"The easiest way to do it?" Hopkins calmly asked, "That kind of thing, no matter how you think about it, it has nothing to do with the word [simple]. ”

"It's just unthinkable according to normal thinking, and once you think of it, you will find that everything is so easy.

Let's pick the most recent case.

The female stage actress.

Dead in a secret chamber with only a door leading to the outside, but the door was sealed by her corpse, and one arm and ankle were nailed to the wall of the room.

In this way, it is certainly impossible for the murderer to nail her body and then leave the room.

But in fact, the description of this scene itself is wrong, or the murderer is to make everyone think that the scene is like that.

At the time, I remember saying that this kind of murder that happens indoors has to be opened to see what is inside, so Gregerson had no idea what it was like until he opened it.

He just kicked the door open, and then saw that the left hand and foot of the corpse were nailed to the door, and saw that there was a bloody hole in the right hand and foot, and there were two huge bloody nails in the wall, so he naturally fell into the mistake of thinking that the right limb of the deceased was also nailed to the wall.

But in fact, the murderer just nailed her limbs, then pulled her right hand and ankle off the nail, and then drooped and walked out of the door, locked the door, and that's it.

When someone breaks down the door and sees the corpse, they will think that the corpse has been nailed to the wall all along.

It's just a very simple inertia of thinking. ”

Speaking of this, Hopkins was silent for a while, and then naturally asked a question: "But. Like you said, this door is locked.

But the key to the door hung around the corpse's neck.

How can this be explained? ”

"It's easy to explain, didn't I say it before, this room is connected to the outside world at all, and the wooden door has shrunk up and down because of the perennial humidity in London, and there is a gap of about a centimeter or two between it and the door frame.

So, just tuck the deceased's hair into a bunch, like a braid, and step over the top of the door panel.

Because of this, after closing the door, a state of "the corpse is inside the door, but the corpse's hair is outside the door" is formed.

After that, the killer can generously lock the door on the outside with a key.

As for how he hung the key around the deceased's neck after locking the door, I guess you can think of it too.

The murderer was outside the door, threading the rope with the key through his hair, and then pulling his hair and throwing the key into the crack of the door. Then the key will naturally slide against the neck of the deceased with gravity.

At this time, the murderer stuffed his hair back into the door, and it took on the appearance of [the key to the door hanging on the neck of the deceased].

As I've always emphasized, there are no secret rooms at all. ”

With just a few words, Sherlock cracked the corpse chamber.

It's really simple, but before he said it, no one could have imagined that in fact, under normal circumstances, someone should be able to crack it, it just takes some time, but with the blessing of the name Ripper, everyone's thoughts are thinking in the direction of those weird contract abilities, or unbelievable curses and the like, so no one tries to explain all this with this traditional way of reasoning.

"Well, it's possible, but it's only 'doable.'" There seemed to be a subtle change in Hopkins' tone: "Because even if you find the secret room, but what about the vault where the banker died."

I don't believe anyone can get into that vault.

And I don't believe anyone can force a man to starve himself to death! ”

His attitude was very firm, because he was sure that what he said was the absolute truth, that vault, an absolute secret room.

And Sherlock naturally admitted his statement:

"That's right, it's true that no one can enter that vault, but if you can't get in, it doesn't mean that you can't kill people.

Again, the vault is connected to the outside world, it has a delivery port for demon sedatives, and the delivery port is connected to the ventilation duct of the entire bank, which provides the murderer with the possibility of killing. ”

"You mean, just through those small windows, you can kill people?" Hopkins's tone is more questioning than puzzled:

"You've probably seen those little windows. They are all embedded with iron fence layers, and the gaps in each grid are very narrow and narrow, less than a centimeter, and nothing can pass, not with human hands, not with guns, and even with gas, nothing can pass through, of course, the most important thing is that the dead are starved to death!

Are you trying to say that the murderer was lying on the opposite side of the grid, chatting with the people in the vault and hypnotizing him with words? And then let him see some kind of monster or something, causing him to dare not approach the food, so he starved to death?

Or do you want to overturn your conclusions, and the results of the inquisition's autopsy, that the killer used some kind of drug that made the deceased sleep, so that he could not eat in his sleep? ”

Hopkins spoke quickly, and it could be seen that he seemed to be thinking about these things every day these days, so he could say these doubts so quickly, anyway, he almost denied all possibilities.

But Sherlock was still calm, even a little lazy.

He didn't directly say his reasoning this time, but seemed to feel that he had been chattering like this in the car, and suddenly looked at the girl beside him.

"And Miss Nightingale, would you like to play a simple detective game?" He spoke.

"Huh?!" Nightingale was taken aback, she was actually still in this weird atmosphere, but when Sherlock asked like this, she sprouted some courage for no reason, although she didn't know why the other party asked herself, but she still nodded:

"Okay, but I'm not that smart."

"You're too modest." Sherlock said indifferently:

"Anyway, let's start with a simple question.

According to your idea, if there is a person who is starved to death, what will be the reason? ”

"The cause of starvation" Nightingale thought for a few seconds and felt that the question was indeed very simple, so she quickly replied:

"There are probably only three reasons.

First, he had nothing to eat, so he could only starve to death.

Second, because of his own reasons, such as illness, he could not eat, and naturally he would die of starvation.

Third, he can't get food, so he can only watch dryly, so naturally he can only wait for death. ”

"Haha." Sherlock laughed happily at these three answers, and then said to Inquisitor Hopkins in front of him:

"Look, isn't it very simple, even Miss Nightingale, who has no detective training, has cracked an incredible-looking secret room in just 10 seconds.

Yes, as long as the dead can't get food, then of course he will starve to death.

With your memory, you probably haven't forgotten yet.

At that time, the bank clerks had placed the large cardboard box containing food and water in the corner of the vault.

Do you need me to be more blunt?

They

The box containing the food of the deceased was placed under the exhaust vent.

When we opened the vault, we saw the books and pillows thrown all over the floor, and thought that the deceased had seen something terrible and wanted to blow it away.

Not really.

The deceased looked at his food right in front of him, but he couldn't reach it. ”

(End of chapter)