does... Mr. Yagyu bring a water bottle every day?" Kaga struggled a little with calling Yagyu "sir" because he remembered his provocative gaze. "Well, usually." "Everyone knows about this, right?" Then she rolled her eyes and glanced at the dancers around her, then replied:

"Almost everyone should know, maybe the college students and those who come to help the ballet school don't know." Kaga understood what she meant, and she began to look around the practice room out of the corner of her eye, as if she was relieved.In this way, Kaga finally understood the reason why the actors were so quiet, and they had begun to realize that the murderer was among them. "Did he always drink from the jug at lunchtime?" As soon as the words fell, he continued to ask. "Yes." Wei Xu replied simply, "Yusheng never drank in the morning class."

In other words, the murderer poisoned the kettle between the time when Yagyu changed his clothes and the beginning of his lunch break. "Then change the question," Kaga said, "is it difficult to sneak out of the practice room during class?" This question implies that the prisoner is among the actors, but Wei Xu has not shy away from this point, "Sometimes people go out to the bathroom, but very rarely." "What about today?" "should not." Kaga felt that even if there was, the probability that this person was a criminal was very low, because doing so would definitely attract suspicion.So it must have been sneaked in the locker room and poisoned before the class started.

Originally, Kaga wanted to ask her if she had any clue about pointing the finger at Yagyu, but he found it too imprudent to ask here, so he thanked her and walked out of the practice room. After arriving in the locker room, the appraisers had already collected fingerprints.The area here is about 3 couches, and there are ten lockers lined up on the left after entering the door.Asking a young police officer next to him which wardrobe was Liu Sheng, he pointed to the nearest relatively new one and said, "This is it." "It seems that only those who have been in the regiment for a long time can use the locker." Suddenly there was a voice, and when he looked back, Ota was standing at the door. "Although Yagyu is playing the role of the quasi-protagonist, in terms of seniority, he is just ranked tenth, and he has just reached the level where he can use the wardrobe." Kaga walked in and nodded.The innermost one is Oda's locker, and the one next to it is another male ballet teacher's. Even Konno's wardrobe is only halfway up. There was a window in the innermost part of the room, and the azaleas could be seen in full bloom outside. Kaga checked the keyhole of the window. "There was no sign of the windows being open." Ota seemed to have figured out what he was thinking, so he came over and said. "The dust in the gaps in the windows has not changed, and if it has been opened, it will definitely leave traces." "As for people who can come and go here at will, those male dancers become suspicious." "It's still too early to make a conclusion. According to our inquiries, generally male actors change clothes much faster than female actors, and they enter the practice room earlier. That is to say, after there is no one here, there are still a lot of actresses left." It is not impossible for one of them to sneak in and poison everyone while everyone is not paying attention, and then come out to cover people's eyes and ears." "What an audacious crime." "This time the prisoner is really bold." Then Ota lowered his voice to a minimum, "Although I don't know what the motive is, it is impossible for a prudent person to kill Yagyu in this kind of place, because in this way the suspect will be locked in It's pretty small." Ota added that boldness is a characteristic of women. That night, the search headquarters of the Shibuya Police Station reported the case. Although this matter is under the management of the Shakujii Police Station, in view of its connection with the Oda case, the two are actually conducting a joint investigation.So now there are surprisingly many searchers in the meeting room. The course of the case was just as Kobayashi said, but there was nothing worth noting about the locker room. However, in a stark contrast to the atmosphere in the previous meeting room, there were several discoveries regarding the motive for the crime. "Yagyu Kosuke believes that the murderer who killed Oda and Toshiyuki Kazama are accomplices." A lean old detective named Tsurumaki looked at everyone and said. "In order to prove that Saito Ye Ryuko is indeed a legitimate defense, Yagyu seems to intend to find out Kazama's motive for sneaking into the Takayanagi Dance Troupe. Therefore, based on the above reasoning, he is going to find out the relationship between Oda and Kazama. Many dance troupe members have revealed , Liu Sheng once threatened that he would not hesitate to doubt the other members of the dance troupe, and he would save Ye Liuzi for everyone to see." Kaga imagined Yagyu's appearance when he said this, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.It should come as no surprise that the boy would deliver such impassioned words. "Does Yagyu have any specific actions?" Tomii asked. "Regarding this point, the director of the affairs bureau, Sakagi, said something worthy of our deep thinking." Tsurumaki loosened his tie, and continued, "This situation is beyond our control. Two years ago, Oda went not only to New York, but also to other places in the United States and Canada, in order to inspect ballet companies in various places. According to Sakagi As mentioned, Yagyu seems to have asked him for the relevant records at that time. His reason is that he also hopes to go on the same journey anyway, so he can use it as a reference. And it seems that after Yagyu finished training yesterday, he stayed alone in the office to investigate where." This statement immediately caused an uproar among the other police officers. "About Oda's incident in New York two years ago, I believe the police officers sent there have conducted a detailed investigation, right?" "They are investigating," Kobayashi replied, "but so far nothing has been investigated, and no evidence of contact with Kazama has been found, so they plan to expand the time range of two years ago to search a little bit." "Isn't it possible that the Japanese that Kazama met there was Oda?" For Ota's question, Kobayashi shook his head. "Faxed the photos to the witnesses, and they all said no." "That means Yagyu is eyeing the fact that Oda has been to places other than New York?" Tomii asked Yagyu if other dance troupe members knew about Yagyu's investigation, and Tsurumaki replied that almost everyone should know.It is said that everyone heard the conversation between Sakagi and Yagyu. "If the murderer hears this and wants to kill Liu Sheng, it means that the direction of Liu Sheng's investigation is right in the bull's-eye of this case." Said a certain police officer, Tomii nodded with a bored expression, protruding his jaw. "Although at first I thought he was a guy who didn't want to cooperate, I didn't expect him to hide such important information. I really hope he can learn a lesson from this incident. By the way, how is Yagyu doing?" "The doctor said to let him stay quiet for a while tonight, and he should be able to ask questions tomorrow morning." The young policeman replied. "Are there guards?" "Watching." "Okay, you have to remind me that if Liu Sheng was murdered for the reason just mentioned, this guy is not dead now, and the murderer may strike again." "I'm really looking forward to hearing something from Liu Sheng." "Yeah, it would be great if the case could be settled at once—" In the middle of Fu Jing's words, the appraiser came in and handed him a document. Fu Jing glanced at it and began to report to everyone. "I've found out the type of poison. It's still nicotine. It must be the liquid soaked in tobacco leaves. It's the same as when Oda was killed. It's just that the concentration is lower than before, because it's mixed in coffee, so it's weak. Yagyu was saved because of this." what." "That's right." The appraiser said, "It's because this time it was not injected like last time, but mixed into the drink. For the prisoner, it may be necessary to prepare a higher concentration of poison, but for the victim very lucky." "Could it be that the prisoner has started to act in a panic this time, which makes us look forward to Yagyu's words even more. By the way, how about the monitoring of the other members of the dance troupe?" Hearing that several people were watching in turn, Tomii nodded in satisfaction. Today will be Oda's wake.