A horse-drawn carriage bearing the insignia of the police station stopped outside a detached residential building with a garden and lawn in the Cherwood district.

Conse jumped out of the carriage first, followed closely by Arthur Watson, and the last one was a member of the "Heart of the Machine" wearing the inspector's shoulder badges - his companion should have returned to the St. George District by now.

The church headquarters began to apply for permission to read materials for a certain collaborator with a special position.

"By the way, let me introduce you formally." As Conse stepped forward to confirm the house number, Arthur Watson saw the extraordinary person from the Church of Steam approaching him in a few steps, holding the brim of his square-topped police hat with one hand, and pressing down

He said in a low voice, "Gavid Ryan, the magic potion ability is a 'wizard'. If you need to get the target to open up for a conversation, or gain inspirational insight, then I think I can provide a little help."

"Wizard"? If she remembered correctly, this should belong to the advanced profession of "Secret Peeper"... Oh no, it should be called advanced potion.

Alice nodded gently in her heart, and on the surface she kept Arthur Watson in a fairly friendly attitude, and smiled in return:

"'Wizard' sounds like a very mysterious name. Unfortunately, 'Arsonist' only specializes in fire, so there's no way he can be expected to be of any use in the current investigation."

Conse, who was about to turn around and call the two of them over to knock on the door, fell silent.

As an "arbiter", he doesn't even possess any decent magic ability. He only has excellent fighting ability, which makes people involuntarily obey the trusted authority and charm. It can also be said that the magic potion brings him extraordinary power.

.

Of course, as long as he becomes Sequence 7 and becomes an "interrogator" like the team leader, the problem of lack of magic ability and offensive means will be solved. Although before that, he still needs to accumulate meritorious service and wait for the ability to fully master potions.

Opportunity to take the "Sheriff" potion...

Kang Si adjusted the holster hidden under his coat, pretended not to pay attention to the previous conversation between the two people, pointed at the doorbell and said nonchalantly:

"I heard someone moving around in the house. It seems like we arrived at the right time. Should we just knock on the door?"

Gavid took out the brass pocket watch from his pocket and glanced at the time, frowned slightly and nodded:

"At this time... it is not impossible. The investigation report that visited this family before mentioned that the youngest daughter of the Blairs took a long leave from school and will not return to school until at least October to continue studying. You

The footsteps heard must be hers."

"In this case, I want to ask other residents around first." Arthur Watson took out his right hand from his trousers pocket, walked to the intersection with great vigor and looked around, and soon found a suitable target to talk to.

, stepped closer to the past.

The two old women carrying vegetable baskets almost immediately recognized the handsome face in front of them that had made the headlines in the newspaper. Their attitude in answering questions instantly became proactive, and they told them everything they knew about the current situation of the Blair family.

came out.

"Mr. Charles Blair applied for leave from his workplace and has not gone to work for a week?" Arthur Watson repeated the information mentioned by one of the old women.

Seeing that the visitor was followed by a tall, thin bodyguard in black clothes and a middle-aged police officer in police uniform, the two old ladies became more and more sure that the news they heard their children talking about at the breakfast table was not false. The inefficient police officers

The savior was finally called in. The young man who came to ask about the current situation of the Blair family was assisting the police in hunting down the terrible murderer who committed one bloody crime after another, the "Devil at the Crossroads"!

"Yes, you can ask other neighbors around. Everyone has only seen the Blair family's youngest daughter going out to buy groceries occasionally, but she has never seen her father going out!"

"Hey, Sophie and little Freddy just left like this. Charles and his wife were so loving. It's normal for them to be depressed if they can't bear the blow... We can only pray to the Lord and wish him to get over this misfortune as soon as possible."

The two old women coincidentally drew the Holy Emblem of the Lord of Storms on their chests, and at the same time they uttered prayers commonly used by Storm believers to send blessings to the poor man who unfortunately lost his wife and son.

After bidding farewell to these two warm-hearted and friendly old ladies, Arthur Watson turned to Cons, raised his eyebrows slightly and said:

"Mr. Blair has a good relationship with his wife?"

"This was mentioned in the investigation report, but I haven't actually had any contact with the other party, so it's hard to judge." Kang Si was a little confused, "Why are you asking this?"

"...No, it's nothing. Let's go meet the family members of the person involved."

Arthur Watson shook his head and motioned for Gavide, who was dressed as a police inspector, to step forward and take the lead.

This "wizard" from the Church of Steam was good-natured and did not mind her almost instructive attitude. He consciously led the way back to the door of the house where the carriage was parked, raised his arm and rang the doorbell.

After waiting for about a few minutes, someone opened the door in front of him through a narrow gap, revealing half of the timid girl's face.

Gavid had just raised a professional and gentle smile on his face, and was about to say something to comfort the other party, but he saw the expression of the girl inside the door suddenly changed, and he slammed the door again, and then there was the sound of the metal bolt being released.

.

"We have nothing to tell the police! What should be said, dad has made it clear to you before, please don't disturb our family's life again!" The girl's slightly sharp voice penetrated the door panel, making no secret of her rejection.

Attitude.

Is this what you mean by no special circumstances? Arthur Watson showed a subtle expression and looked wordlessly at Cons, whose face was blue and red.

"The previous report submitted by the Punisher Team did not mention that this family refused to cooperate with the investigation..." Kangsi felt a little embarrassed on his face, so he had to force the expression management function to shift the focus, "I'll convince her, let's go to the head office.

?”

Conse took a few steps forward, very familiar with the consequences of disobeying the security control, and began to intimidate the little girl behind the door. With a few words, the little girl of the Blair family was frightened into crying. Then, he let go again.

He softened his tone, emphasized assurance and comfort with a convincing majesty, and soon successfully pried open the closed door in front of him.

"The words spoken by Emperor Russell are always full of practical philosophy, such as this saying, 'hold a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other'."

Gaweed sighed and followed Arthur Watson into the house.

Seeing the twitching movements of the Blair family's youngest daughter, Sandra, Kongsburn felt a little guilty, but considering the efficiency of the investigation, he made up his mind and ignored it, looked around and asked:

"Mr. Charles Blair should be at home, right? Why didn't he answer the door?"

"Dad...Dad, in the bedroom upstairs...maybe, maybe he didn't hear..." Sandra lowered her head and replied while wiping her cheeks.

Gavid was about to go over to comfort this girl, who looked to be at least twelve or thirteen years old, when he saw Arthur Watson taking the initiative to clean up the mess, walking up to her in a low voice and trying to talk to her.

I don’t know what he said. Sandra quickly stopped her intermittent weak sobbing. Although she didn’t show a smile, her expression was obviously no longer so tense. She only wiped the corners of her eyes at the end and tried to open her eyes wide.

With reddish eyes, he carefully asked a few people about their purpose of coming.

"We came here to ask your father a few simple questions." Arthur Watson replied with a smile, raising his hand to indicate the direction of Cons and the others, "Do you mind if we go upstairs and disturb Mr. Charles for a while?

"

Sandra Blair tilted her head as if embarrassed and sniffed:

"Dad, he said before that he didn't want to see guests and asked me not to open the door to outsiders, even if the police come to the door again, unless..."

The girl paused for a moment and lowered her eyes with a dark expression.

"Unless...unless mom comes home..."

As soon as these words came out, both Cons and Gavid could not help but frown.

There is no doubt that Mrs. Blair has been dead for many days. If her husband had the illusion that she was still alive due to excessive grief and fell into a state of insanity, regardless of how much difficulty this would add to their investigation and inquiry, this is not the case.

No matter how complete the family is, it may be completely broken and it will be difficult to maintain the neat and bright appearance of the past.

They had already observed the interior layout and furnishings of the house earlier, and judged the income of the Blair family from the decent details everywhere, and that the family once had a mistress who took care of the housework - if not, the pile-up

The garbage and debris in the living room and living room will not be so obtrusive, but should be combined with the dirty and oily sofas, tables and chairs, and unclean floors to create a dark and messy visual sense.

Obviously, even though it has become a bit messy, the Blair family can still be regarded as a standard middle-class family - provided that the male owner, Charles, can get over his grief and ensure that he will not lose his job.

The two people from MI9 and the Church of Steam discussed briefly and decided to let Gavide stay downstairs to talk to Sandra. While calming the girl's uneasiness, they also tried to see if they could learn from her that Charles was mentally ill.

Causes and opportunities for unstable conditions.

Arthur Watson did not express any objection to this conclusion. He just followed Conse cooperatively and walked to the stairwell to the second floor without saying anything. On the way, Alice deliberately turned her eyes to observe the corridor, only to see wooden figures.

There was a thin layer of dust on the surface of the handrails, and it seemed that no one had cleaned them for some time.

After passing through a corridor that was neither spacious nor bright enough, they found the master bedroom on the second floor on the right side of the half-open window at the end.

Pushing open the door, a haggard man sitting on an easy chair by the window raised his eyelids, looked at the person with his eyes that had lost his vitality, and then moved his gaze back to the gray sky with drizzle outside the window, radiating to the surroundings.

A lifeless feeling of despair.

Kang Si hesitated for a moment, then approached and called him:

"Mr. Charles Blair?"

Wearing a wrinkled shirt and trousers, and smelling of rancid wine and filth, the man stared out the window in a daze, barely blinking, completely ignoring the strange visitors beside him.

Kang Si frowned and did not continue to try to talk to the confused-looking man. Instead, he turned his head and looked around, taking stock of this bedroom, which was far from tidy and clean.

The pillows and sheets on the double bed were in a mess, and many empty wine bottles that had been forgotten rolled down the bed. The piles of dirty clothes looked like some kind of spoiled and moldy alien creature, occupying several vacant fabric seats; stay away from the window sill.

Next to the locker, Arthur Watson was picking up several overturned picture frames one by one, wiping off the dust on the surface, as if he was carefully examining the time that was frozen in the past.

"Did you find anything?" Cons asked in a low voice, letting his eyes scan back and forth over the commemorative family photos.

The answer given by the respondent is not so satisfactory:

"Hmm... I don't see any problems for the time being."

Kang Si suppressed his emotions and confirmed:

"Are you sure that Charles can answer your question in his current state?"

"He was just stimulated, but he didn't completely lose the ability to communicate with others." Arthur Watson glanced at him with a strange look like looking at a rare animal, "And as long as you master the communication skills with this kind of people,

, they are often willing to reveal more information to let others know... Are you a public official who manages regional order, have you never encountered this kind of situation?"

"I...I'm not a professional interrogator!" Kang Si tried to maintain a low voice to defend himself.

"Even if you are not a member of an organization that specializes in interrogation, haven't you ever taken the corresponding courses? Or have you only learned the skills of how to torture people into revealing the 'truth', but not the effective way of finding clues and testimony?"

Don't know anything?" Arthur Watson pulled out a commemorative photo of the Blairs when they were young from the photo frame, showing an annoying smile, "Okay, okay, I now fully understand your usual style.

It’s very simple, direct and effective.”
To be continued...