stand-in creed

"...Yeah." Suzumi Sugimoto nodded, "Because I was sleepy at that time, and my dog ​​usually licks like this, so I didn't pay much attention."

"Is there anything else this prisoner did to offend you?"

"Other?"

"After all, this is a pervert who can lick hands for 10 minutes." Nero asked a little embarrassedly, "Being able to lick hands for 10 minutes means he must be a pervert. Apart from hands, he has breasts. Didn't start anywhere else?

"Actually, when I was in Luban's room just now, I was wondering why he gave you a clean knife after entering the door, instead of doing other... nasty things?

"If I were a perverted prisoner, Ms. Suzumi Sugimoto is so beautiful, I would definitely not be able to do nothing but lick my hands."

"I, am I beautiful?"

Suzumi Sugimoto blinked.The face that had finally faded red turned red again.

Nero's face darkened.

You girls, can you not focus on the point?

Immediately Suzumi Sugimoto cleared her throat quickly: "Ahem, no."

Nero comforted, "I'm very strict."

Suzumi Sugimoto's expression became weird: "This is really not there."

Nero was a little confused.

Nero went up and down, looking at Suzumi Sugimoto from head to toe in a fair and fair manner, looking at this pink girl like the reincarnation of the Alfred wine demon.

82/57/84.

Don't worry about the specific meaning of these three numbers. All in all, judging from Nero's taste, which was cultivated by beautiful girls every day in Italy, this is a beautiful girl who scored at least nine out of ten.And after a girl like this encounters a perverted villain... she actually disappears after being licked?

"... Although it may be a blessing in misfortune for you, Ms. Sugimoto, but I still can't figure it out——

"—In this world, there are people with such weird sexual fetishes?"

Isn't this face pretty?

Isn't this chest chic?

Isn't this skin fair?

Although this leg is a bit worse than that of Mariya's, it's still eh cough cough cough!

Nero quickly stopped his weird thoughts.

"I've thought about this too!" Suzumi Sugimoto said with some melancholy.

"Although I also know that this is a good thing, and it is impossible to hope that such a thing will really happen, but after I have just become an earth-bound spirit and come out of the melancholy period, I will wonder if it is because I am too ugly that he has nothing. made.

"Do you think, could it be that he hid under the bed and licked his hands well, and when I woke up, he accidentally saw my face, and then realized that I was too ugly, so he was furious and killed me? "

"...Maybe a blind man? That's not right, even a blind man can have fun with his hands." Nero's expression was still weird, "So the murderer we are looking for is a genuine pervert whose brain circuit is very different from ordinary people.

"Face, eyes, hair, breasts, waist, skin, thighs, feet...

"No matter how beautiful everything is, it is no different from a skeleton in his eyes. The only thing that matters to him is his hands."

"Etc., etc!"

Suzumi Sugimoto looked at Nero who was muttering beside her in surprise: "Do you guys think about so many things when you talk about girls in private?"

"That's only when "the whole meets the standard of obscenity" before going further to discuss specific details... Wait, the topic is not right again ahhhhhhhhh! ! ! "

"Eh? This sentence was changed by Bushh Ming, right? You even listen to Bushh Ming's song! I like him too!"

"Then you should have watched "Broadcast Time"... No, you were already dead by then. Let me do the math, you died in [-], and the last Busch Akira movie was "Torajiro's" story?"

"exactly!"

The atmosphere gradually cheered up.

The detective and the victim began to discuss Bushming seriously.

However, while chatting, the two of them stopped talking.

"...Aren't we supposed to talk about prisoners?"

"...It's not a big problem, it's not a big problem."

Both of them cleared their throats together.

Immediately Nero made his way.

"So the prisoner who killed you was this guy——

"Height 175cm.

"Although I know that he had the physical ability to break the goal within 15 minute 1 years ago, but this alone is not enough to judge his age and current figure. I have seen old people who are 70 years old and can still fight than teenagers. Even if there is no major disease in the 15 years, just the years are enough to turn a person with excellent physical fitness into a fat person.

"Status cannot be determined.

"It's possible for people in their 30s to be in their 80s and [-]s.

"Interest is in women's hands, and I am not interested in anything else in women.

"There are two possibilities for this kind of perversion in real life. Either because of inadvertent exposure of sexuality, everyone around him will regard him as a pervert, or social death.

"And if you hide your hobbies very well, because you are not interested in women, you will have a good reputation among the women around you. Ordinary-looking or even flawed women will comment that he never judges people by their appearance and treats everyone fairly; Beautiful women will also comment that he never glances at him with lewd eyes like other stinky men.

"In short - great people.

"The third possibility is that it is mediocre."

Nero paused and sorted out his thoughts a little bit.

And Suzumi Sugimoto took the opportunity to ask curiously: "Then what kind is he?!"

"Tend to mediocre outstanding people - high probability." Nero took a deep breath.

Immediately Nero explained.

"He is a stand-in messenger who has the ability and does everything wrong.

"Over the past 15 years, the vast majority of the murders in Duwang Town were women with beautiful hands. Other cases were women's fathers, mothers, husbands, boyfriends, etc., probably when he did it. involved.

"However, in the past 15 years, he has only been confined to the hands of women, and his scope is also limited to Moriwang Town. In Moriwang Town, there has never been an unsolved case of "unexplained loss of a large amount of property". It's also very safe, which shows that he is different from ordinary psychopaths.

"—He is a person who perfectly restrains his desires and never further breeds unnecessary ambitions.

"People with this kind of personality are more likely to achieve better results than ordinary people, whether they are studying or working. This kind of personality is gradually developed from childhood, compared with acquiring this kind of personality after hitting a wall in society. It is much more likely to have this kind of xinxing.

"When I was a student, my grades were among the top in the class; after work, if I was a sales post, my performance would be the second, third, or fourth place in the company; the management post must be able to complete the above arrangements, and my subordinates have no objections to him, but if you want There are other candidates for promotion.

"In addition, he has not created any unsolved economic cases from 15 years ago to today, and his character was cultivated from a young age.

"Even if his family is not very rich, it is at least a well-off family with no worries about food and clothing, and he himself has a very decent job. He lives in a nice house, drives a nice car, wears nice clothes, and lives a good life. nice life.

"Such a person is very similar to the protagonist in a series of novels I have read—"

"—Professor Hannibal."

Chapter 44 The Famous Detective Nero IV

At first glance, Nero, the Maori Kogoro-level detective who came out halfway, really did enough for the murderer 15 years ago like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Ellery Quinn. profile.But unlike these genuine famous detectives, when detectives like Sherlock Holmes completed the psychological profile, the incident basically came to an end.

But for Nero Zeppelin, the real challenge was just beginning.

There are usually three elements in mystery novels.

- Time of incident (whend unit).

- modus operandi (howdunit).

- Who is the prisoner (whodunit).

The three elements complement each other to form a complete event.

If the three elements can be completely revealed, the detective will be able to restore the truth of the incident and give an explanation to the earth-bound spirit who is stuck in the bardo due to obsession.

After following Suzumi Suzumi's "never turn back" prompt and followed the designated route to leave the alley of no turn back, Nero returned to Du Wang Hotel alone, took out his notebook, and began to sort out the mountains of files around him thoughts.

"Let's sort out the events so far from the "time of incident".

"Although the possibility that criminal X committed other crimes before the Sugimoto family murder incident cannot be ruled out, since this is the "known" first incident, let's start with this incident.The incident happened 15 years ago in 1983.

"The next crime is divided into several stages.

"A total of four disappearances occurred from August 1983 to 8. Among them, the body of a missing person was found in March 1985. The whereabouts of the hands of the body were unknown. After the body was found, the police launched a large-scale search, but in the end there was nothing. Harvest. Combining with Suzumi Suzumi's last words, I can more or less understand why the body will have no hands.

"After this incident, the continuous disappearances in Duwang Town ended. It must be that although the police failed to hunt down the criminal, the large-scale dispatch of police force deterred the prisoner and made him dare not act rashly. Since 1985, Duwang Town There was a brief peace, until—

"1987. From this year, the cases showed an explosive growth.

"From 1987 to the beginning of 1988, there were seven disappearances in just one year, all of which were headless unsolved cases. Combined with this special time point, the time point when Dior reappeared in the world is likely to be the prisoner's death here. During this period, he obtained the ability of "arrow" and "stand-in" through some means.

"After obtaining some kind of stand-in ability that can "destroy corpses and wipe out traces", he, who has suppressed the police's actions for too long, decided that the police would never punish him, just like Akira Otoshi. Overeating like a restaurant.

"1987 was a watershed year, a watershed year for getting stand-in ability.

"But the following year, 1988, was also a watershed year.

"The sudden increase in disappearances suddenly leveled off. After one incident occurred in February 1988, the next incident did not occur until November. Together with the February case, it continued until the end of 2. During this period, Du There were only four cases of disappearance in Wangding.

"Could it be that I played too crazy before, got a little tired and started to stop? No, just look at what happened in the next period of time to understand, and then ushered in the third watershed——

"1993.

"From this year until 1999, there have been disappearances in Morioh Town at a very high frequency every year. Excluding the Sugimoto family, from 1983 until now, there are only unsolved disappearances in Morioh Town There were more than forty incidents."

Nero's eyes grew brighter.

In 1983, the Sugimoto family murder case.

In 1987, he gained the ability to stand in, and the number of disappearances increased sharply.

In 1988, the number of disappearances in Morioh began to drop sharply.

In 1993, the number of disappearances in Morioh increased sharply again, and it continues to this day.

"There must be some meaning to the rising and falling line charts of the number of disappearances in these years. Especially from 1988 to 1993, why did the number of disappearances drop sharply?

"The number began to drop sharply, indicating that his work place and activity area are not in Duwang Town.

"The number is not zero, which means that his place of work is not so far away from Duwang Town that he can't go home even on statutory holidays. When he is free, he can go home for a rest and sit for a while.

"Thinking about my previous reasoning carefully, this prisoner probably has a decent job. Since it is a job, it is inevitable that there will be assignments and business trips. Considering the severe economic problems facing Japan at that time, the original company It is also possible to go bankrupt and have to go to another place to make a living.

"So judging from the time of committing the crime, what I'm looking for is this kind of person——

"—A person who worked outside Morioh Town from 1988 to 1993, and then returned to Morioh Town."

getting closer.

But that alone is not enough.

This level of reasoning alone cannot fish him out of 6 people.

Nero took a deep breath.

"I need more clues."

But at this moment, Nero remembered the gradually broken soul that went away in the sky when he was chatting with Suzumi Sugimoto.

This also means that the prisoner created a new case not long ago.

new case.

new leads.

new Hope.

Without the slightest hesitation, Nero picked up the landline at hand and dialed Dongfang's number.

"Hello, this is the Dongfang family."

"Jousuke, it's me, Nero. Is your grandpa home?"

"grandfather?"

Dongfang Jousuke was taken aback for a moment, then said immediately.

"Grandpa is at the police station, what's the matter?"

"Aren't I and your grandfather tracking down the hidden substitute messenger in Duwang Town? Some things may require your grandfather's help-wait a minute, you didn't go to school?"