Crazy Detective

Chapter 832: Dead End

“There’s nothing wrong with the door!” Cui Lizhu said. “I also checked the door mirror, and it showed no signs of being tampered with whatsoever. Moreover, this house has no back windows, the chimney is not big enough for ordinary people to come through it, and none of the windows were broken. If the door was really locked from the inside, it was indeed what you call a ‘locked room crime!'”

Zhang Jingfeng grabbed Han Kuan’s clothes as he yelled, “Then… What are you waiting for? Figure it out! Who else could be the murderer besides Han Kuan?”

“Um… Are there any secret doors in your house?” Cui Lizhu asked Han Kuan.

“No.” Han Kuan shook his head.

Cui Lizhu suddenly clapped her hands. “Okay… That settles it! There can’t be anyone else involved except for this couple!”

When Cui Lizhu spoke, Zhao Yu got up from the bed and walked to the windowsill in the inner room. The curtains were pulled open.

After seeing the curtains, Zhao Yu compared them with a picture from the crime scene, his strange reaction making it seemed as if he had found something important while doing so.

The others did not know what Zhao Yu was thinking about, so they waited quietly for him to speak. A moment later, Zhao Yu pulled the curtains closed. The curtains immediately blocked out all of the light, causing the room to become completely dark.

After he closed the curtains, Zhao Yu smacked his lips and looked up. As he did so, he noticed that, at the top of the left curtain, a hook was missing, allowing just a tiny bit of sunlight to stream in. Where the light beam shone, a small and irregular triangular shadow appeared on the bed.

Zhao Yu pointed to the gap where the missing hook was and asked Director Ba, “Did you see this?”

Director Ba did not answer, but a young policeman next to him nodded and replied, “Yes, leader. I also saw this same gap that very night, so I climbed up to the top of the windowsill!”

“Hmm…” Zhao Yu nodded, then asked, “You saw that there were people in the room, which made you decide to break in, right?”

“Yes!” The policeman answered without hesitation. “Although I couldn’t see everything clearly, I knew that they must be lying on the bed! We knocked on the door for a long time, yet no one responded, so we were worried and wondered what could have happened to them!”

“Oh…” Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu quickly pulled up a chair, stepped onto the windowsill, then carefully observed the hooks and the curtain.

The others didn’t quite understand why Zhao Yu was so interested in curtains and hooks, but they kept silent and dared not question him.

Zhao Yu then turned to Han Kuan and asked, “Who pulled the curtains closed that night?”

Han Kuan recalled, “It must have been my wife, as I was typing in the guest bedroom that night and didn’t go to bed until 11 o’clock. By the time I went to bed, the curtains were already closed! Um… And I was the one who locked the door! Also, I remember that I went to the toilet before I locked the door…”

“Don’t waste my time with unnecessary details! Did you notice this missing hook before you went to bed?” Zhao Yu interrupted him and asked.

“No…” Han Kuan shook his head. “Actually… I really can’t remember!”

Zhao Yu then turned and snapped his fingers at Director Ba and said, “Hurry up and call in your forensics staff to check the curtain near the hook. Look especially for dandruff tissue! They must check it carefully!”

Director Ba nodded, then ran to the door and waved to the forensics team. Two staff members immediately came to the windowsill with professional forensic tools.

“Boss, what’s wrong with the curtain?” Cui Lizhu rushed forward and asked.

Zhao Yu smiled and said, “I just remembered a scene… The one from Justice Bao!”

“What?” Cui Lizhu frowned, as she was unfamiliar with the reference. “What does that mean?” Not only was Cui Lizhu puzzled, but none of the others understood the reference either.

“No… No way… Officer Zhao…” Han Kuan suddenly understood Zhao Yu’s meaning, and he looked around in surprise and asked, “Are you saying that… In your opinion… The murderer is among us?”

Upon hearing this, everyone was shocked. Hoping to diffuse the situation, Zhao Yu waved his hand hastily and said, “Don’t talk nonsense. It just reminded me of that. However… In response to your question… I’m not sure.”

Han Kuan raised his hands and said, “That’s why you suddenly called all of the people here today! You really are an expert!”

All of the people present were shocked by Han Kuan’s words. They didn’t know what to think!

Director Ba then scratched his head and asked, “Hey, officer, what exactly t does Justice Bao have to do with our case?” He was clearly still confused.

Zhao Yu pointed to the gap above the curtain and said, “I suspect that the murderer may have deliberately removed the hook! His purpose for doing this was to make sure that you could see what was in the room and to let you know that there were people in danger, which would then lead you to break in by busting the door down!”

Zhao Yu’s voice grew more excited as he explained, “Then, when you broke down the door, the murderer knew that you would rush into the couple’s bedroom first, and when you saw the couple lying in the victim’s blood, you suddenly had no idea about what to do…”

“Yes!” Director Ba nodded and admitted, “I remember that I was really was quite panicked at that time…”

All of the others nodded in agreement.

“In Justice Bao, there is a similar scene,” Zhao Yu said. “When a large number of officers rushed into a murder scene, all of their attention was attracted by the victims, so nobody noticed that the real killer was actually hiding behind the door!”

Zhao Yu’s words made everyone shiver.

Han Kuan instantly agreed that this was a real possibility, “Yes! And… That killer was also a police officer! I remember now! He wore the police uniform and joined the other police officers immediately, so that no one noticed him at all! It was the perfect murder!”

“Ah!” This time, all of the people finally understood Zhao Yu’s meaning, and they were shocked by his new theory.

Cui Lizhu looked at everyone with wide eyes as she asked, “So… You guys actually think that the murderer is one of the police officers here?”

After she asked the question, no one spoke for a good 15 seconds. After all, no one dared say such a thing out loud!

Finally, Director Ba twisted his eyebrows and carefully perused the policemen in front of him, one by one. He was trying to recall which one of them might have suddenly appeared at the scene during that time.

Zhao Yu made a pausing gesture with his hands as he said, “Okay… Everybody stop for a moment, and let’s all take a deep breath. This is just a theory, after all. Moreover, Justice Bao is a fictional drama!”

An old policeman thought for a while, then suddenly said, “I remember now! At that time, after the door was broken down, Director Ba rushed in with a few colleagues, while I stood at the doorway! So, if someone left the house, how could I not have noticed?”

“Yes! When we found the victim in the couple’s bedroom, I also went to the guest room to check to see if there were any other victims,” another policeman said.

After hearing this, Cui Lizhu grabbed Han Kuan, then turned him to face the the policemen present and asked, “Great writer, take a good look at these people… Do you recognize anyone?”

“Um… This…” Han Kuan shook his head, then said, “I used to go to the police station to get inspired for my writing, so they all look familiar! But, I don’t know any of them…”

The policemen all heaved huge sighs of relief upon hearing this.

At that moment, Zhao Yu shouted, “Okay, that is enough! Listen to me! If there is such a murderer out there, he might not have known that the police would come to the scene! He may have just sent a picture of a slit wrist to Zhang Jingfeng…”

After hearing Zhao Yu’s words, everyone turned their eyes toward Zhang Jingfeng again.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Jingfeng asked, “What do you mean? You don’t think that it’s me, right?”

Zhao Yu shook his head and said, “The murderer sent you the picture in order to get you to come here. That way, his carefully planned crime scene could be discovered! But, he didn’t know whether you would come alone or with the police. So, he wouldn’t have risked staying at the scene!”

Han Kuan suddenly stared at Zhang Jingfeng, while saying, “But… The murderer should be familiar with you, right? At least… Enough to know that you were still playing cards into the wee hours of the night, and in a remote place at that! As such, he was sure that you wouldn’t be able to rescue your sister, but that you could be led to come to see the crime scene. That explains why he he sent you the photo, right?”

“What do you mean? You’re the murderer! You bald murderer!” Zhang Jingfeng burst into a temper tantrum, while shouting abusive words at Han Kuan.

Han Kuan shouted back at him angrily, “You have the audacity to accuse me? Look to yourself! Did you have any enemies? I bet you did, and that your sister really died because of you!”

“Shi*! How dare you say such a thing! You’ll soon regret making me angry…” Zhang Jingfeng was so angry that he rushed at Han Kuan and fought with him.

Director Ba and others rushed forward and pulled them apart. The whole scene was a total mess. Looking at the mess in front of him, Zhao Yu suddenly realized that all of his previous inferences had resulted in nothing but dead ends.