Chapter 18 Chapter One

The murderer looked around the room again before creating the chamber. A spacious room of about thirteen square meters covered with carmine-colored velvet blankets.The balcony windows on the inner walls are shaded by thick drapes.Next to the wall is a desk with a word processor.On the left-hand wall are bookshelves and a large safe with its door open.The safe was empty.Because before committing the crime, the criminal used Togarev to coerce Chef Kishimoto to open the safe and asked him to take out the threatening materials.That Togarev was bought from violent gangs by virtue of connections for this purpose.

There are many kites hanging on the wall on the right.That was Tetsuo Kishimoto's hobby.A part of the wall was inlaid with a bullet that had pierced his heart. And Chef Kishimoto's body was lying on his back in the middle of the room.It was a short man with a beard and a poor face, with dull eyes and wide eyeballs.He was wearing a white and black chessboard-patterned sweater and camel-colored cotton trousers. The left chest was stained with deep red blood. Not feeling any guilt at all.A man who keeps intimidating and blackmailing people.Even if this kind of man is killed, it is impossible to feel guilty.

Everything that should be cleaned up has been cleaned up, and there should be nothing missing. The entrance door is locked.The same goes for the windows, except for the balcony window in this room, all the crescent locks are fastened.Now it's just a matter of creating a secret room. The killer reached out with a rubber-gloved hand and detached the string from one of the kites.Pull out the chair under the table and move it to the balcony window. The crescent lock is now in the unlocked state, and the handle part is downward.Make a loop at one end of the string and put it over the handle.Standing on a chair, guide the string up, through the gap between the curtain rod and the window frame, and let it hang down.Get off the chair, grab the other end of the string, and walk to the table opposite the balcony window.

There is a word processor on the desk.It seems to be the type that was also sold in Japan a few years ago. It is very convenient, but the cheap ones cost more than 300,000 yen.At the back of the word processor is the printer.Now there is no copy paper on it.On the printer's paper feed roller, secure the other end of the string with instant adhesive.This instant adhesive comes readily available in a desk drawer.Then, I turned on the word processor, and the CRT monitor lit up.Because I have used a word processor at work, I also know how to operate it. Call up the document written by Tetsuo Kishimoto from the floppy disk at will, and start printing after pressing the "Print" button.After confirming that there was no copy paper, the paper feed roller rotated and began to pull the string, immediately picked up the handbag containing the threatening materials and Togarev, opened the balcony window, and walked to the balcony with the clothes drying pole.

① Crescent lock (クレセント ingot, kuresentojou, CRESCENTLOCK): professional term, a kind of door and window lock. The body wrapped in the December night wind began to tremble involuntarily.Looking around, the windows of every household are blocked by heavy curtains, and no one is watching here.After deliberately leaving a gap in the curtains, he closed the balcony window.Move your eyes closer to the window glass and watch the movement of the crescent lock.The string extends obliquely upwards from the paper feed roller of the word processor, goes straight down through the gap between the curtain rod and the window frame, and finally fits on the handle of the crescent lock.Therefore, as the string is rolled, the handle of the crescent lock should be pulled up, so that the crescent lock is in a half-rotating locked state.Then the printer continues to print and further roll the string, and the string will be disengaged from the upward crescent lock handle, pass through the gap between the curtain rod and the window frame, and finally it should be completely rolled into the paper feed roller.

After waiting for nearly a minute, I saw the handle of the crescent lock pulled by the string began to move slowly.Then turn to the half-turn state like that, and lock the lock firmly.Just in case, I tried to open the window with my hands, but it didn't move. The killer snickered.The Chamber of Secrets is complete.Look around again.No one is looking here. Step over the balcony railing and out of the parking lot.Walking on the cold night road.The next plan is to use a public telephone to call the Metropolitan Police Department anonymously to declare his crime.But not now.Now if they found the corpse immediately, the estimated time of death would be correspondingly more accurate.

When the murderer himself was surfaced on the search line, it was bad when he was asked for his own alibi for the correct estimated time of death.Therefore, the death presumption time should be extended as much as possible.For this reason, it took a while before calling the Metropolitan Police Department. What would the police think of the chamber, the murderer thought. "The murderer locks the entrance door from the outside with a key, and after the discoverer breaks through the secret room and finds the body, the murderer quietly puts the key back"—what do you think? The police, however, would soon notice that was impossible.Because the key entrance key ① is in Kishimoto Tetsuo's stomach.The prisoner was unable to put the key back into the stomach pouch of the corpse.

Then, "when the discoverer broke through the secret room and found the corpse, the prisoner was still hiding at the scene, and after the finder left the scene, the prisoner left quietly"-thinking like this? However, this is also impossible.Because the discoverer will definitely be the police.The police will not leave the scene without authorization. He would probably report the incident directly on the phone at the scene, and stay to protect the scene.Therefore, the prisoner cannot leave the scene quietly. Or had the police not been fooled by these intrigues, but had noticed the word processor and string trick from the start?

①key (かぎ, kagi): "key" or "key". It doesn't matter if you are seen through.Rather, it is better to be seen through.However, the "real trap" hidden in the secret room must not be noticed.The killer is so sure.