Chapter 234 202. Smooth reasoning (please order in full)
"Eri-chan's death should have been late last night." Kurosawa pondered.
"I think so too." Terada nodded, "After all, she stayed with us in the living room last night until the disbandment...and after getting up this morning, we found her body...continue The following is about the cause of her death, which is difficult to determine at this stage. The body was broken, but there were no other external injuries on the body, and there was no blood around it, so at least it was not caused by blood loss, right?"
"Is it possible that the crime was committed somewhere else, and then the body was dragged into the fireplace and made into a quilt? The illusion of being burned to death by the flames of the fireplace." Hazel paused.
“This possibility cannot be completely eliminated. Hot springs or bathrooms can indeed easily deal with blood stains... But compared to this, what puzzles me most is the state of her death.”
Terada pushed up his glasses, and the lenses turned white after reflection.
"Do you still remember the death of Eri-chan?"
"If I remember correctly, the head should have been burned..." Kurosawa hesitated to speak, She remembered what Terada had just said about the lack of trauma, and swallowed the reply that was about to come out.
"Yes, why the prisoner stuffed his head into the heater is really puzzling..."
Terada crossed his hands and leaned forward slightly, making his lips Stay close to the intersection and look like you are thinking about yourself.
"Generally speaking, there are only two reasons why prisoners destroy corpses, forging the identity of the corpse and forging the time of death... Of course, this is just a situation in mystery novels. In reality, there are not no prisoners who are pure perverts and simply enjoy the excitement. Possible, but choosing this answer means giving up thinking, so let’s leave it at that.”
“First, let’s look at the first possibility, forging identity—— So that means he is pretending to be someone else’s corpse to fake his own death. If the prisoner is Eri, he does have the conditions to do this, right?”
“That’s right, And from a distance, the body shapes of Tsuzaki-kun and Eri-chan are very similar. Although their genders are different, their body shapes are still body shapes. At most, there are some skeletal problems," Kurosawa said thoughtfully. nodded.
“Yes, Tsuzaki-kun and Eri-chan who participated in this event happen to have similar body shapes. As long as Tsuzaki puts on her own clothes and applies nail polish, she can create Eri-chan’s corpse... ...But the question is, what is her motive? Or why she did this?"
Terada took a deep breath and leaned his back against the recliner from time to time, shaking it. , maintaining balance and pushing time.
"Although Eri-chan has a vicious tongue...but this is just her attribute. It does not mean that she is a vicious bad person..."
"Leave aside the death of Eri-chan, Uesugi-kun's situation It becomes difficult to explain. Let’s sort out the story of Uesugi-kun’s murder. First of all, he disappeared since..."
"It started yesterday morning," Kurosawa continued.
"Yes, if you think about it carefully, he was missing for a whole day. We really took it lightly... Now that I think about it, he was probably killed late at night when you arrived."
“The prisoner who killed him naturally owns his room. The key to the room can be locked from the outside, and the snacks placed in his room are well packaged, which also means that he has not eaten all day. In fact, I once heard a worrying piece of information about this. Do you know if Ms. Kurosawa knows? ”
intelligence.
Is it what Eri-chan told her?
“Are you talking about the sound that Eri-chan heard that night?” Kurosawa probed thoughtfully.
"Sure enough, did she also tell you...?" Terada muttered, not knowing what he was thinking, and continued after a long time, "Yes, the crash that Eri heard that night was probably The sound of the prisoner and Uesugi-kun arguing, maybe she was silenced because she had this information?”
“Didn’t you just say that the deceased was actually Jisaki?”
"Ah...that's true." Terada scratched his hair in embarrassment, "Well, in the final analysis, this is just a guess about the motive. Let's go back to Uesugi-kun first."
"He The cause of death is also impossible to determine. It is conceivable that drowning, blunt force blow , it is not impossible to die from blood loss. In short, his body was damaged beyond recognition. What method do you think was used?"
"Cooked in the hot spring," Kurosawa said. When she saw it, she laughed to herself, and she also felt a little ridiculous.
"Hey..." Terada also smiled bitterly, "No matter how hot the hot spring is, it can't cook people, right? What's more, this is a natural hot spring and has no function to adjust the temperature independently. But I can think of a way...for example, borrow I'm afraid the props were found in the storage room, right?"
Kurosawa held his chin and seemed to be involved in this reasoning. It was said to be reasoning, but it was actually more like brainstorming: "Quicklime. It’s just a chemical reaction with water that generates heat.”
"Ah, as expected of Ms. Kurosawa, yes, there is a lot of white precipitate in the lower part of the pool water. It reminds me of the experiment in the chemistry class in middle school... Didn't we just find white powder in the locker? I’m afraid it’s quicklime. Although I don’t know what the owner used to store so much quicklime, but the prisoner probably used it.”
"Stop for a moment...I thought of one thing. Is it possible that the prisoner was hiding in the villa...or there is a secret passage..." Kurosawa hesitated, although she knew This was impossible - because all signs had proven that this idea was wrong, but this strong premonition still drove her to speak out these speculations.
"Miss Kurosawa is really a noble person who forgets things. Didn't you just say something about these topics? We have turned over everything in this villa and still haven't found the secret passage, let alone that it cannot exist in the first place. The murderer is here." Terada paused, "It's still dark. Miss Ze is actually doubting the five of us...?"
Kurosawa looked slightly sideways, with an expression of disbelief on his face. He didn't know how the young man in front of him connected these possibilities. Maybe people who like reading mystery novels are born with abnormal brain circuitry.
"Haha...Sorry, I just read too many mystery novels and I think I should say some very appropriate lines in that kind of atmosphere." Terada touched the back of his head in embarrassment, "Back to the topic, If a large amount of quicklime is poured into the hot spring, a large amount of high temperature can be released in a short time to destroy the corpse.”
"The method of destroying the corpse has been solved, but the mystery has only been solved half way. Why did you do this... This is something I can't understand. At this stage, all the men except Uesugi-kun are alive, even if his corpse is The destruction is beyond recognition, and no one can benefit from it..."
"Is it to fake the time of death?"
Kurosawa thought of the second possibility just discussed, and then said Apply this to the present discussion.
"That's right. Among the two possibilities, the only one that can be considered is the second reason mentioned before, but..." Terada raised his head and looked at the girl in front of him, "Let's put it this way, Miss Kurosawa, you What are the prerequisites for thinking that it is possible to "fake the time of death"? "
"There is someone who can correctly judge the time of death..." Kurosawa realized something and his voice hesitated.
"Absolutely correct." Terada snapped his fingers, "However, in fact, none of us have the skills to do an autopsy... It's embarrassing to say that all of us in the research club are not members of the medical department, and we have no knowledge of each other's medical knowledge. "I know it well, so is it because of your accidental visit?" "Is the prisoner worried about which of the two of you can do the autopsy? Even so, there is still a huge contradiction. So, Ms. Kurosawa, do you think "the time of death was faked?" "What is the fundamental purpose?" ”
“It’s to create an alibi! " Kurosawa responded, her voice obviously a little loud.
"Yes, if you can't commit a crime within a certain period of time, it is meaningless no matter how you manipulate the time of death. However, in fact Woolen cloth? We were acting together all day yesterday. The crime occurred late at night when everyone was resting. Everyone had no alibi——"
"This is really unreasonable. At least the prisoner himself should be prepared. Your own alibi is the right one..."
When the reasoning came to an end, Terada let out a long breath, put his hands behind his head, and leaned back on the rocking chair.
"In this case, perhaps we have to temporarily give up the idea of mysterious novels... The prisoners destroyed the corpses because they had strong resentment towards them, or they wanted to inflict power on anyone who was alive... This is the only way Have you explained it?”
Terada’s expression looked very disappointed.
Kurosawa squinted his eyes. Although Terada looked serious when he was reasoning just now, his face could not hide his excitement. Compared to the pain and sadness of losing his companion, he seemed to be more immersed in the reasoning. The joy of novel-like murders.
It's time to ask some other questions.
If you keep sitting and waiting like this, the chance to escape will never be presented to you.
"Then I want to ask you some questions, and you have to answer them truthfully and well." Kurosawa paused, "Did the victim suffer any resentment from anyone?"
"Two They all have weird personalities and have no other friends outside of the Promotion Club, but everyone in the Promotion Club has a good relationship, at least I haven't heard of any disputes." Terada pursed his lips and nodded.
"Then what do you know about the homeowner..."
"Izaki ordered the house online, and I had no idea about it at all." Terada seemed to have entered the stage of quick questions and answers. Within seconds of Kurosawa asking the question, he quickly answered it.
However, such behavior has to make people doubt whether his actions are true and accurate, and whether he may have prepared answers in advance and then used them to confuse the public.
"So about the possibility of external criminals..."
"Although this is too non-mysterious, so I don't want to accept this view, but it is really not easy to deny it at this stage, so today Prepare some weapons to protect yourself at night." Terada sighed.
"Then do you doubt us?"
Kurosawa was referring to himself and Li Ming. After all, since they first came here... many of the five people have doubts about us. This expressed suspicion and even aggression, but the president in front of him did not express such emotions, so Kurosawa wanted to ask him what he thought.
"It is completely false to say that I have no doubts. After all, everyone may be a prisoner in the current situation, but without certain evidence, I don't want to cause unnecessary disputes." Terada chuckled.
"Aren't you afraid of getting along with me? Since you have doubts...if I am really the murderer..."
"Just because we are getting along with each other, if someone is killed, the prisoner will naturally It's clear at a glance, even if the prisoner really takes the risk, he will have to die in Jideshao, which is better than those two who died inexplicably..." Terada smiled bitterly.
At this moment, there was a sound outside the door.
Li Ming and Yamada are both back. Both of them are covered in snowflakes, but fortunately they are all safe.
"Kurosawa! Are you okay?" Li Ming, who was free from the straight man's judgment, looked anxious as soon as he entered the villa.
"It's okay, have you found Izaki-kun?" There were too many questions to ask, Kurosawa calmed down for a while, "Have you found any suspicious people nearby?"
"The snow is really too heavy... We walked around the mansion and found nothing." Li Ming sighed, and Yamada beside him echoed, "We didn't find anything either. What kind of suspicious person would you stay outside in such a heavy snowstorm?"
"I remember you were driving an SUV when you came here, so what's the condition of the car? What? If there is nothing wrong with the car, we should be able to leave here in the SUV, but the risk we need to bear is relatively high," Kurosawa said thoughtfully.
“The car was almost buried in the snow... Of course, just in case, we dug it out and looked inside, but sure enough, there was no one there, and the car itself was not damaged. It should be after the wind and snow stopped. It can still be driven." Li Ming paused and said, "It's completely white outside now. If you have a narrow bottom, you will get lost soon."
"It's really strange to say that if you look closely during the day, there is not a single tree within your field of vision. What is going on in this place?"
Li Ming looked like he was trying to suppress his panic. .
Are you lying?
After the two changed clothes, everyone seemed very tired and ready to end the conversation.
Finally, Terada and Yamada suggested that everyone get together tonight so that they can be wary of outside criminals and monitor each other...
However, Li Ming firmly opposed it.
"What's the matter...Mr. Li Ming?" Terada was surprised by his attitude, "You know, they are still separated under such circumstances. In mystery novels, it is a standard death flag... "I I don’t want to stay with a murderer." Ninety-nine percent of the people who say this are the next victims, and one percent are the criminals themselves. ”
(End of this chapter)