Clues to Suicide

Lin Xinyi gave the answer.

Everyone reconstructed the full course of the case in their minds:

About three hours earlier, the victim had drowned. Because of her obese build, her body had floated directly to the surface and remained submerged in the river through the night, undiscovered.

More than ten minutes earlier, the body had accidentally collided with a passing cruise ship and been drawn into its propeller.

The immense force of the propeller had chopped the body into several pieces, leaving numerous chaotic cutting wounds across it.

During that process, the body had rotated rapidly along with the propeller and repeatedly scraped against the hull, causing large areas of skin to peel away.

Afterward, the cruise ship had continued onward, leaving the fragmented body behind in these waters.

As the body broke apart, a great deal of blood had spilled into the river and dyed its waters red, ultimately allowing Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran to witness that horrifying tide of blood.

"So that was it."

"A simple accident had made the case look complicated on the surface."

Having learned the truth, Inspector Megure could not help sighing in amazement.

The truth behind the propeller accident and dismemberment still sounded rather unbelievable.

Yet no one present, including Kudo Shinichi, could question Lin Xinyi's conclusion.

Every word he had said was supported by evidence.

Just as Lin Xinyi himself had said, he was not deducing anything. He was merely helping the dead speak.

"Wait." After his sighs of amazement, Inspector Megure suddenly noticed another issue. "This evidence can only prove that the victim drowned and was accidentally caught in the propeller. It still cannot prove that she committed suicide."

"Brother Lin."

He casually switched to a more familiar form of address:

"Why did you decide from the very beginning that the victim had died by suicide?"

"Well..."

"The clue suggesting that the victim committed suicide is on her waist and abdomen."

"Detective Kudo should have noticed that too, right?"

Lin Xinyi gave Kudo Shinichi a meaningful look:

He had noticed earlier that, the moment the young famous detective saw the body parts, his gaze had fixed on the victim's waist and abdomen.

Clearly, Kudo Shinichi had noticed this detail on the corpse as well.

"That's right."

Kudo Shinichi nodded and explained under Lin Xinyi's gaze:

"From the beginning, I noticed a distinct ligature mark around the victim's waist and abdomen, caused by a rope."

"Did the murderer tie up the victim?"

Inspector Megure instinctively made a guess.

"No, the victim most likely tied it herself."

Lin Xinyi slowly voiced his denial:

"Because there are no rope marks on the victim's wrists. Although only one hand has been recovered so far, we can still see that there were no marks on her wrist."

"Only her waist was tied, while both hands could still move freely..."

"If this had been murder and the rope had been tied by the killer, would he have left the victim with hands she could move freely?"

"If her hands could move freely, she could have untied the rope herself after being pushed into the water."

"So, there is usually only one situation that could produce such rope marks..."

He paused slightly.

The famous detective named Kudo Shinichi seamlessly picked up where he left off:

"It was suicide by jumping into the water."

"People who commit suicide by jumping into the water often tie a heavy object around their waists so they cannot float back to the surface after entering the water."

"That is why they have rope marks around their waists, but no signs of being bound on their wrists."

"The victim only had rope marks around her waist and drowned. This was most likely a suicide by drowning."

Kudo Shinichi methodically reconstructed the scene:

"I deduce that the victim entered the water with a heavy object tied around her waist and drowned as a result."

"Then, during the following three hours, the rope loop around her waist gradually loosened under the impact of the river current, allowing the body to break free of the weight and float to the surface."

"That is the whole truth of this case."

Kudo reached a conclusion about the case based on his reconstruction.

Lin Xinyi, however, carefully weighed his words out of professional habit:

"It is still too early to call it a settled conclusion. At present, I only have the conditions to examine the body's surface, so I cannot completely rule out other possibilities."

"But based on the evidence currently available, the victim most likely died by suicide."

"Next, please send divers down to search carefully. You should be able to find the rope and heavy object left behind by the victim on the riverbed."

"At the same time, the police need to identify the victim as soon as possible and determine through interviews whether she had a motive for suicide while alive."

"If possible, a full autopsy must also be performed to confirm that the victim had no subcutaneous hemorrhaging caused by injuries sustained before death."

"I understand!"

Inspector Megure let out a long breath:

Although Lin Xinyi had left himself room for uncertainty throughout, Inspector Megure could more or less tell that this case was essentially settled.

"So the truth was really that simple!"

There had been no murderer at all.

With a little deduction from Lin Xinyi and Kudo Shinichi, the two "Shinichis," a Dismemberment Case with severe social impact and immense investigative pressure had been solved with ease.

Thinking of that, the expressions of the police officers present relaxed, just like Inspector Megure's.

Yet Kudo Shinichi, who had just solved a major case, instead fell into thought.

"That's right. The truth was that simple..."

"A ship, a propeller, an utterly ordinary accident."

"How had I failed to think of it?"

This answer had not actually been difficult for the famous detective Kudo Shinichi.

If he had been given more time to think, he should have been able to see through the truth hidden behind it as well.

But no matter what...

This time, he had been thoroughly left behind by Lin Xinyi.

Lin Xinyi had seen through everything while he was still wavering. Clearly, Kudo Shinichi had lost this contest between detectives.

Come to think of it, this seemed to be the first time he had lost in such a detective showdown.

When he raised his head, the way Kudo Shinichi looked at Lin Xinyi had changed.

There was reluctance in his eyes, but also respect and admiration:

"Mr. Lin Xinyi, are you a detective too?"

"No."

Lin Xinyi shook his head decisively:

"I am not the famous detective you imagine me to be, nor am I much smarter than ordinary people."

"You were only one step slower because you lacked some knowledge and experience."

Although he had participated in the investigation of quite a few cases, including many major ones, Lin Xinyi had never regarded himself as the kind of genius detective found in novels.

Just as programmers knew programming, architects understood design, and mathematicians excelled at calculation, examining corpses was merely an ordinary professional skill to Lin Xinyi.

He was good at it not because his IQ was higher than that of ordinary people, but because he had spent more time and effort studying it.

"Indeed..."

Kudo Shinichi nodded thoughtfully:

"I am better at starting with clues at the scene beyond the corpse itself. Examining wounds and traces is not my strength."

"If I understood a little more, perhaps I could see the truth immediately, just like you."

For a high school student, Kudo Shinichi's knowledge was already unimaginably vast.

That was because he had an absurdly capable father, who had taken him to an absurdly capable Hawaii Technical School.

Hawaii could teach him how to drive cars, pilot boats, and fly planes, but it simply could not teach him how to examine corpses.

That skill was useless to learn from books alone. Only long-term practical experience could develop real ability.

Even Forensic Medicine students who had graduated from formal programs and studied the field for years were practically blind when they first began internships. All they could do was help their mentors carry corpses.

Only by attending enough scenes and seeing enough bodies could one gradually become a forensic examiner capable of working independently.

Kudo Shinichi had lost this time because he lacked experience in that area and could not understand what the corpse was trying to say as quickly as Lin Xinyi could.

"I understand."

"I will work hard to train myself in this area!"

Kudo Shinichi said energetically.

"Uh... good luck."

Lin Xinyi smiled noncommittally:

He was just a high school student. Where was he supposed to find so many corpses to practice on?

Could he possibly encounter dead people every day?

He should go back and study properly, then see if he could get into a famous medical school in the future.

"Mr. Lin Xinyi."

Kudo Shinichi spoke again, full of anticipation:

"I hope we will have another chance to face off."

"..."

Lin Xinyi's smile was becoming difficult to maintain:

Who would ever want something like this to happen again?

You got this excited when you encountered a dead person. Were you really a high school student?

Come to think of it, it was not just Kudo Shinichi.

It seemed that everyone, including the bystanders, had an unusual enthusiasm for criminal cases.

Even that terrifying dismemberment had not completely frightened them away. There were even many women and children among the crowd.

For example, Miss Mouri Ran looked delicate and frail. Her face had gone pale from fear at the sight of the scattered body parts, yet she had still remained at the side with rapt attention, watching Kudo Shinichi's on-site deduction.

"Did I come to some strange place?"

Lin Xinyi gradually realized that something was not quite right about this world.