Chapter 26 Section 5

"The university at night is really deserted." Kusanagi thought as he walked on the campus of the Faculty of Science and Engineering of Imperial University.He was thinking about whether he had the experience of staying on campus so late when he was a student.At that time, the practice of the badminton team was often very late, but it was always in the gymnasium. When he knocked on the door of the 13th research room of the Department of Physics, it was past 8 o'clock in the evening.At this time, there were still a few young people who looked like students walking around in the corridor.He once again felt that science students are really not easy.

Yu Chuan was sitting on a chair, holding a cheap coffee cup in one hand, needless to say, it was still instant coffee. "It just stopped and was about to take a break. Would you like a cup of coffee too?" "Ah, no need." Kusanagi waved his hand lightly, staring at the experimental table next to him.The upper body of a mannequin is there, "What is this?" "I don't need to explain, this is used to imitate the victim, Tadaki Sakishima, and it was borrowed from other places." "Did you find anything?" "It's not a discovery, it's just my own conclusion."

"What conclusion? Tell me quickly." Tang Chuan put down the cup, stood up, and came to the experimental bench. "This mannequin is very heavy. The upper body alone is so heavy. If I borrow the whole body, I will be exhausted." Tang Chuan looked back at Kusanagi, "Mannequins are like this, let alone real people, and The victim has such a good physique, and his body is not as straight as the model, so it should take quite a lot of physical strength to move him to the bed." "Hmm." Kusanagi agreed. "Judging from the circumstances of the crime scene alone, Yajima and the prisoner should be sitting face to face across the table. Of course, sitting on a chair. And Yajima fell into a coma from drinking coffee mixed with sleeping pills, and the prisoner took him Strangled to death. But," Tang Chuan raised his index finger, "Why did the prisoner have to move him to the bed before killing him? If the purpose is to kill him, can't he just do it on the chair?"

Kusanagi rubbed his chin with his hand.Tang Chuan was right. No one has noticed this detail so far, and it really shouldn't be. "That's not the only thing that makes people understand. Why didn't the prisoner clear away the canned coffee on the table? The prisoner wiped off the fingerprints on the coffee can. Instead of that, it's better to take it away. Ashtray The same is true for the cigarette butts in the bag, if these are interpreted as the negligence of the prisoner, it may be unreasonable, right?" "Then what are you talking about?" Kusanagi asked urgently.

Tang Chuan took off his glasses, wiped the lenses with the corner of his white coat, and put them on again. "My reasoning is this: lying on the bed is what Yajima himself meant, and there is no owner of the canned coffee and cigarette butts, which are all arranged by himself. In other words, Yajima Tadaaki's death was not homicide, It was suicide disguised as homicide." "Suicide?" Kusanagi raised his tone, "You are joking. If it is suicide, how can those circumstances be explained?" "I interpreted it according to normal thinking and came to this conclusion. Tadaki Yajima chose to die in order to save his family and workers. But if he committed suicide within one year of buying life insurance, he would not be able to get compensation, so he pretended to be He killed."

"Impossible. I have seen a lot of dead bodies, but I have never seen myself strangled to death. Of course, I am not saying that there is no such possibility. For example, I heard that if you strangle your neck with a wet towel, even if you lose consciousness, the strength of the towel It won’t loose either, and it can be fatal, but this is an exceptional case, judging from the strangle marks this time, it is absolutely impossible for me to do it myself.” "This time is an exception among exceptions. Yajima Tadaaki made a careful plan and strangled himself to death." Kusanagi still shook his head, repeating that it was impossible.

Tang Chuan took out something from the pocket of his white coat. It was the string he picked up at the Nojima factory a few days ago. "I have uncovered the true nature of this rope. What do you think it is?" "have no idea." After hearing Kusanagi's answer, Yukawa temporarily disappeared behind the bookshelf.When he reappeared, he held something unexpected in his hand, an archery bow. "this is……" "This string was originally used for bow strings. Look carefully, is it the same?" The thin string was tightly stretched on the bow, and compared carefully with the thin string picked up at the Nojima factory, Kusanagi was sure that they were the same thing.The little knot tied at the end of the cord is intended to be looped over the end of the bow.

"Do you still remember a piece of paper on the wall of the factory that says 'one shot into the soul'. This sentence is often said by people who practice archery. I heard it from a friend of the archery team before. You should investigate it in detail. Yajima Tadaaki’s experience is known, I believe that the probability that he has practiced archery is more than 80%.” "...Well, I will investigate when I go back. Does this have anything to do with this case?" "Listen to my explanation and you will understand. You can also see that the string on the bow is stretched tightly by a strong tension. I deduce that Yajima Tadaki used this tension to strangle himself to death. .The question now centers on what method he used to do it."

Tang Chuan returned to the experimental table, placed the bow a few centimeters away from the top of the mannequin's head, and kept adjusting the position of the bow until the string reached the neck of the mannequin, and the head of the mannequin was clamped between the bow and the string. between. "Of course, it's just that it's useless, so another string came out." Tang Chuan opened the drawer of the experimental table and took out a new string. "This string is about 30 centimeters longer than the string on the bow. It was custom-made by me in the bow and archery team. I heard that the strings used by archery veterans are all bought from the thin threads according to their own needs and then twisted by themselves. But the team member who made this string for me said that he also made it from I've never made such a long string."

Yu Chuan hung one end of the long string on one end of the bow, wrapped the string around the neck of the mannequin, and then tied the other end to the other end of the bow and arrow, with some remaining length. "In this way, there are two strings on the bow. Now it is the short string that makes the bow bend. In this state, if the short string is cut off, what will happen?" Yukawa asked Kusanagi. "What happens, Of course the bow is about to be straightened. Ah, but because there is another string to show." "So the tension of the bow acts on the other string, and that string will be fully stretched, and the mannequin's neck will be tightened. Do you understand?" Yukawa grinned.

"You mean, after Yajima designed such a mechanism, he cut the short string himself?" "He can die like this, but he didn't do it. Instead, he carefully designed it so that he can die after drinking sleeping pills and falling asleep." "You mean, he put some thought into making the short string disconnect automatically? Like using a timer." "The timer is supposed to be needed. But the key is the way he breaks the string. I was confused about this too at first, because the string on the bow is made of very strong material, and it can be cut with a knife or scissors." , It’s not easy to cut it off automatically, so I started to think about whether he used a simpler and more effective method.” "Based on your IQ, you must have thought of the answer, right?" "To be exact, I didn't think of that, but I was inspired by others." Yu Chuan took the rope he picked up in his hand again, "I deduce that this string was used by Tadaki Yajima in many experiments. , I carefully observed the breaking point of this string, and found no trace of being cut by a sharp object. I looked at it under a microscope, and found that the front ends of each thin wire were curled up into a spherical shape, so I understand his trick." "What trick?" "heating." "heating?" "This kind of string is made of high-density polyethylene. Although it has high mechanical strength, it is not heat-resistant. That is to say, it is the easiest way to melt and break it by heating. So, how to give it What about heating?" Tang Chuan stretched out his hand to the power plug placed in the corner of the experimental table, and the other end of the plug was connected to a metal rod about 5 cm long, "Just use this, you still know the thing connected to the plug ?" Hearing what Yukawa said, Kusanagi thought for a while, but still couldn't think of anything, so he tilted his head. "Didn't you see it in the workshop? It's the electric heater used to make car detergent containers. It's just cut short." "Ah—" Kusanagi remembered that it was the tool used by Tanaka. Yu Chuan clamped the root of the electric heater with pliers, and gently placed it on the tight short string. "Yajima Tadaaki probably used a simple tool to fix the electric heater in this state, but today, I used my hands instead. He should also use a timer. I don't have it on hand, so I use 'Kusanagi Timer' device'." "Kusanagi timer?" "Listen to my password and insert the plug connected to the electric heater into the socket." After being told by Yukawa, Kusanagi picked up the plug and got ready beside the socket. "Keep away from the bow due to the danger. But you'll have to watch it." "understood." "Okay, here we go. Plug in!" After hearing the order, Kusanagi inserted the plug into the socket. The electric heater in Yuchuan's hand immediately turned red, the same color as the one they saw at the Nojima factory. "The string should be broken soon." Tang Chuan reminded. Just hearing a "snap", both the bow and the mannequin moved in an instant.A part of the string that was tense just now broke and hung down feebly, while the other string that was used as a substitute immediately tightened, strangling the neck of the mannequin. "Don't look away, it's not over yet," Tang Chuan said. The electric heater continued to emit heat, and it was about to melt the remaining string. Accompanied by a violent sound, the bow jumped up on the test bench, and at the same time, a section of the broken string was thrown into the air. Because one end was still burning, it looked like a ball of fire floating in the air. "Kusanagi, pull out the plug." As Yukawa said, Kusanagi carefully clamped the still hot electric heater to the pool to cool it down. "It turns out that the ghost fire is such a thing..." Kusanagi suddenly realized, "It must be the night before the incident, Yajima did the last experiment, and this scene happened to be seen by Akiho." "The main culprit for scorching the carpet in the hotel is also this burning string. Besides," Yu Chuan pointed at the mannequin's neck, "look at this again." Kusanagi looked in the direction of Yukawa's finger and couldn't help but let out an "ah". On the neck of the mannequin, there were obvious scratch marks.It's not just a sign of being strangled. "You also saw it just now—once the second string is broken, there is no force to restrain the bow, so the bow bounces straight at once. With the super inertia, the string wrapped around the neck is also violently The ground was pulled away. Under the action of friction, such a scar was formed." "It turns out that the scar on Yajima's neck was formed for this reason." Kusanagi sat on the chair next to him. "How is it, my police officer Kusanagi?" Yukawa asked, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, probably because he was satisfied with the results of the experiment. "But at the scene, no such thing was found." "Of course it was packed by his accomplices. It looked like a big project, but it wasn't that much of a hassle to put it away, as in the case of this bow, which can be broken down into three parts and easily packed into a bag. " "You mean...he has an accomplice?" "Probably so. 99.9% likely." Kusanagi thought quickly: If you go to that hotel at night, the risk factor of being witnessed is still very low. Tadaki Yajima can make an appointment with the accomplice to hide the room key. The accomplice took the key and went directly to the hotel. In the room, put away all the props without touching the corpse, so that Yajima Tadaaki's sports bag was empty, and the accomplice put the company documents he brought in again. "Is the accomplice a noble son?" Kusanagi asked. "Do you think so?" Tang Chuan asked back. "Is not it?" "I don't think Tadaki Yajima will tell his wife about this plan, and his wife will definitely not do it." "So...that man?" Kusanagi saw the face of Sakai Yoshiyuki before his eyes. "Very likely. His alibi is more perfect than anyone else's, which is rather suspicious." "I understand." Kusanagi stood up, "Yukawa, can you show this experiment to the section chief?" "If you think it's necessary, I'll do it too." "It is absolutely necessary!" Kusanagi rushed out of the door.