Chapter 53 Chapter Twenty Eight

Kono was staring at us with a dirty dagger, and for a moment, the appearance of the owner of the dagger—the suspect—appeared in my mind one after another.The suitcase gentleman, the hotel owner, the customer of Nagayoshi Matsumura, the man with the flashlight... and the last figure that remains in my mind is still the greedy Lakeside Pavilion owner.I believe that the name Kono is about to say must be him.Surprisingly, however, the person Kono was referring to was someone I had never suspected. "I found this short knife on a shelf in a dark corner of the wood burning place in the bathing place. There are three kinds of items piled up on the shelf, all covered with a layer of dust, and a dirty tin box is hidden in the most secret place. The box contained many curious objects. The box is still in place, containing such fine lady's purses, gold rings, large quantities of silver coins, etc., and this bloody dagger...Needless to say, this The owner of the dagger is Sanzo who is in charge of boiling the bath water."

The inspector and I were silent, waiting for Kono to continue.Because of this evidence alone, it is hard to believe that the fool Sanzao is the murderer. "And the murderer is undoubtedly Sanzao." Kono's tone was calm, "There are many suspects in this case. The first is the suitcase gentleman, the second is the young man surnamed Songcun, and the last is the owner of this hotel. Regarding the two The police seem to be doing their best to search for the prime suspects, but unfortunately, their whereabouts are still unknown so far. However, it is simply wrong to suspect these two people.”

Kono explained to the inspector again the time-point contradiction explained to me two days ago. "As for the second suspect, Young Matsumura, the police once interrogated him, but nothing suspicious was found. He took the same car home with the geisha, and there was no suspicious behavior after that. It can be concluded that he has no extra time to dispose of the corpse, so it is obviously not the murderer. Besides, he has no motive to kill the woman he is deeply infatuated with. Finally, it is the wallet dropped by the mysterious person. Yes, it is indeed this hotel The owner's belongings, but that's all. After the investigation, I found that the boss was sleeping in his room when the murder happened. His wife and the servant agreed on this matter, and there was a child to testify. Is the child would lie."

Then, Kono explained the mysterious figures who appeared a few nights ago. "In other words, none of the suspects we locked down were the real murderers. For things in front of us, we tend to ignore them because they are so close. For example, although Sanzao is a half-demented fool, why did the police never suspect that burning He in the bath water? Sansuke is not a prop in the bath, they are also human. There are two entrances and exits to the bath, and you can freely enter and exit the dressing room from the firewood place. At the same time, in such a short period of time—— 10:30 No one but Sanzao could dispose of the corpse within five minutes or ten minutes. Maybe he hid the corpse behind the coal pile in the firewood yard first, and waited until late at night to slowly prepare the body."

Kono's speech became smoother and smoother, as if he was giving a speech that was getting better and better, and his spirits were high. "However, Sanzo is a fool, and he is a very honest guy. I also don't think he can be the murderer, and it took a day or two to suspect him. Yesterday I ran into Sanzao behind the bathing place and accidentally discovered There was a black mark on the back of his hand. Of course, I immediately remembered the scar on the murderer's hand. It was an unusually clear thick line, very close to your description. I suddenly had a flash of inspiration and asked nonchalantly: "Your hand What's the matter?" Sure enough, Sanzao answered "Hey" stupidly as usual, rubbing the back of his hand frequently, but the line was hard to wipe off. The mark looked like it was rubbed by some kind of coal-like object left on the back of the hand."

Speaking of this, Kono began to explain in detail what he saw in the peeping mirror for the inspection. "Could the scars you saw in the mirror be the same as the scratches on the back of Sanzao's hands, just coal stains? That's what I was surprised by. Because the image is blurry, I can't tell whether coal stains will be mistaken for it. Scars. Well, what do you think?" Kono asked for my opinion, and I thought about it for a while and replied: "The thing happened in such a short moment, maybe I misunderstood..." The impression of the scar has not disappeared from my mind so far, so I have no regrets anyway. The solution is to treat it as coal pollution.

"Is it such a hand that is reflected on the mirror?" Unexpectedly, Kono stretched out the back of his right hand in front of me.Taking a closer look, there was a slanted black line drawn on the back of his hand.Because it was too similar to the hand I saw in the mirror, I couldn't help but scream: "That's it, that's it! How did you have such an injury?" "It's not a wound, it's coal pollution. It looks very similar." Kono sighed, looking at his hand and said, "That's why I thought Sanzao was suspicious, so I went to investigate the firewood disposal I just mentioned. Shelves——Of course I took advantage of Sanzo’s absence. Finally, I found the tin box. The short knives and other items in it didn’t look like Sanzo’s. When I searched randomly, I found that there were two shelves, and the intervals were very narrow. , When I put my hand into the bottom shelf, the wooden strips on the lower side of the upper shelf will rub against the back of my hand, and if I accidentally touch the sharp corners of the wooden strips, such marks will be drawn by the soot deposited there."

Kono explained with gestures. "Isn't Sanzao even more suspicious now? Also, Sanzao has a problem that no one knows about. It's been a long time ago. I just arrived here not long ago. I inadvertently realized that people really can't be judged by their appearance. Sanzo is a bad guy through and through. Don't look stupid, but his hands and feet are very dirty. If someone leaves something in the locker room, he will steal it for himself. I have witnessed it The scene where he stole something. But at that time he took something that wasn’t a big deal, and I didn’t expose it right away, so I let him go for now, but when I saw the tin box, I was shocked. He was such a bold thief, everyone mistakenly thought He is an honest person who does not take precautions, but his true face is not like that. Everyone’s negligence towards him is also one of the reasons why he has gone astray. Isn’t it said that people with insufficient IQ often have the problem of stealing.”