Chapter 511: The Lingering Ghost

If you want to say how Duanmu Huai is feeling at this moment, then Lorena's speech can explain the problem.

"Huh? Something happened again??"

Listen, this "again" is very spiritual.

Moreover, this time there is no need to investigate whether it was the work of some cultists. The reason is very simple. The victim's body was found behind the cabin, and a strange circular circle was drawn with his body as the center - yes, This is what cultists do!

Or is it that my reputation is not showing up...

Looking at the corpse in front of him, Duanmu Huai sighed silently. This cultist really had nothing to do for three days to find trouble for himself. He originally went to the Fog City for the Jack the Ripper case. As a result, before we even got there, we encountered two cases on the road.

If you were famous, wouldn't those guys just turn around and run away after seeing you? What other cases are there...uh, it doesn't seem right?

After all, there are many similar cases in Detective Conan.

Forget it, there's no use thinking about it now.

Thinking of this, Duanmu Huai retracted his thoughts and looked at the corpse in front of him - the one who was killed was Williams Ford, a passenger on the "Full Moon and Stars". At this moment, there were two women standing next to him. One of them in a white coat was the airship's doctor, Rose Barnett, and the other...

"Who are you?"

Duanmuhuai looked at another woman standing next to Williams' body with a notebook in her hand. Her dress did not look like that of an aristocratic lady, but her figure was more like that of a soldier. And judging from her expression, she didn't look like someone who was very familiar with Williams.

"I'm Dot Fisher, the bodyguard hired by Williams."

The other party's answer was quite straightforward.

"You were a bodyguard? So what happened when he was killed?"

"I don't know that."

The bodyguard spread his hands helplessly.

"After I got up in the morning, I went to the dining room to get breakfast for Williams. When I returned to the cabin, Williams was gone. I was about to look for him when I heard screams coming from here, and then when I rushed When I came here, I found that things had turned out like this.”

"oh……………"

Duanmuhuai nodded, then looked at the doctor.

"What did you find, doctor?"

Upon hearing Duanmuhuai's question, doctor Rose quickly gave her answer.

"The victim's throat was slit. This was the cause of death. It can be seen from the angle and direction of the wound that the victim was facing the murderer."

"Confronted? So are there signs of violent confrontation on the body?"

"No."

"In other words, the victim faced the murderer and had his throat cut by him, but he didn't resist at all?"

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai frowned.

"I also find it very strange, but that's it. Of course, if I have to say it, the blood is very strange."

As he spoke, the doctor pointed to the blood stains on the deceased.

"His blood was almost black and coagulated even more than normal blood."

"So there is no way to confirm the time of death from this point?"

"If it were an ordinary corpse, it would be fine, but this corpse..."

Rose looked at the body and shrugged.

"Sorry, I may not be able to help you much. If you want to conduct a test, we don't have the necessary equipment here. You have to wait until the Fog City Police Station for further inspection."

At this moment, the captain also arrived at the crime scene, checked the situation, and then sighed.

"Everyone, please gather together next. After all, I also want to make this matter clear."

Everyone didn't care about this. After locking the door, they came to the observation deck. By this time, everyone, including the captain and passengers, had basically arrived.

As for the facts of the case, it is now very clear.

The victim was Williams Ford. He was killed in the smoking room and his throat was cut with a knife. Then the murderer used his blood to draw an evil circle around the deceased.

The question now is when did the deceased die.

Although it stands to reason that a general autopsy can narrow down the time of death within a certain range through information such as the stiffness of the corpse and the coagulation of blood, Dr. Rose also said that the degree of coagulation of the blood of the deceased is much higher than that of ordinary blood. There is no way to use common sense to judge the time of death.

Then do the opposite, first determine when the deceased's body went to the smoking room.

According to everyone, the captain, navigator Bart and a passenger, Arthur, were smoking in the smoking room in the morning. They did not see the body at that time - as for whether there was a body hidden in it, it is even more impossible. After all, what is a smoking room? There was no decoration, just a clean, empty room with only a few ashtrays on the wall. There was no place to hide the body.

So what that means is that for two hours between five and seven in the morning, someone took Williams (or his body) to the smoking room, slit his throat, and then used his blood A magic circle is drawn.

Let’s not talk about killing people. It takes at least half an hour to draw a magic circle.

At least based on current information, the following facts can be confirmed.

First, at about five o'clock, Captain Carter and navigator Bart were sleepy due to the night shift and wanted to have a cigarette to wake up, so they came to the smoking room. Then they met passenger Arthur who was also addicted to smoking. The three of them After smoking for a while, the captain and the navigator went to work, and according to Arthur's own words, he also went back to his room to rest after finishing his cigarette.

Then at around six o'clock, Williams' bodyguard Dot went out to get breakfast for Williams - her statement was confirmed by Ethel who was setting the tableware in the restaurant at the time. When Dot spent about twenty minutes preparing breakfast and returned to the room, Williams was no longer there.

Then another passenger, Fred Winston, went to the smoking room to smoke, then discovered the body and screamed loudly.

It was probably around seven o'clock.

If the confession of bodyguard Dot is correct, then after she left the cabin, Williams for some reason left his room, went to the smoking room, and was murdered.

Of course, the premise is that her confession is correct. After all, because the doctor cannot determine the correct time of death of the victim, there is another possibility, that is, the bodyguard Dot is the murderer, and she killed her employer. , then deliberately went out to create his own alibi under the pretext of getting breakfast, and then came back and dragged Williams' body to the smoking room next door...

Anyway, at least one thing is for sure.

Williams was alive when he boarded the airship, and everyone saw it.

In other words... he was killed on the airship.

Then there is only one truth, the culprit is among us!

Well, yes, very simple reasoning.

After all, this is different from the previous trains. If you insist, people in the train can climb out of the carriage through some means. But the airship is different. At an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, the entire cabin is sealed. Who can get out?

Moreover, the space of the airship is also fixed. At the front is a large rectangular viewing platform and restaurant, with sofas and coffee tables placed on both sides by the window, and several dining tables in the middle for dining. There are two doors at the back of the observation deck. The door in the center leads directly to the corridor. The corridor is a straight line with no forks. On the right side of the corridor are seven guest rooms, and on the right are three guest rooms with the crew lounge, crew bedrooms and cargo room.

As for the two doors at the end of the corridor, they lead to the infirmary and engine room. Of course, outsiders are strictly prohibited from entering and exiting here. Only when the airship is in trouble, the captain will open the door for maintenance.

If you want to draw a schematic diagram, it is basically as follows.

Observation deck - Passenger Room 1 - Passenger Room 2 - Passenger Room 3 - Passenger Room 4 - Passenger Room 5 - Passenger Room 6 - Passenger Room 7 - Engine Room.

Observation deck - crew lounge - crew bedroom - warehouse - smoking room - guest room 8 - guest room 9 - guest room 10 - infirmary.

The seven guest rooms on side A belong to Duanmu Huai, Lorena, four students from the Royal Master's College, and the discoverer of the body, Fred Winston.

As for the three guest rooms on the other side, they belonged to the deceased Williams Ford, his bodyguards Dot Fisher, and Arthur Lensher.

When the incident occurred, almost all passengers were resting in their rooms. Only the flight attendants on the airship were busy. The captain was responsible for observing the course and the navigator was in the crew lounge. Only Ethel, the "maid", was setting up for everyone on the observation deck. At the dining table, breakfast was prepared. According to her, apart from her, only two people had been to the observation deck at that time. One was Arthur Lansheer. He appeared at the observation deck earlier than her and never left. It was Dot, the bodyguard who came to get Williams breakfast.

But now, everyone is sitting in the observation deck, each forming a circle, watching others uneasily. There was no idiot present, they had thought of everything Duanmu Huai could think of. Although I'm not sure who the murderer is, at least... it's better to stay away from strangers I don't know.

“Dong dong dong!!”

However, not long after, there was the sound of rapid footsteps, and then everyone saw the captain walking in with a tense expression.

"captain!!"

Seeing the captain appear, the maid Ethel who was sitting in the corner stood up quickly.

"How is it going?"

"Radio contact unavailable."

However, the news brought by the captain made everyone's hearts sink.

"What's going on? Is it because of the weather?"

"No, this..."

Faced with the questioning, the captain hesitated, but finally chose to tell the truth.

"The radio appears to have been vandalized."

"What?!"

Hearing this, the others couldn't sit still. Even Duanmu Huai raised his eyebrows.

Now, things get interesting.

"What to do now?"

"Wait, what should we do?"

At this time, everyone couldn't help but panic.

This is actually understandable. After all, the situation in front of us is more dangerous than the train or the Blizzard Villa.

To put it bluntly, if you feel unsafe, you can force the driver to stop, then leave the train and go to the wilderness to survive. The same goes for Blizzard Villa. You can indeed stay in the villa and wait for death, or you can choose to go out on a snowy day and find a place to dig a hole to hide.

Although the chance of survival is low, at least it is possible.

But now we are on the airship, with the Atlantic Ocean below and a height of 10,000 meters between us. What can you do?

Do you jump out to feed the fish? Or do you jump out to feed the fish? Or do you jump out to feed the fish?

But if you don't feed the fish, do you have any other choice?

"Mr. Detective, do you have a way to solve the case?"

At this moment, the young man thought of Duanmu Huai again, and rushed over to ask, while Duanmu Huai thought for a moment and shrugged his shoulders.

"There are no clues at the crime scene at present. Unless you carefully examine the body and search the room, I can't tell."

Indeed, as Duanmu Huai said, there were no clues left in the smoking room at the crime scene. In addition to the body and the strange magic circle, there were only a few cigarette butts.

He is not Sherlock Holmes, who can tell one, two, three, four, and five by looking at cigarette butts.

There is no murder weapon, and the murderer himself did not leave any clues. How to investigate?

He is the God of Destruction and the God of Joy, but not the God of Reasoning.

This is not his responsibility!

In fact, Duanmu Huai prefers to rush forward, that is, wait for the other party to jump out on his own initiative, and then slap him to death.

Just like hitting a fly, it is very time-consuming to find the fly yourself, it is better to wait for the fly to buzz and fly up, and then you can immediately lock the position and then take action.

"Humph, after talking for a long time, isn't it just that you don't have any skills?"

At this moment, Arthur, who was not far away, sneered—because he had an alibi, he was the most arrogant one among the group of people now. After all, when the victim was killed, he had been staying on the observation deck, so he got away early, and now he seemed quite arrogant.

"Besides, maybe you killed the person, after all, you look like a murderer."

"Hmph!"

Hearing this, Duanmu Huai's face darkened and he glared at him fiercely. Seeing Duanmu Huai staring at him, Arthur wanted to say something, but after feeling Duanmu Huai's gaze, he suddenly lost his breath and felt his heart suddenly twitch. The next moment, accompanied by the cold air bursting from the back of his spine, he was so scared that his legs softened and he collapsed to the ground.

"You, what do you want to do?"

"If I were a murderer, I would kill you, a cheap and arrogant idiot, first."

Duanmu Huai glared at Arthur again, then retracted his gaze, and this time Arthur didn't dare to speak anymore. He collapsed on the floor trembling, staring at Duanmu Huai with horror, but couldn't say a word.

At this time, Doctor Rose also stood up.

"I can be sure that this gentleman didn't kill the person."

"Why?"

"It's very simple."

Dr. Rose looked at the other questioner and explained.

"According to my autopsy results, the murderer cut his throat directly in front of the victim. From the perspective of the wound, the height of the other party and the victim is almost the same, and this gentleman............"

While speaking, Rose looked at Duanmu Huai speechlessly.

"To do this, he probably had to squat."

"…………………………"

Everyone looked at Duanmu Huai, then looked at Dr. Rose, and gestured... Well, it seems to be the case.

"Besides, I also saw that strange magic circle. It was drawn by a person with a finger dipped in blood. Judging from the radius and size of the pattern, it is the size of a normal adult man's finger... So........."

Well, it's understandable.

Hearing this, Lorena also raised her hand curiously.

"Do you mean that the murderer is an adult male?"

"A normal adult male."

Dr. Rose added a sentence out of rigor. Let's look at Duanmu Huai again. It's obvious who this sentence is directed at.

In this way, according to Dr. Rose, at least Duanmu Huai, Arthur, Lorena, maid Ethel, bodyguard Dot and two girls from the Master's College can be ruled out.

Then the rest are the other two male students from the Master's College, the captain and the navigator, and Fred Winston, the discoverer of the body.