The blood hadn't even dried yet. Xia De frowned slightly and asked:
"The body was not moved?"
"No."
Deputy Director Morris said, and took the initiative to introduce the situation at that time:
"The servant who passed by the door found that the door was not closed, so he wanted to come over to lock it, and then he found the body. The screams attracted other people who happened to be in the corridor at the time, which led to more than a dozen people entering here and seeing the body."
Xia De nodded, left the room and came to the door. He closed the door ajar and looked inside through the crack:
"It is true that the body's feet can be seen from outside the door. That's correct. But since so many people have entered, the marks on the carpet are meaningless."
He squatted down in front of the body again:
"The only wound was on the back of his head, which means he was attacked from behind. Since Mr. Daniel Philip was a soldier of the New World Development Corps, he would not let someone with a weapon get close to his back easily. He was killed without any resistance. This means that the murderer must be an acquaintance."
He said this in a pretentious manner, and asked Tifa to stand in front of him. He picked up the bronze swan statue and made a swinging and hitting motion behind Tifa:
"Since he was killed with one strike, it means the murderer must have used the most advantageous position and delivered the most powerful blow. Judging from the location of the wound on the back of the corpse's head..."
He pressed his free hand on the back of Tifa's head, then kept bending his legs until he found a position that would just hit the wound:
"The murderer was about two inches shorter than Mr. Daniel Philip. In addition..."
He handed the statue to Tifa:
"Sunk?"
The "weak" maid nodded:
"Yes, it's heavy."
Then they called in the maid who had seen the body in the next room, and she also said that the statue was very heavy.
Xia De asked the butler to send someone to bring in plaster statues that could be destroyed at will, and then he swung a bronze statue to destroy one of them. He also asked Deputy Director Morris and the senior superintendent to try to swing weapons to hit the plaster statues. Then Xia De came to the conclusion:
"It is difficult for ordinary ladies to lift and swing this bronze statue, let alone kill an adult man with a full-strength blow. Even for men, it is difficult to swing so vigorously without training. I noticed that the wound on the back of the corpse's head was very deep."
So to summarize the current situation:
"The murderer and the deceased, Mr. Daniel Philip, were acquaintances. He was two inches shorter than the deceased, and was most likely a male, and not thin."
He squinted his eyes and stood up:
"These are not the key points. The key point is that Mr. Daniel Philip died here. Judging from the bloodstains at the scene, this is the scene of the first crime, but how did the people who attended the party come here?"
He asked about the situation of this room, and the last servant who had been in the room had been found. According to him, because the gifts would be transported away soon, this room was not locked, but generally no one would come here. Those who came to the banquet were all respectable people, and there was no need to worry about theft, so theoretically, anyone could have entered the room.
There was no letter of appointment on the body, and the clues seemed to end there. But for Shade, he was not a professional detective. Even if there were no such people present, he could immediately sprinkle bone powder and summon the soul to ask who killed him.
The so-called "reasoning" just now was just to show that he was very professional. In fact, he didn't care whether what he said was right or wrong. Because it was obvious that the wound on the back of the head was too big. Since the blood could stain the murder weapon, it would naturally stain the murderer.
There may be little blood, but fortunately it is quite fresh, which makes it the best target for Shade's Blood Echo.
He pretended to take Tifa to check the room. When he closed the door again and checked behind the door panel, he said in surprise:
"Look at this!"
At this moment, Shad wished he had a magnifying glass in his hand, but he could see the place he was pointing at with his naked eyes. Tifa was closest to Shad, so she could see the most clearly:
"Behind the door, there is fresh blood. The blood is very small and not clear."
"oh?"
This was something that the people who had just checked the scene had not noticed. People came over to check, and Xia De said:
"Such fresh bloodstains must have been left by the murderer. Judging from the location, a part of the finger touched the door panel."
"But why would the murderer leave blood stains behind the door panel?"
Tifa asked cooperatively, and Shade then said to Deputy Director Morris:
"Let us reenact the scene of the discovery of the body. You will play the servant who saw the door ajar, and the others will be the people in the corridor. As for me, I will stay here."
This was a very simple request, so everyone left the room. Soon, Deputy Director Morris whispered at the door:
"Oh, God, what's going on?"
Then everyone rushed into the room, but no one saw Shad in the room.
"Oh, what's going on?"
At this time, Xia De's voice came from behind, and he stood at the end of the crowd.
"So that's how it is. The murderer was discovered before he could leave! So he hid behind the door and blended into the crowd!"
Senior Superintendent Johnson said, then frowned:
"So the murderer is now..."
"Yes, next door, with Her Highness Ajelina."
The scene of the murder was temporarily sealed off, and people followed Shade to the next room. Fortunately, there was no second murder. The people who stayed here temporarily included servants of the Yodel Palace and guests who came to attend the banquet, including Raphael Birmingham and Henry Mafar, the other two candidates favored by Larousse III.
"This murder was definitely not a planned one, because a murder that happened at the Yodel Palace would definitely be solved, and no one would be stupid enough to choose this as the crime scene. After the murder, the criminal was able to escape in a planned manner without showing any flaws, which shows that he has a very good psychological quality. I think we can identify him from the people who entered the scene."
Shade told Princess Ajelina his inference, and with the help of the princess, a total of fifteen people were asked some questions, focusing on why they appeared in the corridor at the time just now.
Based on everyone's answers and Shade's judgment of the criminal's physique and personality, he found three of the most suspicious gentlemen from the fifteen people. During the slightly long interrogation, Shade gave his coat to Tifa and asked her to temporarily leave Yodel Palace to do something.
Finally, three people were identified from the fifteen people. They were Raphael Birmingham, the son of the Duke, who was considered humble and amiable by Shad, Henry Mafar, the son of the Duke, who wanted to play Rhodes cards with Shad not long ago, and George Vane, the butler of Yodel Palace.
Three people were identified as major suspects, and when Xia De picked out the three of them, "she" chuckled in Xia De's ear.
"I swear, this is not an intentional retaliation, they really are suspicious."
Shade stressed.
I didn't say anything, you don't have to explain.
"She" answered, seeming to be in a good mood.
A separate room was used for the final interrogation, while the other suspects listened to the conversation outside in the small study room inside the room. Xia De, who had previously proven his reputation as a "famous detective", also conducted the final interrogation.
For reasons known only to Shade, the three suspects were interrogated together. They sat on the sofa against the wall, the two dukes' sons were just a little anxious, and the butler was really panicking.
In his opinion, if the real murderer could not be found in the end, letting him take the blame would probably be the best outcome for this unfortunate incident tonight.
“Ahem.”
Xia De coughed, but he didn't sit down. However, the little princess was sitting behind the desk behind him, and the others were standing on both sides of the table, watching Xia De make the final "judgment".
"I have explained the current situation to you before. The murderer of poor Mr. Philip mixed in with the crowd that found the body in an attempt to escape his crime. The three of you are the ones who best fit the murderer's physical shape, and you cannot explain why you appeared in the corridor at that time."
Here, we couldn't use "going to the bathroom" as an excuse, because there was no bathroom in that direction. The excuse given by the two young nobles was that "the gift was inappropriate and they wanted to take it away secretly", and the excuse given by the servant was that they took the wrong road.
These are obviously lies.
Of course, there was no bloodstain visible on the fingers of the three people. They must have found a way to wipe it off while waiting in the room.
"I actually already know who the murderer is. I can give you one last chance. Who will confess?"
Shade asked. The butler was a little desperate at this time. Shade's words showed that he had not found anything at all. Mr. Raphael Birmingham smiled and shook his head slightly. Mr. Henry Mafar, who tried to invite Shade to play Rhodes, wiped the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief nervously.
No one present believed what Xia De said, but in fact, among all the reasoning he had done, only the sentence "I already know who the murderer is" was the most serious.
"You must have heard about the 'Tobesk Country House Haunting Incident' and the case of the century's robbery earlier this year. Compared with that incident, this case is not complicated. Yes, I already know all the truth. In the name of Detective Hamilton of St. Teresa's Square, tell me, I will give you one last chance."
Xia De loudly proclaimed his fame, and the people behind him watched his "performance" with great interest. The three people sitting on the sofa against the wall had different expressions, and no one spoke for a while.