Crime scene: 162 mystery solving puzzles to find out who the murderer is

Chapter 23 Fabre as a Detective
Entomologist Fabre lives in the countryside of southern France and devotes himself to observing and studying insects.Some people praised him as "a great scholar who thinks like a philosopher, observes like an artist, and behaves like a poet."

However, studying insects, which is not valued by people, will not make him rich, and he is eccentric and does not know how to deal with the world.So life is very poor.

On a summer afternoon, he observed the ecology of dung beetles in the grassland at the end of the village.Just happened to pass by policeman Camus, who is the policeman of the village police station.

"Mr. Fabre, you are still immersed in research in such a hot day, what are you studying today?" He came to Fabre.

"Sir, what is this little insect ball?"

"Sheep dung."

"Ah... really dirty."

"The dung beetle likes to roll the excrement of domestic animals into balls and eat it. Its big belly is not commensurate with its small body. It is nature's cleaner. Interesting?"

Camus Patrolman gets tired of dung beetles in no time.He sat down in the shade of a nearby tree, took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his face.Fabre was still watching carefully under the hot sun.

Camus patrolman smoked and said, "Sir, do you know Bernard the Vineyard?"

"I heard that he is a coin collector."

"That guy is also a very eccentric person, collecting ancient foreign coins that cannot be used. What's the fun? He also keeps an owl in his study. What's so cute about this unlucky bird? Who knows, today The owl in the morning was killed and its stomach was cut open."

Camus patrol officer did not expect Fabre to answer, and continued: "Last night, a guest lived in Bernard's house. He was a guest from Marseilles. Naer looked at the ancient Japanese coins. When the two were looking at the proud collection of each other in the study, Mr. Lubalo suddenly found that three of the ancient Japanese silver coins he brought were missing."

"Has it been stolen by a thief?"

"No, there are only the two of them in the study. So Bernal must have stolen it, and Mr. Lubaro also suspected it. Under his questioning, Bernard took off his clothes on the spot and voluntarily underwent a body search, but no silver coins were found. The study I've searched all over, but I still can't find it."

Camus patrolman seemed to have verified it himself at the scene.He is a young talkative police officer.

"Didn't Lubalo see when Bernal stole the silver coins?"

"Yes, he said that he was looking at Bernal's collection with a magnifying glass, and he didn't pay attention at all. However, Bernard did not leave the study at that time, and the windows were closed, so it was impossible to hide the stolen silver coins outside the study At noon just now, Liubaluo also cut open the owl's belly to check, but still did not find the lost silver coins."

After hearing this, Fabre thought about it, and finally, with his help, he found the stolen silver coins.

Do you know how Bernard stole the silver?

【Answer】The owl has a habit of catching mice and birds and swallowing them whole. The undigested bones are excreted with feces.Fabre knew this habit of the owl, and he deduced that the criminal Bernard took advantage of this habit of the owl, wrapping 3 silver coins in the meat for the owl to swallow.Owls are nocturnal and eat, and can easily swallow meat wrapped in silver coins.Early the next morning, the silver coins were ejected, and Bernard picked them up and hid them, so when Lubalo dissected the owl, there was no silver coin in his belly.

(End of this chapter)