Chapter 171 Investigation
"Ms. Adele, the news of Ms. Maria's death seems to point to you. Do you have anything to say about this?"
Standing in the bathroom, Sheriff Douglas asked Adele, who was standing at the bathroom door, directly, while Adele put her hand on her chest and answered quietly.
"I have nothing to say, Mr. Officer. This is a complete slander. The despicable murderer wants to use the death of poor Maria to slander me."
"You mean to deny it, but such clear death information is very disadvantageous to you, Miss Adele, unless you can come up with an alibi to prove your innocence."
Douglas said this, then he thought about it and continued speaking.
"You just said that Miss Maria was performing on stage before. So when was her last show, or when was the last time you saw her?"
Douglas asked the relevant personnel around him, and one of the theater waiters scratched his head and spoke while thinking.
"Maria's last performance was 'Mother of Scarlet', dancing with Miss Adele. That was also the last time we saw Maria. The show ended at about..."
The theater attendant was thinking in confusion, and then another voice answered for him.
"The closing time of 'Mother of Crimson' is 7:00, sir."
Standing aside, Ed said "㳔", and the waiter responded by clapping his hands.
"Ah! Yes! It was around seven o'clock when "Mother of Scarlet" ended. The detective is right!" The theater waiter said bluntly, and Douglas looked at Ed again and continued.
"Who discovered the body first? And when?"
"Um... it was me. I was about to go to the bathroom, and as soon as I opened the door I saw what was going on inside. I was terrified at the time, though. I need to think about the exact time, but it seemed to be around 7:10 or 7:10..."
Listening to Douglas' words, the old woman who first discovered the body said in a trembling voice, and then she could think about the time when the body was found, but this time Ed spoke first again.
"The lady screamed at 7:13 and I was nearby so I heard it."
Listening to Ed's words, Douglas frowned and said.
"Are you checking your watch all the time, detective boy?"
"No, no, no, Mr. Officer. I just have a better memory and a more accurate sense of time. Of course, I also check my watch frequently to calibrate my sense of time. I calibrate it about every ten minutes or so."
As he spoke, Ed took out his pocket watch, opened it and took a look at it, then continued speaking.
"After all, as a detective, I think it is necessary to control time."
“…”
Looking at Ed's confident expression, Douglas was silent for a while, then he turned his head to look at Adele and began to ask again.
"Well, now we can confirm that the time of death was around 7:10 or 7:00. Where were you during these ten minutes, Miss Adele?"
"Since Maria suddenly disappeared, I arranged for someone to search for her after the performance, and then I went to look for her myself. We mainly searched the backstage and some nearby related areas, but we didn't expect Maria to be murdered here. This is the audience area, which is far away from the backstage."
Adele responded with a "㳔", and Douglas hesitated for a moment before continuing.
"So, did you travel with anyone else while you were looking for someone?"
"No."
"No? That is to say... no one can prove that you were not at the scene within the past ten minutes?" Douglas raised his eyebrows and continued to ask, and Adele nodded slightly.
"Yes, Mr. Officer, but I did not kill Maria."
"Although you said so, the situation at the scene is very unfavorable for you, Miss Adele. You know, based on the current situation, you are the most suspicious. If we haven't found other suspects, if we follow our previous practices, we can take you back to the police station and interrogate you slowly." Douglas said seriously, and at this time the theater manager immediately stood up with a nervous look and said.
"You can't take Adele away! If Adele's incident is known by the media, everything will be over!" The theater manager said in panic. He could already imagine how big the headlines would be if the media knew about this incident. This would be a fatal blow to the image of a star.
"Don't jump to conclusions, Mr. Officer. I think there is something very strange about this case. Miss Adele must have been framed and wrongly accused."
At this time, Ed on the side continued to speak. After listening to Ed's words, Douglas turned around and spoke seriously.
"You think? What makes you think so?"
"Based on the clothes on Miss Adele, please look carefully in the bathroom, Mr. Officer. The victim was stabbed many times before his death. Blood was splattered everywhere. There were bloodstains on the ground and walls. If the person was really killed by Miss Adele, she would definitely be covered with a lot of blood. But at this moment, there is no bloodstain on Miss Adele's clothes. Isn't this very unreasonable?"
Pointing to the bloody bathroom, Ed analyzed bluntly. After listening to Ed's analysis, Douglas couldn't help but pause slightly, thought about it, and then continued speaking.
"It's also possible that Adele changed her clothes and wiped the blood off her body after killing someone. This is a theater, and Adele is an actor. It's normal for her to have several identical costumes."
Douglas was explaining his point of view, and Eze also spoke up.
"What about the makeup? The blood on the body can be wiped off, but the makeup on the face cannot be repaired in a short time. Officer, look, the height of the blood splattered on the wall is already as high as Miss Adele's height. If her face is splashed with blood, it will be wiped off with the makeup. Miss Adele's delicate makeup will take a long time to completely repair.
"And now it seems that Miss Adele's makeup is still so beautiful... Miss Adele only had ten minutes to commit the crime. After killing someone and changing her clothes, did she have time to touch up her makeup?"
Ed continued speaking, and as he spoke, he looked at Adele's made-up face with a smile. Because she was going to perform on stage, the makeup on her face was quite thick, and it was easy to tell at a glance whether it was damaged.
Listening to Ed's casual praise in his reasoning, Adele bowed slightly in response.
"Thank you for the compliment, Detective."
Listening to Adele's words, Douglas frowned, then immediately said to Ed.
"What you said are just assumptions, based on the assumption that there is blood on Miss Adele's face. What if she is lucky and the blood doesn't splash on her face? The height of the blood on the wall doesn't mean anything."
"Then we can also confirm the number of costumes. Miss Adele's blood-stained dance dress must be disposed of, so the theater will have to reduce the number of similar dance dresses. As long as the number of dance dresses is not reduced, Miss Adele's purity can still be guaranteed."
Ed continued to speak, and Douglas continued speaking after glancing at the people in the theater.
"You have a point, but the theater has the final say on whether there are too many or too few skirts. Adele is of great value to the theater, and there is no guarantee that they will not specifically say that there are no fewer skirts in order to protect Adele. The testimony of stakeholders needs to be treated with great reservations."
Douglas said in a neutral tone. After he finished speaking, everyone turned their eyes to Ed. Ed walked to Adele calmly, looked at her bright red dress and said.
"Ms. Adele, the material of this dance dress you are wearing is very precious. It must be very expensive."
"Mr. Detective, you have a good eye. This dance dress of mine was specially customized for tomorrow's performance at the Silver Moon Star Clothing Store at a high price. It is made of cloud mulberry silk. Two pieces were customized in total, one for spare and one for me. The spare one is now in the closet backstage. I can take it out anytime if I need it."
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