Chapter 12 Section 11 Dead Sears

"Or will someone see someone suspicious coming out of here?" Rot Cochran, the duty inspector of the Tenth Bureau, said to Carl, "Our people are questioning the guests in the hall, check Witnesses who might have happened to be in and out of the smoking cubicle or the guest lounge at the time - hoping to get some useful leads." "Mr. John is not an annoying person?" said Geige Edwards (Geige Edwardes), the housekeeper of the villa, obviously—with a sad expression, "I Personally check the invitations that come in from every guest - I ask their name and they respond kindly and send their own gift and sign their name in the autograph book? Not a single one of those guests has not been smiling —except for those nasty Donado brothers: you know, they're even more nasty than a stinking swordfish? And there's that whiny Lucius—who would've been better if he didn't drink Can you call it 'silent'?"

(Author's note: Dorado means "swordfish" in Spanish) Our black detective seemed a little impatient with the nagging of the housekeeper: "All right, Mr. Geiger, all right?", he patted him on the shoulder, "I'm very sorry about that—can you get us the visitor's autograph book? You know— Maybe you need to do a handwriting comparison?" Carl made a sign. "Okay, shall I go now?" Mr. Butler left the guest bathroom with interest. This spacious enclosed toilet is located in a hallway in the lower left corner of the hall, next to a smoking room.On the opposite side are two guest lounges - at the end of the passage is the villa's kitchen.

Sears Donado's body was lying beside the sink, his eyes were still open, but his pupils had long since lost focus—we could tell from the frozen expression of astonishment that he was indeed dead. "Hey! Wenzel, what are you doing?" Carl called to his detective friend. "They're wide enough, there's no point in opening them further!" "Just a routine check?" Our detective closed Sears' eyes. "It seems that there is no need for emergency personnel here anymore?" "Is it really terrible that an insignificant sharp knife and some terrible thoughts can take the life of a young man?" Ms. Emma sighed, "Fortunately, alcohol gave me some courage, otherwise I would I'm about to faint," she touched her forehead, "Oh my God! Did we rush in with the intention of rescue?" Emma glanced at Taphne who was standing aside, " What has ushered in is an irreparable tragedy."

"We knocked first?" Taphne recalled. "At that time, Ms. Emma and I went to the bathroom together - we waited for about five minutes. Ms. Emma was a little impatient: she knocked on the door, and inside But there was no response, and we started to feel that something was wrong?" "I guess someone passed out on the sink," Ms. Emma glanced at Sears' body, which was being photographed by several agents. "This kind of situation is very common at drinking parties." "How did you open the door?" Inspector Roth asked, "Isn't the door locked from the inside?"

"It can be easily done with a coin." Carl replied for the two ladies, "In order to deal with emergencies, the door locks of closed bathrooms are generally simple turnbuckle locks," he pointed to The bathroom door, "does not have an emergency key, and can be easily unscrewed with a coin of the appropriate size or the round end on the reverse side of the key." "Is this basic common sense?" Ms. Emma did not forget to make fun of the inspector on duty. "Huh? So, what does 'SOLL' mean?" Inspector Roth quickly changed the subject—he gestured to the bloody letter written by Sears with his right index finger, "I heard that John also died before he died. Left the same blood letter?"

"That's right!" Wenzel replied, "It was clear—" He glanced at Karl, "Now there is something new that confuses us: at least for me." "It's a pity that the location chosen this time is not very good?" Carl said, "Writing on this kind of bathroom tiles, although it can be barely read, the corners of the letters are shrinking due to tension... In short, the handwriting has already disappeared. It has been deformed, and it is not of great value for handwriting comparison." "But fortunately, the one in the master's room is very clear?" The black detective turned to Rott and said, "It's best to gather the guests in the hall as much as possible—you can also see that there may be a plan Serial killing: the safety of others must come first."

"Do you suspect that all these bloody words were written by one person?" Emma asked Inspector Karl, "From your tone of voice?" "We must first determine whether the blood in the master's room was left by John himself?" Karl nodded slightly, as if recalling the scene just now.He suddenly turned to Wenzel and asked, "Is John Baines left-handed?" "It seems not," our detective answered promptly, "that the right hand is used for shaking hands, and for stirring with a long spoon? You know, it can be awkward to stir things with your non-dominant hand—but, Better check with Mr Steward? Maybe he's a rare 'ambidextrous' - after all, John Baines is an excellent bartender: such a special skill may be required for such a career .”

"Huh? But if he's not left-handed, but barely uses his left hand to write, the handwriting will be difficult to identify?" "I know that Sears is right-handed," said Emma, ​​"but unfortunately, as you just said—distorted handwriting is not very useful." "If possible," Carl said to Roth, "ask a handwriting expert to come over and help? Ms. Emma, ​​it's not up to me whether this handwriting is useful or not." He shrugged. "Must handwriting experts be transferred from the General Administration?" said the on-duty inspector of the Tenth Bureau with some embarrassment. Is there not much work in this area?"

"Is this basic common sense?", this time, Ms. Emma pointed the finger of her joke at Karl - Taphne, Wenzel and Inspector Roth couldn't help laughing, which made our The black detective felt rather embarrassed: "Okay, I'll call the main office in a while and ask them to call Ings - he's our best handwriting expert, I hope it's his turn today?" Carl also tried to talk about the topic Move away (this seems to be the most common way to avoid embarrassing scenes), "In addition, fingerprinting is also necessary-the most likely to leave fingerprints on the bathroom tiles: think about it, if the murderer flushed the gloves down the toilet, then At least fingerprints will be left on the stainless steel handle used for flushing. As long as the murderer didn't go out wearing gloves, then when the guy unscrewed the bathroom door, it is very likely that a lot of fingerprint clues will be left on the doorknob. Up."

Everyone looked at the door in unison, but at this time Inspector Roth raised a question: "Didn't the door be locked from the inside before the ladies came in?" he asked. "So how did the murderer get out? How could he lock the door from the inside if he unscrewed the bathroom door to get out? " Everyone laughed this time, and the poor inspector of duty immediately realized that he had asked a stupid question: "Okay, don't put on that 'basic common sense theory' anymore!" Roth raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender, "I already know what's going on?"

"If it can be opened from the outside, it can also be closed from the outside," Ms. Emma said with a smile, "Is this not basic common sense, but basic reasoning?" "Although fingerprinting is necessary?" In order to avoid another round of laughter (it is obviously not appropriate to laugh repeatedly in such a scene), our detective diverted the topic in time, "but if I The murderer—I'm going to leave and hide my tracks? Let's assume this is a calm murderer: like most people who only get too excited when they kill and then calm down afterward—I might No gloves? Maybe I think gloves are too troublesome. Since I chose the bathroom as the stage, I will use the ready-made props here?" Wenzel looked around the bathroom, and his eyes stayed on the metal tissue box on the wall: "Easy to use and easy to discard," he walked to the corpse, observing the handle of the dagger sunken into Sears' upper abdomen, "if this paper towel is a high-grade product, it will be easier to wipe it—but if the murderer used a paper towel Wrapping the handle of the knife and stabbing the fatal knife? The trouble of cleaning the handle of the knife will also be saved. In addition, holding a tissue in your hand but suddenly using the knife can also reduce the suspicion of the other party and make things easier to succeed. " "But if the murderer is quite agitated, it's still possible to stab with a knife and wipe off the fingerprints afterwards?" Carr said. "If we can see his premeditation from the blood - this kind of argument is not easy to establish. The 'excitement' I just mentioned is just the emotional excitement when killing people, and the reason does not lose control.", Wen Ze Hall responded, "On the contrary, the high concentration during the killing process makes it easy for the murderer to come up with a series of ingenious ways to cover up what he has done-is this all out of a disguised survival instinct?" "Perhaps what you said makes sense," Carl replied a little unconvinced, "but fingerprint evidence collection is still necessary—the murderer may not have thought of wiping fingerprints: we cannot rule out some people who do not have simple criminal common sense." First offense." "Of course, my friend, of course?" Wenzel said with a smile, and he did not intend to stay too long on things that cannot be confirmed at present: "You can see the shape of the handle, and the 'Twins' logo on it - we all know it's a fairly well-known brand: perhaps the kitchen also uses this brand of suits? So, Inspector Roth, you too. It's worth asking if there's just been a nice pocketknife missing from the kitchen." "He also used local materials in the host's room," Wenzel explained to the crowd, "The host of the reception once used that paper knife to cut limes—'local materials' is easy to expand. Lenovo: Because his murder weapon was not pre-prepared, it added a lot of uncertainty to the first murder." "It seems that you can refer to Pressman's conjecture?" Carl said, "After Wenzel left, August Donado had a dispute with Mr. John for some reason. A paper knife on the work surface of the bar stabbed the host to death. After hastily wiping his fingerprints on the handle of the knife, he stabilized his emotions and left the room?", our black detective thought After a moment, he continued: "Sears may have been in the master's room after John's death - and he immediately thought: This is what his brother did? We all know the special relationship between their brother and the master of the reception. This scene was very difficult for him, he My mood was extremely bad, but I didn't know what to do, so I had to go to the bathroom to wash my face and calm down?" Carl gestured to Sears lying on the ground with his eyes, "This can explain our Why did he walk in this direction quickly while chatting in the lobby—although we didn’t pay attention at the time, Sears’ behavior at that time was actually very abnormal.” "I bet he cried," Ms. Emma took Carl, "I said it then - he was abandoned by his old lover: and, completely abandoned?", two corpses Make her words a pun. "It's quite consistent with the clues we know so far," our black detective nodded to Emma, ​​"maybe Auguste has noticed that his behavior has been discovered by his younger brother? Or the two brothers We just ran into each other at the bathroom door—after August killed John, he should also find a way to calm himself down: it is naturally a good choice to wash his face with cold water here." "The two brothers got into an argument here. August, who had already killed one person, killed him again because he was afraid that his own brother would expose him." Inspector Roth sighed. "If you consider the source of the murder weapon." Carl added, "August seemed to realize immediately after killing John that Sears must know that he was the murderer. Therefore, before Sears found him, August had already slipped into the kitchen first and obtained the murder weapon for the second crime: there are sure to be useful knives in the kitchen—of course. This time, because he had already prepared, he might have prepared it beforehand. A tissue is ready, even in the master room - I noticed a similar metal tissue box at the bar," he glanced at Wenzel, "perhaps for bartending Is it convenient? In short, he has prepared all this, waiting for his younger brother to find him, and then lead him to this bathroom, and kill him by surprise." Inspector Carl paused for a moment, "It is also possible They had made an appointment in advance to discuss something related to the rumors of the 'Three Musketeers' - Sears may have known that his brother was going to find Mr. John, and the three of them might be negotiating something : You know, such as the breakup agreement, and the comfort money? But things got out of control. Those threatening letters sent by August may have been purely for intimidation, but now they have become a notice letter of what he has done. Is that a brilliant irony?" Our Negro Inspector shook his head. "? This doesn't seem to be able to explain the two bloody words with the same content." Taphne shook her head, "If August killed someone in a hurry and then left the scene quickly, he couldn't possibly know that John was there. The content of the bloody words left before dying?" "This is the most powerful evidence!" Carl explained to Taphne with a smile, "According to my assumption, Sears may have seen John's body—he should have written this bloody word at that time." I have to say that Sears should have known the meaning of this scarlet word at that time-I can even boldly declare that according to the clues I have in hand, Sears learned from this scarlet word : The one who killed John was his own brother——Auguste Donado!" Hearing this, Wenzel frowned: "Is this a bit too arbitrary?", he said to Carl, "Even from the known clues, there are still some other possibilities." "Don't you also know the secret of the scarlet letter?" Carl said proudly, "I have never underestimated you, my friend—you also know how reasonable this assumption is. After deciphering the scarlet cipher ?” "Is it because it makes so much sense that something doesn't feel right to me?" Wenzel replied. "Is this really a strange idea?" The black detective shrugged, "It seems that you are drunk—or I know more than you, at least in terms of common sense related to tequila: When Geiger comes back and we get back to the first scene, the truth will come out!" Wenzel shook his head and walked towards the bathroom door, as if he wanted to leave the scene. "Hey! I said, my friend. What are you doing?" Karl seemed to feel that what he just said was a bit too much, "I take back what I said, I hope you don't mind-you know, very drunk It could be me." "That's not the case, Carl, it has nothing to do with you." Wenzel smiled at the black detective, "I want to check the kitchen first - I can't find any new clues here." "Oh, then I plan to go to the first scene to announce my hypothesis later, are you interested in coming and listening?" "Maybe." Wenzel carefully pushed the door open—a lot of curious guests were surrounded outside, and several ladies screamed when they saw the dead body in the bathroom. "I know what you know," said the detective as he pushed the crowd away. "I want to find something that we don't know? See you later." Seeing that Wenzel was about to leave, Taphni quickly followed. "And I'm going to get a glass of wine," Miss Emma also walked towards the door, "I'm sick of staying with the corpse for too long?" She also went out. "Then I'll call the General Administration as well—I hope Ince doesn't have a date tonight?" Carl saw that everyone had left, and he didn't want to stay at the second scene any longer. "So, what should I do now?" Inspector Roth seemed a little at a loss. "Do what you have to do, Inspector." Carl said so and left the bathroom.