Guess 1: A single offender, poisoning + blunt injury caused by one person, no accomplices
Guess 2: A single offender, poisoning + blunt injury caused by one person, but accomplices to cover up
Guess 3: Multiple offenders, poisoning a, blunt injury b, no accomplices to cover up
Guess 4: Multiple offenders, poisoning a, blunt injury b, a and b provide each other with alibis
Guess 5: Multiple offenders, poisoning a, blunt injury b, c covers up (c may be multiple people)
Analysis of Guess 1:
The perpetrator both poisoned and beat the victim, which requires meeting two conditions: being familiar, having the opportunity to poison, and being able to know in time whether the victim ate the poisoned food.
The waitress made bad food was an accidental event. The victim may not have eaten snacks in the afternoon. Even if he ate, it would be impossible to grasp the timing. The departed Huang Mao and Ban Cun Tou are less suspicious. Jian Jing has checked Xiao Wen's injury and found no fake traces. She couldn't have carried out the murder plan alone.
After eliminating others, the suspects are: Bun Girl (poison in the red bean cake), the waitress (poison in the food? She brought things up again later?)——
Jian Jing put down her pen and decided to go downstairs to take a look around the waitress's place.
The right area on the first floor was the living area of the boss's family.
As Jian Jing entered, the first thing she saw was the photos displayed on the cabinet: the little girl being hugged by a zombie actor, smiling very brightly; a group photo of the boss's family and the crew; enlarged spirit photos... It was obvious that the family was proud of the crew filming here.
"This is me when I was a kid." The waitress still resented her, but with a murder case at hand, she was no longer as unreasonable as last night either. "Zombie in Deserted Village was filmed at my home. I even had a cameo."
Jian Jing smiled slightly, speaking gently, "You must miss that experience a lot?"
The waitress looked at her displeasedly and grumbled, "You really haven't seen this movie? It was super popular when it was released. Many people came here specifically to stay. My dad said at that time, when villagers dressed up as zombies to take photos, they made quite a bit of money."
"I rarely watch horror movies." Jian Jing coaxed her and pretended to casually stroll to the window of the living room. From here, part of the backyard could be seen. "Were you inside the house all afternoon?"
The waitress mumbled, "Where else could I go? With such heavy rain?"
"Did you see anyone?"
"The reporter came down before two o'clock, probably an hour later, Huang Mao came in from outside, I think no one else came."
Jian Jing: "Which direction did they go?"
"Both went to the lobby." The waitress spoke while restoring the scene in her mind, "I was sitting here at the time, so I could see them."
The sofa faced the door and could see the traffic in and out of the lobby. But the view outside the window was very narrow, with large blind spots.
"Did you leave at all?"
"I went to the bathroom around one or two o'clock, don't remember exactly when. I didn't leave again after that."
Jian Jing was a little surprised at her cooperation, and smiled kindly as well, preparing to say goodbye.
But the waitress hesitated and stopped her: "Um, did your boyfriend say... who did it? I saw the news, the police said a murderer escaped into the mountains. Are there any fugitives around here?"
She tried to ask casually, but her pale face and wringing hands betrayed her fear.
Jian Jing pondered for a moment and stopped considerately: "Don't you think it was a zombie?"
"There are no such things as zombies." The waitress muttered, seeming a little dismissive of her superstition. But really not wanting to be alone in the room, she suppressed her emotions and explained, "This definitely wasn't done by a zombie. Zombies only drink blood, not like this."
Jian Jing deliberately said, "Didn't you say this morning that the chicken was killed by a zombie?"
"I, I was just guessing randomly." The waitress was stubborn, "You brought it up first. I thought it was a yellow weasel at first." She was a little impatient and asked again, "So is there a murderer here or not? My dad went to town to see my aunt. I'll be alone tonight..."
She shuddered and didn't go on.
"Let me go lock the doors with you." Jian Jing said, "That way you'll feel more at ease too."
The waitress immediately agreed: "Okay."
Whether someone was really scared or pretending, Jian Jing thought she could still tell. The waitress didn't push the zombie story, and was afraid to be alone in the room. She didn't seem like a sudden evil murderer.
She naturally didn't say she saw through it either, and slowly led the topic elsewhere.
"Did the victim seem okay at lunch today?" Jian Jing asked.
When it came to him, the waitress had a bellyful of complaints: "He was so picky, complaining this and that wasn't good, that the cups weren't clean enough, endless nagging. And he expected five-star treatment in a place like this? I didn't charge him five-star room fees!"
"Sounds like he didn't have a very good appetite?" she deliberately asked.
"Who said that, he was fine. He kept asking me if I could kill a chicken for him to eat, complaining the dishes didn't look good enough! How much does a chicken cost, 20 bucks? And I don't even know how to kill chickens." The waitress grumbled indignantly.
Jian Jing thought pensively.
Based on this account, she could almost confirm that there was a problem with the red bean cake Bun Girl had brought. After all, it would be impossible to control who ate the cookies and chocolate and when they ate it. Only the cake, which Bun Girl personally delivered, could best confirm whether it was eaten.
So was she the one who delivered the fatal blow to the victim's head? Did she have an accomplice?
Her train of thought then turned back to the situation at hand, bringing up many possibilities again.
Jian Jing knitted her brows and stopped her subsequent speculation in time—the situation was already complex enough. Wanting to straighten out the cause and effect all at once was too greedy, and would only mess up her thinking.
Since she had first uncovered the poisoning, she might as well get this step figured out.
Among common poisons, those that cause gastrointestinal symptoms are mostly violent plant and animal poisons, heavy metal poisons, corrosive poisons. Such as fugu, aconite, castor bean, arsenic, potassium hydroxide and so on.
"I remember you said you saw the guest from Room 202 come down to heat something up, right?"
The waitress nodded.
Jian Jing asked, "Do you still remember what it was like? Whole or already cut up?"
"Cut up cake, smelled pretty good." There was a hint of jealousy in the waitress's tone, "She even asked me if I wanted any. As if I would!"
Despite all the things on her mind, Jian Jing was still amused by her tone.
She patted the girl on the shoulder and said, "All the doors are locked now. You keep the key to the front door. I'll hold onto the keys to the kitchen and back door for now—no fugitives will get in to go on a killing spree, don't worry."
"Don't think I'm making this up. This kind of thing happened a lot before." The waitress mumbled, relaxing to some extent, "Are you guys eating dinner or not? I can make extra."
Jian Jing politely declined: "No no, I'm not hungry yet."
"Never mind then, I'll just make some noodles for myself." She opened the bag of flour and grumbled in annoyance, "Only this much flour left? How unlucky. I really don't want to go to the warehouse for more."
She took out a bundle of noodles from the fridge and dumped it unhappily into the pot.
—Instant noodles have no soul.
By this time, Jian Jing had already left the kitchen.
She went to the warehouse to examine the corpse and drew a tube of blood.
Ji Feng was thrilled: "What's this for?"
"Do you know the difference between police and writers?" She carefully injected the blood from the syringe into a bottle. "The police have to figure out all the ins and outs before they can arrest the criminal. Writers are different—never mind how it ends up, the editor is chasing for the next chapter, so hand one in first."
He nodded repeatedly: "I see."
"Alright, let's gamble on luck." She said, "Please call Man Min out for me."
Ji Feng replied in a tone that could be described as delightful: "No problem."
Five minutes later, Bun Girl with an anxious look on her face walked into the warehouse and asked timidly: "You, you wanted to see me?"
"Yes." The light in the warehouse was dim. The old light bulb gave off a murky yellow glow. Jian Jing stood under the light, with a layer of soft glow around her edges, looking gentler and more charming than usual. "I have something to ask you."
Bun Girl felt very nervous, but her eyes followed Jian Jing involuntarily. She inexplicably felt a sense of intimacy.
"I know you did something foolish." Jian Jing said gently. "Why are you so silly?"
Bun Girl blinked. How strange, although her words made Bun Girl's heart race, she also genuinely felt that Jian Jing did not intend to hurt her. On the contrary, she was worried about her and wanted to help her.
"I..." She argued weakly, "Don't know what you're talking about."
"Blood, urine, bile, gastrointestinal contents can all be tested for toxins." Jian Jing said unhurriedly. "Was there any poison in the things you gave him to eat? We'll know after some tests."
Bun Girl avoided her gaze. "I didn't poison him."
"It would be great if it wasn't you." She sighed, as if she wanted to say more but held back. "In fact, the amount of poison wasn't much. He would have been fine after vomiting it out. His death was not caused by the toxin taking effect."
Bun Girl breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief.
But the next moment, Jian Jing's expression suddenly became solemn: "The fatal injury was a blunt force trauma to his head, but the victim was tall and large, an ordinary person - a woman for example - would have difficulty killing him under normal circumstances. So we have reason to suspect that the poisoning was just to incapacitate him from resisting."
"Sss." Bun Girl sucked in a breath of cold air and turned pale. She swayed unsteadily. "No, it wasn't me."
When someone plays good cop, someone has to play bad cop.
Ji Feng's face darkened as he said coldly, "You were the only one who brought things to the victim, and someone saw you leave after 2 a.m."
The first half was true, the second half was obviously false. It was not yet known who the man with the fracture saw.
But it was enough to scare her a little.
Bun Girl denied it outright: "It wasn't me. I didn't go downstairs at all. Xiao Wen can testify for me."
"That's what she said." Jian Jing shook her head regretfully. "She also said you couldn't have poisoned him, but you did do it, didn't you? If one testimony is false, the other testimonies cannot be trusted either."
"I didn't." Bun Girl pleaded. "I didn't poison him either."
She revealed a hint of a criminal's cunning and shouted, "Even if toxins are detected in his blood, you can't say it was me, right? Xiao Wen also ate the cakes, and nothing happened to her."
"Your cakes were not one whole serving. It wouldn't have been hard to mix in a poisoned piece." Jian Jing said. "Also, since I said it was you, of course I have evidence."
Bun Girl pressed her lips tightly together.
"You used aconite, ground into powder and mixed into the flour, which allowed you to make a poisonous cake. Adding a lot of brown sugar helped conceal the taste of aconite well. " Jian Jing boldly speculated, "Aconite poisoning causes a burning sensation in the mouth and throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. In the trash can in the victim's room, there was some of his vomit, which contained undigested cake residue. "
She said, "Take a guess, will they be able to detect aconite compounds in it?"
The air was deathly still.
Jian Jing knew she had guessed right. Mentioning aconite was purely a gamble, because Bun Girl's luggage contained various flower and herbal teas, many of which could be bought at herbal medicine shops. And compared to animal poisons like snake venom or fugu toxin, Chinese herbal medicines were the easiest to obtain.
Among the common toxic plants, aconite would cause a burning mouth and thirst, prompting the victim to drink a lot of water.
She took half a step forward and pleaded sincerely: "Xiao Min, how can we help you if you don't tell the truth? Think about Xiao Wen, she gave false testimony for you, which is also a crime."
Whether it was the charm card's halo being strong enough, or her feelings for her girlfriend winning out in the end.
Finally, Bun Girl confessed: "I did poison him, but I'm not the one who killed him."
