sincerity of lies

The three exchanged the logs in their hands, and after reading a round, they all fell into silence.

The wind and rain outside the window are still there.

But the incandescent light on the ceiling, which was supposed to be stable, began to flicker ambiguously because of the wind and rain, or the long narrative in my hand.

In the end it was Ji Xun who broke the silence: "Chu Xingfa...he changed his name to Ji Xingfa, he is my grandfather."

Meng Lingshan was thoughtful: "You weren't surprised when I exchanged information about nursery rhyme killings with you before. It seems that you——you have known about this matter before."

"Hmm... Do you still remember when you went back to Qinshi? The victim I helped Team Huo deal with was Hu Kun. His name was Lu Kun before he changed his name. He was the recorder of the first diary. He happened to mention it to us. This ship, or rather, Huo Qiying. And Huo Qiying is..."

"It's my mother's sister." Huo Ranyin, who had been silent all this time, added calmly, "This ship is the Dingbo that sank 40 years ago, and the owner is my grandfather Huo Shanyuan."

Meng Lingshan's eyes flashed: "What a coincidence. Both of you descendants who happen to be related to the tragedy 40 years ago boarded this ship by coincidence."

Ji Xun murmured: "No, it's even more coincidental than this. Hu Kun's daughter in name, but actually granddaughter Hu Xian, is a female forensic doctor from Ning City who was just transferred. She used an MP4 to induce me to participate in the case of Tang Jinglong." According to the investigation, Tang Jinglong was also related to this ship. He was a member of the ship's criminal interest chain. The people who got on and off the wave number gathered, and there were six people in total."

six.Meng Lingshan looked down reflexively: "There are five internal boss rooms on the third floor, plus Mr. Liu, exactly six. Those two empty rooms have no private decoration, and they seem to have been kept unoccupied. location."

There was another strange silence. In fact, everyone present naturally had an idea in their minds. The murderous accomplice left behind by a ship of terror, in the next 40 years, with this unspoken Secrets are the bond to each other, and finally another ship of crime is built.

Evil will not go away.

It will only intensify.

Ji Xun twitched the corners of his mouth: "The story of nine people only leaves the position of six people, and the internal strife is quite serious. Mr. Liu trained Boss Jiang and them like training a dog."

"From a cultural point of view, Mr. Liu should be Liu's translator." Huo Ranyin steadily pointed to the last diary, "Jiang, Wu, and Lin will not be this Feng Silong. If most of the diaries are true, Feng Silong is undoubtedly the real one." Among those who come down, the one with the most right to speak.”

"Back to the diary... these accounts are not all true. I don't think anyone has any objections?" Ji Xun said.

No one objected.

Obviously, after viewing the entire content, they all have such judgments.

"This is a diary." Meng Lingshan said lightly, "People can lie."

"That's right. I just noticed that the diaries attached to the back of the diary are all the diaries of the last surviving people. Why not choose the dead? Don't those dead keep diaries? Except for the last A brutal, horrific massacre throughout the ship, beginning with a few obvious murders. The murderers of those murders were probably among the last survivors, but no one confessed to their guilt."

"'Who killed the captain, how did the chief mate and driver disappear, and how did Fu Ge die. Are these truths still meaningful?'" Huo Ranyin said as he read the contents of Liu Translator's diary "Strictly speaking, they admitted some of the collective crimes, while blurring the individual ones. They reached a consensus. Everyone swears at the end of the diary, swearing that what they wrote is true. This is unnecessary, unless they When I wrote this sentence, I thought that this diary needs to be read by others. But who would show the murder diary to others? Then the only answer left is this, this diary, they wrote it for themselves.”

"If evil is a spider's web, they are worms on the spider's web, and they are firmly bound to each other's interests by the common evil." Meng Lingshan sneered, but he still hit the nail on the head.

"But these narratives, I don't think they are all false." Ji Xun went on to say, he was twisting the paper in his hand, and his movements were very careful. After they went out, it would be an important evidence, "Whoever can get it ——The murderer must also have some kind of connection with the nine surviving people 40 years ago, just like me, Huo Ranyin, and Hu Xian."

"There are some things, although the person who wrote the diary didn't want to talk about it, but he can still see some clues... The best guess is the disappearance of the first officer and the driver." Ji Xun turned to the freezer's diary, "They died in front of the cold storage, The strange location is also the most obvious clue. Obviously, the translator Liu in the story already knows the ins and outs."

"Do you still remember the bodyguard who was knocked out by me?" Ji Xun said.

The other two raised their eyebrows, already realizing from this sentence why the chief mate and driver assistant disappeared.

It's easy to talk to someone with a quick mind.

"Fishing law enforcement." Ji Xun pointed out the key point, and said what has been said many times, "As long as you change your mind, this seemingly confusing result will have a very reasonable explanation:"

"Jin Song's so-called 'give up the pursuit of the murderer' is just a lie to paralyze the real murderer!

"Look at the method he used. He asked his driver Qian Zhenyi to prepare a lottery box and lottery. In front of everyone, he drew a red line on one of the lottery, and then asked people to draw lots. The person who won the red lottery will go to A person who dumps a dead body.

"For the sake of confidentiality, Jin Song also specially emphasized that, except for those who drew the red lottery, everyone else should stay in the room and not go out at night.

"In the diary written by the chef Lin Xiaodao, everyone hid the lottery in their palms so that no one else could see it. They didn't know who got the red lottery. And this is for most of the crew who found out that they didn't get the red lottery. As far as it is concerned, it doesn't matter.

"They are not murderers, and they don't need to abandon the corpse. As long as they sleep in the room, everything will be fine the next day. I believe that there will not be too many people who will go to the site of the abandoned corpse out of curiosity. Except -"

"Murderer." Huo Ranyin picked it up, and said in a deep voice, "If I were the murderer, I would definitely go to the scene. What if the person who has won the red lottery is afraid and dare not throw away the body? It would be a failure! So I— ——The murderer will quietly go to the scene and lurk around the scene. If the other party comes and discards the body, I will leave quietly; I didn't wait for the winner of the red lottery, I only saw Jin Song and Qian Zhenyi."

"Because there is no so-called red sign at all. Jin Song did draw a red sign, but he hid the red sign when the lottery was drawn. In this way, the only person who will go to the cold storage at night is the only one left: the murderer. Jin Song It took no effort to know the real culprit."

After Meng negative mountain finished speaking, he commented:

"The strategy is good."

"It's a pity that they miscalculated their own strength." Ji Xun continued, "The two of them played two against one, fighting intentionally and unintentionally. Strong in arms and strong in skill."

"What is the weapon?" Huo Ranyin thought, "Lao Hu's story is about saury fish, and the crime took place in a freezer. Could it be a fish that was frozen hard in the freezer? Or something like ice picks and icicles? Probably not A sharp weapon such as a knife, the murderer never thought it was a trap, he came here to discard the corpse, he would not carry a weapon with him."

"The analysis here is very clear. The captain, first mate, and driver all died at the hands of the same person. Then, let's go back to the first case: the death of the captain's secret room."

"It's not easy to create a secret room. Every murderer has his own strong purpose in creating a secret room. Maybe it's to blame others, maybe it's pretending to be a ghost, maybe it's creating an alibi."

"In this case, Translator Liu's reasoning for changing the lock has a precondition, that is, the lock must be opened—that is, the time when Lin Xiaodao and Cao Hang came to deliver the meals. This leads to a question, what is the door of the captain's room? Is it inward or outward."

"It's unlikely to be opened inward." Huo Ranyin said, "If it is opened inward, the lock will be under the eyes of the people in the room. How can the murderer change the lock in a grand manner?"

"That's right, we can only assume that the door opens outwards, so that there is a door to block the view, so that the murderer can approach and change the lock without anyone noticing. But there is also a problem..."

"How can we guarantee that all three of us are in the room?" Meng Lingshan whispered.

"That's right—how can you guarantee that the two people who deliver the food, Lin Xiaodao, including Cao Hang, stay in the room together, and face each other with the captain?" Ji Xun analyzed, "They are here to deliver the food. Just open the door, send the food in, and then they come out again. The bowls and chopsticks used for the food delivery this time will be taken when the food is delivered next time. Calculated in this way, the time is only one or two minutes, and within one or two minutes, it is enough for a murderer Are they close to changing the locks and not being seen by the people who deliver the food? Take a step back and imagine that they don’t come and leave after the delivery, but wait for the captain to finish the meal before packing up the dishes and leaving-in this case, they really Will you choose to stay in the same room as the captain? Don’t forget that the diary said that the captain is arrogant and unfriendly to the bottom sailors, and being trapped in the room at this time, his temper must be even more irritable..."

"Maybe one, maybe two, will stand outside." Huo Ranyin's eyes flickered, "Even if they all stay inside once, can the murderer seize the opportunity at once? If he wants to seize this opportunity, the murderer It is necessary to go to the scene to observe every time the food is delivered, but the diary clearly shows that the two people who delivered the food did not find any suspicious persons."

"To sum up, the analysis of changing the lock is indeed enough to create a secret room, but it is also very possible-it is completely complicated by Liu Translator. You must know that in 1976, unlike now, there were very convenient online media. At that time Literacy is a relatively extravagant thing, and there are very few educated people on board... One of the diaries was written jointly by three sailors. Obviously, not everyone can read."

"That's right." Meng Lingshan nodded, "Without contact and without enough cultural background, it is actually very difficult to think of a secret room and arrange a secret room. Is that the deck?"

"Of course it's the deck." This time it was Huo Ranyin who answered Meng Lingshan, "If you don't enter through the main entrance, you can only enter through the deck door. As described in the diary, standing on the first officer's deck, you can be naked Hearing the sound from the captain's bedroom, it can be seen that the first mate's deck is not far from the captain's deck. The murderer we have analyzed is powerful and agile, so it must not be difficult to turn over the deck. There is no one in the corridor, which is reasonable. When there is a lock, no one will patrol there all the time. It is easier than changing the lock when the meal is delivered. In fact, everyone in the diary failed to find out the suspicious people in the corridor—the captain’s room and the first officer. The rooms are next to each other, and the investigation results are applicable to each other. The only problem is the captain’s body blocking the door. The deck door is opened inwards, and after the murderer leaves the door, there is no way to move the body.”

"But at the beginning of Lin Xiaodao's diary, he mentioned a very important thing." Ji Xun repeated, "'The sea has been uneven these few days, and it was windy and rainy at times.' It's normal for the body to move, right?

"I guess, in fact, this so-called secret room was not expected by the murderer at all. He just simply entered the chief mate's room, jumped over the deck, knocked on the door, and probably talked to the captain about some consultation or rescue. It was easy. He walked in and strangled him to death, and shortly after he left, the wind and rain caused the door lock to be locked—if the door was a common bolt lock or crescent lock at that time, it was possible to lock it accidentally under the inertia of the sea superior.

The other two nodded first, then shook their heads again.

Huo Ranyin said: "This reasoning makes sense, and it is more in line with the psychological profile of a crime of passion. But it also cannot prove who the murderer is."

"Yeah, it's impossible to deduce based on these alone... Although I have a little guess, let it go." Ji Xun sighed, "Let this go, we still have a third corpse."

The third corpse, Fu Ge.

A man with obvious signs of death.

"Drunkenness, vomiting, loss of appetite, breathing disorder, and then died. The dead body was swollen in a circle, which is very consistent with the swelling of the body after kidney failure. The whole process did not exceed 72 hours." Ji Xun, "Considering that they are on a ship On a sailing ship, it is also a random murder, the scope of the poison is very limited, I am inclined to... antifreeze."

"Antifreeze?" Huo Ranyin closed his eyes and thought for a while, "Ethylene glycol?"

"Well, it perfectly matches the characteristics of the deceased." Ji Xun nodded.

"Antifreeze." Meng Lingshan, "Freezer, Yu Hai?"

"Perhaps. It is normal to store some antifreeze in the freezer for melting ice. The person in charge of the freezer does not need to report to anyone about the use of antifreeze." Ji Xun said, "The bad news is that this is also speculation. The good news is, there is a way, and a very simple way."

He flashed a playful smile.

Huo Ranyin and Meng Lingshan were a little puzzled at first, then suddenly realized something, and immediately showed the same playful smile as Ji Xun.

"Indeed... this method is very simple."