Chapter 309: Corpses Vertically Up and Down

Chapter 309: Corpses Vertically Up and Down

Back in the dean's room, Youya made a new discovery.

There was some paint on the end of the nails on the corpse's right hand.

"This is..." Youya frowned slightly.

Miyano Shiho came over to take a look and said, "This looks like nail polish paint?"

You was also stunned: "Manicure? This old lady is quite fashionable, but why is it only at the ends of the nails?"

"I don't know about that. Maybe it has been demolished?" Miyano Shiho said casually.

Yuya frowned and searched through the dean's luggage, but did not find the removed manicure.

Just note this for now and continue to observe.

He also found a little white crystals on the collar of the corpse.

Yuya pinched some crystals and rubbed them, and couldn't help raising his eyebrows: "This seems to be... salt? But the corpse doesn't show any signs of sweating, could it be..."

With a vague guess in mind, Yuya and Miyano Shiho went to the bathroom on the first floor together.

The blood in the pool was not drained, and the strong smell of blood was nauseating. There was no other way, Yuya could only ask Oishi Naoki for two masks, which barely blocked out the smell.

After a thorough search in the bathroom, nothing was found, including no containers that could be used to transport blood.

But he found a packet of bath additives that had been opened and half used, and the ingredient list showed that it contained some inorganic salts.

It should be the water that Naoki Oishi and his wife used to prepare their bath.

"So, the murderer killed the dean and drained his blood here, and then moved the body back to the second floor?" Youye pondered.

The reason there was salt on the collar of the corpse was probably that the murderer came into contact with water from the bathtub when bleeding, and a small amount of salt was precipitated after it dried.

"If this is the primary crime scene, how can we move a body to the second floor without being discovered?"

With such questions in mind, Yuya went to ask Naoki Oishi for the floor plan of the hotel.

"Floor plan..." Naoki Oishi searched the room for a long time before he found a tattered piece of paper. "Sorry, this is all I have..."

Although the floor plan is a bit tattered, one can still barely make out the layout of the hotel from it.

Yuya took a pen and marked everyone's room on the map one by one.

"Hmm?" Youya pointed to a small square at the edge of the second floor. The words on it were already blurred. "What's this?"

Naoki Oishi glanced at the floor plan, hissed, and scratched his head hard: "I don't know this either."

Yuya lowered his eyes and asked, "Hey uncle, isn't this your hotel?"

Naoki Oishi laughed awkwardly: "Ahaha, when I took over this hotel, I just made some repairs on the original basis, and didn't renovate it on a big scale, so it's normal that there are some things in the hotel that I don't know about."

Youye looked at him speechlessly and had to go to the place marked on the floor plan to check it out himself.

There was a separate section of wall next to the deceased's room. Yuya didn't pay much attention to it at first, thinking it was just an extra short wall.

Yuya frowned, turned and walked into the deceased's room, and found a square pillar at the door - at first he really thought it was a pillar, such corner pillars are actually very common.

But the floor plan clearly shows that there is something here...

Yuya raised his hand and knocked on the pillar a few times, his eyes widened in surprise - it was empty!

Could it be that···

Youye walked quickly to the outside of the room and started knocking on the wall quickly. When he knocked to the middle, a dull "dong dong" sound came from the wall, as if he was knocking on an iron plate.

"Mio, help me find a..."

Before Yuya could finish his words, Miyano Shiho handed him a pair of nail clippers.

Youye was stunned for a moment, smiled at her, took the nail clippers, then pulled out the iron sheet for grinding, and slowly scratched the wall from the top to the bottom.

Soon, as the iron sheet slid down, a small piece of paint on the wall suddenly lifted up. Youye raised an eyebrow, reached out and pinched the lifted piece and tore it off with force.

Hiss! A rectangular piece of cloth was torn off, revealing an iron door.

"What is this?" Youye was very surprised. Why is there an iron door here?

Naoki Oishi looked at the iron gate, thought for a while, and then asked tentatively: "Could it be... a passage for transporting goods?"

"Passage?" Youye turned and looked at the uncle.

"Oh," Naoki Oishi gestured with his hands, "I run a hotel, so I know that some hotels install an elevator on the floor to facilitate the transportation of goods. But this mansion was built a long time ago, so it's not an elevator, but manpower or machinery?"

"So that's it. Is it something like the garbage channel?" Youya said suddenly.

"Yes, yes, it's similar to that one." Naoki Oishi clapped his hands vigorously.

"But why should it be sealed? Uncle, did you do it?" Youye asked puzzledly.

Naoki Oishi shook his head repeatedly: "It's not me, I didn't even know there was a passage here."

Yuya frowned and looked carefully at the cloth in his hand. He found that it was coated with a layer of paint of the same color as the wall, which was not completely dry. No wonder he didn't notice it at first.

Youye pushed open the iron gate, turned on the flashlight function on his mobile phone, and looked inside. It was indeed a place similar to a garbage chute, but it was a little rusty because it had not been used for a long time.

Yuya shrank back, touched his chin and asked Oishi Naoki: "Uncle, what's under here?"

Naoki Oishi thought for a moment and replied, "It seems to be... the storage room in the basement?"

"Basement?" Youye's eyes lit up, "Take me to see it."

"it is good."

The three of them walked around the stairs and came to a set of steps leading down.

Naoki Oishi said, "This is the basement below. I use it as a storage room. I store some things that I don't use often."

Yuya nodded and led the way down.

According to the approximate location shown on the floor plan, Youye found the lower entrance of the passage in the basement.

This place is covered with a piece of cloth just like the opening on the second floor. However, because the lighting in the basement is not enough and it cannot be seen without careful observation, it is not painted like the second floor.

After lifting the cloth, there was an iron door behind it.

"It seems that this was covered up intentionally." Youye turned on the light of his mobile phone and found that there were obvious fresh traces of friction on the bottom of the passage, which were obviously left recently.

"Could it be that the murderer used this passage to transport the body?" Miyano Shiho asked tentatively.

Yuya nodded. He found a dark mark at the bottom of the passage. He put on gloves and rubbed it with his fingertips, and found that it was fresh blood that had dried.

Moreover, given the size of this passage, a person can easily pass through it by curling up, not to mention a thin old lady like the dean.

"If we use this passage, we can transport the body directly to the second floor away from everyone's eyes and ears. Moreover, it is a vertical route up and down directly to the door of the deceased, which is very secretive."

Youya took off his gloves and put them into a plastic bag: "This drop of blood is still fresh. Let the police test it later and they will know if it is the dean's blood."

In fact, it can be basically confirmed that it was left by the dean without any testing.

"Uncle, have you seen anyone enter the basement?" Yuya looked at Oishi Naoki.

Naoki Oishi recalled and his expression suddenly changed: "This...it seems that only my wife and I came down today."

"What about between 9 and 10 o'clock?" Youya asked.

Naoki Oishi was stunned for a moment: "I don't know. My wife and I were in the room at the time."

He immediately breathed a sigh of relief, almost forgetting that he and Midori both had alibis, and it was not night when they came down.

"I see..." Yuya looked around the utility room, "It seems we need to check this place carefully..."

“Well, this is…”

Suddenly, Youya found obvious signs of disassembly at the edge of the opening.

Why is this here? Could it be that there was originally an iron gate here just like the one above?