Unfortunately, there were no obvious clues on the lawn outside the villa because the lawn here was made of pseudothecium. This kind of plant grew the most in summer and autumn, with well-developed stolons and strong regenerative abilities. On such a lawn, unless one could trample on it, the footprints would not stay for long.
Feng Bujue looked up at the window and the outer wall of the villa. There were no traces left there either. However, he was not disappointed at all because he was not in a hurry to find out the truth.
"Since it's not dark yet, I want to investigate the outside of the villa. Do you want to come with me?" Feng Bujue said to Scofield, who was inside the window.
"Oh! Okay. " Scofield naturally would not give up the opportunity to ask the famous detective for advice. He replied, "Please wait a moment." Before he finished, he turned around and left the window. He ran to the door of the room and said a few words to the police officer who was standing guard. Then, he turned back to the window, mimicked Feng Bujue, and jumped out from the window. The detective was quite meticulous. He was very careful when he moved, fearing that he would touch the blood on the windowsill and destroy the evidence.
After they were outside the house, Scofield followed Feng Bujue and started to patrol the villa.
"Mr. Feng, you just said … Locked room? What does that mean? "Scofield asked.
"Have you read Poe's' Murder in the Rue Morgue '?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Uh … No," Scofield said. "I rarely read novels."
"Okay … Locked room murder is one of the so-called 'impossible crimes.'" Feng Bujue did not want to waste time on the topic of literature. He said directly, "When you entered the house, did you notice the key in the door?"
"Yes," Scofield replied.
"There are two ways to lock this kind of door. The first is … When the door is closed, the person inside the door will turn the copper hat-shaped latch on the back of the lock counterclockwise. The second is … When the door is closed, the person outside the door will use the key to turn the latch twice. " Feng Bujue explained, "Mrs. Carol, who found the body, used the key to open the door because the door was locked and no one answered."
Scofield thought for a moment and continued, "In other words … When the body was found, the doors and windows of the house were all bolted from the inside."
"Inside the enclosed space, there was only one victim and no one else, but the state of the victim's death shows that it was not a suicide," Feng Bujue said. "In this kind of case, the method used by the killer constitutes a murder in a locked-room."
"Oh …" He paused for a moment before asking, "Wait a minute, based on this case … what if the killer also has the key?"
"Before you came, I asked everyone in the corridor a few questions. Of course, I also asked about this." Feng Bujue replied, "In this house, each room has two keys, one for regular use and one for spare.
The spare keys are all strung together and kept by the butler, Mr. Henderson. I've already seen the chain. The iron ring is made of iron, and the key on it cannot be removed alone. It's like a dungeon key from the Middle Ages.
As Henderson suddenly fell ill and fainted, the spare key is temporarily held by Old Master Colston. "
"And the regular key is a separate one." As he spoke, he took out a key from his pocket. "This is the regular key to the guest room that I live in. I found it in the drawer of a table in the room." He paused and continued. "The rooms that are usually empty are cleaned regularly by the maids, so they are usually not locked, and the key is placed inside the room."
As Feng Bujue spoke, they had reached the back of the house. After he turned a corner, he continued, "Since the regular key to the guest room is with Miss Carol, then there are three scenarios for the murderer to have the key … One, the murderer is the butler, Henderson. Two, the murderer stole the spare key from the butler and returned it to the original owner after killing him and locking the door. Three, the murderer managed to duplicate a regular key."
"Hmm … You've determined that this room is a locked room. In other words, you don't think any of these three scenarios are possible?"
"Yes," Feng Bujue replied. "First, in the first scenario, Butler Henderson is the murderer." He started to explain one by one. "The possibility of that is close to zero … Because when the old man saw the body, he was so scared that he had a heart attack and almost died. At the time, I was very close to him, and there was a doctor beside me. If that was a pretense, then Mr. Henderson would have won an Oscar, and Doctor Powell would have been his accomplice.
Of course, there is another more extreme hypothesis — schizophrenia. For example … the murderer is the other personality of Butler Henderson, and the main personality knows nothing about it. "
"Hmm … I see." Scofield nodded.
"The possibility of the second scenario is also very low." Feng Bujue continued. "Because this method is very risky and difficult. It's fine if the murderer is discovered when he stole the key, but if the murderer is discovered when he returned the key, then the murder will be exposed as well. Furthermore, during the period when the murderer stole the key and secretly returned it, Butler Henderson could have discovered that the spare key was missing at any time. This is coincidentally the time when the murderer committed the murder. If Henderson reported this to the police after the murder, then the setup of the hidden room would have been pointless. "
Without waiting for Scofield to respond, Brother Jue continued. "The possibility of the third scenario is higher, but …" He suddenly stopped in front of a tree and looked up for a while before continuing. "… But Denis and his wife come to the bungalow a limited number of times each year, and every time they come, the guest room they stay in is not fixed. Because Mrs. Carol is very picky, at different seasons, she will choose different rooms facing different directions.
It was impossible for the murderer to predict which room they would stay in this time, so … if it was the third situation, it meant that … except for those rooms that were occupied all year round, the murderer had stolen the keys to all the other rooms and made a backup of them.
And his or her goal is to one day, after killing Denis, disguise the room as a hidden room. "
"That is indeed a little inconceivable," Scofield added.
"Technically speaking, it is possible, and the risk is not too high." Feng Bujue said, "But the possibility of it actually happening is very low, and … the motive is still a mystery for the time being." He walked around the big tree in front of him a few times, glanced at the second-floor window of the villa, and then continued to walk forward. "To sum up … let's rule out the possibility that the murderer has the key, and then consider, what other methods can we use to complete this secret chamber?"
Brother Jue's tone was like a teacher asking a student, but the fifty-year-old detective in front of him didn't care at all. He asked reverently, "It must have something to do with the bloodstain on the windowsill, right?"
"Actually, the method is very simple. It can be done with a relatively strong wire. As long as we experiment once or twice, we can do this in all the rooms with windows in this bungalow. " Feng Bujue raised his hand and gestured in the direction of the bungalow. "I've finished looking outside. Let's go inside, and I'll show you."
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