Chapter 9 8. Ants on the display case

The Kanto Building Rental Office is familiar with Dr. Pan Liu's reputation, so he was not surprised at his sudden visit, and answered all the doctor's questions enthusiastically.Seeing that the famous criminologist made a special visit, the clerk thought that the tenant of Room 13 had committed some crimes, so he was even a little proud and talked about Inagaki's strange behavior endlessly. "You said that he hired a female clerk on the 16th. Does that girl have any characteristics? Do you know her name?" Holding a cane, the doctor knocked on the prosthetic limb (strange to say, this is a very childish hobby of the doctor), and went straight to the point.

"I don't know, but the cleaning lady might know something. Do you want to ask her?" Soon, a dark-skinned cleaning woman in her forties came in. She was very stiff and kept rubbing her hands with her apron.The clerk asked her about the female clerk at the Inagaki art shop, but fortunately she still remembered, so she replied: "It's a beautiful lady in a dress, seventeen or eighteen years old. She is overqualified to be a housekeeper on her terms. I don't know her name, but when it comes to looks, I can think of how to describe her. She has a round face that is very popular now, so she should be regarded as a so-called modern girl."

"Is it the eyes with big double eyelids, the nose is not very high, the figure is very short, the upper lip is playfully turned up..." The Doctor interrupted with a smug smile.Needless to say, he was describing the appearance of Satomi Kinue whom he had just met.He guessed that if the female clerk was really Kinue's younger sister, she would look a lot like her. Unexpectedly, the doctor's guess was unexpectedly accurate, which is incredible! "My God, I'm telling you it's all right. Do you know that lady, sir?" Hearing this, the doctor winked at Nozaki next to him, and moved on to the next question:

"Speaking of which, after that lady was hired, did anything strange happen?" "Well, sir, there are really strange things." The cleaning woman continued, "At about five o'clock in the afternoon that day, I just saw that lady walk out of the room and came to the main road in front. The person in room 13 The boss came out right after, sneaky, looking really suspicious, so I stood by the window and looked out at the road outside, and saw the lady standing motionless at the crossroad opposite, as if she was in the crossroads. Wait. As for the boss, he hurried into the "Yayoi Taxi Shop" next to him. Not long after, a car carrying the boss of Room 13 drove up to the lady quietly, and then That lady actually got into the same car. I thought to myself that I just hooked up with her lady just after I hired her. This person really has a trick. Then you would never have imagined that the car drove towards Jingqiao. From then on, that lady The lady never appeared here again."

"Thank you, then I just need to ask the 'Yayoi Taxi Shop', and I should be able to find out where the owner of Room 13 has gone?" "Yes, I also remember the driver that night, how about I help you ask?" According to the cleaning lady's inquiries to the driver, the place where Inagaki and the lady got off was in S Town near Ryogoku Bridge.But as readers already know, that is just Inagaki's prudent trick to deceive the enemy, and the location of S-cho has no practical significance. Dr. Panliu then briefly inspected the furniture and products of the Inagaki store stored in the basement warehouse of the Kanto Building, and found nothing except that they were all cheap new products.

When the doctor and his party returned to the office of the building from the basement, they saw a young man in an old suit that didn't fit him standing at the door.The clerk frowned slightly when he saw him. "Why are you here again?" "Yes, I'm here again. Is Mr. Inagaki still not here? He hasn't paid his salary, and I'm really troubled now." The young man assumed a defiant attitude. At that moment, Dr. Pan Liu seemed to be interested in this young man. "Are you employed by Inagaki Art Shop?" asked the doctor. "Yes, I am." "Is it a salesman?"

"right." The young man looked impatiently, and unceremoniously looked up and down the strange gentleman with slightly hostile eyes.His attitude seemed to interest the Doctor even more. "What a coincidence, I want to ask this person." The doctor turned around and explained to the clerk, and then said to the young man: "Little brother, if you are not in a hurry, I would like to ask you something about the Inagaki store, can you accompany me to a nearby coffee shop?" Readers must have also discovered that this young man is one of the salesmen hired by Inagaki, and he is Toichi Hirata, a gangster who resold plaster statues to the Kanda framing shop.He saw Pan Liu's appearance and attire, and guessed that he could probably get some money, so he agreed to the doctor's invitation in less than a few words.

So the doctor, his assistant Nozaki, and Hirata left the building office, walked into a nearby coffee shop, sat down and started a round of detailed questions and answers.It would be too complicated and lengthy to explain the content of the conversation one by one, so I skip it here.In short, the doctor finally learned from Hirata that Inagaki hired six stupid young people as salesmen, and ordered each of the six people to take a plaster statue and give it to six middle schools for free; Sold the plaster figure to a framing shop in Kanda.However, in order for him to say this, the doctor had to pay Hirata a large sum of money.

After listening to it, Pan Liu didn't know what to think, so she decided to go to the framing shop in Kanda to see for herself.The three immediately boarded the doctor's car and headed for Kanda. The display racks in the framing store are as dusty and dilapidated as they were a few days ago.In the glass window about one room wide, reproduced paintings that can be seen everywhere are lined up sadly.Among them, only the one-handed plaster model emitted a snow-white radiance. Without Hirata opening his mouth, the doctor had already noticed the plaster model. He walked towards the window with a limp, and put his forehead against the glass to observe the object carefully.

"Brilliant. I've never seen such a finely made plaster cast, and the composition is unique." After looking at it for a while, the doctor sighed. "Indeed. This shape is really special. Especially the muscles on it, even the texture is lifelike, just like a woman's arm." Nozaki also agreed. "Of course it belongs to a woman, and it belongs to a young woman. The owner of this arm must be a beautiful woman." The word "beauty" reminded Nozaki of the beautiful face of Satomi Kinue that he had seen before.Then, he secretly wondered if Yi Ren also had such beautiful lotus arms, and then he blushed at his own fantasies.

For a while the doctor stared motionlessly at a point on the plaster arm, when suddenly he said: "Hey, take a look. What's going on here? It doesn't look right." As he spoke, he lightly touched Nozaki's arm. The doctor's voice was unusually low. Nozaki and Hirata were a little surprised, and followed his gaze. It was the wrist part of the plaster statue. Upon closer inspection, a small line of ants appeared between the partition of the display shelf and the wrist.There should be no sugar on it, but the ants are still clinging to the plaster statue, which is too strange. Taking a closer look, the army of ants was divided into two columns, and the team stopped advancing when they reached the wrists, and all turned back. "Ah, I see. There are holes in the surface of the plaster. Right, you see, the ants got in." Hirata had sharp eyes and yelled out when he found out. "It turns out that there are many small holes that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. But will the holes attract so many ants?" The three of them were unable to explain this strange phenomenon, and were silent for a while.Finally, for some unknown purpose, Dr. Pan Liu walked into the store and asked the owner the price of the plaster statue.He opened his mouth to the boss's lion without haggling, and immediately asked the other party to wrap it up. After the boss wrapped it in newspaper, the doctor carefully tucked it under his arm and urged the two of them to leave, hurrying to the corner where the car was parked. Even in the car, the doctor still carefully placed the large plaster statue on his lap, his face livid and silent.The other two seemed to be overwhelmed by the doctor's solemn attitude, and there was an inexplicable and strange chill in their hearts, like the upper body of an evil spirit, so they also didn't say a word. When the car arrived at the doctor's house, it was already dark, and the three got out of the car and walked into the dimly lit courtyard, even unable to see each other's expressions clearly. "Ah, I still have something to ask you. If it doesn't hinder you, please come in together." After the doctor finished speaking to Hirata, he walked into the entrance first.