Using a dagger for a successful sneak attack or a cut is one thing, but if the opponent manages to resist, the situation gets much worse. Even if they succeed in killing the victim, the bloodstains and other things scattered during the struggle are a huge pile of evidence waiting to be uncovered.
As for using a gun, there's no need to even mention it. Noise is one weakness, and the difficulty of using a gun is another, which is even more pronounced when the killer is from the physically weaker sex.
"The victim was a frail, elderly priest, and it's his condition that made us mistakenly assume the killer was from the stronger side compared to the victim."
"But what if, in this case, the killer was even weaker than the victim?"
Upon hearing this, Sarah's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Weaker than the victim, an old man? Are you serious, Arthur?"
"Of course, I'm serious. If they weren't weaker, why would the killer bother to prepare poison? Given the victim's lack of vigilance, a normal adult would be more than capable of killing him using a mechanical method like breaking his neck or strangulation."
"Are you suggesting the killer is a woman?"
"Not necessarily, but it could be a direction to narrow down the scope."
At this point, Arthur showed a rare moment of hesitation. In the end, he simply placed a blank piece of paper with a "?" sign at the connection between "acquaintance" and "poison."
In reality, for the unfortunate old priest, an adult woman could also be considered a stronger party. Of course, it's possible they still used poison to be safe.
However, this wasn't the whole group of suspects he had in mind. But this next idea was a bit too shocking.
…
The alarm clock rang, and Arthur rolled over in bed. He looked at the phone that was ringing nonstop and wearily put his head down on the table.
He had only slept four hours last night. Of course, the fate of working overtime was unavoidable.
After splashing some water on his face in the bathroom to wake up, Arthur quickly ate breakfast with peanut butter toast. Then, he put on a simple dark outfit and walked to the police station.
Sarah hadn't arrived yet, so Arthur started working alone.
The comprehensive investigation was preliminarily complete. Because the residential area was quite isolated, there were no surveillance cameras. The roads with cameras leading into that area were also limited, only recording some traffic, but it was basically impossible to pinpoint anything because there were too many twists and turns, making it unclear where they had turned off.
In short, the evidence from surveillance cameras had hit a dead end.
As for the poison, the analysis of its components to trace its origin was still ongoing, and there were no results yet.
Footprints were probably the most promising, but there were too many people coming and going. Although technology was used to identify the most recent footprints from the day the victim died, since that day was a Sunday when many people went to church, the number of footprints was incomparably mixed.
Looking at the photos of the footprints until his eyes blurred, Arthur frustratingly threw the photos to the side. An investigator like him, who was not a professional, preferred pure deduction. Examining physical evidence was truly tedious.
"I'll just leave this for Sarah."
"Leave what for me?"
Sarah arrived with a grimace. Arthur didn't bother to say anything more, closing his eyes and playing dead.
"Oh my god… don't tell me it's another dead end."
Looking at the tangled footprints, Sarah couldn't help but sigh. Arthur shrugged; there was nothing he could do. The time, the location, the poison—it was all clearly premeditated by the killer.
This killer didn't have any advanced counter-surveillance skills or anything, but their meticulous actions truly left them with very few valuable clues.
Or perhaps, choosing to target that old priest was the killer's good fortune.
They spent another day examining and cross-referencing the footprints. Luckily, they didn't have to work overtime today.
During this time, by filtering the size and pressure of the footprints, Arthur and Sarah found a few dozen sets of footprints that "could be considered suspicious."
Looking at the sun slowly setting behind the buildings, Sarah sighed and said with some uncertainty.
"Hey Arthur, can we really use this to narrow down the suspects?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
Sarah glared at him, her tightly clenched fists making a cracking sound that sent a shiver down Arthur's spine. He quickly explained.
"Don't rush. Investigation is a process. We can only narrow it down as much as possible."
"But… isn't this too hasty? Although through your deduction you've determined which group the killer belongs to, if the crime was planned for Sunday, the day with the most footprints at the church, wouldn't the killer have anticipated that we would focus on the footprints?"
"That's exactly why the killer wouldn't dare to fake the footprints."
Arthur presented his hypothesis.
"In fact, faking footprints is relatively difficult because different heights and weights lead to different centers of gravity, so the consistency of the footprints left behind will also be different."
"If a small person intentionally wears a large person's shoes to fake their footprints, then this person would definitely be wearing oversized shoes. And when the imposter's foot doesn't even reach the toe of the shoe, the footprint they leave will naturally be different from the real thing."
"So if the killer dared to do that, we would just need to track them carefully and find the owner of the shoes. Therefore, the killer only needs to let their real footprints blend in with dozens of others. That way, what we're left with is still just a list of suspects."
"Wait a minute, among these footprints… are there also children's?"
"Not necessarily children, more like teenagers."
"Are you saying… we're suspecting a bunch of teenagers who haven't even graduated high school?"
Sarah's expression turned strange. She stared at Arthur. At this point, he calmly admitted it.
"Yes, I suspect a teenager is the suspect in a murder case."