Chapter 9 seventh scene

Inspector Sam said the case took a sharp turn after all other occupants of the vehicle had left. Sam returned to the upstairs reception room. The group of Longstreet guests were waiting quietly. Impoli, a well-mannered gentleman, stood up, heels together, and bowed to Sam with standard military etiquette. "Dear Inspector," he said with the utmost sincerity, "very, very presumptuous, I think we all might need something to eat, appetite or not, would you please prepare some food, at least for the ladies here ?” Sam glanced around at the crowd, Mrs. DeWitt was sitting motionless with half-closed eyes; Jane leaned on the shoulder of her boyfriend Rhodes, both of them were very pale; DeWitt and Ahan were talking in low voices Pluck clasped his hands on his lap, leaning over and whispering in Qiao Li's ear; Qiao Li frowned and gritted her teeth, completely losing her charm; Collins simply covered her face with his hands. face.

"Okay, Jock, come here, you go downstairs and get everyone something to eat." A criminal police officer took the banknote from Impoli's hand and walked out of the room.The Swiss successfully completed the task and sat back in his seat with great satisfaction. "Doctor, what's the result?" Dr. Schelling appeared before the screen, in his overcoat, with his rotten cloth cap on his bald forehead.Dr. Schelling hooked his fingers to tell Inspector Sam to come over. The two of them circled back to the dead body behind the screen. A young assistant was sitting on a bench next to the dead body, filling out the report with his head bowed, while the other was whistling and pruning. his nails.

"This," said Dr. Schelling happily, "is a very beautiful technique. The others are very, very beautiful. The cause of death is paralysis of the respiratory organs, but that's not the trick." He pointed with his plump and short right hand, "First of all, let's talk about poison." Then, he pointed to the murder weapon at Longstreet's feet. The needle, from the point of the needle to the point where it goes into the cork, is covered in nicotine—high nicotine, I think." "No wonder I've been smelling very strong smoke." Sam murmured.

"That's right, nicotine is a transparent, odorless, oily liquid, but when dissolved in water or left in the air for a long time, it will turn dark brown and smell very strong. I can guarantee that the direct cause of death must be in the On this thing, of course, for the sake of prudence, the corpse still needs to be dissected to see if there are other fatal causes. The poison enters the body directly-there are twenty-one finger wounds in total, and the nicotine is directly from here. It flowed into the blood vessels, and I judged that the deceased died of poisoning in a few minutes, which is also related to the deceased’s long-term smoking and strong resistance to nicotine.”

"Secondly, it's about this murder weapon." The fat finger pulled down the second one, "it should be collected in your police museum. Look, inspector, it's so ordinary, so simple, so strange, and most importantly, so deadly." , It's a genius who came up with it." "Thirdly, regarding the possible source of this poison," the third finger was also pulled down at this moment, "unless the nicotine is obtained through legitimate channels, otherwise, good friend, you will be in great trouble to track it down. Of course, pure nicotine is not easy to buy. If I were a murderer, I would never go to a pharmacy to buy it. The nicotine content of ordinary cigarettes is 4%. Of course, this nicotine can be distilled from a large amount of tobacco. But how do you track down this amateur pure nicotine maker? Besides, there is a more convenient way, which is to buy a can of—" Dr. Schelling said the name of a very common insecticide liquid," Things couldn't be easier, this insecticide liquid contains 35 percent nicotine, simply heat it up and you'll have the same concentration of nicotine as the needle."

"Normal channels still have to be checked," Sam's expression became serious, "How long will it take for the toxicity to occur?" Dr. Schelling closed his lips: "Generally speaking, it doesn't take a few seconds, but if the concentration of nicotine is not enough, and Lonstra has been smoking for many years, it may be about three minutes. This is the actual situation." "Okay, I think the venom is nicotine, any other findings?" "Inspector, I'm not a fussy man, but the man's health seems to be in a very bad shape," replied Dr. Schelling. "I'll tell you the details when I do the autopsy—I'll do it tomorrow. It's all right here." , I'm going to ask someone to take this lying gentleman away, the car has been waiting outside."

Inspector Sam put the murder weapon back in the cigarette case, wrapped it in newspaper, and walked back to the group of people who couldn't make the party. He handed the murder weapon to Officer Duffy, and two young medical assistants carried the blanket-covered body away on a stretcher, followed by Dr. Schelling, walking briskly. After the body was removed, the room fell silent again. The detective in charge of finding food successfully completed the task, and a group of people chewed sandwiches dryly and sipped coffee tastelessly. Sam gestured to DeWitt: "You are Lonstra's partner, and some of his habits may be best for you to describe. Mr. DeWitt, the conductor said he often saw Lonstra's That bus, what do you think—”

"Longstree's daily schedule is almost the same," DeWitt said with a bitter face, "especially his off-duty time. Frankly speaking, he is easily impatient with the work that takes time and effort, and most of them are lost. Do it for me. Our main office is on Wall Street, but every day after the stock market closes, we usually go back to the branch office in Times Square, and from there to West Kowloon. Lonstree leaves before six every day, Take the same bus from New Jersey, I think, because of this fixed habit. Our party at the hotel ended early today to catch the bus, which is why we took the bus."

"As far as I know, you often take this bus, right?" "Yes, if I don't stay in the company to work overtime, I usually take the car back to West Coward with Lonstra." Inspector Sam sighed: "Why don't you two drive to and from get off work by yourself?" DeWitt smiled wryly: "The traffic situation in New York is so bad, our cars are all left at West Cove Station." "Lonstra is the same in other respects, does he do fixed things at fixed times?" "Very regular. Inspector. Especially the little things, and though he's a looser in his private life, he reads the same paper every day and reads the stock market close on the same train to the ferry, as I told you." Also, he wears the same style of clothes to work, smokes only one brand of cigarettes and cigars - he's a serious smoker - yes, most of the details of his life follow a pattern, "DeWitt said, his eyes turned cold, "Even, he returns to the office at a fixed time after his lunch break."

Sam glanced at DeWitt, lit a cigarette and asked, "Does Lonstray wear glasses when he reads?" "He wears them, especially when he does some delicate work. Basically, he is a vain person who thinks that wearing glasses is detrimental to his appearance. Therefore, in some public or social occasions, he can not wear them. Still, he couldn't do without glasses, which he had to wear while reading, inside and outside the house." Sam put his hand on DeWitt's thin shoulders in a friendly way: "Mr. DeWitt, please face this matter frankly now. You also heard Miss Brown accuse you of killing Longstreet just now. Of course, it is her Nonsense, but she kept emphasizing that you hate Lonstra, really?"

DeWitt moved, and Sam's big hand on his shoulder slipped down. DeWitt said coldly, "If you want to be honest, I can tell you that I definitely did not murder my partner." Sam looked into DeWitt's clear eyes for a while, then shrugged his shoulders, turned his head and said to the others: "Everyone here, at nine o'clock tomorrow morning, please go to DeWitt Long in Times Square." A visit to the Stry branch, we have further questions to ask everyone, all gentlemen and ladies, everyone is here." Everyone got up tiredly, and dragged their steps towards the door, "Please wait a moment," Sam continued Said, "I'm sorry, we have to search everyone, Duffy, and get a policewoman right away." Everyone was dying of frustration, and DeWitt cursed angrily. Sam said with a smile: "Who can be sure that each of you is clean, and there is nothing hidden that shouldn't be there?" So, the body search operation that was carried out in the lounge just now was repeated under Sam's nose.The men looked unnatural, while the women blushed with anger.Mrs. DeWitt, who had been silent for several hours, finally broke the silence and spit out a stream of Spanish from her broad chest. Inspector Sam raised his eyebrows and gave a decisive look to the policewoman in charge of the search. He waved his hand, telling her to ignore it and just keep searching. After the body search was completed, everyone went to the door one by one. Jonas stood at the door and shouted, "Please leave your names and addresses." Duffy was a little downcast: "Nothing, boss, nothing cork or needles, not even a fishy smell." Sam stood upright like a tree in the middle of the room, his brows were frowned, and his lips were biting tightly: "Search the room!" He ordered roughly. The criminal police began to search the entire room. When Inspector Sam led his men out of the garage, he still frowned.