The sky outside the window was dark and gloomy, shrouded in mist, and the pattering raindrops leaked from the eaves. From time to time, it knocked on the glass windows that reflected the bright outline of the new gas lamps, splashing water droplets one after another.

When Conse greeted the detective outside the door, walked into the evidence room and closed the door, he noticed that Arthur Watson had begun to interact with those at the scene under the supervision of two members of the "Machine Heart".

Contact with legacy evidence.

"These are the relics left by the first victim?" After putting on the black mittens, Arthur Watson did not turn over the single-sided transparent paper on the table that contained blood-stained cloth strips and other suspicious parts.

Paper bag, but first picked up a few photos nearby that recorded the time and place of shooting.

Seeing that he seemed to be examining the content of the photos very seriously, Kang Si reluctantly suppressed his personal prejudices and patiently pushed through several sketches drawn by special means:

"Instead of studying the photos provided by these amateur reporters who don't know whether they are true or false, it is better to look at the restored scene pictures, but to be honest, I don't think you can make any new discoveries. It is impossible for our professionals to miss..."

"Sorry to interrupt, could you tell me about the first victim? His origin, age, occupation, personal interests and hobbies, etc., is there anything worth noting?"

Arthur Watson took the sketching papers and asked questions intently.

Cons was choked by him, and was about to frown and recall the case information when he saw the member of the "Mechanical Heart" wearing the inspector's shoulder insignia, Gavid Ryan, taking the initiative to approach the long and wide wooden table in the center.

, he opened his mouth and said that he had just handled the follow-up investigation tasks of the first case.

"The follow-up to the first case refers to tracking the disposed body of the foal and then discovering the remains of the victim?" Arthur Watson confirmed to him.

Gavid, who had deep features and gave the impression of being gentle and talkative, nodded and said:

"The logistics staff of the Southern District Police Department sold the horse carcass to a privately-owned meat processing workshop. After repeated questioning by us, the owner of the workshop finally admitted that the day laborer he hired found an adult human body in the belly of the horse.

The body of a male. Several people were afraid of being accused of murder, so driven by panic and confusion, they hurriedly buried the body in a remote corner of the processing site, thinking that this would not cause more trouble..."

He briefly talked about the investigation process at that time, and soon turned to explain the situation of the first victim - the deceased was a 52-year-old man from East Chester County who currently lives with his family members.

He works as a department manager in a foreign trade import company in Backlund Hillston District. In terms of family, he has a happy marriage and has raised three children. The eldest son is married and the second daughter is married.

My younger son and I are still in school.

"Of course, I know you may be more concerned about the connection between him and the other victims..." Gavid pondered for a moment, "There is indeed something of concern. When checking the files of the deceased, we found that he

He changed his name and surname, but his previous name appeared in the prison sentence record more than ten years ago. He was charged with smuggling contraband and was sentenced to a total of seven years. It is said that he later received one year for his good behavior during his sentence.

He received a reduced sentence and was released from prison early.”

Arthur Watson raised his head slightly when he heard this, and then lowered his eyes to look at the sketch of the victim:

"Oh, that is to say, the first deceased was once a smuggler, but now he has reformed and become a good citizen who abides by laws and regulations?"

"No, you are wrong." Kang Si found an opportunity and interrupted him with his head held high, "Why don't you think about the premise of the case? With the deceased's current enough financial conditions, he obviously already owned his own four-wheeled car.

The family also hired a servant to drive a carriage, but why didn’t he use his own carriage to travel, but chose to take a taxi, and he suffered misfortune because of it? It’s simple, because he didn’t want his family to control his whereabouts!”

"This is just your guess." Arthur Watson looked at him and shook his head.

"In fact, we followed this clue and found evidence that the deceased was suspected of having an affair. But the reason why we say it is suspected is because the subsequent discovery subverted our judgment-" Gavid said

, gradually lowered his voice, "The deceased was still doing his smuggling business until the last moment of his life, but this time, he was no longer dealing with drugs and art paintings, but guns and ammunition, arms, and even people.

…”

"You just mentioned that he works as a manager in a foreign trade import company? Is that what they do in the 'import business'?" Arthur Watson pointed out the problem, put down the photos and sketches in his hands, and picked up the second

I started to look through the documents on the case.

"The main business of that import company is to import various agricultural and sideline products from Feneport, Lemberg, Marsi and other areas, and all the formalities and certificates are complete. No one has ever considered this direction." Gavey

De sighed, implicitly acknowledging that it was not individuals involved in smuggling, but entire groups.

Arthur Watson raised the corners of his lips and chuckled:

"If I remember correctly, foreign grain imports should have been fully opened after the Corn Act was repealed. If you calculate carefully, it only took less than six months?"

"But that company has been established for several years, and it can be seen from the business license that they only officially transformed into a grain import company after the bill was repealed." Another member of "Mechanical Heart" with a slightly serious face

said.

Seeing that Arthur Watson seemed to want to say something else, Conse cleared his throat and emphasized in a loud voice:

"We won't waste time on questions that have nothing to do with the case. Okay, are you going to ask the two victims who were involved in the second case again?"

Alice rolled her eyes inwardly, secretly speechless at his dull sense of smell, but she didn't bother to argue, she just waved as if listening.

Soon, she learned about the lives of the twelve victims in these six cases from the officials who assisted and guarded her. Among them, except for the first deceased who had a criminal history, none of them had a criminal history until now.

In addition to secretly conducting illegal business activities, only one of the victims in the fourth case was engaged in the grayer profession of an underground boxer, while the others could not tell whether they were age, occupation, or family background.

Anything worthy of criticism.

Housewives, children, middle school teachers, college dropouts, and even steam mechanical engineers have very different life experiences and live very different rhythms of life. The only thing they have in common is that they unfortunately get on a taxi in the evening and pass by

Crossroads in the bridge area or south area.

"I said, if there are really important clues hidden in this information, someone should have discovered it long ago! The fact is that the murderer did not start from these angles at all, and his criteria for selecting targets were not based on personal identity at all!"

Kang Si raised his chin, and his tone gradually revealed a sense of admonishment that lacked restraint.

"In your opinion, what should be the criteria for the murderer to choose his target?" Arthur Watson leaned back on the edge of the table and asked without being affected at all.

"Most of the guys on the 'Devil' path are not normal. They are born to be cruel and cold-blooded criminals. They may not carefully choose their targets. They may just kill those who are unable to resist simply because they find them pleasing to the eye or want to vent their emotions.

A weak opponent."

Kang Si snorted softly in a nasal tone, not concealing his attitude towards such evil extraordinary people, but after saying this, he frowned as if he thought of something, stared at Arthur Watson and added:

"...But it cannot be denied that there are indeed many debatable truths in folk legends about 'devils'. For example, some extraordinary people on the 'devil' path tend to choose pure girls and young children.

, will use special serial murders to complete the ritual to please the real devil, and some seem to prefer those who have been corrupted and indulged their inner desires. In individual cases, they will even take away part of the victim's internal organs and eat them...

Based on the archives and records of crimes committed by extraordinary persons in the 'demonic' path from various places, we infer that these behaviors involve evil channeling and summoning rituals to some extent, so we must be able to find an extremely crucial connection between the victims."

"Huh? Did you just reveal to me the extraordinary events recorded in the MI9 files? Although I only mentioned a little bit, they should be things that require official member authority to understand." She raised her finger and pointed at herself,

He showed a somewhat surprised expression.

"In special times and under special circumstances, the church will also temporarily open access to some files to you. To be precise, these are criminal incidents that are limited to extraordinary people of the 'demon' path." Gavid explained.

Arthur Watson thought for a moment and then smiled:

"Then can I apply for access to the demon encyclopedia you have collected and compiled? You must know that demons are a very broad category, and different demons have different abilities. If you can judge the opponent's strengths and weaknesses in advance, you can also

It will help us launch an investigation."

The two members of the "Machine Heart" discussed it, and Gavid finally nodded and said that they would ask their superiors for instructions, but there was no guarantee of the outcome.

"So what are you going to do next? Just kill time like this until evening, and then go to the bridge area to find a taxi and get on it, and try to see if you can bump into the crime scene again?" The blond young man in front of the meeting asked without any nervousness.

Taking a piece of paper and pen, he lowered his eyes and wrote something slowly. Conse couldn't help but urged with a sarcastic tone, "Or repeat what the investigation teams organized by the three major churches did before, and ask those taxis

The company you belong to traces the route those horses took before the accident, and who did they come into contact with?"

Obviously, the previous investigation team worked hard and spent time on these clues, but achieved little.

After completely outlining the last letter of the word on the white paper, Arthur Watson put down the pen and blew lightly to let the ink traced on the paper evaporate as quickly as possible.

Consciously, Conscious looked at the words written on the paper. He only had time to recognize the words "greed" and "lazy" written by Hermes among them, and his attention was attracted by the movement of his hand raising his hand.

"No, let's go and visit this family."

Arthur Watson picked up the information collection placed next to the evidence corresponding to the third case, opened it, and dusted the page with several black-and-white photos printed on it.

With just one glance, Kang Si recognized the corresponding figure in the family photo and couldn't help but wonder:

"The deceased in the third case, Mrs. Sophie Blair, and her son Freddie Blair... What are you going to investigate at Mr. Blair's house? I remember it was just an ordinary middle-class family, nothing worthwhile.

Special issues to note.”

"I have something I want to confirm."

After Arthur Watson answered briefly, he turned and left the evidence room, leaving Cons and the two "Heart of the Machine" members to hurry up and keep up with her.
Chapter completed!