Chapter 9 Section 9

Walking into the building, I felt a chill on the soles of my feet. I was obviously wearing travel shoes, but the footsteps were surprisingly loud.It was almost as if the whole building was empty. She walked up the stairs and finally passed someone halfway.It's a young man with glasses.After he saw Kaoru Utsumi, a surprised expression appeared on his face.Perhaps very few strange women enter this building. The last time she came here was a few months ago. At that time, she was just assigned to the first search department. At that time, in order to complete the search of a certain case, she had to unlock the physical methods in it anyway, so she came here for help. , Relying on the memory of that time, she walked to the door of the room she was going to.

The thirteenth research room is where I remember it.Just like the last time I came, there is a direction board pasted at the door to inform the user of this room where they are at the moment. Next to "Yuchuan", a red magnet is firmly stuck to the place of "in the room".She was relieved when she saw it. It seemed that the other party did not intend to let her go. The assistants and students seemed to have all gone to class, which also reassured her.Because she wants as little as possible to let other people know. She reached out and knocked on the door, and there was a sound of "coming" from the room, so she stood at the door and waited, but after a long time, no one came to open the door.

"Unfortunately, this door is not automatic." Voices came from the room again. Kaoru opened the door by himself, and saw the back of a man wearing a black short-sleeved shirt sitting in the room. Opposite him was a large computer monitor, which displayed a combination of large and small spheres. "Excuse me, can I trouble you to press the switch of the coffee machine next to the sink and the water and coffee have been turned on?" said the owner from the back. The sink is on the right hand side as soon as you enter the door, and there is indeed a coffee machine next to it, which looks very new.After pressing the switch, after a while, there was the sound of steaming inside.

"I heard that you prefer to drink instant coffee." Kaoru said. "This coffee machine was a prize when I participated in the badminton competition and won the championship. It is very rare, so I tried it out. It is quite convenient, and the cost of each cup is also low." "You regret why you didn't try it earlier, don't you?" "No, that's not the case, because this thing has a big flaw." "What shortcoming?" "This thing doesn't taste like instant coffee." After beating the hard disk for a while while talking, the owner of the room, Tang Chuan, turned his chair around and said to Kaoru, "It's customary to search for the work of the first department." Yet?"

"a little bit." "Really, should I say that's fine? But my view has always been that getting used to criminal police work means that you are gradually losing your humanity." "Did you say the same thing to Kusanagi-san?" "I have said it countless times, but he is not moved at all." Tang Chuan turned his gaze back to the computer monitor and held the mouse. "what is that?" "You mean this? It's a modeled ferrite crystal structure." "Ferrite...magnet?" Hearing Kaoru's rhetorical question, the physicist widened his eyes behind the glasses: "You really know a lot. Although it is a magnetic substance to be precise, it is already considered remarkable."

"I have read a few books before, saying that it is used on the magnetic head." "I really hope Kusanagi can come and listen." Yukawa turned off the monitor, looked at Kaoru again and said, "Okay, please answer a few questions for me first. Why do you have to ask me to tell you about your coming here?" How about keeping Kusanagi secret?" "To answer this question, you must first listen to my account of the case." After hearing Xun's answer, Tang Chuan slowly shook his head and said, "When I received your call this time, I once rejected you and told you that I no longer wanted to have anything to do with the police investigation, but in the end I still I want to see you because I heard that you told me to keep it from Kusanagi. I just squeezed out this time to understand why you had to keep it from him. So, you should answer my question first. Let me declare first, whether I want to listen to your account of the case, let me make a decision later."

Kaoru looked at Yu Chuan's calm face and wondered what happened.Hearing from Kusanagi, he used to be active in assisting the investigation, but later became estranged from Kusanagi because of a certain case. As for what kind of case it was, Kaoru didn't know. "It is very difficult to explain the matter without first stating the facts of the case." "It's impossible. When you are looking for someone to inquire about the situation, will you explain the case in detail to the other party? Aren't you good at playing sloppy in key places, just wanting to extract the information you need from other people's mouths? You just need to apply this skill a bit, well, come on, if you hang on, the students will come back."

Hearing his sarcasm, Kaoru almost couldn't help turning his face. She wanted to tease this seemingly calm scholar, at least to make him anxious. "Why?" He frowned and said, "Don't you want to?" "no" "Then just tell me, I really don't have that much time to spend with you." Kaoru responded with "Okay" and sorted out her thoughts. "Mr. Kusanagi..." She looked into Yu Chuan's eyes and continued, "He is in love." "Huh?" The calm and penetrating light disappeared from Tang Chuan's eyes, and he became like a lost boy, the focus of his eyes was ambiguous.He looked at Kaoru with those eyes and asked, "What did you say?"

"In love," she repeated, "he's in love with someone." Yu Chuan lowered his head and adjusted his glasses.He looked at Kaoru again with a strong sense of guard. "Who is it?" he asked. "A suspect." Kaoru replied, "He fell in love with a suspect in this case, so his perspective on this case is completely different from mine, and because of this, I don't want Mr. Kusanagi to know I've been here before." "That is to say, he's afraid he doesn't want me to advise you, does he?" "Yes." Kaoru nodded. Yukawa put his hands on his chest and closed his eyes.He leaned back on the chair and sighed heavily: "It seems that I really underestimated you. I originally planned to send you away as soon as possible no matter what you said, but I didn't expect you to appear Such a thing. Falling in love, and it’s actually that Kusanagi.”

"Then can I tell you about the case?" Kaoru said while savoring the feeling of victory. "Wait a minute, let's have a cup of coffee first. If I don't calm down first, I won't be able to concentrate on listening to you." Tang Chuan stood up and poured coffee into two cups. "This is really a coincidence." Kaoru took one of the cups and said. "What kind of trick?" "It's just the right case to tell over a cup of coffee. The whole case started with a cup of coffee." "In a cup of coffee, the flowers in my dreams bloom...I remember there was such a song before. Okay, let's listen to it." Tang Chuan sat on the chair and took a sip of coffee.

Kaoru gave a complete account from the beginning to the end of what has been found out about the murder of Mashiba Yoshitaka.Although she knew that it was against the regulations to reveal the search situation to unrelated people, she heard from Kusanagi that if she didn't do so, Yukawa would not assist.More importantly, she trusted the person in front of her. After listening to her narration, Yu Chuan drank the last sip of coffee, stared at the empty cup and said, "In short, that's what happened. You were suspicious of the victim's wife, but because Kusanagi fell in love with her , and cannot make a fair judgment.” "I'm exaggerating the term love. In order to arouse the teacher's interest, I deliberately used this shocking word. But there is no doubt that Mr. Kusanagi has a special feeling for the other party. At least, I feel Senior, he is a little different from usual." "I won't ask you why you made such a judgment. I trust women's intuition on these issues." "thanks." Yu Chuan frowned and put the coffee cup on the table. "But judging from what I just heard from you, I don't think Kusanagi's thinking is too biased. Mashiba Ayane... is that her name? This lady's alibi is perfect No shortage of." "However, it would be fine if it was a murder case involving a knife or a gun, but this time it is a poisoning case. Personally, I think it is possible that a trap was set in advance." "You don't want me to explain this trap to you, do you?" Yu Chuan's words were right.Kaoru fell silent.The physicist curled his lips and said, "Sure enough." "It seems you misunderstood that physics is not magic." "But teacher, haven't you solved the magic trick many times before?" "Criminal techniques and magic are different, do you understand the difference?" See Kaoru shaking his head, Tang Chuan continued, "Of course, neither of them have tricks, but the methods of handling them are completely different. For magic, once the performance is over , the audience also lost the opportunity to see through the tricks. However, for the criminal methods, the police can conduct a full search of the crime scene until they are satisfied. As long as a trap is set, traces will inevitably be left, and these traces must be completely erased This point can be said to be the most difficult point in criminal methods." "In this case, is there a possibility that the criminal method was subtly obliterated by the murderer?" "From what you have just said, I must say that the chances are slim. What is it called, mistress of the dead." "It's Hiromi Wakayama." "Didn't this lady testify that she drank coffee with the victim? And the coffee was also made by this lady. If the trap was set in advance, why didn't anything happen at that time? This is the biggest mystery. You just now The reasoning mentioned is very interesting. The method of saying that the poison is a powder that can enhance the flavor of coffee and give it to the victim in advance is not bad if it is used in a mystery series, but it is impossible for the real murderer to use it. This way." "yes?" "If you put yourself in the murderer's shoes and give the poison to the victim as a flavor-enhancing powder, what would happen if he used it somewhere outside instead of at home? For example, what if he said in front of someone that his wife gave it to him and mixed it with his coffee and drank it?" Kaoru bit her lip and stopped talking. Hearing what Tang Chuan said, she figured it out. In fact, she couldn't completely abandon this reasoning in her heart. "Assuming that the deceased's wife is the murderer, then she must prepare a trap that can overcome three obstacles at the same time." Tang Chuan raised three fingers and said, "First, no one can discover that she poisoned beforehand. Otherwise The alibi she made is meaningless. Second, the person who drank the poison must be Mr. Mashiba. Even if his mistress is involved, Mr. Mashiba must be killed, otherwise it is meaningless. And the third is that the trap must be ready in a short time. On the first night of her departure for Hokkaido, they still had a house party at home. If you do that, there is a risk that other people will be poisoned as well. I think the trap was set after the party." After talking eloquently, he pushed his hands away and said, "I have no choice. At least I can't think of any way to satisfy these conditions at the same time." "Are the obstacles you're talking about really that difficult to overcome?" "I think it is very difficult, especially to get over the first obstacle. I think it is more reasonable to think that the wife of the deceased is not the murderer." Kaoru sighed, since even he made such an assertion, then maybe his assumption was really unfounded. Just then, her cell phone rang.She watched Tang Chuan get up to refill his coffee out of the corner of her eye, while answering the phone. "Where are you?" Kusanagi's voice came from the receiver, and the tone sounded a bit off. "I'm investigating at the pharmacy. Because it said let me investigate the source of the arsenic. What happened?" "The forensics department has done a great job. They detected toxic substances from places other than coffee." Kaoru held the phone tightly: "Where did you find it?" "Pot, a kettle for boiling water." "From that thing?" "Although the amount is small, it is absolutely unmistakable. Now we will send people to arrest Hiromi Wakayama." "Why are you arresting her?" "Because of her fingerprints on the jug." "Isn't it a matter of course, she said he made coffee on Sunday morning." "I know this, that's why she has the opportunity to poison." "Is her fingerprint the only one found on the kettle?" She heard Kusanagi let out a long sigh: "She is the housewife, of course she also has one or two fingerprints, but now it has been found out through the overlapping sequence of fingerprints that his wife was not the last person to touch the kettle. By the way In a word, there is no trace of being touched with gloves on the kettle." "I remember learning that gloves don't necessarily leave marks." "I know this, but judging from the current situation, no one except Hiromi Wakayama can poison her. The headquarters will interrogate her later, and you should come back soon." Before Kaoru could say "OK", the phone hung up. "New progress?" After Tang Chuan finished speaking, he stood and took a sip of coffee. Kaoru told him the content of the phone call just now, and while drinking coffee, he listened to her without even nodding his head. "Detected from the kettle. That's quite unexpected." "Maybe I'm really overthinking. On Sunday morning, Wakayama Hiromi drank coffee with the victim from the same kettle. That is to say, at that time, the kettle had not been poisoned. Mashiba Ayane Probably committed a crime, right?" "Besides, poisoning the kettle won't do his wife any good. It's not a crime at all." Kaoru was puzzled, and tilted her head in thought. "You concluded just now that his wife couldn't have committed the crime because someone used the kettle before the crime happened. What if there was no such person? Then, wouldn't the police think that his wife was also poisoned?" Is there a chance? In other words, as far as she is concerned, it will lose the meaning of making an alibi." "Ah... that's true." Kaoru crossed her arms and said dejectedly, "No matter what, Mashiba Ayane will be excluded from the suspects now, right?" Tang Chuan did not answer her question, but stared at her and asked: "Then how do you plan to change the direction of the search in the future? Assuming his wife is not the murderer, will you start to suspect the mistress of the deceased like Kusanagi?" Woolen cloth?" Kaoru shook his head: "I don't think so" "You're quite confident, tell me your reasons. You don't think she has no reason to kill the man you love, do you?" Tang Chuan sat down on the chair and crossed his legs. Kaoru felt anxious inside, because she really meant to say that, and she didn't have any real basis for it.But judging from Yu Chuan's appearance at the moment, she felt that he didn't think Hiromi Wakayama was the murderer, and she felt that he might have some reliable basis.All he knew of the case was what she had told her.It was not Hiromi Wakayama's reminder that made him believe that poisoning the kettle, but what was it? With an "ah", she raised her head. "how?" "She'll clean the jug." "What did you say?" "If she poisoned the kettle, she should have cleaned the kettle before the police arrived. She was the one who found the body and she had enough time to clean up the aftermath." Tang Chuan nodded in satisfaction, and said, "That's right. Let me add one more thing to you. If that lady is the murderer, she should not only wash the kettle, but also dispose of all the used coffee powder and filter paper. And they put things like poison bags next to the body, and set up the scene as if it was suicide." "Thank you," she bowed her head in thanks, "Fortunately, I came here. Excuse me." She turned around and walked towards the gate, Tang Chuan told her to wait. "It is estimated that it is very difficult to see the scene with my own eyes. It would be great if I could have a photo." "What picture?" "The photo of the kitchen where the coffee is made, and I also want to see the photos of the utensils and kettles that you confiscated." Kaoru's eyes widened: "Are you willing to assist us?" Tang Chuan frowned, shook his head, and said, "When you are idle and bored, you can also use your brain to think about whether people in Hokkaido can poison people in Tokyo." Kaoru couldn't help laughing.She opened her bag and took out a file bag from it. "Look." "what is this?" "What you said you wanted to see. I took it myself this morning." Tang Chuan opened the file bag and tilted his head back slightly. "If this mystery can be solved, I really want to use this method to make him behave like you." He made a strange face and said, "Of course, I mean that guy Kusanagi."