Lin Xinyi and the others returned to the living room.

Unlike what they feared, there was still harmony and tranquility in the living room.

Minori Nakamura, who was previously recognized as the number one suspect, was now curled up on a single-seater sofa with a pale face, silent and not knowing what he was thinking.

There was always tension in her eyes.

And the existence of her, the "murderer", also made the others present nervous about her.

Everyone subconsciously kept a subtle distance from her, and deliberately sat far away from Minori Nakamura.

Especially Shimoda-sensei.

The Shimoda-sensei was squeezed at the very edge of the couch, farthest away from Minori Nakamura, who was sitting on a single-seater sofa.

He always kept his head down, his face was also as gray as paper, and he even acted more uneasy than Minori Nakamura, who wore the hat of "murderer" on his head.

What makes Lin Xinyi and others a little concerned is:

Next to Shimoda-sensei, sitting is Akiko Yonehara.

She sat next to Shimoda-sensei, her expression natural and her eyes indifferent, in stark contrast to Shimoda's dead face.

Yonehara Akiko is calm.

But after guessing her true intentions, her appearance feels like a snow-capped mountain before an avalanche, a sea of storms brewing.

It's a little frighteningly quiet.

Especially, at this moment, Yonehara Koko is still holding a fruit knife in her hand.

She clutched the fruit knife and lowered her head to focus on peeling the apple in her hand—it seemed that the knife could only be used to peel apples.

But this scene seems in the eyes of Lin Xinyi and others:

Yonehara Koko seemed to be about to burst out at any time, turning the fruit knife in his hand into a butcher knife and stabbing Shimoda-sensei next to him in the neck.

"Don't worry."

Belmode blinked, hinting at sending such a message to Lin Xinyi.

Yonehara sat next to Shimoda, and she sat next to Yonehara.

Belmode's demeanor is more natural than that of Yonehara, so natural that there is no trace.

While talking and laughing with Suzuki Sonoko sitting on the other side of her, she always maintained a special and hidden posture, always ensuring that Yonehara Koko's every move was under the watchful eye out of the corner of her eye.

"I'll leave it to you."

Lin Xinyi secretly gave her a look.

He was also suddenly relieved:

Although not as rigorous and tedious as they are, Belmode has clearly noticed Yonehara-sensei's flaws in her performance through the way she is good at it.

Without Lin Xinyi saying hello, she was already helping to monitor Teacher Mihara's actions.

Lin Xinyi believes that with a professional like Belmode by his side at all times, it is absolutely impossible for Akiko Yonehara to succeed in committing murder.

"Well, let's have a good talk."

After handing over the safety work to Belmode with confidence, Lin Xinyi finally got to the point:

"Shimoda-sensei."

"Do you have anything to say about Minako's case three years ago?"

"Ahh

Mr. Shimoda shuddered.

When Lin Xinyi said in front of everyone that he wanted to find the Metropolitan Police Department to transfer Minako's file, he already realized that Lin Xinyi might bring up the old matter again.

But when he was really asked by this famous forest manager, he was still a little uneasy:

"Beauty, Minako... Isn't this case a simple suicide? ”

"All I know is that she hanged herself in the utility room, the rest... I do not know. ”

"You don't know?"

"Then why did you react so much when you heard Minako's name?!"

Lin Xinyi asked in a cold voice.

"I, I...."Mr. Shimoda reacted most effectively in the midst of some nervousness and confusion:

That is to remain silent and not answer anything.

"It's okay if you don't say it."

"Let me tell you for you."

Lin Xinyi never imagined that he could tell the truth with such a sentence.

He can only make the most of the extremely limited clues in his hand and play this bad card to the best:

"Look at these pictures!"

"These photos alone can prove that Minako Mochizuki did not die by suicide three years ago!"

Lin Xinyi coldly threw down a stack of photos of the scene.

These are the works of master photographers in the forensic class.

Thankfully, their photography skills are not bad.

Fortunately, they have mastered the core technology of workplace fishing:

That is, no matter how idle you are, you must always maintain a busy work posture in front of your leaders, colleagues and customers.

As long as they look at the "work" all the time, even if there is no work product, outsiders will not suspect that they are lazy.

So... After arriving at the crime scene, these photographers held the camera to shoot east and west, and the shutter did not stop for a moment.

They photographed almost every space at the crime scene.

Including the physical surface of the corpse, which is very useful for Lin Xinyi's review and analysis, as well as some inconspicuous details that were inadvertently photographed by them.

"First, let's look at this picture of Minako's body."

Lin Xinyi picked out a photo with a cold expression and presented it in front of Mr. Shimoda.

Minako Mochizuki is a very cute little girl.

But in the photo, her appearance can only make people feel palpitations.

Because people who die of mechanical asphyxiation inevitably develop cadaver signs of bulging eyes, bruised lips, and cyanosis of the face.

There may even be incontinence.

Therefore, the hanged person will never be at peace, and the hanged ghost has also become a terrifying existence in customs and legends.

And the once innocent and lovely little girl in the photo has become like this.

"......." There was silence in the air.

Mr. Shimoda plucked up the courage to look at the photo handed by Lin Xinyi, but he only glanced at it lightly, and lowered his head as if he was electrocuted.

Observing his reaction, Lin Xinyi continued to explain:

"Although the photographer is not a professional practitioner, he only shoots routinely, and does not take special photos of a certain part for retention."

But we can still see it very clearly:"

"On Minako's neck, there are two cords that go in different directions."

If it is a simple suicide by hanging, except for a few special circumstances, such as the first time the rope is broken and unsuccessful, and the "hang again" jackpot is won.

Generally speaking, there will only be a cord groove around the neck of the deceased.

There are two cords with different directions, which means that the neck of the deceased was repeatedly strangled.

If you see this situation, the forensic doctor, or any police detective with brains, should be more vigilant at the first time and investigate the reality of this so-called "suicide" in depth.

"But the murderer three years ago was lucky."

"He didn't meet a detective, he didn't meet a detective with brains, he just met a bunch of moths who were eating and waiting to die."

"The murderer didn't use any tricks, and he didn't even clean up the traces of the scene."

"Just taking advantage of the loopholes in the system of the Metropolitan Police Department, an old institution, to get away with it to this day."

Lin Xinyi's tone became more and more cold.

"This..."A cold sweat broke out on Shimoda-sensei's forehead.

He plucked up courage in the midst of nervousness and questioned: "Just those two rope ditches can prove that this is not suicide?" ”

"Not necessarily."

If Lin Xinyi was present at the time, in fact, with these two ropes, it would almost be determined that he killed him.

As long as the neck dissection is carried out to check the injury and bleeding of the muscles and blood vessels under the groove, it can be judged whether there is a life reaction under the groove and whether it is formed before death.

If one of the grooves has no obvious life reaction, it can be easily proven:

Minako was strangled to death first, and then hung up with a rope to disguise suicide.

And now, without a corpse, Lin Xinyi can only look for clues with the naked eye from the photos.

But this trick is useful for the ordinary case of Tale camouflaged suicide, but in this particular case, it is not so effective.

"Because the victim in this case is a child."

"Under normal circumstances, he hangs himself, one is that others strangle him hard behind his back, and the other is that he hangs himself with his feet in the air."

"Different body positions, the position and shape of the cord groove will naturally be very obvious."

"And because of the force that the average murderer can use when strangling his neck, it is difficult to catch up with the force of the deceased using his own weight to cause suffocation when he hangs himself."

"Therefore, the force formed by the thalaming and self-hanging is different, and the degree of internal and external damage is also different."

"In general:"

"The rope groove formed by self-hanging will be more seriously damaged than Tale."

"The self-receptive cord groove is mostly located between the thyroid cartilage and the hyoid bone, and the cord groove of the thallegation is mostly located below the thyroid cartilage."

"But these methods of differentiation do not apply to Minako."

"Because she's a little kid, she's very lightweight, she's very short."

"So, when an adult strangled her neck with a rope..."

Lin Xinyi paused slightly, and his tone was heavy to restore the scene at the time of the crime:

"With the huge difference in height and strength, the murderer can easily lift Minako off the ground, leaving her struggling with her feet dangling in the air in the pain of being strangled in the neck."

"In this case, the position of the tarler and the hanged body is similar, and the cord groove formed will also be very similar."

"So, we can now see:"

"In the photo, although the two cable ditches have slightly different directions, their positions and shapes are extremely similar."

"If you just look at these photos of the scene, through the naked eye, you can't rigorously conclude that Minako died from his homicide."

"Huh?" Shimoda-sensei's eyes lit up.

He seemed happy to hear the answer: "Well, doesn't that mean that there is no way to confirm that Minako did not commit suicide?" “

"No, you can."

Lin Xinyi's tone calmly broke his illusion:

"The evidence on the corpse is not sufficient, so we have to look at it together with the situation at the scene."

"Let's look at this picture again:"

"This is the iron pipe that the murderer used to hang the rope of the 'hanging' that was taken by the police officer of the forensic division back then."

Minako died in the utility room of the school building.

And the school building seems to be a decades-old building, so many of the rooms have exposed plumbing.

Beneath the ceiling of this utility room is a thick, rusty iron pipe.

The rope is attached to this iron pipe.

"See this iron pipe in the photo?"

"The iron pipe is covered with a layer of dust, and the iron pipe itself has a lot of rust."

"If you put a rope on this old iron pipe, as long as you pull it a little harder, the dust and rust at the point of force should peel off a lot."

"And if Minako is a suicide—"

"She hung herself under this iron pipe, and in the process of fierce struggle before her death, the rope would definitely shake and rub back and forth with her body, causing a large area of rust to peel off on the surface of the iron pipe."

"But look,"

"There is just a cord mark on this iron pipe that is neither narrow nor wide."

"This shows that Minako didn't struggle at all after being hung on this, and she didn't even make any movements."

Lin Xinyi's eyes became sharper:

"Because she was dead then!"

"She was strangled to death with a rope before she was hung with an iron pipe and disguised as a suicide!"

He restored the truth that was covered up back then.

This truth has been delayed for three whole years.

The air fell silent.

Yonehara Koko quietly clenched the apple in her hand, as well as the knife that peeled the apple.

She quietly cast her gaze on Shimoda beside her.

And Shimoda-sensei...

He was silent for a long time, raised his head, and said with an ugly face:

"In this way, Minako did not die by suicide."

"But, Administrator Lin, if you want to imply that I have something to do with this case..."

"Shouldn't we still give evidence?!"