Volume 8 – Chapter 38: The Disappeared Pufferfish and Inconsistent Handprints
“Please take your seat! What do you two want to eat?”
The waiter was very polite; the waiter even warmly gave Luo Qiu and You Ye their respective stools, and presented a menu.
Luo Qiu looked at the menu for a while, then raised his head and asked, “Are there any dishes with river puffer?”
“Aiya, I’m so sorry.” The waiter apologized at this moment, “If you order it now, it’s probably impossible to serve it.”
Luo Qiu asked curiously, “But isn’t it written on this menu? It’s also a signature dish.”
The waiter said, “Sir, you also know that the pufferfish is difficult to handle. If the master made a mistake, it’ll be very troublesome if people eat it. This puffer fish dish is indeed the signature of our store, but our store’s only master who is able to make the pufferfish hurt his hand when he got on the boat, so he can’t hold the knife for the time being.”
“Oh?” Luo Qiu nodded. “That’s to say, there are no pufferfish here?”
The waiter said, “This is not the case, the boss has bought the goods. But the master can’t deal with it, so we can only put it in the freezer. It will not go bad anyway, it just wouldn’t be so fresh.”
Boss Luo nodded and suddenly asked, “There should be a lot of people coming here to eat pufferfish, right?”
The waiter was quite good-tempered. At this time, he smiled and then glanced at the front desk, before lowering his voice, “To be honest, although it is a signature dish, its sales are really bad… You know, this pufferfish can kill people if it’s not made well, so many people don’t dare to eat it. The boss just made a gimmick. Actually, I can only sell a few servings a day. But actually, if you dare to eat it, the taste is really very good! I have eaten it, and the taste is beyond description! You will absolutely want to eat it again after eating it once.”
“But there isn’t any now, isn’t it?” You Ye said indifferently at this time.
The waiter only smiled awkwardly, looking at this extremely beautiful woman a little dazed, unable to look away, “But, I’m serious! This pufferfish is really delicious! Even our captain is a fan of it!”
“The captain… came here to eat too?” Luo Qiu put down the menu.
“En, he’s a frequent customer.” The waiter pointed to the corner of the restaurant. “Every time he comes, the captain will sit in that position and order a pufferfish…”
That was where the view of the sea could be seen.
“Is the captain also here yesterday?” You Ye asked curiously.
The waiter showed an obsessed look and subconsciously said, “He came here at noon yesterday, but he didn’t eat pufferfish. Then, he chatted with the master and left.”
“Give us a sus.h.i.+ platter.” You Ye smiled and said, “Nothing else.”
The waiter nodded and left with some disappointment. In this kind of j.a.panese restaurant, the kitchen was open, so the waiter walked directly to the kitchen workbench.
Probably because of the dead people on the deck, many tourists did not go out, and the entertainment area looked deserted. There were only a few kittens in the restaurant at this time.
An elderly chef in the kitchen was boiling soup with gauze wrapped around his wrist. He was probably the master who could handle the pufferfish. Two other chefs were also tinkering with something.
“What did they order?” Probably because they were too free, the young chef who was originally looking at the list to make food asked boringly.
The waiter shrugged and said, “They originally ordered the pufferfish, but there wasn’t any, so they ordered a platter.”
“Pufferfish…” The young chef nodded, then suddenly looked at the master and said, “Yes, Master, I checked the freezer in the morning, it seems that there is one puffer missing.”
The master who was stirring the soup pot turned his head, “One is missing? There are twelve in total, did you count clearly?”
“I counted clearly. There were only eleven pufferfish.”
“Eleven? Did I remember wrongly?” The master frowned. “I’ll check the purchase order later. You go and prepare the customer’s food first.”
“Okay.”
After a while.
“Sir, miss, your sus.h.i.+ platter.” The waiter returned with the plate.
Luo Qiu said with a smile, “Please pack it up, we’ll just take it away.”
…
“The hand print stops here… Could they fall from the ceiling?” Lin Feng looked up at the top of the corridor.
Ma Houde shook his head and said, “If they fell from the top, would the ceiling still be okay? Besides, the deceased shed so much blood, wouldn’t there be blood stains on it?”
“That’s true…” Lin Feng nodded, and then asked, puzzled, “But the hand print starts here… Could this person appear out of thin air? The surveillance camera didn’t capture it, isn’t this night too extraordinary?”
With that, Lin Feng knocked the wall next to him.
“What are you knocking on?” Ma Houde was stunned as he asked.
Lin Feng said, “I’m looking to see if there is a secret door or something, maybe they came out of the secret door?”
Ma Houde also followed and knocked… Fei Ying, dragged by Officer Ma, looked at the two with an expression as if they saw a psychotic person at this time, and shook his head and said, “Sir, if there is a secret door here, the structure wouldn’t be like this.”
“What is your opinion?” Ma Houde glared at Fei Ying.
“Sir, why don’t you let me go first, and I will give you some insights? I promise not to leave!” Fei Ying said with a smile.
“If you say it, I promise not to trouble you,” said Ma Houde.
Fei Ying… had never seen such a brazen person!
“Uncle Ma, you really are here.”
Suddenly came the voice of Luo Qiu. Ma Houde looked back and saw Luo Qiu and You Ye walking over together, so he asked curiously, “Little Luo Qiu, why are you here? Aren’t you accompanying your aunty?”
Luo Qiu said with a smile, “I saw someone on the deck guarding, so I knew you were here. Then the police saw me and said nothing, and just told me that you were here and let me in.”
After all, this level of relations.h.i.+p existed. The people in the entire team admired the brave and righteous person. Seeing his children, they more or less would think of a favour. If Ren Ziling could be so spontaneous, then Luo Qiu would be the same.
It’s just that this kid didn’t need this privilege, and he never showed anything… that was why Ma Houde was a hundred times more a.s.sured of Luo Qiu than Ren Ziling.
“That guy…” Ma Houde shook his head, “Forget it, you’re already here, but there’s nothing good to see here.”
“Let’s eat something.” Luo Qiu smiled and said, “Uncle Ma, you haven’t had time to eat breakfast. It’s already one in the afternoon, you should be hungry. Are you okay with the sus.h.i.+ platter?”
“Speaking of it, I’m really hungry.”
Ma Houde’s index finger suddenly moved. Since last night, he couldn’t control himself and worked all night. Now his stomach was completely empty. At this time, he was hungry. How could he hold back?
“You are kind to me! If I rely on that woman from your team, she probably won’t even give me water to drink!” Ma Houde cheerfully took the packed box from You Ye, “Lin Feng, you should also eat. You’ll work better after you’re full!”
Watching these two police officers eat sus.h.i.+ here, Fei Ying swallowed subconsciously… He also had an empty stomach all night and all morning.
Not even a sip of plain boiled water… The most cruel thing in the world was that when you were hungry, the food was clearly in front, but you could not enjoy it.
“Do you want to eat?” Ma Houde smiled as he pa.s.sed Fei Ying a piece of sus.h.i.+.
Fei Ying immediately stretched out his hand with a smile, but Ma Houde directly retracted his hands, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed happily.
… So evil!
“Sir, I surrender. I’ll just say it, okay?” Fei Ying said with resignation, “I will tell you what I found, then can you let me eat?”
“You talk first, and there will be rewards if they are useful,” Ma Houde nodded.
Fei Ying looked at the sus.h.i.+ that was left, and said quickly, “Sir, have you ever thought that Qian Guoliang didn’t start walking here?”
Ma Houde was stunned, “What do you mean?”
Fei Ying pointed to the hand print here, “The hand print starts here, but this place is special. It’s in the corner position, so the surveillance camera could not capture it, so it is a blind spot. You can only see Qian Guoliang appearing from this place, right?”
Fei Ying pointed to a certain position of the pa.s.sage that walked towards the deck at the corner, “From here it should be where Qian Guoliang showed up in the surveillance, right?”
Ma Houde frowned… Fei Ying is right. That’s the case on the surveillance video.
But this guy hasn’t seen it, but he can infer… I don’t know how he knows it. I’m afraid he’s not just as simple as a little thief. “Then?”
“Then, the hand prints can’t match.” Fei Ying said abruptly, “The b.l.o.o.d.y handprint looks like it has been extended all the way. But it is actually two different handprints, and their handprints are inconsistent!”
Fei Ying dragged Ma Houde to a door in the pa.s.sage this time. They were in front of the door panel of the utility room. He pointed at the hand print on the door and said, “After this door, the handprints start appearing at the corner. The handprints in this section are completely different from the one leading to the deck.”
“Really?” Lin Feng was stunned for a moment, frowned and put his hand up, then compared them one by one. He then said, “It’s true, there is a difference in the length of the pinkie in the front and back part… It’s really different! But how could you notice that the handprint is different? Your eyesight is really good!”
Fei Ying proudly said at this time, “How? Sir, what I said is not wrong, right? Can you give me something to eat?”
Ma Houde snorted and stuffed the box directly into Fei Ying’s hands. “Eat! You provide me something useful this time.”
Fei Ying laughed aloud twice, feeling that his stomach was out of control, and opened the box without saying a word. However, he could only see the leftover wasabi, how could he see the sus.h.i.+?
The two police officers next to him looked at the ceiling as if they didn’t see anything. Ma Houde suddenly hiccupped and clasped his teeth with his fingers.
Fei Ying… Fei Ying dropped the box on the ground, tearing at the murder scene, choked by the wasabi he eaten at the time.
So hungry.