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Chapter 469 Tit for tat
"Am I right? The host, Ms. Xue Dingyao?"
In the lobby of the guesthouse, the male figure who suddenly appeared slowly turned his head and looked at Xue Dingyao behind him.
"Huh?"
It seemed that Xue Dingyao did not expect to be called out. He was stunned for a moment, and after a while he came to his senses. He raised his hand and pointed at his face with an incredible expression.
"Mr. Detective, you said I was the murderer of Mr. Toudou?"
"Yes, it's you." The male figure nodded with an extremely certain tone.
"Um, Mr. Detective, did you make a mistake?"
After a moment of daze, Xue Dingyao showed a lovely smile on her face.
"I was with everyone during the event. We left together and came back together. How could I have time to be here..."
"I have just explained this very clearly."
The male figure interrupted her and said directly: "The murderer used the trick of the spotlight to delay the time of rigor mortis, thereby misleading everyone's judgment of the time of death.
Therefore, the scope of the murderer cannot be limited to the staff who stayed in the lobby of the Guest House during the event, but should be before the banquet started and after the deceased Mr. Dongtang entered the Guest House.
During this period, all the staff members of the guesthouse who were present are suspected of murder.”
"Even if what you said is true, Mr. Detective, all the guests in the hall at that time should be suspects, right? Weren't we all in the hall at that time?" Xue Dingyao asked back without showing any weakness.
"No, there is no way a guest could be a suspect."
The male figure shook his head slightly, raised his hand to press down the brim of his hat, and continued to explain:
“I specifically asked the staff behind the scenes before, and they said that the banner hanging the deceased in the air was controlled by a mechanism in the control room on the second floor of the guesthouse.
The studio on the second floor is not open to the public, and only the staff of the reception hall have the key to enter and exit.
This means that the method of killing the victim and hanging him in the air with a banner to temporarily hide the body can only be successfully carried out by the staff of the guesthouse. "
"Even if that's the case, shouldn't the possibility of those people in the backstage be greater? Why do you insist on saying it's me? I was in the hall the whole time during the banquet! I never went to the second floor!" Xue Ding asked loudly.
"It seems to be true..."
Hearing her words, some detectives on the stage nodded subconsciously.
“Ms. Yukitada, Ms. Igarashi, and the deceased Mr. Toudou, they were already in the hall before the banquet officially started.
Especially Miss Xue Dingyao and Mr. Dongtang, I remember that they went to the back of the stage to prepare only after the banquet officially started.
Even if Miss Xue Dingyao was the murderer, she probably did not have enough time to kill Mr. Dongtang, tie him to the banner, and then go to the studio on the second floor to raise the banner.
After all, from the time Ms. Igarashi finished her welcome speech to the time Ms. Xue Dingyao came on stage, there was less than ten minutes..."
"On the contrary, this amount of time is more than enough." The male figure explained, "I have already asked the backstage staff and found out that the raising and lowering of the banner is the responsibility of the staff on the second floor, and Miss Xue Dingyao does not need to do it herself.
According to the original plan of the event, this banner would not be displayed to the public until everyone returned to the hall after the event. Therefore, when the event just started, the banner had not actually been raised.
Therefore, Miss Xue Dingyao only needed to kill the deceased Mr. Dongtang before going on stage, and then tie his neck with a banner.
When the appointed time comes, the staff on the second floor will naturally raise the banner."
"This, this means that, when the banquet began, Mr. Toudou's body was right here on the stage, lying behind this curtain?"
Some detectives couldn't help but turn pale after listening to the male figure's analysis.
"Yes, that's right." The male figure smiled and nodded, seemingly having no respect for life at all.
"Wait!" At this time, Xue Dingyao spoke again and questioned loudly: "Mr. Detective! Let's assume that what you said is true! Then why must it be me? There must be many people who can do what you said, right? Why do you have to be sure that it was me?!"
"The reason is very simple. I have already asked the staff at the backstage. After the banquet officially started, the rest of the staff went to the control room on the second floor. The only ones who stayed behind the stage were you, Miss Xue Dingyao, and the deceased Mr. Dongtang."
"But it's possible that they colluded to lie to us, right?! There are no surveillance cameras in the guesthouse, so who knows where they were at the time?!"
"You really don't give up..."
Seeing her getting more and more agitated, the male figure shook his head and sighed. He put on gloves and walked forward, picked up the dead person's hand, and pulled out a thin blue fiber thread from between the dead person's fingernails.
"There are more or less blue fibers between the nails of the deceased's ten fingers, and these fibers do not match the brown clothes on the deceased.
This is not a coincidence or an accident. The deceased had put up a fierce resistance during the attack and murder by the murderer. Obviously, the blue fibers in the nail crevices of the deceased were important evidence left in the nail crevices after he scratched the murderer's clothes during the process. Miss Xue Dingyao..."
As he spoke, the male figure stood up, turned his head and looked at Xue Dingyao, who was wearing a blue kimono and had a pale face, and asked with a smile:
"Why don't we wait for the police to come and do an identification? I think the blue fibers found between the nails of the deceased must be made of the same material as the kimono you are wearing..."
"Xue Ding..."
Igarashi Kiyoko turned to look at her with a sad expression on her face.
"Is it really you who is the murderer?"
“Even if, even if…”
He did not respond to Igarashi Kiyoko, and as if because he was being stared at with suspicion by everyone, a thin layer of sweat had already seeped out of Xue Dingyao's forehead.
But even so, she still tried her best to refute the male figure's reasoning.
"Even if those blue fibers are made of the same material as the kimono I'm wearing, what does that prove?
The kimono I'm wearing is not mine. There are many kimonos made of the same material in the dressing room behind the guest house! How can you prove that it is definitely the kimono I'm wearing?
What's more! You clearly said that Mr. Dongtang tore the murderer's clothes before he was killed...
But the kimono I'm wearing is still intact! Aren't you contradicting yourself?! How are you going to explain this?!
You're not thinking that I can take advantage of the few minutes before going on stage to kill Mr. Toudou, then run back to the dressing room to change into a kimono and come back?! Don't be ridiculous! There's no way this is going to happen in terms of time!"
"His reasoning was not wrong."
Amid Xue Ding's extremely excited roar, a calm voice suddenly sounded.
Chapter 470 My name is Bai Heqing
"His reasoning was not wrong."
A calm voice suddenly sounded from under the stage.
Everyone looked back and found that Shizuka Shizuka, who was originally sitting below watching the show, suddenly took the phone from Suzuki Sonoko's hand, stood up and walked towards the stage.
"Boy, what do you mean?" Before Xue Dingyao could speak, Maori Kogoro couldn't help but ask.
"What I mean is that Ms. Yukisada Kaname really didn't have enough time to strangle Mr. Toudou in just a few minutes and then return to the dressing room to change into a kimono.
Therefore, the piece of clothing that Mr. Toudou tore before his death could only be the kimono that Ms. Xue Dingyao is wearing now."
"Huh?! Are your eyesight bad?! The kimono I'm wearing is intact..."
"Ms. Xue Dingyao, please don't get excited. I have found enough evidence to prove this."
Interrupting her words, Shizuka Shizuka showed the phone he had just taken from Suzuki Sonoko to everyone.
On the phone were several photos taken from the video, which showed the scene in the hall before and after the banquet began.
The first one was taken before the banquet started. In the photo, Igarashi Kiyoko, Yuki Teika, and the deceased Mr. Todou all appeared in the picture, each talking to different guests.
The second photo was taken when the banquet was about to begin. In the corner of the photo, you can see three people who were about to go on stage hurriedly walking towards the back of the stage.
The third photo was taken after the banquet officially began. In the photo, Igarashi Kiyoko, who had already finished her welcome speech, was standing at the edge of the stage, while the host of the mystery event, Yuki Teitaru, was in the center of the stage.
Seeing these three photos, Xue Dingyao's expression suddenly changed and his pupils shrank suddenly.
However, the detectives around still didn't notice the difference in the photos.
"Boy, what's wrong with these photos? They look normal..."
Kogoro Maori took the phone from Shizuka Shizuka, looked at it carefully, and asked in confusion.
"Detective Mori, the problem is with Miss Yukisada's kimono."
"clothing?"
The one who answered him was not Qingshui Jing, but the unknown male figure.
He walked forward and reminded with a smile: "Detective Maori, why don't you take a closer look at Miss Yuki Tada in the first and third photos and observe whether there is any difference in the kimono Miss Yuki Tada is wearing in these two photos..."
While the two were talking, Shizuo Shizuka quietly left the stage and returned to the dining table where he had been sitting before, as if he had come up only to provide this last key piece of evidence.
"Brother-in-law! Did I help? Did I help?!"
Seeing him coming down, Suzuki Sonoko hurried over and asked excitedly.
"Yeah, that helped a lot."
Qing Shuijing smiled and raised her hand to touch her head.
"The photos you found not only helped us figure out the murderer's final method, but also helped us directly confirm the murderer's identity. That's great."
"Ah hey, ah hey hey..."
After a while of silly laughter, Suzuki Sonoko suddenly came to her senses, turned her head sharply and glared at the male figure on the stage, and said angrily:
"How damned! All the limelight has been stolen by this detective who appeared out of nowhere!
Brother-in-law, you have clearly deduced the identity of the murderer, why don't you go up and deduce it?"
"That's not necessary." Qing Shuijing smiled and shook her head, saying, "In many cases, being too prominent is not a good thing. Hiding one's shortcomings can actually avoid a lot of trouble..."
"I, so that's it..." Although she didn't quite understand, Suzuki Sonoko still nodded to show her understanding.
"As long as you know."
After saying that, Shizumi looked at Suzuki Ayako who was sitting next to them and looking at the two of them with a smile on her face, and said, "Ayako, I'm going to the bathroom and will be back soon."
"Yeah." Without thinking too much, Suzuki Ayako nodded.
"When I'm not around, you... should pay more attention to your safety."
Her eyes flickered for a moment, and Qingshui Jing didn't say much in the end. She just left the lobby of the reception hall after saying this.
"Xue Ding wants Miss's clothes?"
At this time on the stage, after being reminded by the male figure, Kogoro Maori finally discovered the difference between the snow in the two photos.
These two photos were taken before the banquet started and after the banquet started when Xue Ding was about to walk onto the stage.
Among them, although Xue Dingyao was wearing the same style of kimono, the patterns on the kimono had changed.