The best way for two strangers to get familiar with each other quickly is to talk to people they both know.

Officer Liang betrayed his classmates without mercy and exposed someone's past: "Every time we solve a case, we will announce it in the group. He said several times in the group that 'I just arrived at the scene and caught the suspect', 'The murderer confessed, and I haven't arrived at the scene yet'."

She spread her hands and said, "I've heard of your name, it's not surprising."

Jian Jing: "..." She wanted to beat someone up.

"Of course, I need to confirm it again." Officer Liang's expression was serious, "What is your relationship with this case? Anywhere there may be problems, I hope you can tell me in advance. Don't worry, I believe you."

Jian Jing knew that her last sentence was a bait, but she didn't care: "I just met the painter for the first time yesterday. I didn't know her before. I have no reason to kill her."

Officer Liang's eyes flashed: "Why do you think it was 'murder'?"

"The painter was lying in the bathtub, the water covered her mouth and nose, and she looked like she drowned from drunkenness, but she didn't have the characteristics of drowning. I am more inclined to believe that someone pretended to be an accident to cover up the crime of murder." Jian Jing went straight to the point.

Officer Liang asked, "Do you know how to perform an autopsy?"

"I write mystery novels, so I've learned some basic knowledge." Jian Jing took out a pair of gloves from her pocket, "Can I take a look at the body?"

Officer Liang stepped aside while examining the film, "Sure, tell me what you think."

Jian Jing first observed the overall condition of the body.

Chang Huajia was lying face up, with his head leaning against the edge of the bathtub. She opened her eyelids and saw that the cornea was cloudy with white spots. According to forensic common sense, the time

of death can be roughly estimated to be between 5 and 12 hours. However, the environment has a greater impact on the body, and the temperature of the water at the time of death may cause errors.

She carefully turned over Chang Huajia's body and examined the spots.

This is a characteristic of death often mentioned in mystery novels. After death, blood circulation stops. Due to the influence of gravity, blood flows to lower blood vessels, and red blood cells settle. Through the skin, purple or dark red patches appear.

Body spots can generally be divided into early and late stages or three stages: sedimentation, diffusion, and infiltration. A simple method can be used to judge.

Jian Jing stretched out his hand and pressed the body spots slightly. The body spots temporarily subsided. Released his fingers, and they reappeared. Obviously, this is a body spot in the sedimentation stage, which usually appears within 12 hours after death.

Pinch the muscles again, and they are extremely stiff.

According to the characteristics of rigor mortis - it starts to appear 1-3 hours after death, spreads to the whole body in 4-6 hours, reaches its peak in 12-15 hours, and eases in 24-48 hours (of course, rigor mortis is greatly affected by the environment, so there are discrepancies) - the above judgment can be supported.

"The painter's death time should be around 12 hours." Jian Jing made a judgment after careful consideration, "It's 2:45 pm now, which means she died almost in the early morning."

If she was given a thermometer to measure the body temperature directly, she should be able to get a more accurate value. Unfortunately, she had no tools and could only rely on a few characteristics to barely infer the approximate time period.

Officer Liang nodded in agreement with her judgment and asked, "You said before that she didn't drown?"

"Her mouth and nose are very clean." Jian Jing said.

When a person is drowning, the drowning fluid enters the respiratory tract through the mouth and nose, stimulating the respiratory tract to secrete a large amount of mucus. During the intense breathing, the mucus, drowning fluid, and air are mixed together to form a large amount of fine and uniform foam. If you have ever used a milk frothing cup to make milk foam, it is not difficult to imagine this process.

These foams, like milk foam, exist for a long time and continuously overflow from the mouth and nose. They will reappear after being wiped off.

She picked up a jar of something beside the bathtub, looked at it carefully for a moment, swiped the water in the bathtub to smell it, and bent down to sniff the nose of Chang Huajia: "Her water smells like bath salts, but the body doesn't."

Officer Liang was immediately convinced: "Then what would be the cause of death?"

"There are no obvious wounds on the surface of the body." Jian Jing was also very distressed. She carefully touched the area covered by her hair with her fingers, but did not find any wounds.

She wanted to take a magnifying glass and look at it inch by inch, but unfortunately she couldn't afford it, so she could only squint her eyes and look slowly.

Officer Liang began to walk around the bathroom.

There is a window in the bathroom, facing the bathtub, and you can overlook the lake and mountains in the distance. A glass of red wine, a pool of hot water, and a cup of aromatherapy should be a very wonderful enjoyment.

Unfortunately, the owner is not lucky enough to enjoy it.

Officer Liang checked the window and found that it was a single-sided glass, locked from the inside, and the outside was bare. Unless it was a trained person like the special police, it would be difficult to climb up.

"Although the bathroom door was open, the bedroom door was locked, which means that this was a closed-room murder." Officer Liang muttered, looking for the key everywhere.

Chang Huajia did not hide it deliberately, and she found it in the bedside cabinet in the bedroom.

The key was stuffed in a makeup box, the lid had a buckle, and the drawer was also seamless. It seemed that there was no mechanism to lock the key from the outside and return it to its original place.

Officer Liang went to check the lock again.

The bedroom lock is a double-bolt lock, one requires a key, and the other can be opened by simply turning the safety button.

She called Eddie and confirmed with him the movements when opening the door. Eddie said, "I opened this one. She only locked this safety and never used a key."

Officer Liang nodded and took the opportunity to ask, "Are you and the painter just pure friends?"

"Yes, we are just friends, although we also slept together." He answered nonchalantly.

Emotional disputes have always been the focus of social relationship investigation. Officer Liang asked, "Aren't you dating?"

"She is 40 years old, I am 24 years old, dating?" Eddie sneered, "We just get what we need, what's the point of dating."

Officer Liang nodded, "Then besides you, do you know who the deceased has a similar relationship with?"

Eddie said calmly, "I don't know, I don't care, and I don't care."

Officer Liang asked again, "When was the last time you saw the deceased yesterday?"

"Last night. After they finished drinking, I came over and talked to her for a while." Eddie replied.

Officer Liang: "About what time was it?"

"Around ten o'clock, I can't remember the exact time."

The questioning stopped here.

Officer Liang let him go and asked Jian Jing in the bathroom, "Do you have anything to add to his testimony?"

"He came to see me around 8:30, when the painter was probably still drinking." Jian Jing said, "We need to sort out everyone's time."

Officer Liang asked, "Why did he come to see you?"

Jian Jing: "To make friends."

"I see." Officer Liang understood, "Have you found any new clues?"

Jian Jing said, "There was some slight bleeding on the painter's oral mucosa and gums, she might have been suffocated. I found a little bit of fiber in her nose, it was a blue thread."

Before she finished speaking, their eyes fell on the pillow on the sofa by the wall.

It was an embroidered pillow that Painter Chang had specially found, with the pattern of Van Gogh's Starry Night.

Officer Liang pondered for a long time and said, "Maybe we should extract fingerprints from the door lock."

"Do you have the tools?"

She said, "There is a tool box for trace detection in the car, but I don't know how to use it."

Jian Jing: "...I know how."

Officer Liang: "...Very good."

Extracting fingerprints is actually not difficult, especially for a relatively smooth surface like a door lock, which can be done with powder and tape.

Powder is the most common lead powder, which is made from pure aluminum powder and requires a mask to be worn. Jian Jing took a brush made of gray squirrel hair, dipped a little powder in it, tapped the handle of the brush with her fingers, and shook, shook, and shook on the door lock.

This technique is similar to shaking off loose powder at ordinary times. The key is to be light, even, and soft.

After a uniform layer of powder is attached to the surface, use a clean comb to gently sweep until the fingerprint texture appears, and then sweep away the excess powder.

Then, use a special tape, just like using transparent tape to stick away the wrong pen writing before, and stick away lightly.

Jian Jing extracted two incomplete fingerprints, but she was not optimistic at all.

"It's too clean, there are only two." She said, "It must be left when Eddie opened the door. Someone has wiped the door lock."

If the door was locked by Chang Huajia, it would be impossible to leave such clean two fingerprints. Now there are only Eddie's fingerprints on it, which can prove that someone wiped off the traces and locked the door to create a secret room.

Officer Liang took a magnifying glass and carefully observed the door lock. He said, "There are no traces of wire friction and no sticky tape. It should not be a machine. The person must have climbed out from the balcony."

"I think so too." Jian Jing laughed, "It's too difficult to make a machine in reality."

You know, those wonderful chain reaction videos on the Internet can only show amazing results after countless attempts. Unless it is a simple old-fashioned door, no one can guarantee success in a few tries.

Compared with the lock of some machine, climbing the balcony is obviously simpler and more reasonable.

"Let's go. If we are lucky, maybe we can extract some footprints."

The footprint survey uses a portable flashlight, a flat light source, which can easily illuminate the traces of footprints. After excluding the shoe prints of Eddie and Jian Jing, they found half a shoe print on the balcony railing.

The shoe print had a logo, which was a pair of slippers customized by the hotel.

"VG, Van Gogh, these are the shoes from our building." Jian Jing said.

The resort hotel has three buildings. The Monet Building on the left is where Eddie, Xiaolu, and Xiaotian live. The Da Vinci Building in the middle is where only Painter Chang lives. The Van Gogh Building on the right is where President Tao, Xia Tianxin, Writer Wu, Jian Jing, and Kang Mucheng all live.

Officer Liang was very thoughtful: "Why do all of you guests stay here?"

Jian Jing said: "The view is the best, facing the lake."

"Are you sure it's not your shoes?"

"I was wearing sneakers when I climbed over the balcony. I went to the mountains this morning and got a little muddy." Jian Jing pointed to the smallest shoe print next to it and was very sure.

Officer Liang looked around the shoe print twice: "It's a shoe from your floor, but not necessarily someone from your floor. We have to ask for the alibi of everyone yesterday."

In order to get the best results, Jian Jing and Officer Liang acted separately.

Officer Liang asked for the alibi of everyone individually, while Jian Jing and others chatted to find clues.

Xiaotian was very worried: "How did the teacher die?"

"I don't know, the forensic doctor didn't come." Jian Jing made full use of her expertise as a novelist and said seriously, "I just checked, there are no wounds on the body."

Xiaotian hesitated and whispered, "What does this mean?"

"Drowned, right?" Tao guessed, "She was drunk, the water kept running, and she drowned?"

Xia Tianxin turned her head and asked in confusion, "The bathroom should be full of water."

Tao was stunned and scratched his head, "That's right."

Writer Wu seemed to be completely uninterested in the truth, and kept checking his phone: "When will the road be cleared? I'm so annoyed, what a pity!"

He tried his best to look irritable and depressed, and couldn't stop complaining. But Jian Jing listened, and always felt that his anxiety had another reason.

Things are getting more and more interesting.