Chapter 23: Everyone's here, let's talk about the clues.
Kofi has recovered.
He strode over to Pei Hening's side, only to realize that she wasn't looking at the trophy—but at the display case.
There was a string of splashed dark brown spots on it.
Pei Hening: "It's blood."
Ten minutes later, they finished checking the young master's room.
Kofi glanced at the time and said, "Let's split up and investigate, and hurry up."
"Can."
Pei Hening was in charge of the basement and the first floor, while Kofi was in charge of the second and third floors.
As soon as she opened the basement door, she smelled a strong odor of disinfectant.
Following the pungent smell, I found that the basement was filled with a lot of things, including food, old furniture, repair tools, and so on.
She followed the smell of disinfectant and found a small, locked wooden door.
She tried to open the door, but she didn't have the key and couldn't pick the lock. She pushed it open a crack and peered through—
The room was filled with white chrysanthemums, and a candle was lit in the middle.
Fresh flowers are difficult to preserve, so these white chrysanthemums must have been placed there recently.
The first floor was used for receiving guests and was frequently used, so she didn't find any useful information.
——
Noon.
Gardner and Winnie were the first to return.
Both were in terrible condition. Gardner was pale, his floral shirt soaked in blood; he had suffered severe injuries. Winnie was dazed and confused.
Coffey asked, "How did you get into such a mess?"
Gardner looked coldly at Winnie and said sarcastically, "Thanks to my good teammate."
Pei Hening originally thought that Winnie would argue back based on her personality, but she didn't expect her to just lower her head and pretend not to hear.
The atmosphere in the living room became tense for a moment.
"Click".
Someone pushed the door open and came in—Chu Xuange and Raman.
Compared to Gardner and Winnie's disheveled state, their condition was similar to when they left the mayor's house, except that Raman looked at Chu Xuange with intense fear in his eyes.
Upon seeing Pei Hening, Chu Xuange breathed a sigh of relief without making a sound, and naturally sat down next to her.
His extremely aggressive masculine aura enveloped her tightly, as if he were taking her into his own territory.
In a blind spot, he had already taken Pei Hening's hand and gently caressed it.
Once everyone was present, Coffey said, "Everyone's here, so let's talk about the information we've gathered. Green, you go first with your information."
Pei Hening: "I was in charge of the mayor's basement and first floor, and I also went with Kofi to look for clues in the young master's room."
"Let's start with the young master's room. I found an opened bottle of sleeping pills, half a rough-edged photograph, a recurve bow that was about to be scrapped, and dried bloodstains on the display case."
Pei Hening thought for a moment and then added, "Young Master's room contains many recurve bow competition trophies. The first trophy was won on May 12, 2049, and the second trophy was won on May 12, 2054, a gap of five years."
She placed sleeping pills, half a rough-edged photograph, and a nearly ruined recurve bow on the table.
"The basement smelled strongly of disinfectant. It contained food, repair tools, and old furniture... In the northwest corner of the basement, there was a locked room. I peeked through the crack in the door and saw white chrysanthemums and candles inside."
"As for the first floor, no useful information was found."
After Pei Hening finished speaking, he looked at Kofi.
He said, "I found an old diary in the young master's room, as well as a suspicious drug—it makes you dizzy when you smell it."
Coffey had everyone read the young master's diary.
"I was in charge of the clues on the second and third floors. On the second floor, I found a servant's room that had been converted into a storage room. Inside, there was a bloodstained whip and two smashed recurve bow championship trophies, dated May 12, 2050 and May 12, 2051."
"There is a recurve bow training room on the third floor. I got the training record sheet and the training results sheet. The trainees' performance was polarized on the same day. I suspect that at least two people used the training room."
He placed the blood-stained whip, the smashed trophy, and the training report card on the table.
Ten minutes later, after everyone had read through the information and items they had provided, it was Chu Xuange and Raman's turn to report.
Raman suppressed his fear of Chu Xuange and said, "The place where the young master disappeared was a VIP room in a high-end bar. We were chased by the bar's people as soon as we revealed our identities, Biller..."
"After he dealt with those people, we went into the private room. There were torture instruments in that room. I found out that the young master would randomly grab waiters and torture them every time he went to the bar."
Chu Xuange said, "The bar's surveillance cameras were deliberately damaged, and the bar experienced a power outage for half an hour on the day the young master had the accident."
"There was a top waitress in the bar who assisted the young master in catching and abusing people. 72 photos of the young master abusing the waitress were found in the tool room in the corner of the first floor. In the photos, the young master's face was slashed with knives like utility knives. By the way, the top waitress died in the bar two days ago, and it seems that she was greatly frightened before she died."
He placed all the photos he found on the table.
"The waiters who were abused by the young master would disappear without a trace, their fate unknown."
All eyes turned to Gardner and Winnie.
Gardner scratched his head, glanced coldly at Winnie, and scoffed, "Thirteen people have died in this town this month. So far, no connection has been found between the dead. I've been buying newspapers from the newsstand for almost ten years, and I haven't had a chance to read them yet."
After he finished speaking, he placed the stack of newspapers at his feet on the table.
Winnie was pale and trembling: "I asked the residents if they knew what happened to the mayor's family. They said it was retribution and warned us not to get involved, or we would have no chance of survival."
Coffey frowned: "Gardner, how did you get this injury?"
Pei Hening looked over; she was curious too.
Gardner scoffed, his tone unfriendly: "You'll have to ask Winnie. Why would a simple question anger the residents and make her throw me out as a scapegoat!"
Gardner closed in on Winnie, his presence intimidating: "How does it feel to abandon your teammates and run away alone? Did you think I was going to die?"
Seeing her deathly pale face, Gardner leaned back in his chair, casually lit a cigarette, and said in a flat tone, "So what exactly is your question? I hope you're not lying to us."
Coffey adjusted his glasses and said gently, "Winnie, if you don't want to cooperate, you can withdraw. We won't force you."
Winnie looked at everyone's gazes and finally gave in.
He seemed to have lost his backbone, listless and dejected: "Later I asked the residents what kind of retribution it was? What bad things had the mayor done? They weren't afraid of doing bad things, let alone retribution. Retribution is just their imagination."
Winnie covered her face and cried, "I just had a sharp tongue, I don't deserve to die, right? But they said I offended 'him' and they want to kill me to appease 'his' anger."
Gardner exhaled smoke rings at her: "You're innocent, so you're just pushing me out as a scapegoat?"