"A needle hole? What's going on?" Liu Yuning seemed not to understand what I was saying.
"Hey, I mean, before she died, someone secretly injected something into her head. It's estimated that these substances caused her death, and I don't know why she was paying attention to herself!" I said.
"Wait, you said she locked herself in the kitchen? What's your basis?" Liu Yuning looked skeptical.
I picked up the old woman's hand and said, "The imprint on the index and middle fingers touching the lithium metal door lock. This kind of lock is rarely used, but this kitchen lock is. This is clearly a lock she brought herself, but the problem remains, did she know she was going to die? She even prepared the tools!?"
Even I felt how absurd this question was, but in reality, it seemed to be the case.
"Your view is a bit extreme, but the lock was probably indeed put on by herself! There's surveillance here, let's go and see!" Xiao Yuande, who was nearby, suggested.
Before he could move, Xia Hou arrived. He told us, "I just watched the surveillance and found that the old woman really locked herself in!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Liu Yuning looked over in surprise, and with a touch of admiration.
I had seen her reaction many times before. I ignored it. This case was truly interesting!
That was my thought at the time.
The body was temporarily taken away. I swept my eyes around the scene. The kitchen utensils had been used. There should be a chef here, so where were they?
I raised the question, and then the waiter said, "When we disembarked, the chefs were resting. They were all in their rooms at the time."
"How many people were there in total?"
"Two!"
I asked Xia Hou to investigate. I walked out of the kitchen and looked in the next room. Down a corridor was a restroom. I went in and used the yellow wine again, and found some bloodstains here. Comparing the distance from the deceased, could she have been here before? I went to the monitoring room and with the help of several coast guards, I personally reviewed a lot of surveillance footage.
I discovered that Mrs. Qiao had gone to the northern restroom, but there was no surveillance inside. I didn't know what happened after she went in.
Later, I also found that Mrs. Qiao had been to the deck and the music room, but she spent most of her time in Cabin No. 1. This cabin was actually a VIP cabin, with not many passengers, only about 50 people.
Cabin No. 2, the ordinary cabin, was in the middle of the cruise ship, separating the cruise ship's kitchen, music room, and a restroom.
I went to the music room and found many sheet music scores, as well as some pianos, and a lot of red wine.
I felt around and discovered that Mrs. Qiao had sat here and played a piece, "Ode to Joy." Her playing was stiff, but she still insisted on finishing it.
At that time, no one approached her, and no one passed by.
I sat at the piano she had played and touched the keys. For some reason, I felt something watching me from behind. I turned around and immediately noticed that a wall was very abnormal.
I went to the wall and felt around, finding a small hole!
When I tapped it gently, it sounded hollow inside. I pressed it, and a section of the wall turned, as if something had been placed inside, but it had been removed.
Could the surveillance be faulty?
I returned to the monitoring room and checked it several times. I found that very few people came to the music room. Before Mrs. Qiao arrived, only a bald man had come, but he didn't seem to have approached that wall.
If it wasn't this person, I didn't know how to investigate. I decided to meet this bald man first, so I asked Liu Yuning to arrange it. Then, all the tourists on the cruise ship were interrogated by our police officers in turn.
I didn't go to the bald man directly. Instead, I focused my attention on the trash cans in the corridor.
Since the deceased was stabbed with something like a needle, if I could find the murder weapon here, I could verify the killer's DNA.
I rummaged through the trash cans, but after checking several of them, I found nothing. Perhaps the killer didn't throw it away directly. Was the murder weapon still on him?
The technical team brought precise instruments to search various parts of the cruise ship. I was near a seat in the VIP cabin area and found a trash can containing several crumpled poker cards.
At first, I thought it was something someone casually threw away after playing. But when I picked up the poker cards, I smelled a faint scent of blood. I sprinkled some yellow wine on them, and the poker cards actually showed a blue-purple bloodstain.
Seeing this, Liu Yuning said, "How can this be?"
"It seems that these poker cards are the murder weapon."
"The deceased should have a subtle wound on her body. Ask Xie Chuchu to examine it carefully!"
Liu Yuning asked doubtfully, "Poker cards can kill people? That's too absurd!"
"You're wrong about that. Don't talk about poker cards, even a piece of paper can cut human skin if the flow rate reaches a certain level. I think that needle hole might not be directly related to the deceased's death. We'll have to wait for Xie Chuchu's test report."
With that, I went to find the bald man. He was waiting in one of the lounges, lying comfortably on the bed, smoking heavily and tapping on his phone keyboard, as if browsing for some information.
Hearing footsteps, he immediately turned over. Upon seeing me, he politely said, "Officer, have you found the killer? The ship is about to depart, and we still need to go to Gaogang City!"
"Oh? Is that so? How much time is left?"
"About 5 hours. If this time passes, you won't be able to investigate. We won't wait any longer!"
This bald man had incited people to cause trouble outside the cruise ship before. I hadn't pursued it. This guy seemed quite arrogant.
I suddenly noticed that he seemed to always like to press the pocket of his right pants when he spoke.
"What do you have in your pocket? Take it out and let me see!" I demanded.
"Nothing, just some chewing gum!" The bald man said anxiously, his face changing immediately.
The more he acted like this, the more suspicious I became. Gao Mingqiang, who was beside me, immediately grabbed him and said, "Take it out now!"
The bald man was controlled by us. Gao Mingqiang took out two packs of pills from his pocket. I recognized them as knockout drugs.
"What are you doing with these?" I asked.
"No, I just used them to..."
Before the bald man could finish speaking, I obtained his ID card and asked a police officer to check his situation with the police communication device. After a while, the officer said, "This person committed several rape offenses years ago and was recently released from prison."