Xia De left the large library in the basement and returned to the third floor to meet Professor Dunn:
"Professor! Has there been any murder in the college recently?"
"Does this have anything to do with the lost antiques?"
The professor put down his pen somewhat unexpectedly:
"If you want to know, it's not impossible, but for the reputation of Midhill Castle Mechanical School, please don't tell anyone. Yes, a student was killed recently, right in this castle."
"female?"
"How do you know?"
Because the clothes on the female evil spirit lying behind Mr. Val are very similar to the standard school uniforms of the students here.
"I have my own source of intelligence. So, is the poor man who died related to Henry Val?"
The professor was even more confused about this question, but he still thought about it:
"At least I haven't heard of any connection. The murder happened last Monday and has not been solved yet. The school prohibits students from gossiping, and the newspaper has not published this news for the time being because of the college. They want to wait until the police solve the case before reporting it."
"Do you know any details about the case? For example, the location of the body, what it looked like, or the location of the fatal wounds?"
The professor shook his head:
"I just heard about this incident from my colleagues when I was having lunch with them. If you want to research this case, I suggest you ask the police. There are very few witnesses, and the students are strictly prohibited from discussing this matter with anyone. You won't get any information here... Of course, the police at Fort Midhill are very rude, and you may not be able to get the information you want."
It seems that Professor Dunn has a deep prejudice against the local police.
It is certainly not easy to get the details of an undisclosed murder case from the police, but fortunately, Shad still has the pendant given by Lecia.
So, Shad first went to find Captain Rades who was monitoring Henry Val in the library, and told the captain that he would be leaving the academy temporarily, so that the captain could investigate freely in the academy:
"I'll be back in about an hour or two. Your goal for the next one or two hours of investigation is to find out the details of the homicide here."
The captain agreed immediately.
Afterwards, Shade took a carriage to the police station in Midhill Castle, and it took some effort to meet Deputy Chief Gurus. After showing the pendant with the royal family crest, the deputy chief immediately said he could help.
It took some time to go through the case files, but Shade finally saw all the details of the case.
The dead young female student was found last Monday morning. The cause of death was suffocation caused by someone strangling her neck with a rope. The body was severely damaged. After the local coroner's examination, the abdomen of the body was cut open by the murderer and the liver was missing.
"In fact, this case is not made public because we believe it is one of a series of murders."
The middle-aged deputy director said worriedly, holding his hat.
"Serial murders? Yes, I've heard of that. So in other murders, were the bodies also entrails removed?"
Xia De asked curiously, and Deputy Director Gurus nodded:
"Yes, including the body accidentally discovered by hunters on Mount Xikar, five bodies have been found that have lost their hearts, livers, lungs, large intestines, and kidneys. All five bodies are female, aged between 19 and 27. The wound marks show that the murderer used the same knife, but there is no obvious connection between them. This kind of heinous case is really a headache."
"I see..."
Xia De nodded and closed the file:
“Is there a reward for the case?”
"Of course there is. The City Hall and the Police Department are jointly offering a reward of up to £20 for any clues provided, and £100 for finding the murderer."
"so much?"
"A serial killer is worth the price."
Xia De thought about it and decided that he must not miss this opportunity:
"It's 3:30 in the afternoon. In about an hour and a half, please send someone to the Mechanics Institute at Midhill Castle to find Captain Rades, yes, the captain of the Windy Trail Royal Army. He will find the real culprit."
Xia De returned the file to Deputy Director Gurus and wanted to return to the Midhill Mechanics Institute immediately, but after a moment of hesitation, he asked:
"A vicious shooting occurred at the Sicar Hotel near Middleburg Railway Station yesterday. Are you aware of this?"
He still had not forgotten that the deceased was the consignee of gray gloves, and the businessman who was taken away with two guns was most likely also the consignee.
"Of course I know. This is also a very vicious case."
“Is there a follow-up?”
"Yes, yes."
Talking about this, Deputy Director Gurus covered his head again and said he had a headache. He sat at his desk piled with files and complained to Shade:
"The murderer, the businessman from Carsenrick, Bain Bennett, committed suicide early this morning."
"Suicide?"
Xia De felt that he was not that surprised, so he asked again:
"Committed suicide in the police station? Is it confirmed to be suicide?"
"Yes, he died by hitting his head against the wall in the interrogation room. This is a huge scandal, but fortunately it hasn't been exposed yet. Also, the body of the victim in the shooting was moved, and the evidence in this case was lost."
"What's missing?"
"The murderer's pen."
Xia De nodded and didn't ask any more questions.
He had confirmed that there was no information inside the pen. In other words, the incident that occurred at the Xikar Hotel, which was suspected to be an internal conflict among the Gray Gloves, had killed two consignees. Now that the pen was stolen, it meant that in addition to the two current dead, they should have a third companion.
And the companion probably didn't know the details such as the time and place of picking up the goods.
The last companion, Shad was almost certain, was Professor Higgins, a linguist from Carsonrick who lived across from the two "merchants".
"But those who knew the delivery location are all dead, and there is no information in the pen. If everything is normal, then the people of Carsenrick will not be able to receive the goods."
Xia De sighed in his heart, and then put the matter behind him again.
(Mi Mia is running...)
The removal of the internal organs of different people is consistent with some illegal rituals. The ghost of the dead schoolgirl is haunting Henry Val, who is suspected of stealing the antique bronze jar, which actually indicates who the real culprit is.
Back at the castle where the academy was located, Shade wanted to find Henry Val immediately. He didn't care about any evidence, and there was no moral pressure for Shade to interrogate the other party.
But Henry Val is missing, and even Captain Rades, who was supposed to be investigating inside the castle, is missing.
"I was gone for an hour and ten minutes..."
Fortunately, Professor Dunn, the professor of folklore, was still in his office. When Shad knocked on the door and entered, Professor Dunn thought that Shad had found the bronze jar.
"No, no, no. I just want to ask, is there a secret passage or secret room in this castle? That jar must be hidden where no one can see it."
Xia De asked, and the professor nodded immediately:
"Of course it exists. The predecessor of this castle was a defensive fortress on the frontier of the Kingdom of Draerion. I'm afraid only the Draerion military knows how many secret passages and secret rooms there are here. But what is certain is that the place you are talking about definitely exists."
Hiding the huge bronze jar requires space, and if Shad's thinking is correct and the serial killer is also Henry Val, then he must have a secret space large enough inside the castle.
Professor Dunn had no other clues, but when Shade opened the case file at the Midhill Castle Police Station, he had seen the specific place of death. Although the deceased was strangled to death with a rope and there was no obvious blood, since there was a brutal laparotomy afterwards, the traces of blood must be very obvious.
Before knowing the place of death, Shade had no way to distinguish which bloodstains he was looking for in such a large castle. But now that he knew the specific location and even saw a few black-and-white photos of the brutal scene in the files, there was no problem with what happened next.
After all, before Shade's spell was upgraded, he was able to identify bloodstains from hundreds of years ago in his basement and find the hidden wall.
After saying goodbye to the professor, he went to the southeast corner of the fourth floor of the castle. At the door of the women's bathroom, he easily saw large traces of blood on the walls and the ground.
Xia De was glad that the bloodstains were moving towards the stairs instead of inside the bathroom, otherwise he would have been in real trouble.
The clear red light led Shade from the southeast corner of the U-shaped castle, through the stone corridor on the east side, to the classroom area on the west side of the castle. Then he took the stairs to the fifth floor, passed the noisy offices of mathematics professors, where the voices inside were discussing the different remainder expressions of Morse's expansion, the quiet Rhodes Card Club, where the door was closed and a note was posted on the door saying "Club closed for three months due to suspected illegal gambling", and the office of the college newspaper where students were coming in and out, which was a non-profit newspaper published by the Mechanics School of Midhill Castle. The red light actually entered the broom closet.