white night syndrome

Chapter 203 171. Interesting clues (please vote)
All the signs in front of me seemed to indicate that this was a tragedy caused by an old man who accidentally walked empty while climbing the stairs.

Li Ming raised his eyebrows, looking at Kuranosuke Shirai in front of him, wondering what he was thinking, while Sakurako Kujo took off her mask and gloves and threw them into the trash can brought over from the scene, with a dignified expression.

"Is it an accidental death?" Seeing the scene in front of him, Saito was a little embarrassed to stand aside, and he quietly walked forward and asked tentatively.

"It's not like that." Li Ming responded thoughtfully, "Although all signs indicate that Shirai's death was accidental,... I always feel something is wrong when he died at this time."

"That's right. When I arrived at the scene, I paid special attention to the death posture of the deceased. When the deceased fell down the stairs, he did not take any protective action. His hands were spread flat behind his back, as if he was fainting." Jiutiao frowned, saying Li Ming agrees with his thoughts, "So I think it is very likely that he killed him."

"Who found the corpse?" Li Ming pursed his lips, turning sideways to Saito behind him.

"The one who found the body was a housewife. She came home around 2 o'clock in the afternoon and saw the old man Ishii whom she knew fell down on the stairs. After she called a few times, the old man didn't move. He was already dead, so he hurriedly called the police." Saito replied quickly, "After that, the housewife hurriedly called the deceased's granddaughter, who also rushed to the scene."

"Is your granddaughter here?"

Li Ming glanced at Jiu Tiao's forensic doctor at the side, then turned and went to the door of the apartment.

Because of Shirai Kuranosuke's special status in the hearts of the residents of the apartment, a large number of people gathered at the door to watch the excitement long before the Metropolitan Police Department people rushed to the scene. Of course, there were also many people who felt sorry for this. .

"Police officer, has the investigation into the cause of Mr. Shirai's death been clear?" The speaker was a boy who looked like a college student. "Mr. Shirai helped me a lot with my studies. How could he pass away at this time... Mr. Police Officer?" You must find out the truth."

"Yes, Mr. Police Officer, Professor Shirai has always been loved by the neighbors in the apartment. Although he always claims that he has not achieved much, we all believe that this is humility." The white-collar-looking woman on the side said, "He How could he die suddenly...and he was still on the stairs."

To be reasonable, after hearing the words of these people, Li Ming couldn't help showing a puzzled expression. Is there a relationship between being loved and falling to his death on the stairs?

First of all, there is a logical problem...

Having said that, Li Yan actually didn't have much emotional ups and downs about the death of Shirai Kuranosuke. He was dead. Now he mainly just wanted to investigate the truth of the case. Besides, Shirai himself was not a good person.

"I know you are unwilling to accept this fact, but Professor Bai Jing is dead, so it's useless to say more." Li Ming put his right hand behind his back, palm outward, stepped back on the stairs and looked not far away, " Is the granddaughter of the deceased present?"

"We have just contacted him, it will take some time." Saito followed closely and responded.

Li Ming slightly raised his head, raised his brows, and nodded slightly: "Remember to tell me when Ms. Bai Jing arrives." After saying that, the young man turned his back and went back to the serious crime scene.

But just when he was about to put his whole body into it, Li Ming heard a whispering voice, he couldn't help but stop and listen carefully.

"Hey? You said...Professor Shirai is generous and friendly, and he is still 94 years old. In our area, he has long been regarded as a symbol of auspiciousness." Youyou's voice began to tremble, "And what happened today? Do you think this kind of thing is an ominous sign?"

Bad omen?

What a fool.

Li Ming shook his head self-consciously, and walked into the scene of the crime. At this moment, the autopsy has been completely completed, and the police officers at the scene are taking pictures of the scene with hand-held cameras wearing white gloves, and the flashlights are constantly flashing. with.

"Miss Shirai is here?" Kujo Sakura nudged the young man beside her with her elbow, her expression a little ugly.

"Not yet, Saito said he would arrive at the scene later." Li Ming took a deep breath, and then let out a long breath, "Miss Kutiao, what do you think about this case? No fingerprints of anyone other than the deceased were found at the scene. Is it really an accidental death by accident?"

"Not like, certainly not."

Kujo folded his hands, put his slightly protruding chest on his elbows, and tapped his arms thoughtfully with his right hand.

"Normal people will subconsciously make protective moves when they fall, but when I entered the arena, I found that Shirai's hands were spread flat on his back."

Spread evenly behind the back?
Li Ming frowned, unable to imagine what kind of posture this was.

"As far as I know... there was an ancient redemption ceremony a long time ago, which was to put the sinner's hands behind his back, and then kneel down." Jiujo flicked his bangs on his forehead, and smiled to himself, " Forget it, just pretend that I didn’t say anything, maybe it’s because I’ve read too many novels recently, and I’m sensitive when I see this kind of posture.”

Atonement...

Li Ming didn't take what Jiu Tiao said later to heart, in fact he was also considering some other elements, and it was closely related to the keyword "redemption".

But how is it possible?
In terms of time...isn't it right?
While the two were thinking about each other, there was a knock on the door, followed by Saito Sorin's familiar voice: "Officer Li, Ms. Shirai is here, do you want me to bring her in?"

Before Li Ming could make a decision, Jiu Tiao rushed out of the room with vigorous strides, and hugged Naoko Shirai in front of him.

"It's okay, it's okay." Kujo hugged the girl and stroked the back of her head, "Everyone dies... Naoko, don't be too sad."

Li Ming squinted his eyes and turned around slowly. After seeing the expression on the face of this slightly immature, thin and tall girl, his heart twitched, and the sadness that he didn't know came from swept his heart.

Being held by Kujo, Shirai also looked silent. Through her red eyes, it was easy to see that her heart was not as peaceful as it seemed on the surface.

Sakurako Kujo and Naoko Shirai knew each other, but this was normal and understandable. In fact, almost everyone in Shangying University did not know this famous senior.

Perhaps out of some special intuition, Li Ming walked up to Bai Jing and Jiu Tiao lightly, and showed his ID: "Hello, Miss Bai Jing, I am Li Ming from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Your grandfather's case is handled by me." I take full responsibility." Then he put his right hand on his left chest and bowed slightly, "I'm sorry to hear the news that Professor Shirai has passed away."

"..." Naoko was still silent, but at this moment, it could be seen from her tighter and trembling lips that she was suppressing the surging emotions in her heart.

"It's like this...Miss Baijing, I want to visit Professor Baijing's home, could you please allow me?" Li Ming put away his ID and continued to guide, "I also think that Professor Baijing's death was not an accident , but at this time our Police Department has too little evidence, I think if we can go to the deceased's house to investigate and search, we should be able to find the murderer very quickly."

Naoko looked up at the young man, biting her lower lip, as if she was hesitating, or waiting for someone's "instructions".

"Naoko, Officer Li Ming is right. We must get your permission to enter Professor Shirai's house to close the case as soon as possible." Kujo stroked his back and comforted him, "So..."

Naoko pursed her lips, weighed the pros and cons, nodded vigorously, and expressed her agreement.

The home of the deceased Shirai Kuranosuke was just above the stairs where the incident occurred. Naoko planned to take out the key to open the door, but unexpectedly found that the door was not locked.

With his acquiescence, the group of people present entered Shirai Kuranosuke's house, chanting unnecessary "excuse me" one after another.

After entering the room, what caught the eye was a fairly spacious living room.

"Grandfather lives alone most of the time... I also only occasionally visit here during vacations..." Naoko's voice was very soft, precarious as if she was about to explode emotionally in the next moment.

Li Ming looked around and could see that there were not many chairs in the living room, obviously Kuranosuke Shirai seldom entertained guests in his own home.

"Does your grandfather have low blood pressure, or a history of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases?" Kujo Sakurako asked seemingly casually.

"Grandfather is usually in good health, and I haven't heard him mention the matter of illness, but after all, the old man is old, and maybe he didn't say anything because he was afraid that the younger generation would worry..." Nasumi tried her best to maintain a normal tone to Everyone replied, and then pointed to the first room on the left, "This is my grandfather's room."

Following what he was looking for, Li Dang frowned and found that the door to the deceased's room was ajar.

——So in other words, Shirai didn't accidentally fall to his death on the stairs after going out.

Pushing open the door, Shirai's room is quite simple. In front of the door is a desk with a chair under it. On the left side of the room are a wardrobe and bookcases, both of which are arranged side by side. On the right side of the room is a There is a bed and bedside table. The quilt on the bed is quite neatly spread. It can be seen that the owner is very tidy. There is no peculiar smell in the room, but there is a faint smell of rosin.

There is a small lamp on the bedside table, which should be used by the elderly at night. There are several magazines in the cabinet, most of which are academic journals in English. Some of them have Japanese annotations, saying "バイオアルゴリズム", "パスフェロモン" Class typeface.

The translation is "biological algorithm" and "path pheromone".

Jiujo stood where he was, looking at the paper thoughtfully.

The title of the article is "The collective intelligence generated by insect social behavior", which translates to "The collective intelligence generated by insect social behavior".

The content can be summarized as some intelligent behaviors exhibited by organisms under social behavior, such as automatically generating the shortest path between multiple points. The article uses ants as an example to describe how ants calculate the shortest path between multiple points.

A few scattered folders can be seen on the desk next to the bed, but there are no documents inside, and a small desk lamp on the desk has also been turned off at the moment.

There is a photo frame next to the desk, and inside it is a photo of many young people wearing jackets and carrying backpacks. The photo is black and white, and there is a clear sense of age.

"This is?" Li Ming looked at Naoko.

"This is a photo taken by my grandfather when he went on a scientific expedition with the team in 1955. The people in the photo are his grandfather and his teammates." Naoko tried her best to calm down the surging emotions, but the answer she gave was somewhat Formulaic.

Li Ming picked up the photo frame and looked at it carefully, the people in the photo became unrecognizable because of the yellowed photo itself, but he still saw the somewhat familiar person in the photo——

Mountain white dream.

interesting.

"What about the content of the scientific expedition? Do you know?"

Li Ming tentatively asked softly, but what he got was a dejected shake of the head: "According to my grandfather, it was an ordinary South African insect ecological investigation... As for what I found, I don't know."

After putting down the photo frame, the young man sighed.

No one knows what they did in South America, and traces of "ants" were found at basically two crime scenes. They may be hidden in written papers, or they may exist in reality, and the bodies are placed like that in their Is it really related to ants?

It seems that there are a lot of insects and other creatures in South America. The research projects they inspected are not related to ants.

In line with the principle of rigorous investigation, Li Ming bent down and wanted to check under the desk or in the corner to see if there were any dead ants here, but found an open ballpoint pen under the desk.

At this time, the nib of the ballpoint pen has dried up and cannot continue to write.

Li Ming didn't understand how the clue in front of him had anything to do with the case. Anyway, it seemed very abrupt in the case, so he silently wrote it down.

You can see a large collection of books on the bookshelf to the left of the desk. Many of the books were printed almost as far back as the 50s. The books above are probably about entomology and biology.

Li Ming discovered that in recent years there have been more books on chemistry, one of which is a study on the staining of biological pheromone proteins.

In the closet next to the bookshelf, you can see some ordinary clothing, suits, shirts, ties, etc. are all neatly stored in it.

Next to Shirai Kuranosuke's room is another bedroom——

"This bedroom is usually unoccupied. I only live here when I occasionally spend the night here." Naoko finally calmed down and explained to the police and forensic doctors around her.

Li Ming squinted his eyes and walked into the room, he saw that it was also neatly tidied up, and the chairs were also stored under the desk.

The kitchen on the other side is very clean, and you can see some leftover meals in the refrigerator. As for the rest of the apartment, it is basically the same as other apartments.

(End of this chapter)