It's a pity that there are no obvious clues on the lawn outside the villa, because the lawn here is made of thriftgrass. This plant grows most luxuriantly in summer and autumn, with well-developed stolons and strong regeneration ability. On such a lawn,
Unless you can crush them, footprints won't last long.
Feng Bujue looked up at the window sill and the outer wall of the villa again, and there were no traces left there. But he was not disappointed at all, because he was not in a hurry to find out the truth...
"While it's not dark, I want to survey the outside of the villa. Do you want to come with me?" Feng Bujue said to Schofield inside the window.
"Oh! Okay." Naturally, Scofield would not give up the opportunity to ask the famous detective for advice. He replied, "Please wait a moment." Before he finished speaking, he turned away from the window, ran to the door of the room, and followed
The police officer on guard said a few words. Then he returned to the window and climbed out of the window, imitating Feng Bujue. This police detective was very attentive, and he was very careful in his movements.
I was afraid that I would touch the trace of blood on the window sill and destroy the evidence.
After arriving outside the house, Scofield, led by Feng Bujue, patrolled around the villa.
"Mr. Feng, you just said... the secret room? What do you mean?" Schofield asked.
"Have you read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue"?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Uh... no." Schofield said, "I rarely do."
"Okay... Murder in a secret room is one of the so-called 'impossible crimes'." Feng Bujue stopped talking about literary issues and said directly, "When you entered the room, you noticed that the door
Is there a key in it?"
"Well, yes." Schofield replied.
"There are two locking methods for this kind of door. The first one is... the person inside the door, when the door is closed, turn the copper cap-shaped door latch on the back of the lock counterclockwise; the second one is... the one outside the door
When the door is closed, use the key to turn it twice outside." Feng Bujue explained, "Mrs. Carol who discovered the body used the key because the door was locked and no one answered when she called.
Go and open the door."
Scofield thought for a moment and then continued, "In other words... when the body was discovered, the doors and windows of that room were bolted from the inside."
"In the closed space, there was only the deceased. There was no second person, but the death of the deceased showed that it was not caused by suicide." Feng Bujue said, "In this case, the method used by the murderer constituted a secret room murder.
"
Schofield responded, "Oh..." He paused and said suspiciously, "Wait a minute, taking this case at hand... what if the murderer also has the key?"
"Before you came, I had asked everyone a few questions in the corridor. Of course, I also asked about this." Feng Bujue replied, "Every room in this house has two keys.
One for regular use and one for backup.
The spare keys are all strung together and kept under the personal care of Mr. Henderson, the butler. I have already seen the string. The iron ring is made of iron and the keys on it cannot be removed individually. It is like a medieval dungeon key.
…
Because Henderson suddenly fell ill and fainted, Mr. Colston is currently holding the spare key."
"The commonly used keys are all separate." He said, taking out a key from his pocket, "This is the common key for the guest room where I live. I keep it in the drawer of a table in the room.
Found it." He paused and then continued, "The maids will clean the rooms that are usually vacant on weekdays, so they are usually not locked and the keys are placed directly in the room."
While Feng Bujue was speaking, he had arrived at the back of the villa. After turning a corner, he continued: "Since the common key to the guest room where the crime occurred is in Ms. Carol's hand, there are three situations in which the murderer has the key...
…First, the murderer was the housekeeper Henderson; second, the murderer stole the spare key from the housekeeper and returned it to its original owner after killing the person and locking the door; third, the murderer managed to copy a commonly used key."
Schofield said: "Well... you judge that this room is a secret room, that is to say, do you think these three situations are unlikely?"
"Yes." Feng Bujue replied, "First of all, in the first case, Butler Henderson is the murderer." He began to explain one by one, "This possibility is almost zero... because the old man directly saw the body after seeing it.
I was so frightened that I had a heart attack and almost died. I was very close to him at the time, and there was a doctor next to me. If it was an act, Mr. Henderson would have won an Oscar, and Dr. Powell would have become his
of accomplice.
Of course, there is also a more extreme hypothesis - schizophrenia. For example... the murderer was another personality of Henderson's housekeeper, and the main personality knew nothing about it."
"Well...that's it." Schofield nodded.
"The possibility of the second case is also slim." Feng Bujue continued, "Because the risk and difficulty of this approach are extremely high. It's just a matter of being discovered when you steal the key. If you are discovered when you return the key, you will kill someone.
Everything was exposed at once. Moreover, during the period from the murderer stealing the key to secretly returning it, Henderson's housekeeper might discover that the spare key was missing at any time. This period happened to be the time when the murderer committed the crime.
Once Dessen tells the police about this situation, there will be no point in setting up a secret room."
Before Scofield could respond, Brother Jue immediately started to say the next thing, "The third scenario is more likely, but..." He suddenly stopped in front of a tree, looked up for a while, and then answered
Said: "...But Mr. and Mrs. Dennis only come to the villa a limited number of times a year, and the guest room they stay in is not fixed every time they come. Because Mrs. Carol is picky, she will choose different rooms in different seasons.
towards.
It is impossible for the murderer to predict which room they will stay in this time, so...if it is the third situation, it means...except for those rooms that are occupied all year round, the murderer stole the common keys to all the other rooms and backed them up.
A handful.
And his or her purpose is to disguise the room as a secret room one day after killing Dennis."
"This is indeed a bit incredible." Schofield continued.
"Technically speaking, it is feasible, and the risk is not too great." Feng Bujue said, "It's just that the actual possibility of happening is very low, and... its purpose is temporarily a mystery." He walked around the big tree in front of him.
After a few rounds, he glanced at the second-floor window of the villa, and then continued walking forward, "To sum up... let's rule out the situation that the murderer has the key, and then consider what other methods can be used.
How about completing this secret room?”
Brother Jue's tone was like a teacher asking a student, but the fifty-year-old police detective in front of him was nonchalant and asked with a pious look on his face: "It must have something to do with the blood stains on the window sill?"
"Actually, the method is very simple. It can be completed with a relatively strong thread. As long as you experiment once or twice, you can do this in all rooms with windows in this house." Feng Bujue raised his hand and gestured to the villa.
direction, "I've finished reading the outside. Let's go inside and I'll demonstrate it to you." (To be continued...)
