Ding Yang, who had already walked to the elevator door, heard what I said and asked in confusion, "Ji Wen, what are you talking about? What about Uncle Liu the Magnet?"
I didn't explain directly. Instead, I took Ding Yang to the first floor by elevator. I went to Uncle Liu's house and asked for a long magnet that was as long as a little finger and as thick as a thumb and a half. Then I said to Ding Yang, "I'll go to the fourth floor first. When I get there, you can take the elevator to the fourth floor. I'll let you experience what the deceased was in at the time!"
Ding Yang watched me with a confused look on his face as I took the elevator to the fourth floor. After reaching the fourth floor, I walked out of the elevator and first looked at the place above the elevator door that most people would not pay attention to. Sure enough, I found something as I expected. Then I placed the long magnet in my hand horizontally in the middle of the closed elevator door, and then quietly waited for Ding Yang to arrive.
After the elevator reached the first floor, it went all the way up to the fourth floor. When the elevator door opened, Ding Yang asked with a puzzled look on his face: "What on earth do you want to do?"
I smiled softly and said, "It's okay, just pretend I'm not here and try to go to the sixth floor."
Ding Yang sighed helplessly, and while pressing the button for the sixth floor, he muttered, "Why can't you just say what you want to say? Why do you have to make me do such a troublesome thing? I really admire you."
I didn't listen carefully to what Ding Yang said later. My eyes were fixed on the gradually closing elevator door, waiting for the result I hoped for.
Sure enough, Ding Yang was mumbling when he was suddenly shocked to find that the elevator door, which had been closed, was inexplicably opened again!
Ding Yang was a little confused now. He looked at me who was still standing at the door and asked, "Did you press the button just now?"
"No, I've been standing here. If you don't believe me, I'll stand farther away. You can try again." As I said that, I turned around and walked to about five or six meters away from the elevator. Ding Yang pressed the door closing button again, but the result was the same. The elevator door inexplicably opened again the moment it closed.
After trying several times to close the elevator door, Ding Yang finally couldn't help asking, "Ji Wen, I saw you took a magnet just now. Did you use that magnet to prevent me from closing the door? But where is the magnet? Why didn't I see it?"
I pointed above the elevator door and said, "It's right there."
Ding Yang looked up and discovered that the magnet was stuck right in the middle of the elevator door, preventing it from closing normally!
Ding Yang was puzzled and asked, "When did you put it up there? Why didn't I see it?"
"I put the magnet up there before you came up here!"
In order to prevent people from being injured by the doors, elevators have a special design. That is, as long as there is something blocking the middle of the door, the elevator door will automatically sense it and reopen the door. Therefore, the magnet is the real reason why the elevator door cannot be closed.
I discovered this by accident. In connection with the magnet fragments found on Xiao Liu's body today, I made such an assumption: the elevator door is divided into two layers, the inner and outer layers, but no matter which layer is blocked, it cannot be closed. The murderer only needed to put the magnet in the middle of the gap of the elevator door on the fourth floor. When the elevator door opened, the magnet would definitely detach from one of the doors, and the remaining part would be attracted by the edge of the door gap, and eventually it would be horizontal in the middle of the door gap. The murderer only needed to do this simple thing before the second victim, Xiaofang, took the elevator, and he could then leisurely wait for Xiaofang to fall into the trap on the other side of the corridor.
The magnet was placed in a very hidden location. Ding Yang didn't notice it in broad daylight, let alone Xiaofang who was taking the elevator late at night.
After listening to my explanation, Ding Yang finally understood my intention. He reached out and took the magnet out from the crack of the door and said, "Indeed, if this is true, the deceased Xiaofang must have left the elevator and went to the stairs. But Ji Wen, why are you sure that the murderer did use this method?"
I smiled confidently and said, "Do you remember the position of the magnet just now?"
"I remember, what's wrong?"
"Then look at what's above the magnet just now?"
Ding Yang looked at the top of the elevator door in confusion and was immediately surprised: "Why are there so many small pieces of magnets here?"
"Need I ask? It must have been left behind by the murderer after he used it. That's why I'm so sure."
After hearing this, Ding Yang sighed and said, "So, the biggest suspect is Uncle Liu? You spent so much time explaining the murderer's method of killing, but there is still no substantive conclusion."
"Don't worry. The murderer's method of killing is actually one of the suspicious points of this case. The first two victims may not seem special to you, but what about the third victim, Xiao Liu? We were all listening carefully in the room last night. Xiao Liu was killed at the staircase on the fourth floor without making any noise. How did the murderer do it? Even if the murderer broke in and killed someone, Xiao Liu should have had a few seconds to scream, and we could have heard him. Why was he so silent?"
Ding Yang said disapprovingly: "That can be explained. You forgot that Uncle Liu has the keys to every room. He could wait until Xiao Liu falls asleep, then quietly open the door and strangle him to death while he's asleep."
I shook my head and said, "That's impossible. You know, your autopsy said Xiao Liu died between 1 and 3 in the morning. That was when we left Xiao Liu and went back to his room to sleep. Xiao Liu is a night owl, and he was so frightened, how could he fall asleep so quickly? If it was really Uncle Liu who opened the door and killed people, Xiao Liu would definitely have time to shout for us to help him."
When Ding Yang heard what I said, he seemed to think it made sense. He pondered for a moment and said, "Then what's going on?"
"I'm not sure about this. If you ask me to guess, the only possibility is that the person who entered Xiao Liu's room at that time was someone Xiao Liu completely trusted. This person could only be the two killers who went to the Internet cafe all night. I wonder if one of them quietly returned to the room and killed Xiao Liu when he was not prepared?"
Ding Yang's eyes suddenly lit up and he said, "Yes, why didn't I think of that! The situation you described is entirely possible! I'll call Officer Yang right now and ask him to carefully question the two killers, and by the way, check the surveillance footage at the Internet cafe where they stayed all night yesterday. If anyone lies and leaves, then he is the murderer!"
I just expressed my own speculation without any substantial evidence, but Ding Yang seemed to see hope. He immediately called Officer Yang with an excited look on his face.
Things here came to a temporary end, and I then remembered that I was going to buy cigarettes just now. I didn’t tell Ding Yang and went downstairs to the store alone to buy cigarettes.
After buying cigarettes, I lit one and smoked it as I walked, thinking carefully about where I should make the next breakthrough. After thinking about it, the only way was to go to Grandma Feng's house to ask for the last clue. After all, the ashes of the paper money could not have come out of nowhere, but I didn't believe that all this was done by Grandma Feng.
While I was thinking about how to get to Granny Feng's house, I was preparing to take the elevator back to the fourth floor to find Ding Yang. But when I closed the elevator door and waited, I suddenly found that Granny Feng was standing behind me!
I looked over so suddenly that I almost dropped the cigarette in my mouth. I wondered why Granny Feng was always so elusive every time she appeared? Did she walk without making any sound
Granny Feng was holding a basket of vegetables in her hands. She stared at me with a surprised look and said with a smile, "I remember your name is Ji Wen, right? Smoking in the elevator is not a civilized behavior."
After hearing what Grandma Feng said, I suddenly felt a little ashamed. I immediately put out my cigarette and said, "Grandma Feng, did you just come back from buying groceries?"
"Yes, didn't I say yesterday that I would invite you to my house for dinner? Go buy some food and come with me to my house now." Granny Feng's voice still had a hint of eeriness in it, but to me, she was still so amiable.
I was originally worrying about how to go to Grandma Feng's house, but now that she invited me, this is naturally a rare opportunity, so I immediately agreed.
We first went to the fourth floor and called Ding Yang, who had just finished a phone call and was still looking for me, and then went back to the sixth floor and arrived at Grandma Feng's house together.
Granny Feng opened the door and walked in first, then said, "Come in and sit wherever you want. I'll go wash the vegetables first."
After saying that, Grandma Feng walked towards the kitchen, and Ding Yang and I walked into the room and came to the living room. I saw that Grandma Feng's house was very simple. Both the furniture and electrical appliances had a sense of age. It made me feel sad that such an elderly person lived alone in such a house.
But when I took a closer look at Grandma Feng's house, I suddenly felt confused again, because Grandma Feng kept the whole room very clean, even to the point of being spotless. As far as I can remember, only Wang Tao's house has such a clean room.
Ding Yang obviously didn't notice this, and sat obediently on the sofa to watch TV. I looked around and made sure that every corner of the room was particularly tidy, so tidy that it made me reluctant to sit down.
"Why are Granny Feng's room and Wang Tao's room so similar? Is it because Granny Feng likes cleanliness and keeps her room clean? Or is it that Granny Feng has some kind of connection with Wang Tao?"