Accidental Death

Mr. "P", whose real name was Edgar Allan Poe, was a member of the "combination" of an overseas organization that had fought against armed detective agencies.

His power is called "Black Cat" - a strange ability that can draw readers into the world of the book.

The book that Edogawa Ranpo got in the coffee shop before was the novel completed by Edgar Allan Poe.

It has been nearly an hour since Edogawa Ranpo and Ayatsuji pedestrian entered the book world.

The sun's silhouette gradually sank below the horizon, and night fell on the land.People can't help but sigh the realism of the illusion.

According to Edogawa Ranpo, this "book" is a mystery novel, and the only way to get out of this world is to find out the real culprit of the incident.

The two of them didn't know the content of the case they were about to face, but it was obvious that no case would happen in the uninhabited wilderness just now, so they decided to go to the town to see first.

"Are the time flows of the two worlds inside and outside the book equal?" Ayatsuji asked.

Edogawa ran along while walking: "Well, the flow of time in the book is much faster than the outside world."

After he finished speaking, he put his hand into his pocket, only to find that there was only the last candy left.

After complaining in a low voice, Edogawa Luanbu said: "It's really troublesome... Hurry up and go back."

- Solve the incident and get out of here as soon as possible.

Ayatsuji pedestrians think so too.

When the two walked to the nearest small town, it was already dark.

The whole town is shrouded in a curtain woven by night, as if it is preparing an absurd drama to welcome guests from afar.

Ayatsuji pedestrians stepped into the town and glanced at the English signs hanging on the shops on the street.

The buildings in this town are all in the old European and American style, and the clothes of the pedestrians on the road are also very contemporary.

"The background is the United States in the nineteenth century." Edogawa Ranpo mused.

"Yeah." Ayatsuji pedestrian said.

He went to the bench by the side of the road to pick up the newspaper that was thrown on it, and found that there was no report about the murder.

The story seems to have not yet begun.

Then Ayatsuji pedestrians and Edogawa Ranpo asked a few passers-by, and they all said they hadn't heard of any strange incidents happening recently.

——Although they want to solve the incident as soon as possible, there is nothing they can do about this situation.

In the end, I had to decide to go to the hotel in the town to rest for one night, and wait until the next day to see if there was any incident.

Thanks to the clothes of Allan Poe, the two of them have the currency of this era on their bodies, so they won't be turned away by the innkeeper.

The next morning, Ayatsuji pedestrians and Edogawa Ranpo heard the noise coming from downstairs of the hotel——

"Have you heard?! That scary black cat actually ate Mrs. Hein!"

A woman spoke sensational words in a high-pitched voice.

Ayatsuji pedestrians stopped in front of the wooden railing on the second floor and looked down.

This is a restaurant as well as a hotel.At this time, many locals who came to have breakfast were gathered downstairs in twos and threes.

The one who spoke just now was a woman in a linen dress. She was about thirty years old, and her appearance was that of a common foreigner.

"What about Mrs. Hein? Was she killed?" A bearded man next to her who seemed to be familiar with her sneered unceremoniously, "That cat is only so small, how could it eat people?! "

"How is it impossible?" the woman retorted, "That cat is an unknown black cat. Some wizard must have cast a curse on it to eat Mrs. Hein... I knew that cat would bring bad luck!"

She couldn't help but draw the sign of the cross on her chest and kept praying: "Ah! This is really terrible, God bless, don't let that black cat do evil again."

"Come on, God doesn't care about that."

"If the black cat really killed someone, it needs to be tortured!" The hotel owner teased, "I heard that the police are investigating, just wait and see, maybe we can catch that 'wizard'!"

Edogawa walked downstairs in random steps, got together among several people, and asked the innkeeper, "Did something happen in the town?"

Seeing that it was a guest who stayed at the hotel last night, the hotel owner replied: "Mrs. Hein was killed at home."

Edogawa Ranpo asked the woman who spoke first with great interest: "Why did you say that it was a black cat that killed her?"

"..."

The woman looked at this strange outsider, and said with some hesitation: "This is because... that black cat is really scary, it is a creature from hell!"

"You're talking about these superstitious things again." The innkeeper said helplessly.

He looked at Edogawa Ranpo and Ayatsuji pedestrians: "Don't pay attention to her nonsense, the police will definitely find the murderer who killed Mrs. Hein soon. You don't need to worry, please enjoy playing in the town Bar!"

——Edogawa Ranpo and Ayatsuji pedestrians are obviously outsiders, so he took it for granted that these two came to the town for tourism.

"Where is the address of Mrs. Hein?" Edogawa Ranpo said, "I am very interested in what this lady said about the 'cursed black cat'."

"..." The innkeeper's eyes on Edogawa Ranpo suddenly became a little indescribable.

Someone next to him answered for him: "If I remember correctly, she lives at No. [-] Rue Morgue."

……

Now that the address is clear, it is obviously more direct to go to the scene to investigate than to stay and listen to these gossips.

So Ayatsuji Pedestrian and Edogawa Ranpo didn't wait long and went directly to the scene of the crime.

The Rue Morgue is on the east side of the town, not far from this hotel.

This is an ordinary street, the ground is paved with flat and wide stone slabs, and tall deciduous plants are planted on both sides of the street.

The surrounding houses seem to be of some age, and each is an independent building, with walls dividing each other.

Probably because someone had already called the police, as soon as they walked into the alley, Ayatsuji Pedestrian and Edogawa Ranpo saw a group of policemen surrounding the house.

Seeing Ayatsuji Pedestrians and Edogawa walking in disorder, the police immediately came to stop them: "This time there was a murder case, so the alley is temporarily closed, the two of you can go the other way."

"—Wait a minute," another policeman behind him stepped forward, looked at the attire of the two, and said in surprise, "Could it be that the two are the detectives sent by Officer Ryan to assist us?!"

Edogawa Ranpo and Ayatsuji pedestrians looked at each other.

This is probably the identity that Edgar Allan Poe set for the two of them.It's also in line with what they want to do, and it can save a lot of trouble.

"Well, can you tell me the story of this incident?" Edogawa Ranpo readily accepted this setting.

"Yes!" The policeman responded quickly, he paused for a moment to organize his words, and then said, "At eight o'clock this morning, we received a call——the caller was Mr. Felsen Hein, who said that this morning He was awakened by his wife's screams in his sleep. He thought his wife was in some danger and got up in a hurry. As a result, he searched the whole house and found no trace of his wife, only found a lot of blood in the living room .”

"We rushed to the scene immediately after receiving the call. Judging from the blood on the ground, Mrs. Hein should be in danger. Afterwards, we searched Mr. Hein's house, but found nothing." Speaking of this, the words of the police also said Containing a bit of fear and worry, "... Mrs. Hein seems to have disappeared out of thin air."

"Where are the nearby residents?" Ayatsuji Xingren seemed to be completely unaffected by his emotions, and asked while looking up at the Hein family's residence.

The policeman replied: "They have been searched one by one, but there is nothing abnormal."

"Until now, there is no clue about this case," he smiled wryly, "Let's not talk about tracking down the murderer, we don't even know where Mrs. Hein's body is hidden."

——It was precisely because of this that the atmosphere among the policemen in charge of the on-site investigation seemed a little depressed.

"Didn't you already know what the murderer said?" Edogawa Ranpo suddenly leaned in front of him, as if he was a little puzzled by what he said.

"Here, have you already deduced the murderer?!" The policeman opened his eyes wide, looking at the detective in front of him in disbelief.

"Don't you know?" Edogawa Ranpo seemed a little surprised, and then said with a smile, "—someone seems to say that the murderer is a black cat."

The policeman was stunned: "This, please stop joking. This is just a rumor, how could a cat kill someone!"

He was taken aback by Edogawa Ranpo's words, and took out a handkerchief to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.

Ayatsuji pedestrians observed the actions of the police.

Although he denied Edogawa Ranpo's words, the policeman's expression was obviously very afraid of the "black cat".

The young man's ocher eyes were darkened, it seems that the answer to this novel has a lot to do with that cat.

Edogawa Ranpo: "But these rumors are not groundless, right? Since some people suspect that the cat killed Mrs. Hein, there must be something special about it."

The police really couldn't figure out why the detective was more interested in such things as supernatural beings, and finally he said, "That cat is indeed a bit unusual. It's a long story."

"Since the two of you have just arrived in town, you probably haven't heard the rumors before.

"Mr. Hein's family had a black cat a long time ago. The cat's name was Pluto... or Pnedd? I can't remember." The policeman turned and pointed at Hein. family house, facing Ayatsuji Pedestrians and Edogawa Ranwalk, "Then one day after adopting that cat, Mr. Hein's house suddenly caught fire."

This is very obvious.

When he first arrived here, Ayatsuji pedestrians noticed that there were many scorched black marks on the outer wall of this house that had not been cleaned.

Moreover, the main house of the house was probably refurbished after that, and it looked out of place with the surrounding old houses.

There has clearly been a fire here.

Ayatsuji asked, "Is that fire related to the black cat?"

The policeman let out a "ah" and said, "Yes! That was really a bizarre fire. In the middle of the night, Mr. Hein's house suddenly caught fire for some reason. Anyway, the fire was huge, although no one So they lost their lives, but all the houses of Mr. Hein's family were burned down. And the next day, after putting out the fire, everyone found a weird relief on the wall of the burned house-it looked like It's a cat with a sling around its neck! That must be the black cat that Mr. Hein kept.

"It sounds grotesque, but it's a real thing. So people say that cat caused the fire."

"After the fire, the cat disappeared. We all thought it died in the fire. As a result, a few days ago, Mr. Hein brought back an identical black cat from nowhere! Everyone advised Mr. Hein to throw it away. This cat——because it was really unlucky, but Mr. Hein didn't listen. As a result...this kind of thing happened now. That's why everyone rumored that the cat killed Mrs. Hein."

After the policeman finished speaking, he added: "To be honest, I also think that this is the misfortune caused by the black cat—but it would be too absurd to say that the cat killed Mrs. Hein."