Chapter 7 6. Prosthetic Criminologists

Having said that, let us get to know another main character in the story——Dr. Pan Liu.In other words, the follow-up stories of the weirdo Inagaki, the little devil Hirata, and the five salesmen will be told from another clue. In other words, one day after Inagaki disappeared in Room 13 of the Kanto Building, in the study room at the back of Dr. Banyanagi's residence in G-cho, Chimachi District, the owner Yusuke Banyanagi and his assistant Nozaki Saburo talked about Inagaki by chance. About the art store. Dr. Panyanagi can be called the Sherlock Holmes of Japan, he is a civil criminologist and an amateur detective, but he is not a semi-professional detective like Sherlock Holmes who takes on all kinds of cases.He is purely out of interest, and only when the police encounter a difficult and big case, they will give advice from the sidelines, so only those in the judiciary and the police system know him, and he is not well-known in society.He will only accept cases that he is very interested in, and he will not receive visitors at the same time, but as long as the cases he accepts, he will definitely be able to solve them, and the doctor's own behavior is also very strange, which can be said to be similar to that of Sherlock Holmes in the novel. exactly the same.

The reason why it is strange is that although Pan Liuyouzhu is a doctor of medicine in forensic medicine and a well-known criminologist in the academic circle, he has not coached or held any official position.He disregards fame and fortune, lives in the study all day long, does not communicate with anyone, and indulges himself in the sea of ​​books. To put it bluntly, he is quite a lonely person.However, once a rare crime occurs, he will be very active, not only reasoning on paper, but sometimes taking risks to plunge into the vortex of criminal cases regardless of his physical disability. The Doctor is a disabled person with a missing leg.While out and about a few years ago, I had the misfortune of being in a railway accident, which resulted in the complete removal of one leg from the thigh down and is now fitted with a prosthetic.Although he can walk with just a normal cane without the need for a cane, he still appears to have a severe limp.Perhaps the doctor's reclusive life is because he is ashamed to let others see his ugly posture.Moreover, the doctor has never removed the prosthetic limb in front of people.When I need to take a bath, I never take a bath in any place other than my own locked bathroom, presumably because of the ugly incision of my amputation.

As far as appearance was concerned, he was tall and, apart from his deformed legs, he resembled Sherlock Holmes in some respects.Although he is a little bald, his long hair is casually scattered on his shoulders. He has a long and thin face, a clean chin, a pair of sharp eyes under serious thick eyebrows, a long and straight nose, and thin lips pursed into the word "one". Wait, they are all exactly the same as the famous British detective, showing ice-like calm and razor-like wisdom.As for age, the doctor claimed to be thirty-six, but at first glance he seemed older. The assistant Nozaki Saburo sitting opposite the doctor is a handsome twenty-four-year-old young man who is fascinated by foreign detective novels and even aspires to become an amateur detective. He finally admired the doctor's reputation and became his disciple three months ago.He has now become an indispensable chat partner for the lonely doctor. Although he has the temperament of a poet, he is very intelligent and has a sharp mind.

The study room is decorated in western style, leaning towards the classical style favored by the doctor, with high ceilings and majestic wood carving decorations, and the whole room reveals a gloomy atmosphere.The room is lined with custom-made bookshelves, slender shelves that reach to the ceiling, and ancient books are juxtaposed in rows, revealing the gilt letters on the spines of the books.In the center of the room was a large carved desk. The doctor in a suit rested his elbows on the mirror-like desk, reflecting his clean-shaven cheeks.He looked at a newspaper clipping spread out in front of him and said:

"Everyone knows that most of the news reports are nonsense and should not be fully believed. But do you know why I solemnly cut out these few reports and kept them? When it comes to news reports, it depends on how you read them. Sometimes you can read them. Especially in terms of crime, it can even be said that all the secrets of the world are hidden between the lines of the news. My pronunciation is slightly different from that of ordinary people. I can roughly tell which reporter wrote which report. Moreover, since this reporter wrote it this way, I can deduce what the facts should be like, even those subtle details that are not printed. Therefore, Assuming that a crime happened now, different newspapers published different reports, and there were even completely opposite reports that one newspaper called black and another newspaper called white. This is what I am most interested in and the most important thing , as long as the daily personality of the note-taker—what kind of things are often reported and how wrongly reported—is compared with the differences in other newspaper reports (this method can be applied to any report), analysis, induction, By analogy, after this kind of logical analysis, the truth of the incident can be clarified. I, just like this, have found the key to solving major cases more than once or twice by comparing news reports on the table. This is what I entrust you The reason for the clipping was by no means out of curiosity. For my detective work, it is an indispensable and important means."

Dr. Pan Liu is like an approachable teacher, kindly imparting the detective secrets accumulated over the years to his beloved apprentice Nozaki.Except for Nozaki, the eccentric doctor has never shown this attitude in front of others. "There are also advertisement pages in newspapers, which are also very interesting. Especially the job advertisements with different content in the three-line advertisement column often hide unexpected crimes. At least five or six advertisements with strange contents can be found in them every day. From the recruitment content with only three lines, imagining that they are complex social issues, love issues or even criminal issues, reconstructing stories with different outlines, even if this matter is only regarded as a game, it is also very interesting. Well, instead of Let me give you an example. Here is a three-line scrapbook of recruitment advertisements, with several recently published advertisements on it. Some of them are quite interesting, so take a look."

The doctor pointed to some clippings in the scrapbook and said to Nozaki.The young man craned his neck to see the advertisement below, and beside the newspaper clipping, it was noted that it was from "Asahi Shimbun" on June 15th. "It's just a common office leasing advertisement!" The doctor looked at the suspicious Nozaki and said: "Indeed, that's because you need some preliminary knowledge. First of all, as soon as there is a vacant office in the Guandong Building, it will immediately publish a three-line advertisement in the newspaper for rent. From the results, compared with such an vacant office, it costs more The cost of some advertising is obviously more beneficial. Secondly, this office rental advertisement with a rental fee of 60 yuan has appeared in newspapers every day since the date of publication, and has never appeared again since June 15th. The discovery of these two things should be attributed to my habit of reading newspapers every day, reading between the lines information that is not literally written. From this, it can be seen that in June, that is, from the 16th of this month, someone rented this Office, are you okay? Next, you read this one again."

The doctor pointed to the advertisement below, also from the Asahi Shimbun, dated June 16. What a surprise!Isn't this advertisement the recruitment notice for the gentleman who calls himself Inagaki to seduce Yoshie Satomi?Dr. Pan Liu probably already smelled something unusual from it, right?Or, this is just a mere coincidence.However, even if it is a coincidence, isn't it a little strange? "I have carefully investigated the joint advertisements of various merchants in the Kanto Building that have been published since the beginning of this month. There is no art shop, and there is no store named Inagaki. Therefore, it is necessary to rent this empty office from the 16th. It's the Inagaki Art Store. You remember this first. Okay, then, look at this."

The Doctor pointed to the third advertisement, dated June 19, which read as follows: Readers may still remember this advertisement. This is the weird advertisement in which six applicants, including Hirata, fell for Inagaki.Sure enough, this sharp-eyed criminologist saw through the conspiracy of the weirdo Inagaki without even stepping out of his study. After the doctor explained to Nozaki why this advertisement was abnormal, he then pointed to the fourth three-line advertisement. The date marked on the side is June 22. "It can be said that this Inagaki store rented an office in the Kanto Building on the 16th of this month, and the lease was withdrawn on the 21st, which was less than a week. Don't you find it strange? Moreover, in this short period There were two recruitment notices published within a few days, one of which was more like I said earlier, the terms of employment were contrary to the practice, at least this is definitely not the practice of a serious store. In my opinion, this office in the Kanto Building seems to be brewing a trick .”

The doctor looked at Nozaki and smiled enigmatically. "This is the way I read the newspaper, and I have already demonstrated it to you. When I read the newspaper this way, I can find five or six similar strange things every day. Speaking of which, you have always emphasized that you want to participate in what is happening in reality. How about the case? Do you want to check the details of this Inagaki art store? Maybe it’s just a trivial and boring incident, or maybe it’s an unexpected and surprising big case. Anyway, it won’t be boring to you work." Therefore, Nozaki called the Kanto Building according to the doctor's instructions, and learned that the person who claimed to be Inagaki had paid one month's rent, and all the furniture in the house had been arranged, but he only appeared in the store for two days.Because it was so unusual, the rental office sent a letter to Inagaki's residence, but the letter was returned with a note stating "No such person found".Also, the rental office was troubled by the quarrelsome clerk hired by the newspaper, so they decided to terminate the contract with Inagaki, clean up the room, and temporarily store the goods and furniture in the rental office; if Inagaki returned to the building, the remaining Pay back the rent to him.It seemed that the doctor's judgment was correct.

"Oh, things are getting more and more interesting now." The doctor clattered his prosthetic limb wearing slippers on the ground, his tone a little excited, "Let's join in the fun together, hurry up and prepare the car .” Unexpectedly, just as Assistant Nozaki stood up to call a taxi, the door opened, and the scholar announced that there was a visitor. "It's a young lady named Satomi Kinue. Here is her letter of introduction." The doctor took the letter of introduction from the scholar, glanced at it quickly, and thought about it. "You can't just let her go like this. You go and tell her that I'm going out so I can only spare ten minutes. If you don't mind, I'll see her."