Chapter 30 Section 30

When he arrived at the appointed cafe, Kusanagi saw Wakayama Hiromi was already there, and he hurried to her side. "Sorry to keep you waiting." "No, I just arrived too." "I'm really sorry to bother you so much. I'll try to keep it as short as possible." "You don't have to be so polite. Anyway, I don't go to work now, I have plenty of time." Wakayama Hiromi said with a faint smile. Compared with the last time I saw her, her face seemed to be a little ruddy.Perhaps, Kusanagi thought, she had recovered mentally. The waitress walked up to the two of them, and Kusanagi ordered a cup of coffee.Then, she asked Wakayama Hiromi, "Would you like a glass of milk?"

"No, I'd rather have a cup of lemon tea." Hiromi replied. After the waitress left, Kusanagi smiled at Hiromi: "Sorry, because I remember you seem to have ordered milk before." She said "hmm" and nodded: "I don't particularly like drinking milk. And now, I try not to drink milk as much as possible." "Hmm...you are here, is there any special reason?" After hearing Kusanagi's question, Hiromi Wakayama tilted her head and said, "Do I have to answer such a detailed question?" "Ah, no, it doesn't matter." Kusanagi waved his hand, "I just heard that you said that you are not in a hurry, so it seems a little casual. Let's get back to business, I came to you today to ask you some advice about Zhenchai's kitchen. situation. Do you know that there is a water purifier installed on the pipe of their tap water?"

"Know." "Then have you ever used it before?" "I haven't used it." Wakayama Hiromi gave a clear answer. "The answer is so straightforward, I thought you would think about it a little bit." She said: "Because I seldom go into their kitchen. I didn't help cook the dishes, so I never used any water purifier. I remember that I told Miss Neihai before that I only When the teacher asks me to make coffee or black tea, I will only enter their kitchen. And only when the teacher is busy cooking and really can’t spare a hand.” "Then you've never been in their kitchen alone?"

Wakayama Hiromi showed a surprised expression on his face: "I don't understand what is the purpose of your question." "You don't need to know. Can" Think back, have you ever been alone in their kitchen? " She frowned and thought about it for a while, then looked at Kusanagi and said, "Maybe not. And I always feel that Teacher doesn't allow others to enter their kitchen without authorization." "Did she tell you not to go in without permission?" "She didn't make it so clear, but I just feel that way. And isn't it often said that the kitchen is the housewife's castle?"

"I see." When the drink was served, Wakayama Hiromi put lemon on the black tea and drank it with enjoyment.Judging from her expression, she seems to be in good shape. On the contrary, Kusanagi's heart sank.What she said just now completely verified Tang Chuan's reasoning. He took a sip of coffee, stood up and said, "Thank you for your cooperation." Wakayama Hiromi opened her eyes in surprise: "Have you finished asking?" "My goal has been achieved, please use it slowly." After he finished speaking, he picked up the bill on the table and walked towards the door.

When he left the cafe and was about to hail a taxi, his cell phone rang, and the call was from Yu Chuan. Tang Chuan said that he wanted to talk to him about the technique: "I have something to confirm with you immediately. Can we find a place to meet?" "Since this is the case, then I will go to your place to find you now. What is the matter? What do you need to confirm? Aren't you quite confident in your own reasoning?" "Of course I have confidence. That's why I want to confirm it. Come here as soon as possible." As soon as he finished speaking, Yu Chuan hung up the phone.

About thirty minutes later, Kusanagi walked into the gate of Imperial University. "I assumed that the murderer did use that method, and then revisited the cause and effect of the case, and then got stuck at one point. Because I thought it might be helpful for your search, I quickly called you Call." Yukawa said to Kusanagi as soon as they met. "It seems that what you said is very important?" "It's very important. What I want to confirm with you now is the situation when Mrs. Ayane just returned home after the incident. I remember she was with you at the time, right?"

"That's right, Nei Hai and I sent her home." "What was the first thing she did?" Yukawa asked. "First thing? Well, when she looked at the scene—" Kusanagi's answer made Yukawa shake his head, he seemed to be in a hurry. "She should go into the kitchen. She turned on the water tap in the kitchen. Right?" Kusanagi froze for a moment, and the scene at that time appeared in his mind. "Yes, you are right, she did use tap water." "What did she use that water for? According to my reasoning, she should have used a lot of water at that time." Tang Chuan's eyes sparkled.

"Take it to water the flowers. She said she couldn't bear to watch those flowers wither, so she took a bucket of water and used it to water the pots of flowers on the balcony on the second floor." "That's it." Yukawa pointed at Kusanagi with his index finger and said, "This is the last step of her poisoning method." "The last step in the poisoning method?" "I tried to think from the perspective of the murderer. At that time, she dropped the poison tube in the water purifier and left home. The target she wanted to kill with poison did what she wanted, and she drank the water and died. But At this point, she can't be completely relieved, because there may still be poison left in the water purifier."

Kusanagi straightened his back involuntarily: "That's true." "If you leave it alone like this, it will be very dangerous for the murderer, because if someone drinks the water by mistake, there may be a second victim. Of course, the police will be able to see through her tricks this time." So, from the perspective of the murderer, she must find a way to destroy the evidence as soon as possible." "So she's going to water the flowers..." "At that time, what she put into the bucket was the water from the water purifier. As long as the full buckets of water were drained one after another, the residual arsenic in the water purifier could be washed away, forcing us to resort to Spring 8 In other words, she lied about watering the flowers, but she calmly and calmly destroyed the evidence under the noses of you investigators."

"So that's the question. The water at that time..." "Once the water stays, it may become evidence." Tang Chuan said, "Just because the particles of arsenic were detected from the water purifier, I'm afraid it can't prove that she used that method. Only by checking On the day of the crime, there was indeed a lethal dose of water flowing out of the water purifier to verify my reasoning." "Didn't I just tell you that all that water was used to water the flowers?" "In this case, let's test the soil in the flower pot. If it is Spring 8, the arsenic should be detected. It may be difficult to prove that the poison in the soil was poured by Mrs. Ayane at that time, but at least it will be possible. become a proof." After hearing Yukawa's words, something froze in Kusanagi's mind.This thing seems to be able to think of it but can't think of it. I have seen it but forgot to have seen it. This fragment of memory, like a fishbone stuck in his throat, finally fell into his thinking network.Kusanagi gasped, staring straight at Yukawa's face. "What? Is there something on my face?" Tang Chuan asked. "No," Kusanagi shook his head and said, "I have something to ask you... No, it's me, the investigator of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, and I have something to ask Associate Professor Yukawa of Teito University." Tang Chuan's expression became serious, and he adjusted his glasses with his fingertips: "Let's talk."