Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Sirius Observatory Murder Case 3

"Game? You said that this murder case is a game. What's going on?" I asked Wuqie who was sitting on the easy chair. "There are a few things I have to confirm." She didn't answer my question, and continued on by herself. "Although it will be faster for me to investigate by myself...but you can't let me go." "No." I said firmly. Emotionally, I don't think she is the murderer.To be more precise, I don't want to think of her as a murderer.But no matter how you think about it, logically speaking, the murderer can only be her.As a detective, I cannot defy logic.

"If you need to investigate something, then I will replace you, be your eyes and hands and feet. Is that all right?" "……Can." "Investigate what first?" "Check the bags of those who were killed. If possible, bring the bags of Mr. Amino and Mr. Inuzuka." "Bao..." I walked around the rooms of Amino and Inuzuka as she said, trying not to look at their bodies... I put Amino's briefcase and Inuzuka's suitcase in front of Kirikiri.The suitcase was so heavy that sweat dripped from my forehead. "that's fine?" "Check out Mr. Amino's bag."

I opened Amino's briefcase and rummaged through it.There are two documents inside, I don't know what is written on them, an English conversation textbook, and things like handkerchiefs, cigarettes, lighters, and wallets.Then there was a black envelope in the side pocket. "What's inside the envelope?" Wuche asked. "A commission letter." I inspected the envelope and said. "The content is the same as the letter we received, only the name of the recipient is different." "anything else?" "Gone." "Really..." Wu cut his lips tightly, as if lost in thought. "It would be better to investigate other people's luggage, but I can come to a conclusion for the time being."

"Huh? What did you think of?" "It's the other letter of entrustment that Miss Jie showed me just now—no, it should be a letter of challenge. It seems that only Lady Jie has received it." She was referring to the letter that began "To the Detectives."It turns out that this letter has not been received by everyone. "Mr. Amino's luggage isn't there, right? I haven't received it either." Kirikiri said. "I think that in this case, sister-in-law was chosen to play the role of detective." "I acted as a detective—?"

"That's right." Wuqie said calmly and calmly. "It's the same as what was said in the letter. The incident that is happening here now is the incident that was foretold in the challenge letter, and sister Jie is the detective who solves this incident." "Wait, wait a minute, you mean, if I could have remembered this letter of challenge earlier, then this incident could have been prevented?" "Probably." "This... this is not, really..." That is to say, I didn't notice the murderer's provocation at all, and just let the murder happen like this?

If I had been more sensitive...if I had been more careful...if I had been better as a detective...maybe I could have prevented this incident from happening.Maybe those three people don't have to die. Those three people—although none of them have anything to do with me, but the lives of these three people are equivalent to my doing nothing to save them... and all three of them are detectives.Three people fighting for justice in this world... My hands are trembling, they must have been killed by me. "Thinking about it this way, the puzzling situation is understandable. When I woke up just now, the first thing I thought of was why I wasn't killed."

Her words fully revealed the distorted humanity of Kyoko Kirikiri, a young girl. There was nothing special about death, and she accepted that quite naturally.In her life, death was always on the side.When I think about what kind of twists and turns this junior high school girl has gone through to reach this level, I feel a slight chill in my body. "Although there are many opportunities to kill me, why did the murderer let me live. The reason for this is-I am the one who plays the role of the murderer." "You really—" "Don't get me wrong. In the final analysis, this is just a role assigned to me by others. Sister Jie is the role of pointing out the murderer, and I am the role of being identified. That's how it is arranged."

"That is to say...you are a substitute murderer arranged by the real murderer?" "That's right." "It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to have a letter of challenge. Sending this kind of letter in advance makes people predict the crime that will be committed. What is the benefit? And what is the role of detective? From the perspective of the prisoner , generally don’t need any detective role.” "So I think it's a game." "Baffling. You mean killing is a game?" "To be more precise...it's a murder game where the criminal challenges the detective."

"how so……" "Considering the existence of the challenge letter and the reason for the two of us to survive, I can only think so." "You mean it's a crime for fun?" "It should be like this." "So what you want to say is that the current situation is a real-time reasoning game arranged by the prisoner to challenge me." "That's right." "How can people believe this! This kind of thing is too inexplicable!" I denied it. "Why me? Among the 65,500 detectives, is there any reason why I must be the target?"

"Maybe, this is the challenge to all detectives—or to the existence of detectives." Wuqie squinted his eyes, shook his head, and brushed the hair that lay beside his cheek. Her current expression seemed to have accepted the murderer's challenge, as if she had made up her mind. "I see... Even if what's happening here is a game set up by the murderer... How to solve the mystery in this incident? You are still the only suspect, and this will never change." "At this moment, let's just look at it from my point of view... I am not the murderer, and neither is Sister Jie. Because the touch of your hand just now is obviously different from that of the murderer."

"and then?" "The murderer is someone else." "A lot of research has been done on this and there's no one here but us." "No, sister Jie, you haven't finished all the investigations yet." Is there anything else I haven't looked into... There are no secret rooms or secret passages here, and everyone has confirmed it before losing consciousness.In addition, on the snow around the building, there are no traces of people entering or leaving.The entrance door and all the windows were locked from the inside.Even if someone is holding the backup key of the entrance, there is no trace of anyone entering or leaving the automatic door, so it can be said that no one has entered or exited. If it is said—that someone other than Kirito is the murderer, then where did this person come from, and where did he disappear from?Could it be that he flew out of the automatic door in a hot air balloon?Or did he become the size of a drink bottle and hide it in the refrigerator? None of these are possible. "There is something I want to confirm first." Wu cut said. "About the condition of the corpses, Sister Jie told me that their necks were severed. But the challenge book says 'dismembered'." "Could it be that……" "About the corpse, shouldn't it be checked again?" She wanted to say that not only the neck, but also the body was cut off. "If you uncuff my handcuffs, let me investigate." Mist cut said. "No, you just sit here and I'll investigate." "Investigate carefully. How it was cut up, the corpse will definitely tell you everything." "……I see." That being said... How could a sane person investigate a dismembered corpse?Only those detectives whose first digit is "9" can do this kind of thing. But I can't go. If the challenge book is really aimed at me, then I must accept the challenge. I decided to investigate the first body I found—the one with Amino's head.Now the whole room still smells of blood and it makes me want to vomit.I covered my nose with my sleeve and approached the corpse. The blanket was still open, revealing a severed section of the head and torso.I lifted the blanket up a little more. The torso of the corpse appears to be swallowtailed, and I have an impression of the black vest.The physique is also very strong, I don't think it's just the clothes of the corpse that were exchanged. And the arm was severed from the shoulder. At first glance, it looks like it is connected to the torso, but in fact it is just the cut surfaces placed together. And that's not all - both arms were cut into three pieces each.Upper arm from shoulder to elbow, lower arm from elbow to wrist, then hand below the wrist. I was really dismembered... I took a few steps back and fell to the ground.How can I stay sane when I see this. Resisting the urge to yell, I managed to force myself to stand up.If this heinous crime happens to challenge the detective...then I must win. Because detectives must fight for justice.I gritted my teeth and looked at the corpse again. It seemed that each of the three parts of the arm had been replaced by a different person.The sleeves that cover it, the true color of the skin, etc. are not uniform, and this creepy difference is difficult to hide. It seemed that the clothes were also cut off together, so it was barely discernible which part belonged to which person.The upper arm should be Amino, the lower arm should be the swallowtail, and if you think about it according to the method of elimination, the hand is Inuzuka.Both arms were swapped like a jigsaw puzzle. What's even more frightening is...the two legs were also divided into three sections and their positions were changed, and the order seemed to be the same as that of the arms.The body was chopped into a total of fourteen parts. I covered my mouth all the way and staggered back to the hall.Wuqie, who was sitting on the easy chair, seemed to have expected this kind of reaction from me long ago, her expression was very indifferent. "Just like you said..." I choked up. "Why did this happen... If this is really a game, it's crazy..." "How is the state of the corpse?" Wuqie was indifferent to me, her interest seemed to be only in the corpse. I collapsed on the hall floor and described to her the body I had just seen. "Really... It seems that this incident is crueler than I imagined." "You really think so?" I said, staring at Kirikiri's face. "What the hell is going on...why do people have to be dismembered like this..." "If you refer to the letter of challenge that sister Jie received, then the mutilated body should have something to do with the criminal method." "Method...?" "It can be considered that the murderer cut up the body for some special reason." "The reason for dismembering the corpse..." "Although there are various reasons, in most cases, it is for the convenience of transportation." "transportation……?" Did she mean that it would be easier to move the corpse to the bed?Indeed, moving the corpse of an adult man weighing more than 60 kilograms is quite difficult.However, if the corpse is divided into many small pieces, it will be easier to move. "Go and look at the corpses in other rooms." Wuche instructed me. As much as I wanted to say "go yourself", since I promised her to investigate, I had no choice but to follow through. I went into the next room to examine the body.It seems that the head is a swallowtail, and the body is an inuzuka. Sure enough, the corpse was also cut into fourteen parts, arms and legs from top to bottom, placed in the order of swallowtail, dog mound, and Amino.In addition, a dog tag with a dovetail hanging around its neck lay next to the body.I picked it up to make sure it was just the roman letters of the swallowtail name. After inspecting the two dismembered corpses, even if you don't inspect them, you can imagine the tragedy of the third corpse.However, I still had to see it for myself. I leaned against the wall and moved to the next room.I examined the third body in this room. The head is Inuzuka, and the body is Amino.The parts of the arms and legs belong to Inuzuka, Amino, and Dovetail respectively from top to bottom. In this way, I have inspected all three corpses, but apart from knowing that these corpses were dismembered, I have not found anything new.I don't know their respective causes of death, and with my autopsy ability, I can't judge their approximate time of death.However, there didn't seem to be any signs of massive bleeding, and the blood that flowed out only stained the bed sheet black and red. Could it be considered that it was cut after death? It should be considered that the murder weapon used to cut the corpse was the gardening scissors. It seems that the steps of cutting the corpse were all carried out on the bed. The evidence is that I found several damaged places on the bed sheet. I went back to the lobby to report to Fogcut.I'm not even a detective, I've been assigned the role of an errand-running assistant for the easy-chair detective. "I have already understood the situation." Wuqie said in a calm voice.The fact that a girl three years younger than me can be so calm makes me shudder. "There is one more thing I want to confirm." Wuqie said, as if urging me. "What's the matter this time, Miss Detective?" "Press that switch." Foggie turned his gaze to a certain point on the wall, where there was a switch for opening and closing the dome. "Ah! That's it, I forgot to investigate!" It is the roof. If the sixth character, the uninvited guest, were here, it is possible that the man, after killing the three detectives, opened the dome and fled to the roof of the building.And, he's still hiding on the roof. I opened the cabinet mounted on the wall and flipped the switch.Accompanied by the sound of a motor, the concave mirror roof is slowly opened. The wind and snow poured in immediately.It was already late at night, and the deepening darkness outside could be seen from the gap in the dome.I waited for the dome to open to a certain extent and released the switch. "Can you investigate the top of the roof?" Foggie said while shaking his head to shake off the snow that fell on top of his head. "Uh-mm, it's kind of high," I said, crossing my arms, but I might be able to climb it. I dragged the round table placed in the center of the hall and leaned it against the wall.Then I jumped on the round table with my shoes on, and jumped towards the opening of the dome—there was the dividing line between the ceiling and the wall. Enough is enough!The fingers that barely touched the top hooked to the edge of the wall.During the opening and closing process of the dome, the dome slides to the left and right with this side as the boundary. I supported my body like this, and with a little effort I climbed up the edge. "It's amazing." There came the voice of Wuqie sighing. "Your jumping ability is very strong." "Hehe... The jumping ability of my legs is the capital I am proud of. I once broke the record of vertical jumping for high school girls." I tried my best to climb up to the edge of the open roof. "Unfortunately, my physical strength is not good, so the two legs I am proud of do not perform well in sports. If there were any competitive competitions at that time, maybe I would be able to go to Hope Peak Academy... just kidding." I chose the path of being a detective.And my proud legs have nothing to do with detective ability.But today, for the first time, those two legs came in handy. I stared into the blackness of the snowflakes, and then looked around.Regrettably, however, I found no trace of the murderer, not even a trace of someone climbing onto the roof.All I saw was a layer of snow on the white roofs, and the shapes of stars appeared in the darkness. Leaving a breath of white air in the darkness of night, I jumped from the roof and fell indoors.I flipped the switch and closed the dome. "As expected, there is no one else but us." I said while patting the snow on my uniform. "Yes." Wuqie agreed. "There is no one on the roof. As long as you understand this, the actions of Mrs. Jiejie will be valuable." "Really, that's good." I said with irony, "Since there is no one, it means you are even more suspicious." "You say that again." Wuqie narrowed his eyes and said. "You've confirmed enough. No one else entered or exited this building except us. Three of the five people died. It was either me or you who killed them." "No, what has been confirmed is only the current situation, and sister Jie has not made enough reasoning yet." Kigiri looked straight up at me and said.It was the innocent face of a middle school student, and at the same time, unmistakably, the face of a detective. "Let's sort it out from the beginning, my lord, so we should be able to see who the real murderer is." Wu Qie said slowly leaning on the back of the easy chair. "Wait a minute—you already know who the real murderer is?" "What do you think?" Wuqiri said with an inscrutable smile that was rarely seen at ordinary times. "Okay, let's continue talking, and think back to the beginning of the incident." "at the very beginning?" "That's right, let's start with when Sister Jie and the others drank the hypnotic drug." "Ah, I remembered when I heard you say that! The challenge book says comatose drugs." "No, hypnotic drugs and stupor drugs are two different things. I think stupor drugs should be the kind that someone sprinkled on the handkerchief for me to smell. My sister Jie and others took hypnotic drugs without knowing it. no the same." "When did you take it? I was still very careful. I didn't touch anything in the refrigerator." "Didn't you drink canned coffee in the station wagon?" "Ah!" I couldn't help but exclaimed. "The canned coffee that the driver gave us before departure from the station! Could it be that there are slow-acting hypnotic drugs added to it?" "Well, I can't think of any other possibility." "It really is like this... That is to say, the murderer is the driver?" "No, the driver turned back on the mountain road. It's hard to imagine that he would sneak back and sneak into this building. No third party has entered or exited this place. This is what sister Jie confirmed for herself, right?" "Yes, yes." "The driver acted according to Oe Yuen's instructions. Giving us the canned coffee should be one of his instructions." "Did the criminal plan begin at that time... Really careless." If I had been aware of it at that time, I might have been able to prevent the crime from happening!I bit my lip. "I think the amount of hypnotics should be adjusted so that it will not take effect until we reach this building. Although I don't know why the existence of hypnotics is not stated in the challenge letter..." "Don't the so-called coma drugs also include hypnotic drugs?" "Who knows." Wuqie seemed to be lost in thought, lowering his eyes. "All in all, we were all temporarily unconscious. It can be assumed that the killing and mutilation took place during this time." Presumably the murder had gone according to plan and everything was going well. In this case, Wuqie and I were not killed, so we can only think that it was because of ulterior motives.According to Wukiri, I'm the one who plays the role of the detective and Tan the one who plays the role of the murderer, that's why we survived, but... "After coming here, we carefully investigated the situation inside the house." Wuqie looked around the room and said. "As a result, we found that there was neither Ichiro Kibayanagi nor Yuen Oe, nor anyone else." "Ok." "And after we woke up from the coma, we investigated the interior of the building again, and still found no third party, and there was no trace of anyone entering or exiting here. You are sure about this, sister Jie?" "Of course, I came to this conclusion on the basis of a full investigation." "There are only five of us in this building." "Yes, absolutely." I nodded vigorously. "The reason why the murderer created this situation is to make Miss Yu make a wrong reasoning. It should be right to think so. Because Mrs. Yu will definitely believe that I am the murderer, right?" "Besides you... I can't think of anyone else." "Really, since that's the case, I'll refute you." Wuqie said in a calm tone. "I'm not the murderer. The murderer is someone other than me and sister Jie." "People other than us are the murderers...you admit that there is no one here except the five of us, right?" "Ok." "But you say that people other than us are murderers?" "Ok." "Could it be that—the murderer was among the three dead?" "That's right." "This, how is this possible! No matter how you think about it, it doesn't make sense. Those three people were all dismembered? It's impossible to pretend to be dead in this situation. Or is it that one of the three committed suicide? It doesn't matter which body is dismembered All parts had been replaced, so the possibility disappeared. There was no doubt that someone other than the three who died had replaced the dismembered parts like a jigsaw puzzle. " "Yeah, the question is who that person is." "That, that's not me!" "I know. First we should think about the mystery of dismemberment. Why the body was cut into as many as fourteen parts, and why the murderer replaced each dismembered part." "How can this kind of thing be understood. No matter how you look at it, it was done by a mentally abnormal person out of curiosity? Do you want to say that there is a reasonable reason for the murderer to dismember the corpse and replace it?" "Yes, it is like that." "Really, how is this possible!" "No, you calm down and think about it, and you'll understand right away." "Calm down...Calm down..." Wuqie said that the dismemberment of the corpse was for the convenience of transportation.Does this statement apply in this case as well? ... transport?Where are you going to move from?It suddenly occurred to me. "There's a simple answer to all mysteries, isn't there?" said Foggy. If the murderer was among the dead—if the person neither feigned death nor committed suicide—then prepare a dead body as a substitute! How can I get a dead body to use as a stand-in?Can only be moved in from the outside.How to do?Dismemberment, of course. "You mean to say that someone dismembered the sixth man and moved them into the building as his stand-in?" "I can only think so." "But... this kind of thing is impossible... Because, I have already checked the face of the corpse? The three dead people are undoubtedly the three detectives I saw today. The dead person is Mr. Amino , Mr. Swallowtail and Mr. Inuzuka are right..." "That means one of them is a counterfeit. The murderer killed a detective in advance and dismembered him. Then he dressed up exactly like that detective and appeared in front of us..." "Counterfeit...! No matter how you put it, this is ridiculous. Didn't everyone take out the card with the photo and look at each other? It's impossible to pretend to be exactly like me, unless it's a detective with superb makeup skills. This kind of thing is absolutely impossible. Or, the murderer is actually a detective? And the murderer is also very good at makeup, this kind of logic is too coincidental." "No, it's not like that. If you want to have the same makeup, there is an easier way. Just go to the detective library and choose a detective who looks exactly like you." "Ah...that's it! If this detective looks a lot like me, then you can impersonate him!" There are more than 65,000 detectives registered in the Detective Library.It may not be difficult to find a detective who looks like himself. The killer killed the detective beforehand, took his Detective Library registration card, and played the man in front of us... And the murderer moved the dismembered body to this place without our knowledge.The sixth uninvited guest is actually with us all the time. "But...even if he dismembered the body and moved it in...why would the murderer swap the dismembered parts of the body. It's hard to imagine the point." "No, there are good reasons for the murderer to do so." "Good reason...?" "That's... the first reason, it's easy to store after dismemberment. You should be able to imagine this, right?" "……yes." "The second reason is the problem of corpse spots. After a person dies, the blood circulation in the body stops, and the blood settles on the downward side of the corpse under the action of gravity. With the deposition of blood, spots or plaques will appear on the surface of the skin. It is a mesh-like mark. Especially as time goes by, the plaque will become more and more obvious." "Well, I still know these things." It's just that I never expected to hear such a detailed explanation from a middle school student.As expected of the detective number "9", he can even talk about such disgusting topics as if nothing happened. "The murderer killed a detective in advance as his substitute. Of course, this was before we came here to assemble. In other words, this corpse has been dead for a longer time than other corpses. If It is said that the murderer directly put this corpse as his substitute. In this case, others may be able to see from the state of the corpse spots that there is a certain difference between the approximate death time of this corpse and the other corpses. Therefore, the murderer drained the blood from the corpse in advance. It should be easier to dispose of the dismembered corpse." "If there is no blood in the body, then there will be no plaque?" "Well. Although this way the corpse will not produce corpse spots, but another problem arises from this, that is, the blood stains at the murder scene. To make this corpse look like it was killed on the spot, the blood The amount is too small." "In this case, how about preparing some blood bags for transfusion in advance?" I said what I thought. "Or save the blood that was drawn out in advance, and use it later..." I feel a little disgusted as I say it.I gritted my teeth against the dizziness. "No, that's not necessary. Because the blood you need can be obtained on the spot." Does "obtaining..." refer to the other victims? "In any case, the murderer had already planned to prepare the bodies of three people. One body in advance, and two bodies in this building. Of course, the people killed in this building must also be dismembered, It would be too unnatural if only the body that took his place was mutilated." "So that's it... He dismembered the other victims to ensure that the substitute would not be seen through... Let's just treat these as facts, then why does he need to replace the dismembered parts?" "If he puts the dead bodies that act as his substitutes on the bed in the original order, then there will be unnatural situations. This is what I said just now, about the blood problem. The dead body that acted as a double is obviously bleeding. It is less than other corpses, the sheets are not even stained, and it doesn't look like they were killed on the spot." "Oh... so the murderer mixed these body parts with those of the real person who was killed on the spot, making us mistakenly think that all three people were mutilated on the bed, right?" "That's right. In this way, the blood oozing from the cutting surface and the blood stains on the bed sheet will not look unnatural. I think the murderer did cut up the corpse on three beds separately, in order to create The fact that the dismemberment scene is here." "That's true... There are cut marks on the sheets. I never suspected it at all." The cut sides of the corpse were kept close together, perhaps also to conceal the fact that no one could see that there were bloody parts mixed in. "How is it? Sister Jie should also be able to understand how the body is dismembered, right?" "Well... almost..." I'm not too sure. "Let me sum it up, you should listen to it too... First of all, the murderer dismembered the corpse that served as his substitute for the convenience of transportation. He also drained the blood from the corpse. In this way, the corpse was killed beforehand. The facts would not be exposed, and there would be no body spots. Then, in this Sirius observatory, after he managed to put us unconscious, he killed two detectives and dismembered them. At this time, in order not to be discovered. Incorporating corpses to serve as his stand-ins, he also swapped dismembered body parts, eliminating traces of unnaturalness." I glanced at Wuqie's expression, as if asking for her opinion, she nodded slightly. "But where is the most critical murderer?" I looked around.Is the murderer swallowing his saliva nervously now, listening to our reasoning? "There is no sign that anyone has been in or out of the building—that is, the killer is still in the building." Wuqie propped his body up from the backrest, putting on a vigilant look. "Didn't we search everywhere in this house? We didn't see the murderer at all. We even searched on the roof..." "When you think about where the murderer would hide the body, you will know the answer to this question. After the murderer takes the body out of that place, it should be empty. Then, the murderer can hide it himself. Right? I've said so much, you should be able to figure it out, right? My lord sister Jie." Where would the murderer have hidden the body—how the murderer had brought the body into this Sirius observatory— That's right, the murderer cut up the body that served as his substitute into small pieces and packed them in a bag.Just remember what kind of bags everyone is carrying. Amino is the kind of briefcase that office workers often carry.The Dovetail is a small Boston bag.And Inuzuka is...a big suitcase. Just now, under Kirikiri's order, I had already brought it from Inuzuka's room, and I still remember that the box was extraordinarily heavy. If this suitcase originally contained corpses...then the person who brought this suitcase is the murderer. The murderer is Koto Inuzuka!No, to be precise, it should be "someone pretending to be Inuzuka". He stuffed the dead body that served as his substitute into the suitcase, and pretended to be Inuzuka himself, and came to the Sirius Observatory with us as if nothing had happened.Thinking about it carefully, maybe the so-called observation ability he showed in front of me was originally because he had already done some research on me beforehand. Then he hid himself in the suitcase after arranging the body. "I understand, sister Wuqie, I'm still doubting you, I'm really sorry." "Have I finally cleared my suspicions?" "Well—the murderer is here." I took a few steps back to make room for the run-up. "You are the murderer! Inuzuka!" I gave the suitcase a nice flying kick and the suitcase was sent flying.I immediately chased after the victory and stepped on the suitcase that had rolled to the ground. Then I reached over and unzipped it—the trunk was open.What came out of it—not Inuzuka.The suitcase was stuffed with bottles of whiskey and vodka and other various liquors. "……what?" what happened?The murderer should be hiding here... "What are you doing? My lord." Wuqie looked at me helplessly. "No, because... didn't the murderer dismember the body that was used as a stand-in and move it here? In that case, no matter how you think about it, Inuzuka with the biggest bag is the murderer. The bags that the other two people carried are really useless. Carrying the corpse..." Huh?what happened? No matter how you think about it, neither a briefcase nor a Boston bag can hold a dead body.But the suitcase I was very optimistic about contained only wine bottles.In retrospect, Inuzuka himself seems to have said that it contained alcohol. That is to say... no one brought the body in? I couldn't help casting a suspicious look at Kyoko Kirikiri.Was her previous reasoning all lies to deceive me? "You still think I'm a murderer, don't you?" Wuqie seemed to have read my mind. "Because... your reasoning is completely nonsense! Why did you dismember the body and move it here? Who is it and what method is used to do it? To move a person's body in, at least It must be as big as this suitcase, right? But in fact, there are only wine bottles in it, and no one has moved the corpse in." "My reasoning is not nonsense." Fog cut his face unchanged. "Speaking of which, think about it again, even if a dismembered corpse can be stuffed into this suitcase, can a tall person like Mr. Inuzuka really get into this suitcase?" "...Well, it's really impossible." "I think the bottle in the box was indeed brought by Mr. Inuzuka." "Then who do you think, and what method did you use to move in the corpse used as a substitute?" "I think the murderer was transported here in a very ordinary way." "what?" "For example, in the morning when the snow has not yet settled, it is fine to drive here first." "Ah...that's a blind spot." “被凶手当做替身的被害人应该是在我们之前被叫出来的吧。然后凶手将他杀害并且肢解。只不过，我想杀人现场应该不在这里。因为凶手要是事先在这里杀害被害人的话，很有可能会留下什么痕迹。在这种情况下，说不定会被我们这些侦探当中的某个人察觉。” “这样啊……不过凶手在我们来之前先把尸体搬了进来，你不觉得这个推理有点勉强吗？我们到达这里之后，马上就在室内仔仔细细地调查了一遍，当时可没有见到什么尸体啊？” “因为尸体被巧妙地藏了起来。” “被藏了起来……那么，藏在哪里？我都说了，我们到处都调查过了，没有什么尸体……难道说是埋在外面的雪里？那会留下痕迹的吧。” “答案很简单啊。”雾切简短地说，然后接着道。“只不过——在说出真相之前，我有一件事想拜托你。”雾切仰头看着我说。 "What's up?" “希望你能相信我不是凶手。”雾切的表情前所未有的严肃。 并且她那种仿佛在恳求我一般的表情，是我之前从未见过的。 我当然……是很想相信她的，只不过……假如一切都是她的谎言，那该怎么办？假如她的犯罪计划的最后一步就是杀掉我，那该怎么办？ 光凭同情很难让我相信她，然而，我也开始渐渐相信，她拥有足够缜密的推理能力，来打破这种混沌，她拥有侦探的才能。 “如果你相信我，那就把我右手上的丝带解开。只解开右手就行了。” 她到底打算干什么呢？I have no idea.但是我还是决定相信她。 身为一个侦探——我把她的右手松开了。 "thanks." 这时我才第一次见到了雾切可爱的笑容——我这样觉得。因为她的表情缺乏变化，所以这说不定只是我的错觉。 “那么，把网野先生的包拿过来。” 雾切提出了要求。我按照她说的，把放在地上的公文包交给了雾切，她把包放在了膝上。 “然后把犬塚先生的行李箱拿到这边来。” "it is good." 我把先前被我踢飞的行李箱拖到安乐椅前面。 “这样可以了吗？侦探小姐。” “嗯，非常完美。”雾切脸上似乎微微泛起了红晕。 “然后呢，在我们到达这里的时候，尸体真的藏在某个地方？” “嗯。你回想一下，有一个地方我们都没有调查过。这也难怪，当时我们完全没想到会有什么被肢解的尸体。” 不——我这个收到了挑战书的人是有可能预想得到的。如果我能够早点发觉的话，事情也许就不会变成这样，一想到这点我就感到万分后悔。 “到底是什么地方？” “是天体望远镜里面。” “咦……天体望远镜……里面？” “五个房间里各自设置有一台200毫米口径的牛顿式反射望远镜。只要你能够理解它们的构造，应该就能发现藏尸体的地方。” “不可能的啦，尸体怎么可能放得进天体望远镜里面，就算放得进去也马上会被发现的。望远镜本来就是个中空的结构……” 我突然想起了犬塚对于反射望远镜的讲解。大圆筒的深处有一面凹面镜，经过反射镜，在物镜上成像。 “啊，难道说！” 如果说有人把深处的凹面镜向前挪动了会怎么样？那不就可以在天体望远镜的圆筒内制造一个秘密的空间了吗？ “你想明白了吧，如果是直径200毫米的圆筒，就可以把人头放进去。男性头部的宽度最多也就是16厘米左右，各自被分成三段的四肢也没那么大，完全能够容纳。凶手把头部、左臂、右臂、左腿、右腿这五个部分分别藏在了五台天体望远镜里面。” “尸体居然……藏在那里面……不过我还往镜头里面看过。” “那应该是没办法正常显像的。因为凹面镜的位置被移动了，所以焦点没办法对准。” “嗯，几乎什么都看不到。” “如果是对天体望远镜很了解的人，往圆筒里面看的时候，说不定就会发觉凹面镜的位置不对了。不过在我们中间并没有人发现这一点呢。” 犬塚似乎对此有一定了解，不过他并没有发觉这一事实。不知是因为他关于这方面的记忆太久了，还是因为他完全没想到会发生事件呢。 “雾切妹妹，你当时也没发现？” “嗯，我就是一开始进房间的时候看了一眼镜头。我还以为没有经过调整的镜头就是这样。” “你的——那种能力没有起效？” “只有危机逼近的时候我才能听到死神的脚步声。” “已经变成尸体的人就没办法了啊。”我叹了一口长气。“咦？那么躯干呢？六个部分当中最大的一部分藏在了哪里？已经没有其他天体望远镜了……” “躯干被藏在了一个地方——而那个地方，现在正是凶手的藏身之处。” “咦，凶手？” "That's right." “不过我觉得已经没有可以藏尸体的地方了……” “不，其实还有一个地方。”雾切用似乎有些开心的口气说。“只不过你要好好想一想。那是一个刚好勉强可以把躯干藏进去的狭小空间。就算把尸体从那里移走，能藏进去的，也只能是身材非常矮小的人……” “这个嘛，不过在来到这里的人当中，几乎没有什么身材矮小的人。个子最小的就是你吧。” “不，实际上还有人比我个子更小。” “哪有这样的人啊。” “就我看来，确实有这样的人。” “你到底看到了谁？话说回来，那个人现在藏在什么地方啊，只要把他揪出来事情不就一清二楚了吗，你快说吧。” “是啊……好吧。” 雾切这样说道，然后伸出右手，从犬塚的行李箱里拿出了一个酒瓶。把瓶盖打开之后，不知道她在想什么，竟然开始往自己大腿附近的裙子上倒酒。 酒精的刺鼻味道很快在周围弥漫开来。 “喂、喂，你在干什么啊！”她腰部以下的部分都被酒浸透了。 接下来，雾切从网野的包里取出了打火机。 “雾切妹妹！” “这是酒精度数九十六度的伏特加。像这样把布浸透之后，应该很容易就能点着火的。” 雾切面无表情地右手拿着打火机。她的行￥动在我看来简直是丧失理智的表现。 "What are you thinking!" “点火啊。” “住手！你做这种事有什么意义……” 如果她真的拨动了打火机的砂轮，说不定那一瞬间就会把气化的酒精引燃。这样一来，她浸透了酒精的衣服也会马上烧起来。那可不只是烧伤就完了，搞不好会被烧死的…… 我完全搞不明白她为什么要做这种事。 “我是认真的。指认凶手的时候要拼上性命，爷爷就是这么教我的。” “你在说什么啊，雾切妹妹，快住手！” “并且，我早已经做好了为真相放弃生命的准备。” 她用令人毛骨悚然的冰冷声音说。 这个时候她的眼眸——是看透了死亡的一片灰暗。 雾切的大拇指按上了打火机的砂轮。 "stop!" “五秒钟之后我就点火。” 五…… 四…… 我向她靠近。 只能踢她的右手把打火机弹飞了。 three…… “姐姐大人你别做声，好好看着。” 被她制止了。 two…… 我不由得停下了脚步。 one…… “我投降。” 突然，不知从哪里传来了一个男声，我转动着眼珠子四处张望——没有人。 “你的推理是正确的，是我输了，反正我已经没什么好辩解的了。” 这到底是谁的声音？ “那么，请你从那里出来吧，燕尾先生。” 雾切左臂上的手铐还没打开，她就这样从安乐椅上站了起来，回过头说。 难道说……在这把小小的安乐椅里面？ 安乐椅开始悉悉索索地动了起来……然后软垫背面的拉链打开了，里面露出了穿着背心的燕尾——不，是假的“燕尾”。 无论如何，一个成年男子的身体，都是不可能装进这么小的椅子里面的……难道说软垫里面是跟异次元空间相通的？我怀着这样的疑问，仔细看着燕尾……原来他的两条腿从大腿中间开始，下面就没有了。 “以前我因为烧伤而失去了两条腿，现在还是会痛啊。”