Chapter 5 4. Red cat

As soon as Futian received the news that "Detective Zhizhi is expected to arrive at Ueno Station at 7:30", he immediately asked the inspector and driver who knew Zhizhi to drive to the station to meet him.And when Akechi arrives at Fukuda's house, the Boyue Police Department will also come as agreed. Unexpectedly, around eight o'clock, the inspector and driver who went to pick up Zhizhi came back by themselves.According to the inspection report, for some unknown reason, the big clock of Futian’s mansion, the driver’s watch, and the inspection pocket watch were all 15 minutes late, and no one noticed it. As a result, when they arrived at the station, they arrived at half past seven. Most of the passengers have already left.Unable to find any reason, the inspector had to come back by himself.

Several clocks slowed down at the same time, there must be some unusual reason behind it, but no one has studied it deeply.However, who would have imagined that a 15-minute delay in picking up the station would lead to such serious consequences! Fukuda then hurriedly called Bo Yue, who was still at the police station, to tell him what had happened, and then asked Akechi if he went directly to the police station. "No, he didn't come. If he couldn't find a car to pick up the station, he would call. Since he didn't contact me, maybe he missed the scheduled train. It doesn't matter tomorrow morning. I think he must have It will appear, just wait until tomorrow." Bo Yue replied calmly.

That night, besides Erlang, the inspector who received Zhizhi also stayed, and Futian fell asleep peacefully. Neither Fukuda nor the Boyue Police Department felt that the danger was approaching, so it was really helpless to be careless and negligent.The number on the paper is "three", and even if the horror Fukuda fears becomes a reality, it will be three days later.What's really disturbing is that the numbers change to "ones" and then to "zeros."Before that, there should be no accidents, even if Kogoro Akechi arrives a day later, there will be no serious problems——everyone agrees so.

However, not all criminals are gentlemen who keep their promises like Arsen Robin, especially if they don't know where they got the news of Kogoro Akechi's return to Tokyo.It is extremely insidious to take away the freedom of the most powerful enemy who poses the greatest threat to them before the event occurs.It can be seen from this that it is impossible for them not to know that Futian asked the police for assistance, and they would not wait until November 20th to let the other party have time to lay a net. Putting this aside, Erlang, who was in charge of protecting Fukuda, and the inspector lay down on two side-by-side beds in the guest room on the second floor.They also understood that patrolling the mansion was futile, so they stopped insisting, staying behind was just to embolden Futian.

The two secretly believed that there were still three days left, so they relaxed their vigilance.Besides, I don't know what will happen when November 20th arrives, maybe nothing will happen.They are very optimistic and blindly believe that nothing will happen, because the words on the paper are too far-fetched, no wonder Boue will say "this is the domain of Mr. Wise". As a result, the relaxed Erlang and Xun Zan did not force themselves to stay awake. They thought that even if they could not close their eyes all night, it would not help, so they simply took a good night's sleep.

However, as shown by the wise tactics of the gangsters at Ueno Station, he is very good at picking people up when they don't expect them.The frightening case that happened that night was not so much because everyone was used to the daily ghost letters and let the gangsters take advantage of it, but it was because they were caught in the criminal's ingenious tricks and completely relaxed their vigilance. At about midnight, Erlang was awakened by a strange flute sound. He couldn't help but listen carefully, the faint sound of the flute seemed to come from the master bedroom downstairs.The sound of the flute is not in tune, it seems that the flute player plays it as he pleases. The indescribable sad tune is filled with endless love and hatred, indescribable desolation and sorrow. Once you hear it, you will never forget it.

Futian doesn't know how to play the flute, and besides, it's midnight, who would make such a weird move at this time? "Did I hear it wrong? No, this is indeed the sound of the flute, and it came from the uncle's room. Could it be..." Thinking of this, Erlang felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured on his back, and suddenly shivered in fright. into a ball. After a while, the sound of the flute stopped abruptly, and the surrounding area was so quiet that the sound of a needle falling on the ground could be heard.Erlang hurriedly woke up the inspector in the next bed, "Something strange happened, can you go downstairs with me to have a look?"

Neither of them took off their outer pants before going to bed, so they quickly put on their coats and walked out of the room.The inspector even took up a pistol for self-defense.There was a dead silence in the room, and the two of them walked through the corridor with the help of the dim night light. In front of them was the door of Futian's bedroom and study. Erlang frightenedly tried to push the door, but the door seemed to be locked from the inside and remained motionless.Erlang suddenly felt a bad premonition. "Do you want to wake up Mr. Fukuda?" "For the sake of caution, let's do this."

The inspector also agreed, so Erlang started knocking on the door, still shouting "Uncle, Uncle".He repeated it two or three times, but there was no response. "It's really not right." Erlang's face turned pale, and he seemed unable to think of what to do next. "Look through the keyhole." As expected of an inspection, he reacted very quickly. He immediately bent down to peek inside through the keyhole, and soon turned around with a nervous expression. "Blood, there is blood..." "Huh? That uncle..." "I think he's stopped breathing, let's break down the door."

Even if you go around the windows of the yard, you will be blocked by iron grids. The situation is really critical, and you can only break in at this time. Erlang quickly ran across the corridor, woke up the scholar, ordered him to bring an axe, and after taking it, he slammed on the door panel hard. Under the noise, the family servants (mother-in-law and two maids) were all woken up and hurried over. No matter how strong the door panel was, it couldn't withstand the random smashing of the axe. With a crackling sound, more than half of the upper panel of the door fell off. Erlang, the inspector, and the servant, a total of six people gathered beside the broken door.But they didn't see anything, no, they didn't see it yet.I just felt a gigantic object rushing head-on with the wind at an astonishing speed, frightening the group of people hastily dodged aside.

It turned out to be a bright red cat.No, there can't be any scarlet cats in the world.It was actually a pure white male cat raised by Futian, but now it was covered in blood and turned into a terrifying red cat. This ghostly animal jumped from the hole in the door to the corridor, shook its whole body two or three times (every time it shook, red blood splashed on the wall), faced the crowd like a ghost, and looked at the people in front of it. These people arch their backs high. Everyone suddenly saw the strange cat's mouth. The sight was so shocking that people couldn't help but turn their faces away and dare not look directly at it. This abominable animal didn't know that its master was dead, so it must still be entangled with the blood-soaked corpse to play, so its whole body was dyed such a bright red color.And it should not only be playing, but also must have licked the master's wound and swallowed the blood dripping from the master's body.Otherwise, its mouth could not have become like that.Look, its jagged sharp teeth have been dyed bright red, and sticky blood is dripping from the tip of its tongue, and it is licking the corner of its mouth with its blood-dripping tongue. The red cat made a weird coquettish sound of "meow--", ignored the terrified six people around, left mottled bloody paw prints, and walked gracefully to the back door, with an arrogant and arrogant appearance, as if it was a murderer like. The next moment, everyone turned their heads and continued to observe the room through the hole in the door. The lights in the room were on.Under the bright light, Futian in pajamas lay flat on the ground, revealing his lower body.The area above the chest was blocked by the bed and was invisible from where they stood.It might be because the cat kept rubbing on his leg just now, Futian's toes were also covered in blood.However, what is more unusual than the corpse itself is the astonishing number of gorgeous wild chrysanthemum petals scattered around and around the corpse, as if hanging the dead and adorning the corpse. In this urgent moment, no one has extra time and energy to think deeply.But in retrospect, in this murder case, starting from the weird warning letter, where did the murderer enter the room and by what means?Not to mention the murderer's escape path (of course, this is the most magical part of the whole case), and even the sad flute heard by Erlang, and the wild chrysanthemums adorning the corpse... What does all this mean? ?Could it be that the murderer played a mourning song and offered wild chrysanthemums in memory of the person he killed?Is there really such a crazy murderer in this world? Here, let's not talk about irrelevant words.The body must first be examined.So Erlang reached in through the hole in the door and turned the handle, opened the door and walked in, followed by the inspectors and servants. Jiro strode towards the corpse without thinking.When he came to the foot of the bloody corpse and looked at his upper body blocked by the partition wall between the study room and the bedroom, for some reason, Erlang stood there like a wooden man.His lips trembled and he was speechless for a long time. It seemed that the situation was very dire. "What's the matter?" The inspector hurriedly approached, just in time to catch the stiff body of Erlang, "Wow! This..." Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the tragedy that Erlang saw one step ahead of him, and the well-informed inspector couldn't help but There was a scream. What the hell is there?What was it that frightened Erlang dizzy and made the professional detective tremble all over?