Chapter 29 Case File 1: Botanical Garden Mystery (11)
According to Andre's notes, he shared the same suspicion.
[…Evil Eye Moon's methods typically include decapitating victims and hacking away at their bodies in a fit of rage, but in this case, no such signs were observed. This marked difference in method suggests that this crime was not committed by Evil Eye Moon, but rather by someone attempting to deceive the Kingdom Knights and disrupt the investigation.]
Judging from the scene, the scant blood around Holland's body didn't align with a heart puncture, suggesting the body had been deliberately moved and placed in the flowerbed. The idiots from the First Squad also found a large pool of blood in the woods of the botanical garden, indicating that was the true scene.
The corpse was lying in a flower bed, surrounded by flowers. It was posed with its hands folded on its upper abdomen, looking like it was sleeping peacefully. Even its expression was deliberately adjusted, as if it was receiving condolences at a funeral - this was obviously the work of the murderer.
This kind of deliberate action often means that the murderer has a certain degree of remorse for committing the crime. It is very likely that he suddenly repented after committing the murder accidentally or in a moment of passion, and only thought of blaming the Evil Eye Moon when cleaning up the mess.
But what I'm curious about is... despite the killer's clumsy and unskillful depiction of the 'Eye of the Waning Moon' symbol, he still managed to accurately depict every detail, details we've never shared with the public before. This means the killer must have learned the symbol of the Evil Moon from some special source.
...This might be a clue, but I have to catch the murderer first before I can get any clues from him/her.]
"Wow, the handsome guy with abs is quite good at solving cases~" Jiangyou turned to the last page, which was a map of the botanical garden. The greenhouse, the first scene and the place where the body was dumped were all clearly circled in red.
The botanical garden was a neat circle, and the flowerbed where the body was found was not far from the mansion's tower. Takumi had never seen it in person, but she guessed that the flowerbed should be visible from the tower.
To the right of the flower bed is a large field where various vegetables, fruits, herbs and other edible plants are planted. To the left is a whole forest. The greenhouse is located in the middle of the forest. The first scene found by the kingdom knights is on the way from the flower bed to the greenhouse.
Takumi wrote down the map layout, handed the notes back to Jericho, and the two returned to the mansion together.
The interrogation continued. Andre stood by the wall, a sheaf of documents in his hand, watching a group of Hafu people find their place in the room, recreating their path that day. Jiangyou tiptoed over to Andre, and as soon as he poked his head out, Andre smothered his face with the sheaf of documents.
"These are the records that the Winchester clerk made while you were out," Andre said. "Catch up on your lessons."
"Hehe!" Jiang You smiled happily, even though she had no eyebrows or eyes, she was just a skeleton!
Reading the reports summarized by others directly, without all the clamor, running around, and bewildered looks from the Hafu people, greatly increased their value. Several key suspects had already given complete explanations.
Because Holland had retaliated by spilling the cream of mushroom soup, the servants were busy all afternoon boiling water and washing clothes, which added a lot of work and almost delayed dinner. It was not until after nine o'clock in the evening that the servants returned to the servant's room next to the main entrance of the mansion and had a good night's sleep.
The five servants all testified that no one entered or left through the main gate. Jiang You went close to the servants and sniffed the air. There was no trace of panic, salty, or numb aroma of lies.
Human emotions are numerous and complex, but the basic flavors are just sour, sweet, bitter, spicy, salty, astringent, and numb. As a novice lich, Jiang You hasn't yet fully mastered the one-to-one correspondence between emotions and tastes—some flavors can only be understood after tasting.
The basic tastes she has summarized so far can roughly correspond to happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, deception, tension and questioning.
Happiness naturally corresponds to sweetness, sadness brings a sour taste, anger is spicy, fear is salty, disgust is smelly, deception has a numbing aroma, tension adds a bitter aftertaste, and doubt brings a faint fishy smell... Of course, in reality, emotions within the same general category can also have similar tastes. For example, jealousy and disappointment also have a sour taste, which can be compared to the difference between red wine vinegar and lemon juice...
The servants' story was probably true, but it only proved that the five servants were in the servants' quarters from nine in the evening until dawn. There was a small door behind the kitchen that led to the backyard, which provided easy access to the botanical garden. Even if the suspect and Holland didn't go through the main entrance, they could still sneak out through the back door.
The suspects were narrowed down to several members of the Axe family: Uncle Whipson and his wife Pertamin, Holly, and Perlamin.
After lunch, Pertmin returned to the study on the second floor to handle the work of the Axe family. Now all the big and small matters of the Axe family - especially financial matters - are managed by her alone. From time to time, she would ask the butler to come into the study to reconcile accounts, give instructions, and ask the maid Ella to serve tea and water.
Dinner began at seven and ended at eight. After dinner, Pertmin was busy in the study for more than half an hour before returning to the tower to rest alone.
Holly went to the botanical garden's greenhouse after lunch and worked until early morning. Dinner was delivered by his valet, Billy, at seven in the evening. Around nine-thirty, Holly counted three damaged magical vessels and left a message for the servants in the main house using the greenhouse's magic microphone, asking them to bring the spare magical vessels from the mansion. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the greenhouse door.
Holly opened the door, but saw only the magic dish on the floor. Since the nightshade flower was about to bloom, he didn't think much about it, took the magic dish and went back to work.
Compared to his busy wife and nephew, Whipson seemed to have nothing to do. He took a long nap after lunch, got up, enjoyed afternoon tea, read the newspaper, and then it was dinner time again. He claimed that he went back to his room on the second floor after dinner and never left.
Because of the farce in the afternoon, Peramin had to spend three hours cleaning the mushroom soup on himself, and Holland was completely unattended all afternoon. Peramin didn't find Holland in the yard until six o'clock in the evening. He gave the dirty child a bath and changed Holland into a new set of clothes, which was the set he was wearing when he died.
The adults eat late in the evening, but the children cannot stand being hungry for that long, not to mention that they also need to get enough sleep. Therefore, Holland's dinner has always been the sole responsibility of Peramin, and the servants never worry about it.
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