Chapter 511 The lingering ghost
If you want to say how Duanmu Huai is feeling at this moment, then Lorena's speech can explain the problem.
"Hey? Something happened again??"
Listen, this "again" is very spiritual.
Moreover, this time there is no need to investigate whether it was the work of some cultists. The reason is very simple. The victim's body was found behind the cabin, and a strange circular circle was drawn with his body as the center - yes, This is what cultists do!
Or is my reputation not so good...
Looking at the corpse in front of him, Duanmu Huai sighed silently. This cultist really had nothing to do for three days to find trouble for himself. He originally went to the Fog City for the Jack the Ripper case. As a result, before we even got there, we encountered two cases on the road.
If you were famous, wouldn't those guys just turn around and run away after seeing you? What other cases are there...uh, it doesn't seem right?
After all, there are many similar cases in Detective Conan.
Forget it, there's no use thinking about it now.
Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai retracted his thoughts and looked at the corpse in front of him - the one who was killed was Williams Ford, a passenger on the "Full Moon and Stars". At this moment, there were two women standing next to him. One of them in a white coat was Rose Barnett, the doctor of the airship, and the other...
"Who are you?"
Duanmuhuai looked at another woman standing next to Williams' body with a notebook in her hand. Her dress did not look like that of an aristocratic lady, but her figure was more like that of a soldier. And judging from her expression, she didn't look like someone who was very familiar with Williams.
"I am Dot Fisher, the bodyguard hired by Williams."
The other party's answer was quite straightforward.
"You were a bodyguard? So what happened when he was killed?"
"I don't know that."
The bodyguard spread his hands helplessly.
"After I got up in the morning, I went to the dining room to get breakfast for Williams. When I returned to the cabin, Williams was gone. I was about to look for him when I heard screams coming from here, and then when I rushed When I came over, I found that things had turned out like this.”
"Oh..."
Duanmuhuai nodded, then looked at the doctor.
"What did you find, doctor?"
Upon hearing Duanmuhuai's question, doctor Rose quickly gave her answer.
"The victim's throat was slit. This was the cause of death. It can be seen from the angle and direction of the wound that the victim was facing the murderer."
"Confronted? So are there signs of violent confrontation on the body?"
"No."
"In other words, the victim faced the murderer and had his throat cut by him, but he did not resist at all?"
Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned.
"I also find it very strange, but that's it. Of course, what I have to say is that these bloods are very strange."
As he spoke, the doctor pointed to the blood stains on the deceased.
"His blood is almost black and coagulates even more than normal blood."
"So there is no way to confirm the time of death from this point?"
"If it were an ordinary corpse, it would be fine, but this corpse..."
Rose looked at the body and shrugged.
"Sorry, I may not be of much help. If you want to conduct a test, we don't have the necessary equipment here. You have to wait until the Fog City Police Station for further inspection."
At this moment, the captain also arrived at the crime scene, checked the situation, and then sighed.
"Everyone, please gather together. After all, I also want to make this matter clear."
Everyone didn't care about this. After locking the door, they came to the observation deck. By this time, everyone, including the captain and passengers, had basically arrived.
As for the facts of the case, it is now very clear.
The victim was Williams Ford. He was killed in the smoking room and his throat was cut with a knife. Then the murderer used his blood to draw an evil circle around the deceased.
The question now is when did the deceased die.
Although logically speaking, a general autopsy can narrow down the time of death within a certain range through information such as the degree of rigor mortis and blood coagulation, Dr. Rose also said that the degree of coagulation of the blood of the deceased is much higher than that of ordinary blood. There is no way to use common sense to judge the time of death.
Then do the opposite, first determine when the deceased's body went to the smoking room.
According to everyone, the captain, navigator Bart and a passenger, Arthur, were smoking in the smoking room in the morning. They did not see the body at that time - as for whether there was a body hidden in it, it is even more impossible. After all, what is a smoking room? There was no decoration, just a clean, empty room with only a few ashtrays on the wall. There was no place to hide the body.
So what that means is that for two hours between five and seven in the morning, someone took Williams (or his body) to the smoking room, slit his throat, and then used his blood A magic circle is drawn.
Let’s not talk about killing people. It takes at least half an hour to draw a magic circle.
At least based on current information, the following facts can be confirmed.
First, at about five o'clock, Captain Carter and navigator Bart were sleepy due to the night shift and wanted to have a cigarette to wake up, so they came to the smoking room. Then they met passenger Arthur who was also addicted to smoking. The three of them After smoking for a while, the captain and the navigator went to work, and according to Arthur's own words, he also went back to his room to rest after finishing his cigarette.
Then at around six o'clock, Williams' bodyguard Dot went out to get breakfast for Williams - her statement was confirmed by Ethel who was setting the tableware in the restaurant at the time. When Dot spent about twenty minutes preparing breakfast and returned to the room, Williams was no longer there.
Then another passenger, Fred Winston, went to the smoking room to smoke, then discovered the body and screamed loudly.
It was probably around seven o'clock.
If the confession of bodyguard Dot is correct, then after she left the cabin, Williams for some reason left his room, went to the smoking room, and was murdered.
Of course, the premise is that her confession is correct. After all, because the doctor cannot determine the correct time of death of the victim, there is another possibility, that is, the bodyguard Dot is the murderer, and she killed her employer. , and then deliberately went out to create his own alibi under the pretext of getting breakfast, and then when he came back, he dragged Williams' body to the smoking room next door...
Anyway, at least one thing is for sure.
Williams was alive when he boarded the airship, and everyone saw it.
In other words... he was killed on the airship.
Then there is only one truth, the culprit is among us!
Well, yes, very simple reasoning.
After all, this is different from the previous trains. If you insist, people in the train can climb out of the carriage through some means. But the airship is different. At an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, the entire cabin is sealed. Who can get out?
Moreover, the space of the airship is also fixed. At the front is a large rectangular viewing platform and restaurant, with sofas and coffee tables placed on both sides by the window, and several dining tables in the middle for dining. There are two doors at the back of the observation deck. The door in the center leads directly to the corridor. The corridor is a straight line with no forks. On the right side of the corridor are seven guest rooms, and on the right side are three guest rooms with the crew lounge, crew bedrooms and cargo storage.
As for the two doors at the end of the corridor, they lead to the infirmary and engine room. Of course, outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering and exiting here. Only when the airship is in trouble, the captain will open the door for maintenance.
If you want to draw a schematic diagram, it is basically as follows.
Observation deck - Passenger Room 1 - Passenger Room 2 - Passenger Room 3 - Passenger Room 4 - Passenger Room 5 - Passenger Room 6 - Passenger Room 7 - Engine Room.
Observation deck - crew lounge - crew bedroom - warehouse - smoking room - guest room 8 - guest room 9 - guest room 10 - infirmary.
The seven guest rooms on side A belong to Duanmu Huai, Lorena, four students from the Royal Master's College, and the discoverer of the body, Fred Winston. As for the three guest rooms on the other side, they belonged to the deceased Williams Ford, his bodyguards Dot Fisher, and Arthur Lensher.
When the incident occurred, almost all passengers were resting in their rooms. Only the flight attendants on the airship were busy. The captain was responsible for observing the course and the navigator was in the crew lounge. Only Ethel, the "maid", was setting up for everyone on the observation deck. Dining table, preparing breakfast, according to According to her, other than her, only two people had been to the observation deck at that time. One was Arthur Lansheer. He appeared at the observation deck earlier than her and never left. Then he came to give Williams a message. Bodyguard Dot picking up breakfast
But now, everyone is sitting in the observation deck, each forming a circle, watching others uneasily. There was no idiot present, they had thought of everything Duanmu Huai could think of. Although I'm not sure who the murderer is, at least...it's better to stay away from strangers I don't know.
"Dong dong dong!!"
However, not long after, there was the sound of rapid footsteps, and then everyone saw the captain walking in with a tense expression.
"Captain!!"
Seeing the captain appear, the maid Ethel who was sitting in the corner stood up quickly.
"How's it going?"
"Radio contact unavailable."
However, the news brought by the captain made everyone's hearts sink.
"What's going on? Is it because of the weather?"
"No, this..."
Faced with the question, the captain hesitated, but finally chose to tell the truth.
"The radio appears to have been vandalized."
"What?!"
Hearing this, the others couldn't sit still. Even Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrows.
Now, things get interesting.
"What to do now?"
"Wait, what should we do?"
At this time, everyone couldn't help but panic.
This is actually understandable. After all, the situation in front of us is more dangerous than the train or the Blizzard Villa.
To put it bluntly, if you feel unsafe, you can force the driver to stop, then leave the train and go to the wilderness to survive. The same goes for Blizzard Villa. You can indeed stay in the villa and wait for death, or you can choose to go out on a snowy day and find a place to dig a hole to hide.
Although the chance of survival is low, at least it is possible.
But now we are on an airship, with the Atlantic Ocean below and thousands of meters of altitude between us. What can you do?
Are you jumping out to feed the fish? Or jump out and feed the fish? Or jump out and feed the fish?
But if you don’t feed the fish, do you have any other choice?
"Mr. Detective, do you have a way to solve the case?"
At this moment, the young man before also thought of Duanmuhuai again, and hurriedly rushed over and started asking, while Duanmuhuai thought for a moment and shrugged his shoulders.
"There are currently no clues at the crime scene. Unless I carefully examine the body and then search the room, I can't tell."
Indeed, as Duanmuhuai said, there were no clues left in the smoking room at the crime scene. Apart from the corpse and the weird magic circle, there were only a few cigarette butts.
He is not Sherlock Holmes. He can tell one, two, three, four and five from a cigarette butt.
There was no murder weapon, and the murderer himself left no clues. How could he investigate?
He is the god of destruction and pleasure, but not the god of reasoning.
It’s not his business!
In fact, Duanmu Huai prefers to be reckless - that is, waiting for the other person to jump out on his own initiative, and then slap him to death.
Just like swatting flies, it takes a lot of effort to find the flies yourself. It is better to wait for the flies to fly up and immediately lock the position and start.
"Huh, after talking for a long time, don't you just have no ability?"
At this moment, Arthur, who was not far away, sneered - because he had an alibi, he was the most arrogant person in the group. After all, he had been watching when the victim was killed. Jingtai, so he escaped early, and now he seems quite arrogant.
"Besides, maybe you were the one who killed the person. After all, you look like a murderer."
"Hmph!"
Hearing this, Duanmuhuai's face darkened, and he glared directly at him. Seeing Duanmuhuai staring at him, Arthur wanted to say something, but after feeling Duanmuhuai's gaze, he The whole person couldn't take a sudden breath. He only felt his heart twitching suddenly. The next moment, accompanied by the icy cold air that burst out from the back of his spine, the whole person was so frightened that his legs softened and he collapsed to the ground.
"You, what do you want to do?"
"If I were a murderer, I would be the first one to kill you, a mean-mouthed and arrogant idiot."
Duanmuhuai glared at Arthur again, and then withdrew his gaze, but this time Arthur did not dare to speak anymore. He collapsed on the floor tremblingly, his eyes widened in horror, and he looked at Duanmuhuai, but he said nothing. Can't even tell.
At this time, doctor Rose also stood up.
"This gentleman is not the one who can kill people, I can be sure."
"Why?"
"It's very simple."
Dr. Rose looked at the other questioner and explained.
"According to my autopsy results, the murderer slit the victim's throat directly in front of him. Judging from the wound, the height difference between the victim and the victim was almost the same, and this gentleman..."
As she spoke, Rose looked at Duanmu Huai speechlessly.
"If he wants to do this, I'm afraid he has to squat."
“……………………”
Everyone looked at Duanmuhuai, then at Dr. Rose, and made some gestures... Well, that seems to be the truth.
"Furthermore, I also saw that weird magic circle. It was drawn with blood on a finger. Judging from the radius and size of the pattern, it is the size of a normal adult man's finger...so......... ”
Well, that's understandable.
After hearing this, Lorena also raised her hand curiously.
"You mean, the murderer is an adult male?"
"Normal adult male."
Out of the doctor's rigor, Dr. Rose still added, look at Duanmu Huai - it is self-evident to whom this sentence is directed.
In this way, according to Dr. Rose, at least Duanmu Huai, Arthur, Lorena, the maid Ethel, the bodyguard Dot and the two girls from the Master's School can be excluded.
Then the only ones left are the other two male students from the Master's College, the captain and the navigator, and the discoverer of the body, Fred Winston.
(End of chapter)