Chapter 28 Chapter 27 Passing by

Ellery was driving on the fast lane in downtown New York. When passing through the busy streets, he seemed to be crawling slowly, and finally passed through the Holland Tunnel in one breath.Weaving through the traffic-congested lanes, and finally driving onto the highway leading to Harrisburg, the traffic gradually decreased, and the heavy rain seemed to show no sign of abating.Praying to the gods of chance, Ellery started speeding ahead, and luck didn't abandon him.He drove quickly on the roads of cities in Pennsylvania, and was very lucky not to be chased by criminal police on motorcycles once.

The interior of the car without rainproof facilities was flooded. His shoes were filled with water. From the bottom of the car, he took out the dust-proof mirror used for racing and put it on, making him look ridiculous. Wearing a loose raincoat on his sackcloth and amber pince-nez on his face, he looked extremely weird. Then he sat in the car and was driven by the storm to Tianyuan, Pennsylvania, with a very gloomy expression. At dusk just before seven o'clock, still shrouded in torrential rain—that is to say, he kept running with the tail of the heavy rain, and the car drove into the dark Harrisburg.

Because he didn't eat lunch, he felt as if his hungry stomach was going to be sunken. He parked the car at the maintenance station, checked it carefully, and then walked to find a restaurant. In less than an hour, he came back to the maintenance station, checked the oil, After the tires, continue on the road.His body was completely soaked, but the road was still very clear. In less than six kilometers, he passed Rockville and continued to drive towards the Sashhana River. Two hours later, he crossed Lincoln Street and continued to move forward. There was no rain. There is no stopping look.

At twelve o'clock in the middle of the night, he was tired and stiff, and his eyelids were too heavy to move.He sprinted into Heliedsberg, this time stopping for an inspection in the pits as before, then walked to the hotel with a smile on his face, the rain was still falling and his feet were all wet. "I need your help with three things." In the small hotel, he said blankly, "give me a room, and please dry the clothes I'm wearing, and wake me up at seven tomorrow morning." "Okay, Mr. Quinn." The hotel owner replied after reading the signature on the signature book.

The next morning, Ellery, who was full of sleep and full of energy, was hungry and stuffed with eggs and drunken meat.Afterwards, the engine of the sports car sounded again, and they set off to conquer the last journey. The damage after the storm could be seen everywhere—even the uprooted trees, the swollen river, and the cars abandoned by the roadside—the storm blew all night Finally, it weakened in the morning, but the weather was still quite overcast with low hanging clouds in the sky. At ten fifteen in the morning, Ellery was driving through Pittsburgh.At eleven-thirty, when the weather cleared and the sun shone brightly over the top of the Allegheny Mountains, Ellery turned off the fire in front of the village hall in Arroyo, West Virginia.

A man in blue overalls Ellery remembered seeing was sweeping the sidewalk at the village hall. "Oh, where are you going?" The man dropped the broom and grabbed Ellery's hand. "Who are you looking for?" Ellery didn't answer. He walked to the policeman's office at the end of the musty corridor. The door of the police room was closed. There was no one in the Arroyo Village Hall as far as he could see. He pushed the door open, but it didn't close. Lock. The man in overalls followed, a resolute look on his rough face. The office was empty. "Where did the police go?"

"I was just about to tell you," the man said stubbornly. "He's not here." "Oh!" Ellery thought at once that perhaps he had gone up the hill. "When did he go out?" "Monday morning." Ellery's voice sharpened with surprise and fear, and a sudden surge of sadness: "Oops! Then my telegram!" He came suddenly to the desk, which was covered with a pile of papers, and he spread them out. , Searching, the man in the blue overalls stretched out his hands in a panic, at a loss.Ellery rummaged through the public documents on the table one by one, and his terrible premonition was confirmed. It was still there-the pale yellow envelope. He tore open the telegram:

Various scenes floated before Ellery's eyes, because of a slight slip in the cogs of fate--that terrible and malicious slip, so that the telegram he sent to Luden was never read by the policeman--according to the blue After the clothes man explained carefully, he learned that Lu Deng and the head of the village, Madou Olis, went fishing two days ago as usual. Every year, he would spend a week in Ohio enjoying the fun of fishing. He would not do it before Sunday. Come back, the telegram was sent at three o'clock yesterday.The one in blue is the janitor and handyman.After he received the signed telegram, because Luden and the village chief were away, he put it on the table. If Ellery hadn't come, the telegram would lie there for a week.

The administrator seemed to be thinking about something, and when he was about to speak out, Ellery pushed him away and walked outside, fear growing in him.After leaving Luden's office, he relied on the memory of the last time he went with Luden, and set off for the hut on the mountain. He didn't have time to contact the district attorney Kermit here. He thought that if that terrible incident It has not yet happened, and he is sure to handle all the situations that will happen in the future.He had a loaded pistol at his waist, but if something terrible had happened... He parked the car under the shade of the tree as last time—although it had rained, but because of the lush grass covering the soil, the rut marks left by the last time were still clearly visible—he took his automatic pistol to the ground. Climb, crawl in the direction that Lu Deng led the way last time, although he walked in a hurry, he still didn't ignore the surrounding situation, he didn't want to be seen by anyone because of his carelessness.The dense forest was silent, and he prayed in his heart to catch up, but subconsciously felt in a corner of his mind that it was too late, and now the only thing he could do was to climb up.

He crouched behind a tree, the clearing and barbed wire still intact, and although the door was closed, Ellery carefully undid the safety on his pistol as he slipped out through the shade. Ah, the face with the beard and the chin in front of the barbed-wire window, could it be Grandpa Peter.No!It was just a fantasy. He clumsily climbed over the barbed wire fence with his hand tightly gripped. At this moment, the footprints appeared in front of his eyes. He had been standing there for three full minutes. The story is exhausted.After that, in order to avoid messing up the talking footprints, he made a big detour and came to the door.

The door is different from what I saw and imagined just now, it is not completely closed, and I can get a glimpse of the situation inside.Holding the gun in his right hand, he leaned his body against the wall, straightened his body, pushed the door hard with his left hand, and the door opened at once, and the situation inside was unobstructed. During the time his heart was beating a few times, he kept that posture, with his left hand stretched out of nowhere, his right hand holding the weapon, staring blankly at the terrifying scene in front of him.After that, he stepped over the threshold and walked in slowly. At twelve fifty, Ellery's car screeched to a halt in front of the village hall.As Ellery got out of the car and walked on the sidewalk, the caretaker looked at the young man in a very strange way.His head was messed up like a madman, and he walked to the village hall with a shocking appearance. "Oh!" mumbled the man in overalls, dropping the broom on the hot pavement. "Are you back? I have something to tell you, but you left before I finished speaking. Your name is—" "Save that for later!" Ellery stopped. "You seem to be the only one left here at the village hall, so you must do what I ask you to do. There's a man coming here from New York in about a few hours." From now on, you must wait for him here." "Yes! Yes!" he continued, obediently putting the broom aside, "I don't quite understand, but are you Mr. Quin?" "How did you know?" The other party took out a folded piece of paper from the pocket of his overalls: "I wanted to tell you when you came just now, Mr. Quinn, there is a man who asked me to give you this letter. He is a tall ugly man. Man, looks like President Lincoln." "That's Adori!" Ellery yelled, snatching the paper over, "Damn it, why didn't you tell me earlier!" Because he opened the letter in such a hurry that he almost tore the paper. There are pencil words on it, and the signature of the professor is attached below—— Ellery asked fiercely, "What time did this President Lincoln write this letter?" "Around eleven o'clock!" The other party replied leisurely, "Just before you come soon." "Now I can finally understand the murderer's mood!" Ellery mused, "When did the rain stop last night?" "Between twelve and one! But it's been raining all night on the other side of the river, and it's stopped here, so Mr. Quinn, please listen to me—" "No! I don't need to listen anymore, someone will come later, you can give the letter to him!" He hurriedly wrote on the blank space on the paper, and handed it to the gatekeeper, "Please wait here outside the room—— You want to clean or eat or do whatever you like, just stay here until those people get here. You must stay here, the people who come are Esham and Bonn, also from the police People, they are here, please give them this, this is your reward." He threw a banknote to the administrator, jumped into the sports car, and drove away. Who is the murderer? In my novels, when the readers already know all the clues needed to solve the case, I will challenge the wisdom of the readers.Naturally, there is no exception. Using rigorous logic and deduction from the information provided, can you give examples to point out who the murderer is without relying on guesswork? Regarding this answer, if you read the following chapter of this case, you will understand that there is no "if" or "but" in this case, so luck is unnecessary for logical reasoning-I wish you all success in ingenious reasoning.