What happened to Isaac?

It's raining.

The mountain road was washed away by the rain, and it was impossible to walk, and it was impossible to transport the corpse away.Moreover, because the death time was too long, the condition of the corpse was already very bad, and the stench emitted even his lover shunned him.

Xavier took a sample from the corpse, sealed it and handed it to the police officer Andy: "The test is still needed, but it is enough to confirm that it is a murder. After the rain stops, let's bury it as soon as possible." The latter half of the sentence is said to the monks .

After deliberation, everyone agreed that the deceased should not be allowed to stay in the closed room. For this reason, Louis specially called a few young monks to help carry the body away.

The arm that was stretched forward before death could not be bent, hanging outside the stretcher, dangling, the gesture of the empty grip seemed to pick up something, but there was nothing in the hand.As for the hidden erythema on the inner side of the arm and his poorly concealed love on the contrary, they all disappeared behind the corner of the stairs with the sound of silent footsteps.

The room was cleaned and disinfected, and Douglas's personal belongings were sorted and packed, most of which would be sent back to relatives, and his lover got the stack of manuscript paper and several travel notes in bookcases as he wished—this cunning little man exposed after death The trick leaves everyone speechless.

Close the door with a loose lock, and the house becomes an unoccupied space, and no one will live in it for a long time after that.The last stink of corpses left in the life of the young man who had died so violently twelve hours ago would soon disappear with the wide open windows.

……

At noon, the monks who were not allowed to go out prayed and had a meal in the room; after lunch, they began to search everyone's room, but failed to find the needle that was expected to be used for the deceased—of course, even if there was, it still needs to be considered. possibility of disaster.

The investigation didn't stop there.Xavier announced that he now needed to speak privately with a few people, starting with the pharmacy clerk who had last seen the dead man and first noticed something strange.

"He said, 'Hi, Joe,' before coming in, and he seemed to be doing fine," recalls the pharmacy clerk. "But Brother Douglas usually just calls me Jonathan, and we haven't gotten to know each other that well yet."

"I see, thank you," Xavier said.

"That's it?" The guy looked surprised.

"Yes, that's it."

The second, the young friar who was "closely connected" with the deceased, also mentioned Douglas's good humor in his testimony, but it seemed to him that things were obviously very strange.

"Douglas was in a bad mood," he said, "and I asked him what was the matter, and he wouldn't tell me, and he refused my suggestion to go for a walk in the woods. He kind of bored me, at least I thought then, He found out himself, apologized to me as if he was taken aback, and then made a ridiculous excuse to leave in a hurry."

"Ridiculous excuse," said Constable Dean, "like breaking up in anger?"

"Is it important?" said the young monk angrily.His already red eyes turned even redder.

"Sorry, go on," Xavier asked. "When will you see him again?"

"I think it was ... during the evening prayers, he was far away from me. The last time I saw Douglas was after he came back from the confessional, and he looked better. But he is not a person who has obvious mood swings, the kind of floating I feel uneasy about…”

"The confession room," Xavier immediately asked someone to find the schedule, and asked after a quick look, "Who was the priest in the confession room at the time? Louis?"

"No, it's not me," Louis said, "A batch of new medicinal ingredients came at noon, and I spent the whole afternoon grinding medicine in the pharmacy."

"Who can prove it?"

Louis stopped talking.

"Father Louis?"

"……nobody."

"Okay," Xavier didn't dwell on the question, "so, who's taking your place?"

"It's me," a priest stood up and said, "However, because I was unwell, I went back to my room to rest after noon prayers, and I didn't come down to eat lunch. I only drank a small glass of mulled wine." Regarding this point, the same The sleeping monk can provide him with proof.

In addition, several other monks were also interviewed, and it can be roughly determined that the time for Douglas to go to the confession room is between evening prayer and dinner.

"A quarter of an hour before dinner time, I saw Brother Douglas come out of the confessional and went with him to the dining room. He hadn't eaten anything," recalled one monk, "but it didn't look like he was unwell. I tried to Asked in sign language, Douglas ignored me."

So, based on the above testimonies, it might be something like this:

For some reason today, Douglas was upset. He rejected the invitations of his "friends" to accompany him again and again, and went to the empty confession room alone to confess after the evening prayer.After leaving the confessional, those who had contact with him generally believed that he was in an abnormal state (poisoning reaction?) Shortly after returning to the room, Douglas died of anaphylactic shock in a closed room.

No one was seen or heard entering or leaving Douglas' room, and the locked windows and fourth-floor room almost immediately ruled out other means of entry.The secret room environment is just a means for the murderer to mislead the police. The first crime scene is most likely not in the room. Therefore, the time Douglas was in the confession room between evening prayers and dinner seems to be worth noting.However, according to Louis and the priest, the confession room was empty throughout the afternoon, and Douglas could only confess to the air.

This could happen in some churches (such as the one Xavier frequented, because the curtains completely cut off the space on both sides), but the screen windows in the confessional of the Abbey are at least enough to allow people to see the opposite side.

That meant that perhaps someone who wasn't on the roster had filled the vacancy, sitting on the other side of the confessional listening to the confession.It is very likely that at this time, the unknown person injected some kind of sensitizing drug into the deceased, but how to make the deceased willingly stretch out his hand has become one of the doubts.

"Obviously someone trusted by the deceased, like a doctor?" Constable Andy said.

"It's more like someone you know," said Xavier, "who has a legitimate reason for going to the confessional, who's there as naturally as the air, like the conductor is to the train—the kind of person who walks up and down in front of you." People who go without attracting attention."

Since the situation of the confession room can be seen from the window of the Book Pavilion, Xavier turned to ask Gavin if he noticed anyone coming in and out, Gavin shook his head blankly: "Sorry, it's not easy to see out of the window where I often sit ...and I never cared what happened outside the window."

"Ok, thank you."

After the private conversation, Xavier reappeared in front of the crowd.

"We can roughly sketch out the image of this murderer. He is reliable to most people and has the freedom to go to various places. He may not be very experienced, but at least he is smart enough and has a knowledge of toxicology. As far as I know, I am almost lucky,” Xavier said, “In fact, for the deceased, it is not always possible to see bullae or erythema on the surface of the body that directly point to allergies, because everyone’s constitution is different. , It is entirely possible that there is nothing. Symptoms resembling asthma are even enough to affect the judgment of the forensic doctor—especially when the deceased is an asthma patient. Coupled with the lack of suspects and the misleading scene of the secret room, the careless police may directly report it as an accident The case is finalized and will not be submitted to toxicology testing."

"No suspects? Mr. Xavier, I have objections. The obvious problem here is," police officer Andy said after reviewing his notes, "Dr. Louis is trusted by others and should have sat behind the curtain to listen to the confession Father, and obviously the easiest way to know the physical condition of someone in the monastery."

When Louis heard that the spearhead was turned on him, he stood up in shock, but was speechless for a while.

"Don't get excited, Father Louis, you sit down first," Xavier said, "As for Officer Andy, please don't make premature assertions, we haven't found reliable evidence, there is a one-to-one correspondence between the records in the pharmacy and the amount of drugs. Besides, what is the motive?"

"Yeah, I'm just a nodding acquaintance with this monk, why do I have to do that?" Louis defended himself along with these words.He looked gratefully at Xavier, but the latter seemed to be doing business and didn't return even a look.

"You don't have an alibi." Constable Andy pointed out.

"But how could I do such a thing? Why should I do it?" Louis said. "Don't you believe me, gentlemen?"

All that remained was a breathless silence.

Louis froze.Then he slowly turned his head to look at everyone present, like an entomologist examining a beetle he had never seen before.The moment he looked, Gavin quickly lowered his head and lowered his eyebrows, avoiding the intersection of eyes.

"Is there anything else you want to say?" Constable Andy said. "I tell you in advance that some words are not more beneficial than silence."