Conan: I Am Not a Snake Spirit

"What kind of ghost is that?" Conan asked hurriedly, "Misuhiko, how do you know that is the ghost of the village chief? Did you see the face?"

A man who dies at two in the morning appears as a ghost at four in the morning...

Gentai imagined the gloomy face of Yamaguchi Taro's ghost, and he trembled with fear.

"No, no, I didn't see the face," Mitsuhiko explained thoughtfully, "What I saw was a will-o'-the-wisp, a faint blue that was floating in the igloo where he lived and could be seen from outside. Will-o'-the-wisp!"

Conan looked thoughtfully at the palace igloo in front of him. Without saying anything, he led a group of people directly to the side of the palace igloo. He stood next to a forensics officer who was inspecting the wall of the igloo and pointed at the words on the wall. Xiao Kong said, "It's this small hole. After I discovered this small hole, I went to tell the police."

"It's you, little brother," the forensic officer greeted Conan, thinking that Conan had brought a group of people here, thinking that this was a child showing off to his parents and friends that he had provided help to the police, and smiled good-naturedly, " It's great if you tell the police when you find something strange! But we still need to investigate this hole carefully, so..."

Chi Feichi and Chong Shi Subaru squatted down beside the forensic personnel and looked straight at the small hole.

Dr. A Li also bent down and looked at the small holes with the three children.

The forensic personnel sweated and looked at the serious expressions of the group of people. For a moment, they couldn't say anything to drive them away.

The small hole Conan was talking about penetrated the wall, and the inside of the igloo could be seen from the outside, seemingly facing the upper half of the coffin's ice bed.

Subaru narrowed his eyes and looked at the hole, "I remember that this igloo only has one ice bed, and there is an ice platform with the goddess statue deep in the room. So, the ice bed that can be seen from the hole, It should be the ice bed where Yamaguchi Village Chief was lying on when he was found..."

Chi Feichi also looked into the room through the hole and noticed that there seemed to be a small light spot on the opposite wall. He asked Conan to confirm, "Conan, is there also a small hole on the opposite wall?"

"Yes," Conan nodded and confirmed, "Just opposite this small hole, I also told the police officer and asked them to check. There are two small holes on the left and right walls of the ice bed, forming a line. straight line."

"So that's it," Subaru Chongshi touched his chin with his right hand and analyzed seriously, "The murderer probably used these two holes to kill the village chief, right? Just put a string through the two holes and tighten the string. , should be able to press the string on the neck of Yamaguchi Village Chief who is lying on the ice bed. After Yamaguchi Village Chief suffocates, he can light a fire outside and burn the string..."

"That's why there are long and thin scorch marks on the sleeping bag." Conan turned to look at Mitsuhiko. "The will-o'-the-wisp that Mitsuhiko saw at four o'clock in the morning should also be the light emitted when the rope was burning. Because the fire was in the room, it was The thick ice layer gives it a bluish color.”

Mitsuhiko recalled something vaguely, and his eyes lit up, "No, that's right! The will-o'-the-wisps I saw moved in a straight line, from one side of the room to the other! Uh... But I was too scared at the time. We have to go to the igloo where we live immediately. In fact, we didn’t see where the will-o’-the-wisp moved to in the end, we just watched the will-o'-the-wisp move for a second or two..."

"You are right to leave immediately," Haibara Ai reminded. "If the murderer did not set up the automatic ignition device and came to burn the rope himself, then when you came out of the bathroom, the murderer should still be around here. You stayed outside. Or go forward to check the situation, it will be very dangerous!”

Dr. A Li broke out in a cold sweat when he thought that a murderer was hiding here last night and that Mitsuhiko walked by alone at night.

"But there's still something that doesn't make sense," Conan stopped leaning in front of the hole, frowning and thinking, "There are two keys to this igloo, one is in the hands of the village chief, and the other is in the hands of the secretary, Mr. Xiaomu. Mr. Xiaomu said that he had not been here last night, and when he came in the morning, the door was locked, and the village chief’s key was in his sleeping bag and in his own pocket. Even if the village chief opened the door himself, The murderer enters the house. After killing the village chief, the murderer either takes the village chief's key and leaves, so that the door can be locked, but the key cannot be put into the house, or leaves without the key, so that the village chief's key is still in the sleeping bag. inside, but the door cannot be locked..."

"Is that possible?" Dr. Ali looked seriously and assumed the situation at that time. "The village chief opened the door and let the murderer enter the house. The murderer took the opportunity to do something in the house and threaded a thin rope through the left and right sides. On both sides of the wall, the string was hung somewhere in the middle. After the murderer said goodbye and left, the village chief locked the door and lay down in his sleeping bag. At about two o'clock in the morning, the murderer returned here and fixed one end of the string. He pulled the other end, tightened the string, and then it fell from the hanging place and fell on the village chief's neck. After the village chief suffocated to death, he burned the rope..."

When Chi Feichi listened to what Dr. A Li said, he could picture in his mind the whole scene of the outlaw Xiao Hei doing tricks inside and outside the igloo, smiling sinisterly from time to time.

In fact, this is not impossible...

Conan had not found a hanging mechanism in the room before, but he was not sure whether there was something he had not noticed or whether it was possible. After thinking about it for a while, he saw that Chi Feichi and Chong Shi Subaru did not express their opinions, so he proposed again. , "Then why don't you go and look inside the house? If the murder method mentioned by the doctor is true, then there should be a place where the rope is temporarily suspended at a high place in the house, right? Otherwise, the village chief saw a rope lying across the I would definitely not lie down in a sleeping bag with the rope above my neck!”

The forensics officers were stunned for a while after listening to the analysis of the group. Seeing that these people were going to the house, they took the initiative to lead a group of people to the main entrance of the igloo, found the leading police officer in charge of this case, and talked to the group of people. Their discovery and analysis won the group the privilege of in-depth investigation.

Conan originally wanted to use Chi Feichi as the 'disciple of Kogoro Mori' as a reason to convince the police, but it didn't work at all.

The two criminal policemen told a group of people not to run around and lead them through the gate, through the foyer, and into the spacious interior of the dome.

The dome of this igloo is five meters high. The hall is equipped with ice sofas and tables, as well as dining tables, dining chairs and some exquisite ice sculptures.

A one-meter-high ice platform was built in the innermost part of the house. A two-meter-high angel statue was erected against the wall of the ice platform. An ice bed in the shape of a coffin was placed in front of the angel statue.

The police had completed taking pictures and searching the house. When a group of people entered the house, there were still four or five policemen checking the small holes in the wall.

Dr. Ali suspected that the string had been hung on the angel statue. When he arrived near the ice bed, he observed the angel statue from all directions.

It was the first time for Chi Feichi to enter this room. When he walked to the ice bed, he felt a little strange. He turned his head and looked at the entire raised ice table, then moved his eyes back to the ice bed. "The bed is very small."

In their room, the ice bed did not have a big bed or a small bed. Last night, the doctor asked him and Subaru if they thought the bed was small. At that time, he had visually measured the length and width of the bed, so he remembered it more clearly. The length of the ice bed is over two meters, and the black fur is also two meters long. The widest part of the hexagonal coffin on the ice bed is about one meter wide.

The length of the ice bed in this room is about 1.7 meters, and the widest part is almost 70 centimeters. Compared with the bed over there, this bed is a lot smaller, so that the first time he saw this bed was For a moment, I had the feeling that "this bed is not enough to lie on".

This is the Ice Hotel, and guests of all sizes will be welcome. Wouldn’t making such a bed be very unfriendly to tall guests?

Conan also noticed this suspicion, looked up at Chi Feichi and Chong Shi Subaru, and said thoughtfully, "The height of Yamaguchi Village Chief seems to be less than 1.7 meters. If he comes to sleep on this bed, he should be able to sleep in it." …”

When he ran in and saw the body of Mayor Yamaguchi, he felt that something was wrong with the bed. Now that he thought about it, it was because the bed was smaller than theirs, but Mayor Yamaguchi was about 1.65 meters tall, so it was suitable to lie on it. The sleeping bag, which is slightly longer than the height, is just big enough to fit in, and there is no extra space at all.

This bed was probably specially made by the murderer for Mayor Yamaguchi, just so that he could sleep in a fixed position and not sleep on the upper or lower side.

In this way, the murderer could accurately determine the location of Yamaguchi Village Chief's throat even if he was outside the house.

These ice beds were designed and made by Tetsuya Shiota. It was impossible for someone to make the bed in the big room in the middle of the room into a small bed that was not suitable for a hotel bed without Tetsuya Shiota's knowledge.

In the murder of Yamaguchi Village Chief, Tetsuya Shiota was definitely not an irrelevant passerby, but the problem now was that the specific method of committing the crime could not be confirmed, and he could not say with certainty that Tetsuya Shiota was also the murderer.

There must be something wrong with Tetsuya Shiota making the ice bed like this, but that doesn't rule out the possibility that Tetsuya Shiota is being used by others...

Subaru came to the same conclusion in his mind. He looked at the angel statue in front of the bed, and then looked up at the dome above. "However, it seems that there is no place suitable for hanging ropes, and there is no place where ropes have been hung." trace."

No one else found any traces of hanging ropes. Dr. Ali's hypothesis was not supported by evidence and became increasingly uncertain.

Chi Feichi was also interested in this incident that he could not remember for a moment. When he turned around and walked out, he began to think about the murderer's specific methods.

The method of committing this incident was very special. The deceased, Taro Yamaguchi, died of suffocation due to compression of his throat while sleeping. However, it was not a common strangulation. He was simply pressed straight down with a thin rope that ran through the walls on both sides of the house.

Because Yamaguchi Taro was wrapped in a sleeping bag, when he felt that his throat was being compressed and had a feeling of suffocation, in panic, he might not be able to open the sleeping bag with his hands and stretch it out. As the hypoxia worsened, Yamaguchi Taro would not know how to use his hands and feet while lying down. Fatigue, shock, and being unable to open the sleeping bag. It was as if his hands and feet were tied and placed on an ice bed, and he was killed by a thin rope.

The murderer did not strangle Yamaguchi Taro in front of him, but used this unique killing technique. It was not like impulsive killing, but a long-planned murder. So, the murderer must have his own considerations in using this unique technique to kill people. Maybe It is religious belief, or it may be to create an alibi or create a secret room.

The environment at this scene is very religious. It cannot be ruled out that the murderer's murder method has some kind of religious belief. However, there are no obvious traces of "ritualism" on the scene and the body, and it is impossible to determine the special murder method and religious belief. related.

If Xiaomu and Yuki hadn't been here last night and a secret room was indeed formed here, then let's ignore religious beliefs for the time being and think in the direction of 'creating an alibi or creating a secret room'.

Usually the murderer creates a secret room to make the deceased appear to have committed suicide. If the murderer in this case wanted to make the deceased appear to have committed suicide, he should not have set fire to the murder weapon and destroyed it, but would have found a way to leave the string at the scene. , In other words, if the murderer chose to burn the string, he probably did not want to make people think that Taro Yamaguchi committed suicide.

So, did the murderer use this special method to create alibi?

In that case, it means that at two o'clock in the morning when Taro Yamaguchi died, the murderer was not nearby, and there was no need to tighten the rope nearby. Moreover, the ice bed could allow Taro Yamaguchi to lie in a fixed position. This is also like some kind of The prerequisite for the automatic killing device to be effective.

When murderers make automatic killing devices, they usually use the on-site environment. On the other hand, they can also use the environmental characteristics here to think about the automatic killing device used by the murderer.

The scene was an igloo made entirely of ice, with ice inside and outside, small holes in the ice wall, and an ice bed in the shape of a coffin...

The biggest feature of the environment is ice. The murderer should have considered the existence of ice when he committed the crime. Speaking of ice cubes...