Chapter 3 Chapter 3 The "Suicide" of the Three Pistols

That night Mason was lying in bed reading psychology books when the phone rang. The voice of Mrs. Bashard, who was in a state of panic, asked hurriedly, "What's the matter, madam?" "My husband wounded his daughter-in-law and ran away. My son Dick became very angry and threatened to kill the old man when he came back." "How about calling the police?" "Then my son will be arrested. Come, please." "Okay, I'll go." As soon as Mason put down the phone, he immediately drove out of the garage and started speeding on the street late at night.When they arrived at Bashad's house, Mrs. Bashad was already waiting in front of the financier's gate in fear.The door opened and a lanky young man stepped out. "Hey, Mom, this time I have to take the old man..."

Seeing Mason getting out of the car, the young man shut up abruptly.Mrs. Bashad introduced: "This is my son Dick." Mason readily shook hands with Dick, and Dick awkwardly stretched out his right hand from his pocket.Mason grabbed the opponent's hand, pulled it to his side, quickly searched his pockets, and took out a 38mm pistol that was inside. "It's none of your business." Dick was very angry. Mason put the muzzle of the gun close to his nose and smelled it; "It smells like a gun has been fired recently." Dick stared at Mason and fell silent. "Where's your daughter-in-law?" Mason asked.

Mrs. Bashard led Mason into the reception room, and saw a woman in a brown suit lying on the sofa.She appeared to be unconscious, with a wet towel covering her head. "This is Dick's wife, but her marriage to Dick is kept from my husband," said Mrs. Barshad softly. Mason could only see a red scar on her forehead, which seemed to be a severe blow. "Why did it happen?" "I don't know. Anyway, my husband hit her and got away in a parked car." "So, what does Madam want me to do?" "My husband is violent and I want to divorce him. Is that a grounds for divorce?"

Mason was surprised by Mrs. Bashard's bizarre request, thought for a while, and asked Dick a question. "You are mother's accomplice, and you have a bad relationship with father, right?" "It doesn't matter if it's bad, he's a stepfather." "Then when did Madam bring Dick to remarry Bashad?" "15 years ago. In the past 15 years, my mother suffered a lot of torture." Son Dick muttered, it seems that he hated his stepfather very much. Mason grabbed the phone next to him and called the police headquarters: "Hi, police headquarters, I'm Dick at 9682 Franklin Street, a major incident happened here, an old man was drunk and injured a woman... he Something is abnormal, I don't know what will happen, can you send a police officer?"

Mason put down the phone, and the woman lying on the sofa moved; Mrs. Bashad gently stroked the woman's hair. The woman closed her eyes and sighed. At this moment, Mrs. Bashard walked to Mason's side and whispered, "Please return the pistol to me just now." "What are you going to do, ma'am?" "Must hide until the police come." Mason took the gun out of his pocket and returned it to her, and she put it in her suit and covered it with her hand; at this moment, Dick talked to his wife in a low voice, and then stood up. "Hazel said it wasn't the old man who hit her."

"That's impossible," said Madame Bashard. "But Hazel said no, she said, and she knocked on the office door, and when the old man opened the door, there was another man in the room, but with his back to the door. No one. The old man said, busy now. So Hazel Waited outside for ten minutes. Suddenly the door opened, and the man came out, turned off the light, and was about to go out. He suddenly realized that Hazel was there, and turned towards her. It is said that through the glass of the office door Out of the light, one eye was empty. Hazel was startled and let out a scream. The man came up and hit her. Hazel desperately tore off his mask, and saw that he was a man he had never seen before. A one-eyed man with a vicious look. He beat Hazel hard and escaped."

"One-eyed man? Dick, is it an illusion?" "No, it's the one-eyed man. Isn't it, Hazel?" "Where is that fake?" Mason got down and searched on the floor, and found that the fake mask made of carbon paper had fallen under the sofa, and two holes had been dug for the eyes of the mask. "That's it... I saw the other person's face, a terrible face..." As Hazel said, he stood up from the sofa, and Mason asked, "Is the man who hit you one eye?" "Well, one eye has no eyeball, and it's black." "No, absolutely not." Suddenly Mrs. Bashard moaned loudly in protest.

Mason ignored him and continued to ask Hazel: "Did that man escape through the door of the reception room after beating you?" "Oh, I can't remember." "Did you hear the sound of him driving away?" "I really don't know a thing. Lost consciousness." Mason opened the door of the office and took a look, only the electric lights were flickering alone, nothing out of the ordinary.He opened Bashad's luxurious manager's room again, and it was dark and dull. "Where's the light switch?" Mason asked.Mrs. Bashard pressed the switch next to the door, the light came on, and just as the room became brighter, Mrs. Bashard uttered a horrified cry.

Mason couldn't help but gasped, and stood still. Bashad lay dead on his back on the bed, with a blanket wrapped around his head for unknown reasons, and a typewriter with a sheet of paper stuck in it on a nearby table. "Oh, it seems to be a suicide note. What is it written in? Read it carefully." Dick said excitedly. Mason whispered: "I have decided to end my life. I am a loser. I have earned wealth but lost the respect and love of my family. Unloved people are empty and lonely. I have lost my life. I am determined to end my life. If I shoot myself..." The suicide note came to an abrupt end.

After Mason finished reading the suicide note, he found that the deceased's right hand was tightly clenched.He stooped over the corpse, snapped off the dead man's fingers, and stared at him eerily, unblinkingly, from a bloodshot false eye.Madame Bashard seemed to gasp in surprise.Mason Lang turned her head, "Ma'am, do you have any guesses about this fake eye?" "No, not particularly..." "Then, I've decided to withdraw from the matter, because you don't need my help." Mason was about to leave when Mrs. Bashard grabbed him in panic, "Wait a minute, Mr. Mason."

"Then you tell me the truth?" "Yes. But please go somewhere else in the back..." "The police will be here soon." Mason pushed everyone out the door and turned off the lights in the manager's room. "Oh, I accidentally dropped my handkerchief in it, can you leave it alone?" Madam Bashard suddenly shouted.Mason said, "That won't work, hurry up and pick it up." Mrs. Bashard returned to the manager's room, rummaged in it for a while, and came out with a handkerchief. Before the police came, Mason called his secretary Tina: "Please go to my office immediately. A young woman named Hazel is going there now. Please listen to her and write it down. Don't let her See anyone." Mason hung up the phone and told Hazel, who was already awake, to go to his office; he asked Mrs. Bashad again: "Does anyone else know about this?" "My husband's secretary Kulmer knows. He came back from the movie theater tonight and saw someone running out of the gate. He felt strange and came in." "How did you explain it to him?" "I said there was nothing to worry about, and ordered him to go to his room." "What did he do then? I saw him before the police arrived," Mason said. Seeing this, Dick took the initiative to take Mason to the secretary's room on the second floor of the residence. Dick wanted to go upstairs immediately, but Mason grabbed his arm and stopped him. "When was the pistol you were holding just now fired?" "Called it in the woods yesterday on a drive with Hazel." "Why do you want to do this?" "The old man always abused my mother, so I wanted to scare him at critical moments." Dick replied and went downstairs immediately. Mason walked across the hallway and pushed the door open without knocking.A young man wearing glasses was lying on the bed reading a newspaper, he was startled. "Are you Kulmer?" Mason asked. "Can lawyers enter other people's rooms without knocking?" Kulmer was furious. Just as Mason was about to say something, he suddenly noticed a note on the table.That was the phone number he wrote to Basha, and he quietly put it in his pocket.Then asked him, "Did you go out to see a movie tonight? It is said that when you came back, you saw a man escape from the gate of the office?" "Well, I see." Kulmer smiled contemptuously. "Then you know who that man is?" "It's not something you should know. What right do you have to come into my room and question me?" At this moment, sirens sounded.Mason dashed nimbly down the corridor and down the stairs to the adjoining office. Almost at the same time, two policemen barged in noisily. The police entered the manager's room inside.They took flashlights around the house and flipped a switch by the door.The room suddenly brightened.When the police saw the body lying on the floor, they became nervous. "Anyone hear the gunfire?" No one answered. "Must have wrapped the pistol in a blanket to silence the sound. Look, there's a suicide pistol there." The policeman pointed to a pistol that had fallen to the right hand of the deceased. Mason was taken aback when he saw that, it was the same gun that was handed over from Dick just now and returned to Mrs. Bashard. The policeman lifted the blanket covering the dead man's head and shouted excitedly, "Hey, look, there is another person under the blanket who committed suicide with two pistols! This is homicide!" Mason quietly looked at Mrs. Shard's sideways face, and saw that she bit her lips tightly and trembled in terror. Before Mason could say anything, the homicide officers came and began to inspect the scene. Mason and the others retreated to the reception room, deciding to wait until the investigation was over. While waiting, he asked: "Ma'am, why did you put the pistol in that place?" "It's not like suicide without a pistol. I never dreamed there was a pistol under the blanket. Is it trouble?" "Your husband didn't commit suicide. Check the bullets and you'll know which gun was used to kill him. Besides, that gun has your fingerprints, your son's and mine on it." Madame Bashard grew pale. "Madam, did you know in advance that he died in the manager's office?" Mason looked directly into her eyes. "No. It's not." "Then your son killed it?" "no." "Well, I believe you. But because your relationship with your husband is not good, the police will suspect that you have a motive for killing. If you start an investigation, please go into a hysterical attack. In this way, the police have nothing to do with you, and we have bought time. .” Mason taught her how to fight for time.At this time, the door of the office opened.Sergeant Holcomb of the homicide division beckons Mason over. "Hey, what did you come here for? What did you do?" "Nothing was done. I came and saw a young lady wounded and unconscious, allegedly beaten by someone." "Where is that woman now?" "She was in a bad mood and was sent to a place where she could stay quietly until tomorrow morning." "What! You hid important witnesses of the murder!" Mason stared wide-eyed on purpose, pretending to be shocked.Sergeant Holcomb frowned in disgust. "Mason, there is a limit to joking! Did you see the corpse?" Mason said, "Didn't he commit suicide? There is a suicide note on the typewriter." The police officer spat: "Anyone can type a suicide note on a typewriter. Do suicides use three pistols?" "What? Three?" Mason was taken aback. "One fell on the floor, one was hidden under the blanket, and one was in Bashard's pocket. If you're going to commit suicide, why not use your own pistol and have three?" Officer Holcomb smiled smugly as if he had played a trick on Mason, and then he scowled, "Hey, Mason, where did you hide the girl with the headshot?" "In my office." Mason realized then that the witness must be turned over. Officer Holcomb summoned his men and ordered, "Call police headquarters and tell them to take the woman hiding in Mason's office. It doesn't matter if they break in."