The Eight Curious Cases of Inspector Zhang Read Free Page A

said. “Whether it was for three, four or five minutes I am not sure.”
    Inspector Zhang nodded. “So we therefore know that Mr. Wilkinson was alive just five minutes before the waiter arrived at his door. Yet we know for a fact that no one entered the room prior to the arrival of the waiter.” He drew himself up to his full height of five feet seven inches and looked in turn at the faces of everyone in the room. “That means that what we have here is what we detectives refer to as a locked room mystery.”
    He paused for several seconds, nodding wisely before continuing. “As I was explaining to my colleague earlier, there are basically seven explanations as to how a body can be found in a locked room. Explanations provided by the talented mystery writer John Dickson Carr. I think it would be helpful to run through them. The first possibility is that the murder is in fact not a murder, but a series of coincidences or accidents that give the impression that a crime has been committed. A man stumbles and hits his head on a piece of heavy furniture, for instance. Then we have a body, but no weapon and no killer.” Inspector Zhang paused to make sure that he had everyone’s attention before continuing. “In this case, an accident is unlikely, considering the nature of the wound and the fact that the body is lying down. Plus the blood is only on the bed. If he accidentally stabbed himself on, for instance, the lamp on the bedside table, we would see blood on it. There is no blood anywhere but the bed, so it is safe to say that it is on the bed that he died.”
    He turned to look out of the window and linked his fingers behind his back. His spine clicked as he straightened it, and he sighed. “The second explanation is that it is indeed a murder, but a murder in which the victim is compelled to kill himself. Or herself. A mind-altering substance can be used, a gas or a pill, LSD for instance. Mr. Carr suggested that a man might become so bewildered that he could strangle himself with his bare hands, but of course we know that is impossible.”
    â€œYou think he was drugged?” said Mercier. “Or gassed? How could gas get into the room? We have central air-conditioning and the windows are sealed.”
    â€œIf he was drugged, the Forensics Department would know,” said Sergeant Lee. “They could perform tests.”
    â€œHe did not stab himself to death,” said Inspector Zhang quickly. “If he did, the weapon would be in his hands. Or on the bed. There is no knife; therefore he did not kill himself. And I see no evidence that the victim consumed food or drink in this room.”
    He went over to the mini-bar and opened it. It was full. “You see, nothing has been taken from the mini-bar, and there are no unopened bottles in the room.”
    He looked over at the room service waiter. “Mr. Wilkinson was dead when you got here? He was dead on the bed and you saw the blood?”
    The waiter nodded.
    â€œSo he did not consume anything that the waiter brought into the room. We can rule out poison or drugs.” He went back to the window. “It is the third explanation that creates some of the most fascinating fictional locked room mysteries,” he continued. “That is where it is murder, and the killer uses some sort of mechanical device to carry out the killing. A gun concealed in a phone, for example. Or a knife that springs out of a suitcase. Or a pistol that fires when a clock is wound, or a weight that swings from the ceiling, a chair that exhales a deadly gas when your body warms it.” He waved a hand at the bedroom. “In this case we would be looking for some way of stabbing Mr. Wilkinson and making the knife vanish.” He smiled at his sergeant. “What do you think, Sergeant Lee? Do you think there is a mechanical device hidden in the bedroom?”
    â€œIt is unlikely,” she said quietly, as if she feared