"Secret room." Jian Jing yawned, drowsy, "Do you think this secret room is a mechanism murder?"
Ji Feng said: "No." He has been in this business for so many years and has only encountered a handful of mechanism murder cases. The making was quite simple, yet even so, there was still one unsuccessful attempt.
It can be seen that the tricks of mechanism murders are cool enough in novels, but the success rate in reality is very low.
Jian Jing said: "I think so too. So at first, I wondered if this secret room was caused by accident."
"No, Tan Hao's framing must have been premeditated." Ji Feng remembered something and quickly said, "I checked his medical records. Three years ago, he was hospitalized for anaphylactic shock. Because the treatment was timely, there were no sequelae. There were no recurrences afterwards."
Jian Jing asked: "What was the allergen?"
"Unclear, it should be something quite rare." He said, "I arranged for him to be tested to see what caused him to lose consciousness back then."
"Did he mention this to anyone?"
Ji Feng smiled: "The coincidence is here. The victim had arranged physical examinations for them, high-risk groups, you know. He said he had casually mentioned it to others at the time, but no one took it to heart."
"That is to say, anyone could have known he was allergic to something." She yawned again, "How about the scene?"
"Wait until the allergy test comes out, then ask them to check." The criminal technology department was also a high-incidence place for overtime. Asking them to re-investigate without solid evidence would get him beaten up by colleagues.
Jian Jing nodded hastily, half-closed eyes: "I still stand by what I said earlier, the secret room was not originally like this..."
Ji Feng: "Leaving me hanging?"
"No--" She dragged out the tone, "Sleepy."
"Go ahead and sleep, I'll wake you when we arrive." Ji Feng shook his head, thinking that Professor Jian's endurance was not great. Fortunately, she was not a policeman, otherwise how could she endure several consecutive all-nighters.
Jian Jing responded, her head resting on the soft pillow, and fell asleep in no time.
Outside the car window, the night was deep.
Ji Feng turned down the air conditioner and slowed down the car.
The street lights in the distance emitted a soft, warm light, illuminating the road ahead.
About twenty minutes later, her home arrived.
Ji Feng parked the car in the underground garage, parked in the space closest to the elevator, before calling her: "Professor Jian, we're home."
Jian Jing woke up groggily, with a big yawn, bleary-eyed, and still had physiological tears in the corners of her eyes: "We're here, so fast."
"Go back to sleep, I'll come by tomorrow afternoon." He said.
She nodded and unbuckled her seatbelt.
It didn't come off.
"Let me do it." Ji Feng leaned over, tugged at the buckle, "It's a little stuck."
Jian Jing asked: "Is your wound better?"
"The scabs have formed, it'll be fine in a few days." He unbuckled her seatbelt and smiled at her, "Don't worry."
"Who's worried." She retorted, "Thick-skinned as you are, I know you won't die. I'm off."
She pushed open the car door and left breezily.
Ji Feng watched her back until she disappeared from sight before turning the car around to leave.
He was too tired tonight, time to go home and sleep.
The next day. 7:40 a.m.
Ji Feng was woken up by the ringing of his phone. It was Old Gao calling, saying the criminal arrested yesterday confessed, and they were going to arrest another accomplice this morning.
He had no choice but to reluctantly crawl up, wash up hastily, put on his clothes, and hurry to the police station to report.
At 8:30, they set off. After staking out for over an hour, they officially arrested the criminal at 10 o'clock.
The interrogation began.
At 11, he switched shifts with his colleagues and had lunch.
After the meal, he was too sleepy, so he dozed off on the table. He probably slept for fifteen minutes before he felt refreshed. As soon as he opened his eyes, he wanted to get back to work.
What came into view was a pair of legs.
Sparkling jelly shoes, peach-colored manicure done at a beauty salon, a hazy light blue dress, the fabric slightly wrinkled, like a fluffy cloud.
Ji Feng looked her up and down and laughed: "Solved the case?"
"Who said that?" Jian Jing wondered.
"Dressed like this, you wouldn't be running around everywhere." He picked up his phone to check the unread messages, "The hospital test results are out."
Jian Jing's spirit was shocked: "What was it?"
"Mold." He said. "Want to come with me to the technical department to take a look?"
Being overly courteous without reason, it was either wickedness or theft. Jian Jing was suspicious: "Why are you taking me there?"
"Of course it's for your prestige." Ji Feng said, "We only have two days left, half of which is already gone, we have to hurry."
Jian Jing snorted: "Do I have much prestige?"
"Of course, you are a famous writer." Ji Feng pulled the half-pushing and half-unwilling writer lady up, "Don't you want to visit the neighboring department?"
Jian Jing reluctantly said: "Fine."
Ji Feng didn't lie to her. As soon as they arrived at the Criminal Technology Department, they immediately received white eyes from colleagues.
"You're here again?"
"Haven't done it yet."
"Get out, get out, get out."
Everyone was furious.
But when everyone saw Jian Jing following behind Ji Feng, they calmed down a lot.
"This is Professor Jian, right?"
"I've heard your name before."
"Welcome, welcome, my child is your fan. Can I get an autograph?"
Taking this opportunity, after flipping through, no obvious traces of mold were found.
He considered and said, "Professor Jian, sit for a while, I'll grab something."
Jian Jing despised Mr. Ji: "Flattering for favors."
"What favor, I'm looking for clues."
He came and went in a hurry, and soon found Tan Hao's changed clothes where he was detained. At that time, he was arrested in a bathrobe, and his clothes were still at the police station.
"Please help check this out, it's urgent." Ji Feng went around persuading.
Colleagues looked coldly: "Which job isn't urgent?"
"Do me a favor since I brought the famous writer here." He pleaded until they finally relented.
A lady pushed up her glasses meaningfully and said, "Remember to invite me to your wedding banquet."
Jian Jing: "???"
Ji Feng kept a straight face: "I will definitely invite you to my daughter's school enrollment celebration banquet."
"Get out."
Ji Feng fled the scene.
Jian Jing was too lazy to quibble with him. When she got in the car, she commanded: "Go to the crime scene."
"Map it out first?"
"Then I'll go over my thought process from start to finish with you." Jian Jing sorted out her thoughts, "First of all, you've ruled out the ceiling, outside the window, ventilation ducts and other places. So I thought it was no longer realistic to use mechanisms or create a sealed room for murder."
"Next, I considered the simplest situation - the victim locked the door for some reason and accidentally created a sealed room situation. But this does not match Tan Hao's scheme to frame someone. The other party must have planned in advance to create the situation of him passing out and coincidentally waking up again."
"Moreover, there were a total of two people who discovered this incident. The victim's fatal injury was also to the back of the head. This ruled out the possibility that when they entered the room, the victim was still alive, and when one person left to call the police, the other killed him. Plus, Tan Hao was in the room the whole time, so the three of them could testify for each other."
"That being the case, the last remaining possibility, although highly improbable and incredible, may just be the real answer."
Jian Jing looked at him, arching her brow: "Test your knowledge, what is this most ridiculous answer?"
"The killer was in the room?" Ji Feng had already guessed her line of thinking and immediately pointed out the doubt, "But since he planned to frame Tan Hao, it doesn't make sense for him to choose such an outlandish method at the most critical point--" He stopped.
Jian Jing's tone slightly rose, pleasantly saying: "Right, this was not the original plan. The person in charge came to call the victim because an important client had arrived. It was just a coincidence."
"The killer's original plan may have been twofold: First, she would play the role of the person in charge, pretending to be the first discoverer who came to call the door but got no response. This way, whether the door could be opened would be entirely up to her words to determine, and a fake sealed room could also become a real sealed room; Second, time Tan Hao's awakening so that he opens the door from the inside. He would be the prime suspect, and even if he said the door was not locked when he opened it, the credibility would still be very low."
Ji Feng said: "But the arrival of the person in charge disrupted her plan."
"Right. At 11 o'clock, she was still at the scene, but the person in charge suddenly came to knock on the door. In a panic, she locked the door and played a recording to create the illusion that the victim was still alive. However, although the person in charge left, she knew he would be back soon, so she couldn't leave."
At this time, she could only take the risk and stay, and create a chance to escape for herself. Do you remember, I sat on the sofa for a while that day, and I realized then that the position of the sofa was wrong, it had been moved by someone.
"The murderer deliberately moved the position of the sofa. This way, when someone comes in from outside and sees the victim, their first reaction must be to go over and check it out. With the sofa blocking the way and the coffee table on the other side, he would have to turn his back to the door."
By the time the analysis got to this point, the scene had arrived.
The scene of the crime was still maintained in its original state. Ji Feng blocked the person in charge who tried to find out anything.
The two of them stood at the door of the luxury suite, trying to recreate the situation at that time.
Ji Feng stood next to the corpse and looked back over his shoulder. Because of the screen blocking the entrance, he really couldn't see the movement at the door clearly. But he said, "There were two people who came in."
"The Security Team Leader is suspicious." Jian Jing walked back and forth, the thin heels of her slippers clicked crisply on the smooth marble floor. "Remember, I sat on the sofa for a while that day, and I realized then that the position of the sofa was wrong, it had been moved by someone.
The suite's curtains were made of expensive velvet, covering the entire right wall of the living room. The fabric was thick and heavy, and if you didn't look closely, it would be very difficult to notice someone hiding behind it at first.
She said, "When Tan Hao woke up from shock, it's normal that he was confused and didn't notice anything. But the Security Team Leader had a high probability of seeing her come out from behind the curtains."
"He must have lied. If not for his cover up, she should have been the third person to discover the body." Ji Feng affirmed her speculation.
There was nearly ten meters between the curtains and the door. Escaping was far too risky. Pretending to hear a noise and coming out was undoubtedly a better disguise. But the murderer did not become the third person, instead she was only notified afterwards. This meant that when she escaped, the security guard didn't hear any movement at all.
The feasibility was too low.
"Now it's just a choice between two," Jian Jing said. Although she spoke like this, her mind already had an inclination.
The secretary and Min Manager both said that they were notified by the person in charge before they knew about the victim's incident, which was after 11:12. And the finance staff came back at 11:15, she was the last one timeline-wise.
In addition, according to the murderer's original plan, she needed to pay attention to the situation in the room at all times, in order to respond accordingly. The finance staff's actions did not fit with this.
The secretary and Min Manager, who had been in the rest area and office the whole time, both met the criteria.
Considering Min Manager's actions in shifting blame eastwards, her suspicion was greater.
The problem was, "What about evidence?" Ji Feng asked. "What's the motive?"
Jian Jing thought for a moment and said, "The security guard's testimony is key, we have to trick the truth out of him."