Chapter 84 A fruitful journey
"So Hiro, how's your detective game going?" The two left the bar and were on their way back to the room.
Seeing that he could finally check the answer, Zhu Fu Jingguang naturally stated the conclusion without hesitation: "Basically, all the suspects have been ruled out."
"Basically?" That means there are still some things that have not been ruled out.
Zhu Fu Jingguang nodded, "Yes, basically. Now, besides the deceased Mr. Tsuchiya, there are four people who may have entered room 1003: Mrs. Tsuchiya, Zero, Mr. Guanyue, and the mysterious person who had an appointment with Mr. Tsuchiya as mentioned by Mrs. Tsuchiya."
"Mrs. Tsuchiya is the most suspected. She has Mr. Maori to prove her alibi, and she has probably poisoned Mr. Tsuchiya. Since there are other means of committing the crime, it is unlikely to be her this time."
"Zero, if it was him, I believe he would not leave his room card at the crime scene, adding suspicion to himself for no reason. Then the only suspects left are Mr. Guanyue and the mysterious man who was supposed to have an appointment with Mr. Tsuchiya."
"But the room card Mr. Tsuchiya had was not for Room 1003, so he couldn't open the door of Room 1003. So if the mysterious man wasn't a staff member, he couldn't enter Mr. Tsuchiya's room."
"Considering that Mrs. Tsuchiya said they meet every month, I don't think the mysterious man is a member of the ship's staff. The Victory Goddess sails for a long time and only takes a vacation once every six months. I asked Captain Mori, and the Victory Goddess has not recruited any new crew members in the past six months."
"And the most important point is that Mr. Tsuchiya only poured himself one glass of red wine, and he was still drinking before his death. If there really was an important guest who had an appointment to visit, Mr. Tsuchiya would not have poured only one glass of wine for himself. This is too impolite."
"Finally, I don't think Mr. Tsuchiya died at the hands of a stranger. Considering Mr. Tsuchiya's occupation and physical condition, and the fact that he didn't have any defensive wounds on his body, it proves that he should have been completely unguarded at the time."
"If the murderer wants to completely avoid Mr. Tsuchiya's eyes and ears, then he must be a very professional assassin. But if it is a premeditated professional assassination, why not choose to use a convenient pistol instead of slitting the throat?"
"So the possibility of the above three people and assassination has been ruled out. Although I don't understand Mr. Guanyue's motive, he is indeed the only possible person who committed the crime now."
"He can enter the guest rooms he is responsible for at any time and anywhere without arousing anyone's suspicion. I believe that after Mr. Tsuchiya called the room attendant, he was probably sitting on the sofa defenselessly, drinking red wine and waiting for his guests, and he didn't notice the room attendant standing behind him at all."
"What's more, Mr. Tsuchiya died of excessive blood loss due to ruptured bilateral carotid arteries. No matter how close the murderer stood, he would still be splashed with blood. But the room attendant is different. He can push a cleaning cart into the room and put a few sets of clothes or even a raincoat in the cart without being discovered."
"Moreover, even if you accidentally get blood stains on your device, the strong bleach used for cleaning will also react with the Lumirol reagent, so you can no longer use the Lumirol reaction to detect blood (Note 1)."
"So, I suspect that this is what happened that night. At 7:30, the Tsuchiya couple left the room, and Mr. Kanzuki entered Room 1003 to clean it, but he deliberately left one spot unkempt. After Mr. Kanzuki left, Zero entered Room 1003."
"At 10:35, Mr. and Mrs. Tsuchiya came back. Zero was still in room 1003. Mrs. Tsuchiya was quickly sent away because she had an appointment. Mr. Tsuchiya found the uncleaned place and called room service. Mr. Kanzuki entered the room, then killed Mr. Tsuchiya and left."
"Zero thought Mr. Guanyue had left, so he came out of the closet to get his room card back, left room 1003, and returned to room 1005. But he didn't expect that Mr. Guanyue had already discovered him and injected ether into room 1005. Zero, who noticed the abnormality, used some tricks to keep himself awake."
"Mr. Guanyue mistakenly thought that Zero was unconscious. After entering the room, a conflict occurred between the two parties, or a one-sided conflict occurred. Zero was injured and ran away. Mr. Guanyue prevented Zero from exposing himself and placed the room card of Room 1005 at the crime scene to frame Zero."
"How is it? How would you rate my reasoning?" Zhu Fu Jingguang shrugged and said with a smile. Since He Jing Yayoi was asking about the "detective game", he should just treat this case as a game.
Hearing this, Jing Yayoi couldn't help but applaud for Morobushi Jingguang, "If the full score is 10, Hiro you can give it 9 points. I think Hiro you can open a detective agency, maybe your business will be better than Mr. Maori's."
Zhu Fu Jingguang was still very satisfied with this result, and chuckled, "Thank you, I can't compare to Mr. Mao Li."
But he still stroked his chin and asked, "Then where was my mistake?"
"There are two things wrong. First, you may think that Mr. Mizuki deliberately sent Miss Odagiri away from the beginning in order to get close to Mr. Tsuchiya. So you think that Mr. Mizuki committed a premeditated crime."
"But even if he didn't clean the room, there was no guarantee that Mr. Tsuchiya would call him in, not to mention that he had no way of predicting Mrs. Tsuchiya's departure. It was just an accident that he was called by Mr. Tsuchiya to do room service. The reason for being called, that is, the murderous intention, was this..."
Kazukage Yayoi took out a silver badge from his pocket and put it in his palm, showing it to Morobushi Keimitsu. This was the badge he had taken from Akai Shuichi's missionary work.
The badge was made entirely of silver, with exquisite workmanship and no flaws. On it was a half-open coffin, with a sickle on top and lush rose bushes below. Behind the coffin was a sea of fire that was blazing.
As a free souvenir, it seems too expensive to make. If the Fire Spirit Cult is willing to put it on the market, it can be sold for at least 1,000 yen.
Zhu Fu Jingguang looked at the small badge in He Jing Yayoi's hand with doubt and asked hesitantly: "Is this... the emblem of the Fire Spirit Cult?"
Kazukage Yayoi nodded, "Remember yesterday afternoon, Mr. Tsuchiya said his necklace was missing? Although the Dream of Hope is also a necklace, he was not referring to the Dream of Hope, but another necklace."
"As for what kind of necklace that is, do you remember the necklace Mr. Akai wore when he was dressed as a priest? It's the same as that one."
Zhu Fu Jingguang recalled the necklace that Akai Shuichi wore. The pattern on the necklace was a cross placed diagonally on a coffin, and there were several roses on both sides of the center of the cross. Akai Shuichi also wore a badge on his left chest, which seemed to be this silver, flame-shaped badge. (Note 2)
So Zhu Fu Jingguang subconsciously took the badge and wanted to observe it more carefully. However, He Jing Yayoi took back his hand and held the silver badge tightly in his palm. A ball of fire suddenly rose from his palm, and with the pungent black smoke drifting past, when he opened his hand again, the badge had been destroyed.
He Jing Yayoi clapped his hands and wiped off the ashes stuck on his hands. "This is not a good thing. I guess the necklace is even worse. You'd better not touch it."
"Mr. Tsuchiya lost his necklace, so he called Mr. Guanyue in to help him find it. Unfortunately, he didn't know that the person he called in was a fanatic of the Fire Spirit Cult. Mr. Guanyue killed him directly because he lost his necklace."
Zhu Fu Jingguang was shocked. He never expected this kind of motive for murder. "Just because of this?" He finally understood why the FBI agent named Judy complained that she didn't understand the train of thought of the fanatics. Even if he was asked to understand, he couldn't understand it.
After thinking about it, Kazukage Yayoi could actually understand Mr. Guanyue's idea, so he added: "In Mr. Tsuchiya's memory, the Fire Spirit Cult cares a lot about this necklace, especially the necklace given by the bishop himself. In their concept, the necklace is a talisman that carries the souls of their deceased relatives. Losing the necklace means abandoning the soul of their loved one and the possibility of his future reincarnation. Many people will not take off the necklace once from the time they get it until they die."
"And the necklace given by the bishop even contains the holy bones of the spirit god, which can only be obtained by very devout believers. Imagine that Mr. Guanyue, as a devout believer, saw Mr. Tsuchiya sitting on the sofa leisurely drinking red wine even though he had lost the very precious necklace that he had longed for."
"Put it in the context of a romance novel. The goddess you've been longing for suddenly disappears, and her husband not only doesn't look for her, but also gloats over her misfortune, mocking you for being a dog. If you think about it this way, it's not hard to understand why he suddenly kills someone."
...The substitution is very good, don't substitute it next time
Zhu Fu Jingguang fell into deep silence after hearing this. What should he do? He actually succeeded in understanding the train of thought of the fanatic. "But he seemed very anxious this afternoon. He should understand the importance of the necklace."
Kazukage Yayoi nodded, "He understood, but he didn't expect Mr. Guanyue to be a member of the Fire Spirit Cult. And, what you said just now is right, Mrs. Tsuchiya did poison, although I don't know what the poison was. But Mr. Tsuchiya actually drank the red wine because he was panicking and short of breath after the poison took effect. He thought he was too nervous about losing the necklace, so he wanted to drink some wine to relieve his mood."
"But Mr. Kanzuki didn't know. So he thought Mr. Tsuchiya was indifferent and even in the mood to drink. As for what happened after Mr. Tsuchiya's death, I don't know. But Mr. Amuro's matter is most likely as you said."
"As for your other mistake, it is an additional question. You can't deduce it from the existing information. So I'm telling you now that the person Mr. Tsuchiya originally arranged to meet was indeed a staff member on the ship. It's just that his work card was stolen by Mr. Magician, so he never entered room 1003."
"His name on the ship is Shono Katsuragi"
"And Mr. Tsuchiya called him... Chatter Yellow" (Note 3)
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