Chapter 29 – Bloody Maple Leaf: Suspect’s Testimony

Xie Xinghe was soon taken into the interrogation room.

The police asked directly, “Last Wednesday afternoon, your class was in Laboratory 3. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Was the class talking about organic phosphate? The chemistry teacher pulled out a bottle to demonstrate?”

Xie Xinghe looked calm. “Yes.”

“Finally, you checked it and put it back in the cupboard?”

Xie Xinghe was silent for a moment. “I am the class monitor and it is my duty to inspect the laboratory instruments and materials.”

“Half a bottle of organic phosphate is missing Did you take it?”

Xie Xinghe frowned. “No, the bottle was full when I checked.”

The police looked at each other and found that Xie Xinghe was calm and didn’t seem like he was lying. His testimony also didn’t have any loopholes. They had to let him go back first and call in the chemistry teacher.

Qin Weiwei, who was the most suspicious at present, walked into the interrogation room with a slightly dazed expression.

She sat down and wondered, “Police officers, what do you want to know?”

“Didn’t you ask for leave yesterday? However, we went back and checked the monitoring for the entire day. The surveillance video at the school gate shows that you came back to school at 11:20 and left at 11:40.”

Xiao Lou heard this and immediately raised his spirit.

Qin Weiwei explained, “I took my father to the hospital and found that his medical insurance card was forgotten at the school. I took a taxi back to get it.”

“In other words, you were actually at school during the time when Ying Xiaoya jumped from the building to commit suicide.”

Qin Weiwei’s expression changed. “Surely you aren’t doubting me?”

The policeman looked serious. “Please answer the questions and cooperate with the investigation.”

Qin Weiwei took a deep breath. “I really was at school at that time and I also called the PE teacher to ask about the situation of the students. He said that he was organizing students to play basketball. I didn’t know that Ying Xiaoya had jumped off the building. I just took the medical insurance card and left.”

“Last month, the security guard lost his keys. Did you pick them up and return them to him?”

Qin Weiwei nodded. “Yes.”

“Then you could have a key to the roof?”

Qin Weiwei’s expression was unsightly. “What do you mean by this? What would I do with a key to the roof? After I picked up the keys, I was in a rush because I had to go to class. I left them in my office and then gave them back to the security guard after finishing class. Maybe someone took the keys during this time!”

“Did you buy this bottle of organic phosphate?”

“Yes, I was telling the students about organic phosphate and inorganic phosphate. I bought a bottle to let them recognize this poison, so that they don’t accidentally come into contact with it. I also told them some first aid knowledge regarding organic phosphate poisoning. Why are you suddenly asking about this?”

The policeman replied, “Organic phosphate was found in the blood of the deceased. She was poisoned before she fell from the building. The bottle in the chemistry laboratory is missing half and Xie Xinghe said that it was full when he checked it. You are the only one who can go into the laboratory to take it away.”

Qin Weiwei’s face was white. “I didn’t take it!”

The policeman declared, “Ms Qin Weiwei, you are suspected of killing Ying Xiaoya. This is an arrest warrant.”

Qin Weiwei made a disbelieving expression. “Police officer, you got it really! I really didn’t take the poison or keep a copy of the keys! I went back to school to grab my father’s health insurance card. My father can testify…”

“Please come back to the police station for further investigation.”

Before she could finish, cold handcuffs were placed around her wrists.

The police had the arrest warrant and took Qin Weiwei as a suspect.

Xiao Lou rushed out behind the police officers.

Yu Hanjiang pretended to pass by and entered the bathroom. Xiao Lou also wore the invisibility cloak and entered the bathroom.

Xiao Lou whispered in Yu Hanjiang’s ears, “Qin Weiwei is too suspicious. She picked up the security guard’s keys and happened to be at school when the incident happened, calling the PE teacher. She also bought the organic phosphate poison.”

The effect of Xiao Lou’s invisibility cloak wasn’t over yet so Yu Hanjiang could only hear him talking but couldn’t see his location.

Even so, Yu Hanjiang was calm as he talked to the air. “Then the police officers brought her back to investigate?”

Just then, Xiao Lou’s cloak lost its effect and he appeared by Yu Hanjiang’s side.

Yu Hanjiang looked at him. “What does Professor Xiao think?”

Xiao Lou frowned. “I don’t think it’s right.”

Just then, a prompt appeared at the same time on their floating boxes.

[3 of Hearts secret room’s reasoning result: Is the murderer the chemistry teacher Qin Weiwei? Yes/No]

[Note: If the reasoning is wrong then it is a failure and you will be sent to the Nightmare Room to accept punishment.]

The two people glanced at each other and pressed ‘No’ in unison.

They declared simultaneously, “Qin Weiwei isn’t the murderer.”

Yu Hanjiang gazed at Xiao Lou appreciatively. “How did you analyze it?”

Xiao Lou sorted out his thoughts. “First, Teacher Qin has the key to the chemistry laboratory. If she wanted to take away the poison then she didn’t need to pry open the lock. However, when we checked the lab last night, the lock showed signs of being pried open. Second, she is the chemistry teacher. If she really wanted to poison Ying Xiaoya then she has many means. There is no need to take poison from the chemistry laboratory and leave such large clues behind.”

He paused before continuing, “According to the results of the forensic test, Ying Xiaoya was poisoned and the source of the poison is Yu Hui’s chocolates. However, the chocolates can’t contain a lot of poison and this dose of organic phosphate isn’t fatal, unless Ying Xiaoya was hungry and ate the entire box of chocolates. This can’t be the case because Yu Hui still had a lot of chocolates left in his bag, indicating that Ying Xiaoya only ate one or two pieces.”

By carefully reviewing Yi Ru’s confession yesterday, the boys were playing basketball in PE class while the two people returned to the teaching building. Ying Xiaoya said she was very hungry and let Yi Ru go to buy potato chips from the snack counter. Perhaps Ying Xiaoya couldn’t stand the hunger and ate a piece of chocolate.

During the time when they were running in language class, Yu Hui had given a chocolate to Ying Xiaoya and she had probably placed it in her pocket.

Xiao Lou had noticed this scene. Yu Hui gave her a spherical chocolate that had a diameter of around 3cm and golden paper on the outside. This should be the one eaten by Ying Xiaoya.

The poison content in one piece of chocolate was very low and wouldn’t cause direct death. It was just that acute organic phosphate poisoning would still show symptoms such as contraction and muscle tremors. As long as she was rescued in time, she would be fine.

After eating the chocolate, she went to the rooftop and fell to her death.

Xiao Lou finally concluded, “Her real cause of death is still the skull fracture and cerebral hemorrhage caused by falling from the building. The dose of chocolate poisoning wasn’t fatal.”

After Xiao Lou’s professional analysis of the poison dosage, Yu Hanjiang was more convinced of his inference.

He whispered, “Yu Hui’s chocolates were tampered with. On the surface, Qin Weiwei has plenty of opportunities to commit the crime and the suspicion sits directly on her… but the police ignored a key fact.”

Yu Hanjiang stared at Xiao Lou and asked a question. “If you wanted to kill a person, would you poison them and then push them down the building?”

Xiao Lou jerked.

Yes, poisoning and falling down were both means of killing people. There was no need to use it twice!

This was simply ‘ruining the effect by adding something superfluous.’

If the murderer wanted to poison Ying Xiaoya, first they shouldn’t use ‘chocolates’ which was a food with a very small dosage. It was also placed directly in Yu Hui’s chocolates. What if it was eaten by Yu Hui and poisoned him instead? A better means was to directly poison Ying Xiaoya’s food since that was guaranteed to poison her.

On the other hand, if the murderer wanted to push Ying Xiaoya down the building and prepare a suicide note to create the illusion that Ying Xiaoya committed suicide, there was no need to poison her. On the contrary, this allowed the police to become suspicious after they detected the poison in Ying Xiaoya’s body.

Xiao Lou touched his chin and thought about it. “Is it because two people committed crimes? However, the two contradicted each other so they left loopholes?”

Yu Hanjiang’s gaze was deep. “Yes.”

Yu Hanjiang carefully collected two days of clues and the suspect’s testimonies before finally coming to this conclusion.

Ying Xiaoya’s case could actually be broken down

The first part was the poisoning case.

The other party didn’t necessarily want to poison Ying Xiaoya because the means of poisoning was through Yu Hui’s chocolates. The poisoner knew that Yu Hui often gave chocolates to Ying Xiaoya so there was a 50% probability of Yu Hui being poisoned and a 50% probability of Ying Xiaoya being poisoned., The poisoner’s purpose still wasn’t confirmed.

The thing that could be confirmed was that the poisoner didn’t want to kill Ying Xiaoya directly.

No one would eat dozens of chocolates in one go and the half a bottle of organic phosphate was scattered among dozens of chocolates. The toxin content wasn’t fatal but it was enough to attract people’s attention. Perhaps the poisoner was trying to give a reminder through this method.

Excluding Yu Hui, who loved chocolate and had no motive to poison his sister, Yi Ru and Xie Xinghe were suspicious. The door lock of the laboratory was pried open and it was known that Yu Hui often gave chocolates to Ying Xiaoya.

The second part was the fall incident.

Yu Hanjiang had investigated the roof of the building yesterday and the footprints were disorderly. It was very likely that there was a second person on the scene and this person pushed Ying Xiaoya off the roof, directly leading to Ying Xiaoya’s death. Moreover, this person was very clever in copying the handwriting and giving Ying Xiaoya a fake ‘suicide note’, creating the illusion that Ying Xiaoya committed suicide.

This person was the one who really wanted Ying Xiaoya to die!

Unfortunately, he/she didn’t know that Ying Xiaoya was poisoned before the fall.

The police brought back the body and found that Ying Xiaoya was poisoned. In this way, the police quickly ruled out the possibility of Ying Xiaoya committing suicide The murderer forging Ying Xiaoya’s suicide note became the biggest failure.

The forensic doctor detected the source of the poison and the police found the chocolates, organic phosphate and the laboratory. Everything pointed to the chemistry teacher, Qin Weiwei.

Teacher Qin might’ve been taken away for investigation but the police would soon conclude that she wasn’t the murderer.

It was because it didn’t make sense. No one would be stupid enough to use a small amount of poison and then push a person off the roof, faking a suicide note.

The case would soon be split.

One person dosed the chocolates with poison while the other person pushed Ying Xiaoya off the roof. The two people didn’t know each other’s actions, causing a huge loophole.

Yu Hanjiang glanced at Xiao Lou. “It rained heavily last night and the school is so messy. Today, there will definitely be a large-scale cleaning of the school and the murderer might destroy the evidence. We must catch the murderer.”

Xiao Lou was also nervous. “Group Leader Yu, where do you want to search?”

“The biggest dumpster in the school.”

***

Maple Forest High School’s teaching building and office. building had small trash cans. The garbage that the students cleaned every day was concentrated on these small trash cans. Then the cleaners would take the garbage from the dumpster behind the playground.

This garbage bin should be cleaned every two to three days and a professional garbage disposal truck would come to take away the contents.

The campus was messy due to the violent storm last night. In the morning, the cleaner cleared the playground before placing all the garbage, broken branches, broken flowerpots and other trash into the bin. The garbage bin was full and a garbage truck had to be called over to clean it up.

By the time Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou came to the garbage bin, the cleaners were just collecting the trash.

Xiao Lou quickly stepped forward and spoke towards a cleaner. “Auntie, I’m sorry. I am a first grade teacher and accidentally dropped a very important document into the trash can yesterday. Can I look for it here?”

“Oh, what document? It is too dirty here. Teacher, don’t touch it. We’ll help you find it.”

Xiao Lou spoke with a nervous expression, “It is my teacher’s qualification certificate. I was getting rid of waste paper yesterday and didn’t see clearly. I ended up throwing it away. Please help me find it. I would be extremely grateful.”

Yu Hanjiang, “…”

Professor Xiao’s acting was really good.

This reason meant they could stand next to the garbage bin and observe.

The cleaner auntie turned the garbage out and helped them look for the certificate. “I will check the garbage afterwards. This is such an important document. What will you do if you can’t find it?”

Xiao Lou nodded. “I was too negligent.”

Just then, Yu Hanjiang’s eyes narrowed. “Wait.”

The cleaner wondered, “What’s wrong?”

Yu Hanjiang walked over and picked up from a pile of waste paper and messy leaves… a pair of shoes.

It was a pair of ladies’ canvas shoes that were size 37, which was consistent with Ying Xiaoya’s shoes.

The cleaner saw this and couldn’t help wondering, “Who lost these shoes? They look quite new!”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.

Important evidence was found.

The reason why Ying Xiaoya’s footprints on the roof were so messy was because the footprints belonged to two people. The other person was wearing the same shoes as her. Ying Xiaoya’s scarf fragment was left on the roof and it was certain there was a conflict before she was pushed down.

The murderer threw the inappropriate shoes into the trash because they knew the school bins would be cleaned up today.

As long as the garbage truck took away the garbage, it was fine.

Unfortunately for the murderer, Yu Hanjiang and Xiao Lou found these shoes.

It proved that their guess was correct.

For Ying Xiaoya’s case, there were two murderers acting at the same time!