Ever since he regarded Kawei as a suspect that day, Werther had been a bit elusive about this young man.
How did a gardener who originally wanted to be admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts learn human anatomy when he was just 17 years old and had never attended middle school? How did he manage to get into the Municipal General Hospital by relying on his knowledge of anatomy and become Ignatz's assistant without any medical education?
Did he have anything to do with Rosa's death?
What about Andre?
The landlord and tenant of No. 73 Basinger Street died one after another. In the past, it must have been a major case, and at least it had to be investigated together. But this time the director issued an order, requiring it to be declared an accident. There must be considerations from the director and the higher-ups. As the detective, Witte must implement it, but this does not affect his private pursuit of the truth.
It's not that he wants to keep an eye on Kawei, but he only has Kawei as a suspect.
"How long have you lived in Basinger Street?"
"It's been almost half a year." Kawei reminded with a smile, "Detective, you asked me once the day before yesterday, on the carriage to the police station."
"Oh, really..."
Werther pressed his forehead hard to wake up his head after a busy night: "...Then when was the last time you saw Andre?"
This is a very direct question, and the answer determines the direction of subsequent questions. Kavi must make a choice, whether to lie to him or tell the truth. Andre knew about the existence of the man in black, so the easiest thing to do was to cut off the relationship, but there was definitely a risk in lying. Once he was discovered, he would immediately become a major suspect.
Since he dared to touch the other party's car, Kawei was ready: "Just last night."
"Last night?" Werther suddenly became energetic, "Did you see him last night?"
"Yes, it was around seven o'clock in the evening, in my room." Kawei's words were 80% true and 20% false. "I just wanted to pay the rent owed this month and then discuss the cancellation of the rent." . The rental house is too far from the hospital, and you have to take a carriage back and forth. To save trouble, I will move to the hospital tonight."
He dared to say that he had seen Andre, mainly because the place of the accident was in the northern suburbs of the city, a long way away from Basinger Street. Even if you take the fastest carriage in the city, it will take an hour to get there.
This kind of carriage is often the personal belongings of the upper class.
It was impossible for Kawei to take the body and get into someone else's carriage and run for two hours to the scene of the incident. It is also impossible to dump the body on the spot, because the Danube River entering Vienna flows from northwest to southeast, and the corpse will only go downstream further east.
In fact, Kawei never left the rental house. That was true, so there was no need to hide it.
As for the quarrel between the two and the new lease of 5 kronor, they were hidden because they were directly related to the man in black. Even if both cases are now ruled accidental, Kawei doesn't want anything to do with Rosa's death.
"What time did he leave?" Werther continued to ask.
"My chief detective, hasn't the case been finalized? Why are you starting to ask questions again?"
Witte made an excuse: "Because I couldn't find any witnesses, I just wanted to ask around to find out more about the situation."
"About 8 o'clock, I didn't check the time much."
"Did you say where you were going?"
"No." Kawei said, "I'm about to quit the lease. It's too late for him to get angry. How could he tell me this?"
Victor nodded: "What time did you get home last night?"
"I'll get off work before seven o'clock, and I'll be home before seven-thirty."
"What is he wearing?"
"It's the same as the photo in the newspaper, black coat and checkered vest." Kawei said with a smile, "It seems that the detective is beginning to doubt me again."
Of course, Werther was suspicious of him. He had seen all the residents in No. 73, but Kavi was the most abnormal. But Werther also didn't expect that this young man would dare to get on the police station's carriage and chat with him like a bystander about what happened before Andre's death.
With Ignatz as a guarantee, even if he wanted to be suspicious, he had to provide some evidence, otherwise he could only keep it in his heart.
"Forget it, just pretend I didn't say it."
Werther glanced at him, stretched again, and leaned back on the chair. Recalling the scene of Kawei trying his best to help the maternal patient, he slowly lowered his guard and removed Kawei from the suspect list for the first time.
A medical assistant who is willing to stand up for vulnerable female patients and fight against male attackers is even a minor. What bad intentions can he have?
I haven't slept all night. My health is important, so I'd better sleep for a while and rest...
Werther's eyelids slowly stuck together, and soon, snoring broke out in the car.
The two chestnut-colored horses moved forward quickly under the coachman's loving whip. Kawei sat quietly opposite Werther, with a trace of a smile still on his face. This carriage ride was not in vain. Not only did he prove his innocence, but he also gained a new understanding of the detective.
Of course Kawei doesn't have any bad intentions, but there is an essential difference between "no" and "won't be". Kawei's "no" is just the result of rational screening.
Two days ago in the afternoon, when he stood at the door of his home and faced the other party's suspicion, he even had the idea of piercing Werther's carotid artery with the tip of a quill. But like last night, it was just a passing thought. Regardless of the difference in numbers or force between the two sides, he had no reason to take action.
It is better to dissolve enemies than to make enemies. Now that Ignaz is his backer, he will not be dragged into the police station for questioning, so he is more willing to classify the detective as an ordinary friend.
"This No. 73 is quite evil. If we move out tonight, the hospital will still be in peace..."
The speed of the police carriage was much faster than that of ordinary taxis. It took less than twenty minutes to reach the police station. Before getting off the bus, Cavett quickly found the driver and asked about the surroundings: "By the way, driver, are there any chemical plants nearby?"
"Chemical plants? Chemical plants are all in the south. This is not the right direction."
"What about the drug store?"
"As for drug stores, there is one in front of the police station. It's quite famous. You can go and check it out."
There is no separation between inside and outside. After all, surgery is a destructive process that requires a large amount of internal medicine for support.
Among the three elements of surgery, anesthesia and disinfection are both related to drugs. Unfortunately, pharmaceutical production was limited by the level of the chemical industry in that era. The chemical industry in the 19th century had just begun to develop, and Kawei did not know enough about this era, so he needed to do some on-the-spot investigation.
After getting off the car, Werther ran to the dormitory to sleep, while Kawei silently noted the location of the drug store, then turned and entered the police station.
The anatomy room where Musil was located was a small room at the back of the police station. The environment was worse than that of Ignatz, and the tools were insufficient. The only thing that could compare was probably the dispensable ventilation. ability.
"The smell is really strong."
Kawei covered his nose and knocked on the door and entered the room. The first thing he saw was this forensic doctor who was the same age as Ignatz but had already gained weight: "I am an assistant in the surgical ward of the Municipal General Hospital. I was affected by Ignatz." As a commission from the teacher, come here to find Teacher Musil.”
Musil looked Kawei up and down and welcomed him in.
When Andre's body was brought here at 2 o'clock in the middle of the night, Musil had already thought of Ignatz's reaction. He knew how much his old friend longed for the corpse, but he didn't expect that the other party had no intention of coming in person.
Musil sat back at his desk, ignoring the pungent smell around him, and poured a full cup of steaming coffee into his mouth: "Where are the others?"
"The body has just been delivered. The teacher should be busy."
"Busy......"
Musil put down his coffee cup, crossed his legs, and took out a pipe from the drawer. Put the loosened tobacco in the bag into the pipe, flatten it, slow fire, and smoke coldly. The smoke will be exhaled through the breath. The whole process reveals an elegance that only belongs to old Europeans.
Time was in Kawei's favor, and he just stood aside and watched without saying a word, but he didn't know whether he should go up and say: Smoking is harmful to health [1].
After three rounds of cigarettes, Musil finally came back to his senses and suddenly asked: "Why did he ask you to come?"
"Oh, I heard that another corpse was delivered last night." Kawei patted his pocket and said with a smile, "The hospital is very short of corpses recently, and the teacher wants to take them together."
"Okay." Musil had already thought about this. Two hours ago, he typed up the application report when the leader just came to work. "The body is lying on the bed board in front, 60 kronor." Just take it away.”
Kawei followed his finger and glanced forward, then immediately turned back and said, "Can you let me take a look?"
"You want to see it?" Musil nodded, "Okay, go see it yourself."
Andre, like Rosa, was packed in a light yellow linen bag. The cold winter air and the cold water of the Danube made his body not completely hardened. The mortuary tag on the bag read "Rosa". Contents of the same paragraph: [Unexpected].
Opening the bag, Kawei confirmed his identity again. The fat, bloodless face in front of him was his landlord, Andre Edmund.
He was completely relieved and began to perform his duties as an assistant.
It doesn't matter if Ignatz spends money lavishly, but he must show his value as an assistant. Considering the dissection, the price point of a cadaver should be directly related to its completeness.
If it were another case, Musil would not be able to control the selling price. In order to determine the correct cause of death, each corpse would have to be dissected, so very little could be sold. It's just that this time Andre was named and treated coldly. Whether he was dissected or not had nothing to do with the result, so he didn't bother to go under the knife.
In Kawei's view, if Andre was really hit with a heavy object on the back of the head and killed, it would indeed be worth 60 kronor. But in fact, there were traces of injuries on his limbs, chest, abdomen, and back, and the blood stasis and wounds were very obvious.
Relying on the feeling of bone scraping [2], four limbs were broken in seven or eight places. It was difficult to judge how many ribs were broken. The entire thorax was like the soft outer chocolate shell of ice cream. One look at it reminded Kavi One word:
Thoracic fragmentation injury [3].
This is a condition that only occurs with severe blunt trauma. Combined with the condition of the limbs and head, it is actually far from the slip and fall that Witte said. If we insist that he fell and died, I'm afraid he would have to fall from the mountain and have close contact with the gravel along the way to achieve this effect.
"Twenty crowns."
This was the quotation given by Kawei. He slashed Musil directly on the waist with the knife, causing him to take a big puff of cigarette into his lungs and couldn't help but choke and cough: "Cough, cough, cough, you just... Hey, what did you just say?"
"I said, this body is only worth 20 crowns."
