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

Chapter 45 The Mystery of the Coffee Cup

From a few days ago, the reasoning writer Mr. Jiang Chuan has been writing novels at the M Hotel.One night, he couldn't write anymore, so he took a walk near the hotel to refresh himself, and happened to meet Lin Dao, a private detective.

"Ah, Detective Lin, it's rare to meet. With this outfit, who are you following?" Mr. Jiang Chuan stared at Detective Lin and asked.

Detective Lin, who is neatly dressed on weekdays, is dressed like a poor painter tonight in a worn-out sweater, a knitted ski cap, and slippers.

"It's a spy outfit. What are you doing here?"

"As usual, I'm bored in this restaurant as a canned food. Long time no see, how about a drink?"

"Sorry, I'm quitting drinking."

"How's the coffee? The coffee in this restaurant is pretty good."

"But it's embarrassing for me to dress up like this and enter a restaurant."

"It doesn't matter, you can entertain in my room. In fact, I just want to ask you for help." Jiang Chuan persuaded.The two of them entered the hotel through a side door that was not visible from the registration desk and took the elevator.

Mr. Jiang Chuan's room is Room 905 on the ninth floor, which has a small reception room and bedroom.

"Writing in such a high-end room!" Detective Lin looked at the room as if surprised.

On the table in the reception room, manuscript paper and books were piled up in a mess. After the two entered the bedroom, Mr. Jiang Chuan asked for coffee and sandwiches from the restaurant.

"I have to submit a short detective story next week, but I still can't think of an interesting conspiracy. It's hard to write. Do you have any material?" Jiang Chuan said.

"The cases handled by private detectives are all ordinary cases, which are useless to the reasoning stories you write."

"Just talk. The deadline is coming, please help."

"Since you're in such a hurry—" Detective Lin told Jiang Chuan about the two or three cases he had handled recently, but he wasn't very interested.

"Are there no more peculiar crimes?"

"It's hard to put together. If there is such a strange crime, I will not be a private detective, but a writer."

At this moment, there was a knock on the door.

"Ah, Detective Lin, a reporter from a magazine is here. I'm sorry, please sit down."

"If it bothers you, I'll go back first."

"Don't be like this, talk to me again, the interview will end soon, during this time, please help me think of a novel crime case."

After Mr. Jiang Chuan finished speaking selfishly, he left Detective Lin in the bedroom.After closing the door, he welcomed the reporter into the reception room.

The reporter took out the tape recorder and immediately started the interview. He found the sound of the TV coming from the bedroom, he hesitated and asked, "Sir, are there any guests?"

"A friend is here." Mr. Jiang Chuan replied, but the reporter hastily concluded that Jiang Chuan had brought a woman, and only interviewed for 30 minutes before leaving hastily.

Mr. Jiang Chuan returned to the bedroom, and Detective Lin was watching TV.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting." Jiang Chuan sat down in his seat and was about to drink the coffee left just now. When he looked at the table, he suddenly found that his coffee cup was gone.

"Hey, where's my cup?"

"Didn't you just take it to the reception room?"

"No, no, it's really here." Even so, Jiang Chuan went to the reception room to look for it, but he couldn't find the coffee cup.

"What's a cup or two!"

"Of course it's nothing, but it's so strange."

When Jiang Chuan looked around, he saw Detective Lin's secretive smile.

"Ah, you did it, you hid the cup and tried to lie to me?"

"Where is it, I didn't leave the bedroom even a step. If you doubt it, try your best to find it."

Jiang Chuan began to search seriously, because it was a hotel room, and there was nowhere to look for it. He searched under the bed, in the desk drawer, in the refrigerator, and in the closet, but found no coffee cup.

"Ah, I see, you threw it out of the window." Jiang Chuan opened the window and looked down.

The room is about 30 meters from the ground on the ninth floor. At night, the ground is completely invisible.

Detective Lin said with a smile: "If you throw it from the window, the cup will fall to pieces. I want to play a prank, but I won't go too far."

At this time, someone knocked on the door again.

"Who? At this time?" Mr. Jiang Chuan opened the door, only to see the hotel waiter standing at the door, holding a white coffee cup in his hand.

"I brought you the cup."

Jiang Chuan was dumbfounded and asked, "Where is it placed?"

"In the yard below this room."

"In the yard? How do you know it's my cup?"

The waiter asked him to read the words written on the outside of the cup, and the special pen wrote on the cup:

"Send this cup to Room 905. Thank you! Jiang Chuan"

"Thank you, thank you for your hard work." Detective Lin squinted at Jiang Chuan who was standing still, and handed the tip to the waiter.The young waiter declined for a while, but accepted it with a bewildered expression.

"Detective Lin, you must have done it. You bribed the waiter to bring the cup."

"No such nonsense like you. I met you by chance tonight, and you forced me to this restaurant. How could I discuss it with the waiter beforehand?"

"While I'm being interviewed, you can secretly call the registration office."

"Then, please check with the registry office."

Jiang Chuan was so curious that he immediately hung up the phone and asked the registration office.

"How is it?" Detective Lin asked with a smile.

"You're right."

"Look, this cup must be your drinking cup. Take a good look at the side of the cup. You are left-handed and drink coffee from the cup with your left hand, so the coffee stains are here. It's just the opposite of right-handed people."

"That's right—but, how did this thin porcelain cup fall from the window on the ninth floor into the yard below? Maybe you hung it from the window to the yard with a rope?"

"Where is that long rope? I don't even have a thin rope. Wouldn't it be an interesting theft if the coffee cup was replaced with a delicate glass craft or emerald craft? This method can be used to write mystery novels, and , on this occasion, readers must know that the criminal was checked and did not wear a rope. I don’t plan to write a book, you think slowly, it’s getting late, and I’m sorry.”

After speaking, Detective Lin went back immediately.

The next morning, Detective Lin was awakened by the phone ringing, and the call was from Mr. Jiang Chuan.

"Detective Lin, I have solved a coffee cup mystery." Jiang Chuan said excitedly.He told Detective Lin's methods.

"Yes, I solved it in one night. You are worthy of being a mystery writer."

So, readers, what method did Detective Lin use to put the coffee cup from the ninth floor into the courtyard below?

[Answer] Detective Lin was wearing a woolen ski hat. During the interview with the magazine reporter, he took off the hat, then put a long piece of wool on the handle of the coffee cup, and quietly lowered it from the window to the ground with double lines. Let go of another head, and take back the wool. The recovered wool is rolled into a ball and thrown far away from the window.The chemical fiber wool is very strong, and it will not break when you lift a cup.

(End of this chapter)