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墨書 Inktalez
"Well said!" I scoffed, then pointed at Mai Lang's voice recorder and said, "The sound can't be faked, but it can be recorded. And this voice recorder is the perfect tool for that. In fact, the shouts we heard back then were recorded by you in advance! If I remember correctly, Anderson and Davis had a heated argument and one of them said something."
I mimicked Anderson's tone, saying, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."
"Everyone think carefully; doesn't that phrase sound eerily similar to what we heard outside Anderson's room?" I looked at everyone, slowing my speech. "After we heard the argument between Anderson and Davis, we all rushed to the scene. Mai Lang was there too, and it was at that moment that Mai Lang decided to seize the opportunity to commit murder! So he recorded their conversation."
"When Anderson left, everyone fell silent!" I recalled the situation. "When the doctor tried to approach Anderson to treat his wounds, he shouted loudly, 'I'm fine, don't worry about me.' That was loud enough for Mai Lang to clearly record it."
My words triggered memories among the crowd. After a moment of thought, many began to recall this detail since it hadn't been long since the incident. The Japanese man said, "Shao Jun is right; I remember this clearly. The phrase we heard outside the door seems identical to this one—no word has changed."
I nodded and continued, "It's precisely because of this that we felt Anderson wasn't dead. But in reality, he had already died before that. This voice was merely a recording played back by a parrot! Then Mai Lang took back the parrot and pretended to have just woken up!"
"This way, he had an alibi!" I locked eyes with Mai Lang.
Mai Lang shrugged nonchalantly.
I ignored him and continued, "Think about it—who still uses a voice recorder nowadays? When Mai Lang pulled out the recorder, my first instinct was that something felt off. We all use smartphones now; what can't a smartphone do? Why bother with a separate voice recorder?"
"Then it hit me! From the moment we boarded the ship, Mai Lang had already planned to kill!" I laid out my reasoning. "We didn't find any USB drives on Anderson; even after thoroughly searching his room, nothing turned up. This indicates that the USB drive wasn't with Anderson. The only ones who knew about it were Franco—the merchant who discovered it—and you, Mai Lang!"
As I paced back and forth, I continued speaking. "Of course, this is just my speculation without solid evidence! But I believe you pieced together clues about Franco's connection and knew Anderson would be on board this time. So you brought along your crucial tool for this case—the parrot!"
"To avoid raising suspicion from others, you also brought your pet dog and cat! That way, no one would pay too much attention to the parrot!" I approached the parrot while feeding it nuts and added, "And the voice recorder was also an essential tool! You probably recorded many conversations with Anderson over these past few days, but none were as clear or perfect as this one!"
"A pen doesn't weigh much; a parrot of this size can easily carry it without dropping it." I smiled and said, "But if it were a smartphone, I doubt the parrot could manage that—that's why you chose to bring a voice recorder."
Mai Lang chuckled and replied, "Officer Shao, you police officers think too much! This is all just your conjecture! Where's your real evidence? Did you find my fingerprints on the room card? Or in Anderson's room? Everything you're saying sounds ridiculous!"
"Oh, you want evidence?" I extended my hand and said, "I'll give you evidence—hand over the voice recorder!"
Mai Lang's expression darkened but he still handed me the voice recorder. I took it and reached into the cage before speaking to the parrot: "Little cutie, whether we solve this case depends on you. You know how to operate this voice recorder, right?" As I spoke, I used nuts as bait to entice it.
Sure enough, the parrot picked up the voice recorder with its beak and pressed down with its claw; recordings began playing from within. I took a deep breath—apparently Mai Lang hadn't had time to teach the parrot how to erase incriminating evidence. The crowd erupted in shock; everyone was stunned as the parrot's actions confirmed that what I had just said was entirely plausible.
Mai Lang stared at me for a moment, then sat down and said, "I did teach this parrot to use a voice recorder, but that doesn't mean I killed anyone. I've never recorded Anderson before; using a voice recorder is just a personal hobby of mine. Although I am the prime suspect, this alone cannot convict me. Unless you have more direct evidence to pin the crime on me!"
"You've never recorded anything?" I asked.
"Never!" Mai Lang replied emphatically.
"That's good!" I said expressionlessly. "Actually, at this point, our only witness is right in front of us. My reasoning and investigation have brought us to this moment; all that's left is to question this witness! Perhaps we can conduct a simulation, and maybe we'll uncover the truth of what happened!"
With that, I instructed everyone to go to Anderson's room. At that moment, Mai Lang's room was left with just me. I tied the parrot to the window and said, "Go!"
The parrot flew out immediately, and I rushed into Anderson's room. When I arrived, I saw the parrot just landing on the window of Anderson's room, trying to turn on the voice recorder. However, I had already deleted all the recordings inside; no matter how many times it pressed the button, the recorder remained silent.
We all held our breath as we watched. At that moment, the parrot opened its beak, dropping the voice recorder onto the floor while it exclaimed, "I'm fine; don't worry about me!"
I quickly cut the rope and took the parrot down from the window. Everyone fell silent as I turned to Mai Lang and said, "Now you can't argue anymore! You trained this parrot to use a voice recorder; that phrase has echoed in its ears countless times. You also mentioned it's currently in a sensitive period for language! This phrase is not only word-for-word accurate but also matches in tone and intonation!"
"And you claim you've never recorded anything!" I gently stroked the parrot and continued, "Are you still going to deny it?"
Mai Lang let out a heavy sigh and slumped onto the bed. "You're right about everything—the method of murder, the time of death, the motive for killing. You're too clever; I never imagined I'd end up sharing a boat with someone like you."
"I discovered Franco's situation over a month ago. At that time, I noticed my computer had been tampered with; some files had been copied," Mai Lang slowly recounted. "I became suspicious and eventually found out that the person responsible was none other than the woman sleeping beside me."
Tears filled Mai Lang's eyes as he looked at Franco and continued, "Later, I realized that this woman I deeply loved was merely someone else's tool; she didn't belong to me. From that moment on, I knew about Anderson's existence. I thought about killing him more than once, but reason kept me in check."
"Until I learned that Anderson would be on this ship! So just as you guessed, I prepared everything and waited for an opportunity." Tears streamed down his face as he spoke. "For over ten days, I couldn't bring myself to do it until I witnessed that scene on the basketball court! It ignited something within me; I made up my mind to kill Anderson! Of course, my plan was to do it on the last day before disembarking."
"But then three days later, Anderson clashed with Davis!" Mai Lang continued. "I knew this was an opportunity, so I took action and sent the room key through the parrot after Davis went out for dinner! But I didn't expect Davis would coincidentally lock himself inside with the key, creating a locked room scenario where my framing of Davis failed..."
Another story of love leading to murder; I've heard so many of these tales that my ears feel calloused. But how many people can escape from love? How many have turned love into hate and committed murder because of it?
"I have one question for you," I whispered. "Why didn't you release the parrot? That way, the evidence would have disappeared."
"The sea, this is!" Mai Lang said to me with a smile, "Let it go, it will only die and won't be able to live anymore."
I fell silent. A person who wouldn't even harm the life of a parrot had killed for love. Whose life is more valuable, a parrot's or a human's? This question was difficult for me to answer. But I knew that sometimes, in the face of love, life, freedom, and dignity are all insignificant.
Zhao Mingkun cleared his throat and then said, "Since everything has been investigated clearly, take Mai Lang away. Everyone else can disperse. I will contact the Italian side; we will be able to dock in a few days. Let's go! I will have someone take care of your pet!" With that, he led several bodyguards to escort Mai Lang out.
Suddenly, I remembered the question Mai Lang had asked me earlier. At that moment, I thought I had an answer, so I shouted, "Wait, Mai Lang, do you remember the question you asked me?"
Mai Lang turned back and smiled at me, saying, "Of course I remember."
"Then let me send you a line of poetry," I said slowly while looking at Mai Lang. "Spring hearts should not compete with flowers in bloom; an inch of longing is an inch of ash! A grain of love, a grain of ashes! Learn Chinese well; next time we meet, teach me how to translate it into Italian."
Mai Lang smiled but did not speak as she was led away. The passengers gathered in the corridor also began to leave slowly. Only I remained in the room with a blue-and-yellow parrot. Suddenly, the parrot flew up from my hand and began to circle around the room, then softly said:
Grazie!
For the first time out at sea, I encountered a renowned Bengal Aid Worker. Young and impulsive, but too poor to really make a move until the First Mate told me that a bag of instant noodles could get me through the night with a group of women... It was intense and multi-faceted.
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