"The sailing boat that went around Sansha Island on the morning of the 16th will probably return to Hong Kong between 10 am and 1 pm on the 17th. The outbound journey takes forty hours, and the return trip only takes twenty-four hours. That's because the south The wind became a tailwind.
"The sailing boat operated by Xiao Long was much later than the scheduled time, and the club members were very worried. At this moment, he feebly controlled the sailing boat Seabird and staggered back. Everyone was in a mess, and the feeble sailing boat was about to come back. When Xiao Long was lifted from the sailing boat to the trestle, he told his partner Tian Lang that he fell into the water due to violent turning of the sail. As soon as he told the location of the fall, he fell to the ground and passed out."
After listening to Director Yuan's explanation, the detectives continued to ask questions: "You said that when the sailing boats came to the ocean, the distance became messy. Can we still see the sailing boats at close range to each other at that time?"
"The sailing boats participating in the competition were all twenty-foot-class sailing boats, and the forehead sails on the mast were about seven meters high. Therefore, sailing boats at close range could see each other's white sails. But after four hours, even the shape of the white sails was no longer visible. Even though The seven-meter-high white sail could not be seen clearly due to the big waves. This was completely different from sailing on the quiet water, especially the long round-trip race between Ping An Harbor and Sansha Island, which required 70 hours of sailing. Say it!"
"So, even if one of the sailing boats has an accident, the other sailing boats may not know about it, right?"
"Yes, I don't necessarily know. Just like what happened this time, even though the Seabird sailing boat turned its sails violently, the other sailing boats still didn't notice it at all!"
Having said this, Director Yuan gave a detailed explanation of the violent turning of the sail that even a layman detective could understand.
"Was the accident caused by improper steering method?" Tian Cunda asked.
"That cannot be generalized. Steering to change direction, as mentioned just now, is because the main sail that protrudes outward is subject to a sudden and violent headwind, which may be caused by force majeure."
"Although it may have been caused by force majeure, there must have been some steering error."
"Maybe, but it can't just be said to be a mistake. It was because the helmsman could not anticipate the sudden attack of the headwind."
Director Yuan's emphasis seemed to be deliberately covering up the possibility of steering errors.
"After the sailing boat Seabird caused a violent turning incident, causing Tian Lang to fall into the sea, you said that Xiao Long quickly maneuvered the sailing boat to launch a search and rescue around the place where he fell into the water. So the search will take a long time."
"As mentioned just now, the engine cannot be installed during the sailing boat race. In this regard, it will indeed increase the difficulty of steering and sailing the sailing boat. Xiao Long also reflected after the incident and directly steered the sailing boat back and notified rescuers as soon as possible. It is the best policy for the ship to sail quickly to the scene of the accident, but seeing Tian Lang falling into the water and returning to Hong Kong without rescue is morally intolerable."
The topic soon turned to Tian Lang's body, which fell into the sea due to violent turning of the sail. Two days later, the body drifted to the end of the peninsula, which is only one kilometer south of the sailing boat's decisive point port.
"It is said that there was a wound on the back of Tian Lang's head. It was caused by the rebound of the white sail from the lower yard of the sail due to violent turning of the sail?" Officer Tian Chunta asked.
"Yes. The mainsail was struck by the headwind and rotated violently. Of course, the thick truss holding the mainsail also rotated at the same time, and the person who was hit head-on was vulnerable." The director replied.
"Did the medical examiner say after the autopsy that the brain injury was a fatal blow?"
No, he said the injury might not be fatal. Tianlang probably drowned after he fell into the sea because he was forced to drink a lot of seawater. After being seriously injured like that, his hands and feet cannot move flexibly. Even if he is not injured, few people usually survive after falling into the sea in that kind of situation. "
"Is the sail yard of the Seabird sailing boat broken?" Tian Chunda asked.
"We checked the yard, but it hasn't broken yet, but there are cracks!"
“Can that kind of rift be artificial?”
"Man-made? Unreasonable. Is it a natural flaw caused by violent rotation of the sail? Let an expert take a look and find out the cause!"
"How many years of experience has Xiao Long had in sailboat steering?"
"For more than three years, his skills are at an intermediate level, but his steering skills are undoubtedly outstanding among novices."
"So, he steered the ship correctly."
"Of course! His steering skills are reliable. Because he is participating in an ocean sailing competition, we have fully discussed whether he is qualified or not."
In short, after listening to the above introduction by the club director, there is nothing unnatural about Xiao Long's sailboat or his partner's unfortunate death.
According to criminal police analysis, the time of committing the crime may have been the two periods when Xiao Long was operating a sailboat at sea and when he was hospitalized in the ward. It seems impossible in the face of the above situation. Detective Tian Chunda and Detective Hao Dong had to completely give up their slim expectations.
The investigation of Wu Ying's murder case had to be shelved because it stopped here.
Officer Tian Chunda and Detective Hao Dong returned to Nanguang City listlessly. According to the answers given by both parties, although they had planned to interrogate Xiao Long, they now lacked the courage to face him directly.
Tian Chunda kept thinking: A married woman who checked into a hotel room in Dongyang with her extramarital lover left her without saying goodbye the second night and left her suitcase in the guest room. However, when she returned to Nanguang City, a corpse appeared in the hotel. In the woods, is this possible?
At that time, her recently divorced husband Xiao Long was sailing on the ocean with the 20-foot-long Seabird sailboat. He and his partner Tian Lang were watching the sloping horizontal line and hearing the sound of the wind in the sails while happily speaking. Enjoy the spray shower from the waves. Although the situations that occurred on both sides were highly consistent in time, they were separated by an absolute distance.
At the time of the unfortunate accident in which the sailboat Seabird operated by Xiao Long turned violently at sea, causing the boom to hit Tian Lang and fall into the water, no one knew where Wu Ying was at that time, but it is certain that she was on land, with There is also an unreachable spatial distance here on the Seabird sailing boat.
Even then, Officer Tian Chunda and Detective Hao Dong were still surrounded by dark clouds that could not be dispelled. Although Director Yuan's easy-to-understand explanations were understandable even to laymen like them, the mood was still not as fundamentally clear as on a sunny day.
The reason for this is because they both realized that there was a vague and strange connection between Wu Ying who disappeared silently from the rooftop square and the Seabird sailing accident in which Tian Lang fell into the sea and died.
In their hearts, they were repeatedly experimenting with unnatural and unreasonable steering movements, and were repeatedly searching for the glue on them.
Director Yuan of the sailing club said that violent sail changes were force majeure. He was also a club executive, so of course he had to comfort the sailing athletes. Despite that, he tactfully hinted to the police that the violent rotation of the sail was also caused by a few percent steering error.
Steering errors can also be caused by humans. And it was on the sea where no one could see it, and there were only two parties on the sailing boat...
The two criminal policemen set their sights here, not entirely with hope or expectation, but just thinking slowly and carefully.
Even so, no one can determine whether it was a complete negligence or a complete forgery, because there are no witnesses, and judging from the state after the accident, no matter which situation is analogized, it is Xiao Long's own words, and he will not make it An explanation that is not conducive to oneself.
Officer Tian Chunda thought: Can't we guess which situation caused it from the perspective of Tian Lang's body? So he led young detective Hao Dong to Ping An Harbor again.
The Ping An Port Police keeps the corpse verification photos of all recent violent deaths, and there is a corpse verification photo of Tian Lang in the file. Tian Lang was naked lying on the straw mat, photographed from various angles. The most important thing is the photo taken from the back. The back of the head has lacerations caused by a violent collision, like a scarf wrapped around the front and side of the back of the head. Although the two detectives did not have very detailed knowledge of corpse identification, it was clear at a glance that the collision was not caused by a simple blow with a wooden stick.
The police in Ping An Port said that the collision would not cause fatal injuries, his vital signs were normal when he fell into the sea, and the cause of death was drowning. This is a more detailed confirmation than the explanations I heard before. Of course, it is impossible to tell from this photo whether the violent turning of the sail that led to Tian Lang's death was caused by Xiao Long's steering error or by forgery.
Young Detective Hao Dong was still staring closely at the photo of Tian Lang's body. Officer Tian Chunda left the file rack where the corpse photo file was stored and walked towards the window. He looked out the window at the seemingly cool blue sky, as if to rest his tired heart.
